Mountain Musings

Come, Ye Thankful People, Come

"O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever." ~ Psalm 107:1

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take His harvest home;
From His field shall in that day all offenses purge away,
Giving angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store in His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified, in Thy garner to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.

Words by Henry Alford  ~Cyber Hymnal

Company's Coming! Mountain Musings will be taking a blogging break this week to prepare for some of Tom's family arriving on Tuesday from Connecticut and my sister arriving from South Carolina. We're looking forward to some great holidays and hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving, too! See you back on the blog in December! 

~Deb

Marie-Madeline Studio Giveaway

The Long Ladies are at it again and are giving away a $30 gift certificate to their studio! Here's what you need to do to enter:

~leave them a comment on their blog!  

~tell them what you would buy if you won the $30

~blog about the giveaway and get an extra 10 entries!

Comments will be closed next Friday the 27th, and a winner's name will be drawn on Saturday. 

~Deb

D G's Mantel

My friends, Dorothy and Kathie, both left comments on the earrings I was wearing at the Taste of Home show, so I thought I would post a better picture.

Yes, I'm a Scrabble lover, and Hannah gave me these earrings for my birthday this past summer. They are made to look like Scrabble tiles and were purchased online at this Etsy shop.

As I was standing in line recently, a manager at Chic-Fil-A saw them and asked what the letters stood for. How about...Darling Granny? But Deb Girotti works, too!

Also several posts back, Kathie asked about our mantel as seen from a distance. Here's an upclose picture.

 
There's a red berry garland entwined with lights that we burn year round. The red, white, and blue stars that say Love, Peace, and Faith were found at a yard sale. The candle sticks on each end are antique quills from a textile company where my mom worked 60 years ago. Cool, huh? I like them.

There are also two handmade baskets my mom made sitting there, an antique Mason jar filled with cinnamon sticks and topped by a bear, a birdhouse that says Church in the Wildwood, and a cross-stitch picture that says, "Home Sweet Home."

On the left side of the brick there's a hanging star with a candle inside from Old Salem in North Carolina, and on the right side of the brick there's an antique lantern with a sign hanging from it that says, "Kindness warms the heart."

Hope that helps, Kathie! By the way, I love getting questions and enjoy answering questions when someone asks.

~Deb

An Unexpected Adventure

If you've been reading Mountain Musings for any length of time, you know how much I love adventures. Well, yesterday I had one!

When the phone rang, it was my long-ago friend, Christine, calling enroute from Williamsburg headed to Augusta Expo for the annual Taste of Home Cooking School. After we briefly caught each other up on family news, she asked me...

"I have an extra reserved ticket to the cooking show, would you like to go?"

Would I like to go? Me? YES! YES! YES!

So we made plans to meet up at the Expo!

Here's the eye-catching Christmasy stage decorated with lots of gift bags from the local Martin's grocery store and 80 poinsettias from Milmont Greenhouses in Stuarts Draft...all a small portion of the tons of prizes ready to be given away to attendees during the show (no, I didn't win a thing!).

Before the show started, my friend Christine, her daughter Rachel, and I had a great time chatting, viewing cell phone pictures, and catching up on acquaintances I knew during our years in Williamsburg. Plus, we enjoyed looking at all the free goodies in our gift bags we picked up as we entered the Expo.

Here are two of the many freebies which were in our bags, and these books were chock full of recipes. The Holiday book on the left contained all of the recipes which would be demonstrated on stage, so we could easily follow along and try them at home ourselves.

These eight dishes were prepared during the two-hour show:

• Sweet Potato Gratin
• Roast Beef Tenderloin with cranberry-red wine sauce
• Almond Puff Loaf
• Italian mini-Frittatas
• Cinnamon Nut Coffee Cake
• Caramel Chocolate Fondue
• Cappuccino Mix
• Fast and Fabulous Sausage Fajitas

And eight folks in the audience got to take one of these delicious dishes home with them, plus the beautiful platter each dish was presented on!! (Not me, unfortunately!)

The show was very informative and entertaining, and both my friends won prizes! Yay! Plus, I spotted other friends in the audience (Hi Jean! Hi Kendra!) when Kendra's name was called for a door prize, too. Yay!

All in all, a wonderful unexpected adventure! And a very special thanks to Christine for making it happen!

Have you ever been to a Taste of Home Cooking School?

~Deb

Queen and Her Court ~ Block 2

Our monthly Saturday Sampler class is tomorrow, and my block is all finished!! Now whadda ya think of that? 

In fact, it was completed a month ago before our Texas company arrived and before Granny moved in....thanks to Sarah's insistence that we get it done!

And tonight...it's hard to wipe the smile off my face!

~Deb

Previously: Queen and Her Court ~ Block 1

Gooseberry Patch Blog!

Special thanks to Morgan for alerting me to the fact that one of my favorite companies, Gooseberry Patch, now has a blog!! You'll have to check it out...I love their country header, their recipes, and of course, their contests!

Until midnight tonight...Gooseberry Patch is giving away three of their cookbooks to any blogger who blogs about their favorite Gooseberry Patch cookbook. Here's another rush post to get my contest entry counted!

My favorite cookbook is one of their older ones titled For Bees and Me. It's a gardening themed book with veggies, a sunflower, birdhouse, and watering can on the cover...no wonder it's my favorite!

Actually, it's no longer available through Gooseberry Patch, but I checked Amazon, and they have new and used copies for cheap!

My second favorite cookbook is another older one titled Good For You. Again, it's no longer available at the Gooseberry Patch site but can be found at Amazon.

I don't own the Good For You book, but my sister does, and I look at it every time I'm at her house. I love the down-home stories, tips, recipes, and country goodness in every book!

Visit the Gooseberry Patch site, sign up for their email, ask for a free catalog, and also check out their new blog!

~Deb

Fall Garden and Preserving

Here's some of the autumn harvest from the last few weeks in photos. 

Anna and I had a great afternoon stirring up some autumn-olive jam again this year. The clusters of ripe berries were just waiting for us to pick them! A new experiment was using Pomona's Pectin for a low-sugar version. We enjoyed a beautiful warm day together.

I used a half-bushel of apples of several varieties which we picked up near Rockfish Gap to make applesauce and applebutter for the first time--it turned out delicious! Our Vita-mix came in handy, but I was wondering--does anyone have a recommendation of a good food mill/strainer for making applesauce or other similar foods? Comment with your experience or recipes.

In our fall garden now: parsnips, carrots, cabbage, and various greens and herbs. This year I decided to try sowing a cover crop of oats where the summer's plants were finished. It is sprouting up nicely. I'm looking forward to seeing if there are any results in the soil quality next season. Thanks, Heartland Harvest!

There you have a peek at some of my outdoor and kitchen goings-on!

~Hannah

1,422 and a Giveaway!

That's right...one thousand, four hundred, and twenty-two blog posts that I'm behind on reading!! Yikes! I've been quite absent from the computer and haven't read blogs or left any comments lately with the busyness of finally finishing the new addition, company visiting, and getting my mom moved in. I've missed you all!

So...tonight I took a break from putting up curtains and scrolled down the Bloglines list wondering which one I'd click on first.

Green Fairy Quilts won out...and, boy, am I glad! Judi is having another giveaway, and I found out in the nick of time.

This giveaway is for a quilt kit, complete with her original pattern for "Morning Bloom." I'd love to win it!

All you need to do is visit Judi's pattern page and comment on which 3 of her patterns you like the best. She'll draw a name on Tuesday night. I wish you the best in the giveaway...but I hope I win! :)

~Deb

Shooting Skeet and a Birthday Party ~ Final Day

Thankfully, our friends from Texas were here for a Lord's Day meeting, and we were thrilled that they were able to meet our church family. Here we all are on a Sunday afternoon after the meeting enjoying shooting some clays. We livened up the quiet neighborhood with some noise for sure!

Even the girls took a turn shooting, and there were some pretty decent shots!

The ladies sat a good distance away from the bangs and talked while the little ones played.

 
We geared up for more excitement that evening when we invited friends over for soup, sundaes, and games and for a chance to meet the E's.

Two birthday girls were in our midst...Katelyn from Texas and Anna from Virginia both turned 13 a day apart. Sarah made the birthday cake, and Kandace helped dip the ice cream for our guests. I don't think Katelyn will ever forget her Virginia birthday, complete with balloons, streamers, and Dutch Blitz games!

 
One bit of very sad news...Mr. E found out that his 91-year old father had just passed away, and their trip was shortened by a few days so they could return to Texas for the funeral.

On the final Sunday evening, we all gathered round and sang hymns together, and Tom prayed for safety before our friends would begin their 24-hour drive back to Texas early the next morning. 

We are so grateful we had the opportunity to host our new friends. We loved getting to know them! Who would have thought that a week before we had never even met them?!

We had a wonderful week and hope that you, our blog readers, experienced a taste of life in the Shenandoah Valley by reading about our fun adventures with our friends!

~Deb

Fun and Games

Throughout the week the E's were in VA, our families managed to fit in plenty of game time. From Risk and Spoons to tennis and football, there was lots of laughter and exercise to be had.

Everyone had a chance to dust off their ping-pong skills.

Tennis at a local park was a much-anticipated activity. We filled all 3 courts and had some great matches.

The guys battled it out in a round of Risk. Jonathan was happy for some competition!

Dutch Blitz didn't quite have a total monopoly on our card-game playing--several intense games of Spoons are now captured on video. Hilarious times!

~Hannah

Final day: Shooting Skeet and Birthday Party