Autumn Blossoms

Evelyn Roses and Heavenly Blue morning glories.


Autumn Drift scented clematis.


Hearts and Honey Vine.

Novelty Food

I like novelty foods. Have you seen these?

Sights

As we left for Wisconsin I said I wanted to buy cheese and honey. I got my wish! We found a wonderful cheese store and a farmer's market open on Sunday morning. I bought Swiss almond Cheese for Jake our cat and frog sitter. I bought Wisconsin made Sartori cheese. Sartori is an Italian style nibbling cheese. It has a sharp flavor like a good Parmesan or Gruyere.
At the farmer's market in Dundee there were two merchant's named Bernie. Bernie the honey man and Bernie the pickle lady. Bernie Pickles had so many wonderful pickled veggies. I bought green beans and kohlrabi. Her husband gave me a few tomatoes. Bernie Honey had three different colored honeys plus at type of honey that not technically raw. When the wax is heated it separates from the honey. The honey that is gathered in this process is not considered raw because of the heat which is thought to kill of some of the beneficial properties. I bought a raw mixed honey which comes from several different flower varieties. On our way out of Wisconsin stopped at a Bistro in Kewaskum. There, we ate a wonderful vegetarian sandwich. It had shredded carrot, alfalfa sprouts, hummus, tepanade, tomato, and avocado on a thick-sliced whole wheat sunflower bread. On the shelve in the Bistro was Bernie's Honey!
I also bought Mollie Delicious apples. Yumm.

Pernell's Tower in the Kettle Moraine give a birds eye view of the beautiful region carved out by glaciers.

RC doesn't like heights and with his vertigo acting up he is really sensitive.

We went to Watertown where MLC was staying. In the town is an octagon house. It's kinda cool. Kadie's friend Hannah said it was creepy inside because of the dolls.

Power ON with Cheese!!!

My grandma's old orange coffee pot and our green stove make me happy when we are camping.

What I love about camping is the tree frogs!!! Their songs lull me to sleep.

In Wisconsin

We went camping for the holiday weekend at the Kettle Moraine State Recreation Grounds. Kadie played her first soccer game of the season against Lakeland, which was about 30 minutes from our campsite.
She is a captain this year. For some reason her coach pulled her out in the first period. I was sitting in the bleachers thinking she was playing great and that we didn't come all that way to watch her sit on the bench.
She played the entire second period and made a lot of shots on goal (she is a forward), but her shots went alongside or over the net. She made great passes to her teammates, but they couldn't capitalize either. Lakeland tied it up and the game went into overtime. There were five seconds on the clock when a pass came Kadie's way and she scored!!!

Perfect.

Morning Glories

Last Year my Glacier Star morning glories gave me so much joy that I thought I would plant as many varieties of morning glories as I could find. My hope was that vigorous vines would grow over my fence, but this year's hot weather/drought stunted my flowers and hopes. The vines are thin, the flowers few, but I appreciate them anyway. I love flowers, there's not more I can say.

Glacier Star

Black Knight

Shiva

Carnival

Red Star

Heavenly Blue

Angels

I woke up Saturday morning feeling like I wanted to tackle a project I had been thinking about. I know summer is coming to an end and I wanted to do something special with Mekayla so I called to see if she wanted to get creative with grandma. She was excited for the project.

The project started with some angels my sister-in-law Nancy made. The country colors weren't doing it for me and I thought I would try to freshen them up with some junk.

We used spray paint and brush on paint.

We painted, sawed, hammered, cut, nailed, drilled, and screwed.



The wings required some fancy engineering. The iron was screwed into a small block of wood. The small block of wood was screwed into the angel. I bought the weird iron pieces at a garage sale.
In my mind I thought the project would take two maybe three hours . . . it was five hours and as Mekayla said, "That was hard work!" "Yeah! But it was fun work!"I replied.
Interesting results aye?

With an old wooden heart I had in the garage and the little angel's wings, Mekayla made a sweet wall hanging. So cute!!!

It was a heavenly day.

I DID IT! I made of scrapbook of my chldhood stuff. I feel so happy even though the book is filled with hidden sadness and terrible report cards. I laid those ugly grades right out there for the world to see. I wish I had been a perfect child . . . I was lovable (and needing love) in spite of my weaknesses and failures.
There is a lot of commentary in the book. It is NOT a complete picture of me but it's okay. I can be satisfied with this effort.

This is what I put in the beginning of my book . . .

Many years ago my mother gave me a shirt box filled with scraps of my childhood. The box made me feel sad and confused. I couldn’t seem to make sense of the chronology of the objects. While the objects were saved they weren’t preserved or given special care.

It’s nice to have some remnants from my brief childhood even if some of the objects make me feel little insecure. This flotsam reminds me of old hurts, shame, and unrealized hopes. I know the unhappiness behind the smiles. I know how weak I was.
It doesn’t seem like I should have been such a miserable child, but I was. I used silliness to tread through my fear, anger, and disappointment like an alcoholic uses the drink to forget their troubles.

Recently I read Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd & Anne Kidd Taylor. Sue the daughter of a very capable mother wrote that every woman has to mother herself. Meaning not even our mothers know exactly what we need to nurture our potential or heal our hurts. This book is my attempt to mother myself. In making this book I am learning to love my imperfections, not be afraid to look at old scars, and go slowly so as not to tear open old wounds. And, resentment is evaporating. Crooked bangs look perfect on me.

Glad I Posted

I am glad I took the time to record some of these sweet moments in life. These weren't the only happy moments. Unfortunatley though there is still a cloud of anxiety and uncertainty hanging overhead.
I am working to rid my life of some of the stress, and these small accomplishments have brought me some relief, however the list of concerns is endless and my hands are weak. If I spent each day recording that day's concerns this little blog would be depressing. Instead I try to focus on the positive - not to appear in a better state than I am, rather I foucs on the positive to remind myself that my eyes see the blessings and that the blessings remain with me inspite of all the obstacles (internal & external) I have difficulty overcoming.