DOLLAR TREE HAUL, MAKING BREAD, A LANCASTER COUNTY DINNER, AND THE SUPER MOON

 Hello, friends!  Happy Friday.  Even though I keep thinking today is Saturday.  I should know better because today is trash day and I hauled the cans to the front pavement this morning.  It is such a beautiful day.  The sun is out, the humidity is low and the temperature is cool.  I have the front door open and the air is just pouring into the house.  I like fresh air in the house and hate it when I have to close everything up in the winter.

As you can see from the title there has been a lot going on.  After Bible study on Tuesday last week, Debbie and I stopped at Dollar Tree and I got some patriotic decorations.  I don't have a lot of patriotic things even though I am a patriotic person.  But look at the cute things I got.

I found some red, white and blue flowers.  I got some blue and white sparkly coral also, but there was no red.  That's OK because it still looks good.  All of this is out in my flower pot by the front door.  I will be showing you my decorations soon.

I saw this strip of three little wooden sayings.  It is more Independence Day than Memorial Day but I got it now because it may not be around in July.  I also got a weight (like you use with balloons) with red, white and blue stars.  But Jack likes to chew on it so I had to hide it.  *sigh*  I also got this wonderful sign that I was going to put on my front door but...  my next-door neighbor got the same sign hanging on their door.  So now it is in my kitchen.

I like little truck signs and so these two came home with me.  The red one is on the back door.  Not sure about the blue one though, but I will find a place.

A little over a week ago I was watching one of my favorite vlogs, "Early American".  It's filmed at a historic house and depicts life in the year 1820.  I really must find out more about the Stephenson House such as where it is and who the Stephenson family were.  But it is so interesting.  They show how people dressed, made makeup and cold cream, cooked, celebrated Christmas, etc.  One of the posts showed them making bread from a recipe that was written in 1750.  It seemed pretty easy so I thought I would try it.

I made a video on it for my vlog channel which I will post next week (I hope).  It turned out OK.  Not the best bread I ever had, but I ate all of it.  A couple of pieces each day for breakfast.  I finished it today.  I really like tasting food from the past.  Guess that's why I like another vlog called "Tasting History."  That's really good.

On Sunday we had a real Lancaster County dinner.  I used all the things we had bought at the Farmer's Market.  We had the stuffed pork chops, asparagus, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers (yes, I thought they were zucchini but surprise!), and had the strawberries for dessert.  Everything was so good!

Last night I was having trouble sleeping.  Joe had gone to bed, but I was still awake at 1:00 a.m. when I saw a bright light shining in the front window.  I looked out and saw the moon.  Now while it isn't the super moon from the other night, it was very large.  I grabbed my camera and went out on the front step.  I took a few shots until I got the one I wanted.  What do you think?  (You can click on the picture to make it larger.)  Isn't God's creation just wonderful?

I did a lot of work in the yard yesterday.  I wanted to quit at several points but forced myself to go on and I'm so glad I did.  I will have to get pictures for you.  I planted sunflowers, marigolds, tomatoes, basil and parsley.

But now I need to get off of here and get some things done around the house.  Hope you all have a good day.

Kathy

CELEBRATING JOE'S BIRTHDAY

 

Hello, friends!  Hope you have had a good day.  Here we are at the end of another week.  Time is just flying by.

Today is Joe's birthday.  He is...  well, as I tell my Sunday School kids, he is over 21.  😄  We actually celebrated yesterday by taking a trip out to Lancaster County.  A few years ago we knew no one who lived out there.  Now we have several friends and we met up with two of them -- Pastor Ralph and his wife Sharon.  Hi, Sharon!  (She is a loyal reader of this blog.)

We started out a bit later than we first was going to.  That was me again.  I just can't seem to get myself going in the morning.  But finally we were on our way.

It is a 90 minute drive out there, give or take.  According to how much traffic there is.  I am always a nervous wreck driving through Philly but once I get out the the suburbs, I calm down.  I gave Joe my camera and he took some beautiful pictures as we drove along.  Folks, we are not in the city anymore.  Such beautiful scenery.

We passed this Amish farmer spreading fertilizer on his field.  The smell was awful.  Enough to make you sick.  And we smelled it for at least two miles down the road.  Yuck!  But it was cool to see him doing it.

Here we are in Paradise.  Paradise, PA that is.

And this is the Paradise church in our denomination.  It's a very pretty church with very friendly people.

The GPS put us on a road I had never traveled on.  We were headed to the Farmer's Market in Bird-in-Hand.  But to my surprise, it took us to a cross street that was right next to the building.  I have to remember to do that next time.

Here I am next to the covered wagon.

We looked around a bit.  I was having trouble walking so we didn't really look at the craft stuff.  We just stayed in the first aisle and looked at the baked goods and food.  We got some nice things.  I didn't photograph the shoofly pie I got for my sister or the vanilla bean extract I got.  I had just been watching Arlynn's Country Craft Corner vlog and she had gotten Shanks vanilla at the Amish store near her.  Here we were walking by a stall and they had it.  Both extract and bean extract.  After talking to the lady selling it, we decided on the bean.  More flavor and less extract.

I did take a picture of the whoopie pies Joe got for his Bible study group tonight.

Next we stopped at the butcher's and got these beautiful thick pork chops stuffed with a big ball of bread and apple stuffing.  The ball of stuffing is almost the size of a baseball.  I am having them for dinner on Sunday and can't wait to show them to you.  We also got an eye roast that was so nice looking.

At the produce stand we got a bunch of bananas, two beautiful tomatoes, a bunch of asparagus, two big zucchini and a pint of locally grown strawberries.  We had one of the tomatoes at dinner tonight and it was so good!  (Ignore the "Irresistibles".  Jack takes over the house sometimes.)

Then we went next door to the Bird-in-Hand Restaurant for dinner.  The other three had the smorgasbord, but I had the chicken pie.  I remembered how good it was last summer.  I got some wonderful iced tea also.

We were going to go to some of the other stores, but it was after 3:00 p.m. and I really wanted to miss rush hour and go home.  So that is what we did.  Besides, my left leg was really swollen and hurting.  I don't think I could have walked very well.  We are going to go back in a few weeks and see what the stores have to offer.

The ride through Lancaster County was every bit as beautiful going home as it was going there.  Although there are more modern buildings, I surely do love the old farmhouses and barns.

Quite a few buggies out and about as we left.

Today, Joe's actual birthday, was very low key.  We both relaxed, took naps and generally did a lot of nothing.  I made hamburgers and potato salad for dinner tonight.  We were going to go out, but changed our minds.  Then Joe got himself together and went to the Bible study he has been attending in our neighborhood.  It's just two blocks from our home.  I would go, but the building is not handicapped accessible and would be difficult for me to get into.  I'm glad Joe has a chance to go though.  He has made a few new friends in the neighborhood.

And now the day is ending.  I MUST get things done tomorrow.  Memorial Day is coming and I have to clean and decorate.  Hope you all have a great Friday.  I'll see you soon.

Kathy

UPDATE ON ME AND THE YARD

 

Hello, friends!  I so want to be where this kitten is... in bed.  But I thought I would do a quick update on how things are going around here before I turn in for the night.

My procedure went much better (and easier) than I ever imagined it would.  The only bad part was the anesthesia doctor who just couldn't find a vein and stuck me three times.  When I was getting dressed to go home, the original spot that he stuck was bleeding and the bandage he put on it was soaked.  Uh... yeah.  He wouldn't listen to anything I said.  But the girl who actually gave me the anesthesia was so nice.  Everyone in the O.R. was.  And the best part is the doctor called me today and there is no cancer.  Yay!

There was an IV pole at the bottom of the bed I was in.  A note was hanging on it that said, "Pleas do not remove from this department."  It really bugged me that Pleas should have been Please.  So when the nurses were getting me ready to leave I told them that I used to be an editor and showed them the mistake.  They started laughing and said the note had been on the IV pole for months and I was the first person that noticed it.  They were going to go make another corrected sign for it.  Yes, I'm OCD even coming out of anesthesia.

I spent most of the afternoon asleep in bed.  My throat was a bit sore so don't know what that was about.  I am still a little bit out of it today.  I hope that goes away soon.  So much I want to do and no energy to do anything.

Remember the branch that fell off of my neighbor's tree into my yard?

Yesterday the arborist came.  They set up their equipment in the middle of the street.  I thought, "This is going to sit well with the neighbors."  Five guys came in and looked at the branch.  About five minutes later they were taking the branch away, along with another one that was hanging over my yard that they thought might come down next, and were grinding up the branch in their wood chopping truck.

The yard looks great now even though I didn't take any pictures of the finished job.  Now I have to spend some time weeding, pruning, planting and in general sprucing up the place.  I did enjoy sitting on my bench in the sunshine listening to the bird song for awhile before they came.  I think I have to do some more of that.

But now I really have to go to sleep.  I am beat.  Thanks for hanging in there with me and for all the sweet messages you sent to me.  It means so much.

Until later...

Kathy

MOTHER'S DAY

 Hello, friends!  This will be a quick little post because I am almost out of power and...  I am having a procedure tomorrow so I have been fasting all day and in less than an hour I have to begin my prep.  *sigh*  It's always something with me.  But I thought I would tell you about my Mother's Day.

Joe got me flowers.  He said they were from Jack.

Jack also gave me some Peanut Butter Explosion fudge.  So good!

If you have not bought from Nuts.com, check them out.  Joe bought a variety of things and they are all good.  He got sugar free chocolate for himself and I tried a piece.  You cannot tell the difference.  No bad aftertaste.

I got a cute card in the mail from the great-grandchildren.

As for what I did that day...  I had to miss church in order to go for a covid test so I could have the procedure.  Joe went with me so that I wouldn't get lost.  My left leg has been hurting so badly I can hardly walk.  So after we left the covid test, we went right to Urgent Care.  They took a couple of x-rays and it is not broken.  However, the doctor thinks I may have torn a tendon or pulled a ligament.  He told me to keep off of it, keep it elevated and if it still hurt, to see a specialist.  I was given a card with the name and contact information for a doctor I could use.

This is right after going to an ENT doctor a few days previously who cleaned some impacted wax out of my ear and then examined me to see why I was having pain.  He said I had torn some of the muscles around my jaw.  I am to put hot compresses on it, eat only soft food, and take painkillers.  If that doesn't help, I go back to see him.

Friends, this girl is falling apart!  

To top everything off, Sunday afternoon I heard a noise outside and when I looked out a branch from my neighbor's tree had broken off and fallen into our yard.  An arborist is coming today to see about removing it.  It certainly hasn't been dull around here.

And now I really must go and start the prep.  Think of me sitting in the bathroom.

Thanks for reading and I will be back soon with an update.

Kathy

EASTER

 

Hello, friends!  Looking back I realized I never told you about Easter.  So let me catch you up on that.

It was a really lovely day.  We began with a breakfast at church.  Everyone brought something.  We brought a fruit bowl which was very popular.  But there was so much food.

There was plenty of food for everyone.  As you can tell it was a continental type breakfast.  Croissants, muffins, doughnuts, cinnamon buns, cheese and crackers.  Joe and I also brought an Easter pound cake that we got from Haegle's Bakery.

The people there sure enjoyed themselves.

Recognize these two?

My family usually gets together for Easter dinner, but this year we were all off in different directions.  Joe and I stayed home.  I made a pork loin roast, Brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes.

I used our cute little bunny plates that I got last year.

For dessert I had bought a couple of chicken high hats.  They are a cupcake, topped with whipped cream, and frosted to look like little chicks.

So good, but you couldn't eat more than one of these.  They are very rich.

Joe gave me a little treat too.  You know I love my Peeps.  There was a chocolate peanut butter egg too.

It was such a nice day.  And I'm glad I was able to save my pictures from it.  More catching up coming.

Until later...

Kathy