Home again!

Sure seems quiet around here!! LOL! The grandkids were great - and we had lots of fun. But the noise level and energy level is definitely for the young!!

I tried to cook food that their mommy liked when she was little. Didn't work! Sunday night we had the beef barley soup that Miss P likes. I made it at home and left some there for the parents. Mr M was not a fan! Oh, we got him to eat it but his face was hilarious!! Find a carrot, find celery, find tomatoes, find beans - please Nana - do not serve me this swill again!!

Monday night I made my famous [infamous??] stuffed hot dogs. Boil hot dogs; slice in half long-ways. Pile on mashed potatoes; cover with cheese slices and pop in the oven to melt the cheese. It was pretty much a staple when A&L were growing up. My friend GJ loves it - even talked a small cafe in Lincoln into making it for her!!

Well, Miss P didn't like the hot dog. Mr M didn't like the potatoes!! It must have been the cheese - cuz he's a potato fiend usually! We bribed them into eating most of it with cake and ice cream before bedtime!! Grandparents are tricky that way.

Tuesday was the absolute favorite! We went to MacDonald's, got our food - chocolate shake to share as the drink and let them play in the play-park!! A good time had by all.

The best meal seemed to be the 1/2 sandwich with crusts cut off; grapes on the side!

Miss P is in preschool this year and that helped our sanity a lot! She went M&W at 9 and was picked up at 1! During her school, I went to the Sherwood YMCA and took water aerobics classes and then did mini-grocery shopping for what we needed each day. It was wonderful and my knees really felt a whole lot better for the water exercise! Definitely doing that again. DH liked the fact that it didn't leave me time to go shopping!! He had quality time with Mr M while we were gone and it worked out great for them too. The old divide and conquer - an oldie but goodie!

We started trying to potty-train Mr M. He'll be 3 in November - not so interested. But we brought out the M&Ms and got Miss P into the act. Every time she went potty - he went in and sat on his "Cars" potty chair. We caught him at the right time once - and EVERYONE got a couple of M&Ms. If you want to see a determined 5-yr-old; offer M&Ms. I really believe she'll have him trained by the end of next week!!

I was supposed to work on a UFO this weekend. It's Stashbusters At Home Retreat. But the "Sliced Bread" WIP was calling me. I started it last March at the 'March Madness' event at our Brookings Guild. I'm surprised to say, there were some actually finished in the May show! How do they do that?? Mine is still in blocks, and a box full of strips.

Yesterday I made 15 blocks to fill in the numbers. I needed the quarter-block variations even for the pattern. There are 2 different 'points' and 4 colors. Hmmm - a picture might help!! Here it is on the design wall. Thanks to the photo - I discovered the bottom row is all twisting the wrong way!! Stay tuned for the corrected picture - next time. Hopefully with, the additional 31 quarter-blocks I'm making today to make it a row longer and a column wider. [by mistake, 5 quarter-blocks are already made, so I don't drive those math whizzes out there crazy!!]




C & I discovered this layout while she was here this summer - I needed some consulting and I love the results! Kind of Bento Box meets Log Cabin-ish with Broken Dishes thrown in??

Next challenge is to sew the blocks together - without screwing the placement all up again - hope I'm up to it!!

Of course, it goes without saying, this isn't what "Sliced Bread" is supposed to look like! The sample had the thin black strips between the blocks to calm them down. So, of course, the first thing I did was put the black into the centers ... I've been winging it ever since!! Below is one of the quilts started back at the March Madness gathering. B finished hers - it's beautiful.



We got home at sunset on Thursday night. And after laundry and grocery shopping along with other small errands ... life seems back to normal - if quiet!!