Labor Day In Tingley!!!!

We spent a LOVELY Labor Day in Tingley...hanging with the parents...looking for wild plums (although we didn't find any!)...helping mom and dad "do stuff" around the house.  Fun time!!!

"Emilie on a Stick" joining us on a trip to Mt. Ayr!!!

We LOVE Shopko!!!!!

We LOVE CGI!!!

Will this "upper Club" make me more energetic??!!

"Facetiming" Emilie at college!!!

 Moxie (Murphy?) doing what she does best!!!

 LOVE LOVE LOVE the Iowa Countryside!!!

 Chicory!!!

 

I LOVE Iowa (which I NEVER thought I'd say before leaving), and am always grateful to get to spend more time there! 

Here's hoping YOU were able to spend some time in a place you love recently too!!!

Grape Jelly at School!!

Every year, my school sells homemade grape jelly at our Fall Festival.  The grapes are picked from our courtyard trellises, and made into jelly by one of our retired teachers.

THIS YEAR, since I'm on the courtyard committee, I decided to help with the picking/jelly-ing.  My teacher friend (and fellow courtyard committee member) Betty, Sue (the retired teacher) and I reserved the "cooking lab" at the community center (attached to the school), and spent approximately two hours picking, and four hours "jelly-ing".

It was a BUMPER CROP this year, and we ended up with SEVENTY jars of jelly to sell at the fundraiser.  HARD work, but really fun when the other "conspirators" are such a HOOT!!!

Since I wasn't able to find any wild plums while foraging the ditches of Southwestern Iowa, this will be my ONLY jelly making this year.  It was a lot of work, so I guess I'm okay with that!

Here's hoping YOU were able to reap the benefits of an AWESOME harvest of something recently too!!!