You and your dd look happy! Glad you had fun!

Happy birthday! It sounds like you had a good day. Your children sound sweet. :) Hope your mouth heals quickly!

We like the book, Me, the Professor, Fuzzy & the Meaning of Life by David Pensgard. It's a quick read with a deep but simple message.

Still keeping your family in my prayers. Thank you, Janeway, for asking. We have not forgotten David.

So glad things are continuing to go ok for you. I'll keep praying.

"Why are we cleaning? Is someone coming to visit?" The children are shocked when I say that, no, the house is dirty and needs cleaning just because. Hope your son enjoyed his guest!

Awesome! Thrift store finds are so fun. I agee that your pic is gorgeous. :)

I agree with Luckymama - get it replaced.

Wonderful! Congrats to your dd, and to Mom, too. :)

So happy for you! Praying this rolls over to a long term position for him easily.

So glad to hear about the picc line and the pumping success! We are encouraged by your small victories. Praying for his lungs and overall strength.

Keeping you and your mom in my prayers, Creekland. (((Hugs)))

I'm in zone 6b, and the latest I've planted garlic is the end of November. That said, I would give it a try as long as the cloves are not shriveled. Mulch it well to keep the soil from freezing as quickly. If your soil isn't too cold it may have time to put out roots before the ground freezes hard, which is the goal of fall planting. You will have the best chance with hardneck varieties that were previously grown in cold regions. Good luck!

Praying. Hoping you both had a good night.

I highly recommend Pam Dawling's book, Sustainable Market Farming. It's geared to small and medium sized growers, but its information is directly applicable to home gardens. Another great title is Cindy Conner's Grow a Sustainable Diet. Both of these ladies have blogs with a lot of useful information

Glad your ds is home. That poor girl and her family. That is absolutely terrible.

Congrats to all! Dd is a 3rd year PhD student, and she passed her Prelims and got a paper published this semester. She is working on another one that she hopes to submit right after the holidays. Ds finished his first semester as an undergrad with a 4.0 in 18 credits. He had 8 classes and learned a lot about being organized. His favorite prof, his proofs professor, asked him to work on research next semester, so he is excited about that. And to top it all off, yesterday he was offered a summer internship. Hooray!

Wow, what an amazing miracle! Thank you for sharing and keeping us updated. We will be praying for your amazing new little one and for your family.

I went to high school down the street from that place. I only cut class once - to go get ice cream at h's!

We have often have 30-40 people for Thanksgiving dinner. A 23 lb. turkey with the usual sides and desserts will feed 30 people, but you will have very little left over - enough for soup. For more than 30 we have ham as well. Ham slices heat well in the crock pot on low for several hours; for easy serving separate them beforehand. I use several crock pots for sides like green beans, mashed potatoes, and gravy and have a buffet. A crock pot is especially nice for gravy because I really like tit hot, and I do not like refilling those dinky gravy boats. I have done frozen pies like Lucy suggests, and it works well. Good luck!

Ds got a ride home on Friday afternoon, so he missed Saturday morning's ice storm. His school is only 3 1/2 hours away, and we are fortunate that he can ride with a friend. They have a great time traveling together. When friend graduates next December, ds will be able to hopefully ride with his cousin, who plans to attend the same school next year. Ds has been sleeping a lot due to burning the candle at both ends - he got to sleep at 1:30 AM Friday morning after watching Rogue One with friends, then took his last exam at 8 AM the same day. Oy! Dd is in grad school in GA and is flying in on Wednesday. We haven't seen her since June and can't wait! I hope all the remaining travelers make their way home safely. ETA: Fixed typo.

Ham is just fine frozen, not quite as good as freshly purchased, but my family doesn't mind. I recently bought a large one and froze it in about 10 packages: chunks for mac and cheese, slices for sandwiches and main dishes, and the ham bone for soup. I love being able to pull out a package from the freezer. It's the closest thing we get to fast food in our house. :)

Does the local creamery's name start with an "h"? If so, I love that place! They have the best ice cream cakes.

Congratulations! What a great Christmas present!

Since I've met you in person, I am imagining the scenario involving you responding to her greeting with your usual nice tone of voice and friendly smile, so you weren't being grouchy and "complainy." I believe she should have responded in kind. She sounds like she is overly proud of how tolerant she is of the cold and wasn't being customer-friendly. I would have found her attitude rather annoying.