Goodbye November

 November is about to say goodbye and I am kinda sad about it. November has been such a pretty fall month here. I realized I had not shared my fall on the bayou picture yet so here it is. The few leaves we have that change right on the coast are starting to do their thing.

There is a lovely tree down the street that is totally yellow. If you are patient even Florida can have a season of autumn. 

Gus wasn’t interested in cooperating so I had to turn around before I could get a good picture.

I will freely admit that we are NOT moving into my favorite time. Oh… don’t worry, I love Christmas. I mean I love all it stands for and the lights are my favorite, but I totally hate the early dark nights. I want to go to bed at 5:30 and then it ALL messes with my sleep pattern. I am glad Christmas is in December to keep me above the fray of depression from the dark.

Enough of that. I wanted to jump right in with Christmas decorating last week before Thanksgiving but  I resisted. Everywhere you turn, it is screaming at you. However, I know myself well and if I pull it out too soon I start going a little stir crazy. I did get my tree over the weekend and began thinking about some things I might do differently this year. I am slowly putting it all out and unlike last year when I was having a little moment of insecurity over sharing, I am going to share it on the blog this year. 

One thing I did differently was to take all my Christmas decorations BACK downstairs to store them. In a moment of craziness after a hurricane one year I moved them from the perfect storage closet downstairs to a not so perfect closet upstairs and it just caused a lot of problems. In the last couple of months I remedied that and all felt right again. Now, I can bring them up as I feel like it and not create a monster mess! 

I also got creative and did something very different with the banisters. I have not loved the garland the last couple of years and it was almost drudgery to put it out. I can’t wait to show you what I came up with. Jeff agreed it was a good update. I will finish up this week and  start taking pictures to share.

I usually use January to do a deep dive in decluttering and cleaning. For the first time in retirement life I feel like I am in such a good place with decluttering. I have actually been pretty ruthless in the last couple of months and this January should be more of a cleaning. The key is to not bring back in anything to replace the clutter. 2021 has been the year I have truly worked on that piece. I was not totally successful but nevertheless a ton better. All of that to say, my kitchen can’t wait until January for its deep clean. I have no idea what has happened in my kitchen, but good grief Thanksgiving had me wanting to clean rather than cook. I just might share some of that too. A drawer or cabinet a day:)

Now, if I didn’t have grandkids I would have no pictures, but I will blow up the post now with cuteness.

Lindsay, Tyler amd the kids went to the Auburn house this weekend. They did a drive over to Callaway Gardens which is about 45 minutes away from Auburn. Both Tyler and Lindsay remember the many trips to see lights they took as kids to see the lights. Tucker was truly enthralled. 

I was so sad we were not going to Auburn this year but Jeff and I had a church commitment that just needed to be done. I think it turned out well for Lindsay and Tyler. They had a fun little family weekend so these are pictures Lindsay sent me.

I don’t usually get worked up at all over sports scores, but this past weekend’s score did me in. I didn’t go in thinking Auburn had a chance at anything but a true massacre in Jordan Hare. I even had Jeff get my tree so I could decorate it when it got too bad to watch AND then my little Tigers played their hearts out. We were solidly winning until the last minute which in the back of my mind I kept expecting the whole game. I never get worked up over football ever… not since a specific incident here locally where a child my son’s age died from an injury. It completely changed my mind about sports. You can read about the young man here.  https://taylorhaugen.org/My husband was the principal at this school and the parents are amazing.  If you read it you know how silly it is to get upset over a football score!

Anyway, I shocked myself at my reaction to the loss on Saturday. It was just such an intense game and an awful, way to lose that I felt depleted for a solid hour. I moped which made me feel guilty so I dusted myself off and started putting that tree up and gave myself an attitude adjustment. Sometimes we need to do that:)

November is going and the year will be over before I know it. Can we slow it down just a wee bit AND maybe find a way for the sun to stay out a we bit longer each day. I do try to embrace that cozy huge idea and to slow down but it is a struggle for me.

Blessings to all, 

Sandy

Thanksgiving

 I am still here. 

I will explain my absence later in the post, but for now let me catch up with family first.

Thanksgiving was absolutely glorious. I mean…glorious. After last year, I went into this year’s with such a grateful heart that we would all be together. I have gotten up each morning lately just thanking the Lord for life. November has been a beautiful month here along the Gulf coast and I have relished the days. 

We hosted Thanksgiving this year. The last two we had been back at Jeff’s sister’s house but I just felt it was a lot for her. She is older than us and so I just told her I would do it. I think she was more than happy to pass the torch. 

I really got smart this year and on Wednesday did a ton of prep work. I chopped and measured out stuff so that was just pour things in today.  It made a huge difference. I wasn’t so tired at the end of the day and was truly able to relax and enjoy myself today. 

We had a feast! I don’t know what the future holds with things but for today our family praised God and are and we were merry. 

I didn’t take many pictures but that is because I was living. We played games and spent a good portion of the day outside. Most everyone chose to eat outside. The weather was just perfect.

I try to get a picture of the kids twice a year. Palmer is in the group shot for the first time.

The twins are our niece’s kids and for a very long time they were he star of the show, Now, they have to share it. Tucker was in heaven today with them.  

He wouldn’t pose for pictures and finally plopped down and gave a quick smile. Then he was back up and going hard.

Mother had such a good day. She made her amazing dressing and a chocolate cake that everyone bragged on and she was feeling pretty proud of herself.

Lindsay and Tyler were heading to Auburn this evening. This was the scene shortly after getting in the truck.

Lindsay sent this tonight…

Which by the way I literally can not wait to share what I got Lindsay for Christmas. It has something to do with a prayer but I will wait until after Christmas to share just in case someone were to see the blog.

Palmer has turned 4 months old.

He is such a joy to keep. I get to keep this little boy everyday. I am so blessed.

They have some new matching Christmas pajamas.

I have had no computer since right after my last post, but fortunately it was under warranty and fixing it was free. I am back in business and will be back to share more later. 

I have kept up with reading everyone but commenting from my phone just got to be a pain so I will get back in the groove this weekend. 

I am resting tonight but all the fall decor is tucked away, I need to mop the kitchen once more in the morning and then let the Christmas decorating commence.

Gus loves to go everywhere with me. He goes everyday to pick up Palmer. While we are in town he sits up and looks out but once we reach the air base and woods he goes down. 

I will end with the first camellia I have seen this year. She is a beauty. 

That will be a wrap for me but hopefully I will be back much sooner.

Grateful, thankful, and blessed,

Sandy

A Quick Stitching Update

 I completed the Prairie Schooler Santa that I plan to give to Mama this year. She has always loved Santas.

I wanted to highlight this fabric with the truck that Arlene gave me. Mother always looks at any Christmas item that has a red truck, so I thought of her when I first received it. I didn't have enough of that to do the full 4 sides for this kind of finish so I used it for the front and back. I then chose another piece in the same family of fabrics for the two inside pieces. 

I still have enough of both fabrics to add to future ornaments.

I am waiting to give to Mama closer to Thanksgiving and hoping she feels good too. I did have to take her in for a steroid shot in her shoulder again.

Ladies, I know one thing I have learned from Mother is that we need to do range of motion exercises and strength exercises while we can. Mother has always been in good shape but when you get her age anything we did earlier will help.

My other stitch that I just had to dig into was "The Shepherd's Song" by Plum Street Samplers. I finished the first page of 8. I am loving this one.

This is not the best picture. I took it one evening when I completed the page.

I am going to finish up a small Hometown Holiday and then do a page of my heron next.

Happy Stitching,

Sandy

Life Lately

Let's hear for the World Series champions, the Atlanta Braves. I am so happy and tired from all these late nights. I have fallen asleep before the end of the game for most of them, but last night I had to stay the course since they could pull it off. It was so worth it. Yes, I have always loved the Braves and baseball.

I had to get that off my chest before I can even begin to apologize for being such a lousy blogger AND blogger friend. I am falling into a routine with Palmer. He is such a good baby, but the illnesses kept going through the family. I think we are past that so hopefully Tucker is back in his little daycare much more permanently now. He does love it. He greets me with a big hug morning and afternoon but makes no fuss about not getting to come with Palmer and me. That makes for a much more relaxed mommy.

We managed a VERY QUICK trip to Auburn this past weekend as in leaving after work Friday and not getting there to about 8:30 and then coming home Sunday morning. It was quick but fun. I think Jeff was tired when he got home, but we had a very nice time with friends and even went to the game. First time since before all the C stuff. I felt comfortable going since we got to go in a seat from an old banker connection. Our very good friend was the president of said bank and the owner of the privately owned bank (a dinosaur of an idea these days) is an Auburn guy and has very NICE seats. They are on the top row of the bottom half of the stadium so no one is behind you and on the end seats so you are not sandwiched up in a lot of people. It is a generally older calmer crowd there so I felt safe that we could go.

Jeff took this picture before the game. That is my only picture. I just kind of absorbed how good it felt to be there.

We enjoyed the game and our really good friends went up with us and stayed our home. It was nice to get away with them. Even though we are in the same town and good friends our lives have been so busy lately that we thoroughly enjoyed our time away. Our other friends who now live in Huntsville but have a place in the same neighborhood as ours in Auburn had a big meal for us before the game which was a night game, so Saturday was packed with good friend fellowship. I really enjoyed and I think we all did.

We went out to Lindsay's Sunday evening to hand out candy at her door. She has a sidewalk neighborhood and gets trick-or-treaters, so while they took Tucker out we passed out candy. We never get any one so I have to tell you I quit buying candy last year. No use to buy that temptation to sit around and make me eat it. Tucker really got the idea this year. He loved every minute of his stroll down the street. He said trick or treat and thank you and was so excited to see the candy go in his bucket. He wanted to go again the next night. He wasn't afraid of anything he saw. He seemed to really get that it was all dress up and pretend. 

He went as Marshall from Paw Patrol that evening. I shared a photo from when he go the costume.

Palmer was a skeleton and just not feeling it at this moment.

For church that morning, he wore his spacesuit again which will honestly probably get one more year out of it. I know I am a Mimi, but goodness those boys are adorable. Palmer just wore a cute little onesie with a dog and a pumpkin on it.

That is Tucker on the back row right in the center.

I thought this one was cute. Lindsay said the flash is what got Palmer's attention.

And here he is in all his cuteness.

That is about all that is going on with me other than just the usual. I am trying to not wear myself out each day. Doing pretty good on that front. I have been ordering my groceries and picking up so I had to do a better job of meal planning. That has worked well. We are also hosting Thanksgiving this year so I am trying to do a little buying for that each week to be prepared on that front. 

I will share some stitching again soon.

I am trying to get some time to read my blogs and keep up in the evenings. I just can't get to anything in the morning at all, so I may be sporadic for a while longer but I can truthfully say I am missing my blogs.

Sandy