Goodies

Today was a day of goodies. Some edible, some not. First the non-edible:

Stained glass by my friend Deb.

Sunday evening we had an art/talent show at our church. My children sang a 'comedic musical number'. They did a rendition of a 1950's duck and cover song, complete with 50's clothes. It was a hoot! Part of the art show was a silent auction of select pieces with all the proceeds going to our local homeless shelter. I was fortunate to win the stained glass piece pictured above, made by one of my friends. I have a thing for trees and thought she did a nice job. She has only been doing this for two years as a hobby and this was one of her first attempts at etching glass.

The other goodies of the day are edibles. My parents stopped by late this afternoon to drop off some things for us from their farm.

Winter squash for storage.

Apples!!!

There weren't as many apples as I expected or hoped for- only about a bushel. They had a late frost that affected the size of the crop and Dad says that the apples they do have just aren't as nice (more blemishes) and aren't keeping as well as usual- maybe due to the weird weather this year. They have made trips in the past few weeks to my sisters- one in Colorado and one in Maryland- on the annual apple run. Today's trip was to my aunt and uncle who live an hour North of us and to my brother and I. This is their last delivery trip and they are glad of it. They have been storing the apples in their garage and are happy to have them gone so they can light their wood burning furnace which is also in the garage. They do have backup propane heat that they have been using but rely mainly on wood.

Oh, and I almost forgot. My sister in Maryland sent hand-me-down snow pants from her children (who are now both in college!) that are sizes for all three of my children. Woo Hoo!!! One less thing to worry about this year!! I'm glad that she is as bad as me and never gets rid of anything. My kids tend to be pretty hard on their snow pants and we generally have to replace them every year, even if they haven't grown out of them. I've never been able to hand down snow pants from one boy to the next. Which I'm okay with, really, because it means that they are outside playing rather than parked in front of a TV like so many other children their age.

Thanks for all the well wishes for our health. I12 is feeling much better this evening. Whatever this is, it seems to respond quite well to giving yourself permission to sleep for 12-16 hours straight. K9 seems to be holding his own and hasn't been complaining today so we'll see. V actually thinks he may have had it even before I did because he complained of feeling really tired and achy a while ago.