CHRISTMAS EVE AND DAY

 Hello, friends!  Sorry I haven't been around in awhile but I have not been feeling well.  Cold?  Flu?  Exhaustion?  I'm not really sure.  But I sure feel lousy.  We were invited to a party tonight for New Year's Eve, but I'm not up to it.  And to top it off Joe threw out his back at the grocery store yesterday.  We are a pair!

I'm going to start by telling you about Christmas Eve.  What a cold, COLD day.  When I got up it was 7*F (-14*C) with a wind chill factor of -11*F (-24*C).  It was so cold in the kitchen that I had to bring my breakfast into the living room where I had the fireplace space heater going to stay warm to eat.

We had to run some errands.  First the post office (it was up to 16*F (-9*C) by that time), then the bakery to pick up a Happy Birthday Jesus cake that we ordered, and finally to church to turn on the heat and set things up for the morning.  We didn't know what to do for lunch so while we were out and about we stopped off at Wawa and got some chicken noodle soup.  I am not a soup person, but it was sure good on that cold day.

I also wanted a snack, so I made some "Snowman" cookies from Pillsbury.  So easy to take them out of the package, put them on a cookie sheet, and bake them.

Christmas, of course, was a Sunday.  And I was running late!  I tried not to but...  Our pastor was away, and Joe was speaking.  And I had two people to pick up and get over there.  Donna lives about 10 minutes away so I went to get her first.  Then I picked up Rosemary who lives around the corner from us.

We got there in plenty of time, though.  Most of our regulars were there, with Rosemary as a visitor.  We had our cake and coffee and then started the service.  Midway through a visitor walked in who was looking for a church that was open on Christmas.  Some weren't.  And then towards the end there was a man who came in.

After the service some people went home and some of us decided to go to lunch together.  We planned to meet at the Ritz Diner.  But when we got there the parking lot was full.  The lines were long.  The place was packed.  We discussed it and decided to go to the Liberty Bell Diner instead.  It has been there a long time, but neither Joe nor I had ever eaten there.  It was a good choice.  We got seated right away and the food was delicious.  The service was great too.

Fish and chips

Fried scallops

Turkey dinner

Mahi mahi

I was very tired.  VERY tired.  I drove everyone home and then laid down on the sofa.  The next thing I knew it was 16 hours later and the next morning.  Wow!  I knew I wasn't feeling well, but I had no idea I would do that.

So that was my Christmas.  The next day was much better.  I went to visit my sister.  But that is a story for another day.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve and Day.  I will do my best to be back here tomorrow with another post.

Until later...

Kathy

THE CHRISTMAS CAFE

 Hello, friends!  I am having a hard time keeping up with this blog.  I just don't have a lot of time.  I am running doing errands or I am sick and sleeping.  So please forgive me.  I'm also trying to keep up with my YouTube channel.  Vlogmas is not for the faint of heart.  But hopefully in the new year I will get better.  And I apologize for not getting around to reading all of your posts.  There just isn't time!

Last week I spent 10 hours one day just doing church work.  Between the bulletin, studying for my Bible study (the one I teach) and working with Joe on his sermon (he's preaching Sunday) and his elder work I was very busy.  By the end of 10 hours (I didn't even stop for lunch!) I laid down and slept for four hours.  Joe woke me up telling me he had made dinner and it was ready.  What a sweetheart he is!

Yesterday we were running around and I spent four hours in the car.  I was in a lot of pain by the time we got home.  Joe went to Urgent Care because he had a very bad cold.  It turned out he has a sinus infection.  Then we had to go get his prescription.  He is better today so hopefully he will be OK by Sunday.

Last Sunday we had our annual Christmas Cafe.  It is always a lot of fun.  I made a video about it so you can go to YouTube and see it.  But I also took a lot of pictures and I will show them to you.

This is the advent wreath on our communion table.  Four candles are lit.  Just the Christ candle to go for this Sunday.

We have lots of poinsettias around the sanctuary.

Candles on our windowsills.  So pretty.

Little Christmas trees on the tables in Fellowship Hall.

We had a guest soloist, Bekah Foster.  She sang and played four songs.  And she was so good!

At the end we had our usual Christmas Carol sing along.  So fun.

I have been meaning to take a picture of our beautiful wreath for weeks and finally did it.  It is in the hallway just inside the front door.  It's the first thing you see when you enter the building.

Thanks for coming along.  Christmas is coming quickly!  Too quickly for me.  I will be back soon.  Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season.

Kathy

I HAVE A GIFT FOR YOU

 

Hello, friends.  I hope all is well with you.  I had what I call a "wasted" day today.  I am so tired and I just could not make myself do anything.  I slept a lot and watched some TV and that was about it.  I did make a great dinner though.  I put some chicken thighs in the air fryer, mixed up a box of chicken stove top, opened a jar of chicken gravy, cooked some green beans and opened a can of cranberry sauce.  It was really good and I ate more than I have been eating lately.  I have been having trouble with my stomach and haven't been eating much.  Because of the pain the other day I had one blueberry pancake all day.  Tonight I actually ate a meal.

Tomorrow I will have to get up early and start cleaning.  We are having a friend of Joe's come over in the morning.  He is a handyman and Joe wants to see if he can do some things around the house for us.  I have to move some things out of the way of where he has to work.

The sanctuary at church is decorated so beautifully for Christmas.  But I never got to show you pictures of the fall decorations.  So this is how our windowsills looked.

I will have to take pictures of how it looks now.

Here is how the communion table looked.

Wait.  What are those books on the table?

They are pocket sized Gospels of John.  We are giving them out for free to anyone who would like one.  I have three in my purse right now.  I have had a chance to give out only one.  Several people have given out four or five copies.  The idea is to get the gospel into the hands of anyone who wants one.  We never force it on people.  My offer to you is...  If you would like a copy, or multiple copies, of this little gospel for yourself or someone else, please email me with your address and I will mail it to you.  This is absolutely free.  No strings attached.  I won't ask you any questions and I won't be bothering you with a follow-up (although if you want to share a story with me, I won't say no).

And now I have to go to bed.  Tomorrow is going to be a long day.  Have a good one everyone.

Christmas is coming quickly!

Kathy

YES, IT'S REALLY ME

 

Hello, friends.  Yes, it really is me.  I know I have been missing for quite awhile.  The truth is I have been extremely busy and just have not had the time to get on here.  Let me catch you up a bit.

I have been busy with church.  I am doing a four- part Advent series in Bible Study on Tuesday from the first two chapters of the book of Matthew.  It is really interesting, but I have never really checked all the background before and it is taking a lot of study before I can teach it.

In addition to that, I started an online college course on C.S. Lewis' writings.  I am so far behind on that and have to catch up this week to get the credit for it.

My sister came to visit me this past week.  It was so fun to be able to go out and have lunch with her.  We went to the local pizza place and she got a real Philly cheesesteak (not what the rest of the world calls Philly cheesesteaks).  She said it was like "eating heaven."  You just can't get a good roll outside of Philly.

We also went to Lidl's.  I was just going to show the place to her and pick up a couple of things we needed, but ended up spending $50.  I can't go into that store without buying something.  One of the things I got was a cute gnome doormat for the front door.  It is so cute.  I also got a snowman shower curtain that I can leave up all winter.

Lots of packages have been coming to our door.  Most of them have Joe's name on them, but there are a few things that I have ordered too.  While my sister was here, her Christmas gift came in the mail.  I was very casual about it and said I would just open it later.  Whew!  I have to go through all the gifts I have, see what is there, and figure out if I am finished or if I have to buy anything else.

Decorating is going very slowly.  I'm just not into it this year.  I have a few things up, but not much.

I went to my cardiologist this week.  It was a lot of talking about "where do we go from here" with my afib and not being able to take blood thinners.  It looks as if surgery might be coming in the new year.  *sigh*

I am enjoying my Advent calendar that Joe bought me.  It is all Walker's shortbread.  Yum!  Each day I get a new cookie.  I loved the big "thistle" cookie I got the other day.

I have to start my holiday baking very soon!  This week in fact since I need cookies to bring to the Christmas Cafe next Sunday.

The trees outside of my kitchen window look more like Thanksgiving than Christmas.  They are so pretty.

The temperatures sure don't feel like Thanksgiving though.  We have gotten down in the 20s some nights.  (-1 to -6 C).

I have been trying to keep up with my YouTube channel (Kathy's Happy Home) so if you are missing me, you can go there.  But even there I am falling behind.  I guess because I really don't feel well, I'm in a lot of pain, and I sleep a lot.  I am just not myself these days.

But...  there are so many people in the world worse off than me.  God has blessed me so much.  I am so thankful for all that I have.  And Christmas will come whether I am completely ready for it or not.

Hope you have a wonderful day, and I will talk to you when I can.

Kathy

AND THEN IT WAS DECEMBER

 Hello, friends!  Welcome to December.  It's the end of the year and I don't know where the time has gone.  But here it is.

I have so much to do around the house to get ready for the holidays, but I have been in so much pain that I don't do much of anything.  No matter what, I have to get something done tomorrow.  I didn't sleep well last night and it looks as if the same thing is happening tonight.  *sigh*  I think things are weighing on my mind.  But that doesn't help me have the energy to do what I need to do.

I started my Vlogmas today on YouTube.  The link to it is right here.

Tonight after dinner we had our Advent devotions.  I am reading a book by Billy and Ruth Graham called "This Christmas Night: Reflections from Our Hearts to Your Home."  Really good.  I'm also reading Max Lucado's new Advent devotional "In the Manger."  Not as good, but still thought provoking.

We also began to burn our Advent candle.

I got the same kind as I had last year, although a different pattern.  Having a pillar candle that I don't need a holder for is a great help.  We burned through number 1 today and will continue each day until just a small amount at the bottom remains.

Tomorrow I have cleaning, cooking and studying to do.  I am taking an online college course and I got an email from them asking why I haven't begun the course.  No time!  But I am going to make the time to do this.  It is a survey of C.S. Lewis, one of my favorite authors.  I think I've read everything he has written.  So that is a priority.

Last year I had bought an Advent calendar for myself with different teas.  I thought it would be fun to try them.  I asked for black tea, but most of it was green tea.  Or peppermint tea.  Or some other things.  I hated every single one that I opened.  Finally, around the 15th I stopped torturing myself and threw the whole thing out.  

I then bought Joe a coffee one.  He liked most of them.  But because it was so late in the month, he never finished it.  He is going to try to finish it this year. 

This year instead of tea, Joe bought me a calendar with Walker's shortbread in it.  I love shortbread so I know I am going to love this.  I opened the first one today and it was a chocolate chip.  Can't wait for tomorrow's cookie.

I am going to try to get some sleep.  I hope I have the energy to do what I need to do tomorrow.  Have a good night (or day if you are reading this in the daytime).  I will see you soon.

Kathy

TIME IS MOVING SO QUICKLY

 Hello, friends!  Do you feel as if time is just flying by?  I sure do.  There aren't enough hours in the day to do all I need to do.

Today was Bible Study.  I started a four week study in the first two chapters of Matthew.  I used to think the genealogy in chapter one was so boring and I would skip over it.  Now I find it amazing.  I got into genealogy research with my own family and that has made me look at this list in a different way.  Some of the ladies told me that it was a very good lesson.  But another one thought it was boring.  Well, to each their own.

After Bible Study I swung by my house and picked up Joe.  We went to Target to get Joe's medicine and to get some groceries.  My knees were hurting me so much.  I find it extremely difficult to walk anymore, even holding onto the cart.  So I ended up sitting on a bench in the pharmacy area and Joe went to do the grocery shopping.  Usually I sit in the car in the parking lot waiting for him.  But the last time I did that, there were three men who surrounded my car.  I was very scared and was so thankful to see Joe approaching.  When they saw him, they left.  Now I go into the store with him.

There were only five things on the list, but he came back with a cart load of items.  That's Joe for you.  He got me three boxes of refrigerated sugar cookie dough in all sorts of holiday patterns.  That is going to be fun to make.  He also got chocolate chips and said he is going to make me cookies.

Joe tells a story about when he was a baker in the Marine Corps.  He made 3,000 chocolate chip cookies for the dessert at lunch.  He was a night baker, so he got off at 9:00 a.m. and went to bed.  About 11:00 a.m. he was woken up and asked why he didn't make the cookies.  He said he did.  He had spent hours the night before making them.  They were gone.  The morning bakers had come in and eaten them all.  So Joe had to get up and bake another 3,000 cookies.  He has not made a lot of chocolate chip cookies since then.  But he said he will make them for me.

I did stop in the Dollar Spot which is right inside of the front door of Target.  I got a couple of Christmas dish towels and a little gnome tree ornament.  I also got a couple of things for my sister's stocking.

Just one more day of November.  It hardly seems possible that 2022 is almost over.  Every year I say how fast time goes and every year it is true!

Today is my little great-grandson Walker's first birthday.  It hardly seems possible.  He is my grandson Colby's little boy.  And that hardly seems possible either because I think of Colby as a little boy himself.  But just look at how cute Walker is.  Every picture I see of him, he is smiling.

The sun has set.  It sets around 4:30 p.m. these days.  I am going to go get dinner started.  I'm having left over pork loin and a new carrot recipe that one of the ladies at Bible Study today told me about.  She said she cooks carrots in butter and lemon juice.  She was raving about it and it sounded good so I thought I would try it.  I have two carrots that need to be used up soon!

I will see you all later.  Hope you have a good night.

Kathy

I'M SO FRUSTRATED!

 Hello, friends.  Do you ever have one of those days?  How about one of those weeks.  Or months.  Or...

I'm just frustrated.  It's about 5 a.m. right now.  I woke up around 2 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to work on my church's YouTube channel.  I volunteered to do this.  I have been posting things for about 6 years now.  At first, I was pretty bad at it.  But now with my own YouTube channel I have gotten better.  Especially when I got an editing program that I can use for both channels.

What woke me up at 2:00 was someone sitting in their car outside blasting music.  And I do mean blasting.  It went on for about an hour.  I've heard of this happening on other streets in the neighborhood and have always considered myself lucky that it wasn't around here.  Well now it is.  I hope this was a one-time thing and that's the end of it.

Anyway, since I was wide awake, I decided to do some catching up.  Although I film the service every week, I have a bad habit of not posting it.  And now I have almost 20 videos I need to edit, find the information on it, and post.  I used to try to keep all the videos in order, but even that has gone by the wayside.  I am finding one video from February that I missed.  Another three from March.  And forget about the fall.

So, I began looking at my two cameras (yes two!) to figure out the dates and then I would go look at the old bulletins and find what the scripture and title of the sermon was.  That took a good 45 minutes to just date them.  And forget about going through hundreds of emails looking for the right week.

Then the program wouldn't work.  And the internet didn't want to cooperate.  Finally, after an hour I got one uploaded and posted.  Hurray!  Now for a second one.  If I do two a day, I can get all the back ones posted by next Monday or Tuesday.  Yes, an entire week.  But then I can start fresh for Advent and the new year.

It took me another hour to upload, edit, find the information and post the second one.  It was beautiful.  And...   I had already posted it a month ago and I had to delete the entire thing.  Aauugghh!

I have found the dates on all but one week.  I have them in chronological order in my holding file.  All I have to do now is find the information on that one post, listen to all of them so I can find out what the scripture and topic is, edit them and post them.

And why do I have all this work to do?  Because I am a procrastinator.  I am trying to get better and maybe this is my wake-up call.  I hope never to be in this position again.

Now to try to get a little more sleep before I have to get up and get Joe out of the house.  He is going out with our Pastor today.  For the whole day.  I'm not used to not having him in the house, so this will be unusual.  But I will try to get a lot done.

See you all later.  And don't procrastinate.

Kathy

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT

 This is a week of Hope.

Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

THANKSGIVING

 

Hello, friends!  I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday.  I sure did.

The day before I had made my pumpkin pie and tried to clean up as much as possible.  It is a monumental task.  In fact, it is much bigger than I originally thought as I found out when I went to clean up the kitchen.  So many things I found there when I moved the chair we never use.  Wow!  You know what I am doing today.  Now I really have to clean.

I picked up my friend Donna around noon time.  She had been coming over in the morning to visit and then going to her cousin's house.  But that fell through, and she would never invite herself over.  But when she asked me to drop her off at McDonald's on the way home so she could get a sandwich for dinner I immediately told her she was going to eat with us.  That led to the great kitchen clean up.

Donna brought a cheese babka and a box of Walker shortbread cookies shaped like little sheep.  It was fun to sit and nibble and talk.  

Joe left to go visit his niece for an hour or so.  I was invited but didn't go.  Instead, Donna and I sat and watched "The Great British Baking Show -- Christmas Edition" and talked.  And talked.  We were still doing this when Joe got back.  He watched the show with us and then went down the street to 7-11 to get us bottles of water.  We never did get to the store to get a case of water.  He came back with water, soda and iced tea.  Then it was time for dinner.

I had gotten a turkey breast tenderloin at Lidl's when I went the other week.  I had never seen a turkey tenderloin and wasn't sure how it would turn out.  I made it in the air fryer just like I do a pork tenderloin.  It turned out fantastically!  So good.  And I don't like turkey.  But I would definitely buy it again.  I also had stuffing, green beans, gravy and jellied cranberry sauce shaped like a can.  Because as we say in my family, "It's not really cranberry sauce if it's not shaped like a can."  Everything was fantastic!  For dessert was the pumpkin pie and it was so good also.

I took Donna home about 6:30 p.m.  It was such a fun day and I so enjoyed it.  

But starting today is the great Christmas clean up.  We are going to do our best to get things under control in a month.  Yikes!  What am I getting myself into?  I know it will be worth it in the end.  I am going to get a lot of junk out of the house.  I am.  No, really, I am.  *sigh*

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  It is such a wonderful holiday giving thanks to God and spending time with friends and family.

Sorry I've been so sick and so busy that I haven't gotten to a lot of your blogs.  But I will try to catch up during the next few weeks.  Thank you so much for reading this and sticking with me.  Only one doctor appointment next week and that is for Joe.  The following week my doctors start up again.  It's tough when you have three or four doctor appointments in one week.

It's 6:30 a.m. and I am going to start my day.  See you all soon.

Kathy

PIE AND PRAISE 2022

 I'm finding it difficult to believe that it is the end of November already and that Thanksgiving is just two days away.  I have so much to do to get ready for it.  And after that is Christmas.  I have a feeling that it also will come too quickly and I am definitely not ready.  I have no idea what to get anyone. Well... Joe is already finished.  He needed a new suit and wanted it for our 100th Anniversary.  So I bought it for him and he wore it.  I told him that is his Christmas gift.  Of course I will give him little things but that is it for this year because it was so expensive.

I bought myself a gift too.  I got Mike Pence's new book So Help Me God on the date of publication.  As a library person I love getting a book on the day it is published.  There is just something about it that thrills me.  I started to read it, but it is so thick that I know it will take me awhile.  It's interesting what I have read so far.  I'm not very far into it though.

Last Sunday night was our Pie and Praise celebration at church.  There were about twice the amount of people that were there last year.  First we had a short devotional where various people told what they were thankful for.  God has been so good to our congregation this past year.  It was amazing to hear all the stories.  Then it was time for pie.

I made an apple pie.  There was also pumpkin pie, key lime pie and cheesecake.  (Is that a pie?)  People were helping themselves to more than one kind.  I had apple and pumpkin.  Everyone told me how much they liked my pie so I guess I did a good job.  I thought it was a little too sweet but who was I to argue with the people who were telling me it was so good.

I meant to take pictures.  I even made sure my camera was fully charged.  But I was having such a good time talking with my friends that I totally forgot all about it until everyone was cleaning up.  Oops!  But my life isn't all about taking pictures and sometimes catching up with someone I haven't seen in six months is more important.

My friend Carol showed up.  Although I talk with her just about every week, we haven't gotten together since the spring.  It was really fun seeing her.  She has let her hair grow out and it looked really cute.

Next Sunday starts the Advent season.  Then it's Christmas.  And then the New Year.  Another year that has just totally flown by.  It seems as if the older I get, the faster time goes.  I hope the winter goes quickly too although the temperatures haven't been all that bad this year.

Now I'm just starting to ramble, so I am going to end.  Have a wonderful next few days and I hope you will be able to spend it with those you love.  See you soon.

Kathy