What's keeping me busy and happy

Things in January/February 2012 that made me smile!

Brianna, right before she left for camp. In the background our pick-up full of watermelons, ready for the market:)

 My silly nephew Jopi. (Actually this picture was taken in December, but I couldn't not show it!)

Flowers that Amy planted and that are thriving, due to the blessed rains that came in January.

My dear old cat, Eskimo, yawning. That cat sleeps for 20 hours a day!

Another truck full of watermelons, I think the forth load of five that we sold these last 6 weeks.

A new project that is challenging and fun and A LOT OF WORK! This is the quilt from the book: The Romance of Paula Vaughan.

After cutting over 530 pieces to form a fan, I sewed the fan pieces together.

Ironing the material after every step...
(which is a very sweaty work with the temperature up to 40 C most days...)

Wait, what is Grayson doing in between my quilting pictures? Silly cat!

Back to ironing on the pattern for the quilted roses on each block above the fan.

Squaring the blocks before I sew them into strips.

I did some more work on the quilt today, but I'll show some more pictures later. Now I need a cold Terere and a back rub!


Thanks for reading my blog everyone! Big hugs to my sisters, friends and anyone else visiting my blog! See ya soon.


Brenda

This was 2011!

January: I graduated from the Couch-to-5 k program. I was in better shape than I am now:(

February: We went on a trip to the Paraguay river at Carmelo Peralta. I loved seeing so much water!

Also February: My Christmas present arrived: A new sewing machine. I'm still thrilled about it!

March: Bumper crop of cucumbers. I made relish for the first time.

April: I tried some new recipes for Easter. Like this one. We all loved these bunnies!

May: Marvins cousin from Germany came to visit. Here they are preparing meat for a BBQ.

June: A visit to my parent's ranch!

July: A trip to the capital (=a trip to McDonald's)

August: A flea market/second hand sale at my parents with some friends and my sister.

September: highlight of the WHOLE year: my 2 sisters came from Canada!

Here's a family picture: together again after 8 1/2 years!

October: the Trans Chaco Rally.

November: first spring rains brought beauty back to the Chaco!

Also November: Amy's ninth grade graduation! We are so proud of her!

December: traditional Crazy-Cookie-Baking Day at my Mom's! This year we "only" made 12 different batches of cookies:)

Thank you all for visiting my here on my blog this past year. I hope to blog more regularly in 2012, but I won't let blogging keep me from more important things!

I have always loved this verse and would like to give it to you for the new year. God bless you all!

October news

Hi and welcome back to my blog!

I'm so glad no one pressures me into posting something here twice a week or whatever! I think of my blog more like a newsletter ("Rundbrief"), to let my friends and family know what we've been up to.

So, end of September/beginning of October always brings us the largest motorsport event in our area. The Transchaco Rally is a car race that takes 3 days and brings the pilots over 1000 km through the worst roads our country has to offer. IT'S GREAT! I've always loved watching, but for 9 years now, my husbands cousin and neighbor has paticipated in this event, which makes it even more interesting for us. Here some of my photos:

I've also spent time on Pinterest looking for the perfect Christmas card idea. I usually start to make cards way too late, or I just buy them and send them in the mail 1 week before Christmas. Well, I found a cute idea and have already started to make them. I love Pinterest! Here are some ideas I picked up there. (I didn't post the one I'll be making:)

The next thing on my list to tell you is HUGE!

I received a job offer!

I haven't had a job (away from home) in almost 18 years. Because we don't live in town and because I was always home with the kids, I didn't really want or have to. Now, my brother-in-law, who is also the boss of the office I used to work for, asked me if I would like to work on Saturdays. I have to drive into town at noon on Saturdays anyways to pick up our girls from the dorm, so it works out pretty good. I'm very excited to start again, and also wondering if I'll do the job good enough. I'd really appreciate you keeping me in your thoughts and prayers:) And if you hear a new voice on the phone at the Vet's office, it might be me!

Have a great new week, my friends!

Dueck sister's reunion

You might have noticed that I hadn't posted anything for awhile...

Well, I was busy.

Busy having too much fun!

You see, two of my sisters came in August from Canada and I hadn't seen one of them in a little over a year (Andrea) and the other one in 8 1/2 years (Daniela). 

That is just too long! 

We had so much fun: laughing, singing while washing the dishes, "be-membering" stuff from our childhood, etc.

We had a special ladies-night-out with my dear mum! And she wasn't even embarrassed with our giggling throughout the meal:) From left bottom to right: my wonderful Mom, my little sister Andrea, my oldest sister Daniela  (Dani), my slightly older-than-me sister Caroline.
The waiter was always rearranging things on our table, so Dani held on to her plate here.

 But the waiter was happy to take this picture of us! I'm the one with the freakishly large hand in the bottom right hand side of the picture:)

Dani brought some stuff along from Canada; like her two very lovable teenager sons and her husband. (Won't show a pic of my brother-in-law here:)

Mark was the happiest on my old motorcycle. I wish I could have given it to him to drive around at home with it...

Philip liked it too, but he was busier shooting the air rifle at the various birdies and cactus'.

My sister also brought me the pattern for this dress. I can't wait to find the perfect material for it and make it for Christmas this year!

I'll post some more pictures soon. I've been having problems with blogger, so posting this was already difficult!

I'll be back soon!

Brenda

Package from the north

My sister Dani sent us a package in May and I already lost any hope of it arriving.

But it did, today:) YAY!

I noticed a funny smell coming from the package and when I opened it, some yellow powder came out. (I really would like to know what the post office workers from around the world suspected was in the package:) It turns out, my sister had sent us some dressing mixes and one of the baggies with the Cheese Nacho Dip mix had opened somewhere between Canada and Paraguay.

After I cleaned everything up, I sat down to enjoy the best part of the package: a recipe book I had been looking out for for a while. Mennonite Girls Can Cook!

 (wierd picture: book on my lap:)

There are so many great tasting recipes in this book, I recommend it to everyone who likes good, home-cooked meals.

This is comfort food at its best!

Waffles with Vanilla Custard and some delish looking raspberry sauce on top.

Chicken noodle soup, looks just as good as my Oma's.

This one I have wanted to try for a while: Rolled up Kielke. (Kielke is a homemade pasta/noodle)

I can just imagine how good this will be with baked farmer sausage on the side!

 Wareniki is a well-known recipe in our Mennonite culture. I never liked them as a child, but love them now. (Pasta pockets filled with cottage cheese drenched in a creamy sauce. )

This is one of the first recipes I ever tried from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog. It's my signature Easter dish (at least has been last year and this year:)

These cinnamon roll-like Maple Twists are delicious!

My Mom made these "Pies-in-a-pocket" for my oldest sister's wedding and we loved snacking on the leftovers!



Thanks Dani, for sending this recipe book to Caroline and me.

 I don't think she'll get her turn with it anytime soon:)

Have a great week, all my readers, commenters and lovely lurkers:)

Brenda