October 31

I was hoping to post a picture of someone in a Halloween costume. No one -- not even one -- knocked at our door to shout "Trick or Treat." We were prepared -- the lights were on and we had some candy. This is the second year in a row that no one has stopped in for candy on Halloween. Before that we always had a few neighborhood kids that came by. I guess they have grown up and no longer go from door to door or maybe they are at a party somewhere.

Ray and I will enjoy the candy!

Hard Freeze

This morning may have been the coldest start of the fall season. I'm not sure. But it was cold and dark when we left home at 7:15. One more week of Daylight Savings Time and then we'll fall back and get an extra hour of sleep next Saturday.

We celebrated Reformation today. I always enjoy singing A Mighty Fortress is Our God on Reformation Sunday. In this era of history we celebrate Halloween on October 31. Is it really right to call it a celebration? October 31 is the date when Martin Luther's nailed his 95 theses on the church in Wittenberg. Thanks to the invention of the Gutenberg press many people had the Bible and Luther's writings available to them.

Luther's writings proclaimed that by faith alone, as we learn in the Scriptures, we receive God's grace. Luther's greatest joy was learning about God's grace.

Later in the day we watched the Colts lose to the Titans and they are now 0-8 for the season.

Weiner Roast

Even though it was Saturday morning I didn't get to sleep in except for a few minutes. This morning was the LWML Zone Fall Rally. I only had to drive to the Plainfield church which isn't too far. The women of Living Christ Lutheran served a superb breakfast. We heard a report from Betty Brookins about the Peoria convention and then the director of Fair Haven Foundation explained the origins of the Foundation. Fair Haven provides free housing for out-of-town cancer patients who are receiving treatment at the IU Simon Cancer Center. Volunteers of the Foundation provide assistance in maintaining apartments, welcoming guests with gift baskets, etc.

I was home in time for lunch and then we did some last minute preparations for church youth who were coming over for fishing, games, a scavenger hunt and hot dog roast. I had my first ever pudgy pie. It was made with two pieces of bread, pizza sauce, a sprinkle of hamburger and cheese and then roasted on the fire in a special heavy-duty iron. Delicious!


Here's some photos from this afternoon:

Ray starts the fire.

Dry twigs burned quickly.

Phyllis and Sophia try tossing in a line.

Everyone gets a cookie.

The warmth of the fire was perfect for the breezy cool temperatures.

 

Tammy kept busy helping make pudgy pies.

Matt brings a blanket for Tammy.

Hands in the pockets!
Are their fingers cold?

Remembering last May

After several months of inactivity, I finally completed a layout for May 2011. It's my goal to do at least two pages for each month. I'm a little behind!

The journaling reads: Dustin presented his mother with a pretty bouquet on Mother's Day. Later we enjoyed a cookout and Nancy gave her mom a hug. A few days later, Joe, Tom and Andy came out for an afternoon of fishing. What a surprise to find a turtle laying eggs in a flower bed near the foundation.

And here's page two:

The journaling reads: Don and Mimi came over for an afternoon of games. We first tried our new Ladders game. That was followed by Corn Hole. We enjoyed a cookout and the yummy Red Velvet Cupcakes the Longs brought with them.

Tale of Peppers (continued)

We use our TV as an alarm clock. It's set to turn on about 6:25. This morning Ray woke up a few minutes before seven o'clock realizing that the TV had come on but there was no sound; in fact, the video was jumping around. We didn't have much time to get to our yoga class so we just turned off the TV thinking that it was ready for the junk heap. After all, it is quite old.

Later, when we were back home, we turned on the TV with the same problem evident. We couldn't turn it to channel 3, the one we get our satellite feed on. I looked for the remote that came with the TV that we only use to control closed captioning. A quick search found it stuck in the couch next to the cushion. When I pulled the remote out and made sure the set was turned to channel 3, we had a picture again! Hooray! Not that it wouldn't be nice to go shopping for a new flat screen high definition TV, but it isn't in our plans for the immediate future. Apparently, the remote was pushed against the side of the couch sending a signal to the TV to scroll through all the channels

On our way home from our yoga class, we stopped at the IGA grocery store. They had a special display selling flowering kale and some mums. The mums looked past their peak, but the kale was fresh and at only $2 apiece, I quickly picked up two. Maybe I should have purchased four.

This planter has been empty most of the summer,
but now it looks much better.

One of the things I needed at the IGA was a pair of rubber gloves. According to what I read, it is recommended to wear gloves when working with jalapeño peppers. I washed the peppers, then made three slits in each one. Following the recipe I found online, I made a brine of vinegar, water, salt, sugar, garlic, and celery and mustard seeds. I then processed the jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Here's the result of my labor.

Count them: 11 pints of jalapeño peppers.

Peppers

Today may have been one of the last beautiful days of the fall season. We're expecting rain and much cooler temperatures in the next few days. Possibly a hard frost too. I decided to declare war on weeds when I saw how many had sprouted in two of the beds I had recently worked in. After cleaning the beds again I sprinkled on granules of a pre-emergent weed killer. I'm hoping this will keep other weeds from sprouting this winter.

Ray decided it was time to pick the rest of the peppers. He picked the sweet green peppers a couple of days ago. This was our first year to have a jalapeño pepper plant. All our pepper plants looked pitiful when we returned from our trip last July. However, they recovered and have been looking great of late.

When Ray brought in the jalapeño peppers I knew what my task would be tomorrow. That's because Ray picked 164 of them! I read that canned jalapeños last up to two years. I'm sure I won't need to plant jalapeño peppers next year.

Do you want to count them?

Garden Walk

Our neighbor Jan invited me and several other women for lunch and a garden walk. The sunny skies and light breeze made for a perfect day. Only one other neighbor, Jocelyn, and I were available. I came home with two starts for my garden.

My new perennial: Autumn Joy

Autumn Joy is a perennial that will send out more shoots and branches as it matures. This photo shows its fall foliage.

The second plant I brought home is a succulent. I've put it in water hoping to get some roots. I'm not sure what it is called, but it will look nice in a hanging basket or maybe as a ground cover.

This plant has a trailing growth habit.

I like the color of this plant and look forward to seeing where it fits best in our landscape.

Dolphin Tale

This morning we left for church at 7:15 and it sure was dark. By the time we arrived at church in Greenwood, it was barely light. Only one more Sunday before DST is over for the year!

Pastor John's sermon was based on Matthew 22:34-46 "Love Your Neighbor as Yourself." He described our neighbor as anyone who needs our help and love. We are to treat our neighbor as we treat ourselves. Sometimes we have to make choices and that could mean choosing between what is important and what is even more important. We don't have to look far because our neighbors are family members and closest acquaintances.

After the church service we decided to take advantage of the free movie pass I had won a while ago. Earlier I had wanted to see The Help, but it was no longer showing. So we decided on Dolphin Tale. Great movie and one the entire family can enjoy. In this case, the kid actors and the dolphin were the stars.

We were the only two people in the theater for the 10:25 showing! We went directly home and had lunch and then I spent some time in the basement. It needed some straightening and sweeping and vacuuming. It felt good to finally get that taken care of.

Yesterday Oklahoma lost to Texas Tech probably eliminating them from a possible national championship bid. We already had put in our reservation at the Everson-Paxson house for accommodations for the national championship game. Oh well.

The Colts are playing New Orleans tonight and we're hoping for a good showing from our team. Game 4 of the World Series is also on. Why do they start so late? I guess it's something we have to live with since we are in the Eastern Time Zone. We'll either miss the end of the game or have a short night. Which will it be?

Fellowship Dinner

This evening we had dinner with several of our neighbors. It's something we generally do about four times a year. Instead of having an ethnic theme our hosts asked everyone to bring an appetizer and dessert. I came home feeling stuffed. I'm afraid I'll forget one of the items on the table so I won't begin to name them. I made a mushroom-sausage quiche this morning and baked them in a foil cupcake holder.

Baked and ready to taste.

For my dessert contribution I made persimmon pudding. Last month I bought some persimmon pulp and used a recipe that I had received from a chef. He claimed that the recipe was from his great grandmother. After mixing the ingredients, the pudding is baked for 2-1/2 to 3 hours with instructions to stir every 30 minutes. As you might guess it took almost all afternoon to prepare the pudding. It was topped off with genuine whipped cream. Most everyone seemed to enjoy the pudding, but our host no doubt was someone who really enjoys persimmon pudding. He asked if he could have some of the leftovers to enjoy tomorrow (who knows, maybe tonight before he goes to bed).

Truly Moving Pictures

2011 is the 20th anniversary of the Heartland Film Festival here in Indianapolis. I don't recall ever attending a showing during this time, but this afternoon we were in the audience for the screening of The Red Wagon. The movie is directed by David Anspaugh who is from Indianapolis and also directed Hoosiers and Rudy. The Red Wagon is based on a true story.

At the conclusion of the movie, there was a Q&A session and Zach Bonner and his mother and sister were in the audience. Zach will be 14 next month. The story is about 9-year-old Zach's efforts to gather donations for victims following Hurricane Charley in 2004. Not much later he formed a non-profit foundation to help homeless children. To bring attention to his cause he walked from his home to Tallahassee, a distance of 280 miles. His mother walked with him and his sister provided support.

Since then he has walked from Tallahassee to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Washington, D.C. and last year completed a walk across the United States. I would rate it as a truly moving picture. As we left the theater we were handed a cookie:

Memento of the movie.

The cookie has since been consumed!

The Red Wagon has not been released to theaters but when it does, I highly recommend it.

Happy Birthday!

Special greetings to my dear hubby who is celebrating his birthday today! We had planned to take in a movie this afternoon as part of the birthday celebration, but have postponed it for a day or two. Yesterday I asked him to pick up something from the grocery store that he would like for his birthday dinner. Later this afternoon I'll be baking a smoky bacon peppercorn pork tenderloin that he picked out. Guess we'll have some sweet potatoes with that (since we have some in the basement). I'm not sure what else we'll add to that, but it should be a nice meal.

Love you Ray. Hope you are having a great day!

Taking advantage of the dry weather, Ray picked up three buckets of black walnuts. He must be planning to spend time in the basement this winter. Being an accountant he informed me that there were 667 walnuts in the buckets.

Lots of work in shelling walnuts!

Looking forward to some goodies this winter using black walnuts.

Enjoying Sunday

Our trip to Greenwood for church services was uneventful -- no traffic tickets or animals running in front of the car as in the past two weeks-- just nice and quiet. The pastor's sermon was based on Matthew 22:15-22 Good God and Good Government. The leaders wanted to trick Jesus and asked him if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. We have a good God and we owe something to both God and government. The things we owe government include respect, taxes and if we are involved in the military we may even give our life. God asks us to follow him with our heart, mind and soul. He should be the most important thing in our life. We worship him and are obedient to him.

Following the service, three other women and I met to discuss a Bible study in the LWML Quarterly. The study was about heaven and we looked up references and discussed what the Bible has to say about heaven.

At home, I spent the afternoon baking. I had some fresh rhubarb that had been in the fridge for a while so I made another rhubarb cake. I've made several this fall and we've enjoyed a small piece with lunch almost every day. I also baked some pumpkin bread and a pumpkin snack cake to finish pumpkin pulp that was also in danger of going bad in the refrigerator. (Why didn't I take a photo of all my baked goods?) When it was all finished I turned on the freezer in the garage so I'd have a place to store the baked goods.

While I was baking I'd take frequent breaks to watch whenever the Colts had possession of the football as they attempted to get a win over Cincinnati. For a while it looked like they would be successful, but a disappointing last few minutes left them 0-6 for the season.

Dustin celebrates

Saturday started off with a trip to Greenwood to help knot quilts for Lutheran World Relief. Our small group meets only once a month and completed 30 quilts this year. Several people work at home so their contribution helps when we meet on Saturday. Becky does an extraordinary amount at her home and also comes when we have a Saturday work day. We won't be meeting again until 2012.

I was home in time for lunch but by 6 o'clock we were back in Greenwood to celebrate Dustin's 16th birthday. The birthday party had been scheduled a week earlier, but his Uncle Jack had heart by-pass surgery the day before and family members weren't able to come. Dustin actually turned 16 on October 6.

Notice some facial hair on the chin!

Kylie, Josh and Jayden were back in Greenwood and it was good to see them after more than a year.

Jayden celebrated his 4th birthday in September.

When there's nothing else to do,
take a spin around the yard.

Dustin's long-time friend from down the street stopped in for a short visit to say "hi."

Kate showed up for a few minutes.

Dustin's Aunt Maria had lots of fun with the small children. Gracie will be four in February and is the daughter of Kylie's good friend Megan Fisher.

Jayden, Maria and  Gracie

The older kids joined in. Samantha on the left and her good
friend on the right surround Maria.

Everyone gathered around to watch Dustin open his special gift from his parents.

What can it be?

It's a brand new tablet!!

Then it was time for traditional cake and ice cream.

Looks like a Halloween theme to me.

One final photo of the birthday boy:

Pierced ears. No kidding?

Our Saturday ended taking home two small pieces of cake to enjoy on Sunday.

The Back Roads...

We traversed the back roads of Brown County this afternoon. First, we had lunch on the porch of the Artist's Colony with friends Max and Pat Walker. There was a chill in the air so the chili I ordered hit the spot. The breezy conditions had leaves floating down and across the porch but none landed in my chili!

After lunch we surveyed the map and chose our first destination. This was the 10th annual driving tour of artists and craftsmen's studios held during the month of October. But it was our first time doing the tour. Nashville itself was crowded with lots of visitors visiting the many shops. Parking is a challenge at this time of year because so many people drive to Brown County to see the fall colors and for a stop in Nashville.

On the back roads, however, there are no crowds. Just trees and winding roads and hills. Driveways to some studios were very steep and narrow. They are truly on the back roads of the county. We stopped at four unique and interesting studios. All the ceramic, wood, jewelry, and weaving produced by these craftsmen and women were really beautiful. It was a wonderful day spent enjoying nature and some of the beautiful creations by talented people.

Running in the rain

I thought about titling this post as "Singing in the Rain" but since I'm not a very good singer and it's really hard to sing and run at the same time, I decided against that title. This fall my practice has been scheduling a long run every Tuesday and Thursday. Since I went to Fort Wayne on Tuesday, today was the only chance I'd have. We had a little rain overnight and, even though it was overcast, the temperature was in the high 50s with no rain. I started out and when I was at the farthest point of my rain I began feeling a few sprinkles. Never mind. A little drizzle won't hurt. Before long the drizzle turned into heavier drops of rain. I was more than two miles from my starting point, the Plainfield Fitness Center.

I splashed through puddles and was thankful that I was wearing a baseball cap. The cap kept water from running down my face. When I reached the sanctuary of Hummel Park's restroom, I took a 13 minute break. During this time the rain seemed heaviest. It's been many years since I've run in the rain; fortunately I had some dry clothes in my bag in the car. I'm glad it was a warm day.

Yesterday, we spent a fun afternoon at our neighbors house playing bridge. Our plan was to begin at 1 o'clock and play three rubbers. None of the games went fast and after a marathon of bridge playing, we finished at 5 o'clock. Mike and Jan are fun and interesting to talk to and we had a great time and laughed a lot because we were all rusty, not having played in about a year and a half. Seems like the men always get the good scores. Is that because they bid more aggressively?

Sleeping in! NOT

I planned to get up at 5 a.m. but my little alarm didn't go off as planned. (I'm going to have to check into that later.) For some reason I woke up at 5:40 and got dressed, ate a few bites and was backing out the garage at 6:10 -- only ten minutes later than planned!

I met up with two other ladies from church and we drove to Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. We were guests of the Seminary Guild at their annual Donation Day. It's a long tradition dating back to when farm families harvested and sent some of their produce to the seminary to help feed the students.

We had a trunk load of donated items, mostly for the Clothing Co-op at the Seminary. The day was gorgeous and we enjoyed seeing the campus in its fall colors. After sipping a cup of coffee we joined women from other parts of Indiana, Ohio and Michigan in a chapel service. Later we enjoyed a delicious luncheon followed by a style show. The managing editor of the Lutheran Witness, Adriane Dorr, was the main speaker. I was totally impressed by her youth, intelligence and presentation. She's very young and if there are more people like her in our church, we're in good hands.

After lunch, we had two tours on campus. At the first stop we saw where "Worship for Shut-Ins" is filmed and produced. The half-hour program airs on many stations and cable networks. Within the last two years "Worship for Shut-Ins" moved into these facilities on campus.

Our second tour was of the addition to the Seminary's library which is something they've needed for a long time and now has come to reality. The architectural team did a marvelous job in retaining the design integrity of the other buildings on campus and adapting it to the expansion. The current project is nearly finished. Shelving and books haven't been installed so we walked through empty spaces that are carpeted and ready. I believe they plan to move in some books and shelves by the first of the year. They are waiting the arrival of furniture. The next phase calls for finishing some of the ground floor and renovating the original library.

I arrived home about 6:30 and enjoyed a light supper of soup and now it's time for bed. Another busy day planned for tomorrow.

Another interesting Sunday

Last Sunday morning we ran over a fox on our way to church. This morning, we were stopped by the sheriff for running a red light. It was one of those occasions when you make a split second decision whether you can make it through the intersection on yellow or not. Apparently we didn't.

The rest of the day was much nicer. I was able to work outside again and now have pruned back all the peony bushes. Ray mowed the lawn and we watched the Colts go down to defeat again. Actually, I didn't watch much of the game but listened while working at the computer. Yesterday's Oklahoma-Texas game was much more to Ray's liking.

Pastor John's sermon today was an interesting departure from his usual. It was based on the parable of the wedding feast from Matthew 22. Pastor opened an invitation and began reading a formal invitation to the wedding feast celebrating Jesus' marriage to the Christian church. A letter was also included with the invitation where God explained the reason for the invitation. Pastor continued reading from the letter as if God himself had written it. Among thoughts from the letter, we learned that the dress code for this feast is a robe of righteousness. God first invited us to the feast at our baptism. He asked are you ready? God may call us to the wedding feast at any moment.

Several activities ahead of us this week. And more days of lovely weather before it turns cooler.

Day trip

By 8 o'clock a.m. were were backing out of the garage on our way to Fort Wayne. I can't recall exactly how many years we've attended the Concordia Educational Foundation luncheon, but the annual event was held today. We arrived at the school about 10:30. The ride north this time of year is always beautiful with many of the leaves in fall color and today's bright sun made them splendid.

Concordia High was celebrating Homecoming today and many of the students wore some type of maroon and white instead of the usual uniform. This was the view of Zollner Stadium across the street where the football game would be played tonight.

When I saw the reference to Hebrews 12:1 I decided to look it up when I got home. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us"


Since we had a few moments, I had time to take a photo of the main entrance.

Nearly 700 students are enrolled this year.

We met the two freshmen students, a girl and a boy, who received scholarship help from the Foundation and enjoyed a delicious luncheon with them. Actually, it was more than a luncheon--it was a full course dinner and very filling.

Often when traveling to Fort Wayne for this luncheon we'll drive by some familiar places including the farm where I was raised. Instead, today we headed south after the program was finished and only stopped to get some gas and were home by 4 p.m.

We had some time to work outdoors. In fact, at 4:30 it was still very warm or should I say "hot" outside. The sun shining on a maple tree next to the house caught my eye. I can't recall this particular tree in past years having such lovely colors.

This tree was transplanted from the back of
our property to this spot after our home was built.

Tomorrow morning we're heading downtown for a race. We've gone several times and they serve a nice breakfast to all the finishers.

Loving this weather!

Another day of bright sunshine and warm temperatures. I could live with this for a long, long time. I know it won't last, but I'm enjoying it today.

After lunch I immediately went outside to wash the windows on the west side of the house before the sun hit them. I've learned that it's not wise to wash windows in direct sunlight. I was able to do windows on the east and north side yesterday afternoon. All that is left now is the south side and I'm hoping to do them late this afternoon after the sun gets low in the horizon but before it's dark.

Getting back to earlier this afternoon, I saw this caterpillar crawling on the side of the house. Isn't it colorful? It had a couple of black antennae (I guess) that don't show too well in this photo.

Bright yellow - surely an invitation for predators!

Several years ago I became acquainted with Photoshop Elements, a lower priced version of the highly respected and expensive Photoshop. I've been dabbling in digital scrapbooking since I acquired Elements and this year began creating my own computer desktop wallpaper. Here's what I designed for October using digital elements and papers that I already had.

I'm partial to fall colors! They remind me of Autumn leaves.

Hooray! I finished the windows on the south side of the house. Now I just need to check out my work tomorrow when the sun is shining. Hope I don't find too many streaks.

Sweet Potato Harvest

Today started out very cool. The temperature was 36 when I began my morning run, but the wind was very calm. Even with gloves my fingers were cold for a while, but the conditions were really nice and I enjoyed the 35 minute run.

After lunch, I spent the rest of the day was spent outdoors. A really beautiful day with lots of sunshine and temperatures that kept going higher as the hours passed.

I worked mainly in the garden. It's that time of year when we need to clean up the garden and get it ready for winter. Ray finished harvesting the sweet potatoes.

Showing off the two largest potatoes.

Notice the green garden glove in the middle.

The largest potato weighs in at 5 lbs.

Not all sweet potatoes look alike. They come in many shapes and sizes.

Do you see the resemblance to a duck?
Use your imagination -- could it be a woodpecker?
The bottom one on right is definitely a mouse, don't you think?

This year's crop of sweet potatoes will be lying in the sun for the next several days to cure. After that we'll store them in our basement and enjoy them for the next 10 months or until they are gone.

Not quite a normal Sunday

Our morning started out as a normal Sunday. The only difference was that we left a few minutes earlier than usual for church. There's not much daylight at 7:15 but I was reading and not paying attention to the drive when Ray yelled "Oh No" or something like that and I felt a thump and wondered what we had hit. Ray informed me that he thought it was a fox. He saw two foxes crossing the road and one hesitated and we ran over it--another car was approaching and there was no way he could have avoided running over the fox.

Since today was LWML Sunday, most of the women who are active in the LWML wore something purple. The pastor's sermon was based on one of the parables about the vineyard workers who killed the workers in the vineyard and even the son of the vineyard owner. Jesus is our vine and we are the branches and as believers who should bear fruit.

On the way home, we could see the dead fox lying in the middle of the road. Ray stopped and dragged the animal to the side of the road. He feels bad about hitting the fox as it was a beautiful animal. Arriving home we suspected a power outage when the garage door wouldn't open. Instead of going in through the garage we had to use the patio door. I put away our few groceries but after that there wasn't much we could do. Couldn't do laundry, turn on the TV, or start lunch -- but since the sun was shining brightly, I was able to read the newspaper. In less than an hour after arriving home our power was back on.

The rest of the day was rather normal. I was able to work outside a good portion of the afternoon. We are still catching up on maintenance in the garden and other areas of the yard. We had a very light frost last night and our sweet potato vines were nipped. Everything else seemed to be OK. Ray dug up part of the sweet potato crop. It's always amazing to see the size of the potatoes. (Maybe some photos later this week.)

Now to regress a little and write something about the Women's Retreat on Friday and Saturday. I left home shortly after 2:30 taking along sloppy joes, buns and the projector and laptop for the power point presentation. I picked up Miriam, our discussion leader, and we were on our way. Camp Lakeview is south of Columbus and about an hour's drive. We arrived in plenty of time to set up the equipment, arrange tables and chairs and even to relax until the other women arrived. After our light supper and snacks we had our first session of the study "Treasured." There were many truths presented over the weekend, but one which will stick with me for a long time is the fact that we are like coal. However, coal eventually turns into a diamond through time, pressure and heat. We are in the process throughout our lives of becoming a diamond and when we reach heaven we will be the finished product.

The camp staff prepared our breakfast and lunch. On Saturday we had three other sessions of the study along with a few songs and a craft. During one break I looked out the window and saw some wildlife.

Curious and wondering who was looking out the window.

Posing prettily!

Sitting opposite.

Miriam, our discussion leader

I arrived home shortly after six o'clock. Even though I had been snacking all afternoon at the Retreat I managed to eat some more. We had beautiful weather even though it was cool for this early in the month. Another fun and stimulating retreat was over.