Celebrations

from TJr and the Lil' Red-Haired Girl

It's Thursday but the week here has been so wonderful and full of good things that I'm visiting you on my blog earlier than my usual habit. 

To start at the beginning, Mother's Day greetings came via snail mail, email, Facebook, text messages, and in-person conversations. I felt loved and hope those I greeted felt the same.

Immediately after morning church, we showed up for our lunch reservations at a place I'd never been to but is now on my list of fav places!! Piesanos may be just a Florida thing, but there are many locations. 

After placing our orders, the bread brought to keep us busy until the entrees arrived was ..... well, I'll just never be the same again! Soft rolls dripping with a buttery garlic sauce. The strong scent all by itself was mouthwatering. I had to force myself to not eat too many lest I not be hungry for the pizza I had ordered.

 

Loaded with lots of pepperoni and cheese, leftovers to take home with me was the goal. (mission accomplished!)

Gary's calzone, stuffed with all things Italian was larger than it appears in the snapshot. Not only did this item earn a take-home box, but that was our lunch on Monday. Both the food and the service were excellent. We have plans to go back in the future.

Yes, you guessed it. We celebrated our anniversary this past week. It's been 3 years, which just blows my mind. Both of us are thankful and amazed with the developments in our lives in recent years. Such mercy and generosity of God's goodness have been shown to us after losing our long-time mates at about the same time. A year later mutual friends who had watched our individual grief journeys managed (after a couple of unsuccessful efforts) to introduce us to each other. 

May 14, 2022

Sporting our rings and smiles back then, it's just got sweeter with every passing day. Among so many things I ponder is that not a single day should be taken for granted. "Live in the moment," a popular admonition these days, means to enjoy what you have, be good to others, and don't waste yourself on non-essentials and worry.

The day began with coffee, cards, and chocolate followed by a waffle breakfast and our usual after-breakfast bicycle ride through the neighborhood.

Gary had some yard tasks he wanted to do, so I busied myself in the kitchen to bake what I had dubbed, "Third Anniversary Bacon Parmesan Quiche with Crust." (Kinda wordy, I know) The recipe started out from an old copy of a Betty Crocker cookbook and I made my own changes. Here it is:

one of the two pies made

Third Anniversary Bacon Parmesan Quiche with Crust

2 - 9 inch ready-made pie crusts, unbaked

or you can try using only 1 deep dish pie crust

1 - 3.5 ounce pkg pre-cooked bacon bits

4 oz shredded Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup chopped dried onion

4 large eggs

1 pint (2 cups) half-and-half

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground Chipotle (or red pepper)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine the bacon, cheese, and onion thoroughly and then divide evenly among the two unbaked pie shells, spreading evenly. Place the pie shells on a rectangular baking sheet (in case there is an overflow during baking).

Beat eggs slightly; beat in remaining ingredients. Pour egg mixture evenly into the 2 pie shells. Bake uncovered in the oven for 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and continue baking for 30 minutes longer, until a knife inserted in the center of each pie comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Makes 4 servings per quiche (or slice smaller if desired).

The outcome was a success, served with slices of fresh tomato. I made the two  pies, so the next day we had quiche again, and that was fine with me!

our song:
Have I Told You Lately (link)

After lunch we slow-danced to "our song." Yeah, my guy's very romantic..... 

Late in the afternoon Gary suggested we have ice cream for supper. I readily agreed as it seemed a perfect way to culminate a wonderful day. He likes for me to do the ordering so he can scope out a quiet booth (if there is such a thing in a busy fast-food restaurant). He wanted me to get for him a large Concrete Mixer with caramel and chopped up candy bar. I ordered two.

He told me I could quote him, "The big spender took us to Culver's on our wedding anniversary evening." 

He insisted on taking this snapshot. Had I known a photo session would be a part of our anniversary supper, I would have fluffed up my hair before leaving home .... 🙄 

Anyway, it was a wonderful day celebrating blessings neither of us thought would come our way. Sister sent this blessing to us:

May the Lord richly bless you today as you celebrate your love. "And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony." Colossians 3:14 (ESV)❤️❤️❤️

That's a good blessing for everyone and so I close this post. 

Until next time, grace and peace.

Memories of My Mother

Knock Out Rose 
from our front yard

Today is my mother's 100th birthday. I am sharing some of my memories of her and will conclude with the tribute my sister posted on Facebook.

Sister (left), Mama, me
probably around 2014

Mama's birthday on May 10th often coincided with Mother's Day. I don't remember what I did while still living in my parent's home, but as an adult I would send her a gift and a card for each of those days because it wasn't her fault that her birthday landed on a holiday. 

Since I've known her all of my life and I'm no spring chicken myself, there are a lot of memories I could share. But I'll narrow it down to just a few.

Mama took a home nursing course when I was probably about 4 or 5 years old. She attended the classes with our next door neighbor. I don't know specifically what she learned, but clearly she wanted to know how to handle the illnesses, mishaps, and emergencies that can come up when raising a family. 

The summer after I completed kindergarten, my father's new career in aviation moved us from Oklahoma to the New York City area where he was a co-pilot flying out of LaGuardia. Culturally, it was a hard transition for Mama and me (my sister, well, she is younger than me, so I don't think it affected her as much). Tulsa to Long Island in the mid-1950s -- that was a lot of change!

One morning in my first grade class, I vomited all over myself (most likely from nerves) and ended up in the nurse's office. Mama was called. She came as quickly as she could, bringing clean clothes. I have never forgotten that she brought a red skirt, a white T-shirt and a red scarf to tie around my neck. Mama said the scarf was so I would feel pretty in spite of feeling sick. 

a popular style in the 1950s

After just a couple months of coping with East Coast culture, Daddy took the opportunity over Thanksgiving weekend to relocate us to upstate New York to a small town along the Erie Canal (but within an hour's drive of the airport in Buffalo, where he would now fly). This proved to be a little less of a change from the life we had in Oklahoma. But there was no avoiding having to cope with shockingly deep snow and freeze-your-bootie cold temperatures as well as the lack of family living even remotely close by.

A lot of change was going on in my young life. Still in the first grade, by my 7th birthday I was in my third elementary school. On my birthday that year, I wore a green plaid wool skirt to school and was looking forward to the tradition of sharing cupcakes with my class that afternoon. 

However, that morning I again upchucked all over myself! Mama made the trip to school to rescue me for the same reason for the second time that year. This time she took me home to change and after lunch I returned to class. My miraculous recovery was surely due in large part in my desire to share those cupcakes with my class.

In addition to my mother's compassion for physical ailments, she also became, by default, the one to teach me how to read. Changing school districts from one end of the state to the other, the lesson plans for reading instruction were not the same. At the second school we quickly realized I was sorely behind. Mama worked with me at home during Christmas break and got me on track with my class.

I know she was terribly homesick for Oklahoma, where she had lived all of her life with lots of family in town. With Daddy's job flying for the airlines taking him away from home, adjusting to so much change was very hard. Surely having to cope with my frailties in all of that was no help but perhaps served as a distraction. She stepped up to the plate and handled it well.

Eventually Daddy's job would transfer us to Southern California, British Columbia, New Jersey, back to Oklahoma, and then to Denver. Mama learned to be resilient. After Denver they moved on to Chicago (I did not go with them). She knew Illinois as "home" for the last 54 years of her life.

Lennon Sisters sing I Remember Mama

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nifym3G7OKw

My love for sewing and singing comes from my mother. She was very good with both. She sewed most of the clothes for Sister and me and we girls learned to sing alto from our mother. While Sister did not enjoy sewing, we both followed the example of Mama by singing in church youth choirs, music classes at school, and watching the Lennon Sisters on the Lawrence Welk show. We both also got a formal secretarial education after high school, again following the influence of our mother. (Sister went on after that to get a 4-year university degree and to become a radio announcer with a focus on rock'n roll oldies, but that's another story for another blog post. 🎶😊)

Of the greatest importance is the fact that my mother led me to know Jesus when I was very young, 6 years old. She was teaching a children's Sunday School class with the use of flannel graph. (if you are interested and don't know what that is, click on the highlighted link.) She wanted to practice telling her Bible story and asked me if I wanted to watch, which I did. 

By the time the story had come to an end, I knew I needed to have a relationship with the Lord. My mother helped me to pray about it and both of our parents helped Sister and me to grow in our faith for the rest of their lives. 

In closing I share the tribute Sister has posted on Facebook this weekend for our mother. I could not have said it any better:

Mama

Today (May 10) would have been my mother's 100th birthday. She passed last October, 7 months short of that milestone. Though I miss her, I don't regret that she didn't hang on that additional 7 months. God's Word says "Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:8) She IS at home with the Lord, which is a far better place to be.

Until next time, may you experience grace and peace. Happy Mother's Day.

Horses and a Holiday

We live in a beautiful town that is literally surrounded with hundreds of horse farms, large and small. While neither of us are riders, we do have a small collection of four horses. 

Keeping these horses free of dust and watching the Kentucky Derby on TV is about as far as we went to participate in this last weekend's equine festivities. 

I'm participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge meme today. To join in the fun at her blog, click here: Hodgepodge Volume 601

1. Let's compare this May to last May. What's changed? What remains very much the same? 

I went to the "Blog Archive" listed in the column to the right of this post to see what we did last May. What stood out the most was our anniversary trip to Jekyll Island off the Georgia coast.

Anniversary Celebration on Jekyll Island

In the month of May, we have birthdays to commemorate, Memorial Day, a couple of graduations, Mother's Day, and our anniversary -- lots of blessings to celebrate!

2. What's something you may do this month? 

We had some very nice plans for Mother's Day, but the tour company called to say not enough people signed up. That's been cancelled, so we've made reservations for Plan B. As my husband likes to say, "That may happen, or it may not!"

red Knock Out Rose Bud,
a recent addition to our front sidewalk

3. Mother's Day is approaching (in the US of A)...in what way(s) are you like your mother? 

This will be the first Mother's Day since my mother died (last October). That same weekend will also be her 100th birthday, which will be incredible in Heaven with Jesus, Daddy, and so many others who have gone before her. 

How am I like my mother? Brown hair, brown eyes, similar height and body shape and a shared appreciation for dolls. 

This snapshot (below) was taken years ago when many of my blog posts centered around the antics of my imaginary Bed and Breakfast in a mountain town. I had a staff who kept things running while I huddled in my study to write the Great American Novel.

Mama and friends
during a visit to her home

To acquaint you with the main characters: 

Lily on the far left in the pink American Girl sweatshirt hoodie was my research assistant.

The 2 brown teddy bears are Grandad and Grammy Bear (me). Grandad Bear took care of maintenance of the property.

In front of the bears is Rent-a-Nurse, who came in to help Grandad Bear when he had knee replacement surgery.

The short lime-green guy is Rowdy, the ever-showing up neighbor kid.

The really small doll wearing a newspaper Yankee Doodle hat is the local society news reporter, Eaves Dropping. (She is an original design I made by myself.)

The Mr. Potato Head doll is Spud, the handyman who helped Grandad Bear with his projects.

The tall doll wearing the rose-colored glasses started out as Amanda Suzanna, who my sister liked to call Mandy Sue, and so that's who she was. She was the trouble-maker and pretty much the star of the stories. 

My mother is holding Mrs. Berniece Mertz, the chef at my Bed and Breakfast. The embroidered stitches on her apron: Kiss the Cook.

I sewed the wardrobe for all the dolls most of the time, with a few items purchased at the mall's American Girl store. 

Here is a close-up photo of the staff:

My mother was very supportive of my whimsy with these characters, so a couple of times when we drove our car to visit her (from Colorado to Illinois), I would bring some or all of them to visit her. As you can see, she played along very well.

Wow. Those days (and that blog) are all in the past. None of them are with me now. They had to go when other major changes became necessary. Although I do laugh every day in my current season of life, the whimsy of dolls is not with me any more.

4. Did you have a favorite book as a child? What was it and why was it a favorite?

photo source

I enjoyed Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. My mother gave me this copy when I was 10-12 years old. This was the first book that made me cry because ..... well, I won't say in case you've never read it. Those who are familiar with the story will know immediately why it made me cry. 

As a young girl, I guess this may have been the first novel-type book that I read and that kept my attention.

5. Are you more of a tortoise or a hare? Explain. 

Yellow Bellied Slider

This turtle was included in a recent post. To answer the question,  I'm probably more of a rabbit. When Gary and I began dating, I lived in a two-story house. He has often said how amazed he was at the speed with which I navigated the stairs. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Our yard updates are done. The bark mulch was scraped up, a landscaping fabric laid down, and then mid-sized rock (river rock) spread throughout. In spite of pulling and spraying weeds, the enemy was winning the battle in that bark mulch. Nobody in this house is getting any younger or more spry to bend over to pull them. Upkeep will always be a necessity, but this change will make it easier. 

I close today's post with this graphic from Marcus Stanley. He posts on Facebook some real good stuff.

Until next time, grace and peace. 

National Day of Prayer 2025

Today, May 1, is the National Day of Prayer. This morning the All Faiths Club in my retirement community sponsored an outdoor gathering under a large pavilion to observe this noteworthy day. I don't know if the club has done this before, but when I heard about it this year, I was very pleased to add it to my calendar. 

The photo below does not show all of the attendees; there were many more off to the left. (If you knew where to look you would see me in the crowd, unrecognizable, with some of my friends.)

All faiths (anyone and everyone) were welcome. Eight local churches were represented by the speakers. I say "speakers;" they didn't deliver sermons but led us in brief prayers on assigned topics appropriate for the occasion:

Family

Church

Workplace

Education

Military

Government

Arts and Media

County

We began with standing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, followed with the singing of God Bless America and Goodness of God.

link to God Bless America
by Kate Smith

link to Goodness of God
by CeCe Winans

I like to think very few of our citizens would disagree that we need to be praying for our country, no matter how we cast our votes last November. While voting and abiding by the laws of our nation are imperative for good government, prayer to God is the most important thing we can do for our nation -- today and every day.

I urge, then, first of all,

that petitions, prayers, intercessions,

and thanksgiving be made 

for all people -- 

for kings and all those in authority, 

that we may live peaceful and quiet lives

in all godliness and holiness.

I Timothy 2:1-2

Years ago it was my privilege to work in the National Day of Prayer offices in Colorado Springs where arrangements were made for gatherings like this one. Since then, the effort has expanded and that means more people are reminded of the power of prayer and the need for it. 

Biblical scripture teaches that government is established by God to create order, enforce justice, and punish crime. May we all pray to that end.

Grace and peace to you.