turkey

This is a turkey that my daughter made in her kindergarten class (I don't think he has a thing to worry about, even though Thanksgiving is fast approaching :)

Have a great weekend!

knit away

I knew it would happen. As soon as the weather turned cooler, the need for some wool in my hands became so clear. I'm still working on the bag, here it is so far~


can't wait to see it all done up and felted.

A trip to the local yarn shop yielded some malabrigo cosecha in my hands. The oranges, browns, greens are just wonderful representation of the Thanksgiving season-so that's why I'll now call this cowl my Thanksgiving cowl~





Knitting, with its rhythmic, repetitive movements has a way of letting my mind just focusing on what is at hand-literally. It helps my mental outlook and lets me realize (even when some of my stitches are less than ideal) that you just need to keep on keepin'on, both living and knitting.

(Sorry, but really its kinda of impossible for me not to look for life lessons everywhere- it's just me I guess :)

Happy Wednesday friends!

a sweet note....

Hello, how are you doing? I haven't been in this space for a while because the days seem to be going super fast and when I do have a little time with the computer, I have been too drained to blog. The past couple of weeks have been a little rough for us, someone dear to me-my grandmother- has been having some health issues lately-and this has been heavy on my heart. Yet, when I call to talk to her she always makes me laugh with her wonderful sense of humor, and really she usually winds up cheering me up rather than vice versa. Please keep her in your prayers, truly I would appreciate it so much.

Also I just wanted to share a sweet note that my youngest gave to me. Lately she loves writing me notes. She started kindergaten this year and I'm amazed at how much she loves it. Her class is small (less than seven kids) and her school day is only for half a day-which is perfect for us. Her only homework every night is to read a book with either me, her sister, or her dad. I see her sounding out words (I love that the school teaches phonics along with the alphabet :) and then remembering her sight words in the process of putting sentences together. It's so exciting to see her world of discovery-one moment at a time, one day at a time.

One day at a time.

a few glimpses of our Sunday

~apple pancake all done


~still making use of those apples, making an apple pancake



~getting the veggies home before the hard frost hits


~green tomatoes picked before the frost

I was feeling a bit under the weather earlier this week, having a bit of a sore throat just feeling blah-blah-but now I'm feeling much better and like my old self (this syrup was quite helpful in helping me with my blah-blah's). We finally had our hard freeze last evening (the official end of the growing season) and it promises to be a chilly day. My main plans for the day include~

*a little shopping (the kids need new winter coats and maybe I'll manage to find something for myself :)

*hopefully a little knitting (yes, I'm still knitting up my bag) preferably with a cup of this tea-which is rocking my world.

*relaxing on the couch this evening while taking in The Next Iron Chef.

Hope you have an enjoyable Sunday and see you soon,
nichole

October fruits

enjoying still...., originally uploaded by *nichole*.

Here in my hands I have a little piece of summer that I picked last week. I planted out some watermelon seeds and transplants at our community garden this summer and it took a long time for the watermelons to mature (because of the unusually cool summer we had here). When we finally got a ripe watermelon -the first one I cut open was not ripe at all- we all cheered. It was a wonderful thing to see that reddish fruit, waiting for us to enjoy.
Watermelon in October is still pretty sweet, pretty sweet indeed!

a few glimpses of our Sunday~at the orchard

~two good


~good sense of humor


~ready for pickin'


~a sign for pumpkins


~pumpkins already picked


We had a great day at the orchard, which also included a tractor ride. I ended up buying close to twenty pounds of apples- the kids picked some, I picked some-so now its time to eat em' up and bake em' up (along with some frozen apples that I still have from last year-before freezer burn sets in, thanks Kirsten for the freezer burn alert).

Nichole's ode to apples
Apples, apples everywhere
crunchy juicy lovely fare
I eat you for a snack
then I come back
to bake you in a pie
and then everyone says "my oh my!"
fall begins with you
I know its true
that you're
so sweet
so tart
so crunchy
so many things rolled into one
so when I have a chance I pick almost a ton.
Apple, apples everywhere
Thanks you for the autumn goodness that you share (:

ufo's and apple love

Its really chilly today my friends-I think the high today is going to be 50 degrees, 20 degrees below the normal high (I get most my weather news from NPR as I'm taking the kids to school). Right now I have on a skirt with tights, socks,and two shirts. I'm determined not to turn on the heat so soon into the fall season-I think we can manage to wait it out a little longer. Well this chilly weather is conducive to one of my long lost hobbies (which I well neglected this past summer) knitting! Yes I've started a new project, a project I hope will be finished in a reasonable amount of time, because well-my closet is full of ufo's (unfinished objects of the knitting kind) that need my attention but have not gotten it. Right now I'm knitting a bag, a bag for autumn. Once I finish knitting it I'm going to felt it. The bag is very colorful, that's how I like things of course, and I'm looking forward to a finished product, I mean it-I'm for real this time (:

On the kitchen front we have been making apple desserts. This week I got a bunch of apples from one of the teachers at the school, so last night for dessert with had apple crisp with cream. The hot apples with the crunchy topping topped homemade whipped cream was so good, so appley! In fact the girls, who are prone not to like cooked fruit, ate it up.


This weekend we are also planning a trip to the apple orchard with a group from church which should be lots of fun. The change of seasons is always exciting, seeing the changes in nature-the colorful magnificence of God's palette.