Sunday, November 30, 2014

SUNDAY PRAISE -- JOY TO THE WORLD

11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.


Psalms 30:11-12

Joy to the World


 

Saturday, November 29, 2014

NOVEMBER'S READING LIST

Only one book finished this month.  Almost finished another, but that will go on December's Reading List.  I guess I was really busy.
Letters to Katie:  A Middlefield Family Novel by Kathleen Fuller
Published 2013

Letters to Katie by Kathy Fuller
Katherine Yoder has loved Johnny Mullet since they were children, but he never actively returned her affections.  Like so many things in their world, he assumes Katherine will always be there.  Once his horse farm is a success, then he will court her in earnest.
For several weeks, Katherine has been plagued by severe headaches and dizziness.  While she is resting at home, Johnny unexpectedly visits, but when dizziness strikes, she loses consciousness.  She awakens hours later in a hospital bed, unable to remember how she got there.
Seeing Katherine injured and vulnerable stirs something in Johnny, and his guilt compels him to spend time with her while she heals.  Soon his heart begins to stir with questions:  Does she even remember why he'd come to her house that day?
As Katherine struggles to recall recent memories of Johnny, a surprise visitor arrives in her already unsteady world -- a man named Isaac who claims they had been writing letters to each other, even considering marriage, before her illness.  With two men vying for her attention and her memory still elusive, Katherine has never felt so divided.  The answer may lie behind a door she never considered opening.
When this was returned to the library a few weeks ago, I was intrigued and got it out to read.  I had never heard of the author, but I love Amish fiction.  However, as I read it, I discovered that it's book number 3 in a series and things referred to in the book were unknown to me.  In spite of this the story was wonderful.  I am so happy I picked it up.  Now I'm going back to read the previous two books.


Friday, November 28, 2014

THANKSGIVING


I had such a wonderful day today.  For one thing I got to sleep in today.  I woke up when I woke up and that was very nice.  I stayed in my pjs for the whole morning which is very unusual for me.  I got some cleaning done, but since I got up so late not much else.


It seems like I never have enough time to accomplish what I want to.  I didn't even get all my autumn things displayed this year.  And now it's a little late to do so.  Well, there's always next year.


I love my Thanksgiving Cherished Teddy.  But this weekend he goes away and my Christmas ones come out.


I know there is still some Fall left, so I'm going to make this an easy transition on myself.  But hopefully by the time my sister visits in two weeks my house will be Christmasy.


This turkey looks like he's floating in air, but he's really on the stove.  Here's one last look at Fall.


Joe and I went to dinner tonight at the King George II Inn in Bristol, PA.  It has been a continuously running restaurant and inn since 1681.  Yes, you read that right.  Over 300 years.  We love going there, but since the price is a bit high we usually get there only once or twice a year.  I am on their mailing list and as soon as I got their email about Thanksgiving, Joe called and got us a reservation.  He said we were the third reservation in their book, so you know he was right on it.

When we drove up, a valet came right out to park our car for us.  They even opened the doors for us and helped us out.  Then one of them opened the door to the restaurant and escorted us into the building.  Wow!  Joe and I walked around the waiting people and went to the reservation desk.  We were about 15 minutes early but our table was ready and waiting for us.

I have never had service like what we had there.  We had three people waiting on us.  The waitress took our order, one young man bussed our table as he walked by.  He was continually walking up and down the room and removing used plates.  The other young man had a pitcher of ice water and continually filled our glasses.

We both got butternut squash soup with crispy apple sticks in it.  So good.  I could have made a meal just out of the soup.  Then Joe had lamb t-bone steaks with roasted root vegetables and brussels sprouts.  I opted for dark meat turkey with gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry relish and green beans and baby carrots.  It was all so good and there was so much food that I couldn't eat it all.  I brought it home and finished it up about 4 hours later.  I just had a cup of tea afterwards, but Joe got rum raisin bread pudding with creme anglise.  He said it was wonderful.

You know we had to walk around a little bit after that.  And I wanted to get some pictures.

Here is the gigantic tree they always have next to the Inn.  I overheard a waitress saying the lighting is tomorrow night.


All of the street lights have these beautiful wreaths on them.


It was about 4:15 p.m. and the sun was just beginning to set.  I got some great shots of the Delaware River with New Jersey in the background.  The first one is my favorite although I think they all turned out wonderfully.





We headed back to the front of the restaurant and while we were waiting for the valet to bring around our car I took these pictures of us.



On the way home I missed the turn to get onto I-95, so just took Bristol Pike into Philadelphia.  There was almost no traffic and it was a really nice, relaxing ride home.  We watched the sunset.  I wish I had been able to take a picture of it.  The clouds were purple, pink and gold.  So beautiful!  I don't think I'll ever forget how beautiful it was.

It was a perfect day -- relaxing and fun.  Now it's back to work tomorrow.  At least I'm not working on Saturday.  I'll attack the house then.

Kathy

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

THANKSGIVING EVE BRINGS THE FIRST SNOW

Yes, that's right.  We had our first snowstorm of the season today.  Fortunately although it lasted several hours, none lay (except on my car!) and it is just wet now.  But it sure gave us some call to look out of the windows at work.

Yesterday the sunset was so beautiful and framed in the back window of the library was so lovely.  I tried to take pictures of it, but like a lot of things one tries to photograph, the picture just did not do it justice.  I took three different ones, but the glow and gold of the sun didn't shine through.  They were, however, gorgeous pictures even if a little (or a lot) off center.



It almost looks like stained glass.

Compare that to today's view.


We got out of work at 3 p.m. today and Diane and I went food shopping.  She seldom gets a ride (carries her groceries a mile home) so she took advantage of the car and loaded up on things.  It was funny because although we split up to do our shopping, it ended up that we paid the same amount for our groceries, were in the checkout lines next to each other, and finished at the same moment.  We were laughing all the way to her house and were actually saying the same thing at the same time.

The two new Library Assistants are starting to find their niche in our place.  Things are starting to run more smoothly.  There are still some rough spots that need to be worked out, but I think at this point it is the best I can hope for.

I am so tired though.  It seems I am always tired.  I got a rotisserie chicken for dinner and just threw together a salad to finish it out.  I am so glad I do not have a long drive to do tomorrow and that I am not cooking.  I hope to get a good night's sleep tonight and really attack the house tomorrow.  It is a mess!  Hopefully I can get a load of wash done and some cookies baked too.  Yes, I have plans.  But how much will actually get done?

I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving tomorrow.  I'll be checking back with an update then.


Kathy
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Cloudy/Rain and Snow
High:  51 degrees
Low:  33 degrees
Sunrise:  6:58 a.m.
Sunset:   4:38 p.m.
9 hours and 39 minutes of daylight 

Monday, November 24, 2014

PIE AND PRAISE 2014

Sunday night was our 6th annual Pie and Praise Thanksgiving service.


It was such a good time. Everyone brought pies.  There were so many pies they didn't all fit on the table!  We had some on the pews until there was room to display them.  Next year we need a bigger table!


I had offered to bring a sugar-free pie.  I made a sugar-free pumpkin pie.  I brought home one little piece for Joe to have tomorrow.  The rest went.  So it must have been good.


We had singing led by Pastor Justin and Caity.


Joe A. (not to be confused with my husband, Joe S.) was the special music.  He has such a beautiful voice.


We had a time of thanksgiving where almost everyone shared.  So very, very much to be thankful for.  And we had three people reading psalms of thanksgiving.  I didn't get a picture of Anne, but here is Jim doing his reading.


The third reader was me!  I was surprised when Pastor Justin asked me to read, but I'm always happy to do it.

After a closing song it was time to eat.

The inspection of the pies.  Which one will they choose?
Anne, Miss A, and mom Cherie
Grandmom, Miss A and mom
Rich and Joe (the mustache guys)

Rich took this great picture of Joe and me.


Dottie and Caity.  Sunday was Caity's birthday.  We all sang to her.

Dominic trying out Pastor Justin's guitar.  He's a part of our youth group and just accepted Christ as his Savior two weeks ago.

Of course I had to get a close up of Miss A and her mom, Cherie.  She's teething and didn't want to smile for me today.  I tried.
It was a wonderful time.  So glad I had a chance to go and be a part of it.  I now feel I'm ready to experience Thanksgiving Day.

SUNDAY PRAISE -- HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING

Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!

Psalms 46:10 

How Can I Keep From Singing
by Chris Tomlin


 

Saturday, November 22, 2014

FINALLY A FREE SATURDAY AND WHAT DID I DO?

I slept.  And slept.  I had (have) so much to do and I am so exhausted.  I don't seem to ever get enough sleep.  And it will only get worse because it's only 5 days until Thanksgiving.


And then comes Christmas.  I'm really not ready for that.  I just said to Joe that we have to start Christmas shopping soon!

Even though it was my day off, I went to work for an hour today.  I got the desk space prepared for our new Library Assistant coming on Monday.  Bob was in the workroom and helped me.  Everyone was coming up to me with problems and I kept saying, "I'm not really here.  Ignore me."  That will teach me to go in.  But I feel so much better that things will go smoothly on Monday.  I even gave them their new work assignments that I had put together when I was at Fishtown yesterday.  It's nice that our computer system allows us to do things at one branch, save it to our hard drive, and it's waiting for us at our home branch when we go back.

So when I came home I was all set to get some things done around the house.  I sat down on the sofa and immediately fell asleep SITTING UP!  I slept for about an hour and a half.  I may have needed the sleep, but nothing is getting done around the house!

Tomorrow is our Pie and Praise service at church.  I put my name down to bring a sugar-free pie.  So that is one thing I want to do tonight before I go to bed.  I have all the ingredients to do a pumpkin pie.  It should be pretty easy and then I won't have to worry about it tomorrow.  

I always enjoy the Pie and Praise.  I was looking back on my previous Pie and Praise posts.  The first year it was held was 2009 and it was on a Wednesday night.  I had to work, so didn't get there.  The second one in 2010 was when I was so sick (right before my surgery) and I couldn't eat anything.  The third year I missed most of it because there weren't enough pies and I ran to the store to buy some more.  Finally the last two years I actually got to attend the entire thing.

Can you believe that...


After last winter I don't know how welcoming I will be.  Even though I am a winter baby, winter is my least favorite season.  I told my co-workers that there should be 3 months of spring, 6 months of summer, and 3 months of fall.  That would be perfect for me.  I think I need to move south.

Gotta run and make my pie.  I'll be posting pictures of Pie and Praise either tomorrow or Monday.

Kathy
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Saturday's weather
Partly sunny
High:  45 degrees
Low:  37 degrees
Sunrise:  6:54 a.m.
Sunset:  4:40 p.m.
9 hours and 46 minutes of daylight  

Friday, November 21, 2014

FRIDAY VIEW





It's the end of another happy week.  I'm working today so I actually have two days in a row off this weekend.  Although I am thinking of going in to work tomorrow just to get caught up on things.  We are getting another new person on Monday and there is no desk ready for her.  No overtime money, but peace of mind.  We'll see because I have tons of stuff to do around the house before I have company in two weeks.

I'm working at the Fishtown Library today.  It's quiet.  A nice change for the end of the week.

It's nice and sunny today and not too cold.  It's supposed to warm up this weekend and I'm hoping it does just that.  My asthma does not like the cold at all!

I went out to feed the stray cats this morning and the water I had put out for them was frozen solid.  Oh...  I didn't know it had gotten that cold overnight.  I feel sorry for those cats, but I can't take them all in.  At least I can make sure they have something to eat.  I've seen four or five roaming our street but only two come to eat from my "buffet".  I remember I was feeding my little Snowy this time last year when she was a stray.  I'm so glad she was willing to come inside and be a part of our family.  She is a sweet and good cat.  I can't imagine why anyone would abandon her.  Well now she has a forever home with us.

For your Friday View today I figured I would show you the work done on the house being built behind us.  It was pretty well done at two floors and then two days ago a third floor went up.  It makes the back sort of dark now and we can't see through to the street behind us anymore.  I feel really closed in.  At first we thought it was a stand alone house.  Then we thought it was an addition to the house already there.  Now we are thinking it is it's own house again because the roof lines are not similar and the floor levels do not match up.  Have a look and see what you think.

When last I showed you pictures, the foundation had just been poured.


 
 By the 11th the first floor had been framed in.  But it is still light and you can see across the street.


On the 13th the inside was starting to be divided into rooms.






 Here we are on the 14th.  The second storey is being built.  I sort of expected a second storey but I wasn't prepared for how dark and closed in it made things feel.









 By the 16th the second storey is closed in.  Good thing too because we had a heavy rain storm.



I figured I could live with it this way.  Then one morning I was surprised to see a third storey going on!  I'm not so sure I'm happy with it now.









Today it is enclosed.  Even more than these pictures show.  And it is very dark in our yard.  I feel as if the house is right on top of me.



Joe thinks it is going to be an apartment house.  I think he may be right.  Time will tell.

Hope you enjoyed seeing the house being built.  I'll show you more as time goes on.

Kathy
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Friday's weather
Sunny
High:  36 degrees
Low:  30 degrees
Sunrise:  6:52 a.m.
Sunset4:40 p.m.
9 hours and 47 minutes of daylight