Giving Thanks.

 In the United States of America today is a holiday.  Or you might even say it is a “holy day”.  It is a day to pause and give thanks for the myriad blessings we have been given to us by our Heavenly Father.

Some items on my gratitude list:

My dear husband who is so kind and generous and thoughtful and treats me with love every day

Our angel family to include our siblings and their families

The most wonderful friends imaginable

This glorious beautiful earth on which we are privileged to live

A church which builds my spirit and gives us many opportunities to serve

A very comfortable home

A neighborhood of very kind and thoughtful people

A pond where in the last little while the alligator has not been singing

Tools that help us tackle our own needs such as strollers and bicycles and self-propelled lawnmowers and garden hoses

A car that runs very well and is paid for

No debt

Money enough to fund my charitable projects

Opportunities to learn about health and how to improve it

Nearby grocery stores

Nearby craft stores

Nearby hardware stores

Work to do to keep ourselves busy and productive and feeling virtuous

Music everywhere

Libraries with very helpful staff

Telephones that work

Electricity, and other utilities to keep us warm and comfy

Birds in the backyard singing their hearts out

Vacations every so often

And today the blessing of making many many pies for the Marines who serve us all and who are willing to  give their lives on our behalf if called upon to do so

This box of dinner was brought home to me from the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station Thanksgiving dinner where Dear One and sister’s husband went to serve the Marines and take them 137 pies.  I helped make pies but did not go to the base.  My sister stayed home this year for the first time in ten years since she and her husband started the homemade pie project.  She remained at home because after getting up way before dawn and making eleven more pies, she had an accident which encouraged her to stay home.  She will be fine but was uncomfortable and let discretion guide her today.

I am so grateful for all the above and so MANY MORE!  I know you are, too.  Spending a moment to enumerate a few of the things for which one is grateful can make our hearts sing with joy.

May you all have had a very happy Thanksgiving.

Vacation Troubles!

 We had a fun day today.  Until we arrived home after spending part of the day with my sister.  It was just getting dark.  It was quite cool outside.  We walked up the sixteen stairs to the front door and Dear One's key card would not work in the lock. AT ALL!!  So I tried.  My key card did not work, either.  

Dear One shone his phone light onto the phone numbers to call. As it happens, it was after 5 PM so no one answered the office phone so we called the Emergency Number (for emergencies that could not wait until the next day the office was to be open...) A rather impersonal male answered, asked all kinds of questions, I presume to see if we should be there at that condo.  Eventually I told him I was without a sweater or jacket and I was in urgent need of the LGR....which I was.  He then said he would call the security office and if they did not come rescue us within ten minutes that we should call a third number.  

They did not come in the promised ten minutes so I called the third number.  A nice-sounding girl answered the phone and said she would send security soon.  OK, well, soon is as soon does!

Finally a nice security girl came up the stairs and opened the door with her key card.  Except that IT DID NOT OPEN!  She said she would have to go call Mr. Someone...who usually was able to arrive in about thirty minutes. He probably would need to pull off the lock and install a new battery. Well, I had been standing there with legs crossed for almost 45 minutes so time had run out.  

After the nice security girl left I carefully made my way down the stairs to the outside facilities.  Embarrassing but necessary.

In about fifteen minutes Mr. Someone came, went upstairs while we remained in the car which was idling with the heater blowing on us, and came back down almost instantly.  He handed us each a key card in a wrinkled holder.  He told us that the resort had done a system update today and re-installed the  firmware so all the keys no longer worked so they had put our new keys under our mat! Can you believe ie?  They did not attempt to call us all day.  Dear One and I both had our phones so they could have notified us.  Oh, well.

The good news about that is that #1. we are now inside and comfy and almost warm again, and #2.  while shivering outside at the front door, a deer family walked by just at the foot of the stairs!  A big deer, a smaller deer, and three baby deer.  So sweet to see them.  Heavenly Father blesses us in so very many ways.

Such a sweet thing to see,  Dear One was in the car with the hazard lights on as requested by the original callee and he saw the deer family also.  Nice way to get our minds on something other than discomfort.

Vacation Preparations!!

 We did not have a vacation for nearly five years.  We have a timeshare and "banked" the weeks we should have used. Now those weeks are going to go away if we do not use them, so now we have scheduled a second vacation.  This time we will be about half an hour from my sister.  That will be so great to spend time with her and her family.  Plus we will be able to help with the Cherry Point MCAS Thanksgiving dinner by making pies.  Dear One will help serve the Marines at the base.

Well, getting ready to go happened in a week that was already completely full.  So hard to get things together.  When we arrived at the vacation condo we found I had left some things at home...This may be because the night before, I awoke before midnight and was awake until 6 AM.  Have not had a night as rough as that for a while.

Around 4 AM I had already used up all the quiet, in-the-other-room projects, so I moved into our bedroom where the Brother KX 350 knitting machine is set up.  I had seen a YouTube video by Anna Haferman about knitting a pumpkin.  I followed her pattern and made this pumpkin:

Anna's pattern called for casting on 80 stitches.  I wanted a smaller pumpkin so I cast on 50 stitches then did a bit of math to figure out the spacing of the pattern stitches.  It did turn out.  Well, I seem to remember that I set the tension at 3.5 which is pretty tight, but there was not a lot of trouble with the fluffy stuffing showing through those stitches.

So, it was not fabulous but it could have been worse.  I wanted to bring a gift to my sister and this is what it turned out to be.  Plus a dozen little orange boxes with green pompom stems on top and Hershey's Kisses and Peanut Butter Cups inside.

Rats, Rats, RATS!!! And I mean that Sincerely!

 Tonight we are having a Relief Society activity.  We will be making freezer meals for compassionate service emergencies.  We will also be having a pie night.  Everyone will bring a sweet pie or a savory pie to share.  There will even be pie judging.   Since I wanted to use up ingredients in our refrigerator I decided to do both.  This is how it went...

First thing this morning I was downstairs, still in nightgown, making the tollhouse pie which I have bragged about multiple times on this blog.  I got it in the oven and decided it was too early to be up and around so I went back to bed, setting an alarm on my phone and with Siri.  I was sound asleep when the alarms rang and I carefully made my way back down stairs...no desire AT ALL to fall down all those stairs.

When I got downstairs the pie looked so great, but I was pretty sure it was not quite cooked, so I shut off the oven,  cracked the door for 3 minutes, then closed the door so the residual heat would finish cooking the pie.

We were having brunch some hours later. I had put together the savory pie and while we were eating our salad I set the oven heating at 400 degrees F.  The bell went off to tell us the oven was ready but I was still eating salad (I had just learned that spinach is very good for cardiac health, as well as possibly helping with fatty liver disease so I did not want to miss even one leaf of spinach) so I decided the oven could keep heating until I was done.

When I finished my brunch I went to the oven to put in the savory pie to cook, the top crust of which  I had smartly (I thought) used a tomato basil tortilla.  When I opened the oven door, to my horror, there was the beautiful tollhouse pie!  No longer beautiful.  I did take it out of the oven and let it cool. I knew I was not taking it to Relief Society but I thought possibly I could pawn it off on Dear One who loves just about everything sweet.  Turns out he was smart enough to reject it.  Such a disappointment.  Not his rejection, but the pie disaster...

Well, I will take the stainless steel bowls, the three bags of cooked rice, some large spoons for stirring ingredients, and the savory vegetarian pie over to Relief Society.  I do not have high hopes for its reception...

Better luck next time, I guess.

Here is the Tollhouse Pie.  It does not look THAT bad, does it?  Well, yes.  It really does.  And it really is bad. I tried some of it cool and it just about finished me off...!

Quick Knit Simple Pocket Doll

 Many years ago I had the blessing of knitting a few pocket dolls for a charity near home in Vermont.   Recently I met a darling little boy who was nearing his first birthday. I wanted to make him something and the pocket doll came to mind.

The actual pattern can be found on Knitting4Peace.org.

This is the one I made: (you cannot see this really but the hair is gray in case he was missing his grandpa...)

In general these are the instructions:

Cast on 32 stitches on US 4 double pointed needles.

Knit 4 rounds in shoe color.

Change to pants color and knit 12 rounds.

Change to belt color and knit 1 round.

Change to shirt color and knit 12 rounds.

Change to face color and knit 10 rounds.

Change to hair color and knit 4 rounds  then start the decrease rounds starting with K4, K2tog around.

Every other round at this point is plain knitting then K3, K2tog; K2, K2tog, K1;  K2tog. 

The final round is a plain knitting round and you will have 12 stitches.

Now comes the part where you should go look at the real pattern for the finishing work!

The yarn I used for this doll was worsted weight cotton yarn since it needed to be able to be thrown into the washing machine regularly.

The doll, including finding the yarn, and all finishing work took about 2 hours.  No.  Less than two hours.  My plan is to make a few more and send them to Knitting4Peace as a thank you for the pattern.

Have fun with this.  K4P has many other patterns as well...something for everyone who wants to contribute

Creamy Wild Rice Soup

 Finally I made. Lenny and Shalva Gale's Cream Wild Rice Soup.  It is SO GOOD!!!  #LifeisNOYOKE

Start out by soaking 1 cup raw cashew overnight.

In the morning:

chop--

 4 ribs celery
2-3 carrots
1 sweet onion
4 large cloves garlic

8 ounces well-washed and chopped mushrooms

Place 1 1/2 quarts vegetable stock in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the vegetables and 1 cup wild rice that you rinsed well.  Add in 1 Tablespoon thyme and 2 bay leaves.

Set a timer for 30 minutes for this all to cook.  Put the cover on.

In a blender  place 2 cups vegetable broth.  Drain the cashews and add them and one can white beans (drain the beans ) or 1 1/2 cups home cooked white beans to the blender.  Blend for one minute until completely creamy.  Stir into the cooking vegetables and rice and set timer for another 15 minutes.  When the timer goes off, check to see if the rice is cooked.  It should be chewy.  Not hard!

Serve hot.  Though I can say that I also enjoy this soup cold.  Dear One not so much, but he does like it when it is hot.

Be sure to remove the bay leaves as they are not so pleasant to bite into...

This recipe makes about 3 quarts of soup.  So good!

Raspberry Cheesecake Capelet Test Knit Report

 The Raspberry Cheesecake Capelet test knit is completed and reported to the designer.  I am so glad I was able to complete it.  It took many many hours.  I thought it was a success.

Test knitting has been something I have enjoyed doing these past few years.  In case anyone else would like to participate here is some information you need.

What is test knitting?  Knitting designers create knitting patterns.  In order to be sure their patterns are in good order and that Josephine Knitter will be successful knitting the patterns, the designers invite other knitters to make the project and give feedback on how the pattern worked for the tester.

There is a website called Yarnpond.com where more and more knitting designers are inviting testing of their patterns.

This is the process:

1. Go to Yarnpond.com and create and account.  You will be invited to share your knitting experience.

2. Look at the current testing calls.  If one looks like you would like to knit it, then

3. Look at the specifics of the pattern, i.e. what yarn, what needles, what deadlines, etc are required.  If this still looks good then

4. Apply for the test knitting.  Sometimes you will receive a response the same day.  Usually it is longer.  The designer states how many testers of each size.  If there are more sizes and testers wanted, you have a better chance of being selected.  

5. Check your knitting "stash" to see if you already have the yarn you need for the project.  I personally do not usually buy new yarn for the project, though I did for the Raspberry Capelet since I wanted white yarn and did not have it.

6.  You will need to keep going back to Yarnpond to see if you have been selected.  Once selected, go to town on the project.

7. Now is the fun part:  knitting, and finding errors in the pattern.  Or finding it perfect.  You give feedback to the designer through the Chat Room option on Yarnpond.  You also get to post your pictures there and on Ravelry.com.  Most designers want you to put up a page on Ravelry for photos and notes.  After all, they are trying to get a pattern ready for sale and it needs exposure.  That is your job.  Many designers want you to share on social media as well, but not all so you have to watch the test call for that.

8.  When you have completed the knitting, and completed your Ravelry page, you go back to Yarnpond and complete the final feedback page and you are done.  Plus you have a nice new knitted project to enjoy yourself or gift to someone either now or later.

This is something I enjoy, though the most recent one was taxing because A.  I had several other critical knitting projects ongoing and B. there were actually problems with the pattern which I discovered which meant I had to start over since one very crucial error was that the cast-on stitch count for the size I was making was wrong!  That was quite good to find out, though I had done a fair amount of knitting when I realized there was an issue.  The designer was fabulous and immediately realized what the problem was, corrected it, and notified all who were knitting the sizes where there were issues so they could start again.

To see my Ravelry projects where I have put photographs (and sometimes notes) of some of the knitting I have done over the last fourteen years, click here.

If you go to my Ravelry page, you will see that the personal information is outdated!  We now have 10 grandchildren and one great grandchild!  When you get there, to see the pictures I mentioned, click on Projects.  Have fun!  Please try not to laugh too much at some of the projects.  Sadly, many of the pictures are not there as I was storing them on Flickr but my account there vanished and so did the pictures.  Now I just put them on my phone/computer/cloud so I have control.  At least some control...!

The Sweater is In The MAIL!

 After nearly a year and a half this sweater has been completed and is in the mail.  More about it later...!

The End of the Evening!

Well, all is well here, not in Lake Wobegon, but in our neighborhood.  We had many little ghosts, ghouls, fairies, princesses, and TV characters that I did not know.  Even when I asked and the kids told me, I could not grasp what they were talking about.  I may be getting old...

Anyway, Dear One had gotten enough candy, both chocolate and straight sugar, to fill two separate 13-quart stainless steel bowls.  When the last batch of kids came by at 7:15 and one little kiddo lifted the bowl to empty it into his back pack, I called it a night.  A few bugs had started finding the light over my head attractive at about the same time.  I had mentioned to Dear One  earlier (when he turned on the lights) that the first bug that came by was it for me.  He looked at me, smiled, and said. "You can tough it out!"  Funny guy.  Really funny guy!

This is all that was left from 26 quarts of chocolate and sugar.  Hallelujah!  No temptation lying around here now!

Here is the extent of my "costume" back on its high shelf until next year!  It was a pretty good buy the day after Halloween at Michaels two years ago: $2.99 or maybe it was $4.99 but either way...I am set for costumes until the end...!