Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Art Mawmaw in the Kitchen

Well, last week I volunteered to make cookies for our senior citizen rec. center. Things did not go too good. First of all, I made some glutin free shortbread from a mix. They looked nice... made a great photo , but tasted like slightly sweet, faint buttery, gritty chalk !! Next I stirred up a batch of pecan choc. chip ones. They looked and tasted divine ! That is, the first batch did, I managed to burn the bottoms of all the rest. All was not lost, I still had some brownie mix . And.....all but six of those stuck to the bottom of the pan Ah, all was not lost. I loaded up glutin free, non burned and unstuck goodies and headed for the center. No one was there !! Back home I went with my home baked cookies. My hubby and the grands ate the brownies and choc. Chip cookies. And after coating each shortbread with icing and colored sugar, the grands ate those too. People say they LOVE my cooking, but I seem to have lost my touch Maybe it's time I started following the directions on the packages. Happy Eating to you all. Love from the Art Mawmaw.









Monday, December 3, 2012

Anna and Chris Baxter October 31, 2012



Several days after hurricane Sandy made her savage way up the northeast coast, there was a sweet wedding performed on the the Sunset Island beach.  The day was sunny , windy and bright. And yes, very chilly !! The newly wed couple and their guests were chilled to the bone, but enjoyed the ceremony. Congratulations to our oldest daughter Anna and her husband Chris.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Monday, October 29, 2012

Free Crochet Snowflake Patterns

Free Crochet Snowflake Patterns



Check out this Squidoo Lens to find links for free snowflake patterns.  I always thought they look so good on Christmas trees. 


Tuesday, March 20, 2012

From tea parties to toilet paper !!



I guess everyone has been wondering what's been going on at "Grapes in the Wilderness Farms." Since the first of December, we have had our daughter, son-in-law and two grands living with us. (they took out a contract on a "short sale" (ha...Ha!!) home and have just now found out that they will be unable to purchase that home after all.) Believe me, short sales can be horror sales! We are very crowded,but we want the kids to find a home to purchase instead of renting. So they might be bunking here a while longer.
It has been an interesting time, especially daily interacting with our grandkids. Having raised two girls and having a grand daughter first and then having a boy come along has been a real challenge for me. I am pretty much a girly granma and find it a mystery when it comes to keeping an active little boy busy ! And Dillon has all girl cousins as well.

So, it came as no surprise to me that he loves to play tea party with his sister. I was sitting in the living room one day and they were having a tea party at the kitchen table. Dillon would go into the mud room and shut the door and knock on it. Then when Cat answered the "door" he would say in a sweet high voice "Hello dear I'm here for tea." (They explained that they were both pretending to be ladies.) After about 20 mins. of watching the"ladies" drink their tea, (and trying to keep a straight face) I said , "looks like you both are having fun. Why don't you both be men now. Cat. did not like the idea, but Dillon was willing to give it a try. So, out the mudroom door he went . Several seconds later there was this loud pounding on the closed door. The lady daintily answered the door, "Yes, may I help you?" and the "man " at the door, very loudly and roughly said, "I WANT SOME TEA." It all went downhill from there......

Dillon still likes tea parties and if I can ever find a special tea set for him I will buy it. But for a while there I was concerned that I was a bomb at "boys stuff". But I think he has it figured out by himself. Take yesterday for instance. For some reason he decided to get the T.P. out of the loo and decorate the living room with it. Later on I heard one of the dogs snarl at him, and he came walking into my room with a stick in his hand. "Did you hurt Daisy with that stick?" I asked. "No Mawmaw ! " he answered. "I believe you did and you should not be lying about it." I persisted. Then he took his hand and whisked it through the air,,"I karate chopped her Mawmaw."
I guess when I think of girls and boys I think of the poem of how little boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails. This little boy bops things with sticks, throws anything that looks like it might be remotely related to balls, stays dirty all the time, spills his drinks at least once a day and loves to hear how high and how long he can make noises. Is this boy behavior ? I do not know. I do know that is what this four year old loves to do.
But, there is another side. His willingness to share his special Spiderman bandaids with me when I cut my finger. His unexpected running up to me , saying I love you Mawmaw and then runing back off again. Oh so many sweet and joyful times with him. Or his lending me one of his plastic bugs, because he knows it is one of my favorites. That's Dillon and he is a four year old boy !

P.S. If you catch him sleeping, please do not wake him up.