On my toes again...Maybe!

This weekend...Continuing to feel that something things in the government are going down the toilet.  Well...that could be a good thing if it really was happening.  We'll see.  Sunday was busy once again.  Wonderful sermon on Micah...Do good. Live humble with your God.  Meth. Social Principals as it pertains to the current governing.  There is a problem!  Then after church met with 4 good friends to plan the Sun. May 7th Arts in Worship sessions.  Such good ideas were floated and so now comes the assignments and work to make this all happen.  In one sense we also are acknowledging the gifts that have come to us through the needle work of our friend Doris Douglas.  So...It's a morning of the Arts in Worship /noon lunch/afternoon of Art as a Spiritual Practice. North has so many talented folks who understand the arts.  We are fortunate.  One exciting session will be by Wendell Lowe...a wonderful painter who now is suffering from Parkinson's...which has moved his talent from painting to photography and now to doing some wonderful things with finger painting.  It's just amazing...And he is so aware of his journey and can talk about it with such eloquence.  That's just one of a number of things that will happen that Sun. afternoon.  So this morning...I was working on the minutes of the meeting trying to get everything clear and concise sent on to the right people and completely blew off taking Eric to the bus...So...that meant taking him to work.  Grrr....from a 30 minute trip to an hr. to down town and 35 minutes home.  What a lesson...NOT on my toes for that one.  I knew it would happen sometime.  Well, it happened...Lesson learned I hope.  Making bibs today for grandbabies of Kathy O. and Cathy W.  Fun, fun.  Valentine and St. Patrick Day fabric.  I never get enough of the sewing machine.

Thurs...

Soup kitchen day...AND...we were really really busy.  Lots of good help but the folks just kept coming.  Polled pork/potatoes from Second Helpings...then 3 gal of vegetables and a good salad and lots of deserts.  And...we ran out of food at 12 pm...Used a few sandwiches and heated some soup for some of the late comers.  I felt like I walked at least 50 miles.  Continue to knit.  The last pair are for children and lots of red/purple and a little lavender.  Cute, cute.  Regina///Kat's mom is home from the hospital with a new knee.  We are loaning our big recliner to Kat for another sleeping place that Regina can claim.  So many people have borrowed that recliner for after surgery needs and we have used it on many occasions for the same thing.  It's just a great chair.  Church meeting at 5:30 this afternoon and then Choir practice.  Thurs. are really busy.  Keeps me on my toes.

Another Monday.

Church was good yesterday.  Music was terrific and great sermon on the inaugural speech given by Jesus at the beginning of his ministry.  Easy afternoon.  But...both of my football teams lost.  What a bummer.  I've lost a lot of things lately.  Got to think positive.  So...today brought the once every 5 year experience of a colonoscopy.  Now isn't that exciting.  Well...the polyps are gone and that's a good thing.  So...It could have been called a wasted day for some reasons and for other reasons it was a very good day.  Did some sleeping and some eating and knitting when I wasn't doing either of the two.  Eric's mother-in-law got her knee replaced today so both mothers took some time out to get their bodies some renewing gifts.  That's the excitement for the day.

Sat. afternoon

What did the kids do.  Well...we made cookies.  Andrew is learning that the stove and the mixer are challenges but he is beginning to accept the challenge. So he mixed up the cookies.    Little brother Noah accepted the challenge many many  months ago.  Good to see Andrew coming around.  We played Clue and Monopoly.  And I made birch bark crosses to hang on the curly willow tree branch.  I will use this at church I think sitting on the Parlor table during Lent.  Knitting took up a lot of time yesterday.  The kids watched TV...NOT Trump stuff which was directed by their mother and which I appreciated as well.  It's another one of those LET IT GO thing that is taking more time than I would have imagined.  I just don't know what to believe that he talks about because of the twisted messages I heard for the past 1 1/2 years.  Last night went with sister Mary K to a wonderful, wonderful concert...Progue Orchestra.  Wooo...could they play and it was a huge orchestra that was loud.  I loved it.  Such a safe healing space to experience after the past few weeks.  And I heard many familiar works.

This morning was a first in I don't know how long.  I woke up at 8:30...it was daylight...8:30...couldn't believe it.  Maybe I should go to another concert.  It was not a 5 hr. night for sure.  Finished another booties.  Started another one with lots of pink and purple for a friends daughter.
We have been without phone and computer for a day so the repair man came...It's all fixed.  What did he do...Don't know.  It's just fixed.  I thought Trump was taking away my phone and TV...NOT!

So...the rest of the day should be quiet.  Picking up Panara pastries tonight for church.  We've been doing that for more than 5 years...Maybe close to 10...who knows for sure.  I don't keep track.

Thurs.afternoon.

Soup kitchen was good today.  Lots of great men who came for a meal  stayed to visit with other friends.  I love it when things are calm and good conversations are happening.  We had Greek pasta from Sec. Helpings.  Yum, Something new and the men loved it.  I made my favorite salad dressing BECAUSE...I can use sour cream and chives!!!!  And that was a favorite also.  So for most of the morning I could call it good.  Our mentally unhealthy lady Veronica was with us.  So sad to see her without medication which is most of the time.  She is just a bit wild.  And..Cedric who has a drinking problem was taken to the hospital this morning to sober up.  That's another so sad person.  So...I call the morning a blessed one for all who are impacted by our feeding program.  Yesterday was also a productive morning spending it at church to clean out and clean up the food pantry.  Food items get placed in the pantry by well meaning folks.  Some things we can use but most we can't.  So the morning agenda was to clean out...and move food we can't use to where it can be used like the Mid north Food Pantry that services many folks in our area during the month.  It's located at St. Richards Episcopal . Church.  Other food can be used by our senior group that meets each wed at North.  And some hit the dumpster.  So...it's a new day in the pantry with food that meets our needs which have changed a great deal since we no longer serve soup.  It's a space we can be proud of.  I am on a cleaning jig.  Home and church so watch out.  I'm deadly.  I continue to knit booty slippers..  Love it a bunch.  And if I don't sell them I'll give them away.  They just make me smile sitting on the table all by themselves.  Tonight is choir practice.  Love singing with my friends...some of them being more than 40 year friends.  We've traveled many miles together sharing experiences along the way.  Tomorrow is kids day.  I've got to get thinking about...what to do that they want to do.

Dirty Dino is gone! Woo, woo.

Just movin' along with the stove saga.  Now what's left is to get an electrician here.  No hurry and I know a good one.  Trying to find recipes for sour cream and chives.  Have a few but I have bowls of cream and chives from a church lady who caters.  Made garlic and chive butter today.  YUM> YUM.  Try it.  Soup yesterday...lots of chives.  Can't do b potatoes.  It's a sugar thing.  And...NO potatoes in the house.  Try sour cream on fried eggs.  YUM. Yum!  So...today. knitting and making two bibs.  Soaking birch bark to make it lie flat.  Got an idea for bark.  Temp is really warm and will continue that way all week.  Oh, yes...I know exactly why one should tie their shoe laces.  And I have determined that falling on the kitchen floor leads to head bumps that are smaller than falling on cement.  Now remember that one.  You might be able to use it sometime when you are old.  Why do I need to learn the hard way?  Don't answer.  Life is interesting to say the least and pain relievers are my friend today.  This to shall pass.  That is if my luck holds out and I will see that it does.  Yup...Just tie your shoes.  No...tie my shoes.  It takes less than a minute.

Dirty Dinosaur

Tomorrow the Dirty Dinosaur is leaving the garage.  Well, that's my hope.  Stopped at HHGregg to get that scheduled.  Thank goodness they are only 2 miles from our house.  Their telephone system stinks.  I've heard more music waiting for someone who never say hello.  Easier to get in the car.
Had a 6 month check up with my NEW doctor.  I like him.  He is really an easy guy.  Then I did HH G.  and then a bit of paint for the area behind the new stove at Ace.  The first color wasn't right...So...the second color is just fine.  Then to Trader Joe's for my favorite hand cream.  Kimmy has some and so does Kat and I just ran out.  Got to have it.  Then ...plate hangers from the Accent Shop.  And then home.  Last week I did a big clean out of dishes...and decided to once again hang my mothers beautiful plates on the wall.  So...got that finished and then after the paint dried behind the stove, hung some really interesting things on the wall.  I love it.  I looked at range hoods at the store and that can wait for a while.  This afternoon I cut out some unusual shapes that fit into niches at church.  I want to do some needle work on fabric and then attach the fabric to the shapes.  I made 6 really cool Pentecost inserts two years ago and I'm ready to do more.  I need to do some designing of flowers and then stitch with crewel threads. I'm ready to take to church a large curly willow branch that will have crosses made from nails hanging from the branch.  It's for Lent.  I finished another pr. of slipper booties this morning.  Such fun thanks to Vikki.  Another pr. is on the needle.  Great fun to do while watching TV.  And by the way...Butler Un.  won their game today.  Butler has such an impressive team this year.  Watch out NCAA Tournament.    So...tonight.  In the chair...knitting and bundled up in my robe with some hot tea maybe a good ball game if I can find it..  That's about as good as it can get.  Tomorrow...NOTHING scheduled.  We'll see.

It's gone...

Dear, dear Larry came to our rescue.  He's been a friend for at least 35 years and an even better friend of Jared's.  So...he brought his football son and they got the old out and the new in!  Yahoo.  And...I boiled eggs already.  I need to get an electrician here to do something with the connecting cable.  It needs to be attached to the wall and then the stove can be moved back to the wall.  It's sticking out about 4 inches.  That's a small problem.  So...I've let it go.  I need to get HH Gregg to pick up the dirty dinosaur that's sitting in the garage now.  That should not be a problem.  So...Larry now has two bottles of honey and a pair of slipper boots for Mary Beth.  I really got caught up with news of the family.  I think Larry has at least 11 siblings.  All of them live in the Indy area.  His MOM and dad are well and it was a fun visit with a good outcome.  Yahoo...thanks JB for your thinking mind to help this along.

Let it Go!!!

Those are words from Jared.  Well, I'm in the process of letting it go but not quite there yet.  Stove...Some kids delivered the stove and I think wanted to get in and out as fast as possible.  So...They came in...tried to pull the stove out with a minimal amount of work and told us that the stove was wired to the wall or something like that and they were not qualified to install the stove.  Well...after they left I did an inspection and found that the stove was NOT wired as they thought.  It has a plug  which I thought was the case when they were here...So...now...the new stove is in the garage and the old stove is still in the kitchen.  It has been sitting in the same place for 35 years and of course it's stuck in it's place.  So...we are developing a new plan.  I can not budge the stove...With some luck good old friend of Jared's ...Larry Cloud will come over.  He is a big builder of many things and my hope is with big Larry that we can get the job done. He is such a good person...coming from a wonderful family and a friend for at least 35 years.   HH Gregg...where we've bought ALL of our appliances for 50 years has not been much help...Guess one little stove can not be a problem for them...

So...Jared says...Let it Go!!!  And I will in a few days when all is well again.  I'm trying to forget all of the uck stuff with this experience...and I will. Come on TIME.   Other than that...Little kids here yesterday.  Finished another pair of slipper booties which I'm giving to Larry's wife Mary Ann...along with a bottle of Jared honey.  Larry will love it.

The weather man says ICE storm today...we'll see.  Plenty of bread...eggs and milk.  Should be interesting.  My prediction is that the storm will be in southern Indiana.

So far this week.

For some reason I don't understand...I'm having a huge burst of energy.  Meaning...that I've cleaned and pitched in many places of this house.  The big one being that the hutch in the dining room and some cupboards in the kitchen has had a major clean out.  I unloaded the hutch...moved it and took care of a boat load of spiders and webs as well.  I've covered the dining room table with stuff that is going to Good Will.  When Doug's mother moved to the retirement home I took all of her good dishes which were the same as my good dishes.  So...I had something like 16 dinner plates...two gravy boats, cups running over and more.  So...decision...I decided a set of 8 was enough. I found more of her stuff in my kitchen cabinets.  All goes to Good Will by the end of the week.  Not before because I might be adding more to the table.  Two boxes are full and there should be at least two more.  Such a good feeling to now get things down to a reasonable amount of stuff.  In this day and age folks entertain differently.  At my age...paper plates are the best and the least amount of work.  And there are very pretty paper plates.  Maybe getting the store on Fri is the incentive to clean.  Who knows for sure.  Tomorrow is soup kitchen, tomorrow night choir.  Friday the kids.  So...it's been a good week.   My skillet fried the best eggs this morning.  It was a good decision.

Sunday.

Sort of a slow Sat.yesterday  That's fine with me.  Today was church and another 7 am arrival.  Lots of pastries/coffee/juice...etc to get ready for the church folks.  I'm still finding this something good for us to do even after at least 7 years on this job.  Guess hospitality is in the blood.  Two of our helpers were out of town so it was the 4 of us and because we have all done this for so long...we all know what to do and it usually is finished in 45 minutes.  Sometimes we have neighborhood folks but today it was very, very cold so the numbers were few.  We had one homeless man and two other folks.  Between the two services is Sun. School.  The youth and college kids that were home moved boxes and drawers of nativities to the attic, took 4 large wreaths to the basement and then climbed the ladder to get at least 10 containers of silk flowers, etc...to the shelves in the banner room.  My mind can rest better now that Xmas is truly behind me.  Both home and church.   Now...Tues afternoon a meeting with the pastor to talk about Lent.  This afternoon...back to knitting and watching football.  I'm trying to stay warm but this new hair do that has taken 90% of my hair is resulting in a cold head.  Brrrrr.  5+ this morning.  Brrr.

Sort of over.

Yup...the house emptied but not quiet.  They left something that I took over...being sick.  I'm to old to be sick.  Sick Sun. aft. and evening...slept all day Monday and Tues...needed to get to church to do a huge take down of all the decorations.  So...off I went.  A huge group of church folks helped out this year and I was amazed to say that we did the take down in one morning.  Now what remains to be done is to get the take down stuff to the storage area and I hope that happens this coming Sun. morning with the highschool kids.  They have better legs and can carry stuff to the attic.  Woo, woo.  Wed. I veged.   and Thursday was B and Bowl.  Great bunch of people came to eat with us.  No choir practice Thurs. eve and today the boys are here.  I'm taking down Xmas stuff today and I had plans for the boys to help but they do love their TV programs and this grandma is not going to protest.  I'm picking my battles and this is not one of them.  Need to get the sweeper going to places that have not seen the vacume in a few years.  That means moving the couch...Yuck.  So...off to work.

It's over

Yup...they have been here and they have gone.  It was a busy, busy...always something happening couple of days.  And of course with all the business...What is Xmas without anyone getting sick?  Well it happened more than once.  Life has it's ups and downs.  We opened gifts Thurs. and just sort of hung around.  The 5 boys were having the best of times together and boy was the house loud!
Sat. noon and all got very quiet.  They moved back home to Mi and we two that were left enjoying the change just as much as we enjoyed the noise.  Well maybe just a tad more than the noise.  Today was church, a slow uneventful loosing game of football, a good refrigerator clean out and I'm ready for a nap.  My stomach feels a bit funny.  Could it be?????  Hope not.