Quite Polite

In honor of Miss Jane's Birthday, I will begin writing here again. You're welcome.

I know I have a lot to catch up, and I will try my best. I'm knitting, reading (Sense and Sensiblity. I have given up on modern novels for awhile; Edgar Sawtelle, which included one of the most beautifully written chapters I have ever read, made me too sad and I had to put it down. I should have known, since it is an Oprah book), crafting, baking, cooking, playing, kindergartening, decorating, shopping.

Starbucks closed, I had bronchitis and a birthday, wrestling season is in full swing.

Details, photos and a short film to follow.

Peace.

Halloween

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll hush and let these do the talking:

Carly was Tuesday Adams and Charlie was a skater boy

This is the famous green jacket that has been in our family for many years -- it was a try-on jacket at the bridal store where my sisters worked, given to Will, passed down to Charlie and now in its new form as a leprechaun coat. It was a great Halloween.

Peace

Knitty Secret Pal

Well, I had the best. That is all there is to it. Look at all this wonderful stuff Nicole sent:

The yarn is perfect for all the scarves I want to make for the kindergarten girls, but I was most impressed by her beautiful handiwork -- the stitch markers, magnetized pattern line markers, earrings and the beautiful cards. All I can say is wow.

Maybe my favorite of all are the stitch markers made with Scrabble tiles spelling my name:

Please go look at her beautiful work at www.nicolejeanette.com or at her etsy shop.

Trying to get caught up -- Halloween pictures soon!

Peace

Catching up -- a few FO's

I haven't been knitting too much -- my crafty time has been completely taken up with embroidery. I have this fantasy of making everyone a set of dishtowels for Christmas. I did finish a couple of baby hats before class this week; here is Alex modeling one of them:

I made a pumpkin hat for Baby Paul, but Tommy took that one home for Alex, as well. So I cast on for another one this morning. I'm using Lion Brand Wool, and hoping it's not too scratchy for the babies' heads.

And a couple of recent cakes. This golf ball cake was for Jordan ("Bear Hug") and Becky's rehearsal dinner. I found a picture on the internet and tried to copy it, and yes, I did have another cake tragedy on this one -- I thought I had it figured out, sat down to watch ER and when I went back to the kitchen, the ball had fallen off of the lawn, even though I had used 3 dowel rods. Yikes. Major re-working and a lot more grass! (I don't know why I post these cakes -- I am so afraid of turning up on Cakewrecks; that site is supposed to be for professional cake tragedies, but those cakes seem pretty amateur to me!)

This cake was for Griff's 2nd birthday:

I think this was my fastest decorating ever -- Griff's party was on the day Paul was born, and I had exactly one hour to get it done. I guess it's not too bad for a sleep deprived decorator.

On the kindergarten snack front, things are going better -- they are actually eating the snacks and looking forward to "special treats" as Eduardo says. These fancy biscuits were for the letter A:

I made haystack candy (crispy Chinese noodles, peanut butter and butterscotch chips) and formed them into nests with white M&M eggs for the letter N, M&M cookies for M (of course) and yesterday, I took in inch worms and donut holes for the letter I (get it? The holes were the dots on the lower case i.) My immediate thought was ice cream, but we have to save that for when we study the long i sound -- this week was the short sound. Great for spelling, difficult for snacks.

Peace.

Sweet 100

I had thought about doing that popular blog thingie, "The Omnivore's Hundred", which listed 100 foods which "every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life." Even if Clay (who will try anything in any country at least once) helped, I don't think we could have made a very good dent on that list. So, I was reading cakespy, and saw their Sweet 100 -- much more fun! Here is goes!

How many have you tried? If you'd like, feel free to follow the same guidelines:
1) Copy this list into your site, including the instructions!
2) Bold all of the sweets you've eaten--or make them a different type color.
3) Cross out any of them that you'd never ever eat. (3A) I made everything I have ever made pink)
4) Consider anything that is not bold or crossed out your "To Do" List.

Also, on cakespy, they have links to almost all the sweets, so you can look up anything you don't know about; I have not had/made macarons like the ones listed, just the kind of macaroons you make with coconut and a can of sweetened condensed milk. But, I found that I have had kulfi (at our local Indian restaurant) and Concha (at one of the Guadalupe celebrations)
5) Optional: Post a comment at cakespy linking to your results--or just post a comment letting us know how many you've tried, or what you're going to try next!

1. Red Velvet Cake
2. Princess Torte
3. Whoopie Pie
4. Apple Pie either topped or baked with sharp cheddar
5. Beignet
6. Baklava
7. Black and white cookie
8. Seven Layer Bar(also known as the Magic Bar or Hello Dolly bars)
9. Fried Fruit pie(sometimes called hand pies)
10. Kringle
11. Just-fried (still hot) doughnut
12. Scone with clotted cream
13. Betty, Grunt, Slump, Buckle or Pandowdy
14. Halvah
15. Macarons
16. Banana pudding with nilla wafers
17. Bubble tea (with tapioca "pearls)
18. Dixie Cup
19. Rice Krispie treats
20. Alfajores
21. Blondies
22. Croquembouche
23. Girl Scout cookies
24. Moon cake
25. Candy Apple
26. Baked Alaska
27. Brooklyn Egg Cream
28. Nanaimo bar (I want to try this. SOON!)
29. Baba au rhum
30. King Cake
31. Sachertorte
32. Pavlova
33. Tres Leches Cake
34. Trifle
35. Shoofly Pie
36. Key Lime Pie (made with real key lime)
37. Panna Cotta
38. New York Cheesecake
39. Napoleon
40. Russian Tea Cake / Mexican Wedding Cake
41. Anzac biscuits
42. Pizzelle
43. Kolache
44. Buckeyes
45. Malasadas
46. Moon Pie
47. Dutch baby
48. Boston Cream Pie
49. Homemade chocolate chip cookies
50. Pralines
51. Gooey butter cake
52. Rusks
53. Daifuku
54. Green tea cake or cookies
55. Cupcakes from a cupcake shop
56. Crème brûlée
57. Some sort of deep fried fair food (twinkie, candy bar, cupcake)
58. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting
59. Jelly Roll
60. Pop Tarts
61. Charlotte Russe
62. An "upside down" dessert (Pineapple upside down cake or Tarte Tatin)
63. Hummingbird Cake
64. Jell-O from a mold
65. Black forest cake
66. Mock Apple Pie (Ritz Cracker Pie
67. Kulfi
68. Linzer torte
69. Churro
70. Stollen
71. Angel Food Cake
72. Mincemeat pie
73. Concha
74. Opera Cake
75. Sfogliatelle / Lobster tail
76. Pain au chocolat
77. A piece of Gingerbread House
78. Cassata
79. Cannoli
80. Rainbow cookies
81. Religieuse (technically no, but I have made enough cream puffs to last a lifetime!)
82. Petits fours
83. Chocolate Souffle
84. Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)
85. Rugelach
86. Hamenstachen
87. Homemade marshmallows
88. Rigo Janci
89. Pie or cake made with candy bar flavors (Snickers pie, Reeses pie, etc)
90. Divinity
91. Coke or Cola cake
92. Gateau Basque
93. S'mores
94. Figgy Pudding
95. Bananas foster or other flaming dessert
96. Joe Froggers
97. Sables
98. Millionaire's Shortbread
99. Animal crackers
100. Basbousa

Peace, love and sweets.

Alex's Baptism

Alex was baptized yesterday after Mass at St. B, by Deacon Bill, a good friend of the Anderson Family. He was so sweet through the whole thing, and didn't even cry. Alex's godparents are Adam's sister, Amy, and Scott, their brother-in-law and Clay's broomball teammate.

Nate and Will got in a little trouble for playing in the baptismal pool. (I had to remind Will it was holy water.) So Nate prayed about it.

After, there was a big party at the Anderson's new house on the lake. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great time. Maggie and Baby Paul were able to come; that made the day even more special.

Alex and his favorite uncle

Alex's cake

Peace.

Race for the Cure

Last Saturday:

It was a beautiful day. 10,00 people walked or ran, and a half million dollars was raised.

Carly, Karen and Kim

Sharon and Paula

Kim receiving her Survivor Medal

Will ran the race in 29 minutes. Pretty good for a wrestler, I think.

After the race, we all went to Bob Evans for breakfast, and then Sharon, Dave, Griffin, Will and I went to Huber's Orchard for the afternoon.

Griff and Sharon on the Mountain SlideIt was fun, but really crowded, and our car overheated on the way home. Thanks to Dave, and a kind man whose driveway we had pulled in to, all was well. (Clay was in Ohio, visiting his mom and getting ready to run the Towpath Marathon Sunday. He did well for the first half, but then started feeling icky, and walked the final 11 miles. Then, on the way home Monday, he had a blow out around Columbus, OH, and almost crashed. Very scary. I was never so glad to see him home.)

This Saturday is a beautiful day, as well, but not so much fun -- I have to play the funeral for a dear man and friend of our dad's.

Then, we have a giant catering job this evening -- wedding for 250 -- that we have been preparing all week for. Tomorrow, Alex is being baptized -- Clay is already working on baking the cake. What a good guy. We also celebrate Carly's 11th birthday tomorrow evening.

I'll try to post about all the festivities, if I can stay awake long enough tomorrow evening!

Peace.

Baby Pictures

Holly took these beautiful pictures of Paul last week.

Peace

Since it is October 1,

we interrupt the knitting, grandchildren, and general babble found on this blog to encourage you to spend a few minutes loving your breasts (or those near and dear to you.) Do a self-exam. Make an appointment for a mammogram. Walk in the Race for the Cure or the Avon 3-Day. Make a donation. Buy something pink. Wear something pink.

And do this: Join the Army of Women. I did today.

And if you do something -- anything -- about/for breast cancer this month, leave a comment here, and I'll put your name in the hat to win a this basket full of pink things, including a embroidered pillow case and a knit band ball dishcloth. (That's my first pillowcase ever --pink ribbons for breast cancer and bluebirds for my mom. I am now officially addicted to embroidery!)
Today is also the feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, whose mother, like mine, died of breast cancer. Join me in praying that no more moms have to die of breast cancer, no more daughters have to be frightened of breast cancer and little pink ribbons become dusty old antiques.

Peace.

Now there are 4

grandsons in this family! Here is Paul Robert, who was born on Sunday around 1:30 PM, and weighed 7# 13 oz., but didn't have a name until Monday afternoon.

Maggie and Nate had finally agreed on Noah, but when he was born, Maggie didn't think he looked like a Noah -- he looked just like Nate. But since we already have a little Nate in this family, they chose Nate's grandpa's name. Maggie had a bit of a rough time, but was in great spirits last evening. (At least I think she was -- I was still in a Halicon-induced haze, but more on that later.)

Here he is with his two grandpas:

(It was a great day for Clay -- new grandson and a Browns victory over the Bengals)

Denny had just gotten a speeding ticket driving down to see the baby Monday -- Paul's other grandma, Susan, is in a battle with cancer, and had surgery at IU Med on Sunday. Keep Susan in your prayers, as her prognosis is not so good -- right now, all she wants is to see this sweet boy. Maggie and Nate spoke with the doctor yesterday about taking him up to see Susan; he was hesitant to give them an ok, and said Paul must stay in his car seat and be covered with a blanket. It's such a difficult spot -- so much joy over this baby, but overshadowed by what Susan is going through. One day we'll all understand.


More pictures and updates soon -- once again, I have failed to get a picture of my daughter with her baby -- I promise one today.
Peace.

It's a difficult week

so I'll just give you a thought from Dan Fogelberg to see you through until I have something to share:

Love when you can

Cry when you have to

Be who you must,

That's a part of the plan;

Await your arrival

With simple survival,

And one day we'll all understand.

And if your air conditioner in your car is broken, and you have to drive with the windows down, and this song comes up on your I-pod and you feel the need to sing it really loud, do it.

Who cares that that guy next to you at the stoplight eating the hamburger gives you a weird look? He had some secret sauce on his face. So there.

Peace.

T Week - Turtles and Towels

Mom was a great cookie baker, snickerdoodles being her absolute best. She really loved trying new cookie recipes that she would find in the newspaper or one of her magazines; I remember seafoam chews, hickory nut drops and Viennese raspberry squares. One of her more unusual attempts were the turtle cookies baked in the waffle maker. I thought they would be the perfect little cookie for "T" week in kindergarten, so I searched out the recipe and found several variations on allrecipes.com. I picked the one that sounded most like mom's; it is an easy recipe, and the cookies bake up quickly in the waffle iron -- 1:30 minutes! They were good just by themselves, but I thought they would look more like turtles with a little green icing; I think mom's had chocolate icing and chopped nuts sprinkled on the top.

(I love this picture because you can see my cow cookie jar -- mom had one just like it, and I was so happy when I saw one at an antique store many years ago. Isn't she just the cutest little Jersey cow ever?)

Some of the kids loved them, but most of the turtles made their way to the trash can. I think the lesson I learned this week is not to be too unique with the snacks -- this is a Froot Loops sort of crowd. Next week is "P" week; I better skip the pate choux and pralines and go right for the popcorn and pretzels.


I've been working on the Irish Hiking Scarf, the Yarn Harlot's one stitch scarf and the wedding shawl. But I've had the itch to embroider after seeing some beautiful towels and aprons at Mary Jane's Farm. I started this towel yesterday after school with some things I had down in the basement, but bought a few more patterns and floss today when Will and I went to Indy. In other news, Clay is on his Boy's Weekend Out -- they golfed at Purdue, went to Harry's last night and then the game today. Golf in Indy tomorrow, then he leaves from there for the big mining show in Las Vegas. He'll be home on Wednesday. Maggie's very ready for the baby to be born -- part of me wishes he would be born soon for Maggie's sake, the other part wants babe to wait until Wednesday so Grandma can be here (I wonder if this baby will call Clay "grandma" too?) Sarah's decided to study accounting and Will's developing quite a set of guns from weight training.
It's just totally terrific to tell you the truth. (Watch out -- next week I could be perfectly pissy when pondering payment to my periodontist.)
Peace.

Birthday Week

Tommy turned 4 on Monday, Maggie turned 21 on Tuesday -- two birthdays, two family dinners -- it's been a great week.

Tommy's cake turned out to be an ordeal -- despite the fact that the Super Why character's heads were filled with styrofoam and plastic wrap, they were still top heavy, and there were many nosedives right into the cake. And, for some reason, the icing slid right off the big cake in the back. Yikes. I melted down a little with each catastrophe, and it wasn't exactly as I had planned, but Tommy was thrilled, and that's all that matters. So, here it is, my slipshod masterpiece:

(Each of those little books was supposed to have a character standing on it. Oh well. I titled the books Tom Thumb, Little Tommy Tinker and Tom Sawyer.)

Carly reminded me that they sometimes have catastrophes on my very favorite tv show, Ace of Cakes, too. The question now is, what to do with Super Why, Red, Princess and Pig? It seems like a lot of work to just pitch out, but keeping them seems a little silly, too -- too sweet to eat, too fragile to play with, and the only cakes I have to make soon are Blue's Clues and a giant golf ball, neither of which needs a super reading hero on top.

We had brats and hot dogs, pasta salad with lots of white cheese (Tommy's favorite) and Buffalo Chicken Dip; I had heard many people talk about how delicious it is, but had never tried it -- they were right.

And here's the big present: his "tractor." They rode it until we made them come in and have cake, but Clay took them out again after, even though it was dark. Definitely a hit.

They drove it into the dark again last night when we had Maggie's party. She loves vegetable soup, so that's what I made. But I cook like my dad -- as if the threshers were coming to supper. We ended up with two big pots of soup, enough for supper for many nights, and enough to share with the neighborhood! We also had her favorite birthday cake, from Dairy Queen.

Clay's co-workers from all over the world are in this week for meetings, so he is going to dinner with them this evening. Will and I are going to go out, even though we should probably stay home and eat soup!

Peace.

Super Why Birthday Preview

(Princess Presto is a little hippy -- I had wanted her skirt to stand out, and added wads of fondant under before I put the skirt on.)

What's the cake going to look like? Not sure yet, but I do have these nifty figures to put on it. Or beside it. I'm going to work on Wonder Red and Super Why today after church. Stay tuned.

Peace.

Big Al

At his last checkup, Alex had doubled his weight. He's growing up fast, but this hair growth is ridiculous! And no, I don't want to fight!

It's been a big week. Knitting at the Senior Citizens' Center and PIX meeting Monday, catering job on Tuesday for the Tri Kappas.

Will got his class ring on Tuesday, and had his physical for wrestling. He got his tetanus booster, which unfortunately made him sick on Wednesday -- we had the day off for parent-teacher conferences, and planned a trip to the antique mall and lunch. But not even halfway through the mall, and without even asking me to purchase a sword, Zippo lighter or Indy memorabilia, he was ready to go home, and fell into the car in a sick little heap. After some Advil and a 3-hour nap when we got home, he went to youth group -- it was care package night, when they pack and send packages to parishioners in the service and college.

He was still a little draggy yesterday, but seems to be just fine today. I had Knit Night last night, and as usual, we had a great time. I had a lesson on scarves; I posted links to the patterns on the KN blog.

Today, we took the five 7th graders on Meals on Wheels routes -- I hope they view it as service and not as just a way to get out of class for a bit.

Tonight there is a home football game, but if it's raining, I think I'll stay home and work on Tommy's birthday cake. His party is here on Monday, and we're getting him a John Deer Gator Power Wheels. Stay tuned for pictures!

Some Books

So, I had been reading Say You're One of Them, which was an NPR-suggested summer read. It was a heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, soul-crushing read. I would put it up there with Night and the Haiti stories of Edwidge Danticat, on my shelf labeled "Why Do We Do This To Each Other?"

I had to read that book slowly, and de-compress after each story. For a change, I started Jodi Picoult's Vanishing Acts; I usually plow through her books quickly, but it wasn't much of a relief -- her books always stress me out a little, as I wait for the awful surprise near the end. (I've seen that a lot of her books have been made into Lifetime movies.) She always teaches you a little something -- this time, it was Southwestern American Indian traditions.

So I have several directions to go with my next read; I had bought a new copy of Peace Like a River for Clay to take along to Japan. He really liked it and wanted to talk about it, but it's been so long since I read it that I need to re-read so we can discuss it. We have the next book by Leif Enger on the shelf, so after he finishes this huge book he is reading about India, maybe we can read that together.

That huge India book, a novel, was shared by Clay's boss, Chris. They often share books; he had given her his copy of Geography of Bliss, and she loved it so much that she has purchased several copies to give away. He came home yesterday with one of those new copies -- she said our copy had been "thumb worn" and she thought we needed a new one. So, I could read that. I still have the new David Sedaris, Karen Armstong's The Battle for God and 1/2 the Mother Teresa bio to get to.

Or, I could clean the house, do some laundry, sew or knit.

As I decide, I thought I would share this; Pam recently had a list of books on her blog. I was sad to say there were a bunch that I didn't even recognize! But I love those lists, and I've always wanted to make my way through the Time 100 Best Books list, or one of the others you see so often from publishers, newspapers or bloggers.

So, to make myself feel better, I copied the list from the NEA of the 100 best books for children and young people (I know, after 5 years on the bookmobile, a college class in children's lit, 3 children and 3 grandchildren, this is cheating. But I do feel better, and I could finish up this list pretty quickly -- maybe I should.)

I sort of followed Pam's directions, with a few changes: Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you’ve started but haven’t finished, cross out the ones you hated, and underline the ones on your book shelf! Combine indicators as appropriate. (I haven't hated a single one of these, and I'm not sure how to underline in blogger. So, I made my very most favorite books BIG and made the ones I've read a million times red).

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Where the Sidewalk Ends: the Poems and Drawing of Shel Silverstein

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin, Jr.

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Corduroy by Don Freeman

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss

Strega Nona by Tomie De Paola

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by John Archambault

The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman

Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg

Math Curse by Jon Scieszka

Are You My Mother? by Philip D. Eastman

The Napping House by Audrey Wood

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss

Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus

The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper

Curious George by Hans Augusto Rey

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

Arthur series by Marc Tolon Brown

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton

Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish

The Art Lesson by Tomie De Paola

Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

Clifford, the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell

The Paper Bag Princess by Robert N. Munsch
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

The BFG by Roald Dahl

The Giver by Lois Lowry

James and the Giant Peach: A Children's Story by Roald Dahl

Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Engalls Wilder

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater

My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Stuart Little by E. B. White

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Cay by Theodore Taylor

The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

And, I would add The Magie Treehouse books by Mary Pope Osborne, Olivia by Ian Falconer and Toot and Puddle by Holly Hobbie. And finally, Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson, which Sharon read to the kindergartners yesterday. I love any book that ends in a hug.

Peace