A Top of the Morning Hodgepodge

1. Best place you've been lately?

I haven't really been anywhere outside of the norm, but I guess being home has been a great place to be lately.

2. What's something you should say yes to today?

Staying home and getting a few things done. No obligations the next few days other than preparing a lesson for our Bible study next week. I am looking forward to  having time for that.
Or this week? Or even this year?
How about yes to renewing my routine of walking when the weather improves! I saw this on Facebook this week and thought it was cute!

3. Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day in any way, shape, or form? If so tell us how.

No. If I'm going somewhere, I might wear green. The very first job I had was very into St. Patrick's day, due to the president being Irish. He always threw a party for the company and expected everybody to drink green Irish whiskey. That didn't go down well for me and so I just set my glass on a windowsill. Yuck!

In Western cultures the color green is typically associated with jealousy, nature, good luck, and growth. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word 'green'?

Spring, trees, grass, green thumb, green with envy, environment.

Dining at the Tavern on the Green in NYC

4. What's a product or service you love so much you'd happily be their spokesperson?

Right now, I'm liking Hello Fresh!Tell us what makes you such a fan. The meals are simple and quick to prepare. 20 to 30 minutes average. All the ingredients come packed in a cold pack box delivered to my front door, each meal's ingredients are bagged separately, the meats are good and cold, and we haven't had a bad meal yet. Makes planning meals for the week easy, and the cost is less per person than eating out.

5. March 14th is Pi Day. How are your math skills? Boo! What's the last thing you did that required math of any kind? Working in the checkbook.

And most importantly do you like pie? Yes!
What's your favorite kind?

Coconut cream pie or warm cherry pie with ice cream. With ice cream, whipped cream, or please hold the cream?

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Lately, the press 'n seal wrap is irritating me, so I would not be a good spokesperson for Glad. Not Glad ... mad! So I saw these huge rolls of plastic wrap at Costco and they have a special zipper-like tool for cutting the sheets. I could not figure the thing out, so last night when our Monday night group was over, I got the ladies to work on it, while the guys tried to sync our new car with the garage door opener.

Too funny watching them work on this and we all got tickled and laughed so hard, I think one of them may have laughed too hard, if you get my drift. Anyway, they finally figured it out and turns out I had it right the first time.

And the guys determined our new car didn't come with a button for automatic garage door opener! It's hard to believe the premier version of our car doesn't have that!

I'm getting all kinds of things accomplished around this house with a little help of my friends!

Yes, they lift me up!

O Happy Day!!

It was a day to celebrate Kate and Jack having made their decisions to take their stand and take the plunge!

Jack and the tailgate of a pickup truck had an unfortunate meeting.

So glad his eye wasn't injured.

There is always a bit of a wait before something good.

Ready to go!

Amy's family

and we stayed for the luau following the service. Food, fun and fellowship for all.

Lots of watermelon

and face painting.

Spring Things!

It is the first mild day of March:

Each minute sweeter than before 

The redbreast sings from the tall larch

That stands beside our door.  

–William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

A friend posted the above little poem this morning on Facebook which brought to my mind the scripture from the Song of Songs. 

"Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone. 

The flowers are springing up, 

the season of singing birds has come, 

and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air. 

The fig trees are forming young fruit, 

and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming.

Song of Songs 2:11-14a (NLT)

These white fluffy Bartlett Pear trees are everywhere.

Heart Shaped Daffodil cluster 

The pee-oh-nies are popping up out of the ground and

I am hoping they will look like this again this year.

Spring has pretty much sprung in our area, but I realize it isn't officially here and our northern friends are still in winter. I heard the doves calling each other this morning and they have come back to redecorate their nest under our deck.

Last year, the lawn men pulled our Carolina Jasmine off the fence and threw it into the field behind us. So glad to see it say hello to us and welcome Spring from its new location among the weeds.

Our hot tub stopped working at the end of last summer, so I decided the repairs could wait until spring. Well, spring is almost upon us and since it was the next thing on my things to do list, I decided to take the plunge. After finding someone to repair it yesterday, he told me we needed to have the spa full of water so he could test it to determine the problem. Sure, I said, we can do that.

So yesterday we got the hose out to fill 'er up and after it was full, we put the cover down. This morning the repairman showed up and when he lifted the cover, it was empty! Say what? Oh no!! We forgot to put the plug cover on! Gee whillikers. All that water drained out and we had to refill this morning. Talk about feeling really dumb!

Bad new with the hot tub. It's gonna be expensive! Good news at the tax office. We only have to pay half as much as we did last year. Glad that's done. 

We change the time forward tonight. I won't complain today, but I might tomorrow!! Ha!

credit

Tonight is a really big night for us at our church. Kate and Jack said Yes to Jesus and they will be baptized this evening! So thankful!

Weekend Recap

It's been a most enjoyable and productive week for us and others in our life.

First off, my praise report is that my brother turned 60 yesterday and that is a praise because 31 years ago, he was so close to leaving this world, it was quite fearful for all of us. However, we serve a God who hears our prayers and heals our bodies and that is exactly what happened. What a blessing to still have both my siblings with me. I've memorialized our story several times, but here is a shorter version from a couple of years back.

My brother and me

On Friday, my girlfriends and I celebrated the birthday of one of my dearest friends, Victoria. Why we didn't take a photo, I just don't know, but we were enjoying watching the little girls next to us eat spaghetti with gusto. Their parents gave us permission to take these pics. Sweet kids. 

My nephew came home from a three month training and was greeted with this sweet thing!   

And he got to see her try real food for the first time!

Apples and sweet potatoes.

Not sure I like this stuff called food.

Our other nephew, Billy, and daughter, Hunter,

did their second Daddy/Daughter dance.

Are they not adorable?

When I discovered our granddaughter Kate has a heart of compassion for children who go hungry, I invited her to come join me in making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the Feed the City Project at our church. We had such a great time and are hoping it will work out for her to join me each month. This summer, we will find other opportunities to serve together, too.

She made a new friend who also loves Minecraft.

It was a bright, sunshiny day!

Can you believe we put together that many meals on a Saturday morning?

252 people working hard together and having fun at the same time.

Chilling out at the park afterward. I love how our grandkids have a heart of compassion for others and they want to do something to help. This morning at church, the pastor was making the announcements and asking everyone to invite someone to church for Easter services. He mentioned the cards to use listing people we would invite so the church could pray. Jack was down in the floor trying to find a card to write on and when I finally realized what he was doing, I found a card for him. Amy said he wrote six names on the card. Such a sweet thing that a six year old was not only paying attention to what the pastor was saying, but he was trying to do what was being asked! 

And finally, this is funny. Last week I had our carpets cleaned. The young men were very nice and one of them came downstairs to ask me if I had really met the queen! What?? What do you mean? He took me upstairs and pointed to this picture I have on the bookcase. 

What do you think? Would you have been fooled? 

Friday Foto Friends

I realize we are already into the second day of March, but a friend posted this on Facebook and I think it is so sweet and love the little animals.

We have had sooooooo much rain over the past ten days or so. It's just crazy soppy and every time I walk into the back yard, my feet sink into the grass. Last night this little stinker refused to go in the pouring rain and in trying to coax force  her to do so, I slipped and fell on my backside. I confess I was pretty upset and yelled kinda loud. Here is Annie trying to make up with me.

"Please, pretty please can I sit on your lap

even if I wouldn't go outside in the rain and

even if I am a little wet and might even have muddy feet?"

I forgot to record in February a little get-together with these former co-workers. We enjoyed ourselves so much and were wishing we had allotted more time for our visit. Kay, the one with the dark framed glasses and gray sweater, supervised the other three of us in this pic and we gave her fits sometimes, I think. She loved us though, always allowed for grace and forgiveness and I learned much from her about being a servant. She is suffering now with that dread C word, and so we felt it was time for a reunion. A blessed time it was and laughter was hearty and plentiful.

Texas Tulips

Row upon row of beauty

 Looking forward to visiting the Dallas Arboretum soon

Signs of spring around this area of North Texas. I expect to see redbuds any day and daffodils as well.

She is face-timing a little love with her Daddy. Sweet!!

And a little brotherly-sisterly love!

We have been using Hello Fresh for a few months now and I've been saving these small glass jars which they use to supply condiments. Since I'm getting quite a collection here, I asked if anybody had a use for them and got several good suggestions. Some of the ideas were practical, some fun and a couple of funny ones.

• Take off labels. Sand the top and spray paint the lid (outside only) Use E6000 to glue a little knob to the top. Cute little storage container.
• Fill with Coconut oil & oil of choice!
• Party favors, filled with candy.
• If a chap stick breaks, I put it in a jar like that with a tiny bit of coconut oil and 2-3 drops peppermint oil. New lip balm!
• Store different sizes of nails, tacks, things like that in the garage on a shelf.
• Finger paint: Stir 4 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 cup cornstarch together. Add 2 cups of cold water and heat over medium heat until the mixture is thick (the mixture will further thicken as it cools). Divide into four or more containers, and add food coloring as desired.
• Pamela Steiner said she used to keep some to use for salad dressing in my lunch box for work. It held just enough salad dressing for one salad! I also use one for some spices that I mix...homemade Taco seasoning...I don't make a big recipe of it because I don't use it that often, but this little container seemed to work just fine for what I had mixed.
• Barbie sized fish bowl or cookie jar. Haha!!

A beautiful sunrise this morning from a friend visiting Crystal Beach in Galveston.