Showing posts with label birthdays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birthdays. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Hodpodging The Wasps' Nest

Our entire crop of McIntosh apples
One measly apple from our poor tree.


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She writes the questions;
we write the answers.
Plug them into your own blog
and link up!


1. What's on your September calendar? Anything fun?  YES, we're going to Westby for a weekend. I always love that little trek to the unglaciated (why is spellcheck questioning this??) and beautiful part of Wisconsin.

Photo from September 2014
We're much older this year.

 Country church cemetery
Near Westby, WI
 
2. You might be described as a natural born _____________________?  Problem solver. I've wasted a lot of time and annoyed a lot of people  - people who come to me with a problem but who, unbeknownst to me at the time, had no desire to have their problem actually solved. I think I have a callous on my scalp for the number of times I've scratched my head over that one. At least I've finally learned a thing or two, and don't always try to find the best and quickest solution to a problem or the shortest point between A and B. Many times, I've learned, people don't want the shortest route. They want the long, circuitous route that has no end in sight. It's been a foreign concept to me that has taken a long time to learn.

Basil for Pesto

BASIL PESTO RECIPE:
4 cups (packed) fresh basil
1/2 c. chopped walnuts (Pine nuts are expensive
and have a disturbing 'pop' when you bite into them. Makes me think of woodticks.)
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
3 cloves garlic
3 T. Extra virgin olive oil
Pulse in food processor
I made a double batch of this and put it in 1/2 cup containers and froze it. It's so nice to have those little containers in the freezer that I can pull out in a morning and use at dinner that night.

3. September is National Courtesy Month...what one act of courtesy would you most like to see more of in your home, town, or the world at large?  

Let someone else go first. Think of all the car accidents that might be prevented, the people who would be made happier, if we all just let the other person go first. (Of course, you literalists out there, I do realize that if we ALL did that, no one would ever get anywhere! Just bear with me.) Whether it's related to traffic or the line at the supermarket, it could make a huge difference in people's overall health and well being.

4. Eager beaver, chicken out, clam up, or let the cat out of the bag...of the phrases listed, which one have you related to most recently? 

Eager beaver might describe me in the morning, from about 7:15 or earlier (after that morning coffee has kicked in) until about 4:00 in the afternoon. I can get a lot done in a short amount of time. After that, it's a slow slide into evening with little-to-no energy or desire to go out after dark (and did you notice how early darkness arrives now??)   

 Picking beans is an every-other-day activity
with a cannerful after the second picking

 It doesn't pay to use leftover unused lids from last year.
Each batch has left me with one jar that doesn't seal.
I'm using 2015 lids now.

NEWS FLASH!!!
At least one jar didn't seal even with the new 2015 lids.
So it's not the process or the date of the lids,
but the fact that lids aren't made as well anymore.
I think there's less gummy stuff on them. Annoying!

5. What's your movie theatre snack protocol? Do you chow down on snacks during the previews or wait until the movie begins? Do you buy snacks or refuse to pay those kind of prices? What's the last movie you saw in a theatre? How many thumbs up would you give it?

I hate to watch previews, so I like to time it to arrive when the previews are done. That way I not only avoid movie trailers designed for 15 year old boys, but my kid pack of popcorn and Mike'n'Ike isn't already gone before the movie starts.  We prefer, however, to watch something in our collection of DVDs rather than go out to the movies. Also, Mr. C. makes better popcorn. The last movie we went to see was The Hobbit. We took two of our granddaughters to see it in 3D. It was incredibly boring and I found it especially annoying that the one redeeming feature, Mr. Thornton (North & South), kept looking UP, as though he were a dwarf or something.

No thumbs up.  North & South, on the other hand, (not to be confused with North and South) - two thumbs up! 


6. Henry Ford is quoted as saying, "Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind." Agree or disagree? Why?

This is a really tricky question. It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'work' is. Being busy is no guarantee that the mind is engaged. Work can involve physical labor or reading and thinking.  I can't picture C.S. Lewis working in an assembly line at a Ford plant, throwing hay bales around, or working out at the gym, but he was certainly not idle.

And actually, I can spend a lot of time thinking about that question. I need to move on. 

 Mr. C. found a wasp nest in the flowering crab.
It's at head height. It's a wonder that no one ran into it!


 If you look hard, you can see a few of the
angry wasps 
Makes me think of an old Poirot: The Wasps' Nest

7. What's the last job you completed or task you performed where you had to 'work like a dog' until it was finished?

Cleaning up after spending the day canning, so that I can wake up the next morning to a clean kitchen. It's not exactly 'working like a dog,' but then my dogs just lie around all day, so...

 Jazzie, workin' like a dog
8.  Insert your own random thought here.

In the past month, we celebrated 5 family birthdays!  Here are a few pics from the last two:

 Just turned two!

5 year old minion

Five years old - hard to believe!


Not the birthday boy,
but his little sister


This post is linked to Theresa's


and Eileen's


and Judith's

MOSAIC MONDAY


***

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Have a great Wednesday, everyone!
 


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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Happy Birthday

Life Lessons From Grandpa

It must be tough to be little. Just when you think you've got it figured out, you now have to hold up three fingers instead of two - when people ask how old you are. Sigh. Life is so tricky.

We spent Sunday in the Twin Cities with our oldest son's family. Both Glenn (turned 3 on Sunday) and Grandpa (turns way-past 3 on Wednesday), were birthday boys.


How'd you do that again, Grandpa??



What could be better than John Deere Wellies!

***

To all of you who gave me much-relished sympathy over our horrid weather (more snow as I write), I want you to know that the forecast for the weekend is temps in the 60s. I think everyone in Wisconsin is overjoyed to know that spring, indeed, (contrary to all the current signs) is COMING!

After all, who would want to be anywhere other than Wisconsin in the month of May:




May

***


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This post may be linked to some of the following: Mop it Up Monday  and Get in My Tummy and  Cure for the Common Monday and  Clever Chicks Blog Hop and  Barn Charm and  The Marketplace  and  Mix it up Monday and Make it Pretty Monday and    Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and le chateau des fleurs and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and   You're Gonna Love it Tuesday and Creative Showcase and Memories by the Mile and  Tweak it Tuesday and  Coastal Charm Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday  and Love Bakes Good Cakes  and Overflowing With Creativity and Mom on TimeOut  and Adorned from Above and Wildcrafting Wednesday and   Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and All Things With Purpose and Home & Garden Thursday and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Artsy Corner Thursday  and Creative Things Thursday and Be Inspired and Time Travel Thursday and Thrifty Things Friday  and  Friday Fences and  Thursday's Inspiration and  The Self-sufficient Home Acre and  I'm Lovin' it Thursday and Creative Things Thursday and   Mandatory Mooch   and Foodie Friends Friday and Freedom Fridays and  Anything Blue Friday and Junkin' Joe and  Serenity Saturday and Get Schooled Saturday  and Inspiration Friday(ThursNite) and Vintage Inspiration Friday and Photo Friday and  A Favorite Thing Saturday and Share Your Creativity and Sunny Simple Sunday and Sunlit Sunday and  Market Yourself Monday and  Saturday Nite Special

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