I love the Spring months, March, April and May and they all seem to go so fast every year. This year has been no exception. This May has been so cool and downright cold at times. I waited and waited to plant my flower seeds. We are making our back yard into a sanctuary of sorts by letting the grasses grow wild and planting other grasses and wildflowers. It takes a few years to establish a meadow, but we are well on our way. It just takes patience. I keep telling David, every time he wants to mow the back yard to just wait. He will be so glad he did. It’s wonderful seeing the grasses actually reseeding themselves and I love watching the dogs play in what looks like a field instead of the bare ground that was once where they played and lay down. To many people, this would not be their cup of tea. Our children haven’t seen it yet and will probably think Mom and Dad are getting senile in their old age and forgetting to mow, but that is not the case!

See how the grasses are reseeding themselves. Use to be they would be mowed down long before they reached this stage. I think they look so pretty. And the flowers among them really stand out.

The peonies have been so beautiful and they really show up in the grasses. David and I were talking one day and I was wondering just how many peonies I had and I thought there were probably about twenty in the back yard, but David disagreed and went out and counted them all and I have thirty peonies. I have them in all colors. White, pink, dark pink, reddish, pink and white and they are all lovely. My favorite flower, really. David picked me a big bouquet of them.

Reminds me of the paint by number painting I did a year ago.

I just think they make the perfect cut flower. If I were getting married again, and I’m not, I would have the church filled with peonies and my colors would be pink and white.

The Irises have been beautiful, too. You really cannot kill irises. We mow them down every Autumn and they keep coming back, bigger and more beautiful every year.

The old fashion Roses that we brought from David’s mother’s house when she sold it have had more blooms on them this year than ever. They smell like roses should. We have two of them in the side garden and they are just this year beginning to grow up the fence. We will fertilize them and dust them to keep off the bugs and that is all they really need besides water.

The front of my workshop has needed a good cleaning and set back to order for years and this week I finally got it done. I took everything off the table on the porch and cleaned the table and everything that was on it. David powerwashed everything else and took some of his junk back to his shed. I rearranged the table and it all looks so much better. I don’t know why it took me so long! Guess I had other things that seemed more important.

Ignore the boots I have drying on the watering can, but this is the table that has been organized. I still have one more thing to put on it that I will have to show you another time. You see, I went to this amazing garage sale of an antique business that is going out of business and I got these beautiful ladies that hold flowers, plus a couple more things. I just love that everything is clean, at least for a short time. It’s so dusty outside things don’t stay clean.

I bought some artificial flowers to brighten up the place.

The sunflower sign I got at the nursery we go to that is going out of business this year. She always has such cute things to put in the garden and such beautiful flowers. I sure am going to miss them next year. And yes, beware of dog. Ha. Well, I’m not so sure about Molly. She can either be fierce or act like she is in love with you if you are a stranger. We never know so we always warn people.

I painted this mailbox a few years ago. No, I am not an artist, but I still like to try.

This is my flower garden in front of my work shop. I’ve planted zinnias, cosmos, geraniums, cyprus, coreopsis and other flowers I can’t name at the moment. See that pink flamingo? Many years ago we drove up the west side of Florida clear to the panhandle and we found this wonderful antique store. They had two flamingos, but I could only afford one of them and brought him home and have taken care of him all these years, but I always wished we had gotten the other one. Years later, we passed that very same antique store, but it was closed so no more flamingos..

We have Coreopsis growing wild all over our driveway and I have been pulling it up and replanting it into pots to put in our meadow at some time. I haven’t planted Coreopsis in years and yet this year it is all over. I’m not complaining. I love it.

Once again I planted geraniums in an old grill I painted green. They haven’t filled in, yet, but they will and this will be so pretty.

Another view of my container garden. You may ask why don’t I plant more flowers in my back yard. Their names are Lucy and Sugar and I believe it’s mostly Sugar who loves to dig and she doesn’t always care where she digs. We were gone for a couple of days and just before we went away, I had bought some more flowers to fill in a little garden I have right beside our back porch. David put fencing and wire around all the flowers to protect them. Ha. When we got home I discovered one of the flowers had been completely dug up and some of the others didn’t looks so good. I scolded Sugar, but she didn’t have a clue why I was angry with her so today we made up and I loved on her a lot so we’re friends again. Until she digs us something else! I’m hoping the flowers will recover.

We took a road trip this past weekend. On backroads, of course. We hardly ever use interstate unless we need to get somewhere fast, but his was not that kind of journey. Originally, we planned to get up to Lake Erie. It’s really not that far from us. A day trip. So off we went.

The curvier and more secluded roads, the better. You would be surprised how many roads are like this all over the country. And you see things that nobody sees on the freeway or heavily traveled roads.

Things like this windmill and little millhouse some farmer had made.

Or beautiful little streams meandering through a woods. We didn’t think there were any houses around, but after I took this picture, we noticed a couple sitting in front of their house watching us. We waved and went on leaving them to wonder why anyone would want a picture of this stream. It was the only house on this road, by the way!

You go through towns where patriotic citizens have the flag on every post and in some of the towns they had pictures of their vets who have lost their lives on the posts, also.

You go through towns where painted, cement roosters are on every corner. In one town, they had painted pigs. To each, his own.

We drove through Geneva, where the author, Gene Stratton Porter has built this absolutely wonderful house. We toured it a few years ago. Miss Porter wrote books about the Limberlost which was the swamps of northern Indiana a long time ago. Girl of the Limberlost was one of my mother’s favorite books. She always talked about it, but for some reason I never read it. I must put that on my list.

Miss Porter had this one room built so that she and her guests could sit and watch animals and birds come and go in it without them getting into the house, but it was in the house. I think that sounds wonderful.

We drove past where the very best catsup is made and shipped. Right here in Indiana. Red Gold, never Heinz. Red Gold had a field of tomatoes planted just outside our city one year and I would ride my bicycle by it and look at all the tomatoes growing. Red Gold is really the best catsup in the world. It’s all I will use.

On back roads you drive through lots of towns with buildings this old and still in use. So much has been lost by tearing down these old buildings.

I love old barns. I took this picture just because it was nice to see one that is cared for. We passed so many old barns in disrepair, many already caving in and becoming a thing of the past. That is what happened to my family farm barn. It was not cared for and it is falling down. At one time it was a tomato factory in our little town, but all I remember is playing in the haymow and taking care of kittens and calves and playing with the baby pigs. Baby pigs are so darn cute. And they don’t smell. Do you know that pigs really are the cleanest of animals? The only reason they get in the mud is to cool themselves off.

We stopped to eat here in this park. We were the only people there until a man and woman met each other from two separate trucks and sat in one of them. David and I were wondering if it was a clandestine meeting! Ha. He told me not to stare! Anyway, it was windy and cold sitting here to eat so this is where I sat….

Here on this swing set where the sun was shining and I was warm. But it was still nice to eat outside. Our first real picnic of the season. We plan to have more.

This looks like a picture of David’s ducks on the dash. Ducks that people leave on our Jeep and say we’ve been ducked. I really love the army one given to David by our daughter-in-law. But that is not what I was taking a picture of. I was taking a picture of the Amish lady and her little girl. They won’t pose for a picture and I would never take their faces, but I did get them walking across the street. I have so many questions I would love to aske Amish ladies, but I will probably never get them answered. They live a very different life than most women do. We passed many Amish farms and the laundry was hung out at almost every one of them. Clothes in black, and blue and beige. No bright colors. We say Amish children outside playing. Do they ask questions about us? We passed so many Amish farms in northern Indiana.

You won’t see this on the interstate.

I would have loved to have learned more about Camp Woodsmoke, but isn’t that a great name for a camp?

I believe we Hoosiers are some of the most imaginative and talented people in the country. Lot’s of famous people have come from Indiana. David Letterman and Red Skelton to name just two. We have a sense of humor you don’t find in a lot of places. But this was just in someone’s front yard. I’m thinking a tree came down and someone didn’t have anything else to do that day so they carved them an Indian. How neat is that!!!

We stopped to have ice cream. Here’s my cone. It was very good and David had a large cherry sundae that was almost more than he could eat. I think he’s pretending he is licking my ice cream cone, but he knows better!!

We were heading for Lake Erie and we did end up beside water, but it was Grand Lake in Celina, Ohio. It took us all day to get here. A ride that would take normal people three hours at the most, but we take the long way because we like it like that. So we stopped here for the night. Found a very nice Best Western and then took a drive clear around the lake. It’s a big lake. We saw pelicans and seagulls, two birds I did not know lived in Indiana, but I’m glad to know it. The pelicans were different from the ones we see in Florida. There were four of them flying above us. They had black tipped wings.

We saw several of these birds. Some type of heron I believe.

We stopped to sit beside the lake, but it was very cold and all I had was a sweater.

This is a picture of my “sexy man.” Yes, that is what I call him. My kids would be so embarrassed knowing I am admitting this, but I have been calling him this for years. He is MY sexy man. Nobody elses’. Hey, if you get to our age and still like each other a lot, you should thank God and your lucky stars because that doesn’t happen for everyone. I just got blessed to meet my one true love when I was young and we have got to grow old together and it’s really a blessing. I pray for all marriages to be as happy.

I’m going to have to finish this another day. I’ve been writing and putting up pictures for almost an hour and a half. Hope you enjoy them. We had a lot of fun and we are planning on doing another trip sometime this Summer. It seems two days is all we both can handle right now with all the pets we have to leave and also because we cannot sit in a car for hours like we use to and go thousands of miles away, but we can still have fun. I’ll be back with more of our trip later. Bye.

Every Spring our front garden is amass with pink blooms. One year I almost forgot to look out my front door and see it and it surprised me so much so that now I make sure I look at my front garden every year. Because we spend so much time outside in our back yard, our front garden gets forgotten at times.

But, not this year. I watched for the blooms.

This is the azalea that was full of blooms this year.

This is the crabapple that never disappoints. It just doesn’t last long enough. You can see this tree from about a mile away as we drive toward our house.

The redbuds in Indiana are always so pretty. They grow in the wild as well as in gardens, but this one is right by our front walk. I planted it from a tiny sprout that came up in our back yard one year.

We have two magnolias. These kinds bloom more than once a year, but they are at their prettiest in the Spring. When we were having our front porch built a few years ago, I made sure the contractor knew this tree was not to be harmed in any way, so they were very careful around it even though it stands right by the porch now.

The Weeping Cherry that looks like its blossoms are white in this picture, but they were really a very pretty pink.

We made a trip to our favorite nursery and bought these pansies. I seem to always drift toward plants with pink flowers. I do love the color pink. By the way, this nursery that has supplied us with so many beautiful flowers through the years will be closing for good after this season which makes me very sad. But the lady who runs it is going to be taking care of her father-in-law because of his health issues. I understand and believe she is doing the right thing, but I sure will miss her nursery. So we will have to look for a new nursery next year. Lowes did have a wonderful selection of flowers this year.

This is the view from our back door. I am trying to get our back yard filled with flowering trees and bushes We have a little cherry tree in the back that was planted there by the birds from a cherry tree in our neighbor’s yard. It has cherries on it every year that I feed to our chickens.

We have lilac bushes, but this is our neighbor’s bush just loaded with flowers from top to bottom. We could smell these while sitting on our back porch.

This was our two year old Amarylis(not sure I spelled that right) that had huge blossoms on it. We have another one that is starting to grow blooms. I didn’t know they bloom every year. I did nothing special to them. In fact, they weren’t watered for a few months before I noticed they were growing flowers again. Sometimes I think the more you don’t do to a plant the better it performs. We overwater our plants many times and don’t have them in the correct sunlight or shade that they need.

We did have a few lilac bouquets in our house. This is the first year our white lilac had so many flowers on it. Our neighbor cut down a tree by our property line last year which gave the lilac more sunlight, so I’m sure that’s why it did so well this year.

I’ve been preparing my annual beds for zinnias, cosmos, dame’s rocket and other flowers. I’m doing raised beds and pots again this year and a good friend made me a wonderful planter that I will use for the first time this year. I’ve already got the flowers I am going to plant in it. Our Spring has been so wet, windy and cold most days it looks like a late planting time this year. Our frost time supposedly ends May 10, but I’m going to be careful not to plant too early.

But it hasn’t been all flowers, flowers, flowers. I’ve been knitting a very long scarf and when I get it done I will knit a hat to match it. They will probably be Christmas gifts. I am loving knitting things other than socks although I will still knit socks on occasion. I sewed some new kitchen curtains I’ll try to show you next time. And…. I baked bread.

Forty some years ago when our sons were in grade school, the parents got together and made a recipe book. Everyone contributed a recipe or recipes. I found the book this week and made some delicious cinnamon bread and rolls from a recipe I used a lot in years past.

I went a little overboard on the icing although I got no complaints from David.

I’m not saying these were delicious, but they weren’t out of the oven long before two were eaten. And, yes, they are as good as they look. Wish you could smell them.

Here’s to pink flowers and warm, baked bread. May we all have a little of each. Bye.

As a Christian, I love celebrating Easter as the day Jesus rose from the dead. He was like some of us with our government. He didn’t think much of it and He was treated very badly by the church people of the day, also. He was born of a virgin, yet the son of God and lived thirty-three years on this earth teaching about God and Heaven and hell and making plans to one day come back for all those who trust in Him. He was treated cruelly by the people who were in charge which was the Roman government. People didn’t have a whole lot of freedom with this bunch in control, but Jesus was not scared to speak up for all the people and he spoke of the love God has for everyone. He even said God wanted the little children to come to Him.

So Jesus was crucified on the cross and put into a borrowed tomb where the Roman soldiers put a huge stone in front so that no one could take his body out. They even had guards at the tomb and for three days all was normal as it could be with a man in a tomb until the third day. And that day made all the difference to the world and to every one of us. Jesus rose from the dead. Angels greeted Him at the tomb’s entrance. The women who came to put ointment on his body were astonished that his body was gone. Roman soldiers hunted everywhere for Jesus, but He was not there. He had risen and spent the next days He was on earth talking to His disciples and preparing them for what was to come. We all should be prepared for what is to come. Each of us is appointed one day to die. Do you know where you will be spending your eternity? If you put your trust in Jesus, you will have nothing to fear. I know I don’t.

So that is why Easter is such an important day for we Christians. You aren’t a Christian if you go to a church. You aren’t a Christian just because you are good. The only way to be a Christian is to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I talk to Him every single day and He always there for me.

So, David and I went to church where the choir sang a beautiful cantata and then the disciple, Peter, came and talked to us. Well, our pastor was dressed as Peter and told how Peter denied Jesus three times on the day he was crucified. The very man who was closest to Jesus, the man who vowed he would never deny Him, did so three times that day. It would be like your very best friend not sticking up for you when you are in trouble, but Peter feared the Roman soldiers and the crowds that surrounded him that day. Would I be like Peter and deny Jesus when the time comes? I’d like to say I wouldn’t, but I will never know unless it happens.

After church we went home and prepared a dinner of ham, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, potato salad, strawberry salad, rolls, cake and cupcakes. Every plate had a chocolate bunny on it. We had a guest, a friend of one of our grandsons who could not get home for Easter. We were delighted to have him. We had such a good time talking together and then we had an egg hunt. Every year David hides eggs and the grandchildren hunt them. All our grandchildren are getting so big so they don’t get candy. They get a dollar for every egg they find and one hundred and fifty were hidden. After the teens were done it was the adults’ time. We had hidden a few eggs with coupons in them for different restaurants. You should have seen all the adults having fun hunting for eggs! We all had a great time and a nice visit. A perfect Easter day.

The newlyweds, our granddaughter and her husband. They are so cute.

Two of our grandsons. They are so handsome.

Our daughter and her husband.

Every year someone tries to be the first person in our pool. The water was only fifty-nine degrees, but our youngest grandson stripped down and jumped in so he’s the winner this year!

His brother was too busy playing Dolly Parton. Years ago, I played Dolly Parton at a skit at our church and I bought this wig. I gave it to my grandson. Who knows what plans he has for it! Ha!

Our three dogs were absolutely basking in all the attention they were given. Here is Sugar getting the best belly rub of her life. She was in heaven.

Speaking of dogs, here is the paint by number picture I completed this week. I am very happy with it and it reminds me so much of all our Labs.

I’ve been doing lots of other things. I bought this book on Amazon a while back because I wanted to learn to knit something besides socks. There are several different styles of knitted hats in this book and I’ve knitted a couple already.

I really love this style and it will be so warm when Winter comes again.

This is what the top of it looks like. I really love it. It’s especially nice knitted in self striping yarn.

I forgot to show a card I gave to David this past Valentine’s Day. You have to special order it and they put a special date on it. This is our anniversary date when we will be married fifty-five years this year and our names “carved” into the tree. David liked it.

I hope your days are filled with love, joy and peace. Keep your eyes on the One who loves you so because He will never leave you. Happy Spring, Happy Easter, Happy Day. Bye.

My title contains things that I love. Sewing, Quilting, gardening and a lot of other stuff I love don’t start with a B so they wouldn’t have fit in my title! I love a lot of people, too, but this is not all about people today. It’s about my birthday week, how we have celebrated and how we continue to celebrate because I take a week for my birthday and a week is still not enough in my opinion. Everyone one should have a chance to celebrate their birth.

But, back to birthdays, I’ve had some really good ones and some not so good, but this year’s has been a good one. It started with birthday donuts.

We went to Bloomington on my birthday to watch one of our grandsons play soccer. We got to sit up in a balcony on comfortable seats in a heated building to watch. That was so much better than sitting outside in the cold, watching from the sidelines in hard lawn chairs. Plus we could see the footwork that the boys used to pass the ball and get it into the goal. I really enjoyed it. Then we went to eat at Texas Roadhouse where we had the nicest young man as our waiter. David and I believe that Covid has helped weed out the poor waiters and waitresses because the ones working now really want to work and they do such a great job. We have had the best service in restaurants lately. After that, we went for ice cream. David and I have been wanting dipped ice cream for quite a while. There are no places where we live that has it so we were happy to get some good dipped ice cream.

Sunday, we went north and had brunch with more family members at a pancake house David and I like. We had a nice visit and I received a new planter that had been made for me by a special person. I got to see three more of my grandchildren which was nice. I’ve already got flowers ordered for the planter.

But my birthday was not done yet. Wednesday we took a ride to my hometown. My nephew’s wife had some books for me they had found in my brother’s library that were my mother’s or my aunt’s that they thought I’d like to have. I love old books so of course I had to go get them .

My mother was a voracious reader. My aunt told me one time that she would even be reading when she was ironing. I always loved looking at the books on the shelves at my grandfather’s house to see what books he had. Many of them belonged to my mother.

It may seem as if all we have done is eat this week. We went to one of our favorite restaurants while we were up north.

We enjoyed our meal, but it was time to head home to the dogs, who will be waiting for their dinner, but we did take the back roads home.

Less you think we didn’t eat enough junk for my birthday, we found a wonderful little town I had never heard of, Laurel, Indiana where we found another ice cream store. Well, if Ben and Erin Napier have Laurel, Mississippi in the home remodel show, Indiana has a town called Laurel with wonderful old homes that is a diamond in disguise. Anyway, the lady in the ice cream shop told us their dips of ice cream were so large we should probably order just one dip or half dips of two flavors. Well, if I were a drinker I would have said, “Hold my beer,” and I ordered a full two dip waffle cone and had not one problem eating it all. David did the same.That lady did not know us. Besides, we were travelers and tired and hungry from our travels. Ha. We drove around town just looking at all the beautiful houses. I’ve never seen so many wonderful places in such a small place.

Or not. This person was well ahead of his time. Now we are finding out that what his sign says is true! Oops, I got political again, but David and I got a good laugh at this sign as well as this one on a back road.

I just wanted to show you this picture of sugar cookies I baked this week to take to my grandsons. I thought I hadn’t talked about enough junk food this week. Next week it’s all vegetables I tell you!

This is the National Guard armory where David started his military career. It’s also the place where they held some pretty great dances that I would go to. My oldest brother was head of the shop here and would take me to the dances and sometimes stay unless I had a date. I loved going to the dances although at one some guys tried to start a fight with David which scared me so much I was afraid to go out to the car for fear they were waiting on him to beat him up. The Kingsmen were supposed to play there once, but were in a horrible accident on the way to get there. So we danced to records that night.

Going to my old stomping grounds brings up so many memories. I grew up in a tiny town where everyone did know everyone else and also all their business. It is still a well loved little town. There’s a facebook page for it where people give the news of the town.

I’ve got tons more pictures and could probably go on, but I will leave you with a picture of a bird town my husband made for me this week. My birthday week has been wonderful and it’s not done yet! Bye.

I read this quote somewhere this week, ” What if God were not Good?” and it set me to thinking about the God that I serve. First of all when I speak of God, I speak of the trinity God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They were all present when this world was created. At my age, I just learned this in the past few years. I did not realize that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were present at creation, but I should have known because they are all the same person. Something else my human mind can not get its brain around that God, the son and the spirit are all one and they all love us.

When God created the earth and all its inhabitants, He said every time He created something that it was good. God can only be good. His creation is only good. His love for us is the purest love of all the love there is. So, people say, “Why does God allow horrible things to happen?” That would be an easy question if you didn’t know more about God. You would just think that God really isn’t that good and he wants to see people hurt, but that is absolutely not the case. You see, when God created people, he gave them a choice. He gave the the ability to love Him and walk with Him in the garden and enjoy all His wonderful creation. But He did put a tree in that garden that gave Adam and Eve a choice. The tree of knowledge. If He hadn’t put it there, they would not have had a choice, but He gave it to them with a warning that should they eat of that tree they would no longer have eternal life here on earth, but that they would allow sin in and and would die eventually. Well, most of us know what happened then. Eve was tempted. She had everything else at her disposal. She could eat of anything else freely, but the serpent tempted her. Now that old serpent was satan in diguise. And exactly how and where did satan come from?

Up in Heaven, before the earth was even made, Heaven was a glorious place with angel choirs singing God’s praises all day and the director of those angels? Satan, himself. He wasn’t satan then, he was the most beautiful angel in Heaven. God’s right hand man, you might say.

But satan got cocky. He began to believe he was as great as God who created him. He started talking to the other angels and got many on his side can you believe it, and they decided to go to war.Just think, a devil that can talk angels out of heaven must be pretty persuasive. What a war it was, but God always wins in the end and satan and all his followers, that we now call demons, were sent from Heaven. And where were they to go? Someone suggested in a Sunday school class one day that God may of sent satan to earth as a test. This is not Biblical, so don’t set this in stone, but I could see God sending his fallen angel here and saying to him, “Let’s see if you can do a better job on earth than I have done in Heaven.” I don’t know if that was what actually happened, but satan did finally end up here on earth in that Garden of Eden one beautiful day and set the course of earth on a far different course than God had planned.

Satan walked with Eve in paradise and told her she would not die if she ate of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, but she and Adam could become like gods and know both good and evil. Satan never tells you the truth. Just know that now. He whispers in your ear and tells you things are okay that aren’t all the time.

Eve gave a good look at that tree and saw that it was pleasant to the eyes(it must have been a beautiful tree) and its fruit looked good and here was the serpent saying if she ate of the tree she would become wise.

So Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. People say it was an apple, but the Bible just says fruit. It could have been a fruit we have never seen or eaten before. Then dear Eve took that fruit to Adam and Adam ate of it also and their eyes were open to both good and evil at that very moment. They knew in an instant that they had been changed. They noticed their nakedness because they sewed leaves together to cover themselves and when God came walking in the garden to commune with them, they hid. They knew then that they had gone against God. God already knew, also, but He wanted them to tell Him what they had done. The first sin. Sin separates us from God because God is so good. None of us can be good enough for God because of what Adam and Eve did in that garden. We all know the difference between good and evil. At least most of us do. And we have a choice to do good or do evil.

So now you are asking why God allows bad things to happen. This is why. There is a choice between good and evil on our planet. Some people choose good. Some people choose evil. Even the weather was messed up after the fall. That is why we now have earthquakes and floods and all manner of disasters. But there are people who show the love of God by helping others in their distress. God never wanted bad things to happen to his Creation but he had to give a choice or we would just be His robots, doing exactly what He wants us to do, but that is not why He created us. He loves us and wants us to love Him back, but He gives us a choice. He even sent His son, Jesus to die on the cross. When Jesus hung on that cross, He took every single sin in the would upon Himself and those who believe on Him will have their sins forgiven.

Why doesn’t God just forgive us all and be done with it some ask. Well, there’s that thing about choice again. If He forgave us all, His son would not have had to die and we would be back to being robots again. I’m glad God loves us enough to give us a choice. I would not love a god that made me love Him. But I do love a God who gave His only Son, just for me and just for you. God is love and He loves us and does not want a single person to to go hell. Yes, there is a hell. I sure don’t want to go there and I am happy Jesus died for me that day over two thousand years ago. He’s coming back one day to take his church(his followers) to Heaven to live with him for all eternity.

And then the next question. When is Jesus coming back and why is He taking so long? I have an answer for that, but that will have to be for another post because this one is getting rather lengthy. The Bible answers most of our questions if we study it with an open mind and a heart to learn.

So God is good. I’m glad He’s good because how horrible it would be if God were not good and did not love us. If you have stuck with me through this, thank you. Sometimes I get a call from God to do something and this is what He called for me to do today. I hope it gives some understanding to people as to why bad things happen on this earth despite a loving God watching over us. He loves you, just remember. Bye.

I don’t have much time to post anything much today. Just want you all to know you are loved and no one can take that love from you. Hope you are having a wonderful day and treating yourself well, because you are the only you in this whole universe and we need you and want you to be happy. I’ll be back with some interesting things to tell you. I’ve been reading some old diaries and I just might share some of the things I’ve read with you. If you want to read a long, happy blog go to Susan Branches’ blog. She illustrates all the books she writes and she’s written several besides cookbooks. She writes today about her and her husband’s long and happy marriage. Bye.

If this year is to be judged by just its beginning , it’s been a good year already. David and I started it out by going to a gospel sing at our church where a few different gospel singers sang and our preacher gave the sermon. The night was titled, “It’s twelve O’clock Somewhere,” because as the evening progressed and some people would leave we could vote whether we wanted the singing to go on. Several people left, here and there and it got to be ten o’clock and they were going to vote whether to keep on going, but David and I were tired and decided to leave before the vote so we don’t know how late the rest of them stayed. When we got home we watched a little tv and I went to bed before the New Year’s. I’m a real party animal. Poor David didn’t even get his New Year’s kiss like I usually give him. I was sawing logs when that ball came down. Oh, well. Anyway, Happy New Year to you all. Hope it is going well for you.

I had to get another shot in my eye this month which would not have been a good start, but Dr. Shah said my eye looked normal and I no longer needed any shots. I was so happy to hear that. I have to go back for a check up in a few weeks, but I am praying all will still be well with my eyes. At my age I don’t have cataracts like some people my age do. David had them and had to have surgery a few years ago.

David took a week off work at Ralph Lauren to celebrate his 75th birthday. I told him I never thought I would ever be married to someone so old, but then, I’m not far behind him. We celebrated by going to the ear doctor to have our hearing checked and one of my ears looked at that had been bothering me. The hearing specialist told David he was slightly hard of hearing, but not enough to need hearing aides. And then he checked my hearing. No one wants to hear these words about anything to do with you health or body. “I’ve got bad news for you,” the man said to me. I have 50% hearing loss and certain words I can hear with my ears do not compute in my brain. I’ve noticed that when talking to some people. They can be right next to me and I can hear what they say, but don’t know what they said, if that makes any sense. Then he gave me the choice of the cheap or the luxury hearing aides. I told David since he didn’t need any I was taking the luxury ones! I sure hope they work. I’m getting them this week.

After those fun times we spent the rest of the week having fun. We went out to eat three times, one time at IHOP with some loved ones. I love IHOP and usually get the classic french toast but I tried the bananas and strawberry french toast not knowing they pour strawberry syrup all over it also. I didn’t like it as well as the classic so I will stick with that next time. I love IHOP coffee. Usually I don’t like coffee anywhere, but at my house, but theirs is really good. I took David out to eat at Olive Garden where we love the Zuppa Toscana with breadsticks and salad, all you can eat which means I can usually get through one salad and one soup and maybe three breadsticks if I’m really hungry.

We took our Christmas tree down last Monday. We kept it up so long because our granddaughter and her husband were going to come down and get their Christmas presents last Sunday, but we had several inches of snow overnight and they couldn’t come so we will have to plan another time. Maybe go up to where they live and eat at a really great pancake house they have not far from their house. Always an excuse to go there. One of our favorite places and their coffee is pretty good, too.

Anyway, after the tree came down we cleaned our living room from top to bottom, washing windows, dusting the baseboards, putting away my collection of Santa Clauses and our nativity. And we moved furniture around which is something I love to do. When I was younger and stronger, I use to move furniture all by myself and I did it often. David said he never knew where the furniture would be when he got home from work.

I’ve typed all this time and not a single picture.

Here’s where the tree use to be.

Because I have NOTHING else to do, I ordered a couple of paint by number pictures to paint. The paint by numbers aren’t like they were when I was a girl where you got maybe ten paints and one brush and that was all you needed. Now the pictures are very intricate and I got 24 paints and five brushes with each picture. As you can see, there are a lot of parts to this painting. I really don’t know how a real artist figures out what and where to paint to paint a masterpiece.

I’ve rattled on long enough. Just didn’t want January to go by without checking in. If the rest of the months are like this one, it’s going to be a very busy year and for that, I am grateful. I hate being bored and I never am because I’m always looking for something to do and I’m thankful I have a man who tries to keep up with me and helps me in many of my endeavors.

Here’s to new years, things to do, and husbands to love. Bye.

Christmas came and went in a flurry of decorating, baking, gift buying, church services, family gatherings and I loved it all, but now it’s time to settle in for Winter. We have almost three months of it to go and no matter where you live, it’s time well spent if you will do it.

I use to really love Winter as a child because it brought Christmas and sledding and making snowmen and snow angels in the snow. The cold didn’t bother me hardly at all even with my stocking gloves(I had no others) and wearing my brothers’ old buckle artic boots. I didn’t care how I looked because I got to go outdoors with my older brothers and go sledding down the big hill just down the road from our house. Winter meant hot tea and cinnamon toast on snowy school day mornings, piles of blankets on the bed where my room was so cold frost formed on the inside. Winter was my daddy making popcorn balls and bringing armloads of wood inside to fuel the big stove in our kitchen. It was my mother’s delicious suppers eaten around the table with all my family, snug inside while the weather roared outside.

Now that I am an old lady( I don’t feel like one) the cold weather really bothers me. Right now I have three heavy blankets on our bed and a mattress pad that has duel heat controls and mine is always on the highest temperature these cold, Winter nights. Sometimes I think it would be grand to be like the bears and hibernate all Winter snug in my cave. But I would have books to read also so as not to be bored. I’d lose weight like the bears do and come out in the Spring slimmer and ready for the warmer seasons.

But, alas I must just settle into Winter and enjoy it the best I can. Hot baths, snug beds, lots of reading, sewing quilts, making hot soups and baking delicious things. Going out to care for the dogs and the chickens who have to endure this weather the same as I do. The cold weather doesn’t seem to bother the dogs or chickens at all as long as they have a warm place to sleep and they do. Feeding the birds and watching them flock to the bird feeders almost running over each other in their greed for the sunflower seeds and cracked corn I leave out for them. I love watching them from my big chair while I have a work in progress on my knitting needles.

I don’t hate Winter. I think it’s good we have a little time to slow down and adjust our bodies to a slower time table while we await Spring’s warm weather. Sometimes, when I have a lot of quilts I want to make, I feel like Winter isn’t long enough. And it’s good we have to slow down our driving and take care. It’s not always rush, rush, rush everywhere even though there are a few who still drive on ice like it was eighty degrees out and the roads are dry as the desert. I just hope they don’t hit anyone in their haste.

We can’t dodge Winter so we may as well enjoy it as much as possible. The one really good thing about this time of year is that the days are getting longer little by little. Soon we will notice it stays lighter much longer in the evenings again. We will stay up later. I don’t know about you, but in Winter I go to bed a lot earlier than I do at other times. Like as I write this it feels like it should be about 9:00 and it’s 7:00! A hot bath sounds good about now. Then warm pajamas and turn up the heat on the mattress pad and I’m ready to settle in for the night.

Just think of Winter as God’s gift to us telling us to slow down, watch the snow falling, give our loved ones some extra attention. I use to love having my children home from school during the Chrismas holidays. They would play games all day or play outside in the snow. Monopoly games could go on for days. I loved every minute of it. But I also was glad when they went back to school and I had the house all to myself for a few hours.

Here’s to lovely Winter. The snow, sleet, ice and all. It’s ours to settle with and we will. Bye.

Christmas has come and gone. Already a week ago and time marches on. I hope you had a very nice Christmas. We did at our house. Kind of lowkey, but pleasant and even though, for me, it’s not about the gifts, I did get some nice ones. I asked David for only one thing this year that I really, really wanted. I saw a dog table with a glass top and the dog’s nose pointing up to a butterfly that is on top of the table. It was a Lab and looked so much like Sugar. I knew I was getting it because of the big box that arrived soon after I asked for it, but I had to wait until Christmas morning to see it and it did not disappoint.

It was better than I expected and larger than I thought it would be.

As if my cup doesn’t already overflow, I bought myself something after Christmas that I have been saving for and looking for for a couple of years. I love Tiffany lamps. I have one hanging in my shop. It use to hang in our kitchen and then when we remodeled the kitchen,it was installed in our dining room and then when we bought a new lamp for the dining room it got put in my shop where it will stay. I have wanted a floor lamp and have been looking at them on Amazon. There are pages of them and they all are so pretty I was having a hard time choosing one. Then, the other day, after searching for a while I came upon a page that had the most wonderful lamp I have ever seen and I could afford it!! I didn’t waste time looking any further. I clicked on it and told David it was on its way and would need to be put together.

Here it is.

So wonderful in the window.

So the owl lamp sits next to my dog table and I am in bliss. I can look at them both as I knit or quilt or watch television and they will just make me happy. Almost like having the Christmas tree up all year with my new lamp. And I am feeling kind of sad the tree has to come down in the next week or so.

I wasn’t the only one who got what they wanted for Christmas. David wanted a new razor. Now weeks before Christmas David starts to let his beard grow. Now at his age it comes in snowy white so he kind of looks like Santa Claus. He enjoys taking peppermints to the store and handing them out to children, with their parents’ consent, of course. He has had children walk up to him and ask him if he’s Santa. He always tells them he’s Santa’s helper, but I don’t think some of them believe that and just know he’s the real one. I think it’s funny to see the looks on children’s faces when they see him. Oh, to be a child again and believe in the magic. I don’t think there is anything wrong with letting your children use their imaginations in believing there’s a Santa Claus, but I do believe children should know the real reason why we celebrate Christmas, also because without the birth of Jesus, none of us would be celebrating the holiday. It would not exist. Anyway, back to David’s razor. I took this picture of him Christmas Day.

So the holidays will be officially over tomorrow and then the stores will start pushing the next one on us. Valentine’s Day. But I’m way ahead of them on that.

Each heart is different.

So much fun that I have started another garland.

Happy New Year to you all. I wish you health, happiness, peace and joy in the next year. May God rest His hand on you and keep you safe. Bye.

We finally got out of town for the first time in ages. We have not spent an overnight since before Covid hit us two years ago! It’s not that we didn’t want to, but things as they were, it was difficult to get away. From my heart trouble to David’s shoulder injury, we have been kept close to home for far too long. And of course. there’s the animals that I, at least, hate to leave for long periods.

So last weekend we got into our trusty Jeep and off we went to Cincinnati where our son and his family live. We have not been down there since they got married so it was long overdue.

They also have this huge cat with batman like ears and another black and white long haired cat. They are both bigger than Annie.

We went down to Cincinnati to see family and to do some Christmas lights looking. Before we did they we went out to eat at an amazing restaurant, The Golden Lamb. It was built in the 1800’s and people like George H. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Charles Dickens have eaten there. Yes, Charles Dickens, the author of A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities. That Charles Dickens. His picture is on the wall with other dignitaries who have eaten there. We looked around at all the old furniture and books that lined the walls. It was a beautiful place to visit and I’m glad we did. It is still used for a bed and breakfast also. It would be fun to stay there.

After we ate a gigantic meal, I had their turkey dinner, we set off for Armco Park where there were lights to see. First we went through a neighborhood of large, older homes that were decorated for Christmas. These homes were three stories high and some had Christmas trees clear at the top window. They were all so beautiful. I’d like to see the houses in daylight.

Then we drove to the park and it was wonderful.

If pigs could fly!

And of course, the reason for the season.

I’ll be busy the next couple of days preparing a feast for Christmas day. We are expecting a huge ice storm and lots of snow and below 0 temperatures, so it may be just David and I here that day. Just so all my family and friends are safe and warm in their homes during this storm that is coming.

So wishing you all, wherever you are in the world, a blessed Christmas Day. God bless us, everyone! Bye.