Roosevelt Eugene's many positions

My cat Roosevelt lays around all the time.  He's a bit plump, I prefer to call him big boned. (it runs in our family) He relaxes in very interesting places and is really the sweetest cat I have ever owned.  I wished all my life for a lap cat, and believe me... this cat could lay on my lap all day.

Home cookin'

The garden... I will admit, I have not given my garden the annual TLC that I usually provide it. I seemed to be pulled to other more urgent calls this summer. It's know excuse for leaving my garden to fend for itself amongst the weeds and beetles and cool summer air. I was lucky though, it survived and some things really thrived.
For example, we eat greens beans every day. There is really no meal that somehow the green beans haven't snuck their way into if they are already no prominently placed on the side of the main dish. They are delicious at every meal and I do not see tiring of them in the near future.
Our beets are a glorious color and taste better then I could have imagined. We attempted to grow them last year, but being so on top of my weeding last year, I think I hoed them up in early June. This year, so busy with incarcerated people, the beets flourished and now they giving my husband the creative juices he needed in the kitchen. Who knew that beets could go in so many different dishes.
Jeremy and I tried some new ideas out since were tired of the annual zucchini bread and muffins, and green bean casserole. Last night we made veggie burritos with our garden veggies- broccoli, zucchini, green beans, peppers, lots of cilantro, and corn from the farmers market (and onions- not home grown). What a treat!!!
Carrots were planted this year and sadly, I saw one sprout but nothing ever came from it. Next year, I promise to be better at watching my garden grow and tending to it's needs. I did learn though that plants are tougher than I thought and maybe a little more space is a good thing.
School starts tomorrow and my goal is to keep on blogging. Last year, I really took on too many things and blogging was abandoned. I vow to blog at least twice a month this school year. If you see that I am not holding to this, please feel free to remind me of this! To everyone returning to school this month, I hope you all have a wonderful, productive, and enriching school year! I just hope to survive.


Beets sauteed with sweet potatoes and caramelized onions...


Home-grown acorn squash from Kirsten's garden stuffed with beets, rice, onion, morning star sausage, zucchini, and peppers.


Apple-rhubarb crisp hot from the oven. (Thanks Steph for the crisp mix you left us in July!)

For Joy... (and everyone else too)

I just wanted you to see how we arranged our great pictures from our fab photo shoot when we came to visit in June! (They are 8x10's and 4x4 photos just above our couch) Thanks so much- we miss you all!

Bookmaking

I survived a six-week intensive bookbinding class this summer! I actually really loved it and I am proud of the books I made, it was just quite time consuming.
We made pamphlet stitch books, chain stitch hard cover pamphlets, long stitch, link stitch, accordion books, and finally we cased in books - like real books are! It was very exciting! I am begging Jeremy to build me a book cradle for Christmas and he seems up for the challenge. Some lucky person is receiving a book their birthday today. Who could it be?


Pamphlet books

accordion book
Top to bottom: Chain stitch on hard cover pamphlets, link stitches, and bottom two are long stitches. I learned to back my own cloth too.
Last but not least, case binding! Thanks to Home Ec for the great Fabric and RSVP for the great paper.

Hot day for moving...

Jeremy's parents bought a house and we helped them move today. It was 90 degrees out and a bit humid. Which seems pretty typical for August in Iowa (except for this year). I think this was the hottest day all summer!
Oh well, we got moved and everyone survived. I am tired and sore, laying on the couch is making me heal faster. I may have acquired few new bruises or battle scars as I will refer to them.
I thought a lot about all the times I have moved over the years and how long we have now been in our home. It has been 5 years since Jeremy and I moved into our house. Awwwh!
Out of all the years I moved, the one the really sticks in my head is when Jeremy and I moved into our first house in Iowa City. We rented this great big stucco house with no AC. We moved August 1st (of course). I called ahead and reserved a U-haul truck but when the day arrived and we got to the U-haul place, there was no truck. I called the Cedar Rapids U-haul office, and they said to come get a truck there, but when I arrived they had none. I still wonder today how U-haul stays in business? Today, when Jeremy's dad picked up his truck, they said he could only keep it a few hours because it was in demand. WE of course kept it all day. We drove by U-haul during our lunch break and there were over a hundred trucks there- no lie! What gives??
Anyways, back to the story, we ended using my friends little red truck and moving so slowly all day long in the 106 degree Iowa humidity. To cool ourselves we sprayed each other down with the freezing water from the garden hose. Good times...
Happy moving to all of you August movers! Good night.

A weekend with my cousins

We drove up to my parents lake house this weekend to meet up with three of my cousins and my aunt and uncle. We spent so much time just hanging out on the beach, watching all the kids play together and just catching up. It was truly a weekend filled with fishing, boating, swimming, campfires and smores, games, and lots of good food! (too much)
It is so hard to get this many people together and I am sure as the kids get older, it will become even harder. I loved telling my nieces about what we did as cousins when we were young and letting them hear the stories how we tortured our siblings and all the trouble we got into.
I enjoyed the story most told by my youngest cousin, (who is also an art teacher) that she would be placed in a blanket and then drug her around the house, knocking her into furniture and then having her identify what piece it was. HA!
Isn't family great!