kerosene lamps and stuff . . .

Who would have guessed that less than two years after moving out of our 3,000 square feet (including basement, garage, and workshop) sticks & bricks home . . .

And into our 500 square feet (including basement--yes we have a basement--and what we call the garage) fifth wheel RV . . .

That I'd still be dealing with the idea of paring down my stuff stuff . . .

This is a shot of the storage tubs Todd pulled out of the RV's basement for me this week, so I could sort through things again and see what stuff could part ways from us. I did manage to cull a full box of stuff that's headed to the rescue mission. And that's on top of the three bags of clothes and two boxes of stuff I cleared out a month ago.

It's not been the easiest of transitions for me in a lot of ways. For forty-seven years I was a collector of things. Craft things, tea-party things, cooking things, sewing things, beauty things, seasonal thing, "one of these days" things, kid things, school things, book, magazine and movie things and just "because it's pretty" things . . . and at the house on Hunter Road, I definitely had the room to store all my things! After nearly two years of living in the RV, I've got less attachment to stuff, but paring down is still difficult -- even when it's things I've not looked at or used since we moved here.

But after the devastating storms of April that left so many without power/water at best, and with nothing, at worst, I've been thinking again about what's *really* important, and what I can *really* do without.

I finished up reading The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder last night. It's the sixth in the Little House series. They experienced a dreadfully long, brutal winter -- seven months of it -- and during that time they went without a lot of luxuries and ever tougher, a lot of necessities.

One statement "Pa" made in the course of the winter really caught my attention. He said, "These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraph and kerosene and coal stoves--they're good thing to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em." Really? Can you imagine living in a world were kerosene and coal stoves were what were depended on for light and warmth?

I had to laugh when I read it. We heard similar sentiments about folks becoming depended on electric power and running water during the aftermath of the storms. Shoot, we ourselves *made* those remarks. I wonder what Pa would think of our day and age?

I had to laugh again (quietly and to myself) when Brother Harold Sellars, our DOM for the Madison Baptist Association, said from the pulpit he was filling this morning, "And we've made such progress; from railroad to air to space and from kerosene to electric lights..."

I guess the message I'm getting (slowly but surely) is that from electric power to storage space to tons of clothes and *stuff* . . . the things that are truly important aren't going to fit in a drawer or closet or storage bin anyway.

Our Community Groups have been talking about The Most Important Thing. It's an interesting way for a person to share the one most important thing with other people.

Anyway, I'm rambling now. Just lots of different thoughts that appear to be heading the same direction. I'm sorting and processing. Relaying them here helps see the connections a little more clearly!

:)

cleaning up . . .

Since I'm not working anymore and I've got a *little* more time to think of food prep and meals, I've been trying to test and add some healthier recipes to our meal planning. When I was going through my magazines last week (I go through them, cut out the pages that have recipes, ideas, or projects that appeal to me and scan them to my hard drive), I came across a recipe for Flank Steak Roll (or Meat Rollups, as my husband has dubbed it) out of Clean Eating magazine (which is very fun and full of great recipes).

I was a little nervous about trying it. I've had a tough time with rolling foods to be cooked before, and not only was this rolled, but I had to slice the flank steak in half lengthwise, first, and then stuff it! The stuffing was a wonderful mixture of toasted pine nuts, panko (which I'd never used before this recipe), garlic and vinegar, topped off with fresh spinach. The process was actually very, very easy.

So I got it all ready, then rolled it up and got to use kitchen twine!

All pretty and ready to go into the pan and then into the oven. Forty minutes later . . .

Voila! She is done!

It held its rolled up shape very nicely when cut. I did have to affirm that the pink the middle was the panko mixture (because of the red vinegar) and not the color of the meat! He likes his meat DONE! Once we were cool on that, he was ready for dinner to be served!

And a good dinner it was. Todd said we could add this to our list! The only trouble I had was that it makes so much. I didn't enjoy it as much reheated for lunch today, but Todd really did. Ah well, next time I make it, I'll invite someone over to join us!

Happy Friday, y'all -- I'm off to clean out some of the junk in our RV basement, now. And tomorrow, joy of all joys, I'm off to our Stitcher's group stitch-in!

:)

a full, fun father's day weekend . . .

It started out Friday evening with a surprise call from Kim, wanting to know if I wanted to get in some "Sawyer time" that night. Are you kidding me?! Of course! I suggested they bring Sawyer over for a sleepover, so they did! I love Sawyer sleepovers!

We had pizza for dinner. As you can plainly see, Sawyer likes pizza . . .

I know it looks bad, but he cleaned up very nicely! He sure can cram some pizza into his little mouth.

After dinner, Sawyer and I went out for a ride on the golf cart. He *loves* to ride around the camp. We went down the low road and saw this . . .

At first I was very startled, but then I remembered that we had the Christian Southern Archers coming out on Saturday for an event, and they'd already set up their targets. Sawyer didn't know the difference, though, and for the rest of our sixty-minute ride, he growled at every animal we came upon.

Especially this big ol' guy, up in the upper meadow. Even when we got close enough to touch it, Sawyer just growled and growled. It's very funny to listen to and even funnier when you know that he's actually mimicking his Aunt Jocelyn's cat, Leia (who growls at most everyone).

Sawyer even growled at this fellow . . .

Can you see the little Frog Prince in the center of the photo? Every time he jumped, so did Sawyer.

And I couldn't get a smile out of him for the life of me -- he was too intent on all the animals. He was hard-pressed to look away from them long enough for him to look at me!

Back at the RV, I turned on our happy lights and he amused himself walking up and down the stairs about a million times.

And once we were cleaned up and in our "escape proof" pj's, he still wanted to go outside!

We had a good night's sleep and his mommy and daddy picked him up early, to go visit Kim's dad. After checking on the archery group that was already up at the camp, I headed to the grocery store. It was a relatively quiet day, with Todd working down on the dock, and me doing domestic things and working on the ministry's newsletter, when a violent storm popped up and passed through the camp.

It took with it a couple of trees, including this one which came down over the main road *and* the road into the main camping area.

And yes, if you look closely enough, those are power lines and we were (once again) without power. I've never been so thankful for my husband's foresight than when he purchased that generator!

Saturday night we went to sleep lulled by the sounds of the cranked generator. We got up Sunday morning for a happy Father's Day breakfast of french toast and bacon -- Todd's favorite!

A quick call to Huntsville Utilities confirmed they did still have our repair ticket and that they'd get to us when they could. *sigh*

Sunday was a hot, hot day. Our raccoon visitor stopped by and took a little dip.

He really is very cute!

Later that afternoon, everyone came up for a little Father's Day get-together. We celebrated with Todd's favorite; a Carvel ice cream cake. I think it may be Sawyer's too.

Just take a look at the blue from the ice cream frosting, around his mouth!

Then Todd got down to business and opened presents!

He was very pleased and surprised by the Kindle! Yay!

And I couldn't post it on my blog on Friday, but this was actually the first Kindle holder I made! One for my dear man's new toy. :)

Sawyer makes himself right at home. I found my old cell phone for him to play with. He loves to carry around cell phones and remotes!

And here are the hers and his Kindle cases! We'll always be able to tell our Kindles apart.

And this morning, I played around just a little bit with quilted postcards.

This is definitely something I'm going to need to play around with more and get in lots of practice. I did two different techniques for securing them (mainly because I wasn't real pleased with how the first one turned out), but the second one did better. This will be a fun past time when I feel the urgent need to create. I even got them in today's mail!

Whew. I need a week to rest from the weekend!

:)

ch-ch-ch-changes . . .

In our landscape looking out our picture window. Overnight. Like magic. Or maybe a small tornado.

Before.

At about midnight, Todd and I were jolted awake when the RV "shook" a little and what sounded like hail was hitting fast & furiously. Moments later, the power went out.

This morning, we were able to see that what we thought was hail, was more likely acorns and limbs from this massive oak that fell . . .

After.

Todd took a trip around the camp this morning. We do have quite a few trees down -- maybe as many as there were when the tornadoes moved through the county on April 27th. Some are blown over from the roots, but some are twisted and broken off mid-trunk. Whew! If that oak tree had been another ten feet taller . . . today would look a whole lot differently!

This morning we're still without power, but the generator is working, and we're comfortable. It's supposed to be on again, off again thunderstorms moving through today, so it'll just be a quiet day in the RV, waiting on the power. Sounds like the perfect setting for reading and quilting, don't you think?? And maybe a NAP!

:)

Gracious . . .

What a week-and-a-half it's been. In my last entry I shared how the weather was already kicking into high gear; it kicked into even high gear later in the day. We were fortunate, to say the least, and did not suffer any major damage. Even people who had uprooted trees or car damage didn't really have major damage, in light of the tremendous loss of life and property that some in our area experienced. Really, all of North Alabama is got hit hard. Several communities in our county were hit with the huge EF5 tornado that swept through Wednesday evening. If you've watched news at all over the past week, you've probably seen images. Photos can't compare to driving down roads and seeing it with your own eyes. It's heartbreaking.

As I said, we didn't sustain anything major. We were without power, but since we're in our RV (and Todd had JUST purchased a generator), we were sitting pretty. When the power went, the refrigerator automatically converted to LP and the battery kept lights shining. Todd was on shift when it all happened (it tends to happen that way), so I was up at the RV by myself. It was a wild, wild and scary evening.

James, Kim & Sawyer came and stayed with us while power was out. We were able to keep Sawyer's milk cold (and heat it) and it was lovely spending time together, and allowing Sawyer to become comfortable in our RV home! We actually had a marvelous time riding around the camp in the golf cart, exploring through Sawyer's eyes!

James, Todd, Jocelyn & Jason have all been able to volunteer and participate in clean-up efforts, and caring for those who were displaced by the storm. The donations of time and materials is overwhelmingly wonderful. A true picture of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Sawyer Graham is walking and walking and walking! I can't believe how fast it's all happened. He's gotten quite stable, although if he wants to get somewhere really fast, he still crawls. So funny! He doesn't need to grasp the concept of running just yet!

My last day of work was this past Wednesday. It's a very good thing. I'll be able to take care of the administrative side of our ministry and shoulder some of the burden that Todd's been bearing by himself. I'm excited, to say the least!

Our guild's bus trip to Paducah was canceled, due to the storms. We were under a very strict curfew, and our departure and arrivals times didn't work in the confines of the curfew times. This makes five years running that something has happened to keep me from going to Paducah!

Kim's last day of work was Friday -- and as happy as I am for her (because I know how much she wanted to be a stay-at-home mommy), I'm sad that I won't have those regular Sawyer days, once a week. Perhaps Kim will soon be ready for some "Kim time" in a week or so, and will allow me to watch Sawyer while she takes some time for her!

Quilting has mostly been on hold through all of this (for one thing, our office/quilt room is also the guest bedroom!), though I do have my finished BOM due next weekend, and a new swap project in the works. More on those next week.

And pictures. My camera has been taking a break; it'll be out and in action again next week!

:)

sixteen days of Christmas . . .

I was at work today when my darling husband posted on his facebook that my stocking already had something in it . . . so I knew that coming home from work this afternoon would not be run-of-the-mill. I'd had to run some errands, so it was near dusk before I pulled up the drive. I was really hoping that he'd turn on the outside Christmas lights, so I'd be greeted by them, and he didn't disappoint! Though I was a little confused as I pulled into our spot; I could see the colored lights on both sides of the RV . . . it was rather odd that the front lights were reflecting in the back window.

He came out to the car to see if I needed help bringing things in, and allowed me to go up the steps into the RV first. To my delight, the whole back wall of the RV--around the picture window and the slideout--was decked out in colored Christmas lights! What a wonderful, thoughtful man I've got!

Then he told me that today started the sixteen days of Christmas . . . and that my stocking held just a little something. So (queue music), on the first of our sixteen days of Christmas my true love gave to me, thin mints and Russel Stover candies. :)

After dinner, we put the fire in the dvd player . . .

turned on the Christmas music . . .

and decorated our little Christmas tree!

When I sorted through our Christmas ornaments before moving to the RV, I made sure that the ones we kept had significant meaning behind them. As we put them on the tree tonight, we were able to identify where/why we'd gotten each ornament. Pretty special!

And quite beautiful, too.

Fa la la la la, la la la la!

:)

design wall monday; slow but steady . . .

C'est la vie. I didn't get as far as I had hoped on my quilting projects this week, but I did make some progress -- and I got to sew, so I'm happy!

One nice thing? I got the room organized so that Todd and I can both be at our respective tables at the same time. We actually spent yesterday evening together in the bunkroom; him at his desk on the laptop, and me at my table with the sewing machine! It was quite lovely.

It was Todd who suggested I lower the ironing board, so I could just turn in my chair from the sewing machine to iron. He's *brilliant*! Why have I never thought of this? I was so happy, sewing and pressing and sewing, without having to get up! LOL!

I did purchase my (nearly) solid fabric for the last hexagons I need to cut . . .

I think the print is small and delicate enough that it will be okay. I'll try and cut/sew/cut those triangles out sometime this week -- maybe Tuesday?

I also got these strips sewn and cut; they're ready to be pieced into the halves.

I'll *try* to get to those this week too, but I'm not promising myself anything! Until now I was doing this quilt just to do it, but now I've got a recipient in mind, so that will make it even more fun!

I finished piecing the other three Arrowhead blocks . . . I love how they turned out!

Although now that I've finished them, I'm not sure what I'll do with them! I only did them in the first place because I was succumbing to peer pressure! Perhaps I'll just put them away for now, and pull them out again after Christmas -- and after grandbaby two arrives!

Speaking of which, Jocelyn and I went online yesterday and did pick out her fabrics -- so cute! It's from Adornit's Life's a Hoot line.

She saw it in a store in Seattle and fell in love with it! We'll do bumper pads, curtains, and a quilt. Fun stuff!

To see what other projects are being worked on out there, head on over to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times!

As for me, I'm headed out to spend the day with my Sawyer. Yay for me! Crock pot is in hand -- tonight's dinner will feature one of our family's favorites -- pork tenderloin with sauerkraut!

Hasta la vista!

:)

busy saturday at camp macoba . . .

I love the cold temps - especially when surrounded by 100+ acres of woods! Yesterday, Todd and I hitched a ride on ol' Easy, our new-to-Camp MACOBA golf cart, and hit the trails to check traps! Easy is so-named because of the 'easy' life it had in its prior home -- lolling about the golf course. Now it's a working cart!

The traps we were checking were the minnow and crawdad traps Todd has set, down at the creek. He noticed that he rarely saw minnows in the two ponds, and that means there's nothing to feed the bass, which means they don't grow bigger, which means fishing isn't much fun. So he set up four minnow and two crawdad traps, and for a couple of weeks he's been transferring his catches from the creek to the pond. He's put a couple of downed cedar trees in the shallow end of the pond, so that the minnows have a little refuge space; but if they swim outside of it, they're definitely bigger fish food. Todd says the bass know when he's coming and as soon as he empties the bucket of minnows into the pond, they're waiting to pounce on the minnows that race out of the safe area!

Yesterday was the first time I'd had an opportunity to go with him, and I couldn't have picked a better day!

He was so excited when he pulled out the first minnow trap! He'd just started using dog food (who knew?) as bait, and evidently the minnows LOVED it!

There were probably about two dozen minnows in the first basket. I always thought of minnows as being smaller (which is why I'd had a hard time envisioning him catching *anything* in those baskets with the big old holes), but evidently they can be up to six or more inches long! Again, who knew?!?

But the second trap had about a gajillion-million minnows in it!!! He transferred them from the trap into the bucket, and you couldn't see individual minnows, just dark, swirling water, it was so thick with them!

I had to stick my hand in the bucket--it was so funny!! Not to mention cold. They were so thick in there it was no problem to just grab a fish!

But I couldn't grab a fish *and* take a picture of it, so Todd grabbed and I shot the photo. They rather looked like sardines. Same size and everything.

After he emptied a trap, he put more dog food bait in it, and got it back into the creek.

There was a nice spot -- flat bottomed with good flow -- not too far from the bank. He swung the rope and *bingo* dropped the trap right where he wanted it.

Can you see the pile of dog food nuggets that floated immediately to the top of the trap?

Within seconds, there were TONS of minnows trying to get to the bait!!

I know you can't see the fish as clearly in the photo as I could watching from the bank, but that trap was covered with minnows, and I was watching them swim to it from every direction! It was wild! You see how you can't see the dog food quite so plainly in this photo? It's because it's covered up with minnows, trying to eat it! Todd will check the traps again tomorrow -- I've no doubt he'll reap an even greater minnow harvest!

Then we took the bucket and got them into the pond. I didn't take pictures; I was too fascinated with the whole thing to remember to get out the camera! Next time.

By the time we'd finished with the minnows, the camp had filled with campers. We had two groups in on Saturday that were spending the night. We had a pack of Boy Scouts (it was actually a couple of dens combined), and a group of RA's. The RAs had signed up first and had the camp ground, pavilion, and upper meadow. The Boy Scouts had the middle meadow, which is closest to our site. There were tents *everywhere*!

The Boy Scouts wanted to be contained, so they build a new fire ring (with permission) and set up their community around the perimeter.

Even though there were several small groups that made up the larger group, there was a fun sense of community. Both in the way they set up their tents . . .

. . . and especially around their campfire.

I particularly liked their trash bucket, which was lashed to the top of this teepee-like structure.

We chatted with them for a bit, then we headed up to the upper campground to see what the RAs had going on.

It was a smaller group, but still there were probably about 25-30 of them.

As they were getting their tents pitched (or as in the one case, their trailer set-up), they were heading up to the upper meadow, where they were doing fun things like shooting air rifles and a little archery.

Both groups invited us for dinner. How nice! We had burgers with the RA's, and then tromped on over to the Boy Scout campfire for dessert. They'd made about six batches of apple and peach cobbler in dutch ovens.

Man, it was good!! There's something about eating dessert, cooked in the campfire, while looking up at the stars, that just makes you feel like grinning! We live the good life, that's for sure.

Oh, and don't get me wrong; I was happy myself to have our (warm) RV to head back to, with temps dipping down below freezing overnight! But everyone seems to be up and about this morning, and when we opened the RV door, we could hear the hustle and bustle of boys and breakfast . . . and the smell of bacon and pancakes and campfires was definitely in the air. Perfect!

:)