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