I love November!

 November has been a pretty busy month socially. The weekend of the 11^th, we attended the Friday and Saturday activities at Highway. It was so good to see everyone and hear the good lessons and enjoy the wonderful singing. I had forgotten how good the acoustics are there. Of course, having a full building really helps, too! We really appreciated Jamie and Renee opening up their place for everyone to come out and enjoy the fellowship (and food!).

On the 16^th, Diane and I met for lunch in FW and then went to the movie theatre to watch “To Kill a Mockingbird”. I love that movie, and it was even better on the big screen! I was surprised to see a pretty full theatre…especially since we attended the 1:00 matinee. It wasn’t just us old folks either. There were quite a few young adults present. I’m glad to see the younger generation appreciate such a wonderful classic movie. As always, I really enjoyed my time with Diane. Looking forward to watching “White Christmas” with her next month!

I’ve been struggling with carpal tunnel problems for a few years now. It has gotten increasingly worse in the last year or so. So I went to my orthopedic surgeon on the 22^nd to see what needed to be done. He is going to do surgery to “release it” on the 7^th of December. The recovery time is supposed to be quite short…about 2 weeks. He said it may take a little longer than that until I’m comfortable clipping my rag quilts, but I shouldn’t have any trouble sewing. I’m looking forward to getting that taken care of! Right now my hand goes numb whenever I knit or crochet or do any handwork. I have to do those things in short spurts with recovery time in between.

This week has been wonderful! *Sigh* It began last weekend with Ricky, Amber and Archer spending a couple of nights with us on their way to NM. We spent the day Saturday shopping, visiting with Linda and Charles, and then finished up by driving through “Radiance!”, the light display at the Parker County Sheriff Posse grounds. We were afraid that Archer would sleep through it, but he was mesmerized! He is so much fun, and we love every minute we get to spend with him! They went to church with us at Eastside and then headed west after lunch. Archer was quite the hit with our bunch!

Our anniversary actually fell on the weekend that Ricky's family were here. 45 years together! We are going to have a little delayed celebration next Saturday. My kiddos gave me an early Christmas present of season tickets to the Bass Hall Broadway Series. The first performance will be "My Fair Lady" on 12/3. I am SO excited!!! It has been AGES since I got dressed up and went to something like that. 

We had a small Thanksgiving gathering this year. All of my kiddos were celebrating with their in-laws, so we invited friends and family that might not have other plans to come. Most had other plans or didn’t feel up to getting out, so there were just four of us, but we had a great visit and tons of food! I loved being able to finally cook a REAL Thanksgiving dinner again.

After our guests left, I baked and decorated Nam’s birthday cake. His birthday is today, so his family came over to celebrate. I fixed his favorite soup (Zuppa Tuscana) and Sheila brought some delicious homemade bread to go with it. Nam had requested a cake that looked like a volcano, so it wasn’t too complicated. He loved it! And I was FINALLY able to give him his rag quilt that I made him months ago. He was quite pleased with it. We really enjoyed the day with him and Sheila and Matt! We are now looking forward to having a sleepover again when he’s off on Christmas break next month.

Enjoying his gifts

9th Birthday Volcano Cake

Big Cat Rag Quilt

We haven't done much on the house this month. We got in the base for our shower this past week, so Dennis will start working on it probably next week. We still need to go pick out the tile that we want. We will probably go next week to get that. In the meantime, Dennis has done a little hunting, bringing in 2 deer so far. We sent some meat home with Sheila and Matt to free up space in our freezer, so he plans to go out again this next week. I cooked up one batch of jerky before Ricky and Amber's visit, but I still have 2-3 more batches to do from last year's meat supply. It took so long for the weather to cool off enough to run the oven for hours! We ought to have some good days over the next couple of weeks to make up the rest.

I hope that you all have enjoyed this special week with family and friends and took time to be thankful for the many blessings that we enjoy!

Ps 100:3-5 Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations. (NKJV)

Good Day for a Road Trip!

 We like to go to San Saba in November to get our year’s supply (or more) of pecans. We first stopped at the San Saba River Pecan Co. 30 years ago on a trip out to San Angelo to go hunting. We loved visiting their store, and their pecans are the best we’ve ever had. So we’ve been going back ever since. My supply from last year is almost gone…not enough to get me through Thanksgiving…and we had some down time waiting on our shower base to come in, so we decided to drive down this morning to get some. We drove through several rain showers both going and coming. Hoping some of them make it here! We saw some color on the trip, nothing vivid, but still pretty. We also saw a handful of deer (not counting roadkill). We usually see a lot more wildlife. Not sure why they weren’t stirring more today.

We stopped in Goldthwaite for lunch and decided to browse through the Mills County General Store afterwards. What a little gem! It has just about anything you might need. I picked up a couple of bottles of Mrs. Meyer’s liquid hand soap in scents that I don’t usually find elsewhere. I also found a cute little bundt pan that will work perfectly for a volcano cake that I plan to make later this month for Nam’s birthday. Then we made it to San Saba. We loaded up with lots of pecans both for us and as a gift for some special friends. I also picked up a couple of jars of their preserves…one Jalapeno Peach and Pecan, and one Cranberry Chili Pecan. (I love spicy jelly!) We stopped on our way back to MW for a little blizzard treat and still made it home by 4. Such a nice day!

Like I mentioned, our home remodel is pretty much on hold right now until our shower base is delivered. In the meantime, Dennis has done a little hunting. He killed a doe in bow season and got a spike (actually a 3-point) Saturday, which was opening day of gun season. Both are aging in our spare frig. We had to buy a new one this year. About a month ago, we noticed a terrible acrid smoke smell coming from the garage. It was our old frig that I had bought for my cake business when we were in Nacogdoches…probably 25 years or more ago. We decided it wasn’t worth trying to repair, so we found a good basic refrigerator on sale to replace it. I’m sure glad we noticed the problem before it actually caught fire! (And it was right before we left town for several days!)

Last weekend (Oct. 29) we took a short trip to East Texas. We spent Saturday night in Nacogdoches. We made it to town early enough to drive around and see how much things have changed and/or stayed the same. We drove by 3 houses that we used to live in. I couldn't believe how good the little duplex looked that we rented when we first moved to Nacogdoches 44 years ago. It was new when we rented it, and it still looks exactly the same! So nice to see a place that has been so well cared for and maintained! Sunday morning we went to church at Rocky Hill. It was so good to be back and visit with the folks that are still there. It has been too long since our last visit! The Trekell family invited us over for a quick lunch before heading out to the cemetery for Johnnie's memorial. My heart breaks for the family...especially for Larry. I don't know what he'll do without his lifelong sweetheart. 

I finished my 2^nd vintage rag quilt from the blocks that Little Granny had made and gifted it to my cousin Gwen.

I had one block left and turned it into a pillow, which a gave to another cousin.

front

back

I also made a ragged snowman pillow (for myself).

I’m now working on another rag quilt for one of my kiddos. After finishing all of the grandkids’ quilts, I told my kids that I’d make one for any that want one. I have four “orders”…three lap quilts for individuals and one “double” for Stephen and Mandy. It is so much fun figuring out what patterns I want to do and then finding the perfect fabrics for each project!

Take care, be kind, and enjoy the changes of the season!

Ec 3:1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: (NKJV)