A Whole Lot of Delayed Randomness

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted!

There's a bunch to catch up on so I'm going to try and do it efficiently :)

This post will just be a lot of little things that I want to document.

This summer and fall our blackberry bush has gone wild!  We've had such a crop and it's been wonderful!  Although I am allergic to blackberries (my throat gets terribly itchy) I have found a way to eat them and be mostly okay.  As long as I don't crunch down on the seeds and just kind of use my tongue and mouth to pressure the little pods of juice so they burst and then swallow, I can get along quite nicely :)

These pictures were taken just last week.

I don't know for sure but it seems quite amazing to still be harvesting blackberries here in the middle of October.  I'll take them as long as I can get them though.

There have been some pretty spectacular clouds lately...

Josh had a little bit of fun with my phone while we were waiting in line at his parent teacher conferences.

It's strange to walk the halls as a parent of the same middle school where I attended as a student.

It's also strange that I have a seventh grader!

Whenever Ben finds out that someone       exciting (usually Grandpa and      Grandma) is coming to our house, he  runs to the front room and peeks out the                         window.

Sometimes he has waited over an hour.  We try and be careful now not to mention any impending arrivals too soon within his hearing.

We have been seeing a psychologist with Ben the last several weeks.

It breaks my heart, but my sweet little guy has been hitting, head butting etc. for the last several months.  It had escalated to the point where on really bad days, the other kids would run and hide in their rooms.  It usually seems random, like he's not even aware of what he's doing...
We tried hard to correct it on our own but things just weren't clicking for him.
It took a few months to get into this doctor but I'm glad to finally be doing something about it.  Just yesterday though, he admitted to us that he's a bit stumped and we're running out of options since nothing we've done has seemed to make a difference.
The picture of Ben in his car seat is on the way home from one of our sessions.  He had had a cluster the day before so he was exhausted.
Speaking of clusters, they have been coming closer together than a week apart...often 5 days apart now.  Luckily, they're usually late at night or early morning.
Every now and then Ben will pull out all the spices from the spice drawer and line them up and stack them up.
It's pretty impressive how high he gets the towers :)

 A few weeks ago, our church had their General Women's session of conference.

Beforehand, Abby and I went to the Crepery and enjoyed "dinner" :)

I always get the strawberries, Nutella and cheesecake crepe and I love the lavender/vanilla Italian soda!

It was a fun, special night for us and we enjoyed the spiritual messages given during the conference.  It's a blessing to have such inspired leaders

Andy is now teaching at the institute up on campus.  It's fun because his schedule is more flexible than when he was at the high schools.  I'm attending his "Scripture Study" class and love getting to know some of his students.  He's such a great teacher and I am always pleased to claim him :)  I usually end up being on campus three times a week and every now and then we go out to lunch after class.  There's an Indian buffet close by that we love.  We call it our weekly date since we don't often do those otherwise :)

For the longest time I have longed to do a whole bunch of freezer meals and enjoy the benefits for the weeks following.  I finally bit the bullet and got 14 meals put together.  

Dinner time has always been a struggle for me and things have been getting worse so I can't tell you what a relief it is to be able to pull these out and do nothing for dinner other than throwing the contents of the bag into the crock pot. (that was a long sentence :)

Most of them have turned out pretty good too!  My family hasn't complained too much :)

So autumn is second only to spring in my book.  

We had the sides of our backyard landscaped last year and this year I added some half barrels in the mulch and planted some fancy tulip bulbs in them.  I'm so excited to see how they turn out in 6 months.  Planting bulbs is one of my favorite things to do.  It's so simple to just push them down into the dirt, cover them up and then come spring, they pay you back tenfold.

Bulbs are the best!

Abby joined me while I planted and she brought a visitor with her.

Our poor little Honey!

The harness and leash we bought for her are too big and she wriggles out of it.  Consequently, we are scared to take her outside for fear she will get away from us and we'll never see her again.

We feel so bad that she doesn't get out in the fresh air with plenty of space to stretch and hop.

Abby kept a good, close eye on her and she seemed to really enjoy being outdoors.

Here she is snooping around in my flower bulbs :)

You may have noticed that Matt is not mentioned in this post but he has a couple of big posts all his own coming up so I don't feel too bad :)

One GreaDeserves Another (even if it's super minuscule in comparison)

I was given a gift...

 ...by someone I've never met.

A sweet quilting blogger friend of my Mom's learned she didn't have much longer to live due to cancer.  She, very generously asked my mom if I would want her quilting machine!  I couldn't believe it!  I took her up on her offer but was at a loss as to how to thank her.

She sent it to me from Omaha Nebraska.  I payed the shipping which ended up being a good sum but nothing compared to how much the machine is worth.  

This machine is just like my mom's so I am already familiar with it.

I had sent a card to her trying to express my appreciation but it just wasn't enough.

She had told my mom that I could repay her by making lots of beautiful quilts with it and teaching my daughter how to use it.

I figure, in addition, I can use it to bless the lives of those around me by making quilts for people who would appreciate them and also, letting any friends and neighbors use it that would like to.

 One week after I got it all set up in my guest room this dear woman passed away.

Around the same time I found out I would be receiving this machine, I wanted to make a rose themed quilt for a friend that was going through a hard time.

I mentioned this to my mom and she told me years ago, she had collected rose fabrics just because...no real plans for them, and that later she had made them up into 12 sampler blocks. She  never made them into a quilt and very willingly offered them to me!

They were perfect and I was able to come up with this...

(the color on my camera seems off...the orangey fabrics really aren't that orange...more a soft peach)

I was extremely intimidated quilting it.  It was only my third large sized quilt and I knew how unthrilled I had been about my first two.  I knew I needed to practice though and this would be a good opportunity.  I chose the two best spots in my quilting to take a picture of and post :)

I used this stencil in all 12 blocks and then did some loopy circles in the sashing.

On the big green border, I was able to incorporate roses again.

As long as no one looks at it closely, it's fine :)

I was thrilled to be able to use the machine though and am so excited that it is right in my basement to use whenever I want...and whenever anyone else wants :)

What a blessing!

Back to School 2015

The day before school started I wanted to take the kids out to lunch...kind of becoming a tradition.  There's a fun, new college joint, burger place within very short walking distance of Andy's work that we wanted to try out...that way, Dad could join us for the fun :)

Andy knew I would like the fries and shakes...he was right!...mmmmm so good!

Then, the big day arrived!

Josh, our super 7th grader...

He leaves at 7 and I forgot to get a picture before school so I snagged one after :)

Abby, our fantastic 5th grader...

Matt, our thrilling 3rd grader...

And Ben, our fun first grader...

who wouldn't pose for me very well :)

I sure love my kids, but I'm not a very good "summer mom" and it's always a bit of a relief when we're back in school and on a routine again.  Here's to an awesome year!

End of July-End of August Randomness...

...or things that happened weeks ago that I am now just getting around to blogging.

I took the boys (Abby was sick) to visit my Grandma on her birthday.

They all rode the old rocking horse that they played on when they were younger...I should find some of those pictures and put them side by side...hmmm...

Ben enjoyed singing Old McDonald along with the cow that lights up and plays the song.

I tried to get a shot of all of them before we left but Ben was not really cooperating so this was the best I could do :)

I saw this big old dog at a gas station one day and had to get a picture!  Isn't he awesome?

I wish I would have gotten more pictures of our Olsen Family Reunion but the ones I did get are pretty cute...

Ben and "Bapa"

Matt earned his Wolf

We've grown some really good sized blackberries this year!

I love the taste but they make my throat itch like crazy.  What I've realized is that if I don't bite down on the seeds I can swallow them without much of a problem.

Yesterday, I added some whipped cream with coconut palm sugar and vanilla...wow!  I am really enjoying that blackberry bush now :)

Just a couple of cute pictures of Andy and Ben on a Sunday morning...

One day when my new visiting teachers came, Ben felt super comfortable and climbed right up in between them to do his iPad and eat his fish :)...and make silly faces...

 And lastly, a couple of weeks ago, I leaned down over Ben to brush his teeth and was brushing away when I noticed a dark spot that should have been white.  Upon closer inspection, I realized he had lost his first tooth!  I hadn't even known it was loose!  I looked around for it, wondering if I had just knocked it out with his toothbrush...even checking around in his mouth...but found nothing.  I'm guessing he swallowed it.  I was excited and tried to talk about it with him but he was oblivious...no clue what I was babbling about :)

I grabbed my camera but he would not let me get a picture of it.  I seriously tried super hard but it was impossible.  I had to grab this shot when he was asleep :)