WE GOT SNOW

 

Hello, friends!  Yes, after two years of nothing, we got snow today.  At least not as much as Snoopy seems to have here.  Thank God for that.  

I went to see my brother Larry today.  We weren't able to get together for Christmas and I still had his gifts.  Joe isn't feeling well, so I went by myself.  I haven't been there all that often, so I use the GPS on my phone for directions.  I knew I didn't have a lot of power, but was doing well until I wasn't.  My phone completely died as I came off the highway.  I didn't know how to get to Larry's house.  Turn right?  Turn left?  Straight ahead?  I went straight and pulled into a parking lot.  I thought, I'll just call him and ask for directions.  Duh...  My phone was dead.  

I looked in the glove compartment and I had my old GPS in there.  I plugged it in and entered Larry's address.  But it kept wanting to send me to New Jersey.  NO!  Finally I found where I could tell it I wanted Pennsylvania and then it gave me directions.  I was about 10 minutes from his house, but I would never have found it.

When I pulled up, Larry came out and said, "Look over there.  There are deer."  Sure enough, there were two deer in his neighbor's yard.  I took a picture of it.  This was as close as my camera would take it.  Not much of a zoom lens on it.

But here is Larry's picture which is much better.

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We opened gifts first.  Larry loved everything.  He had already given Joe and me our Christmas gift.  He got us a year of Britbox for the TV.  But for my birthday he gave me a cookbook.  I love it.  The title is "Amish Christmas Cookbook: Authentic Favorites from Three Generations of Amish Cooks".  The recipes look great.  I'm going to use some for my YouTube channel since everyone seems to like my cooking videos.  Funny enough, I gave Larry a cookbook for his birthday.  I got him "Tasting History" by Max Miller.  Max Miller has a YouTube channel that I watch every Tuesday.  He tells about history and cooks a recipe from that time.

Larry and I went to Collegeville Diner for lunch.  He had a cheeseburger and potato chips and I had breakfast -- poached egg, two links of sausage, hash browns and toast.  Everything was really good.  But so much!  I couldn't finish it all.  But I made a really big dent.

Larry paid for lunch and then we went over to look at the bakery.  There were all kinds of cookies, cupcakes and small cakes.  I pointed out the cookies with eyes looking at us.  Larry liked the rat cakes.  He took a picture of them and sent it to me.  They may look gross, but I'll bet they tasted delicious.

 I hung around for about an hour after we got back.  Larry charged my phone for me so I could use it to get home.  The snow was coming down pretty fast, so I decided to leave before it got too bad.  The streets and sidewalks were already covered.

It took me over an hour to get home.  Everyone was driving slowly, but that was OK with me.  The closer I got to Philadelphia, the less snow there was.  By the time I got home, it was all rain.  That was a relief.  I didn't have to shovel.

And now I have to get off of here and get something to eat.  I hope you all have a great night and I will see you tomorrow.

NOT MUCH GOING ON

 Today was a really mixed up day.  I was all at odds.  Mostly because I woke up, took my first dose of medicine, did a few morning things, and then fell asleep again and didn't wake up until almost 10:00 a.m.!  I jumped out of bed and started to get myself ready for the day.  I was expecting Crystal to come over between 10:00 and 10:30.  But when she didn't show up, I called her.  It turns out she was expecting us to call her and OK her coming.  We thought she was just going to come.  So now it is set for Monday morning for her to come.

I did get one table and the floor around it cleaned off.  Every little thing helps.  Right now I am concentrating on getting the living room cleaned up because that is what you see first when you open the front door.  Although I am thinking of doing the kitchen next week.  I hate the kitchen right now.  I want to change the counter space, get the floor all picked up, get rid of excess plates, cups, etc.  I do love dishes and end up buying all kinds of things because I like them.  Now I have no room!  So maybe we will move out there next week.

But enough of that.  Getting my house under control this year is my New Year's Resolution and I am doing my best to keep it.

I bought a new pair of shoes from Amazon today.  Well I bought them the other day and they were delivered today.  I needed a black pair of shoes.  My old ones are a mess.  The new ones are so comfortable and look so nice.  I am hard on shoes and they don't last very long so I don't usually buy expensive shoes.  I did buy $60 shoes once and they didn't last any longer than my $20 shoes did.  So...

Now I am going to end and get dinner ready.  I have a spaghetti squash that I want to use.  I'm trying to use up all my veggies before they go bad.  So many times I forget what I have and find it ... uh... later.

Trying to blog every day in January and so far, so good.  See you later.

FOUR DAYS IN A ROW

 

Hello, friends.  I am writing to you again.  Four days in a row!  Let's see how long I can keep this up.  I know I have been ignoring this blog for quite awhile.  And while I do enjoy doing YouTube videos, I also enjoy writing.

So how are all of you?  I hope you are doing well in this new year.

Yesterday Joe's cousin Crystal came over to help us clean up the house.  She is one of his younger cousins.  Young enough to be our kid.  And having the young energy around was really great.  She looked around the house, saw how bad it has gotten and instead of judging us, said, "We can do this!"  So encouraging!  We worked picking things up (well she did since I can't bend over without passing out) and going through things for two hours.  We got an entire recycling can full and a trash bag out of the living room.  We recycle way more than we throw out.  When I worked for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, I became very recycling conscious.  She is going to come back a couple of times a week until we have the house cleaned out.  For the first time in a very long time I am hopeful of getting things under control and my spirits are much higher than they have been in a long time.

For Christmas my sister gave me a box of twelve really cute nailpolishes.  They are very small bottles and are great colors.  One color for each month of the year!  I chose the sparkly gold color for January.  It looks great.  I wanted to take a picture of it to show you but...  I can't find my new camera.  

Well, things are so upset from trying to declutter that I can't find much at the moment.  It is going to be a decluttering marathon for several months.  But it will be so much better when we are done.  Then I can clean.

Today Joe wants to run to the Christian bookstore to see about getting a Bible imprinted.  I don't know if that will happen because he is really tired from not being able to sleep last night.  He finally went to bed around 4:30 a.m. after being up and down all night.  He went to bed a decent time, but just couldn't sleep.  He does, however, have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so he has to be up for that.

And then there's the storm coming.  The last I heard was we were going to get mostly rain with maybe a little snow.  But where my sister lives, they are expecting a lot of snow.  Please pray for her because she works a long way from home and has quite a drive in her commute.  Plus she has to shovel out her driveway when she gets home before she can park.

Thank you for all your comments and encouragement as I get back into blogging.  You guys mean so much to me.  I feel as if you are my family.  Thanks for sticking with me.  Last year was hard for me.  This year seems much better.

Until later...