Quite a few years ago I made a family cookbook as a gift for my children and family members. It was a labor of love.
I enjoyed picking out the scrapbook paper and gathering the recipes and pictures. It is a collection of our favorites and we still like to refer to it as we choose our dishes to make.
Here is the recipe for Don’s chocolate cake.
Sean and Sara proudly wearing their school shirts. Their mommy teaches first grade at the same school. Today Sean is going to medical clinic. He ate some fresh pineapple yesterday and they believe that is the cause of a rash and hives all over his body.
The sun is out today and much warmer than the forty one yesterday. Today was the semiannual changing of the closet. Out come the winter clothes. Don has kept himself busy making a chocolate cake from scratch. When we were dating he had the recipe memorized and once in a while would make one at my house. This cake is so moist it doesn't even need frosting. If you want the recipe just let me know.
I love decorating for Autumn. I’d like to show you some of the things I’ve put out for the season. 
I still have some of my blue and white pieces on the mantle and added the arch which is outside in the summer. Our winters do not permit us to keep things out in that awful weather so I bring this in. 
I made the banner this year. I googled Autumn banners printable and found this one. It was so easy…just print and cut. 
The piano also has some fall touches with a garland, a mercury glass pumpkin and a lantern. 
Decorating the baker’s rack is always so much fun. I added pumpkins, berries, and flowers this year. 
The table in the sunroom has one of my favorite arrangements. 
Here are a few more touches around the sunroom. 
I hope you enjoyed our little tour.
Isn't this a lovely portrait? On the right is my art teacher Adriana Hernandez along with her twin girls. Adriana painted this picture in oils and brought it to our Literary Club meeting.
Adriana is very talented and has a Masters of Fine Arts degree. She and her best friend have opened an art studio here in Bradford. I am happy to be taking art lessons from her.
Our first Literary Club meeting is always so nice. it is held at the Pennhills Club and the food is first rate. One of our memebers who is a foodie pours through her recipe books and tells the chef what to make. Today we had a salad of watermelon cubes with feta cheese and basil. The main course for me was chicken with carmelized onions with gruyere cheese and cinnamon sweet potato rounds. For dessert was an orange scooped out and filled with a blueberry and orange frozen ice with a toasted meringe crust.
There was a roaring fire in the fireplace and we needed it. It's very cold and windy here today.
Scott is my oldest son Chris' youngest son. He is an excellent artist and photographer. He is so creative and is a computer whiz too. He is beginning his third year of college and getting a degree in graphic arts. It's not often these days I get to sit and have a long conversation with him so I loved my visit the other day.
I love traveling and I love visiting my family. But it's nice to be back home. My hubby must have missed me as he had a dozen pink roses waiting for me. I missed him too. He is a homebody but doesn't mind if I take off. I want to do as much traveling as I can now. My hips are arthritic and may reach a time when all that walking won't be possible.
Tonight is my second art lesson. Last week I tried an oil painting for the first time in ages. It felt good to have a paint brush back in my hand and those two hours went so fast.
Tomorrow is the opening luncheon for the Women's Literary .club. We meet from October to March every Friday. Tomorrow's guest speaker is none other than my new art teacher. It is held at our country club and it's so nice to see all the girls again.
I stopped at Jan William's a gift store/ florist while at Linda's. It's one of my favorite spots and I never come out empty handed. I got this little pick of apples. Ok, maybe they are persimmons.
I also bought. A few feathers. I added it to a vase with glass tubes and a little bird on the top.
In case you can't see the thermometer it's forty eight degrees out this morning. It won't be long until we have our first frost. My goal for today is to finish putting away the outdoor furniture.
On my way home I am making a stop at Chris' house to visit and see his new house. It's nice to spend time with Scott, Chris' youngest son. He is in his third year of college pursuing a degree in graphic arts.
This is Zoe...voted the best dog in the world. She is like having a stuffed animal...you can play with her when you want to but otherwise you never know she is there. She doesn't bug you or anything. Such a change from Sadie.
Jeff is giving Diane tech support.
Diane and Linda exchanged birthday gifts. Today Linda goes back to work and tomorrow I head for home.
After an afternoon of shopping we enjoyed dinner at a wonderful authentic Italian restaurant. The owner...with a delightful accent...made us feel at home and the service was impeccable. Great Italian music played in the background as we talked and laughed. I had the lasagna, Diane got eggplant parmigiana and Linda had chicken Marsala. All were delicious. Today Diane's husband Jeff is coming over and we will do dinner and a movie.
L
To appreciate the imperfect. Tammy had a great post today...see sidebar..Peanut on the Table...about wabi sabi.
Broadly, wabi-sabi is everything that today’s sleek, mass-produced, technology-saturated culture isn’t. It’s flea markets, not shopping malls; aged wood, not swank floor coverings; one single morning glory, not a dozen red roses. Wabi-sabi understands the tender, raw beauty of a gray December landscape and the aching elegance of an abandoned building or shed. It celebrates cracks and crevices and rot and all the other marks that time and weather and use leave behind. To discover wabi-sabi is to see the singular beauty in something that may first look decrepit and ugly.
Wabi-sabi reminds us that we are all transient beings on this planet—that our bodies, as well as the material world around us, are in the process of returning to dust. Nature’s cycles of growth, decay, and erosion are embodied in frayed edges, rust, liver spots. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace both the glory and the melancholy found in these marks of passing time.
From Utune.com
Wabi sabi reminds us to appreciate simple things that may be worn or cracked. One of my very favorite things is a wooden bowl that my parents gave me. It had a crack that my father repaired. That little piece of metal us a reminder to me of my father and the pride he took in fixing things instead of throwing them away. I love running my fingers on this bowl and feeling the texture
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