Progress report

This is the "before" picture of the end of our house. The trees make all the pictures dark and shadowy.

In process. Aluminum siding stripped off, rotten trim board replaced, new windows installed. We (I say that like I had anything whatsoever to do with it) added OSB over the old Celotex walls, then wrapped Tyvek over that. Already the house seems warmer and stronger. By stronger I mean the new door in the laundry room that my very dear brother installed doesn't make that whole end of the house shake when it gets closed. A huge improvement!

The "after" shot. The front still needs siding once our front door comes in (hopefully today-we'll see).

Then there's the living room end of the house. Sigh. That is not going so well. We are waiting on the window people to construct three stock windows into one unit to replace our large LR window.

Our smaller LR window, though, is what's really discouraging. It is installed but defective. They promised Clarence a replacement that was to arrive last Friday. Saturday morning, he took the defective window out, drove it over to their store, bought a couple things we still needed and went to have the replacement loaded. It wasn't there. I was NOT happy when he then had to spend more hours re-installing the defective window.

They are supposed to send a tech over to see what they need to do to fix it but that isn't going to happen until at least next week. Clarence had no choice but to proceed because the scaffolding had to go back Tuesday and the siding needed to be finished while the scaffolding was available. We are less than thrilled with the customer service we've received from the window place. A simple phone call saying the window didn't come in would have saved hours of work. Not to mention, having bought brand-name windows, I don't want a repaired window, I want the quality I paid for.

Things are on hold for now. The house is a wreck, inside and out, while we wait for the remaining door and windows. Drywall still needs repair inside and I am currently refusing to even think about paint.

Instead, I'm planning on a girl's getaway weekend next week with my girls and my best friend, going to see more good friends. Aah, now I'm starting to feel better.

Copping out?

I didn't officially commit to posting every day this month but thought I'd try to do it, even without joining nablopomo.

If I link you to Miss Paula to see the package she won in my giveaway, rather than writing a "real" blog entry, is it a cop out?

Hopefully, you'll forgive me for my non-post.

There's always next year

We tried growing sweet potatoes this year. Gurneys sells a variety that is supposed to grow in the north, so we decided to try them. Unfortunately, they were back-ordered and we didn't get them until almost a month after our intended planting date.



We kept them fairly protected through our frosts and freezes until last week, when we decided to let the plants die and see what we got from them.

It was a disappointment.

However, don't all gardeners have failures and just chalk them up to experience? And don't gardeners then say "Next year will be different"?

Like typical gardeners, optimistic to the end, we may try growing them again next year. We'll see how good our memories are when it's time to order seeds.

Latest Leta pics

Last night we celebrated the birthdays of Clarence's mom, my stepdaughter, and her husband. We were late for the ladies' birthdays and early for our son-in-law's special day.

Leta came along with her parents, which was fun for all of us.

She started entertaining us by putting straws in her hair.




She is fond of sour things so she was sucking on the lemon slices we didn't use in our water.

Grandpa got her to come and sit on his lap for a few minutes.

Not long, though, because she's a busy girl!

Paul White

I clicked this picture yesterday of our friend Paul.

We met Paul when he was in high school. He has since graduated from college and worked his way into full time music ministry.



It was "Friends Day" at our church yesterday but we decided we'd be going to see our friend-at another church.

Paul happened to be singing in Owosso, which happens to be where the restaurant is that serves our favorite Chicago-style pizza. A winning combination, for sure. We enjoyed Paul's concert, and having a chance to catch up on his life a little, then went to Roma's for lunch.

Paul's voice has only gotten better and better through the years. We love hearing him and enjoy seeing him minister to people. If you ever have a chance to catch him in concert, be sure you check him out.

School pictures

A drawback of homeschooling, for me anyhow, is that there is no letter sent home informing you that it's time for school pictures. Send the kids off with money and an order form and a few weeks later, pictures magically show up in the kids' backpacks.

I think my girls missed getting pictures taken for the entire year a few years ago. Bad mom.

This year, I decided to try taking them myself. I am not much of a photographer but my camera does a really nice job so I thought it was worth a try.

These are what we ended up with. I'm pretty pleased with them and was thrilled with the price of enlargements from Sam's Club. We got what we normally would have ordered in two "package" deals for less than $20.00.

School pictures? Check. Now we can go on with our school year.

Please pass the...

This weekend's recipe swap at Today's Housewife is dessert recipes.

I'm sharing a recipe I got years ago from a friend at work. The beauty of this cake is that it is actually better if you make it a day ahead of time. Not that it isn't good the day you make it but the flavors seem to magically blend overnight and make it even better.

This is so easy to mix up, I usually just use a wooden spoon and leave the mixer in the cupboard. I've replaced part of the oil with applesauce to cut the fat a bit. Feel free to make the full fat version if you want. ;-)

Chocolate Cherry Cake


2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
21 ounces cherry pie filling
6 ounces chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts, Optional (I've never used them.)

1. Combine flour, sugar, oil, applesauce, eggs, vanilla, baking soda & cinnamon; mix well. Stir in pie filling, chocolate chips, and nuts (if using).
2. Pour into greased and floured bundt or tube pan. Bake at 350 F for 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Sprinkle top with confectioner's sugar, if desired (I always do).