Busy Days of Fall

We’ve had a busy few weeks here. Guess who turned 11? Gosh, it’s so hard to believe that she is 11 years old. We had a small party with just the grandparents and Brad’s brother Bill, last Friday night. We had a fun dinner and then had cake. Piper loves sea turtles and I think Mandy did a great job of drawing the sea turtle on this cake. Piper was thrilled with it!

Of course, she very much enjoyed the opening of her gifts. We were the boring grandparents and bought her a gift card to Barnes & Noble. We just talked to them and she went there today and found some books she wanted. She received some fun things from Grandma and Papa Krumel. Nail polish, a sea turtle light, and a few other fun things. But from her mom and dad, she received her dad’s refurbished iPad. She was thrilled. They had pre-loaded it with things appropriate for her age. Look at that smile. It says it all. As for me, I loved her blue and white polkadot dress. She still loves to wear dresses and the sweaters I make her.

My peace lily is blooming for the third time this year. It must really like this window.

The gardens are gradually getting torn out as things finish producing. It was a bumper crop of tomatoes, pumpkins, eggplant, and acorn, squash, and cucumbers this year. To the left of the sidewalk is a patch of zinnias that are absolutely gorgeous right now. I’m too far away to get a good photo of them.

I finished another baby blanket using the diamond pattern and the same sparkle yarn. I made this one bigger at 38 x 38“. I still have six skeins of the yarn left….

So I began a prayer shawl for the hospital, using the same pattern, but making it narrower and it will be longer.

We were supposed to be on our way to the campground by now. We were going camping with our minister and his wife and Curt and Barb until Wednesday afternoon. We have been having major camper issues this summer. To make a long story short, when we went to pick it up a couple weeks ago to go camping, the electric jack didn’t work and the handle had been broken to crank it manually. Of course the repair shop said they didn’t do it. So, we had to order a new jack and they installed it. Oh, and did I mention the batteries were dead too? We have never had an issue with our batteries in the two years we’ve owned this trailer. Dennis is pretty sure they wired the jack wrong, which drained the batteries.

He went out to our camper storage last Thursday to put some things in the camper for our trip today and the batteries were completely dead again!  He took them off and to an auto shop where they tested them and said they were toast. He had to buy two new batteries, which was not cheap at all! After church today, we came home, loaded up the truck and went out to hook up the trailer and the batteries were completely dead again. We have no idea what’s going on. Right now I’m at home and Dennis is there trying to figure out what’s happening with it. If he can figure it out, we may try again tomorrow. Right now, I’ve about had it with pulling a trailer. Honestly, I would love to have a van that we could just drive and have everything right there. We don’t want a class A motorhome because we’d like something small enough to park in a regular parking place. But we both want a bathroom of some sort.

It’s been an expensive year for the camper and we’ve only been able to go camping two nights so far this year. Yikes! Plus, we were really looking forward to the time this week with our friends. Dennis’s patience is wearing thin and we have lost all trust in this repair place. They still have to fix the spot where a truck threw one of the construction cones into the side of the trailer on our way home from the Black Hills.

So this is sort of how I’m feeling!😂🤣😂

I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend. We have a stunning day today with clear blue skies and 65°. Absolutely perfect. I’ll talk to you all again soon.

Blessings and love, 

Betsy

🍁🍂🍁Fall Y’all! 🍁🍂It’s here!🍂🍁

This is one of my favorite seasons of the year, if only it didn’t mean winter was close behind. Oh, the coolness of fall I adore you. 

Not too many leaves are changing here yet, but we’ve had some very cool nights and so I think it will start soon. We’re supposed to be back into the 90s by the weekend though, so we will have some good old fashioned “Indian summer” in the days ahead. 

I didn’t put out nearly as many decorations this year as I usually do, but I thought I would share a little bit of what I have done. This is on top of the fireplace mantle. I do like those buffalo plaid little pumpkins. 

This is the little table in our entryway. I love to turn the light on at night. It has a very low wattage bulb in it and so it just shines a nice light in that corner of the hall.

And here’s our grandparent gallery under the TV. These are all photos of our precious grandchildren. The lights of our lives. I do enjoy this condo for the bright rooms it has for growing plants. They all seem to be thriving here. Sorry again for having to block out Baby J’s face. 🌻 The photo of Dennis and I in the middle was taken last year in Cambridge. We are sitting in front of the hall where the wedding took place last week.

I have started working on the cross-stitch ornaments for this year. Most of you will remember that I make ornaments every year for our children and grandchildren. I put their names and the year on them. When the grandchildren grow up and move out, they will have a tree full of ornaments to start out with, and the parents tree won’t be so empty! As you can see, this one has a lot of white. It’s very difficult for me to see well, unless I work on it in the bright sunlight of daytime. So, I try to Crosstitch for a couple of hours during the bright sunlight of daytime, and then in the evening while we watch TV, I switch over to knitting or crochet.

I’m also working on the last Christmas gift and then I will be done shopping and making for Christmas! This is a pair of socks for Mom. I only work on them when I’m in meetings or Sunday school, so they move along slowly. I’m halfway through turning the heel on the second sock and after that they’ll be done before I know it.

I’m also making another baby blanket in the same diamond pattern and the same yarn as my previous post. I am making it about 5 inches wider. This is such an easy pattern to do and I can crochet away without thinking about it. I bought 12 skeins of this sparkly cream colored baby yarn at a garage sale for five dollars!  Such a bargain!

I’m finally getting over whatever bug I caught while we were in London, although I still have a lingering cough. That will probably be around for a while. Mandy and Piper are still pretty sick, but also seem to have turned a corner and are slowly getting better.

I saw this funny on Facebook and thought about how much it applied to me. Can you relate? I’m always tripping over my own feet. A few times I’ve even landed flat on my face. I remember once about 15 years ago at our house in Spokane. I had walked down the street to get mail, and somehow I ended up flat on my face with gravel embedded in my cheeks and in my knees. I was so embarrassed! I remember jumping up and practically running back to the house and hoping against hope that no one had seen me go splat! I healed with no lasting effects, except to my pride.

I hope those of you in the northern hemisphere are enjoying the cooler days of fall if they have arrived for you. Although our color has not begun to reach what this picture depicts, I’m looking forward to the bright oranges, reds and golds of autumn.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week and I pray that the Lord will keep you all safe and bless you.

Betsy

So nice!

We have had the most beautiful weather for the past week. When we got home last Monday, I opened the windows up and I haven’t closed them since. It is supposed to be in the mid to upper 80s for the next several days, but I’m going to try very hard not to turn the air conditioner back on. I am so enjoying the fresh air in the house. My cold is hanging on and I still sound like I’m trying to cough up a lung up as gross as that sounds. I didn’t go to church yesterday because I don’t want anyone to think that I’m trying to make them sick. Mandy has been sick since a couple of days after we got home too. She’s running a fever and has lost her voice along with the other symptoms. It seems like we all brought some crud home. Flying is definitely not what it’s cracked up to be. I blame the guy that was practically sitting in my lap, coughing, on the flight over the pond.

I think I'll be staying home again today. I love going to our old apartment building and crocheting on mats for the homeless with the ladies, but I think I should miss another week and keep myself and my cough at home. It's okay. I always have something to do here at home.

Someone doesn't get very far away since we got home. Right now she's sitting on my lap, snuggling with me while I type.

I finished another dish cloth with Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Cotton".

And another baby blanket. I don't remember the name of it but I used Baby Bee Sweet Delight Pomp Nake. It has sparkles in it and is a fun, easily memorized pattern. I actually started another one this morning. They will be going to the hospital for donation.

I really liked this sweet picture I saw online.

I've joined a group of ladies at our church on Wednesday morning that are studying with BSF, or Bible Study Fellowship. People all over the world, of all ages are studying the same thing every week. It goes through the entire school year. There are lectures each week that are taught by people who have attended a class earlier in the week.  Homework every day too. This year the subject is the book of John and I'm looking forward to learning even more about it.

I liked this picture too. I need to remember this. Laugh more! Have a great day my dear friends.

Blessings and love,
Betsy