We are having record breaking rain this fall.  It is absolutely incredible how much rain we have had.  According to a local newspaper we've broken a 27 year record.  That means that the last time we had this much rain I was in junior high school....don't add that up, and so I don't even remember it, because I was in junior high school and didn't pay attention to these things.  Of course, it likely affected my hair and so I probably complained a lot.  I was all about the hair back in the day.  I digress.  Normally in our state September and October are the driest months unless we have a tropical system come through but this year no tropical system, just a weird weather system and it is weird, every time I have looked at a long range forecast since September, it has been nothing but rain.  We got almost 3 inches of rain yesterday and they are forecasting almost as much tonight.  Wow!

With that said my fall gardening is not getting done.  I desperately need to get out and pull up some weeds and unwanted growth and change some things up but it is too muddy and I am not finding much of a break in the rain when I can find it in my schedule to get out there.  It is frustrating but it will happen eventually.  The weed issue has become such a problem for me I am almost at the point of just taking it all up and putting down grass seed instead.  I am speaking of my flower beds.  Morning glory  and other vines are the bane of my existence right now so far as gardening goes.  However, it was a rather pretty sight to see some sort of morning glory vine creeping up one of my cypress trees (isn't that what they are?) all around like Christmas decorations; and to see the butterflies flitting around on the flowers so pretty.....but they pull down whatever they are climbing over and so they must be pulled up.  I also have some bulbs I need to plant for some pretty spring flowers....but the mud is too much right now.  I am not sure they'd survive in all the wet mud/dirt.  So I'll wait.

I am very excited this fall because I just found out I get to do Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year.  This is a rare treat because usually my mother-in-law is our Thanksgiving hostess at their house but all of that side of the family, except, of course, for us and my in-laws will be going out of town this year and so when I heard that news I offered to do it here and she accepted.  My husband said she seemed a little relieved.  I know she loves to be the hostess but sometimes a lady needs a break and so I'll gladly take up the reins, even if it is just for this year.  I am still asking her to make her "famous" dressing, if she will, and her "famous" chocolate dessert that my group here loves so. 

Sometime in the next couple of weeks I need to sit down with myself and jot down some ideas for the menu.  I want to do it very close to what we normally do with my husband's family, because that is "tradition" and my kids love tradition, but I also want to add some things that we do not normally have.  I can't wait.  The funny thing about it is this, all my food ideas are desserts, and almost all with pumpkin.  I keep thinking of pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, little pumpkin shaped pumpkin cakes drizzled with caramel sauce (I saw those in Southern Living magazine), pumpkin bread, pumpkin mousse, pumpkin gooey butter cakes, pumpkin pound cake, pumpkin pound cake made into a trifle......and on and on the list goes.  I'll have to narrow it down to one pumpkin inspired, or maybe two, desserts or dishes, but I am all about pumpkin these days. 

Speaking of pumpkin, I hope they have sweet potatoes at Sam's Club this week.   I know, I know they are too different things, but somehow I equate one with the other.  That's another fall veggie I start contemplating all the uses for, sweet potato pie, sweet potato casserole, sweet potato souffle', sweet potato patties, baked sweet potato with butter and a sprinkling of brown sugar and cinnamon, sweet potato waffles, and on and on I could go.  I love my orange foods!  Including carrots.  Maybe I'll make something with carrots for Thanksgiving.....carrot cake, carrot souffle', carrot salad (otherwise known as copper pennies), roasted carrots with garlic and rosemary, glazed carrots, and on and on.  See, I need to first have a talk with myself about my limitations.....then focus on the menu.   

Okay, so you could say that fall has brought with it a desire for baking and cooking for me.  It has.  I have reached that point in my mothering where I have children who actually like my cooking instead of walking into the room and saying "ewwwww" we're having "THAT".  They now like some of the things I cook now and it is fun to make things and then have them gobble it up.  Not all of the things I cook and bake have them gobbling, but  some more now than it used to be, so if you are reading this and you have young children who walk into your kitchen and say "ewww" there is hope if you just keep making them eat the good stuff.  Don't let your kids get away with pickiness, and don't let their complaints get to you.  Children do not usually like anything but the basics but if you keep at them to "have just a little portion" of this or that, eventually their palates will increase.

Right now, we are all on a pumpkin kick.  I even bought two pie pumpkins just to try out the fare.  Normally I buy the canned variety and I may go back to it, but this year I wanted to try something new, so I bought two pie pumpkins.  If I like them, I may try to grow some next year.  I think. 

Oh, I am also planning on a vegetable garden next year.  Right now I know that I am growing Roma tomatoes, and red bell peppers, not sure what else may come to mind.  I am trying to keep the ideas to things we actually will eat and can store away for winter.  I keep seeing Foodnetwork cooks making delightful looking tomato soup recipes with Roma tomatoes so I plan on growing lots of those for canning and making soup. 

Well, this has become random so it means I should close and get busy.  Laundry awaits my attention.  Amanda and J.D. are busy with their schoolwork but may need me to go over something or check something soon.  Amanda will need the computer soon for chemistry so it is time I close to make way for her.  Hopefully, I will be on here more than I have lately.  I believe I am getting an idea for the direction of my blog, or directions.  It will be a "here's what you can do, do it yourself, homemaking, cooking, decorating, painting, repairing" type of blog, plus some of the things that the LORD is teaching me.  It is not as if we needed more of this type of blog, but I personally read quite a few of these types of blogs and it is always neat to get a different perspective, maybe from a different area of the country, as such that I read are from the Pacific northwest, Florida, east coast, etc.  So my perspective will be of someone who was born and raised in the southern part of this country.   We'll see anyway!  It is not as if it is an entirely new direction for me, but maybe more of my focus.....maybe I need to go back and read my own blog.  LOL

 The bride and groom sitting next to my nephew.  Isn't my daughter gorgeous?  She's a young bride, just 18 in this picture.  She turned 19 in August.  I wish I had a better shot of her and her groom than this but I was not responsible for these photos and I was too harried to think about capturing posed shots.  My dear son took all of these for me and I am so glad.  My mother has some too that I haven't seen yet, but I am sure they are awesome!

  The top of the cake I made for their 1st anniversary.  It has the initial for their last name in the middle and then their names on each side.  On the bottom where we can't see because of the frosting is their actual marriage date.  They ELOPED! This is the dining table with a beautiful midnight blue fabric.  I wish I had gotten pictures of the details.  It has an embroidered pattern on it.  We did cupcakes instead of an actual wedding cake to make it easier and not have to get someone to serve cake. That is the new thing apparently.  There are lots of websites contributing ideas about wedding cupcakes.  You can even order special paper liners just for your wedding.  The punch is her favorite, lime sherbet, ginger-ale, and then I added some pineapple juice too.  The punch bowl belonged to my husband's grandmother and now my mother-in-law.  We had to conceal a crack in the tray so my mother-in-law picked and washed and gave me some of her ivy and then I placed that on top of some tulle that I placed around it.  The cupcakes are on two silver trays and then also on cake plates that I stacked to give it the look of tiers.  The flowers were simple white flowers I picked up from the grocery store.  In this arrangement I placed limes down in the hurricane and then filled with water and arranged some of the white flowers.  It was lilies, babies breath, and I can't remember the other one.   There are also little vases placed here and there with two or three little white flowers, daisies and baby's breath mostly. 


This is the buffet behind the dining table.  Maybe you'll remember I blogged about re-finishing it. It is a Duncan Phyfe reproduction.  It turned out better than I expected and holds quite a bit.   I think I blogged about it anyway.  It's been such a crazy summer.  On the buffet are little BLT cups that I made up for Samantha's liking to BLT sandwiches.  It was a pizza crust recipe I made mini-bread cups in and then shredded romaine lettuce, chopped crispy bacon and chopped tomato with some mayonnaise.  She liked them but they were messy that way.  I also had a silver bowl of mixed nuts, another silver tray with mints and then fruit in the bowl and on the tray (also works as a cake plate). 



Here is the table in the kitchen.  Again we had a midnight blue table cloth and then topped it with this square of green damask fabric.  It is supposed to be similar to the color peridot but it was close enough.  The shade of green is not quite captured in this photo.  I have vegetables and dip, cheese straws, bagel chips for the artichoke dip that was not on the table yet, going in the silver casserole tray, and then behind that crackers for the Pesto Cheese Blossom, thanks to a Paula Deen recipe.  I did the flowers in this arrangement too.  It was more white flowers and some magnolia leaves stuck in too.  It was much prettier than this picture shows, I think.  Also, you may notice with the food selections that this is quite southern in tradition.  The cheese straws, and then the mints and nuts in the dining room are old fashioned staples for receptions and teas down south. 


This is a not so great angle of me, but I wanted to post it anyway.  This is me sitting next to my Granddaddy having a quick chat while I rested my feet from hostessing and mingling.  He is my mother's father and is 84 years young.  I love him so much.  He was forced to retire just a few years ago from driving a "big rig", an 18-wheeler in other words.  He could still be driving if it weren't for an insurance ruling him too old.  He is still very capable and young at heart!  I love being with him.  I was his first grandbaby.....and guess what?

I am going to have mine......next April.  Yep, that very young looking newly married couple above found out not long after this big event that they were going to have to hurry up with the newlywed stuff, baby number one was already on it's way. 

The next few entries will be of my newest finished projects.  I am hoping to do more picture blogs in weeks and months to come.  I may or may not move my blog but I am getting around to thinking about changing it.  I fixed the dishwasher the other day and it occurred to me that other moms might not want to brave that sort of thing, but if you have a hubby like mine, or if you don't have a hubby, you may need to do something like that from time to time.  Those kinds of things drive him crazy.....so more will come later.....

Remicade week is always a blessing!  I had my infusion yesterday.  Not a week too soon.  I had another Crohn's rebound last week. I am not sure if it was something I ate or stress, or both.  I was definitely stressed out to my limit last week so that would make sense. I thankfully didn't have to visit, nor be admitted to the hospital.  It was just liquids for a few days and I was back to normal.  Well, normal for me. Usually,  I have a lot of energy and feel great the day after infusion but today I am just t-i-r-e-d!  Actually, coughing is not helping.  I had a respiratory virus a couple weeks ago and it flared up my asthma and I can't seem to kick this barking cough.  It wears me out!!! 

I did get a lot of stuff done today despite still needing a couple more hours of sleep.  This morning I scrubbed the master bath and the main bathroom.  I wiped down the walls and cabinets, the linen closet doors and the door in the main bathroom.  It will still have to be cleaned again next week before the big shindig. My bathroom will suffice to have the counter tops wiped down and the toilet cleaned.  I am the only one who uses my tub so a wipe down of that will suffice too.  The floors will have to be mopped but that can be done next week too.  It won't help to get that done ahead of time. 

I also had to pull up a loose tile in the main bathroom and repair it.  That was a job that Jeff did a couple weekends ago and if it lasts past the party, I'll be thrilled.  We put this floor in too tight, because it is a floating tile system and tile just doesn't do well when it is too tight.  Jeff pulled almost a third of the flooring up the other day and cut the pieces in half and glued them down with silicone caulking and I grouted around them after they were dry.  So far two pieces have come loose because they were not in level enough because the floor basically has to be perfect.  Let's just say I know why one major home improvement store did not keep their stock of the floating tile system that they introduced......it has flaws!  I'll keep repairing pieces until I run out and then I'm ripping it up and tiling it with real stuff.   Hopefully that will not be the case before a week and a half though.  I am not up for that!!! 

This week I am trying to do some detail work in my cleaning so that next week's cleaning is pretty basic.  So far I have done the laundry room, the office, the loft, dusted the living and dining rooms, cleaned the bathrooms and so that leaves the kitchen, the great room, the master bedroom, the basement,  and the guest room to be done by the end of Saturday.  It can be done.  I'll make myself! 

My girl is coming on Sunday evening with her new hubby.  They'll be here a week so I want to make sure the guest room is ready for her.  It just needs a good dusting and vacuuming.  It is rarely used so it stays neat and clean.  I had already cleaned the sheets from the 4th of July weekend when my cousin was our houseguest.  I washed the pillow cases which are exposed to dust so that they are fresh......I just want everything perfect for my first baby!!!  I can't believe that my first baby is married already and only about to turn 19......I need to find her a "slow down" button at the store I need to find my own "easy" button.  LOL

My bedroom is decluttered so that leaves just dusting and vacuuming in there too.  Last week I dusted the ceiling fan so it can go another week or two.  I would like to save the bedrooms for Saturday so that the guest room is ready right before Samantha and Joe get here on Sunday and then my bedroom may not need to be done much to before the big party. 

The basement needs a thorough dusting, sweeping and mopping as well as the sofa slipcovers washed.  It is a big area so that may take me all day Friday.....Ugghhh!!!  The great room is still a mess from our recent stair renovation but I am planning on making it quick work....the webster for the ceilings, the fans, then dusting, then vacuuming all the furniture, the floor and then the stairs down to the basement.  This could take all day and needs to be done tomorrow.  I can do the kitchen on Saturday along with the bedrooms.  Let's see, did I just make myself a list of to-do's?  I should write this down so I don't wake up tomorrow spinning my wheels and not getting anything accomplished. 

We did get the stairs to the loft done and they look great!!!  Jeff ordered some wood from a local lumber company who had accessed some two hundred year old beams from an old building that was being torn down.  It is heart pine and so awesome.  They cut it to size and then we brought them in last Friday night and I applied a coat of polyurethane to all four sides and the ends.  Jeff got started putting them in on Sunday and got them all in by that evening.  Now all one of us has to do is find some stain that matches the wood the stairs are attached to and go over that.  I thought we had some but we don't so as soon as we get some, I'll likely be the one to do that.  I am excited about them.  They look like they've always been there, and don't date the house.  Previously there were carpet wrapped stairs and they did date the house....totally 70's and 80's look going on there.

I have all the table coverings for Samantha's reception ready to go.  Amanda and I got out and shopped Sunday afternoon and found some gorgeous embroidered midnight blue fabric.  Not sure what kind it is, it is a slick type fabric, sort of a shiny texture, but I didn't think to find out what type it was.  It is so pretty and I've cut a square and hemmed the edges (with stitch witchery no less) so that will sit on the dining table with the points in the middle of the straight edges of the table and sitting on a white table cloth.  Very pretty indeed!  I also had bought a remnant at the thrift store that was about a square yard and a half of a very pretty green damask fabric that I did the same thing to and that will likely sit on the kitchen table, also with a white tablecloth underneath.  Basically, the dining room will be her midnight blue colors and the kitchen will be the olivey-peridot type green color.   These are the colors she was planning on doing her wedding had she had one.  I felt like it was the least I could do to honor that for her and it will be very striking.  She has good taste!  Everything else will be white or silver or crystal.  I'll post pictures as soon as I can after the event.  I am getting excited for it.  I just wish she was here to help plan it, it would be so much more fun with her here....but she'll be here in a few days.  I can't wait to see her face.  It has been 5 months since I saw her last. 

The food is something that I've also been working on.  We are serving chocolate cupcakes in lieu of wedding cake, but I am making them a small layer cake to freeze for their first anniversary.  They'll have a white liner and cream cheese/white chocolate buttercream frosting,  and will sit on tiered crystal cake plates.  I am going to try to bake them either Friday or Saturday while I am cleaning the kitchen and then freeze them until next Friday.  I hate to do that but I can't do it any other way.  We are also serving chicken salad in phyllo cups, a BLT salad (my concoction) in little bread cups, some cheese straws, veggie tray, fruit tray, both with dips, cheese balls and crackers, my mother-in-law's famous recipe (multiple times) of artichoke dip with bread or pita chips, mints, maybe the chocolate fountain......nuts, not sure what else other than punch and maybe iced tea and coffee.  There is a lot of food choices.  So far I have made the cheese straws, some of the mints (I am melting white chocolate, or white bark and adding a drop of peppermint oil and putting in little flower molds), the bread bowls, and have fried up 3 pounds of bacon that I cut up ahead of time so that it is already in little pieces for the salad.  I need to get the phyllo sheets to make the phyllo cups.  I am opting to do it this way instead of buying the already done phyllo cups.  I know there is likely a source for these, but I don't know what it is.  I priced them at the grocery store and for 15 little cups it was about four dollars.  I calculated in my head that we need at least 100-150, so that was going to be too expensive, not to mention, our store doesn't carry that many boxes at one time.  I am not going to raid all the grocery stores within a 20 miles radius for phyllo cups.  We'll go to plan B if they don't work.  I am not sure what plan B is, but I'll figure it out. 

Laundry is almost done...or rather, caught up for the week.  I have a load I need to get out of the dryer and hung up and another I need to put in the dryer.  My bed also has to have the sheets put back on since I stripped it today and there are a few things that need folding.   I should go do that now.  I am going to be ready for bed in just a little while....I am so beat!

So maybe I'll be able to blog again before the big day, but if not, I'll maybe do a post about the big day with pictures, then a picture post very soon of all the things I've been doing around here.  I am also thinking of changing up my blog a bit.  Not sure how and not even sure if I'll keep it here but I have felt the need for some change lately. 

Until next time!