Late summer in the perennial bed

We have been having some nice dry weather interspersed with rain showers so my garden is looking happy right now. I was able to go outside over the weekend to do some long overdue deadheading near the front steps; as a result my chrysanthemums are looking cheerful and one can see their second bloom better. The dogwood is turning a lovely red. And my only dahlia, out of four plants, that has bloomed this summer is the Teddy. (The one I planted in the back near the terrace didn't come back at all :( )  I cut these back to the third set of leaves, as is recommended to encourage them to be more bushy and have more blooms, but it seemed to stifle any flowers on the other two dahlias in the perennial bed. Maybe next year?

The Teddy has great color to tie in with the autumnal Victorian color scheme of the house.

Sapphire & Silver Tea

A few years ago while I was reading an issue of Victoria magazine I was inspired to throw a sapphire tea for my mother's birthday. I can't even remember now what the article was about specifically, blue and white dishes? Gem stones? Blue crystal? whatever it was I decided that it would be perfect to throw her a sapphire themed tea for her 65th birthday. I even ordered more cobalt blue biot crystal to fill out the set we received as a wedding gift. But then somehow she and I never scheduled it. I brought up the idea again this summer and convinced her to do it the afternoon before she and some of her girl friends would leave on a girls' trip because her best friend, who lives in Canada, would be in town.

I set the table with a white, chrysanthemum patterned linen table cloth, Moonlight Rose china, silver, and the blue Crystal.

I had purchased a set of 6 silver glittered taper candles at some point and fortunately was able to find them where I had stashed them in time to use them in my heirloom glass candlesticks.

The white and blue flowers I bought at the grocery store and arranged myself.


Now that I am homeschool and this is technically a school day I decided to use as much ready made treats as possible.

Sapphire & Silver Tea Menu

Murchie’s Ms. Grey black tea

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Curried chicken salad on Blues Bread

Tillamook cheddar and garden tomato on white bread

Cucumber cups with dill cream and smoked salmon

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Crumpets with strawberry jam or salal and blueberry preserve

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Blueberry & oatmeal bars

Assorted La Provence macarons

Assorted JaCiva chocolate truffles

Fresh blackberries, blueberries & mangoes

I also made a signature cocktail, I wanted something blue AND with Sapphire gin, and settled on the Sapphire Alpine. I made a huge pitcher full and it was way too much. The Boomers did not drink nearly enough of that as I had hoped! I served it in martini glasses in the drawing room while I was assembling the tea sandwiches.


This tea was a lot of fun to put together and my mother, her friends, and her sister really enjoyed it which made it all worth while. I was so tired afterward though being on my feet for several hours serving and pouring out hot tea. I went to be early last night!

Back to School Dinner Party 2019

This year the first day of school falls right between T-Bone's birthday and our wedding anniversary which complicated the scheduling of our traditional Back To School dinner party. For many years now our oldest has requested to go out for fondue for his Mommy & Daddy birthday date and since this was a big milestone anniversary for us we were definitely going out to eat then. Therefore this dinner party menu is not very elaborate.

I decorated with Pee Chee folders finally, something I totally remember from childhood (thank you handy multiplication table on the inside flap) but Mr. W had never seen. I also used flash cards, something I anticipate using a lot of as a homeschooling tool.

This year we have 6th, 3rd, and 1st graders. Plus me, starting a new career as a teacher. Exciting!


Our simple supper was plain or chicken quesadillas, black beans, and Mexican rice. I used the top search result recipe for the rice, something I could make in the rice cooker. It called for a lot of tomato paste. I was imagining I would find a recipe with tomato juice or perhaps stewed tomatoes, but that wasn't in the top search result. It was too much paste for my preference although the seasoning was good. I need to keep searching for a good Mexican rice in the rice cooker recipe.

For dessert I made a mixed berry pie as requested by T-Bone for his birthday.

Bowling birthday

My oldest is turning twelve! My self imposed rule is that kid parties should be at home until they turn 10. We did it up big with his 10th birthday at the local amusement park and I did a In The Goode Olde Summertime theme with ice cream sundaes. Last year I took a step back and let Mr. W plan it with him; I assumed it would be paintball or arcade games or something. Instead my little sweet heart picked a bunny theme and wanted to have it at home and play with his bunnies as an activity. So cute! The two of them did all the treats and games themselves, I just made the cake.

This year was almost as easy for me; he picked a bowling alley so all I had to do was reserve the lanes and send out an evite. Crazy! Turns out I ought to have reserved a couple months in advance though because all the cosmic bowling times were booked up already. This party was so easy for me that I didn't do anything for it day of; I took my Daisy troop on a picnic in a park and showed up at the party at the same time as the guests! Mr. W and T-Bone went to St. Cupcake and picked out cupcakes and I rooted through my drawer of used/saved birthday candles. Everything else was included, even a bowling pin that everyone could sign as a souvenir.

Life leads us in directions we don't always anticipate

Life leads us in directions we don't always anticipate. This has been a rough year for us school wise. The children were all at a new school as a result of Deuce being asked to leave the parochial school they were all attending when he was a couple months into first grade. He has some special needs and although we had been doing our best to communicate every new thing we were learning about him as it manifested, that school's administration had made a career of letting go of children with specials needs or behavioral problems. As a Catholic it was heartbreaking. But it never occurred to me to blame the church, I believed that God would still take care of our family even if that parish would not. So after a school year of 2 at one school and 1 at a second parochial school, which is beyond difficult and was a hardship on our family, we moved them all to the second school. It was very sad for T-Bone who had been at that first school for six years. We hoped that with activities like soccer and basketball he would have a bridge to his old friends. But he wasn't fitting in at the new school as we had hoped. He felt like he was the class punching bag. And while the new school was much more accommodating of Deuce's special needs he was still getting himself into trouble on occasion. I swear I have like PTSD or something from him being asked to leave the old school and so I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. How much would be too much before the new school would decide they didn't want him anymore either? I had been discerning since the spring whether or not homeschooling him would be the best option for us; one that would relieve us from the stress of calls that he was getting in trouble at school because he was doing the things that other students were daring him to do or that he was falling asleep in class as a side effect from his medications.

In the spring I began reaching out to people I know who home school, asking for recommendations for curricula, picking their brains on how it all works, and lurking on facebook home school groups. I also called in to the special ed person at the neighborhood public school to see what kinds of services they could provide for him if we chose to send him there. One benefit of public school is that at least they can't kick your kid out. Which brings up my position that public schools educate children with special needs because they have to because it is the law. Catholic parochial schools should be educating children with special needs because they want to because it is the right thing to do. It seems like the antithesis of being pro-life to do anything less. I hoped that we could keep them all at the same parochial school together.

But then it became clear that that was not to be our path. After months of discernment, and some heated conversations between the two of us, we decided that I would homeschool the boys. We made this decision so soon before school is scheduled to begin. Yikes! When I was at my friend's housewarming party last month I was speaking with her sister-in-law who had homeschooled her four children and now that the youngest is in high school, she offered me a ton of her textbooks and things that she will no longer need. What a gift!

So today I drove out to the town where she lives to pick up everything. Of course I always try to accomplish at least two things when I am driving somewhere so I decided that stopping for an outing at Hagg Lake would be fun and allow the children to burn off some energy.  I had never been there before, but now that we are boat owners it seems like good sense to check out all the canoeing spots that are close to home.  It was very hot and I soon regretted that I hadn't packed swim suits for them so wade into the lake. Instead they entertained themselves with chucking rocks in to see who could make the biggest splash.

And building a bridge.

I'm cautiously optimistic about home schooling the boys. We could have more opportunities like this. And I am forever grateful to the friends and who are sharing their knowledge and giving me free books. I have a lot to learn so I need to get busy.

Teddy Bear Picnic

One of the children asked if we could have another Teddy Bear Picnic and I was happy to oblige with that. They are getting to the point where they won't be interested in this sort of thing much longer so I definitely want to indulge any stuffed animal requests. Naturally it took me a few days to actually do it after I bought teddy grahams at the store, but they kept reminding me. :) We kept it pretty simple with bear shaped honey toast and teddy grahams. I ought to have added some fresh fruit since bears like berries.

We set up our picnic in front of our Marian Garden which is filling out so nicely, but needs to be weeded desperately.

I gathered up as many bear themed books as I could to read aloud. We had Corduroy by Don Freeman, Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson, The Three Bears illustrated by Frances Brundage, Bears by Ruth Krauss and Maurice Sendak, The Bear Who Shared by Catherine Rayner, and a bit from Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne.

Housewarmings and Fudge

One of my friends from high school and her husband recently became first time homeowners so when I received the house warming invitation I was quick to accept to be there to celebrate their achievement with them. Then a couple days ago I mapped it out so see how long a drive it would be... 1 hour and 40 minutes. She grew up in a small town nearby and her commute to get downtown for high school was one hour. I know she laments how much her hometown has grown unrecognizable with all the new development. And she has been living in a suburb since graduating college. The Metro area is experiencing so much growth and density that one really has to go the distance to find that small town, rural feel, but, boy, she is really out there!

I wanted to get them something useful and local to welcome them to their new town so I looked up the local hardware store in Willamina to see if I could get them a gift certificate. As new homeowners one quickly learns that something is almost always in need of repair and it is beneficial to know your local hardware store. I explained what I was looking for and why and while they didn't have formal gift certificates, after consulting with another shop keeper told me they could write up something for me. That is good customer service.

It was so nice to see my friend and get a tour of their new home. Her husband was handing out beanie babies to all the children in attendence so my two were thrilled. We don't get to see each other often with our schedules so I am so glad I was able to have this opportunity to chat and catch up. I was also able to catch up with her family whom I haven't seen since her bridal shower I hosted a few years ago. Their new home is perfect for them and I am so happy.

It seemed a shame to drive so far and not make it a compound journey so I decided to make a side trip to the Brigittine Monastery to get some fudge. I love their fudge and I buy it any time I see it in a store or at a festival like Oktoberfest. I haven't been out to their monastery gift shop since before I had children. When we arrived I explained that we wanted to be respectful in this sacred space. As we were walking through the garden Deuce was so filled with the spirit that he knelt down to say a prayer by the statue of Mary.

He read the sign for Our Lady of Consolation and we had an opportunity to talk about what that meant and add it to their vocabulary.

A monk met us at the door of the main building and led us to the gift shop where we were able to sample the fudge. I could go crazy in there but decided to limit us to two boxes.  Deuce decided his favorite was the extra dark chocolate fudge. I picked the hazelnut chocolate fudge because what is more Oregon than that?

It was a very long day of driving in the car and I really appreciated their patience and pleasant attitudes. They totally earned their fudgey snacks today!