November into December

Here are some of the gorgeous grilling/smoking end results Jeremy has cooked up for us+company these last few months. First, a whole pork loin.



A Half-Loin, ready for slicing!



Country Style Pork Ribs



Brisket (Off-center purposefully, being 'smoked' with indirect heat. Direct heat would burn the outside and leave the inside uncooked; this size brisket, for example, requires about 5-6 hrs. of heat. Jeremy is becoming QUITE the grill master!!!)



And this final one, the reason for me posting these meat pictures. You see, tho' this is a humongous blog post, there is great significance in the things we did that I DON'T have pictures of. For example, I took the camera on our over-night trip to IA City when we went for Elaine's surgery. Only ... I took no pictures. I could have, and they might have been moderately interesting to some (Hawkeyes' Stadium, for example, or the amazing medical museum in the hospital, or even Elaine the day after her surgery, if she would have liked that --?), but ... really we were rather distracted and focused on other things. -argh I FORGOT to take the camera to the Valley Junction Christmas Open House we went to earlier this week; I might have gotten some nice pictures there. I didn't even THINK to take the camera to the Cookie Exchange! You would have REALLY LIKED the pictures from Tammy's house; she is classy and creative, and Christmas is a great time to display those skills!! Also, I took zero pictures of our "Thanksgiving"! :( We used the china and our pretty eggplant linens. We had Cranberry Salad, Green Bean Casserole, Stuffing, Potatoes (made the day before! Thanks, Sis!!), Gravy, Rolls, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie and (drum roll) this gorgeous home-smoked turkey ... which Natasha, Justus, and I didn't really like(!!! *blink*); how sad is THAT??! Jeremy liked it better than he likes any other kind of turkey, but he just really dislikes turkey so badly that we decided to not smoke a turkey again. To us it's not worth the work when the majority of people like it better roasted anyway, and the one who ended up minding turkey less smoked than roasted would rather go vegetarian that day anyway!



At the Museum of the Rockies a few years ago, I bought a magnetic 'quilt designing' ... ac-ti-vi-ty... (don't know exactly what to call it)? The paper inside has many beautiful designs that can be duplicated with the probably 1,000 tiny uniform-size magnetic triangles. It hasn't interested the children as much as I'd hoped it would in the years since then, but due to some changes in Natasha's world recently [read: lost privileges because of ... none of your business, wide, wide world ;) ] she's 'broadening her horizons' on things to do. The second or third day she played with the magnetic quilt, she brought me this design to photograph: "Pharaoh Prism". Can you see the Pharaoh in the center? (Hint: There's a red gem on his headpiece.)





A couple years ago we were gifted a set of Corningware, service for eight. Sure, it's not the pattern I would choose, but ... matching, free dishes, lightweight and durable? Couldn't turn it down. Not one of them has broken, tho' we use them every day; we also had some dollar store dishes which served us well, but were very heavy and 'chip-py'. Then, last week, we were gifted a complete set of Nova dishes, service for TWELVE (There are FOURTEEN full-size plates, salad plates, and saucers!!)!! Again, not the pattern I would have chosen, but they are matching, free, lightweight, and durable!! We boxed up the dollar-store dishes to give away!! This picture doesn't even show the sugar bowl, creamer pitcher, and gravy boat. What.a.blessing.



Plates stacked.



Bowls and saucers, which we probably won't use much. (And, yes, for the record, since I'm posting this for the world to see, I keep the electric can opener in the cupboard above the outlet where we use it. We use it only a few times per week so it doesn't rate to sit on the counter, taking up space and getting dirty.)



Justus was too cute reading on his bed one day.



The landlord pays for the yardwork and snow removal here. But one day there was just a loud, strange, continuous, unexpected sound coming from the back yard. HHHA! (This picture is horrible, but I took it to remember to tell this story because Jeremy and I and the children just laughed and laughed!!) There were, in our yard, ...count them (can't see them all in the picture tho', ha)... SIX landscaping dudes in basically matching clothes, all wearing masks and identical backpack leaf blowers. They were like alien bugs, creeping around the yard, deck, etc., collecting the leaves from the huge trees. I think they sucked them all up to compost them...? What a strange sight!



Our landlord had one window replaced. That was some excitement in an otherwise-normal day! He needs to have quite a few other windows replaced, but it seems like he won't do that, or at least not now. GOOD GRIEF, he's put a LLLOT of $$ into this house this year (fire); I don't blame him for postponing the other window replacements.



These are the tomatoes we brought in before our first freeze. Yes, November. Pretty pitiful tomatoes, but still ... NOVEMBER!!?! It's now the middle of December and we still have no.snow. None. :( Not that it hasn't been nice to not have to scrape and shovel, but WE NEED SNOW TO KILL OFF THIS YEAR'S CROP OF SPIDERS!!!



There is a bush just off our back porch which is GORGEOUS in the fall. We appreciate this bush even more this year than last, for we almost lost it in the fire!! It is the bush that is right outside Justus's bedroom window; the firefighters indeed cut off the portion closest to the house so they could get to the wall to remove it (Yes, the wall.). :\ So, on a couple days in early November the children and I had little photo sessions, ha. It was rather fun to do.

































This next one is one of my faves (tho' it's hard to choose a Top Favorite) 'cause it was totally un-posed (happy I caught it!!), just our two children being their totally natural selves ... for better and worse, ha.



Natasha rrrrreally liked the red leaves. This leaf she took inside and pressed, of which we had no knowledge at the time.



Then, on Veteran's Day, this card appeared, for Jeremy. The Leaf, re-purposed for patriotism!





I wondered if she'd been trying to draw a picture of Jeremy. She said it was just a "square-head dude". *shrug* Okaaaaay!



Great heart of appreciation, great creativity, GREAT SPELLING (She is an outstanding speller.), HORRRRRIBLE handwriting. lol *sigh* I just wonder how much better her handwriting will ever get....



Uggh, these pictures are remarkably out of order. Bear with me? On our walk one day Natasha picked up this leaf and requested her picture be taken with it ... the biggest leaf she's held. What her fascination is with having her picture taken with leaves is beyond me!!



Here is a picture of the two scarves I made. The one on the right I made "for Jeremy", though it's looking like he may never wear it; we might donate it at the clothing give-away next year...? The one on the right I made for Natasha; it turned out a mite more Dr. Seuss than I anticipated, but is fine. She might wear it. *shrug* And/or we may donate it. Either way, I'm happy because I completed the projects and learned what I needed to learn!!



If Jeremy wanted a hat so badly he would wear a scarf as an ineffective hat, I knew that must be my next project. Cast on EIGHTY-ONE stitches, worsted-weight yarn!! Uggh, the thing was a pain to make. I have stronger muscles in my hands that I've ever had!



The Freecycle lady who gave me a bunch of knitting needles and yarn also gave me a copy of her favorite hat pattern stand-by. The scary thing is, THIS PATTERNNNN!! (Two pictures below) I'd never seen anything like it; it's written so that the same pattern can be used for any yarn and any size person. It was WAAAAAY over my head, or so I thought. With the video help available online, I was able to totally figure out what I needed to do; I felt intimidated for no reason after all and/or I feel a remarkable sense of accomplishment for having conquered the thing. lol Yay!




Justus has a retainer. His cross-bite is bad enough that, to avoid thousands of dollars' expense and more pain-and-agony later, it was recommended to us that he use a retainer for about six months. I took the picture below to document the day, as well as the position of his teeth. It's a bit difficult to tell, but the front tooth on the left in the picture falls behind his lower teeth, whereas the right one falls in front of the lower teeth. He has experienced some pain, in the first couple days after he had it, as well as the first day or two after the only adjustment he's gotten on it so far, but nothing he's asked for medication's assistance to bear, yay! I will say this: I.AM.SO.THANKFUL.IT.IS.OUR.MORE-RESPONSIBLE.CHILD.WHO.NEEDED.THE.RETAINER. Wow, we were blessed there. I can only imagine how many times Natasha would already have lost/broken/destroyed an appliance for her mouth.... She is good at many things, but she is NNNOT naturally responsible. Justus isn't as good at some things as she is, but he is Mr. Johnny-on-the-Spot, dependable - almost to a fault (if there could be such a thing); he is abnormally reasonable and serious, sometimes absurdly so.



One day I noticed Justus had wrapped clear Scotch tape around the ends of some of his fingers. When I asked him about it he explained, "I'm forcing myself not to chew my fingernails!" This kid has chewed fingernails since he was old enough to get his hand to his mouth, seems like; nothing we've done so far has stopped him.... *shrug* Occasionally he hurts himself pretty badly doing it, which is what prompted this commendable, if strange, effort.



Next, a drawing Justus did during a church meeting last summer. I thought it was cute & creative.



And, a little video of some of Justus's recent piano sounds. :) This is part of his favorite song this fall. I think it was called "Pumpkin Smash"...? I'm getting hopeful and anxious for a significantly larger memory card for the camera/a higher quality camera with bigger memory card because I'd REALLY like to be able to record some of the kids' successes in their piano efforts!! (Not to mention all the other things we could video and share....)