Leaves

We went to my parent's house to rake leaves. What fun and a great workout!
Mom gave me this geranium on the day Hannah was born...this summer I took a cutting of it, planted it in soil and it was doing well, new buds and blossoms. Then a frost, I should've taken it indoors a few weeks earlier. It may make it...

Pens

Drawing has always been one of my favorite things to do. When I learned how to write, slowly it became something I enjoyed just to see what different kinds of fonts I could come up with...so of course, I have a fetish with pens! My parents gave me a lovely Cross fountain pen and the next year Rob gave me this cool Minka fountain pen....so of course later, I married him!

We're going to take Lusy for a walk now...it's only 6pm, but it's almost dark outside.

I'm glad we have freedom of speech in America! Here's a blog I've been following for a while now: http://moms4sarahpalin.blogspot.com/ Very prolific!

Fraud

Well, I am a happy person, so no one is going to change that! However, I do know of someone who is guilty of fraud, who is going to be the leader of America in a few months...and he will get absolutely no respect from me. I truly fear he is possibly the anti-Christ.

I think we're going to move to Alaska. At least there we'll have a governor who is honest. We've always dreamt of Alaska, we both love salmon, snow, nature and animals abound. There are a myriad of Orthodox churches there, too.

Mini-pies

To make a pie crust, I take 1/2 cup of butter out of fridge and put it right in my food processor, add a cup of flour and mix well, then add a tablespoon or two of water until it is the right consistency.

Roll dough into balls and place in mini-muffin pan, then use wooden tart-shaper to make them into pie crusts! My 24 mini-muffin pan and tart-shaper are both from The Pampered Chef. Oh, and all this month, stoneware is on sale!!!


1 cup baked squash (I used butternut, but you can use pumpkin, too)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
I would've added nutmeg, but I didn't have any left...
you could also use allspice!


Puree, then pour into unbaked mini-pie crusts.


Bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Binding

I went to Archiver's this week, intending to splurge and get myself the Bind-it-all, which is $59, but use my 30% off coupon, so it'd be more like $40, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I remembered how nicely my Crop-o-dile made holes through thick stuff. So, I got some of the wire and bound this book I've been working on for quite a while...

Then I made a little one with Olivia...

She's writing her name really well and learning some new short words! We're doing the Book It Pizza Hut reading program...I did it 20 years ago!

* It is a reward system, you read to your child and then when they are older, they read to themselves and get a FREE pizza.

After working at the preschool today, I came home and helped the girls finish up their homeschooling lessons. Then, I got Pippi on the Run, at the library, made in 1977....a wildly fun and imaginative film. My parents came by and brought food (we ate a delicious barley dish, tomatoes, cucumbers and falafel for dinner). Mom made chocolate covered popcorn with almonds to enjoy while we watched the movie! Dad made us tea to enjoy.

We ended the day with Chapter 17 of Little House on the Prairie, in which Pa went to town and brought back glass for windows in their new home. Laura and Mary were so excited. The things we take for granted in 2008, like glass windows were so very special to them.

Today is really chilly...

One of my blogging friends recently tagged me. So, without further ado, here are 7 random things about me:

1. Anything homemade makes me happy, especially food, but also handsewn clothes, handmade cards, a painting...


2. I would love to see the first African American president in the somewhat near future (however I was thinking in the terms of Alan Keyes)!


3. I am going to get some raw milk this week, I have to drive out of state...it's like bootleg, can you believe it? $7 per gallon.


4. Last night, we made some fantastic Thai food with some friends. I'm learning all these names, but we made sticky rice, Larb, Green Papaya Salad, Pork Satay, and Pod Thai.


5. A fire is gently burning in the fireplace.


6. Today I finished A Thousand Splendid Suns...what an emotional, deep and realistic fictional novel.


7. I am doing a painting for Art For A Cause...the proceeds benefit Afghan war orphans (one place badly in needs of funds described in the above-mentioned book).
   Now I'm tagging: Susanna, Anne, Jovina, Amanda and Kristina - I wanted to tag everyone...but if you want to play along, I'd love to read yours, so leave a comment and let me know, pretty please with sugar on top!

Eritrean Orthodox

A friend from church, Magdalena, stopped by yesterday and we ended up going to a new local restaurant owned by a family from Eritrea, a country in East Africa, that is near to Ethiopia. We were surprised to see a donation box for their church building fund on the counter, they are Orthodox Christians, like us! We asked them about their church and they told us that presently they have a priest that comes down once a month from Columbus, Ohio for service. It starts at 7:30am and ends about 11:00am Sundays. If we combined Vigil and Liturgy, that's how long it would be for us, too, but we do half of the service on Saturday in the evenings.

We ate mostly using the "ingera" a large, soft, flat bread, that is like a crepe or blini, but not made with flour, rather a grain called teff.

A glimpse in their modern bathroom! The drain was long and narrow, basically a slit.