This Was Going to be Garlic Thursday

I had every intention of making today garlic Thursday. Mostly because when Travis said it, I almost fell out of my chair laughing. And also because I love to cook and it would just be fun. Although I doubt that I can impart any special cooking knowledge to anyone that reads this blog since every single on that I know personally is a fabulous cook in their own right. Yes, even Travis, at least he makes some great eggs. And if I ever actually let him cook he'd probably make even better stuff than that. But we got a phone call at close to 10:00 Tuesday night and it was our life group leader asking us to lead worship at a different life group the next night. Recently our life group multiplied out because there were too many of us. We stayed in the same life group and we're one of 5 worship leaders in our group- we take turns so we lead worship about once every 6 weeks more or less depending on who's sick or whatever. But the group that went out has 1 guy that leads worship but he's also in a group that travels a lot so he can't be there all the time and that's why she called us. So yesterday was a mad rush to get ready for that and that's why we're not having garlic Thursday. But next week we will. I suppose I should add that we're also considering switching life groups. It seems that if one place has an abundance of worship leaders and another group has none then we should at least consider filling that gap.

OK, I'm not actually showcasing my flowers this time. For the past several weeks we've had these beautiful little yellow and black winged visitors that are apparently camera shy. I could drive the car past them and they just sit there and look at me but if I'm not in the car they fly off. So I started keeping the camera right next to the kitchen window and after several attempts I got a picture of this one. I've seen hummingbirds several times too but I don't think there's a chance of me catching one on camera. These little guys like the sunflower seeds. Chloe harvested a handful which is more than we need to grow sunflowers next year so I figure we'll just leave the rest for the birds. And a little word of warning if you want to grow sunflowers next season- birds will snatch them right out of the ground, I lost 5 or 6 that way this year. Southern Living says to start them indoors in peat pots (that will disentigrate after planting) and then plant them when they're about 2 inches high. I think the plants I lost were taller than that but it could have been bunnies I guess. Anyway, watch for birds. Sunflowers make me happy.
And here's a little picture of the end of my street from our front door of the nice hazy-fog-drizzle-rain that Fay left us the other day. OK, ignore the power lines- we live on a hill so they're eye level- and the fact that it was garbage day because I love the view of the hills we have from here. And I love living on a hill at times like this. I can't imagine the kind of flood we'd have to have in order to have any issues.

I got a lot of good ideas from everyone on the fall party post- thanks so much! I think I have a pretty good plan in my head now and I'm not really freaked out anymore. I'll make sure to take pictures. And I'm not even sure when it is. It's fall so that could be Halloween or Thanksgiving which means that it's kind of far away. Now I'm kind of bummed. *BUT* if we change life groups they're having a fall party and I could try out some of the more elaborate autumn desserts on them. Amber mentioned a really pretty cake and Christy mentioned a pumpkin dump cake that I can't wait to get the recipe for...yum!

I Forgot to Dry the Jeans...

Chloe has 3 pair of jeans and I washed them all last night- and forgot until I woke up at 7:55 that I hadn't dried them. I don't remember ever doing that before. Gaaa! What to do? Can I send her in a skirt? At 50 degrees, it's warmer than it has been and with her coat it wouldn't be that bad. Then I imagined her shivering on the playground, squatting down so that her coat would cover her bare legs. Capri pants then? That's just slightly better than a skirt. And I could imagine her pulling her socks all the way up to cover the exposed leg. She'd look like a hillbilly (and I'd look like a bad mom) but it would probably not be too emotionally damaging. Then I heard the cough. The really congested cough and thought it probably wouldn't matter that I didn't dry the jeans. And sure enough she's got a sore throat and a cough. She doesn't really have a fever but with the sickness that's going around it's plenty of reason for me to keep her home- besides the aforementioned lack of clothing to wear.

I should probably catch up on some other things here as well.

Travis and I led worship at Life Group about a week and a half ago. I was pretty nervous when it was time to actually do it. I wasn't nervous at all leading up to it because I just really felt that it was the right thing and that it was the right time. But every body that's ever sung in front of people before knows that it's much more nerve wracking to sing in front of 20 people that you know in an intimate setting (meaning they're standing 10 feet or less from you) than it is to sing in front of 2,000 + strangers, on a platform, with bright lights shining in your eyes so you can't see anybody. But apparently it went well because Marianne asked us to do it again in March and from here on out to do it for the first Life Group of the month. I'm excited and I think I'll get less nervous as time goes on.

Our V-Day plans got messed up a bit but we were able to reschedule and have dinner on Sunday instead of Saturday. Amanda woke up really sick Saturday morning and what we originally thought was a stomach bug was actually the result of a bad dream. It upset her so much that she got really sick. She has a nervous stomach and you never really know what is going to stress her out to set it off but it's never fun. We did have a really nice meal the next day though. OK, if I'm going to be totally honest, I think that Ellendale's didn't have it's A game on when we went but it was still nice. The service was great, I just find that if you go to a restaurant at an off time the food just isn't usually as good. I had a burned crouton in my salad (or maybe two) and my potato mound was closer to a rock in texture, and they gave me about 5 green beans and two pathetic carrot slices. I know I'm not a restaurant critic but the food just wasn't as good as the other two times we've been there. Well, Travis' sweet potatoes were out of this world amazing and the pork chop and steak were very good- I'm just not used to having negative things to say about it. Moving on...

My sister in law is expecting their new little girl sometime in the next month and I've promised to do a painting and to make this cute little thing- only in pink. I haven't found the fabric yet and the needle is broken on my sewing machine although I could probably hand stitch it without too much difficulty. I've never shopped for a sewing machine needle before. For the painting the inspiration is this set from Pottery Barn Kids. Angie is doing the pinks and greens from the set and my only hesitation is that I can't *really* tell what the colors are from that. The pinks look more peachy on my computer screen. I know it doesn't have to be exact and I may just do a cream backdrop with butterflies and some flowers. I really should get started. It would be really nice to drop off in person though. Travis still has never seen their last baby and he's almost two. *Sigh* If they'd only move here... ;)