Easy Weekend

While it would have been very easy to dwell on the things we were missing out on this weekend (Uncle Tom's 60th birthday party, Maggie's 1st birthday party, Tailgating at the KU/OU Game), I chose instead to enjoy some of the good things in life during a relaxing weekend at home:

Sunday afternoon at the "hacienda": Emily enjoying a good book in the company of her cat and dog; fall colors along Timber Creek; walking back from the creek (must be a really good book!)

Every kid should have a 100 pound dog to frolic with, don't you think (thank goodness Koda was a runt!)

I spent some time over the weekend finishing my canning for the year.  I had been CRAVING apple butter, but since Gage used all of Roger's apples making wine (I'm sure I won't be complaining about that in a few months!), I had to settle for store bought apples.  The butter still turned out delicious!  We also have a plethora of peppers right now  ... shown here is what was STILL LEFT after I made another double batch of hot pepper jelly!  Gage is trying to convince me to make a few more batches, but I don't think my feet/ankles can take it.  I told him I would supervise if he wanted to make some.  :)

On another note, after spending nearly ALL AFTERNOON on Saturday making the apple butter, I had just finished cleaning up and was admiring my 16 half pint jars of delicious, golden, apple butter when Gage walked in and said "is that all it made?"  Sadness.  He has grand plans to increase production next year.  :)

Looks like these weekends at home are going to be the norm for awhile.  After attending a conference for 3 days last week in Overland Park, I was plagued with not only extremely swollen feet (and hands, face, etc.), but shooting back pain and extreme fatigue.  Yuck.  But maybe taking it easy for the next five weeks won't be such a bad thing.  On the agenda for next weekend: scrapbooking!  I still have hopes to finish our wedding scrapbook before the baby comes (nothing like procrastination, right?), and a few photo album/scrapbooks of our house construction.  I can't wait!

Autumn in the Air

What is about haybales and cats?  As soon as I introduced a few straw bales around our porch as fall decoration, Dusty claimed this one as his own, and seems to have taken up permanent residence on it.  In fact, he loooves this haybale so much you would think it was laced with catnip.  He spent the first few days pouncing on it, clawing it, rolling on it, stretching on it.  Now he has contented himself with merely sleeping on it. 

Some of my favorite memories from childhood are of playing with the legions (and yes, I do mean LEGIONS) of cats in the hayroom at the barn.  Cats and haybales.  Haybales and cats.  Not sure why, but they just go together like peas and carrots.

So glad I could do my part to "complete" Dusty.   :)   Dreading the day (for Dusty) when the strawbales head to the garden as winter mulch ... 

 

On  another yet related note, I sure hope our child doesn't have to visit the doctor HALF as much as our pets have been at the vet this year.  On Friday, Ralph went to the vet for what I think was our family's FIFTH pet-related incident of the year (not including what happened with Ellie ... we're not gonna talk about that ...).  Let's count them, shall well?  1. Dusty has an impacted foot.  Stays at the vet for 3 days.   2.  Ellie enters the family ... needs treatment for ringworm.  3.  Koda gets an impacted foot.  Has to be put out for Doc to treat him.  4.  Dusty breaks his hip ... sedation and overnight stays at the vet (luckily, this one healed without surgery ... we were gonna have to take out a loan for the vet bills!),  5. Ralph throws up everything he eats for 3 days straight.  Needs rehydrated and his stomach coated.  Ive never seen such a string of bad luck with pets ...  this is getting a little ridiculous. 

Funny, it seems that every time Gage and I start talking again about adding some livestock to our small farm, something goes wrong with one of our pets and reminds me again just how stinkin' expensive animals can be.  Maybe this is God's way of telling us to hold off on the livestock ...  at least for now.

Overwhelmed (in a good way!)

It's hard for me to sum up all of the emotions from this past weekend - my first baby shower weekend.  The best word I could come up with was simply overwhelmed by the love, kindness and grace of all of our family and friends.  Libby and Alison planned a beautiful shower and I was blessed that so many wonderful friends and family were able to come -  from in town, across the state and even out of state!  Whenever I get to spend a weekend with my family, I am always just blown away by how incredibly blessed I am to have such an amazing family.  We talked and laughed and ate and shared stories ... and always, always enjoy each other's company!     

I was thinking this morning about God's grace.  The dictionary defines God's grace as: the free and unmerited favor or beneficence of God.  It got me thinking about how the way we get a taste of that grace here on earth is through family.  So much love and kindness (that is so undeserved!) can only come from family! 

Below is the result of some of that amazing grace.  Peanut's Aunt Joy had all of the women in Gage and my family create a square for an ABC quilt, and then she and Diana put the quilt together.  As you can see, the result is stunning ... each square made with love and thoughtfulness.  This is such a precious gift - one we and our little boy will always treasure! 

Libby and Alison did so many thoughtful things for the shower.  One of my favorite is this little scrapbook/journal.  Each person at the shower picked a letter and then wrote a little something to me or to Peanut using that letter.  Every single entry is truly touching.  I want to go read them again right now!  Thanks girls, for such an amazing shower! 

And of course, no family weekend is complete without the kiddos!  Who are these funny people?  :) 

Maggie is such a ball of fire.  She routinely cracks herself up.  :)

It is always SO hard to let them go home.  Once again, our house seems so quiet, too quiet ...

Love this face!

And this face!

Can't wait for the next family weekend!