daily yarns 'n more

the rink

Where kids learn the skate.

Looking out the kitchen window down at the rink,

being reminded of our kids out on the rink in our backyard when they were growing up.

a trip down memory lane

but...no more

The before pictures of the beautiful golf course that we live by.  It's always been very peaceful to have a golf course close by...especially an 18 hole course.

I remember when the kids were small they used to go looking for golf balls.  They would come home and clean them up.  Later, they would go and set up at the edge of the golf course and sell the balls to the golfers.  It was a nice way for them to earn some money so that they could go to the candy store.  They didn't earn much but enough to satisfy their "sweet" tooth.

I'm still finding golf balls from time to time around this house and each time I think of the kids going to find them and the little business that they had.

But, no more.

Now, the after pictures of our beautiful golf course that is now being made into soccer fields and ball fields.

I don't think the park district people who are making this are very friendly.  Do you?

The wonderful tractors that we get to hear from just about sunup to sundown.

Now, normally I don't mind progress of any kind.  But, when there is no consideration for the people who are going to have to live next to this, that's when I start to have a problem.  Trees are being taken down for no apparent reason along the property lines.  Some people are going to have a clear view of this sports field who's property buts up right to it. 

We are lucky, we are 5 acres away from it.  And, the trees that are blocking the view for the 5 acres are on Farmer John's property, so they can't be touched.  We also have trees along the road which block the other 5 acres of land.  So in a lot of ways we are pretty lucky.

But, we are used to having no street lights in our neighborhood and at one time we had gravel roads.  Now we'll be having lights shining during baseball season as there will be 4 ball diamonds that will be hosting night games.  That's nothing though compared to what the traffic is going to be like.  Once word gets out that they can sneak through our neighborhood as a short cut.  They'll be coming past our house in droves to the 17+ soccer fields.

I guess I kind of thought that it would always be quiet and peaceful in our neighborhood.  We are tucked back in here and most people had no clue there were houses back here.  Whenever we had a delivery of some kind we had to draw a map for the delivery guy to find us and the delivery guy would always say "I never knew there were houses back here", when he got out of the truck.  It never failed, and I would think in my head that I would like to keep it that way. 

But, no more.

first mate of robin hood

Jim received this picture not long ago and I've been meaning to post it.

Starting from the left is Jim or Jamie as they used to call him, Reid D, and Jim's brother Eric.  The boys made bows & arrows, swords and shields, and on Jim's shield it's written...First mate of Robin Hood...Sire James T*****.

This picture was taken in front of Reid's home.

the creek

As the kids were growing up this creek was one of their spots that they used to play by.  Someone made this bridge so that they could cross the creek.  I don't think it was any of my kids who made it but it's been there for a while.

       

The creek also runs on the south side of the road where the old Golf Course used to be.  The Golf Course was also an old stomping ground for the kids.  Not only playing in the creek but finding golf balls to sell back to the golfers.  Sometimes I wish we had lived in town so that the kids could walk to places such as the library, parks etc.  But, then they would have missed out on having this for their playground. 

     

The snow looked neat on the long grass and weeds.  It almost looked like noodles to me.  I know I'm enjoying the snow (what little bit we have) right now and probably by February or March I'll be pretty tired of it.  But, for now I'll enjoy it's beauty. 

September 1985

Pete, Jason, Elaine and Carri

I am having fun going through my old photos.  We don't have too many pictures of when we built our house but I came across this one.  We actually had 6 children when we were building, Josh was a year old and Jake was only a few weeks old when this picture was taken. 

When Jim was working on the house in the evening I would feed the kids at home and then bring dinner out to him.  They didn't stay too clean when we went out there.  Lots of dirt hills to climb and play on.

The years just flew by.

A few weeks ago I was digging looking around in my closet and came across one of the folders that I had when we built our house.  This folder was used after we moved into our house.  I kept all kinds of things in this folder, like our house plans, pamphlets from the place where we got our wood stove, kitchen cabinet pamphlets, that I would look through to decided which cabinets I wanted and where, and oodles of other things. 

This morning I started to look for another folder that I kept all of my clippings from magazines that I had cut out.  That folder I used when we were building our house.  Things that I saw and would like to put in the house, or have done to our house, I kept in that folder.

Here is the list of projects that needed to be done when we moved in.  The list was pretty long.  I could cross off more things from that list now.  Jennifer really got me thinking about when we were building our house, and when I've been reading her blog, I thought about the folder I had come upon a few weeks ago.

A couple of magazines I found that I obviously bought when we were slowly finishing off our house.

Note the years on these magazines, 1989 & 1990.  We moved in our house in June of 1986.  I guess you could say that I'm a bit of a pack rat.  Who saves magazines this long?  Me that's who.  I so have a hard time throwing things away.

Wow, I even made lists back then.  I guess I made lists for everything.

So Jennifer, if you can read my list of projects we didn't have a whole lot done when we moved into our house.

I remember when...

my kids used to fight over the toy that came in the cereal boxes.  That is no more. I wonder if the toy even makes it out of the box sometimes, before it goes in the garbage.

Yesterday was a busy day.  I ended up babysitting for Elaine in the morning.  Ran to get some more yarn and a few things.  It was snowing to beat the band, and the roads were not the greatest driving on.

I started on my crocheting project.  I want to finish that so I can use it.  I didn't finish everything on my Monday's list.  So maybe today I will finish it up.  Today is office day, and Jim informs me there is a lot that is waiting for me up there.  Thus my day is looking like it's going to be a busy day.

Lately I have been dreaming of a bigger sewing room.  I am kind of a pack rat when it comes to fabric.  I can't even throw out the scraps if it's big enough.  My thinking is, someday, just someday, I know I will be able to use it.  So needless to say I have piles everywhere, but my piles are taking over my little sewing corner.  So, I am dreaming of something like this maybe, with lots of room, and lots of windows to let the sun shine in.  I know I don't have room for this, but it doesn't hurt to dream.

So with my dream I will leave you.

You all have a great day.

advent calendars...

When our children were small, I always got an Advent Calendar for them.  Have you ever seen them?  There are 24 windows to open up and each window has a piece of chocolate behind the window.  Each day they would take turns opening up a window and getting that piece of chocolate.  So basically it averaged out that each child got to open 2 windows in the month of December, when there were 11 children still under one roof.  What in the world was I thinking, they aren't that expensive to buy.  Why didn't I just get each child their own Advent Calendar.  When I think back to why, I guess I can't really find the answer.  Maybe it was that I didn't want 11 Advent Calendars hanging around my house, who knows.  I got the idea many moons ago from my mother-in-law, who always had one for her children.  Maybe that is where the "only one" advent calendar came from.  I just know that was how it was. 

Now as you can see there are 5 advent calendars.  One is for one child who doesn't even live at home anymore.  I guess these last 5 children of mine are pretty spoiled.  I do know the kids would look forward to me getting the Advent Calender, and fight over who gets to get the first one, but more importantly who gets to get the one on December 24th.  Talking to my dear husband about this, I said how dumb it was for me to have bought just one.  He remarked about how it really taught the kids to share and maybe helped them to have patience.  So maybe some good did come out of buying only one.

With Thanksgiving over the house is quiet.  Jason, Kate and the baby are gone back home.  Dan is still the only one left, he'll be leaving tomorrow.  The leftovers are going fast.  I do have mashed potatoes left, I may make a shepherd's pie out of them.  I tried getting a Christmas card picture taken.  When I say tried, I mean I did take the picture, but.....someone almost always doesn't like how they look {I'll guarantee is isn't the boys either}. 

Calgon take me away......Far away......I am not sure what I am going to do.  I'll try one more time, but the boys are getting pretty tired of their picture being taken.  Five children young adults, ages ranging from 14 years to 21 years, and I had better luck getting a Christmas card picture taken when they were much younger and all 11 of them were in the picture.  So back to the drawing board it is, and I am off to go sew.

Have a wonderful weekend. 

graffiti...

I was waiting in the cell phone parking lot at the Airport until Phil called that he was off the plane and had his luggage.  I watched at least 3 trains go by.  This one stopped, and I just had to take a picture of the graffiti.  I think graffiti is cool.  Not that I approve of defacing peoples property.  I just think it's cool.  I guess that is the artist in me.  It's too bad the people who do this (and the name of it escapes me right now, what they call it when people do graffiti) can't put it to good use.  Some of these guys can be pretty creative.  It seems like when I was a kid, that there was more graffiti around.  Maybe now if it happens they clean it up. 

The other day I came across some of my sketches from high school, it brought back lots of memories for me.  I took Art every year of high school, in every semester.  When Erin started high school, she was picking classes.  I encouraged her to take Art, as I have with some of the other kids.  Big mistake.  When she got her schedule she just insisted that she didn't want Art.  I just couldn't figure out why.  Why wouldn't she want an Art class.  Erin told me, "I can't draw." I said, "So, everyone can draw", she said "No they can't."  I said "Yes they can."  It went on like that, until Becky had to interrupt and say, "No Mom, everyone can't draw."  That was just too mind boggling for me to fathom, that, not everyone can draw.  Not that I am a Picasso or anything, but I can draw a frog, and it will look like a frog.  I just figured so could my kids, or everyone else.

So I had to call the school and hope that I could change her Art class to something else.  Sometimes this is not easy to do at this late date, when schedules are all set.  The counselor, was pretty happy to make the switch.  I guess there was a waiting list to get into this Art class, so Erin made a young freshman pretty happy.  So instead of having a fun easy class, she had a History class (or something dull like that).  Go figure.

You all have a great day.