Azalea Bush Leaves In Fall

Random Ramblings

Made In America, Or Is It?

Dear husband had to buy a new pair of work boots this weekend. He bought a pair of Red Wings that had this tag attached:

He was pleased to find a pair that were made in the U.S.A. He bought them and brought them home only to find a label inside the boot that said "Made in China". He was not one bit pleased. This really should be against the law.

Another Photography Contest

Yes, I, the one who said she would never enter another photography contest, did. Forgive me for lying. I had no intentions of entering, but dear husband asked me if I would enter another local contest. This one was much bigger and scarier than the one I entered earlier. I took second place on this pix in the Flowers category:

Opossum
We saw the opossum last night. We were pulling in the driveway and the headlights caught him scurrying along the creek bank. He hasn't been back to the bird feeder since dear husband moved the wire he was using to climb up onto the roof. He looked fat and sassy, so I am pretty sure he has found another food source. That's good.

Elk
I saw my first elk in the wild this week! Well...he wasn't really in the wild; he was on the side of the road and several cars had stopped to watch and take pix. What makes this especially interesting is that elk were introduced into this area in 1997 and I am just now seeing my first one. It only took me 10 years. I hope to get pix soon.

Random Ramblings

Snow Birds and Snow
Wednesday night we had a thunderstorm with lightning and strong winds. It was very warm and we even ran our ceiling fans. I heard the heat kick on around 7:30 that morning and by noon it was snowing!

The Friday before, I had watched a Dark-eyed Junco on the pump house roof. The minute I saw the bird, I knew we would be getting snow. We have been bird watching for years, and I have never seen a Junco without seeing snow. I know that sounds hard to believe, but it is true. They always bring snow. We only see them in winter. I think this one paid us an early visit.

Putting The Books Away

Today is our last day of school until January. We have already finished our first semester and it feels good to have it behind us. When we first started homeschooling, we followed the county school's schedule. Then, after a couple of years I decided to make out a schedule that would fit our needs better and prevent burnout. It is the single greatest decision I have made in making our homeschool experience a success.

Now, we start the week after the Fourth. It is so hot and buggy here that we are inside during the hottest part of the day anyway. We take a week long fall break. We go nine more weeks and then put the books away for Thanksgiving and don't start back until after the first of the year. This gives me the whole month of December to shop, decorate, bake, wrap gifts and really enjoy it. I am not in a rush because we have set aside this time to be with family and friends. Any school we would do during this time would just be rushed and half-done. We still get out around the second week of May. We also take off all days that dear husband is off from work. Below is a sample of our schedule. I color code each quarter and leave blank all days off. This is the easiest way I have found to keep up with my schedule with just a glance. Here's a sample of my School Calendar:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brownies From A Box

I have never been able to make brownies from a box. They always end up hard as a brick on the edges and soft or even raw in the middle. I was looking for a little something sweet to put in dear husband's dinner bucket this week and picked up a box of brownies. Guess how they turned out?.........Perfect! They are delicious and the texture is perfect. Fudgy from one end of the pan to the other. They were Duncan Hines brand and I think they were called Chocolate Chunk. I followed the directions for "cake-like" brownies, but they are very fudgy and "brownie-like". I baked them in an 8x8 disposable pan. Just had to share this in case there is another person out there who is brownie challenged like me. :-)

I guess that's it for now. Toodles.

But Only God Can Make A Tree

Sweet Potato! Mighty King Of The .....Yard!

Poems Are Made By Fools Like Me...