Time for Fun!

 Dare I say it? Our house is finished (for the most part). There is still a little trim work to finish up and the sliding barn door to do, but for all practical purposes, we are DONE! It feels so good! We are loving our new carpet. The odor was very strong at first (gave me bad vertigo), but the weather was so nice, we just opened the windows for a few days to let it air out. It has been fun watching Archer on it! He'll throw himself down on it and just roll around. Haha! Here are a few pictures of the finished product:

master bedroom

living and dining room

other end of living room

As most of you know, Frieda went into the hospital on the 12th with an intestinal blockage...her second one in 4 months. She ended up having to have surgery on the 18th. She is still struggling a lot in her recovery. The last report I read showed her making some significant progress. Hopefully she has finally turned a corner in her recovery. It has been a long hard road! Please continue to keep her and her family in your prayers!

As far as my crafting goes, I finished my winter rag quilt. I have it stored away until after Thanksgiving (still using my fall quilt until then). I only have one more rag quilt left on my "to-do" list...my warm weather one. I'll probably put it off until January. This one makes me 11 for the year. I sure am enjoying making them!

I also made a "chenille" pillow cover. It didn't turn out like I had hoped, but maybe it will continue to fray as it "ages". It is supposed to look like chenille, but it doesn't. Oh well, it was fun to try!

I have started doing on online knitting course, through Craftsy, and am learning a lot! Before I had taught myself using the book "Knitting for Dummies". The best that I could manage was knitted dishrags, though. I LOVE knitted dishrags, but I also thought it would be nice to be able to make more than that. So far, in my course, I've made some fingerless mittens and a waffle stitch cowl. I'm really enjoying it and learning a lot more about the process. I'm hoping my skills improve to the point that I can make a large project. Right now, I'm working on a scarf to match my mittens...just kinda "winging" it. I think my next class project will be a cap.

cowl

fingerless mittens

We hosted our 5th Sunday potluck this past Sunday. I had some hunks of meat that I usually use for making jerky that I needed to use up, so I ground them into hamburger and made up a big batch of chili. Everyone else brought "fixins" to go with it. We had a small group, but we really enjoyed the day. Between Andy and Sherry and Thiess and Gina, there were many interesting and lively stories told!

The next morning we got up and packed and headed north to Hochatown, OK. The weather has been quite chilly, which we are really enjoying! Tuesday morning we drove the Talimena Scenic Byway. It was a beautiful drive. The colors weren't "prime", but they were nice...much more color than we've been seeing at home (which is pretty much nil). We had lunch at Little Italy in Mena, AR. It was really good, and we had plenty of leftovers to bring back for another meal or two. Then last night we drove into Beaver's Bend State Park to look for deer. We weren't disappointed! We did a quick drive through, then went back this morning to go through the museum and drive around some more. We went down to Broken Bow for lunch and did a little shopping. Among some other things, I found and bought my new favorite coffee mug! 

pond where we are staying

one of the deer we saw at Beaver's Bend

cypress trees along the river

small cascade in BBSP

our cabin

Beaver's Bend Lake

We plan to pack up and leave in the morning. It has been a fun and relaxing trip, but as usual, we are missing home...especially now that we have it fixed the way we want it! We have the Highway Meeting and a baby shower for Kacey to attend this weekend, too. It's amazing how busy we stay for a couple of old retired folks!

Enjoy this wonderful fall weather and the everyday joys that come your way!

Ps 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: (NKJV)