For Sunday....

Carl Jung has said:

         "The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life

                        than the greatest of things without it."

The Mission Focus for today, as listed in the UMW Prayer Calendar for 2013 , is Bennett College for Women, Greensboro, N.C.

May this day be a blessed Sunday for you.

Are you ready?

The week-end is here!  Are you ready for a change of pace?  Are you making plans for the holiday that is coming up next week?

I am fond of red, white, and blue, so I am happy to have this on the table.

Do the peonies indicate this was taken awhile ago?:-)

 

 

 

 

I have actually had the table set since Memorial Day!:-)  After all, Flag Day is on June 14, so I am ready for that day.  Then, with the Fourth of July not far off, it still seems in order to still keep the

red, white, and blue in place.  The flower that has replaced the peonies, however, is this one.          

On the dining room table.

On the kitchen table.

This is ONE huge bloom!

I couldn't believe how large the last bloom had become as it turned this lovely color!  Do you have hydrangeas blooming where you are?

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate your comments.

Reading on Friday....

Happy Friday to everyone!  Are you happy to have a week-end ahead?  Perhaps you have some exciting plans. 

I posted earlier about last week-end.  Oddly enough, it was a rather low-key week-end, and I found time to complete this book.

The author is Ellie Roscher.

This is a non-fiction book from the current UMW Reading List.  Ellie relates her experiences from a year spent in mission in Lascano, Uruguay.  I found it to be quite a moving account of her time there.

Another book I like to have visible during this time of year is this one.

Another local author.

In this book, the author tells of her memories of summers returning to visit her grandmother in the town in which she was born, having moved away while she was young. 

I have already begun my next book - Her Place at the Table - a woman's guide to negotiating five key challenges to leadership success.  This book is also on the UMW Reading List in the Leadership Development category.

The vegetable garden....

Most of  you know that we have had a very rainy year.  In fact, we have over 13 inches more rain than is normal for this point in the year.  Consequently, we have been delayed in the start of our vegetable garden.

Well, finally, on June 1, the garden spot was dry enough to be turned, so a very helpful neighbor came to do that for us.  Immediately, there was more rainfall!:-) 

Miraculously, The Husband has been able to plant a few things.

Green beans!

Sweet pepper plans.

Banana pepper plants.

Even the corn is coming up!

One thing is certain, when sun and rainfall combine, things will grow!:-)  The potatoes have come up, though I have no picture of that.  Once things begin to grow, everything happens quickly!  I will try to keep you caught up on the progress.

We are organic gardeners and do not use any pesticide on the garden.  Hopefully we will have no problems this year.  DH enriched the soil with compost from our compost bin, and scattered dry leaves on top for more enriching.

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate your comments.

The week-end....

"What?" you say.  "This is the middle of the week!  Which week-end does she mean?":-)

Before the events of the last post occurred, this had been prepared for Monday's posting.  As I have related much of my week-ends that were jam-packed with activities, I thought it was time to post about what that was a bit slower-paced.

I considered my week-end beginning on Friday.:-)  That is when three friends came to join me in a few hands of bridge.

Cards and score pad ready.

After we played, we headed out for lunch at a nearby place in the community.  Are you surprised I didn't prepare lunch myself?:-)  I was happy to have the break.:-)

Everyone had been mentioning the wonderful moon that was to be visible on Sunday night.  On our Saturday night walk, this is what we saw.

There's the moon!

It is a good thing I took this picture on Saturday, because there was cloud cover that kept us from seeing any of that wonderful moon on Sunday!:-(

We had cloud cover because of showers in the area earlier   Once again, we enjoyed this:

Another rainbow.

It was quite a low-key week-end here for once.  Perhaps it was the "calm before the storm.":-)  Actually, this week is rather low-key.   I did play bridge at the Senior Center on Tuesday, and the cards were rather decent!  Afterwards, I enjoyed lunch out with eight other fellow retirees from my school.

Thank you to all of you for your caring comments on my last blog.   I appreciate your kindness.

Thank you for reading.  I appreciate your comments.

Remembering....

This Monday has had a rather tough beginning for us.

We learned over the week-end of the passing of a friend and former colleague of The Husband.  We are remembering trips to the beach, dinners shared, brunches before football games, company Christmas parties, celebrating New Year's Eve, good golfing excursions for The Husband, and attending the weddings of his daughters.  We rejoiced with him and his wife at their 50th wedding anniversary, then shared his sorrow at her passing several years ago.  As The Husband made a career change, so did some of the occasions for us to spend time together.  He had not been in good health for a few years, though he lived to celebrate his 87th birthday!  He will be missed, not only by his family, but by his many friends.

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It was a bit over 28 years ago when we added a kitten as a pet for our family.

Shadow and Ashes

He came to us at three weeks old as his mother passed unexpectedly.  He was so tiny that he was able to curl up on the toe of my shoe as I was working/standing in the kitchen.  We named him Ashes, inspired by the gray of his coat.  Ashes lived a long life until 18 1/2 when we had to make that fateful trip to the vet. 

Shadow is the black cat in the picture.  Ashes was 7 years old when Shadow arrived on the scene.  Shadow was one of four in a litter belonging to the neighbor's cat, but born in our doghouse, long abandoned by our aging dachshund.  Never intending to keep any of the kittens, this one just sort of seemed to "insist" on becoming a member of the family.:-)  We mentioned many times that he was the factor in keeping Ashes young, as he would attack Ashes in a playful mood for quite a number of years!

There are many other memories we have of Shadow, and they will be all we have, as today he made that final trip to the vet.:-(  Though he had ventured out following The Husband to the garden one time this season, and though he had made a few afternoon visits to the patio, we knew the time would more than likely come very soon when he would no longer be able to manage moving about.  That time came late Sunday afternoon. 

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So, The Husband and I are both in rather somber moods, spending a lot of "remembering time," and we are thankful that we have many happy memories.

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate your comments.

On Sunday....

Henry van Dyke has these words ~

                               "Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love,

                                     to work, to play, and to look up at the stars."

On this fourth Sunday in June, the Mission Focus as mentioned in the UMW Prayer Calendar for
2013 is the Navajo United Methodist Center, Farmington, N.M.

 I wish everyone a blessed Sunday.

Recipe time....

The week-end is here!  It looks like it will be a nice one for us.  Do you have any special plans?

There was an interest in one of the recipes that I made for last week-end.

Green Pea and Cheese Salad

I first made this many years ago, early in our marriage, and the recipe comes from Betty Crocker's Dinner for Two from 1964.

GREEN PEA AND CHEESE SALAD

3/4 cup cooked peas, cooled
1/4 cup diced Cheddar cheese
1 Tablespoon finely chopped onion
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
3/4 teaspoon prepared mustard

- Combine peas, cheese, and onion.  Toss with mayonnaise and mustard.  Chill.  Serve on greens. 

2 servings

It is important that the peas not be warm to keep any of the cheese from melting.  I happened to have a bit of frozen peas and carrots that I added to the plain peas as they were cooking.  The orange you see in the picture is from carrot.:-)  I also used a white Cheddar rather than a yellow because that was what I had already.  Of course, to serve a greater number of people, you would want to multiply the recipe accordingly.

The Husband has been working hard in the garden this week, and there are several other things planted.  The green beans and corn he planted earlier have begun to come through the ground!  I will try to take some pictures of the progress later today.

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate your comments.

A book on Friday....

Friday is here!  Have you been looking forward to this day?  Has it been a busy week for you?

A couple of weeks ago I featured a local author of children's books.  Today will feature another book by the same author.

Libba Moore Gray is the author of "My Mama Had a Dancing Heart."  Raul Colon provided the wonderful illustrations. 

The "dancing heart" truly does live on as a daughter of the author, and now granddaughters, are well-respected dancers/choreographers for an area ballet company. 

Do you have favorite children's books on your shelves?  I find it very difficult to part with many of mine.  The Munchkins do enjoy reading them, too, so I am glad I still have them for when they visit.

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate your comments.

Enjoying the green....

....around our house.

Tomatoes!

More tomatoes!

Blackberries!

More blackberries!

Grapes!

Blueberries!

More blueberries!

More grapes!

Now we are just waiting for everything to grow and ripen!  A couple of things are ripening now!

Blackberries transplanted when we moved.

A lone raspberry.  We don't have many growing.

Do you have a vegetable garden?  What is growing there at this point?

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate your comments.

About that week-end....

The last post left you at Friday evening.  Of one thing I am certain - late nights and I do not get along well anymore.:-)  By the time we made the hour's drive back home, it was well past our usual bedtime.

Saturday was a very busy day.  I spent the time in the kitchen preparing some food ahead of time since we were expecting company to come on Sunday.  I always like to have a lot done so I don't have to spend much time with food prep once they are here.  Oh - "they" were Munchomom (aka cafecarol) and family, plus the Country Couple family.  We knew the Muncho family would be staying overnight on Sunday, but weren't sure when the Country Couple would be able to come.

So - I just forgot all about taking pictures.  I was working furiously from one thing to another - potato salad, green pea salad, tuna-macaroni salad, apricot gelatin salad, chocolate cake and cupcakes, fresh salad greens washed and dried, whole wheat rolls baked, pimento cheese spread made, and other plans made!  I put a ham in the slow cooker overnight on Saturday night, and a turkey breast in the slow cooker on Sunday morning.  The ham was chilled for lunchtime on Monday, and the turkey was ready to serve for dinner on Sunday evening.  Oh - can't forget that homemade strawberry ice cream!:-)

Anyway, the Muncho family came a little after 4:00 on Sunday afternoon.  The Country Couple family came on Monday morning.  We had a fast-paced time with everyone and rather collapsed when everyone left early on Monday afternoon!

The women's chorus had the final performance for the season yesterday!  We worked in nine appearances this time around.  There will be some time off now before rehearsals begin again.

One thing I have left out is that The Husband was finally able to plant some things in the garden!  Here is a picture!

Sweet potatoes!

Sweet potatoes seem to grow well in our soil, so we are hopeful for a good crop.

That's it for today.

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate your comments.

Where do I begin?

Let's see.  Perhaps I will back up just a bit and mention something from last Thursday afternoon. 

The Women's Chorus performed at an assisted living facility in a neighboring county, an hour away from us here.  Afterwards, we enjoyed lunch together.

This is a very popular place in the area.  It was a good thing we had reservations - something only permitted for groups of at least 20 or more - because there were people sitting all along the porch waiting to be called for seating.  We were shown to our section where the first thing brought to us at our table was this.

This is a basket of apple fritters.  I forgot to take a picture until some of them had been enjoyed.:-) (Diners are also served an apple julep.)  Anyway, while we were having lunch a storm came through, complete with noise and lots of rain.  That took care of my plan to take pictures of the grounds afterwards.

Now, I last left you with my plan to head out to that book-signing.  It was held about an hour away, but it was worth it for this.

She also signed the two other copies I had that had not been signed!  When we left the area where she was, this is the scene that greeted us.

A beautiful sunset!

We also took advantage of the evening to go by to pay a brief visit with the Country Couple as we were in their area. 

Now, there is much more about the week-end to tell.  To tell it all will make this a LONG post!  I really need to divide it for another one.

The Women's Chorus will have our last performance for the season today.  Perhaps my schedule will slow down a bit after this, but then again - maybe not.:-)

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate your comments.

The week-end....

....is still underway here.  I will be back as soon as time allows!

Have a good Monday and a good week ahead!

Thank you for reading.  I appreciate your comments.

Area author....

Are you glad Friday is here?  Do you have special week-end plans?  Perhaps you plan to spend some of your time reading. 

Here are some books by a local author.

Written in order from top to bottom.

What is exciting about this author is that she is the mother of a former third-grade student of mine!  These books are fiction and are set in the area of the Smoky Mountains.  I am fortunate enough to have autographed copies of two of the books.  Later today she is having an autograph session, hopefully for the next book in the series.  Perhaps I will be able to convince her to autograph the books I have that are missing her signature.:-)

Thank you for reading.  I really appreciate your comments.