HELLO

 Hello, friends.  My sister said tonight that I never write in my blog anymore and she is right.  I never have time.  It is hard for me to write or read other blogs.  Not because I am not interested, but I am so busy.  And life is not going to get any easier.

Yesterday we had a baptism at church.  The first one in about four years.  We baptize adults by emersion.  Since we do not have a pool, one of the neighbors very kindly loaned us his.  We are so happy for Ana.

The two little girls I had in my Sunday School class have been returned to their mother.  So there has been no class recently.  Last week we had missionaries visiting and they had three little boys.  The two older ones went with me into the room and we had the lesson on Josiah.  I found that girls and boys are different to teach.  Girls talk about Barbies and My Little Pony.  Boys talk about monsters and how far a person can spit.  Ha, ha!

I couldn't sleep on Saturday night.  I had about 90 minutes  of sleep tops.  Probably less.  So I was really out of it yesterday.  I went through the day in a fog.  I went to bed around 2:00 p.m. and finally fell asleep around 3:00 p.m.  I slept for about two hours and felt a lot better.  Joe called out and got Chinese food so that I wouldn't have to cook.

I went for my semi-annual checkup with my oncologist last week.  Everything is good.  No sign of my cancer returning.  Good news!  So the doctor said since it has been so long, from now on I can come annually.  I don't need to see her until next August.  Of course if anything comes up, I just have to call her and get an appointment.

I went to the Crafters group at church on Saturday, but I was the only one that showed up.  Oh well.  I am working on so many crafts at home.  I am making another temperature blanket this year.  I said I wasn't going to do it, but I did.  So much yellow, pink and red in it.  Those are the "hot" colors.  It certainly shows what a warm year we are having.

I am also knitting a baby blanket for my new little great-grandson that is coming.  I have gathered all my left-over blue yarn and am making blocks which I will crochet together to look like a patchwork quilt.  The yarn is all different shades of blue and different textures just as if I were using different kinds of cloth.  The good thing is that I am getting rid of a lot of yarn.  When I am finished, I will wash it before I send it off to make sure everything is clean, soft and fresh smelling.

Besides that, I joined Annie's Attic Farmhouse Craft Club.  I get a new craft every month.  They are really nice too.  So far I have made a beaded patriotic garland and a coaster set.  I made a YouTube video about it.  Here is the link to it.

Tomorrow is Bible Study.  We are starting on Hebrews chapter 5.  I was going to do a review of chapter 4 but... I can't find the book!

I can't find a wedding invitation that I have to return either.  Oh my!  This house MUST get cleaned up.  I am so disorganized.

And with that, I have to get going on putting a lesson together.  I hope all is well with all of you.  August is almost over.  So is the summer.  Time is flying.

Kathy

LATE SUMMER'S HOME

 Hello friends!  Welcome back.  I have not been keeping up very well, but then I haven't been feeling very well.  I am trying so hard to clean out the house and I end up just laying down and going to sleep.  I have been trying for a week to get the grass cut.  But it keeps on raining or else it is over 100*F (38*C).  I will try again tomorrow.

We went to Target today for Joe to pick up his medicine and get the few things we needed in groceries.  In the Dollar Spot I found a book that I just had to buy.  It is called "Meal in a Mug" and has tons of recipes that can be made in a mug and a microwave.  I have to try some of them and let you know how it turns out.

I thought I would show you today some of my late summer decorating.  Usually June and July I have lots of red, white and blue and flags.  But when August comes, I change it out to more summer topics.

This first picture is a little dark, but I hope you can see it.  I put these two gnomes on my shelf even though they are different scale.  Maybe one is a giant gnome and the other a dwarf?  Ha, ha!  Joe gave me the flower in the middle.

I have the blue truck and a "welcome" on the inside of the front door.

And my favorite wreath has replaced the flag and "America" sign on the outside of the front door.

There are some other things that I will show you as soon as I get it photographed.  The time is passing so quickly.

And now I need to go to bed.  I am falling asleep as I write this.  I'll be back soon.

Kathy

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON AND A GROCERY HAUL FROM SHOPRITE

 Hello, friends.  What a week this has been.  Last time I told you about going to the dentist.  Right after that I started running a fever and had a headache I couldn't get rid of.  Then on Thursday my abdomen began to hurt.  Badly.  Especially on the right side.  I thought I might have appendicitis.  I was supposed to go to the cancer center that day, but called and cancelled.  I ended up going to Urgent Care.  The Emergency Rooms are impossible these days.  Last time I waited over six hours and never got seen.  I left.  They are severely understaffed and the staff are overworked.

There was only one other person in Urgent Care and I was able to get seen right away.  The doctor said I have a bladder infection and gave me some antibiotics.  It doesn't feel like any bladder infection I have ever had.  But she pushed on me really hard and it didn't hurt so she said it would be amazing if it was my appendix since if it were I would be screaming with pain.

Now I have antibiotic capsules to take and antibiotic mouthwash for my tooth to use every day.  What a life!

I had to put the prescriptions into the pharmacy at Shoprite, so we finished up our shopping.  It came to about $100.00.  So that is our food for the month.  We will only get what we run out of for the rest of the month.

Here's what I got.

Joe wanted Danish.  He got lemon and cherry.

My treat was a bag of chips.

We got asparagus, broccoli and two large beefsteak tomatoes.

I got four envelopes of brown gravy mix, air freshener for the bathroom, six croissants, butterhead lettuce and salmon salad.  My sister raves about the salmon salad and I finally found it in my store.  It was wonderful!

We were almost out of veggies.  I got California style vegetables, peas and carrots, cut green beans and whole green and yellow beans with carrots.

I also got french fries, corn on the cob, broccoli florets and broccoli stir fry.  Yes, we like broccoli.  Can you tell there was a sale on frozen vegetables?

It's been so hot (102* on Thursday when we went shopping, 94* today) so the ice cream sale looked good.  Turkey Hill, of course.  I got the Peanut Butter Ripple and Joe got Rocky Road.

I had a coupon for the salad dressing.  We needed Italian (we seem to go through that the fastest since I also cook with it).  We also got Lysol toilet bowl cleaner, some cheese and spinach tortellini, bread crumbs, cheese and bologna.

Stove Top stuffing was on sale.  I got Herbed and for Pork.  It's a nice change from potatoes or pasta.  I also got a box of instant potatoes, a package of honey sausage and a box of mushrooms.

And finally my lactose free cheese, low sodium bacon, a honey ham and some hot dogs.

We found that as a rule the prices were higher than Lidl's, but there were some prices that were lower, and they had a much wider variety of goods.  After talking it over, we have decided to stay at Shoprite and go to Lidl's if we are in the neighborhood and need just a couple of things.  Besides Shoprite is only three blocks from my house.

So, friends, that is what is going on here.  I tried to clean up a bit today, but had to stop because I was just too sick.  I will continue on tomorrow.  I am not going to church tomorrow because I don't think I could sit up through it.  Here at home I can at least lay down when I feel sick.

I will try to be back tomorrow with a Sunday Praise even though I won't be teaching it.  See you then.

Kathy

A DENTIST VISIT AND A NEW STORE HAUL

Hello, friends.  Hope you are having a great day.  

Yesterday I was finally able to get to my own dentist.  I love Dr. Phon and it was so good to see her.  Since the office by my house was still closed, I had to go to the one in Southwest Philly.  Even with just a little traffic and my GPS operated by Joe it took almost 45 minutes to get there.  Philly is a large city and it can take over an hour to drive from end to end.  I got so lost because the GPS told me to turn onto a street even though I was just one block away if I had gone straight.  So I was five minutes late for my appointment.  But it didn't seem to matter since she had an emergency appointment and I had to sit in the waiting room for an hour.

When I was taken back the tech took the x-rays.  It was the first time I had the machine go around my head.  It was so much easier than a bitewing.  Then she took me to a room to see the dentist.

I was so happy to see her.  It was a little tough treating me because my chart was at the other office.  But she examined my gum, numbed it with topical and cleaned all around my crown.  She said the abscess was all cleaned up.  Then she took a look at the x-ray.  It seems my root canal has gone bad.  I have to go see an endodontist who has to do some minor (?) surgery to see if he can repair it.  Since I have seen an endodontist in the past, she is sending me back there.  She wanted me to go closer to home which I really appreciated!  So that is a call I have to make today to set up an appointment.  I still may lose the tooth, but let's give it a shot of keeping it.  If this keeps up I will need dentures soon.

After we finally left the dentist we got lost going home.  How can we get lost with a GPS you ask?  The machine says turn here, but I'm in the wrong lane to turn.  Or I don't hear it in time.  Or there's construction and I can't.  So I ended up going several blocks past where I should have been.  But it wasn't that hard to get back.  Much easier to go home than to get there.

We were both hungry so we ended up going to East Coast Wings and Grill for lunch.  After a year of not being able to, it is so nice to go to a restaurant again.  Our favorite waiter, Bobbie, was there.  But he wasn't our waiter.  We did get a chance to talk to him though.

Joe got unsweetened iced tea and I got mango tea.  It's also unsweetened, but the mango makes it so that I don't need any sweetening.  For our food we both went to the lunch specials.  Joe got a cheeseburger and fries.  I got bone-in wings with smoky barbecue sauce and sweet potato waffle fries.

We needed to get some groceries so after we ate we headed to the store.  We have both been wanting to try the new LIDL store so this was our chance.  We knew you had to bring your own bags, so we grabbed some totes out of the trunk of the car, took a cart, and headed inside.  We had no idea what to expect.

It was a small store which surprised me.  There was a lot of fruit and we got some.  Not so much veggies.  They had everything, but not a lot of choice in things.  For instance there were a lot of different breads, but they were all white bread.  There was tons of beef but it was either a steak or ground beef.  We did get some things we needed though I will have to go to Shoprite tomorrow to finish up.  Here's what we got.

A bag of mini pretzels, milk, unsweetened iced tea for Joe, sweet tea for me.  I saw this duster and decided to get it.  I don't have one and with Jack the cat things get dusty around here.

I got some salmon at a very good price.  The only other fish they had was tilapia.  But I'm not fond of tilapia even though I eat it.  The only other seafood they had was shellfish which I don't eat at all!  There was a big selection of chicken though and I got breast and thighs.  Joe needed lunch meat so got the honey ham.  I didn't look, but he said there wasn't much of a choice there.

I needed a lemon for a recipe I'm doing.  Joe wanted bananas and oranges.

Joe saw some apricot mini streusel and got that.  I asked what the discounted bread was and when Joe picked it up, it was a ciabatta.  So I got that.  We were out of bread so we got a loaf of white bread and we had no hot dog rolls so Joe got that.  But we couldn't find the hot dogs.

Finally, we needed eggs so got 18 brown eggs.  I got a box of Krusteaz cinnamon swirl crumb cake mix.  I have the treat at church in two weeks and this will be easy to make.  I don't mind baking in cooler weather, but it's just too hot these days.  I like mayo but Joe likes Miracle Whip.  We were out of it so he got a jar of the store brand.

We still needed bottled water.  There was some there, but the packages were all ripped open.  So after we got back into the car, we headed for Rite Aid.  LIDL also doesn't seem to have a drugstore like part.  At least we didn't see it.  Maybe they do and we just missed it.

Joe got the water and a few other things and then we headed home.  It was a L-O-N-G day.

I have so much to do today.  I need to get a lot of cleaning and yard work done.  I need to toss a lot of things.  And I need to go to drop some things off at the Salvation Army and then go to Shoprite.  Besides finishing up my shopping, I have to drop off a prescription.  So I am going to end and get busy.  Have a wonderful day and I will see you soon.

Kathy

 

SUNDAY PRAISE

 Good morning, friends!  Happy Sunday.  I am coming to you early this week so I don't know how many kids I will have in Sunday School.  I am hoping about four but we will see.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having lunch with my former pastor, his wife and two of his daughters.  It was so fun to see them all again and have the delicious lunch that his daughter Karen prepared.  She has just moved into an apartment at Salem Harbor, a complex on the Delaware River not far from where I live.  The apartment was beautiful, but so much smaller than what I am used to.

While we were there Joe and I took a tour of the sample apartments.  As I said the one bedroom one was small.  But great for someone who doesn't need a lot of room.  The two bedroom one is something I could live with.  There was a large living room, very small dining room with a balcony, open kitchen with new appliances and a pantry, a large linen closet, a small bathroom with a washer and dryer, then you go down a hallway and there are two large bedrooms.  

There are no apartments available right now, but Joe and I put in our names on a waiting list and if something opens up they will call us.  This is something we have thought about for several years.  We love the house and neighborhood but we are getting older and it's harder to do the yard work and shovel the snow, etc.  I will let you know what happens!  We might be staying where we are for several more years or we might be moving by the end of the year.  You never know with us.

But let me tell you the lesson for today.  It is about King Josiah.

JOSIAH

Josiah was only eight years old when he was made king.  When King Josiah was sixteen, he began to worship God.  King Josiah loved God and obeyed his ways completely.

Josiah had noticed that many of his people had begun to worship idols.  Idols were objects that people would pray to like they were gods.  But Josiah wanted his whole kingdom to worship God only.  For six years, Josiah worked to get rid of the idols.  He had the altars used to worship idols torn down, and the idols ground into dust.

Because so many people were worshiping idols, God's temple, holy place -- like a church, was not cared for properly.  When King Solomon had built the temple, he had richly decorated the building to honor God.  The walls and floors had been lined with carved cedar wood and gold.  Even the doors and door posts had been beautifully carved.  But it had been 250 years since repairs were made to the special temple.

Josiah was only twenty-six years old, but he knew it was important to have a place to worship God.  He gave orders for the temple to be repaired.

Money was collected to buy the materials needed for the repairs.  The men chosen to work on the temple were honest and could be trusted to work hard.  They bought wood and stone to make repairs.  When the temple was repaired, Josiah brought back the singers and musicians to celebrate.

God was pleased with the young king.  He wants his house to be clean and in good repair.  Josiah led the people to making a new vow of love and loyalty to the true God of Israel.

(based on 2 Kings 22:1-6)

How old was King Josiah when he gave orders for the temple to be cleaned?  He was 26.  A young man with a heart for God.  Oh that we had young men in our churches with hearts for God.

The second question this week is who can keep God's house clean?  And the answer is everyone.  I think this is important since the kids tend to just throw things around the Sunday School room and I end up cleaning after the lesson.  We are going to have clean up time starting today.

I found a new to me website that will email me a Sunday School lesson each week.  Each lesson also has games, coloring pages, puzzles and other things attached to it.  I was looking for a puzzle page for Josiah and came across this.  I joined their page and am looking forward to having new lessons each week.  It may not match up with mine, but that's OK.  I can print them out and keep them in a folder or three-ring binder and use them as I need them.  So for today I have a game like Concentration -- cards that are turned upside down and they have to find the matches.  Then I have a maze "Help Josiah find the scroll" and also a coloring page.  I think the kids will have fun with it.  Having fun helps you to remember the lesson.

Now I have to get off of here and get something to eat, get Joe up and get ready to leave for church.  I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Sunday.

Until later...

Kathy

I JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF LANCASTER COUNTY

 

Hello, friends.   Hope you had a great day.  This morning Joe had a doctor's appointment at the VA Hospital.  I drove him down and waited for him in the car instead of going into the hospital.  I made some phone calls and read part of my book while I waited.

When Joe came out, we were both hungry and decided to go to lunch.  We had to get on I-76 to go home but I didn't get off.  We kept right on going and went out to Lancaster County to have lunch.  Are we nuts to drive almost 2 hours to have lunch?  Uh... yes, a little.  But we had such a good time.

Joe took some pictures of the countryside as we drove through it.  It's so pretty.

We had a list of five possible places for lunch.  The first was Dienner's where Elaine and I had lunch/dinner last week.  Joe said he wanted a buffet and I wanted a sit down meal.  This would give us either one.  I pulled into Dienner's and saw there were about 20 people outside with the beepers they use to call people waiting.  So I turned around and we left.

We passed our next choice, Miller's, had a full parking lot so we drove on.  We decided to go to Katie's Kitchen.  But there were people waiting outside there also.  So we ended up at Hershey Farm.

We hadn't been to Hershey in a long time.  The last time we were there we had a very bad experience.  But we decided to give them another chance.  We walked in and were seated right away.  They had only the smorgasbord so that's what we got.

Joe went up first.  Here's his plate.  Beef, green beans, corn and mashed potatoes.

He had the same thing for his second plate but had stuffing instead of potatoes.

For my first plate I had chicken pot pie, corn, green beans and stuffing with gravy.

My second plate was fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy.  I shouldn't have had that second piece of chicken.  I saw the wing and picked it up but then saw the leg which I really wanted.  I couldn't put the wing back, so I ended up with both.  And I didn't want to waste food, so I ate it.

I didn't want any dessert, but Joe got two pieces of sugar-free pie.  He couldn't decide between cherry or apple so he got both!  Does he look happy?

We went through the gift shops after we ate.  I bought just a few things.

I got another Wanda Brunstatter book.  Oh my I had better get reading.  I also got some burlap dahlias to decorate in the fall and a bag of peppermints.  I always get peppermints there and forgot last week.

When we went out to leave, I looked for the animals they always have.  Usually there are goats, chickens, a rooster or two, ducks, geese, sheep and sometimes other small animals.  Today all I saw were these two little goats.  They were cute, but I wonder where all the other animals were.

We headed back to Philly because it was getting late.  We made good time until we got into Montgomery County.  Then rush hour traffic got to us.  But we plugged along and finally reached Philadelphia.   Joe took a picture of the Art Museum and the Philadelphia skyline as we drove along.

It took us 30 minutes longer to get home than it did to go out there.  We had such a nice time.  It's fun to do things on the spur of the moment.  And we both felt so much better and calmer when we got home.  We are still looking for a home to move to out there.  We have been looking for years.  Maybe someday.

Until next time...

Kathy

SISTERS GET-AWAY TO LANCASTER COUNTY -- DAY TWO

 Hello, friends.  Hope you had a great Monday.  I thought I would tell you about our second day in Lancaster today.

We got up and got ready for the day.  It was Elaine's birthday so she got to open her gifts.  It is a custom with us to open our gifts first thing in the morning before breakfast.  I had brought the gifts from Joe and me.

We weren't sure if the hotel was going to provide the free breakfast they are famous for, but were pleasantly surprised to find there was something.  It wasn't the hot scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns of the past, but there was plenty there.  Doughnuts, bagels, English muffins, hard boiled eggs, coffee, tea, juice and water.  We did not go hungry and everything was good.

We went back to the room, got packed up and ready to leave.  I took a picture of the view outside of our room.  I think this patio was off of the pool area.

When we got into the car to leave, we were sitting in front of a cornfield.  We're not in Philly anymore.

We had so much planned for our two days so we tried to pack everything into one.  The first place we went to was Rockvale Mall.  It has lots of discount and specialty shops in it.  Unfortunately a lot of the stores have closed.  My friends had told me it was because they had to close during Covid and couldn't make it to reopen.

We started out at Christmas Tree Hill.

I went in to get a couple of battery operated candles.  I ended up getting a lot of other things.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of them.  But I got a little gnome riding a turtle, a jingle bell hanger for the front door for Christmas, some coasters (a red truck for Christmas and snowmen for January) and a couple of Christmas gifts.  I do have a picture of one of the candles in my front window.  It looks so nice.

Then we went to Reading China and Glass.

I cannot go in that store and not spend money.  Joe had just bought me a new non-stick frying pan and I wanted to get some nylon utensils.  I found two spatulas (large and small) and a spoon shaped one.  My sister found a mayo knife.  It is shaped like the inside of the jar and will get every last bit out.  I got one too.  I also got a chopper.  I've been wanting one for a long time.

We left Rockvale and went up the road to Hershey Farm.  I got honey wheat bread, two apple turnovers, a pumpkin whoopie pie for my friend Donna, a new book from Wanda Brunstetter and a pretty blue t-shirt that says Life is Simple ... Lancaster County, PA.

Of course if you are at Hershey Farm you have to take a picture of Famous Amos.

When we left Hershey Farm we turned the opposite direction and went to the antique store that Elaine likes.  I stayed in the car and made some phone calls while she investigated.

We were moving right along here.  We headed for the Bird-in-Hand Farmers Market.  I knew I wanted to get some fresh veggies.  But I also got some lunchmeat because I knew we were out, and two beautiful pork chops.  We already ate them and they were wonderful.  In produce I got two ears of white corn that had been picked the day before, two beautiful big tomatoes, a green and a yellow zucchini and a nice head of cauliflower.

We headed over to the Bird-in-Hand Restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner.  That was where Elaine wanted to go for her birthday.  We both got the smorgasbord.  We were so full that neither of us ate later that day.  Elaine ended her meal with a piece of cake for her birthday.

We looked around the store attached to the restaurant a little bit after we were finished and Elaine bought a couple of things.  Then we got ready to go home.

We were going to go down to Intercourse to Kitchen Kettle but it was after 2:00 p.m. and we wanted to miss rush hour on I-95.  So we left for home.  We did pretty good, though, because that was the only thing we didn't do.

I took a few pictures of the landscape as we left.  Here is a family in a buggy.

And Elaine said to take this one.  One buggy is coming and one is going.

I took these only because you couldn't see the faces of the people.  I would never take a picture when I know they don't want me to.

Here's some more landscape.  It's such a pretty part of the state.

We had a pretty easy ride home.  We knew we were back when we saw the Philadelphia Art Museum and the city skyline.

I-676 and I-95 were packed and it was slow going but that was OK.  Most of the way was pretty good.  Here is some of the traffic on I-95 and the commuter train (the elevated train).  I remember when this station was built.  It was controversial putting it in the middle of a highway, but it has turned out great.

And that ends our get-away for this year.  Thanks for coming along.  Hope to see you back here soon.

Until later,

Kathy