Fall Rituals and Confessions

I have a few annual fall rituals, some successful, some not so much. One of my successful ones consists of canning jams, fruit butters and spicy ketchup.


I've already done some canning this year, and it's been very, well, fruitful, for lack of a better word. In fact, I canned 12 bottles of apricot butter the first week in August and we only have one left, which kind of defeats the purpose of "laying up in store" and having canned goods in the winter, but it sure was good. We're saving that last jar for Christmas Day or something equally as special. I've also taken a lot of tomatoes from my garden and turned them into delicious spicy ketchup and have canned that also. That's some of John's favorite stuff in the world, and since I have a surplus of tomatoes still, I may make some more this week.

Other successful fall rituals? Well, I've recently gotten a little better at decorating for Halloween.


A couple of years back, I invested in some creepy ghouls, huge spiders with webs, bats, skulls, and I even made a witch wreath. For those of you who know how low my craft level tolerance is, that was quite a feat.

I have some baking rituals as well, that are generally quite successful. For instance, the moment the weather turns cold, I start craving pumpkin tarts and apple cider. I've made several batches of pumpkin tarts this year so far and they've been well received. I owe a couple of readers the recipe so I'll be sure to get that up, along with my apple cider recipe.

Now for the confessional. I have one very unsuccessful fall ritual: quilting. Don't get me wrong, I used to be quite a quilter and I love doing it, but I can't seem to finish a quilt now to save my life. About 10 years ago I started a lovely quilt I named "Fall Leaves". The idea was fantastic: use all my extra material to cut little squares and triangles and form them into fall leaves and combine all the blocks to be a lovely montage of autumn foliage. Here's what a set of 9 blocks looks like:

For some reason, I can't seem to make myself finish this one or a quilt I started for John about 7 years ago, made entirely out of old blue jeans. I even go through the motions of getting out all the quilting materials every year, only to have them clutter the table and then be put away a couple of weeks later. A couple of years ago when the weather turned chilly, John asked me in passing, "Hey, isn't about time for you to get all your quilting stuff out and pretend that you're going to work on it?" That earned him a crusty.

At any rate, I'm not sure why I can't seem to finish these projects. They've been sitting in my sewing closet for years. I have so many quilts in process, and if I'd actually finish them, then I'd probably have a lot more storage space. Maybe by sharing this confessional, I will motivate myself to actually finish at least one of these this year. Then again, maybe not. Only time will tell.

Mary is Married!

Just got back from Mary's wedding celebration. She looked amazing and her new husband is one happy guy! She's off to a great honeymoon, and we all can't wait to hear about it!! Here are some photos from the day.

Girls Night Girls at our table:


Mary showing off her beautiful dress:


All of us with the happy couple:


Saying goodbye, although Lisa is still posing for the photos:

We love you Mary, congratulations!!!

A week of celebrations

Last week was truly a week of things to celebrate. First and foremost, it was John's birthday last week!! We went to the Bombay House for some killer Indian food for dinner that night and for his gift, I gave him the choice of an iPhone or a Wii. Much to my surprise, he chose the Wii. I know, coming from a Mac guy and the techno-fanatic, it was a bold move, but has proven to be oodles of fun for the whole family. We have spent a little more time than I'd like to admit having late-night crossbow battles on the big screen.

Celebrating a birthday always makes you stop and appreciate the birthday-boy or girl (in this case boy) and so I thought I would give a little shout out to John and tell him that he is the best husband in the whole world. He's so dang funny, talented, genuine, kind, mischievous, and wise. I'm the luckiest wife EVER. I knew when I married John that I would never be bored, and that has certainly been the case. Happy Birthday Juan!

Other things to celebrate this week: Mary P's bridal shower! Mary is getting married tomorrow so we threw her a shower last week. Here are some photos of the big day:

Enjoying time with the girls:

A glamor shot of my Kiwi Raspberry Pavlovas:

Lisa with her cute kids posing by the food (where else would they be?):

Mary opening her gifts:

Mary enjoying the one gift that wasn't a kitchen accessory:

Another thing to celebrate: We officially have the cutest baby in the whole world.


And the last thing to celebrate:

Betty has thrown caution to the wind and is back in the vines. Life is good.

Betty's Ssssssssurrender

For those of you who have been following the Betty saga, you will be interested to know that she has stopped digging for potato bugs in our yard. The fix was simple, really. A couple of weeks ago, we were out taking a walk around the neighborhood and what should John stumble upon but a baby garter snake. He got really excited because he's been obsessed with catching a snake and putting it in the vines in front of our house so it can eat any mice that may be lurking around there (we're not fans of the Hantavirus). He catches the snake and puts it in an empty saltine box and we head back home so he can set the snake free in our vines.

As we approach our house, we see Betty playing with some of the other neighborhood kids in the street. As we walk past her, she was curious as to what we're carrying.

Betty: What's in the box?

Me: You can come and see.

Betty and the other girls come running over and start squealing when they see it's a snake.

Betty: It's a snake!

John: Sure is.

Me: Guess what we're going to do with it?

Betty: What?

Me: We're going to set it free in the vines in front of our house. You know, the sames vines you crawl through to search for potato bugs.

Betty: (pause) You wouldn't dare.

John: Sure we would. He'll eat the mice.

Betty: You wouldn't dare!

Me: Sure would. Do you want to come watch while he set him free?

Betty: I don't believe you! You aren't going to put a snake in those vines!

John: Betty, I've actually been putting snakes in those vines all summer long. (He hasn't)

By this time, we are in our driveway in front of our house.

Betty: (pause) I don't believe you. You wouldn't dare put that snake in there.

John: (visibly drops the snake into the vines)

Betty: I can't believe you just did that!

Me: Sssssssssssorry Betty.

Betty laughs hysterically at the snake reference.

John: You can still come look in our vines. I'm sure the sssssssssnake will sssssssstay on his sssssssside of the vinesssssssssss.

Betty again laughs hysterically at the brilliant use of the sssssssss, but she continues to keep her distance. Make no mistake about it, Betty is not keen on the idea of crawling around in the vines and running across a slithering reptile. We realized the other day that Betty has not returned to the vines. Sure, school has started, but I think it's more than that. Who knows, she might google "gartner snakes" and realize that they are harmless and be back, or she might just hang up her potato bug hat. Ironically, I really miss seeing her in our yard. Here's hoping she returns.

I've Been a Bad, Bad Blogger

I'm back. After a 10 week hiatus, I'm ready to take responsibility for my blog once again. In case anyone is still reading and checking back for updates, your long wait is over. I last posted in June and shortly after my last post, we had a huge life changing event occur. We adopted a beautiful, amazing, perfect little girl. She was born in June and let me just say I never realized how quickly and completely I could fall in love with someone. I fell in love with her even faster than I fell in love with John, and as those of you who know me know, that was pretty darn fast. She is such a miracle and I can't imagine life without her here. Of course, John is absolutely smitten too. He is completely and utterly wrapped around her finger. Here is a shot of John holding the pumpkin a few hours after she was born:

I love the eye contact. Here's another fun shot of the whole family:

That shot was actually taken was the Pumpkin was only a week old. We were at my niece's wedding in Vegas. Here's another shot from the wedding breakfast:

So life is good, and now that things have settled down, I'll be blogging once again. And believe me, I have lots to catch you all up on! Stay tuned....