Monarch Post

busy bees

 

Okay, back after it here. I'm feeling productive today. It's only 12:25 and the house is almost completely clean. Dog slobber off the windows, four baths done, upstairs/downstairs vacuumed, laundry almost caught up. I guess there is an upside to insomnia... Why do I keep waking up at 5:00 a.m.??? Gosh, I'd like to know the answer. I am so not a morning person. I prefer hoot owls to roosters. It's been weeks of insomnia nonsense going on here.

I've heard you don't need as much sleep when you get older. Or is it one more symptom of perimenopause? Please tell me it isn't so. I am dragging my wagon by 8:00 pm. I need more than six hours of sleep. (Insert big YAWN here.) 

Okay, enough of my complaining. It's a gorgeous, crisp late summer day here. I watered my front porch hanging basket this morning, and I noticed the bees were buzzing all around the giant sunflowers I planted from seed last May. So nice. I'm buzzing too. Coffee and apple bread again... They just go together :) 

Here's the recipe for you. It really is wonderful stuff. Try it, you'll like it :) I swear. It's my new favorite thing to make, perfect for that just-around-the-corner crispy fall feeling:

AWESOME APPLE BREAD (that's it real name at Foodgeeks.com )

1 cup oil

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

3 cups apples, diced (I used Granny Smiths)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Combine and set aside the oil, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Sift flour, cinnamon, soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to oil mixture gradually. Add apples and nuts. Bake in 2 regular loaf pans or 3 mini loaf pans for about70 minutes at 325. (I baked it in the three mini loaf pans, and it was perfect.) Sprinkle with sugar, if desired.

Happy Monday to you!

xoxoKelly

P.S.  I just notice my friend Rachel Reeves has started her prayer requests for Mondays. If you need prayer for yourself or someone else, here's a place for you. www.number17cherrytreelane.wordpress.com

ugh, we've had bugs...

  

 and they weren't pretty bugs, like this one... I took this photo in Ohio. It seems butterflies really do like butterfly bushes. Handfuls of all sorts of butterflies hung out in those bushes every morning, like it was IHOP or something. I guess it is for butterflies, gotta get that morning shot of sugar nectar before flying off to do whatever butterflies do all day :)  

Anyways, last week (our last week before school started, wouldn't you know it?) my boys came down with a nasty virus, they gave it to me, and then our computer. I've been electronicless for awhile. Mike devirused the computer, but it's still running wonky and wierd-- and slow! I was planning on a couple more photos, but  this one took three minutes. So there ya go.

Life gets more normal every day here. And we're moving into new routines. But I was sad to send my kids back to school Monday; summer vacation is the shortest three months of the year... and June didn't count as summer here this year, with rain almost every day. And you know about my July.. but we managed some fun things in August, mostly the pool. My kids took private lessons this year, which helped them so much more. Between the lessons and lots of pool time, they are swimming pretty well now. I mostly laid around watching, and reading books. Lazy, I know, and I didn't care.

One wonderful book I've been rereading is, The Artist's Way. It's at Amazon, of course. (I'm not even going to try linking it today.) Don't let the title put you off; this is a book for ANYONE searching to live a more authentic, expansive, and creative life. It's my Bible for when I need to get creatively unstuck or move further along on the creative journey.

A few of Julia Cameron's suggestions for getting unblocked include:

* Daily morning walks.

* Writing morning pages-- three pages of writing anything.

* Not reading. (I know!) But it's helping.

* Instead of reading, Julia suggests any other right brain activity to get you out of your head. Cooking, gardening, driving, scrubbing floors, etc. Haven't been desperate enough to scrub floors yet, but I did bake the BEST apple bread Monday. I'll share that recipe soon. It's amazing. Had it for breakfast three mornings in a row, which probably makes the walking I've been doing pointless...but oh well :)

So I'm going to quit writing for now. Six paragraphs without a photo-- that's just too long, isn't it? I'm off to be creative today. Yesterday I got back to my studio, and actually had IDEAS and made THINGS. Thank the good Lord. I was starting to wonder if I'd ever have any desire to make anything again.

I hope to be here more often now, with more photos and goodness to share--  if my computer stays healthy until my hubby is back in town...

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope all's well with you.

xoKelly

what a welcome home!

   

 While we were away on our vacation, Ainsley had asked her best friend and her Mom (who have this amazing, ecclectic decorating flair) to help her do a little decorating in Ainsley's new little old house.

Advice on picking out new couches soon led to a whole house redo. Ainsley told her BFF to just please go ahead and do a makeover-- she loves her style. Her friend Blair was amazed (and pleased) that Ainsley trusted her so much to decorate her home. So Blair and her Mom went to town, and the furniture store... this is the "HGTV special" Ainsley came home to!

Just imagine a very bare house, with two old black leather couches, her parents' old dining room set, a bedroom set, and bare walls, before her fab makeover...

**Top photo is the wall on the left of the living room. Her "entry way".   

Her landlord won't let her take the crazy 1950's wallpaper off the dining room walls-- he's afraid all the plaster will come off with the wallpaper! But even the wallpaper looks offbeat charming now.

 

I still love my old dining room table and chairs. The chairs are from Sweden, circa 1830's. The chippy paint is original. The table is from England-- 1920's.

  

Antique china now prettily displayed, just given to Ainsley after graduation by her great Aunt. Both the china and aunt are British ;)

 

The other side of the front door entry. And one more nod to her British heritage. Don't you love those prints-- and that lamp!

 

The couches that started the makeover-- super duper comfy. The light filtered through those new curtains made for hazy photos-- sorry.

 

One teeny tiny kitchen transformation. Bare shelves and walls look sweet now.

 

I love this little mouse house of hers. Love that 50's knotty pine cabinetry too.

 

Her spruced up bedroom. Unframed prints got framed (Ainsley loves Marilyn Monroe), and purses and necklaces came out to accessorize.

 

Her favorite colors are lavender and aqua.

She loves funky art, and the 1950's... this is her grandma (my Mom) as a newlywed in the early 50's.

I love seeing her enjoying making a house into a home-- with a little help from some very special friends, pulling it all together. I may need to call the wunder decorating team of "Blair and Mom" for a few finishing touches myself!

Happy weekending to you!

Kelly

there and back again

 

Just reread the last blog entry... be back in a week or so, definately an "or so" thing going on here...

What happens during those first few days home from a vacation? It's like the life you left behind just sort of finds you again and sucks you down the drain in a swirling vortex of-- what's the word I'm looking for? I don't know. Or is it just me that feels like that? Out of place and sorta depressed.  It takes me awhile to feel like I'm really home again. And then there's all that laundry that follows you home from that nice vacation life-- like about a hundred pounds of it. And then I found out my Dad was having surgery in a day (outpatient, and he's doing fine), and that threw me into  a bit of a tiz... all that to say sorry, I've been AWOL. 

But our vacation to Ohio and Virginia was so good. July was very cool and un-humid in Ohio. Mikes' parents' had a wonderful celebration for their fiftieth anniversary.

The anniversary cake was an exact replica of their wedding cake. Mikes' Aunt Jean made it. John and Jos' party was held in the school where they met, now a community center. Which was a really nice full-circle kinda thing, I thought. Their four children made a slideshow of their lives, and their parents' lives, which played throughout the party on a screen on the stage in the gym. Lots of misty eyes watching that big screen.

Mike's parents live in rural Ohio, in a log home his Dad built by hand about twenty years ago. It sits on top of a hill, surrounded by acres and acres of awesome woodland. They've made a wonderful home for themselves here.

Mikes' Dad and Mom are always busy working on their home and their gardens. John has built three fishing ponds over the years. And the bridges.

 

He doesn't feed the fish for a few days before grandkids arrive...

 

 

I really enjoyed seeing my kids with a fishing pole in their hands instead of a Wii remote.

 

John also built a playground and fort for grandkids. I don't think he was imagining adult grandkids (I use that term loosely), but what the heck.

 

One.

 

Two.

 

Three. How to launch your big sister and make her scream, "PUT ME DOWN!" And yes, that is an outhouse in the background; John (no pun intended) thinks of everything ;)

 

Fort Sassafras.

 

Complete with a zip line.

 

And a place for a campfire.

 

Mikes' Mom is a wonderful gardener. This is her garden behind their house.

 

 

I was so taken with the water lilies. I get Monet a little better now.

 

 

They raise and sell koi. And farm fresh chicken eggs. I forgot to take a photo of the new chicken coops. Did you know chickens will eat leftover salad? I didn't.

 

 

We spent one day at the Longaberger basket company. Shopping and well, taking our picture in front of the worlds' largest basket.

Don't Americans just love their worlds' largest stuff?

And then we were off; in a crowded minivan, with way too many "Are we there yets? Don't touch me. He touched me. Who did that? And rollll down the windows-- someone reeeks!" Twelve hours later we were there-- Virginia Beach and us. If we didn't need the beach before we started, we certainly needed it by the time we arrived.

Nirvana. Is there anything better than the beach and the ocean? I'm thinking not much...

 

 

If someone would invent the job of professional beach/kid photographer, I'm pretty sure I'd want that job. Of course, it would mean relocating. Oh well :)

 

I could have snapped away all day, in fact, I did.

 

 

  

My big kids told me, "No photos, and NO photos on your blog!" I almost listened :)

 

We loved you, Virginia Beach. Thanks for new happy memories. We booked our tickets in January, but it turned out to be a very well-timed vacation for us.

I'm still working through things here... during our trip I would think, "Oh, I'll have to tell Mom and Dad about this." And then I'd remember, she's gone. My heart feels like it's healing around the edges, but still raw in the middle, if that makes any sense at all. I don't know how to describe where I'm at emotionally, but I sure haven't got any creative mojo going on yet. Feeling like doing things now though, for awhile I didn't feel like doing a thing. We're making progress here, and I'll bet my Mom knows all about the beach.

Take care and don't give up on me completely... I'll be back fully one of these days, with something creative to share.

Love,

Kelly