Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this beautiful day. It was so hot yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that. It is so much cooler today and I think I will have more energy. I hope so because I want to work in the yard today. I was looking through my photos from this month and found some I hadn't shared with you, so I thought this would be the perfect time to do that. I put in an order to Woman Within. I have so many clothes that I don't buy clothes often. More likely I am giving them away. But I desperately needed some capris and so got this pretty turquoise pair. It is a much deeper blue than this photo shows. I have tons of tops but I do have to have something on the bottom!
I also needed shoes. I always went to Payless but now they are closed. I wasn't sure about ordering shoes online without trying them on, but took a chance. And they are a perfect fit. So comfortable. I love these shoes -- so pretty. I think I will order a pair of sandals for summer from them.
I found a YouTube video showing how to knit a face mask. I thought that sounded like fun so I started one. Before anyone thinks it isn't tight enough to be any good, it has a cloth lining and a pocket to put a filter. And it's more comfortable because it's softer. Of course, this is for cooler weather. Will we be using them in cooler weather? I will because I suffer from cold induced asthma and this is perfect for keeping my breath warm enough for my lungs during the winter.
My hair has grown out enough from my chopping job that I am no longer embarrassed to show it to you. It is so much cooler. I like it and as soon as the hair dresser opens, I will go have it all evened up and keep it this length.
Our pastor has decided to reopen our church this week. We will be sitting in the parking lot on socially distanced chairs. Joe pulled his back so is not going. My friend, Donna, wants to go so I am going to pick her up and we will go together. I expect 12 people to show up. Let's see if I am right. Here is my pastor's latest message from last week on prayer. I hope you get a chance to listen to it because it's very thought provoking. At least it was for me.
Be sure to come back this week. I have a Welcome to June post tomorrow. (How can it be June already?) I went food shopping yesterday so there's a grocery haul. I have finished another book so there will be a book review. I go back in my photo album to June 1986 and a trip to Washington, DC. And I hope to be able to show you my gardening and my knitting. We'll see how much I get done. Have a wonderful day! Kathy
Hello, friends! Happy Wednesday. We are half-way through week #11 of our stay at home. Things are letting up here somewhat. But now I am so used to being at home that going out doesn't interest me that much anymore. Strange how people get used to things. I know I am feeling better without having to run here and there every day. I think the running around is going to stop or at least slow down even when things reopen. I feel as if I am getting old, but that's not possible is it? I'm going to talk about baking today. It seems as if everyone is jumping on the baking bandwagon these days. Me... not so much. I like baking, but I don't like all the clean up that accompanies it. So I have baked only four things during this time. The first thing I made was Amish Applesauce Bread. I wasn't sure how it would turn out but it was wonderful. I got the recipe from my Amish cookbook and I would definitely make it again. It made we want to bake more things from it.
The second thing I made was anapple dump cake. I made it because I had the ingredients in the house and I wanted something sweet to eat. I took a can of spiced apple pie filling that I was given and put that in the bottom of a greased 9"x13" pan. Then I put a yellow cake mix on top of it and spread it around to cover everything. Lastly I melted 3/4 cup of butter and poured it over the entire thing. I baked it at 350* for 40 minutes. It was very good.
The next thing I made was a banana blueberry bread. This was another recipe I got from my Amish cookbook. It sounded good and seemed easy to make. It was very easy. I mixed it all up and put it into the oven to bake. I baked it for the maximum amount of time and then let it cool according to the instructions. After 10 minutes of cooling in the pan, I turned it out onto a cooling rack. Some of it stuck to the bottom of the pan. And the middle of the loaf was still batter. I asked Joe the baker what to do. He told me to put it back into the pan and bake it a little more. I did. It didn't help. We ate the baked part. What was baked tasted very, very good. But I probably will not make it again.
The last thing I made was a banana bread. We had bananas that were going bad and I had to use them fast. I googled "easy banana bread recipe" and came up with one. The recipe called for three bananas, but I put four into it to use them all up. I also read the comments and found that although it called for baking soda, most people found that it didn't raise with that and suggested using baking powder which seemed to work better. So I just put baking powder in. It was good and didn't last long at all. I am not a fan of banana bread, but if I have bananas that I have to use up, I will be making this again. Here is the link to the recipe: Joy's Easy Banana Bread. And it really is very easy.
So are you inspired to get into your kitchen and start baking? I'm thinking about it. But if I do, I think I will be using a mix.
It was a different Memorial Day for sure. It felt like every other day -- but then not. As I mentioned earlier we did not have our parade. But some veterans decided to do a drive by. I watched it from my front door looking across the parking lot to see them. First there were about 70 or 80 veterans on motorcycles. Of course they made a lot of noise and that's what alerted me that they were there. I grabbed my camera and ran to the door. I just kept shooting and shooting. There were a lot of pictures I couldn't use, but here are some that came out OK.
I thought that was it, but then came a few trucks decorated with flags and patriotic bunting. They were honking their horns.
I did decorate the house a bit. Not much, but enough to get some flags out.
It was hard getting a picture of the window. There was so much glare from the sky no matter what time of day I tried to take it. The "America" sign in the window I got at Kirklands a couple of years ago. It was on sale for a very good price. I use it so much it was certainly worth every penny I paid for it. After a month we are running short on food. I did not have what I wanted for dinner. So for a treat I called East Coast Wings and Grill and ordered dinner from them. It was curbside pickup. By the time I drove over there, our dinner was ready. I got Joe the Cowboy Burger. It was huge with bacon, cheese, barbecue sauce, mushrooms, and French fries. I got him fries to go with it.
I got a hamburger -- two patties, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo and homemade chips.
It was so nice to have something to eat that I didn't cook! After dinner Joe took a walk to 7-11 and came back with a bouquet for me! It is so pretty. Carnations, mums and daisies.
So in spite of it not being a "normal" holiday, we still had a very nice day. I'm going to end with a video that Pastor Ralph posted a couple of weeks ago. I hope you enjoy it.
Have a great evening everyone. I'll see you soon. Kathy
Good morning, friends. Happy Memorial Day! I hope you are all able to remember this special day in some way. I am not sure exactly what is happening today but I will let you know. I know there is no parade for the first time in 74 years. It will seem so strange. But I also heard there will be wreath laying ceremonies one of which is supposed to happen across the street at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Society. If so, I will try to get pictures of that. Joe is part of the VVMS. I was all set to post this yesterday, but I fell asleep. So better late than never. The second book I finished was "When Calls the Heart" by Jeanette Oke.
You can see I read it on my Kindle. I love the TV show by this name and so wanted to read the book. I was surprised because it was completely different. The only thing the same was the name of the main character and the fact that she was a school teacher in the Canadian west. Oh, and that she met and married a Mountie. Even his name was not the same. Once I got over my surprise, though, I found I could not put the book down. I read it in three days. It was so good! The blurb on the back reads: Nothing in her cultured Eastern upbringing prepared Elizabeth for a teaching position in the Canadian West. Despite the many hardships, she cares deeply for the schoolchildren, but she is determined not to open her heart to any of the local frontiersmen. Then she meets a certain member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police... I am not one to sit and read a romance book. But this was different. It was interesting to read about Elizabeth adjusting to the frontier after living a life of luxury in her parents' home. The relationship between her and her brother's family was so sweet. The idea of her getting to ride in an auto when most people were still using horse and wagon, and the long train rides she took to get from one place to another just brought you right into the time she was living. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had forgotten how much I like Janette Oke's writings. I think I will have to pull some of her books off of my shelves and read them again. I will be back with a Memorial Day report. Maybe even later today! Have a wonderful time today no matter what you do.
Do any of you have trouble keeping track of the days? I do. And I was talking to a friend this morning who said she has the same problem. Any day can be Friday to me. But I still think this cartoon is cute. We started out with celebrating my birthday in the hospital and now we celebrated Joe's birthday on Wednesday in lockdown. I think his was better. I had ordered a cake for him from our favorite bakery, Haegele's (pronounced Hay-glee).
Haegele's has been in business since 1930. I knew the orginial owners since we attended the same church. They still had their nice German accents even though they had been in the U.S. for so long. I asked Joe if we wanted to take a ride with me to get it and he did. I ordered it for pickup at 1:00 p.m. and it was there waiting for us. Such a pretty cake. And so delicious too.
When we got back Joe said he wanted to take a nap. And so he did. If you can't take a nap on your birthday, when can you? For dinner I made his favorite -- lamb chops. I had to ask for them at Shoprite and wait for 20 minutes while they cut them, but it was worth all of that. I googled how to cook them and they were perfect. Melt in your mouth good. I asked Google for the recipe for perfect lamb chops. I had some olive oil and butter melted in an iron skillet. Then I put in the chops, added salt and pepper to them and let them cook on the first side for 3 minutes. Then I flipped them, put on more salt and pepper, and cooked them for 3 1/2 minutes. Be careful that you don't put too much salt on them. I used just a pinch on each one. I also had baked potatoes and Italian green beans. Dinner was delicious. Joe is still raving about it.
Then we had the cake for dessert.
I got a two toned cake -- a chocolate top layer and yellow bottom layer -- with buttercream icing. Even though I got the smallest cake they made, we weren't going to eat an entire cake. We shared some with our neighbors. I got a message back saying it was yummy. I had forgotten to get Joe a card. While he was taking his nap I went to Rite Aid and got him one.
He got a few cards and I hung them on the bannister.
Even the sunset was so beautiful.
I have so much to show you and tell you so I hope I have time to blog some more this coming week. Usually I sit down to do a post and end up falling asleep because it is almost midnight! But I will make a real effort to catch up with things. Hope you all have a good evening. Kathy
One good thing about being stuck at home is that I have gotten a lot of knitting done. In fact I have knitted some pieces and then torn them out because I decided I didn't feel like finishing them. Three projects to be exact. But the one I am loving is a shawl I am making. I love the weight, the texture, the color. Just about everything. And it is so easy -- all knit stitches with just decreasing one stitch every other row. Let me show you how it is progressing. I bought a yarn called "Shawl in a Cake." I got just one cake thinking it would make an entire shawl, but the pattern I am using is going to take more than one. I have used all of the first cake and am waiting for a second one I ordered to show up. It is supposed to get here on Saturday.
The color is called Namaste Neutrals. I chose it because I love brown tones and the way it goes from medium brown to dark brown to medium brown to caramel to white and back again.
When I bought the yarn I didn't know that there was a gold thread running through it. But I love it. I took pictures each day to show how the shawl was progressing. Well, I did for the first week at least. Day one:
Day two:
It started out with a very dark brown. At first I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Day three: You can see the slant that is starting on it. It will turn out to be a triangle in the end.
Day four:
Now there is a lighter brown stripe in the dark brown. Day five:
It's getting bigger. Day six:
How pretty it is getting. Now the caramel/golden color is coming in. Day seven:
Even bigger now. I am knitting 10 rows a day. Day eight:
Now you see the white stripe. Today:
Everyday it gets more beautiful. As I said, I ran out of yarn and have to wait for the second cake to show up. I am also working on a scarf and the temperature blanket. I started a top, but didn't like how it was turning out, so ripped it out. I am looking for something to make with a beautiful and soft green yarn. What have you been up to during this time? Whatever it is, I would love to hear about it. See you later! Kathy
