The Quiche Project

Two years ago our family started Operation Service. Our goal was to serve a nutritious meal to some of our elderly neighbors. We have one widow and two widowers right on our little end of the street. They are so kind to us and our children.

Some weeks are better than others with actually getting the meal out and delivered. It really depends on what I'm serving my family for dinner. If I prepare a roast, I always share. If I prepare a potpie with leftover roast, I only sometimes share. (I have to make sure there is enough to feed my own family first.)

When I decided I wanted chickens, my plan was to make quiche as part of Operation Service. For some reason, older people love this bacon-cheddar quiche, as I have discovered through several family members. So yesterday afternoon, I decided to use some of the dozens of eggs in my fridge, and I set out to make quiches. Two, in fact. One to split amongst the neighbors and one for the children's breakfast.

And while it was still warm from the oven, we delivered quiche to our elderly neighbors. Five of the children walked with me and were very proud to carry and personally deliver the food. (One neighbor wasn't home, so I delivered it on my way to my town meeting last evening.)

Spenser's drawing from church sums up how we feel. I We are happy when we serve others.

(Sadly last night on my way home from the meeting, there was an ambulance in front of Bud's house. He was having chest pains and called 911. He was walking and alert, so we are hopeful and praying for him. We heard he was being transferred to a hospital in Baltimore today.)

And, since I'm talking about eggs, I just had to show you these humongous eggs. I'm sure there's a whole bunch of double-yolkage going on in those eggs.

They are so big, the lid won't even close!

He Said ...

he loved me more than all the rainbows at his house.

At first I didn't know what he meant.

But I think I now do.

I am forever grateful for three-year-old boys.

Purple

This morning's smoothie. Blackberry-banana-peach smoothie with cottage cheese.

Carter's eye after being kicked with soccer cleats during a pregame soccer warm-up. (He was helping Jack's team warm-up and was the goalie.)

Shoes? I thought they would be more red than they are. Oh well. I've never owned purple shoes before.

These are this year's birthday shoes. A little tradition I started a few years ago when I saved up birthday money and bought shoes at a price I would never normally pay. Last year I bought the boots. These fun shoes are from two years ago. Hmmm ... I can't find any record of what I bought in 2007. I'll need to research this.

(The day that I bought those faux-red-mostly-purple shoes they had a sale, so the shoes were $20 off. That's my kind of deal.)

Oh, and my hair was almost purple-pink last week. I decided to color it and in the lighting it appeared to have a purplish tint. Of course I freaked out, but it was just my imagination. Whew!

Halloween 2009

The kids went trick or treating on Saturday night. Taylor went with some friends from school. The other five went with our family friends.

Taylor was something. I'm not quite sure what. He wore that cape and carried a sword. Jackson and his friend, Lorenzo, were soldiers. Carter was a scuba diver. Kallie (family friend) was Scooby-Doo. Mason was a zombie. (He decided to forgo the white and black face paint he wore for our church's trunk or treat last week.) Spenser was a witch. And Sawyer was Peter Pan.

I only made a few of the costumes this year including:


Peter Pan. I took the easy route and used green craft felt. I found a red feather for his cap. He wore a pair of Spenser's brown leggings under the tunic. They were supposed to be green, but we didn't have green.

A witch. A store-bought black shirt with a black felt skirt (cut with a jaggedy hem) and an orange tulle "tutu" overskirt.

She really wanted to be a witch. I tried to talk her out of it.

And Carter the scuba diver. He wore black girls leggings, a hooded sweatshirt, flippers for his feet (cardboard covered in black electrical tape), and his oxygen tanks (two two-liter bottles of soda spray painted black). Carter wants to be a marine biologist, so this costume was perfect for him.

Joe and Kyle took the kids around and Kim and I handed out candy. And laughed. And ate candy. And laughed some more. There are a lot of funny people out on Halloween. And I don't just mean the kids.

Five

A beautiful girl in our house turns five today. And her gift of the day? Fifth disease. How's that for poetic justice? She woke up with the happiest attitude and the rosiest cheeks. One look at her and I knew. This is our first case of this virus. And it happens to the girl on her fifth birthday.

We had a little birthday tea party for her yesterday with her girl cousins. I surely hope that we didn't contaminate anyone before her symptoms appeared this morning. (She never had a fever or any signs of being sick.)

And here is the thrifted china I found back in the spring/summer. I figured she's want another tea party like last year.

I love you, my girl. I hope your cheeks come back to normal color soon. Have the happiest birthday, my little love.

Funny Things to See

A bird in our flag bunting. Joe said one flew away (over his head). This one stayed. I had a feeling something was living in them. They are noisy.

And check this out. I boiled some of our eggs and this one was a double yolk. I've never seen anything like it.

I asked the kids who wanted to eat the egg with two half-yolks (everyone wanted a half). Jackson replied, "Do you mean the whole yolk? Two halves make a whole." Funny little smart kid.

Tablecloth Skirt

So here's the skirt that took weeks in the making. Well, the actual making didn't take weeks. It was just a long, slow process. I cut out the skirt and did nothing with it for weeks. Then I inserted the zipper and sewed the side seams and did nothing with it for weeks. And then when I finished the skirt, I realized it had a horrible mistake. It was like the skirt was not meant to be.

This skirt, like too many in the past, did not fit. I made the A-line, side-zipper skirt from Sew What! Skirts. It's a book I really want to like, but I have found that all of the skirts I have made from it (excluding the wraparound skirts) have been grossly large on me. By inches. After the zipper was sewn in this skirt, I tried it on. I ended up taking an inch off one side seam (because I was not going to take out that zipper). The skirt was doomed from the start.

After the skirt was finished, I noticed the zipper. And then I tried it on again, and it was so big around my waist that I could tug on it and it came over my hips. The skirt required two darts at the waist, which were about an inch each.

I knew I couldn't live with the wonky zipper so I fixed it. What? You don't believe me?

Oh ye, of little faith.

My favorite part of the skirt might be the hidden detail in the facing. I used a vintage pillowcase.

[Last night as our town council meeting was starting, we were standing to say the Pledge. As I tried to stand up, I banged one of my sore knees on the table and then the standing-up movement with my sore chest muscles made me grunt. In the microphone. By accident. Which meeting was being taped for broadcast. It was really just a reflex grunt from my pain. However, it made the mayor turn around and look at me. I tried to stand as straight as I could, all the while wincing in pain. **The doctor said I have "traumatic prepatellar bursitis," which is basically "water on the knee." He prescribed an anti-inflammatory for my knees and said that it would also help the pulled muscles in my chest. Let's just pray it works. Also -- my blood pressure was also high (for me). They think it is because I am in pain.**]