Never a Dull Moment

After a long, busy weekend, our neighborhood is in full swing with all manner of buses, trucks, and traffic this morning. Today is the first day of public school around here. I admit it, I am grinning to myself smugly as I sit with coffee, in my pj's, and watching a few of the early risers working on their schoolwork here... in their pj's. It is so nice to be able to not have to worry about catching a bus! Or packing lunches! or making sure everyone is up and dressed and fed and teeth brushed at O'darkthirty and shoved out the door on time.

This morning there is trash pick up and recycle pick up. The sun is out. Things just feel like they are all moving along and every one's regular routines are kicking in. We are no exception to that. It has been a busy weekend here!

Friday night we had some friends over who stayed the night. The next day while we visited I did a bunch of cooking for Sunday. I made a New England Lobster Pie, which was excellent. It was better than where I had it up in Maine at a certain local restaurant that attracts lots of tourists during the summer. I'm sorry to have to say it, but it really was better. I was thinking about not posting the recipe and keeping it as my "secret recipe" but since I got it off the Internet for free in a public domain, I guess I will just post the recipe. That will be a different entry however. I also made whole wheat dinner rolls, and we had lemon cheesecake for dessert. I'll post that recipe in a little bit as well.

In my humble opinion the cheesecake was a tad overdone, but that wasn't any one's fault. And truthfully, no one complained. Why all the fancy cooking? Usually on Sundays I like to keep it simple, but we had company. No,not our friends from the previous days (Hi Chris!), but and evangelist that we had in all day. He and his wife came. I always get a little nervous with a first time meeting, but this couple was lovely, and we had really good fellowship with them.

What does that have to do with the cheese cake? Nothing... I just got off on a tangent.

Anyway, about the time the cheese cake was due to be removed from the oven, Isaac was sitting on the bench next to Benjamin, who was playing a game with our friend's daughter (and losing, as he had been with every game they played that day.. HA! Go girl!).

Isaac somehow managed to slip off the bench. I was in the kitchen busying about, so I was right there, but didn't see exactly what happened. He cried, I picked him up, checking his head. A few years ago, when we first moved into the house, Caleb had fallen off the exact same bench, same spot, and ended up with stitches in his chin. He was standing on it, and his foot slipped, and his chin broke his fall on the way down. I expected to see at least a bump on the back of Isaacs head since he had slipped off from sitting and knocked into the wall behind him. I didn't see any bumps, and was almost feeling relieved when Dale said "He has a blood stain on the back of his shirt."

After a hasty inspection, we found Isaac had a nice little gash in his back that was obviously needing more than a band aid. It wasn't very long. Apparently the corner of the register nailed him on his way down. Poor little guy! By this time he had stopped crying and was wondering what all the fuss was about. I cleaned the wound and put a couple of butterfly bandages on it and then Dale and I went off to the family urgent care center. Thankfully, my friend could stay with the other kids while we were gone.

Isaac charmed all the nurses and was a real champion. The doctor checked him over and said "I don't think we'll do stitches. We'll use glue."

Oh, I could have kissed him. Stitches are so traumatic for little ones! They just don't possess the understanding to know that it will help them after the initial discomfort. I knew when I first looked at the cut that it was going to need help closing up and I assumed "stitches" and that is what tore me up. I knew it would be traumatic for Isaac. The glue is a wonderful thing, and though the wound still needed irrigation (which Isaac did NOT enjoy), it was quick and easy and won't have to be taken out later. Whew!

Sunday was much more pleasant, to say the least. We were up way too late Sunday night but it was worth it. It is wonderful when you hit it off with the special speaker. LOL. Of course, two preachers gabbing... that can go on and on for a while.

Labor day was not laborious for us. We slept in and took it easy all day. It was what I call a "whatever" type of day. We didn't go anywhere, we didn't do any of the chores we could have done. We just really needed a day to just hang out and relax. I think Dale did more than I did, now that I think about it.

Oh, a couple more casualties over the weekend. Both Esther and Benjamin broke their glasses. Esther's broke on the top of one of the eye glass frames. Benjamin managed to break his INDESTRUCTIBLE (supposedly) glasses right in the middle of the nose piece. So, this week I'll be seeing about getting replacements. Esther definitely cannot go without hers. She is blind as a bat without them. Dale did a quickie fix on them, but tape only lasts so long.

Also needing replacing is our crock pot. I could just cry. It was given to us about a year and a half ago. About 3 months after we started using it, it developed a crack in the bottom that curved in a half circle, following the curve of the design. It didn't go all the way through, so no leaking, and I just continued to use it. Then, a couple weeks ago, it got another crack in the side, and that one leaked. I feel like I lost my right hand. Dale got online yesterday ( told you he did more than I!) and found out a lot of people had the same problem with the same product by Kitchen Aid (yup, I'm naming names). About a year after they started using the crock pot, these fatal cracks developed. The company has been just sending replacement crocks out. I'm hoping they will do the same for us. I love that crock pot. The size is perfect for our large family, and I love all the different settings on the base. The base is fine, by the way. Just the crock is cracked. Does that make me a crack-pot?

Another recent casualty was our hand beater. No great loss. I wasn't crazy about it anyway. It was supposed to have 6 settings. It had two: OFF and HIGH-FLING-IT-ALL-OVER-THE-KITCHEN. All the other settings never worked right, and finally, not at all. The reason why we tossed it is that it was doing some arching inside the handle. Not good. Making chocolate chip cookies should NOT be life threatening. So that was replaced with a better unit that has all working settings and has a whisk attachment to boot!

In the area of crafts, I have finished another dishcloth. I was going to start another one with a more intricate design, but was so tired yesterday I didn't dare. I worked on a throw I started a couple years ago. Very simple knitting, and great for when your brain is fried. Today I am ready to start that more involved dishcloth.

I used Grandmother's Favorite Dishcloth pattern, you can find it here:

If that link doesn't work, let me know. There are dozens of free, cute patterns on that site, but sometimes the link is a little ornery and you have to try it a couple times. Here is the dishcloth:



Have a blessed day!