Two pillows shams and coffee table cloth made from this fabric. I am now trading out the newborn and 0-3 month size patterns for T's baby clothes. He has gained a lb so he is up to 5 lbs 3 oz, and I figure close to 6 lbs by the time he is released from the hospital. The one newborn size is up to 7 lbs, and we already do have some preemie clothes for him. So I think I will make just a few outfits in newborn, and then make some in 0-3 month which he won't even start wearing until April. Then we will Ser what his grpwth pattern is after that so I know of I should make more that size or go larger for the rest of summer.

The worst funeral planning decision my mom made was to have is service right away. We were all exhausted from caring for him and needed nothing more than sleep. On top of which, she could have paid cash for the expenses if we had waited foe the life insurance to come in. Instead, she put it on a credit card and the funeral home added on a credit card premium fee to cover their end of that and it was something like $1500 on a $7500 funeral. We will be doing a private service at home for Mark's mom when she passes, a month or two after it happens so everyone has time to plan the best weekend for the most folks. 25 people, backyard barbecue, sing her favorite hymns, reminisce, no pastor, no funeral home, no church fees. Everyone really likes this plan. I have friends who did hat when their mother died, and they said they will never go back to large, public events. It was so uplifting to just have the closest family and friends be able to share and interact, and grieve in private but also celebrate her life. And the food wad a lot better because they were providing for a small group instead of hundreds. They saved tons of money, and have far better memories of the event than any public, family funerals they have attended. So we are taking their advice. I think families need to do what works best for the immediate family, and what is easily afforded. Much of what is considered "traditional" today has been manufactured by the funeral for-profit industry to convince everyone they are missing out and doing wrong by the community when in fact it isn't necessarily rooted in anything other than profit generation.

A favorite of mine is to take a cup of orange lentils and a cup of finally chopped carrots. Cook in vegetable broth (any off the shelf brand works) and add a tablespoon of cumin, garlic to taste, salt to taste and serve with rice and salad. It takes about an hour on the stove top with occasional simmering. Do it like Anne Burrell. BTBRTS. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer. Fresh veggies or salad to go with. Very hearty and healthy, tasty too.

All of my crafting got put on hold when I made the mad dash to Alabama because our grandson was born six weeks early. I just made the long drive home yesterday to take a two week break. My mom is there in my place. Today I am making spring pillow covers for the couch and matching table cloth for the coffer table. It is not spring. I know. It is February. It is raining, NOT snowing, and grey and nasty like November. Ugh. I decided I need something springy in my life so I making up the new fabric and will put it out and not care that it is out of season. I will post photos when I get them done. Right now I am taking a coffee break!

Today I made granola and yogurt bowls with dried fruit for breakfast and a dribble of maple syrup. Lunch: peanut butter and apple slices, celery sticks with cream cheese and sunflower seeds, blueberries and grapes. The kids ate that well. Dinner: chicken Mediterranean bowls. I also fried some tofu. There was a choice of greens - spinach, butter lettuce, arugula - and then herbed quinoa for the base, plus dried grape tomatoes, chopped red pepper, green olives, and cucumbers. I made hummus, and had tahini and Greek yogurt on the side. I didn't expect the children to eat well, but they did, and then they were handsomely rewarded with some coconut ice cream. My taster is still off. The arugula tasted horribly bitter to me even though I normally like it. I did okay though with butter lettuce, red pepper, and olives, but the spinach and cucumbers were brutally awful. I could have eaten a bottomless well of hummus!

I like to take leftover !ashes potatoes, form into a patty with some egg to hold it together, but aqua faba would work as well, and fry in a pan. I do not often take the time to do it, but absolutely love it when I do.

When the laws of physics and the laws of children collide! 😂😂😂

I am so sorry! Feel better soon.

There is one in our neighborhood at the convenience store. I have kept it supplied with all kinds of quality things that probably makes the local crowd hate me with the fire of a thousand suns. For kids: Marlon Bundo, Worm Loves Worm, A Wrinkle in Time, Harry Potter and the Sorcerors Stone Teens/Adults: Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, Maus, HandMaids Tale, Of Mice and Men. The books disappeared shortly after I placed them in their respective lending libraries. I have no idea if they were taken home and read by others, or if some nosy fellow got rid of them. No, Bill. I did not donate a copy of Moby Dick.

I am very aware of human facilitated plant sex. That said, I have never done this because I don't know how to get the consent of my plants. 😁

Sunday: Breakfast: made vegan biscuits which I have never done before but this way son in law with all the food allergies could eat them. Made turkey bacon and plant based sausage to go with, and served with oranges. Highly popular with the crowd! Lunch: boiled eggs, leftover chilli for whomever wanted it, fresh veggie and fruit platter, bowl of pistachios, mini bagels with vegan cream cheese. Seemed like everyone ate well. Supper: Dd was hungry for veggie stew. But that was not a great choice for the little guys or their dad. I roasted some carrots and chicken for them, and put out a bowl of mango chunks. They ate that well. I made an absolutely gourmet, if I do say so myself, veggie soup and dd, myself, and my mom ate that.with the leftover biscuits. Very yummy!

You rocked it!!! 😍

Its these Gen Z kids refusing to reproduce. 😠

That is awesome! Dd is going to buy a couple of Meyer Lemon trees and try to grow them as houseplants.

Oh my gosh, well if I can sneak a couple of them down here when he isn't looking, I will. I mean, sometimes I think the kiwis could use some shade, and they are planted down by the fence so I could easily a fix parachutes to the fence! 😂😂😂😂😂

We need to fight for full civil rights for same sex plants!

This is great!!!

Boy, I hate it when tempestuous plants do NOT respond to verbal abuse! They should be like my students, and do what I tell them to do! 😁

Blueberries are notorious about not handling more than say fours of direct sun. In the wild, they grow I. Low lying areas always near stands of trees so they have afternoon shade and plenty of water. When I would go blueberrying with my dad as a child, I and to wear galoshes/wellies because our favorite spot was the trail that lead to the swamp on state land. It wad always wet/spongy. I laughingly told Mark that if I had to cut the tree down, I would be suspending several of our certification, high power rocketry parachutes over them. Those chutes are anywhere from 5ft-10ft diameter. He was not amused.

I would love to see a picture of it!

Thanks for letting me know. My knowledge is ALL Michigan. So I have a lot of learning to do. We didn't plant any pears. But I know my husband would like to. I had no idea about the Bradford pears. He would want something that produces an anjou type pear. However, I am not sure any would grow this far south.

So in Michigan, it is Antarctic at the moment. According to Mark, the basil, mint, oregano, and green onions are still going okay in the window. He had put a plant light on them to help because it has been so grey all the time. At shan gra la, the mountain house in Bama, the sun is shining and it is up to 60 degrees. I found the raspberry plants, put in the second week of October were buried in 4 ft deep wet leaves that had blown that far and gotten caught on the fence we made for them to grow on. I have raked all of that out, and the canes look okay. Phew! The leaves are now in a pile free of the fence with eh wind slowly blowing them down into the cove. The fig and kiwi may not have survived that insane cold, ice storm mess at Christmas here. The kids were visiting his parents in P.A. when it happened so they were uncovered. It is a wait and see, but I am not holding out hope. The pomegranate, nectarine, and peach trees all looked pretty good, and the blueberry bushes have new growth, so does the grapevine. They were in a protected area of the yard so potentially did better for that reason. Mark is coming at the end of the month to make two raised beds for green beans, and two raised beds for tomatoes. To be honest, with a new baby, a premature new baby, I do not see dd being able to handle more than that. She does have strawberry plants coming back in containers on the back deck. So I think that will be the extent of her gardening.

As for them getting started as invasives, I doubt it. The previous homeowners planted it 15 years ago, and they told me they had to seriously amend the soil and create a habitat for it to thrive. The natural soil is NOT amenable to it. So it had been here for 15 and producing for 10, and my guess that birds dropping seeds is NOT a worry. There have been no new starts in the yard, and we have the only Mulberry on the road. None anywhere that can be seen, no complaints for the neighbors. I am guessing that when the birds drop the seeds, they fall on soil that doesn't work for germination. I grew up with mulberries. Our neighbor across the road had about six huge Mulberry trees. We played underneath them, barefoot, and so my mom would get upset because we had purple feet for part of the summer. The neighbor never harvested a single berry. But I used to take a bucket to my mom, and she would mix them with sliced strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries to make a five berry pie which my dad thought was the end all and be all of pastry cuisine!

The lichen is not new, just more of it than last year. Thanks! I will call the extension office on Monday. If they confirm, I will run down to the family farm supply at the bottom of our mountain (absolutely LOVE the family that bought it and is operating it), and ask if they have fruit tree fertilizer stakes. I am more than happy to give her food. My grandson Nathan said that if I even thought about cutting that tree down, he was going to chain himself to it!!! I nearly died. Hilarious. I had no idea he had any idea how people protest to preserve trees!

Does anyone know what this is? This is all over the two Mulberry trees at the Alabama house. I am quite concerned because we have fig, kiwi, nectarine, peach, and pomegranate trees planted, and I do not want it to spread. I am also concerned about cutting down the Mulberry tress for two reasons: last year they were still giving a ton of berries which the kids eat like they are trees producing candy canes, and two, they provide deep shade for the blueberries bushes of which there was ven nice producing bushes. There is no way those blueberries are going to make it in 100 degree North Alabama direct sun. They must have shade. So if we have to cut them down to stop the fungus, what would be your suggestion for creating a shade canopy for the blueberries this year? I thought about creating a simple, square wood frame, and placing white agricultural fabric over it, but I am not sure that is as much shade as the denseness of the leaves on those mature trees and wondered if we would need to do something like a straw, thatched roof.