It really did snow!

On Friday in the grand saga of my life, the big question was if we should attempt to drive to Montana to visit our grandbabies.  We decided not to go, which I think was very wise.  The biggest reason however, wasn't because we were being smart at not attempting to drive through the blizzard, but was because hubby was detained at work.  That was very good for us though because look what we woke up to Saturday morning at home where snow was not even forecast!

When it was all over, hubby snowblowed about 9 inches of "flurries" off the driveway and sidewalk!  This wasn't even in the mountains!   There is another winter storm watch posted for tomorrow and Wednesday for just north of us.  (about 10 miles north and to the Canadian border is all)  We'll see how many "flurries" we get then. We've had such a mild winter until now.  That old groundhog was right after all.  Boo!

So, we stayed home and watched movies all day Saturday, snuggled in our cozy house with the fire going full blast.  I completed another blue baby set that I forgot to photograph.  After awhile they all look the same anyway, don't they?  I also started another baby blanket in a new pattern using Bernat "Pipsqueak" yarn.  I have never felt anythig so incredibly soft.  This is definitely going to be for one very special baby.

When we realized that we were going to be home for church yesterday, I came to the realization that I needed to make something for the potluck after services.  I had watched the "Pioneer Woman" on the food network on Saturday morning, so I decided to try out her meatball recipe.  Instead of her barbeque sauce, I just poured a jar of Prego over them and they were a hit!  Here are a few pictures.

First you brown them in a skillet with canola oil in batches of 8 or 9 meatballs, then...

You bake them for about 35 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

I ended up with 26 meatballs. My huge, enormous, stupid mistake?  I put them in the oven on cookie sheets-with NO SIDES!!!!  Can you guess what happened?  Yep.  Grease from the meatballs is now all over the bottom of the oven and the house filled up with smoke.  Yuck.  Yuck.  Yuck.  I need to wait for a halfway warm day when I can open the windows and clean the oven.  Soon.  Before I bake anything else in it.  I cannot believe I didn't even think about the fact that the grease that comes out of hamburger would have to go somewhere!   Oh well, live and learn and the meatballs were very good.  An ingredient that the Pioneer Woman used in the meatballs that I never would have thought of was milk.  It made them super moist.  Then they're dredged in flour before browning.  I think the recipe is on FoodNetwork.com/pioneer woman.  Not sure if I have that website correct but they did say the recipes from that show were available online.
Today I've vacummed, done laundry, caught up on my Bible reading and played with Chloe.  I have baby hats for the hospital in the washing machine to be delivered tomorrow.  I think I have about 45 hats done for this delivery.  This afternoon I'm going to work on my baby blanket with the wonderfully SOFT yarn.  I've got my chores done and now I can play.  A roast, potatoes, carrots and onions is bubbling away in the crock pot so my wifely chores are complete.  I love to find extra time to play with my yarn.

The skies are blue, blue, blue today so I may take my Chloe-baby for a walk in a little while.  She's been cooped up with no long walk since last Wednesday.  We could both use the exercise.

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

Blessings,

Betsy

Snow, Snow, Snow!

Hello and happy Friday to everyone!

It's snowing again and it's NOT a welcome storm.  We were planning to go to Montana to see our grandbabies, (their parents too of course, but that's just a nice cooincidence.   :-))  Now, because of all the snow we're not sure we'll be able to go.  I have the car all packed and Chloe was excited to see her bed being loaded into the car.  Road trip!  She know's we're either going to our daughter's house or our son's house and they both have dogs that she loves to visit with.  They are just like little kids.

Anyway 12-18 inches of snow is possible on the passes this afternoon and evening and again on Sunday when we would be coming home.  I'm waiting on a call back from hubby for a final decision.  I took him to work at 5:00 am this morning and was going to pick him up since his workplace is on our way towards Idaho.  Plan B would be that I still pick him up, but we go out to eat instead of driving 325 miles in a blizzard.  I love my grandbabies, but I personally think it's just plain silly to take our lives in our hands.  My son just called and told me to take a tranquilizer, have Dad drive and I'd be there before I woke up!  Nice plan except I don't take any medicine I don't absolutely have to so I have no tranquilizers on hand!  So I'm not sure what our weekend will have in store now.

I've done a little more sewing.  I made a couple of dresses since most of my clothes are wearing out.  I'm known in our circle of friends for wearing dresses almost all the time.  I just find them so much more comfortable than pants.  Warmer too.  You can wrap your legs up in a skirt for warmth and it's kind of like covering them with a blanket.  There's a pocket of air for insulation that isn't there with jeans or pants.  I don't know how much more sewing of clothing I will do though.  Those two plain no-frill dresses cost about $30 each for material, thread etc.  I went to Walmart this morning for a few things and saw a dress that I liked much better for $20!   I think I'll be checking out Walmart first from now on. Not the best quality but I can change my wardrobe a bit more often.

Here's a picture of Mt. Spokane this morning as the storm was moving in.  Isn't it beautiful?

 I thought you might be interested in this console/buffet table I got a few years ago from a thrift store.  I was looking for a piece of furniture for this specific spot, and just as I walked into the store this was being wheeled out from the back room.  It had just been donated from an estate sale that morning.  The guy took one look at my face, didn't even stop, just asked me where my car was and he'd load it up.  I hadn't even taken a close look at it but he said he had shopped enough with his wife to know the look on my face!  Isn't that hilarious?  The great part was I had a coupon for 50% off anything in the store, so I got this beautiful piece of heirloom quality furniture without a scratch on it for $75.00!!!!!

 I love the detailing of the wood on the doors.  I don't know what kind of wood it is but I've never seen anything like it before.  The color is off in the picture below, but you can see the details of the doors.

 And a few pictures of my cactus.  I have never seen it bloom as often as it has this past year or have as many buds.  I just counted 15 buds this morning.  I've never had more than two at a time before.

And I think that's it for today. I 'm going to go to the nursing home for a quick visit before we head for the snowy mountains if that's what hubby decides.  Personally, I'm for dinner out and a quiet weekend.  Everyone thinks we will be gone, so we can sleep in and do next to nothing tomorrow if we want.  I'll let you know next post how it all turned out.

Blessings.

Betsy

Whew! It's Monday!

Hello everyone!  I made it through the weekend in one piece.  I think.  It was the complete whirlwind I had been expecting, but it all turned out very well.

Friday afternoon our college kids arrived.  They were the most polite, curteous teenagers that we've hosted in recent years.  They even made their beds both days!  For some reason I think it's funny when guests make their beds the day they leave.  It's like they believe they're preparing for the next people to stay in that room.  Do they not realize I wash all the bedding between each person who stays here?!  Just a thought that popped into my little mind!

Saturday morning ten ladies from church came to the craft morning, plus the three teenagers.  The boy was the only one who crafted of the teens.  He used my round loom and made a knitted hat in about 3 hours!  The girls were very cordial though and visited with everyone.

Three of our friends then spent the afternoon with us just eating pizza and visiting.  I hadn't seen my young friend from Oklahoma in almost 3 years so it was wonderful to catch up with her.  Their little family wants desperately to move back to the Northwest somewhere to be closer to family, but no job has been found yet.  She stays at home with their 3 & 4 year olds and loves it but misses having family close.  My hubby performed the wedding ceremonies for her and her husband and our other young friends that also visited with us on Saturday afternoon.  We had a wonderful time remembering how much fun we used to have together.  We met with both couples weekly for Bible study as they were all new Christians.  Our own faith grew and was strengthened by studying with them since we were seeing the Bible with the eyes of people who had never read it before.

Saturday evening hubby and I had a nice "date night" at the Spokane symphony.  The featured "soloists" were a brother team that we had seen in Hawaii on several occasions.  It was fantastic.  I couldn't fathom how Hawaiian slack guitar sounds could meld with the symphony orchestra but they did it in a beautiful sound.  We had front row seats and sat directly in front of the harpist!  I spent the evening just watching her hands.  Amazing!

Sunday was just as busy.  Church in the morning, bridal shower in the afternoon and then evening services.  After evening service we went to Arby's for dinner with about 10 other people and had a nice hour or so just visiting and relaxing.  Can you believe Arby's was out of roast beef!?  We had a laugh over that and then ordered chicken, fish or ham!

So----that was my weekend.  Almost no computer time at all.  I did read emails but didn't answer any until late last night.  Since I last posted pictures I've been so busy that not much knitting has been accomplished.  Only two little pictures to show you.

I finished another baby sweater set.  The sweater was almost finished when I last blogged, so it probably shouldn't count!  So really I made two hats, 1 pair of blue socks and one solitary pink sockie.  The other pink sock is on the needles right now.  I must admit I'm tiring of these sets but I still have 3 babies on the way and I'm not sure of the gender of any of them.  I'm making 3 of each color just to be prepared!  Any sets I don't need can always be donated to one of the many charity groups I'm in.  A friend also keeps buying them almost as fast as I've made each set.  She has bought 3 rainbow blankets and 3 sweater sets in the past 6 weeks for new babies in her life.  She pays me well and it helps purchase more yarn so I'm not complaining.  I just need to get busy with more sets before I lose my motivation!

This is a picture of our gray skies this morning.  That's Mt. Spokane in the background!  Ha!  This morning when I woke up it was beautiful.  Covered in fresh snow and blue skies.  Something happened in the past couple of hours.  Clouds have appeared.  Just north of us about 30 miles or so and up to the Canadian border recieved 8 to 14 inches of snow Saturday night, including Mt. Spokane.  We woke up to about 1/8 of an inch yesterday.  By the time church was over everything was melted away and that's just the way I like it.  Snow in the mountains but not here.

I've spent a lot of time at my sewing machine recently sewing bandana's for myself.  After much prayer and study, I have come to the conclusion that I do need to start covering my head for prayer and worship at the minimum as it tells in 1 Corinthians 11.  I just can't find the cultural argument no matter how much I tried.  And believe me I tried.  Remember me?  I'm the one who dyed my hair for the first time about two weeks ago and cut a lot of it off three weeks ago.  I've been fighting this for all I'm worth, but what I've discovered is this.  If we discount this as a cultural thing, what else are we going to deem cultural and thus stop following that Paul and others taught?  It's a slippery slope we find ourselves on.  I'm not trying to be legalistic and I definitely am NOT trying to put my beliefs on anyone else but I have to follow where I believe the Lord is convicting me in my heart. 

Okay, enough preaching.  That's not what this blog is all about, but it is about my life and that's an important part of my heart.  So, I've been sewing and it's been fun.  I haven't sewn much in years but I'm enjoying my time behind the machine.  Do any of you sew?   I used to make all of my daughters clothes and a lot of mine when she was small.  The price of patterns, material and notions became so expensive though that it was less expensive to buy things and so my machine was brought out for repairs or quilting, etc.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and I'll try to be back soon.

Blessings,

Betsy

Busy Days!

I'm just zipping through to say I haven't had time to blog at all the past few days and the weekend isn't looking much better.

Three college students from Boise Bible College are staying with us tonight and tomorrow night and will make a presentation Sunday morning.  Also, tomorrow morning is my monthly craft day. A friend who's flying in from Oklahoma only has 3 hours tomorrow afternoon to visit, otherwise she has family obligations her entire stay so she's coming to lunch.  Tomorrow night is a concert hubby bought tickets to for us last month before we knew of this craziness that is overtaking us this weekend.  Sunday is church, a baby shower and church in the evening.  I'm tired before the weekend starts.  Deep breath.  Remember why we do all this!  Okay, I'm better!

Just baked two cakes, laundry is done and my best friend just left after a nice study and visit time this afternoon.

See you all on Monday if I survive!

Blessings,

Betsy

A Foggy Morning

Good Morning Friends!

It's a gray, foggy day here in Spokane but I've had a productive morning.  I caught up on my Bible reading before leaving my bed today.  Somehow I was a few chapters behind and thought I would take this day to play catch up and do some research into some scriptures that have been on my heart lately.  I'm just going to throw it out there and see if any of you have opinions on this.  1 Corinthians 11:2-16  This passage just sort of "leapt" out at me recently and I've been praying on it and asking for clarification from the Lord.  I've never really given this much thought but for some reason it keeps peeking into my brain!  Please let me know what you all think if you're comfortable sharing.

I then got up, ran to the grocery store to pick up a few necessities.  I've done laundry, vacuumed, dusted and spent a few hours on the computer doing the mundane tasks I always put off.  For example, I keep a list of all Christmas cards I send/recieve every year with all the addresses.  That makes sending the cards each December a much easier task.  No searching for the correct address, everything is in one place and handy.  For some reason, every year it's February at least, before I get myself organized enough to update the list.  It only takes half an hour or so, why do I procrastinate?

Then I did some computer stuff for our ladies ministry at church.  It's all done now and this afternoon I can knit with a clean concious.  Did I spell that right?    We did have a very busy weekend, but I toted my knitting along and finished a boy baby sweater set and started another one.

I do love these sweaters.  It's a variation of the 5 hour baby sweater, although I've NEVER finished one in close to 5 hours.  It's more like 7 or 8 hours for me if I don't have many interuptions.

I picked up a small box of Valentine Candy this morning for my elderly friend at the nursing home.  She loves chocolates but she will eat the entire box in a very short time if I take her a bigger box.  This small one should be perfect for her.

Oh!  I almost forgot to tell you about my other friend at a different nursing facility that I made the crochet blanket for.  I delivered it last Friday and I how wish I had taken my camera.  The look on her face was priceless!  She just sat there smiling and hugging that blanket the entire time I was visiting her.  It made me feel wonderful to do something so small that made her so happy.

And now, I'll leave you with a last picture of my Chloe-baby.  I'm going to try to take her on a nice long walk in a little while if the rains stops long enough.

Isn't she precious?  She is so much company for me.  But, she has spoiled us for any other dog.  Hubby is already saying that we'll never have another dog.  She's so good it would be an impossible act to follow.

Have a wonderfully blessed day everyone and I look forward to reading your comments.

Blessings,

Betsy

Good Morning Thursday!

I'm feeling MUCH better!  Still not 100% but other than a lingering cough, dizziness and a bit of a stuffy nose, I'm ready to join the land of the living again.  Until the next bug attacks!

At noon I'm off to get my new haircut highlighted.  I've never, ever put a drop of dye on my hair before but I'm told it will make the gray blend in more.  I'll see how it goes, it may be the first and last time I do it.  My daughter has been trying to convince me to do it, among other people, so I'm up for one time anyway.  I've had the appointment since before I got sick and I'm glad that I don't have to cancel it.  I hate to mess up other people's schedules.

I have a quick tah-dah moment for you. Last night I finally finished the blanket for my friend.  It turned out to be 46 x 56 inches.  I listened to Carol and added another row and I think now it's just about perfect.  I couldn't have done more without a trip to the yarn shop so I'm glad it worked out the way it did.  Here's a picture for you of the completed blanket.  We have snowy skies today so I turned on all the lights to capture the colors a little. Please excuse the glare.

 And a close up of the picot stitch border.  I think it looks good don't you?  The color is bright yellow but it looks cream in the picture.  All of the colors look pretty washed out for some reason.  I'm a horrible photographer!

Then I quickly made a baby sweater, hat and socks for a friend who's having her second great-grandchild next month.  She's not much older than I am!  She likes to give these sets whenever she attends a baby shower.

 And one more pair of sockies made late last night.  I'll start another sweater today.

Would you believe I have NO projects on the hook or needles?!  I finished everything before I went to bed last night.  I don't believe this has happend in a long, long time.  I always have something going.

Now, I'm off to get my hair done. Sure hope I don't regret this.  52 years with no dye and now I'm caving in to pressure.  :-)  Have a marvelous weekend everyone.  Stay warm and dry if you're in the cold climate areas and cool if you are blessed to live in a warm place.  Like Hawaii.  My dream home.  I want to move.  Soon.  Before next winter.

Blessings,

Betsy

Still Sick, (Sounds like there's an echo here!)

Oh my goodness!  2012 has certainly not started well for me.  First almost three weeks with shingles and now a doozy of a cold.  Hubby had it last week, but was only sick for about four days.  I've been down for the count since Friday...what's that...five days now and no better?  My eyes hurt, my nose hurts.  Bleh!  But enough about that.  I have had valuable crocheting time while I've stayed away from other people.  I started a blanket for my friend in the nursing home.  The plan was to make various size squares in a different color in each round.  It was taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  I got it to about 36 inches by 18 inches and decided, nope.  If I want her to have it in the next week or so I had to change to plan B.   I'll keep that for a future baby blanket.  Now I'm making solid color squares, eight rounds each and joining as I go.  What do you think of my progress?

It's a bit puckered because it hasn't been blocked yet, but for the most part, I like the way it's looking.  If I had to do it again, I would problably make the center of each square a different color to add contrast, but I think she'll like it just fine.  I can't decide if I should just do the four squares to finish out the row or add another entire row.  What do you think?  There will be a border of some sort too, that will add some length and width.  Right now it's about 50 inches by 36 inches.

Tonight is the class hubby and I teach on Financial Peace but I think he'll be going alone.  I don't want to spread this stuff around to others.  We're having our taxes done tomorrow night.  Oh joy of joy!  I always dread that day each year.  It's always so nerve wracking.  No matter how well you try to plan and pay in advance, something new the government is doing always seems to jump out and get us.

Our church youth group is putting on a Valentine's dinner for us on Friday night.  There are over 35 couples attending and it promises to be quite lovely.  They have menus that we choose our entree from and we were told to "dress up".  I certainly hope this nasty virus is gone by then.

Well lovely friends.  On that note I'll leave you for now to go drink a cup of nice hot tea.  I'm sorry my posts have been rather dreary lately.  I can't muster up much enthusiasm these days.  Thank goodness for my yarny projects.  They're keeping me sane while I've been sick so much.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Our granddaughter went back to school yesterday!  Can you believe it?  As sick as she was last week, in school now!  Oh for the resilence of youth!  LOL  Thank you all for your prayers.  The final diagnoses was a nasty virus and pneumonia.

Now I'll leave you with a picture of my faithful companion who is very patient with her Momma.

She loves to sleep right next to me when I'm sick.  She's very much a comfort.

I hope you all have a wonderfully lovely day.

Blessings,

Betsy

Finally Friday.

Good Morning Friends!

It's been long long week at the Queen house.  Dear hubby has been fighting a really nasty cold all week.  I can't remember the last time he was sick.  Seriously.  He never gets sick.  It's been years and years.  Now me, on the other hand, I catch every bug that even comes within a city block of me.  I can already feel the first symptoms of a cold trying to attach to my body.  I've been dosing myself with zinc losenges and using the "Netti Pot" to rinse my sinuses.  People tell me both methods will fight off off a cold so I've been preparing for battle!

Our dear granddaughter has been in the hospital all week and finally got to go home last night.  She still has pneumonia and they are waiting for test results to come back for Kawasaki Disease.  Meanwhile, the doctor thought she would rest more at home where things aren't so frightening.  She didn't need the I.V. system anymore so they let her go home.  She has to go back daily to have her lungs checked and make sure she's not getting worse again.  BUT, it's a praise that she got to go home again!  God is good.  All the time.

I have managed to get a little crocheting and knitting done this week, but not a lot.  The first picture are more baby hats for the local hospital.  They are lavendar-not pink.  I'm not sure why they look pink!

 The second picture are blessing gowns and a burial bunting I made for the hospital, but I may send them to one of the charity groups I'm part of on Ravelry. I put a 12 inch ruler in with them so you can see the sizes more accurately.  One white with blue ribbons, one pink with white ribbon and a blue gown with blue ribbon.  The bunting is pink with white ribbon.

I can't make very many of these without getting depressed so I think I'm done for awhile.

I just began crocheting a blanket for a friend in a nursing facility.  She's not even 50 years old and it gets a bit depressing for her there.  I thought a colorful blanket might bring some cheer to her room.  She's hoping to make enough progress to be able to get her own apartment someday soon and the blanket would be useful there too.  I want to make it fairly large so I think it  may take me awhile.

Hubby wants to take me out to dinner this weekend to celebrate my birthday.  Hopefully we'll both be healthy enough!  I don't want to spread my germs to others.  I'm thinking Applebees.  What do you think?  They have healthy options and I'm still trying to shed some pounds.  Only about 50 lbs. to go!!!!  Applebees has entrees that contain Weight Watcher points so you know what is okay to eat and what to avoid.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I thank you all for your prayers for our little granddaughter.  We're hoping she's on the road to recovery and will be up and running around again very soon.

Blessings,

Betsy

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today was my birthday.  Events of the day didn't go the way I would have chosen, but it was a day the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in in!

My 6 year old granddaughter has been in the hospital since Monday morning.  They still aren't sure what is wrong.  A spinal tap has been done to rule out meningitis.  She has pneumonia and possibly Kawasaki disease.  She's in quarantine over 4 1/2 hours away from me, her Grandma.  It's a terrible thing to be so far away from your grandbaby with they're so sick.  Dear hubby has a bad cold and it wouldn't do us any good to travel over there.  No one is getting in except Mom and Dad right now.  If you are a believer could you please keep her in your prayers?

My best friend Jenny took me out to lunch and we spent a lovely couple of hours visiting.  I've certainly been blessed by the friends in my life and I'm very grateful.

I'll be talking to you soon.

Blessings,

Betsy