Category Archives: 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons

I love to garden. I love to eat. I love to enjoy the seasons. And home is where my heart is!

The return

This is a promise that reminds us to put one foot in front of the other.  It tells us that our present sorrow, the distress we are smack dab in the middle of – is not the end, but is the time to sow.

Sometimes, when all seems hopeless, we do the right thing – that thing we should/must do –  and we may cry right through it.  Then we do the right thing again and we cry.   And maybe our tears are for things we have lost, for situations that seem hopeless, for the efforts we’ve made that seem utterly futile. But there are things you do because they are the right thing.  And it is the time to do them.

Don’t be deceived.  God is not mocked.  You will reap what you sow.  Galatians 6.7

You pray and you sow and you use lots of tissue.

Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.  1 Peter 5.6

In due time.

And when the time is right (when it is “due”), you not only reap a harvest, you reap an arms-full harvest of rejoicing, of over-the-top-songs-of-joy and rejoicing!  This is the promise of a God who is watchful.  And He keeps His promises.

You may ask me how I know.  :)

Pork chops and applesauce

Did I really, actually whip up a feast of pork chops and applesauce for 6 little grandbebes?

I mean yes – there were LOTS of other dishes, too because we were eating off those giant school-cafeteria trays and you must fill every section.  But the main thing was porks chops and applesauce.

Why?

Because of The Brady Bunch, silly.  I want them to be exposed to the classics, for sure.  ;)  Porks chops and applesauce for dinner.  That’s swell!

 

It’s an exciting day at the Rhoades’ house

First

We are, after all, getting a blizzard.  Snow makes it feel more like Christmas today, than say, yesterday, when my car window was rolled down all day as I shopped.

Road Rage

Second

Road Rage has been officially released!  It is available on Amazon right now (Kindle, soon), and you can get signed copies directly from Dave delivered personally the first week of January.

Love my little Christmas Elves

They make life merry and bright!

You would not believe how much food the Grand-poppa made for them.  No you would not.

They posed themselves “with Santa” who is ever-so-barely visible.  They know I like to chart their growth each year next to my “fake Santa,” as Amelie calls him.

This year, Gavin is 9 1/2, Hunter is 8.  Guini is 7 1/3, Gemma May is 5 1/2.  Averi will be 5 on Feb. 2 and Amelie will turn 3 in the spring.

The girlie-cousins.

Hunter knows how to ham it up!

Gavinators.  Leading the way into silly!

Their decorated sugar-cone trees and cookies.

Merry Christmas one and all.

 

Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala Quinn

Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala Quinn
Sure, she lives in New York city, works for Martha Stewart and has her own TV show and everything.  But doesn’t she just seem like some one you could know?  I like her style: personable and warm, next-door-neighbor friendly.  Simple food.  Let’s just hang out in the kitchen and chat and eat stuff!

See what I mean?  Like.  She shall be my pretend best friend…until Thanksgiving at least!

Read Lucinda

Dave caved

A first snow (my poor trees are heavy with it) and the husband turned on the heat.  I awoke to a full-blast blaze in the fireplace, too.  I had to open the window.  :)

Just as well.  Baby Tesla is coming for a visit tonight and the chill must not get near her.

PLUS it looks like it will be melted by the afternoon (thank-you, sunshine!) and I turned the heat down to 64 and am am wearing a tank top…in case anyone is worried about me.  Haha*

Those are branches from my raindrop tree…bowing very low wih snow.

Next week?  Back in the 70s – praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!

Fall Forecast

fall day

Today is mostly yellow with a smattering of red, turning into deep wine by late afternoon.  A steady falling of leaves with a call for possible white-flakes on Thursday afternoon and a blast of cold-blue air which will effectively ruin the perfectly coiffed-in-color hues for Autumn 2012.

Done.  In a flash.  Poo.

Seriously?  Everything bloomed early this year.  And we are at least 2 weeks early in the changing leaves and falling, too. This is the part I wish to see last longer.  Wind and wet will cause the branches to be bare too fast.  Yes, I am griping.  But it has been lovely for a short while, yes?

These were taken yesterday.  A warm and lovely fall day in the neighborhood.  Gavin (9), Hunter (8), Guini (7),  and Gemma May (5).