Fall Beauty

Day by day the trees are looking prettier and prettier.

Even a cloudy overcast day doesn't take away from the beauty that is fall when this was taken last week.

 

I don't often get the urge to jump out of a vehicle and walk up a road, but everything about this called me to do just that. This was taken yesterday. Judging by how fast the leaves are changing another week will be showing a lot of bare trees.

I love this time of year!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. It's fall. Y'all. My favorite season of the year! What's something you love to do this time of year that makes you feel it's officially fall? And unrelated to that, do you ever say-'y'all'?

Plan all the sewing/craft things I want to get done by spring. The list looks quite different from what it used to while I was growing up and it used to include thirty or more shirts, lots of pants, a few dresses, several coats and a Sunday suit or two for my brothers before we got to the more fun things like potholders and quilts.

I have been working on my list already for this winter, I'm getting excited! It includes no shirt, pants, or dresses. Though the girls each want a new skirt or two before we dive into the more fun things.

No, I never say y'all.

2. When did you last have a falling out with someone? Has it been resolved?

I can't think of a falling out I've had with anyone.

3. A song you love with the word 'fall' in it's title?

This is a rare occurrence, but my mind is drawing a complete blank. I can't think of a single song with the word fall in its title.

4. What's something you've recently let 'fall by the wayside?'

Keeping our storage room organized. It's so easy to simply tell one of the children to get or take something to the storage room, but they don't seem as worried about keeping things neat. I've been working on getting it back in shape, hopefully by tonight I'll have it conquered once more.

5. When did you last attend an event, read a book, watch a movie, try a new recipe, or visit a shop-town-tourist attraction that fell short of your expectations? In what way?

Yesterday. We found a bread recipe on Pinterest. It looked good, I had all the ingredients on hand, so we decided to give it a try. It was awful! Tasted like dusty peanut butter-y cardboard. I promptly removed the pin from my breads board and it now joins several others on my "Tried-FAIL" board.

I try tons of things I find on Pinterest. Thankfully the fails so far have been few.
 

6. Describe a time you said or thought, 'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

I find myself doing and saying things my mother used to. So I guess you could say I'm the apple that didn't fall too far from the tree.
 

7. Was today better than yesterday? Why or why not?

Today is only beginning. Yesterday was a good day, but if today is even better I'll be fine with that.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

With this being a fall themed Hodgepodge I can't think of a more fitting way to finish this post than sharing a few fall-sy pictures we took yesterday.

"Fendu"

"Fendu", pronounced fend you, is the Pennsylvania Dutch word for an auction.

Often when grandparents pass away the children and grandchildren will gather for a private fendu to sell all of their belongings. Each hoping to be able to take home a few treasured pieces, whether furniture, dishes, quilts, books, or toys.

This summer the fendu for my grandparents things was held at one of my aunts homes. All the Amish aunts, uncles, and cousins gathered for the occasion. We weren't informed about the event until it was over. We wouldn't have been able to go any way since it was during the time chicken pox were visiting our home. But I would have liked to be able to have a few things that used to belong to them.

My grandmother loved pretty things. She used to buy the most interesting and lovely toys for her grandchildren to play with, but then was so afraid they might make it look used and no longer as pretty as it used to be that she kept everything tucked away.

Most of her toys, not a single grandchild remembered ever seeing. Without fun memories attached to them, they were a lot less valuable. The few toys that we all used to play with brought a pretty penny as did all her beautiful dishes.

One of my cousins called to tell me all about the event told me how amazed they were at the amount of things Grandma used to have that no even knew about until that day. I was reminded that things are so temporal, and should be enjoyed now. When I die, I don't want my children discovering hoards of beautiful things for the very first time. I would rather have well worn, memory saturated things, than loads of meaningless things that the only memory attached to it would be that of someone who valued perfection too much.

A Visitor

A few days ago this thing came visiting. After being escorted a nice distance away it made its way back surprisingly fast and totally unsettled everyone involved.

Don't think the picture does this thing justice in just how icky it is.

Have you ever seen one like it, and do you know what it is? Would it turn into some type of exquisitely beautiful moth or butterfly? Or would it get even uglier?

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Joyce, the creator of the Wednesday Hodgepodge is having a birthday this week so a question relating to aging feels appropriate. Douglas MacArthur is quoted as saying, 'You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair." Would you agree? If not why not?

I agree to a certain extent. The mind has a lot of power to keep you feeling young, but there are some things my body simply won't allow me to do that I used to when I was younger, no matter how young my mind is telling me I am.

2. What remarkable feat, interesting piece of trivia, or historical event occurred on your birth day and month? Not necessarily in your birthyear, just the same date/same month.

I'm going to go with the month rather than just the day.

• The Pony Express service began.
• Abraham Lincoln was shot.
• The Titanic sank.
• The midnight ride of Paul Revere occurred.
• The Oklahoma land rush began.
• George Washington became President.

3. Describe a time or circumstance where you wanted to 'have your cake and eat it too.'

Yesterday, when a lovely cake was made, but since I'm avoiding sugar I didn't have any.

4. What's something you do that makes you feel young? Something that makes you feel old?

Helping Buddy color in his coloring books always makes me feel young. Realizing just how old our children are, makes me feel old. In fact were we still Amish, Sailor would have graduated from school already.

5. When did you last do something that was 'a piece of cake'?

Rosebud and Sunbeam wanted to make an assortment of paper lanterns to hang in their room. I reached back into my memory of when we made them in art class in school. We successfully made them, and they turned out quite pretty.

6.  Beef, wine, and cheese all improve with age. What's something else you'd add to that list? (not necessarily food or beverage) 

Love, marriage.

Not saying it isn't great at the beginning, but it does keep getting better with age.

7. If Joyce were to have a giveaway when we hit Volume 200, what should she give away? By my calculations we'll hit Volume 200 on November 26th, the day before Thanksgiving, which means whoever wins would have whatever it is in time for Christmas.

Hmmm....... Maybe a journal and a book of journaling prompts. I'm thinking that would tie in nicely with the theme of the Hodgepodge.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Our new copy of the phone book arrived last week, and the very next day our elderly neighbor came over clutching his copy and wanting me to call this certain company to come make some repairs for him. He seemed agitated and irritated that he simply couldn't seem to get through.

I dialed the number given in the book, and oh horrors, no wonder he was having a hard time getting the repairman he wanted. There was a very unfortunate misprint in the phone book which led to a very undesirable x-rated content instead of the repairman he needed.

After googling for the right number we managed to get him the repairs he needed. I'm wondering how many other people will be traumatized by dialing that number, and if the company has any idea that their number has been printed wrong.