I’m still working my way through your questions and emails from the past couple weeks. If I don’t answer, try me again. It’s hard to keep track.
You can subscribe to this blog by email here. Hope that feature is helpful for some of you.
1. I think Scooter’s a little lonesome for Hank. Whatdaya think? And he’s no dummy, yarn makes everything feel better.
2. Speaking of yarn, I haven’t done much handiwork since the fire. My mother-in-law, on the other hand has more drive and determination to get a project done than anyone I think I’ve ever met. She has knit all her grandkids an afghan in the past couple of years. (13 of them, I think?!) And as if she didn’t have enough to worry about, she started knitting an afghan for Steve and I, since ours was lost in the fire. I shouldn’t have been surprised when this came in the mail.
Yeah, I know. Now pick yourself up off the floor and look at it from this angle.
It’s absolutely stunning. My fingers hurt just thinking about it. And this is one of MANY that she’s made lately.
I’ve forbidden anyone to touch it. I drape it across the ottoman in my bedroom and admire its’ beauty every single day.
What an amazing gift! We are so thankful. It seems that this restoration has no end 🙂
3. In contrast to that lovely work of art, I’m currently knitting a dishcloth. Loser.
4. JamieKnoxville is on a flight to visit as we speak. She’s like a sister to me and when her and I and my sister get together, there’s gonna be trouble along with loud singing of ‘Stand by Your Man’. While most of us put on a pound or two as we age, she seems to get thinner and thinner. Darn her. So this is the text I sent her yesterday.
5. Truth is, I’m the one who’s gonna need the stretch pants but she did say that all she’s bringing is ‘bed clothes’, translated lounge pants and sweat shirts.
Here are her list of demands.
–She doesn’t want to be over scheduled because porch sitting is her main objective.
–She told me not to do anything else to her room until she gets here—no bed skirt until she approves of it.
–She’s not coming unless there are black out shades on her windows.
I’ve complied with all her requests and I’ve even planned a night to watch Coal Miner’s Daughter.
{Deep Breath}. I think I’m ready.
6. As you know, I’m a foodie. I love to cook and try new recipes but just like everyone else, I get into a rut. I function much better with a meal plan for the week even if I don’t follow it exactly. My friend Tammy recently told me about a site called Emealz, where you subscribe to a weekly meal plan for $5 per month. With the subscription, you’re allowed to choose your grocery store and based on the sales at your store that week, a menu is posted that will feed a family of 4-6 for $80-90/week. The menu is strategic in that it uses items more than once. (Make chicken on Monday and make enough to use in a soup on Thursday.) I’ve received two meal plans so far and I think I’m really gonna like it. Most of the recipes are fairly easy but I’m impressed so far with the variety. Here’s a sampling of last week’s menu. The site also generates a shopping list for you based on the layout of the grocery store. It just might revolutionize your 5 o’clock panic! I made the creamy crock pot chicken today for lunch and it was wonderful and waiting for us when we got home from church!
7. Speaking of help with food, I updated my recipes page this weekend. These are tried and true recipes that are guaranteed to please. I’ve come to think that I’m somewhat of a ‘soup whisperer’. I make soups all the time and even branched out and made lasagna soup this weekend. It was FAB-you-lous. I highly recommend.
8. I’m making carrot cake right now and my house smells your grandma’s at Christmas. That happens to make me very happy. Since I lost all my recipes in the fire, I’m more determined than ever to preserve my favorites here. I did a little mixing of recipes for this carrot cake so I’ll let you know how she turns out.
Recipe to follow if all goes well.
9. I also updated the ’31 Days’ page so you can access the days easily. I added a link to the series at the bottom of my blog.
10. I’m reading Jane Eyre ever so slowly. It’s a great book and happens to be a classic that I never read. My classic-reading book club is marching right on despite my very sketchy presence over the past year. We’re reading The Wide Sargassa Sea next, which is a fictionalized ‘back story’ for Jane Eyre. Good stuff, I tell ya.
11. The girls and I are trying our best to keep up with school despite multiple distractions. Several of you have asked and I do hope to update you on our curriculum and such.
12. I’m working on Thanksgiving in my head. The new Southern living has some good recipes and ideas. I love my table setting from two years ago.
I need to find something fun for this year. Pinterest can help, I’m sure!
p.s. The inside of my oven looks like I’ve lived here waaaayyy longer than a month. And it’s not even Thanksgiving yet.
Happy November 🙂
Your afghan is GORGEOUS! I think my jaw hit the floor when I saw it.
love the e-mail subscription! works great!
jamie knoxville my be my kind of gal. i would need blackout shades too.
Edie….your afghan is stunningly gorgeous. It’s good to ‘look’ for a little while…but you need to wrap yourself in that gift of love very soon!!!
Thanks for offering an e-mail subscription….you blessed me!!
Eddie, I found your blog last year when you had your fire and I read it a little bit off and on but somehow I missed if you ever posted about what caused the fire. Maybe you don’t want to explain or you don’t know, but I though maybe others might not know and be curious too, so I am asking. I used you as an example in my SS class today. We were talking about Gratitude and how good things often come out of bad things and we should always look for things to be grateful for. You have a wonderful story to tell and are very blessed.
claire,
i have mentioned it before but the fire was an electrical fire that started in our dining room. the house wasn’t that old and we aren’t sure why it would have started there. we do have fire ladders in our upstairs bedroom and we also have a gas mask under our bed. the gas mask would have been so helpful to have had b/c it would buy you time to get your children out if there was a fire. you think you’d run into a burning building for them but when you collapse because you can’t breathe, it’s a very helpless feeling. thanks for reading!
xo,
edie
That’s a gorgeous afghan. I wish I were related to your mother-in-law.
Can’t wait for the posts about JamieKnoxville’s visit!My daughter introduced me to emealz two months ago. She loves it and it saves her oodles of money. I haven’t taken the plunge yet. I don’t know what I’m waiting on. I mean, it’s only $5 for three months!! Don’t talk about ruts. I’m in one I can’t climb out of right about now. I’m going to visit your recipe page.
Have fun! I dont’ have to say that, I’m sure.
I made the lasagna soup this weekend too, it was very good except I put in too many noodles which I love, but my husband, not so much!!!
The afghan is gorgeous! I’ve been browsing Pinterest for my menu ideas. In fact, that’s how I planned my entire week’s menu today. My husband is too picky for a menu-generator to work for me:(. Can’t wait to read your next homeschool post. We moved into our house October 1, and I feel like all we’ve been doing is spelling and math?! Can’t wait to get it all organized.
Amy
There is nothing wrong with knitting a dishcloth. The very fact you are knitting makes you a winner!
Edie-your afghan is so gorgeous. Your mother in law does amazing work. I have started working on your pillows.
The meal plan sounds great. This is something I am not good with.
I look forward to your homeschooling post. I always love your insight.
I read Jane Eyre for the first time last year. I loved it. I need to look up the other book.
Hugs,
Ruth
Have you read Emily P. Freeman’s book, Grace for the Good Girl yet? It is AMAZING!!!! (So glad you kept on blogging!) I love your updates!! 🙂
yes and it is amazing! she’s amazing and I love her!
xo,
edie
After you finish reading Jane Eyre,take some time out to watch the 1944 production of it starring Joan Fontaine,Orson Welles and a very small Elizabeth Taylor. It is my favorite movie of all time!!!
What a beautiful afghan! Wow!
Emealz looks like something I’d like. I’ll have to check it out… I wonder if it caters to picky husbands, I MEAN, people? 😉
Finally, I couldn’t help but notice on the screenshot, but… 2345 emails? Really? Really?!?!?
don’t worry angie—my email situation is a mess but that not bad. my blog comments go to my email and then there’s all the junk mail and I can’t keep up with keeping them cleared out. i think you’d love emealz! xo,
edie
Afghan=gorgeous!! I’m with you on soup…could eat it every day! I currently subcribe to the six o’clock scramble, but the emealz thing sounds very interesting. I’ll have to take a look. I don’t think I’ve ever read Jane Eyre either. If I have, it’s been too long, so I think I’ll check it out. I really need to read again. It’s been a while. Have a good week!
Hi Edie, Just stopping in to say how wonderful it is that you’re in your new home and everything is falling into place–with hard work and determination, of course. Your home is beautiful and speaks of your family and your heart–just lovely. You are an inspiration! Thanks for sharing all you do–the decorating, recipes, family, but mostly your faith. God is truly good! Have fun this week! I look forward to reading more.
Hi, Is it possible for you to post where your momma-in-law got the pattern for the afghan. It is absolutely beautiful!
Ellen
Hi, Is it possible for you to post where your momma-in-law got the pattern for the afghan. It is absolutely beautiful!
Ellen
Very in love with the blanket! Talented lady, she is.
Hi Edie (which is my mama’s name, too! 🙂
Just wanted to say thanks a bunch for the 31 days series. I really appreciate all the extra time, attention and work you girls put into making that happen, and it was a big blessing to me. Well, except the part where I was insanely jealous over your home. That part wasn’t a blessing, but Jesus and I had a conversation about it and then everything was fine. 😉 Actually, I’m really happy for you guys because you went through some hell to get there for sure.
So, in addition to you having my mama’s name, our family survived a house fire when I was five. We had to move out for six months and they had to gut and re-do the inside. they were able to use the structure of the house but everything inside had to be replaced. Oy.
Anyway, thanks again! Your extra time and efforts were very much appreciated, particularly given the fact that you were MOVING!!
Promise I was kidding about the insanely jealous thing. I realized after I put that comment that you don’t know me or my style of humor to know that was a joke. 🙂 My feeble attempt at cyber humor.
your new afghan looks like an awesome “fisherman’s ” knit sweater I used to covet, I mean want. It has cozy written all over it!
So, I just wanted to say that I love, LOVE that you’re listening to the Twilight soundtrack while planning your meals & such. 😉
I know I already said this but I LOVE this house God has given to you. It is so you… I also like what you told Claire about what you have done as preventive measures and I pray you never have to use them.
I noticed last kitchen makeover you chose a Dacor oven and this time Wolf. Is there a reason why you chose a different brand?
Hope you are enjoying a well deserved week of delicious foods and fine company with family and friends. I just wanted to say thank you for giving me the chenille bedspread info.! I ordered it and it is on my bed and probably one of my favorite online purchases of all time! I LOVE IT! Thank you again and the afghan is beautiful. One of a kind and perfect in every way!
I loved that you posted for 30 days and I miss you!!!! I hope you are enjoying friends, food and fellowship but I am looking forward to your next post!
Thanks for posting that Lasanga soup – looks good 🙂
Anne told me the soup is fabulous! Will be making it this weekend. Was shopping for gifts and saw this that made me think of you:
http://store.wildolivetees.com/by-grace-p309.aspx
Is there anyone nearby who teaches knitting? I have the goods but not the know-how
have a blessed weekend!
Wow; this is simply superb and
very classy as far as designer stuff is considered; I love to knit some sweater
but having short by patterns; keep sharing.
I just started reading your blog, but this one literally took my breath away. My grandmother knitted me that exact same patterned afghan, even the same color, for my high school graduation, in 1993. She knitted all of her grandchildren one when they graduated. She passed away in 2008. I, too, lost my afghan in a house fire, back in June. We were incredibly lucky because we caught it very quickly and it was confined to the laundry room. When I picked up the wet, charred mess that was barely recognizable as an afghan, I made a very conscious decision to NOT be sad about it. That afghan and me had had some wonderful memories, but I was incredibly blessed that my children were safe, and I wasn’t going to be sad.
But, your photo literally took my breath away! It was just eerie to see another one exactly like mine!! I’m thrilled that your mother in law was able to reproduce yours!!
Edie! Our precious Rocket (aka Foxy Roxy) came home Tuesday from his 3 week doggy boot-camp, and he is the smoochiest dog ever now. No barking. No pulling me down the street. No freaking out the neighbors and joggers and mailmen. No pulling food off the counters and swiping the leftovers from our plates. It’s a miracle, especially since he is almost 5 years old and has never been trained. The kids can play fetch with him in the backyard now – and he doesn’t run away…..wanted you to know I’m praying and hoping your handsome Hank comes home the same way.
xoxo michele
oh how wonderful michele!!!
it sounds like foxy roxy and hank were separated at birth!
i can only hope and pray that hank has the same miracle cure 🙂
we get him on thursday so i’ll let you know.
i’m so anxious to get him back.
much loves,
xo,
edie
oh how wonderful michele!!!
it sounds like foxy roxy and hank were separated at birth!
i can only hope and pray that hank has the same miracle cure 🙂
we get him on thursday so i’ll let you know.
i’m so anxious to get him back.
much loves,
xo,
edie
That afghan is gorgeous! How precious of your Mother-in-law! Have fun eating and singing. Hope your evening is grand! Toodles, Kathryn from TheDedicatedHouse
I believe I just found what i’ve been looking for. Thank you! Earmarking this post immediately!
cheap oregon ducks jersey
Woah! I’m really digging the template/theme of this blog.
It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s challenging to get that “perfect balance”
between user friendliness and appearance.
I must say that you’ve done a superb job with this.
Also, the blog loads extremely fast for me on Internet explorer.
Superb Blog!
Good day! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a group of volunteers and
starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche.
Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on.
You have done a outstanding job!
You’re so interesting! I do not think I’ve read anything like that before.
So nice to discover somebody with unique thoughts on this subject.
Seriously.. thanks for starting this up. This site is something that’s needed on the web,
someone with some originality!
Otrohet erbjuder dig spänning som ԁu länge har missat.
Sök efter medlemmar från din stgad och ɗu kommer med all
sannolighet att hitta någon і din närhet.
Bara tanken av att träffa еn total främling för en het knullträff
på ett kanske sliskigt hotellrum borde få vilken kille
som helst att få ståkuk.
Greetings! I know this is kinda off topic nevertheless I’d
figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest writing a blog post or vice-versa?
My website discusses a lot of the same topics as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit
from each other. If you’re interested feel free to shoot me an email.
I look forward to hearing from you! Excellent blog by the way!
Today, I went to the beachfront with my kids.
I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter
and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and
screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear.
She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is
entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!
Both the models are the basic version of existing smart phones, the Galaxy Fame and Galaxy Trend.
You can even speak back your reply making it a truly voice controlled experience.
Here are the Specs and key features of this incredible Tablet:
.
But may also infect the mouth. City, Mexico.
I got this website from my buddy who shared with me about
this website and now this time I am visiting this site and reading very informative
articles at this time.