Guess Who Came to Lunch!

Melany, Wade, and Erin paid us a visit today. Melany is off this week for Spring Break at Rutherford County Schools (Murfreesboro,TN)so she had a little extra time. Wade also took off this week so he came along. And, they brought along Erin, our oldest grandchild (23). We had a nice visit. We were celebrating two birthdays...mine from a couple of weeks ago...and Melany's which is next week. Guess you could say that we also celebrated Wade's too as his is the same day as mine...but we had already given him his present. Melany and I were the ones who got present today. They brought things for the yard for me...new bird houses, bird feeder, and a pretty spinner for the garden. We had a traditional New England Boiled Dinner (can you tell that we like corned beef, cabbage and the rest of the fixings?). Melany and Wade brought dessert...cheese cake and cookies. The neighbors (Nathan, Kathy and family)filed through and got some dessert too. We had had it around St. Patrick's Day and so had Melany, Wade and Erin. Woody had found some really good corned beef briskets on sale and we couldn't resist indulging again! We sat around and talked and walked around in the yard. I forgot to snap a picture at lunch, but remembered after lunch when we were sitting in the family room...it ended up being at a rather odd angle since I was trying to get everyone in and we were spread all over the room. Isaac spent some time over here since he didn't have school. He enjoys his cousin Erin as she helps him play some of the games on his handheld game system. The rest of his family had lessons plus their music lessons (violin (Kathy & Esther) and piano (Abigail & Joy). So we didn't get to all visit the way we sometimes do. Even though Melany has Spring Break she still has to teach the college classes that she teaches and she teaches one on Saturday. They will be able to come back on a Saturday in a month when her Motlow classes are over. I keep thinking that today is Saturday since they usually come on Saturday! I took a break from what I was doing to come up to blog. What I was doing was deboning chicken thighs (oh, boy). Not my favorite job! BUT...I got some items in the mail today which included a new boning knife and does it ever make a difference to have a nice sharp knife meant for the job...much easier. Melany, Wade, and Erin left late afternoon to head on to Cookeville to see our oldest grandson, Alex (19)and take him out to supper. So they have made the rounds for meals today...breakfast=Murfreesboro, lunch=Tullahoma, supper=Cookeville. They took Alex some of the cheesecake and cookies too. I know that he will be happy! I will end with the story about the stuffed tiger that is on the back of the couch in the pictures. Erin found him before Christmas and decided to buy him and add him to the "pickle present" that Woody and I do each year. The tiger was well received and much loved by especially the youngest, Joseph. He even marched off with it to take home when our family Christmas celebration was over.(Usually the pickle presents stay at our house.) Tiger lived happily next door, until suddenly his little owner, Joseph, started being afraid of him. So tiger took up residence back at Grammy and Goosey's. I had even hidden him so Joseph wouldn't find him. Today Erin found him and I suggested that she take tiger home with her for a while and tame him so he won't frighten Joseph! She happily took him home with her as she had had a bit of trouble giving him up at Christmas as she had rather taken a fancy to him. So the tiger roams tonight! And, now I bid good bye to March. See you in April...unless I'm fooled!

Thursday Doings

Thursday started out pretty much as usual. I had school time with Isaac and Joseph. Then it was reading time with Elijah, Esther, and Joy. It was Esther's long time today and she forgot for a while...but got over in time to do some more on her cross stitch picture and then worked a bit with Osmo and tangrams. While I was waiting for Esther to come over I got started on tomorrow's lunch. If things go as planned, we will have company for lunch tomorrow...more about that tomorrow! Woody spent a good part of the morning outside. He continues to work on both our yards (ours and Nathan and Kathy's). After lunch, I started doing a few things to get ready for tomorrow...a little dusting, a little vacuuming, a little mopping...in other words I'm not doing a lot of anything...as little as possible to get ready! These days that is about all the energy that I have to get ready for something (minimal energy!). Woody went for a four-mile walk this afternoon. I think that I napped for part of that walk! I left the vacuuming of the family room for Woody...and I just heard something that I couldn't figure out what the sound was...I have decided that perhaps it is the vacuum running below me! I have a couple more things to do this evening and then I will pretty much leave the rest to do in the morning. I can't believe how little of March is left! Once again I am reminded that time flies when we're having fun...and even if we're not!

Barn Tour Continues

I am still going through the pictures I took when Marie and I went on our "barn excursion" on the 17th. Now that the computer is fixed it is ever so much easier to get them up on the laptop screen and do a tweek here and there...crop, lighting, color, straighten, etc. and sometimes I use some crazy filter to make them more artwork than photo.

Some are tumble down and might just be a pile of wood the next time that we make a pass by...some will be hidden by vines and other growth and won't be able to be seen from the road. Almost all the pictures that we took this time were taken from the car either looking out the windshield or out an open side window...sometimes taken while the car was moving. Often the color isn't the greatest due to glare, etc. and that is where photo software comes in to remove the glare and improve the color. Most that I post I do some sort of "fix." Every camera is different and some make things more blue than they should be...some more green, etc. There is a place in my software that you can click on something that is black, gray or white and it will correct to proper color tones...and it works most of the time...makes photos look more natural. The top picture tonight had a large wire running through part of the sky...I just cropped the wire out...there is a way that you can color over the wire and it won't show...takes less time to crop it out! The other thing that I can do is straighten a picture that seems to be on a slope...sometimes the slope is really there and other times it is the way I hold the camera...one of my shoulders is lower than the other so I often don't hold the camera level...my cameras do have either levels or lines that let me line things up straight..but often especially when just snapping from a car quickly I don't get it level...so I can make them level with the software. Lots of tricks behind each of the photos that I post! Today Woody worked quite a bit in the yards again...he continued to work on Nathan and Kathy's yard. I had school this morning. Abigail and I worked on making instructions with photographs that we snapped with the iPad. This is an iPad project and sometimes the app we are using was cooperative and sometimes not. In the end we got four pages to print and they look pretty good. Then we got hung on a couple of the last pages...hopefully we can complete this project when we meet next (if iPad cooperates). Technology and I seem to be butting heads lately! Woody went to Aldis and Krogers this morning and stopped at WalMart to buy some seeds to plant parsley and lettuce. I ate lunch and put away groceries at the same time...sometimes one needs to multitask! After lunch I headed off to work in the church library for a couple of hours. Donna and I got quite a bit done, but did run into a snafu with one of the computers in the library and the printer...we left that to solve for another day. I had had enough of messing with technology for the day. Woody's exercise for the day was working in the yard. Some of the neighbor grandchildren came over late this afternoon and played school in the school room. They had fun, but they had quite a bit to pick up in order for us to be able to have school in the room in the morning. It took a while, but they did a good pick up job. The front porch rockers got used by quite a few on this quite warm day. If any of you are out and about..."come set a while!" This is perfect porch sitting weather...Elijah, Esther and Joy and I chose to read sitting on the porch glider this morning. Nice!

Besides Barns...

Besides barns on our photography trip, Marie and I saw some interesting livestock. Tonight's photo is an example...what a face...not the cleanest of the cows we saw! Today has been a pretty ordinary Tuesday. Tullahoma City Schools are back in session so Isaac spent the morning with me while his mommy went to her Bible study and Nathan and the rest had juggling practice. Isaac had a great morning in the school room and then we did some other things, but today he mainly wanted to work with the school equipment that we have. He did his weekly paid chore for me: vacuumed the stairs with my little Dirt Devil handheld vac. He started this job for me last week. He wanted to earn some money so I decided that this was a job that would help me out. Woody walked to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for each of us. I think that he made that walk into a four-mile walk also, but not sure. He doesn't usually take a four-mile walk on Tuesdays because he walks to and from the prayer room at church on Tuesday evenings. That's where he is now (and thus I can't ask about a four-mile walk earlier in the day). He worked out in the yard a lot today. He continues to plant grass seed in the neighbor's yard (Nathan and Kathy's). I think that perhaps he is trying to prove the theory that the grass is really greener on the other side of the fence! I know that our other neighbor's yard is greener than ours. At this rate he will make ours look even worse than it already does. Our yard grows moss very well and at a point it will grow clover...but grass is hard to come by...though, he has been planting some of that grass seed in our yard. He is attempting to get grass to grow around the stepping stones that connect our house with Nathan, Kathy and the grandkids' house. I decided that I was going to do some sewing this afternoon. I got bogged down when one of my software programs for sewing wouldn't work due to the recent trip to the tech. I did manage to get it back to running...but was a bit stressed out when it was a bit stubborn and it looked like it was going to install a lower version than I had. But after wiping out any evidence that I had ever had it and redownloading it onto the laptop...in the end there it was again...correct version and all. I have another sewing software that I am sure had the same thing happen to it, but just couldn't face attempting to fix it today...as Woody says...don't do it till I need to use it. At least today's problem ended up as "all's well that ends well!" And, I did get one design stitched out for the project that I am planning. Oh, and no hail last night...just a lot of rain and lightning and thunder.

More Storms Predicted

We have already had a storm roll through and they say that we aren't out of the woods yet that there are probably more to come before the evening is over. Some of these storms have been producing large hail. I heard it reported that one place in Tennessee had tennis ball hail. I can very easily have hail left out of storms! We had a lot of damage a few years back due to a hail storm...had to replace some of the new siding that we had just had done and also ended up with a new roof due to that storm. So the thoughts of large hail sort of makes me shudder! Woody worked in the yard early in the day and a little more in the afternoon. He got his four-mile walk in this morning trying to avoid the rain that was coming. He went to Life Care and had Bible study with Jeff this morning also. I had school with six this morning...Isaac and Joseph had their preschool time together again (the new norm), then Elijah, Esther, and Abigail read with me, and then Joy came over for her long time. She completed her skirt. Elijah came over after lunch for his long time. He played the Pizza Co. Osmo game and also did coding with Osmo, and then we read another chapter in the book we are reading together. Joy came back over after she finished with her school work next door and tried the skirt on with the blouse that I had made her to go with it. She did a great job with her skirt and now between the two of us she has a new outfit! I think that she was pretty pleased when she wore it back home to show everyone. I decided that today was the day to stew a chicken so did that, deboned it, and made chicken stock. While things cooking I "degermed" the kitchen sink a job of necessity when I do a chicken like this. That was about all the energy that I could muster for today! We are now settling in for the evening...pretty much the same ol', same ol'! Now if we can just avoid bad storms! Here's a zoomed in photo of the above barn:

Sunday Blessings

Once Red

This morning I worked for a while on the pictures that I took last week on my friend and my "barn excursion." Tonight's photo stood out to me because you can tell that it was once a red barn and is now pretty much weathered gray. Woody started out the day working out in either our yard or Nathan and Kathy's. He ran his usual Saturday morning errands--library, Aldis, and WalMart. Isaac came over while I was working on pictures and stayed till lunch time. After lunch, I got busy putting the final touches on tomorrow's Sunday School lesson. I am teaching my ladies' Sunday School class in the morning. Woody went for a four-mile walk this afternoon. He got back just in the nick of time as the bottom fell out not long after he got home. It rained hard for a little while. Now it is just a gentle rain that I am hearing on the roof. Woody is settled in for the evening with March Madness and a book or two. I am ready to settle in too once I get everything packed up for tomorrow's lesson. Tomorrow's lesson should bring back memories of childhood...in several ways...and perhaps they will learn a new biblical fact or two that wasn't brought out to them all those years ago.

Pulled Pork & Yard Work

Tonight's title pretty much describes Woody's and my day...I made our recipe for pulled pork that just about took up my whole day and Woody worked a lot out in the yard. He helped Nathan and Kathy get some grass seed down before the rain that is supposed to come tomorrow. Isaac spent a good part of the morning and afternoon with me. He assisted me in getting all the ingredients in the pot for the pulled pork and then he played. He did wonder how many times I was going to have go and stir the pulled pork...a lot since I was constantly skimming fat, etc. for quite a few hours. We had pulled pork sandwiches this evening...once again very good. But I always wonder while I am preparing it if it is really worth all the effort! Woody walked four miles this morning before he got busy with working outside. We are now settled in for the evening. Woody said today that he was enjoying having a "new" computer...and, it really is acting very nicely once again. The tech told us not to expect too much in the way of it being very fast...but compared to the way it had been it is very speedy...at least to us, who know no better!

It's Baaaaaaack!

We got a call this afternoon that our laptop was as ready as it was going to be. And, it is very much improved! The main problem is getting settings back to the way they were! Sort of like having to set up a new computer...but...it's not. I have spent quite a bit of time hunting for things and resetting passwords, etc. So a bit of a pain...but it is working and so far we have been able to get places we needed to go with just a bit of effort. Luckily I have settings recorded so have, so far, been able to find the settings, etc. that we needed. I am sure that we will eventually get things set up correctly. The tech told us that it had gained some speed but not to expect too much. Compared to what was happening just prior to taking it in it is very speedy...and we don't know any better about speed...this is the computer we use and have used it for years. I had school this morning. Esther had her long time. She cross stitched for a while and then did tangrams using the Osmo app on my iPad. This app has manipulatives to use with it along with what is seen on the iPad screen. I ended up doing them with her...there was one that puzzled both of us...but with one hint Esther was able to solve it. Woody has been working in the yard off and on today. He walked four-miles this afternoon. While he was on his walk, the tech called to say that the laptop was fixed. Woody headed off to get it soon after he got back from his walk. After getting it home, we have both been trying to get it back to the way we like it. Woody can now print off crossword puzzles each day. I think he probably missed that aspect the most of not having this computer. After I worked on getting settings back, I worked some with my sewing software and then worked some more on my photographs. Tonight's photo is part of the group that I took last week...there are still lots of those to share!

Anniversary Casserole

Twelve days ago it was birthday soup for my birthday. Today it is anniversary casserole for our 48th anniversary! I asked Woody wanted for our anniversary dinner and he asked or Company Tuna Bake, an old tried and true recipe. I laughed, though, when I was looking on the page that this recipe was on, I spotted right under it what I served for our first anniversary dinner: Cornish Game Hens and Rice Stuffing. A bit fancier meal than 47 years later! Woody headed off on his four-mile walk before he went grocery shopping today. While I was having school he headed off to the store. I had a usual Wednesday school day. Abigail finished up another zippered bag and we attempted to start on putting together the photos that I took step-by-step during the process of making a zippered bag. Now we plan to put them into a document so it will be able to follow...what stitch to use, what machine foot to use, etc. I pretty much did nothing for a while after lunch...taking advantage of another day off from the church library due to Spring Break. After I rested for a while I made our supper. We have eaten and now I am upstairs resting in my chair. We did hear from the tech who is working on the computer. He had a question for Woody...so at least we know that it is being worked on. Maybe I'll be back to posting pictures by tomorrow or the next day. Plus it will be very nice to be back on that computer for the blog. Typing on the iPad to do the blog isn't the easiest thing. Will be glad for a regular keyboard and larger screen...and ready to post pictures again...and look at the pictures that I took last week. I never got to look through all of them due to the computer being so slow. Looking forward to a faster, more cooperative computer. Woody thought about doing something today and realized that he couldn't do it because the computer was gone. I thought about a sewing project that I'm planning...can't do it without that computer...so definitely ready for it to come home!

Stormy, Stormy!

At the moment a pretty severe storm is going through...rain, lightening, thunder. Woody is waiting for the storm to pass before he walks to the prayer room at church this evening (his walk for Tuesday). I had another day of school following our regular schedule. This week we are back to doing the children's long Grammy times. Joy had her time yesterday. She made great headway on her jeans skirt. She should be able to finish it next week. Isaac had his long time with me today. Joseph came over for a while and then Isaac had time by himself with me. After lunch Abigail and Joy came over to have their reading times. Isaac helped me clean put a kitchen cabinet. It was the one over the stove. I handed him things and he put them on the counter. I am really glad to get that cabinet organized again...it has certain Herb's and spices, olive oil, vinegars, pancake syrup and sundry other things. That's about the only cleaning I did today other than putting some dishes in the dishwasher. We had leftovers for supper...so no cooking other than warming up what struck our fancy. Woody worked out in the yard again this morning. It was quite warm...felt like a day that could produce some bad storms...there is just a feeling in the air both temperature and humidity-wise that just says potential storms. They had been predicted so these weren't a surprise. Welcome, first full day of Spring!

Spring Has Sprung

Happy first day of Spring! No photos till lap top gets back from its visit to the tech doctor. Woody dropped it off to see if there is any hope of it getting some speed back. And, hoping that it will be more cooperative when it gets back. After he dropped it off he headed to the Life Care Center to have Bible study with Jeff. I had school this morning...back to a normal school week. After lunch Woody, Elijah, and I headed off to Dairy Queen for free ice cream cones...DQ was giving them away for the first day of Spring. After we finished our cones, Elijah and I had his long time. Isaac helped me get supper tonight. Woody has just gotten home from Monday night prayer meeting. Sorry if there are any typos...very hard to correct in the format that I get for the blog when on my iPad. Blogs will probably be pretty short and sweet till laptop gets back. Tonight's picture would have been of a tulip--Nathan, Kathy and family gave me a tulip for my birthday and it bloomed today...pretty appropriate for the first day ofnSpring! A pretty yellow tulip--you will just have to imagine it!

Saturday

One of the things that I did this morning was to go through more of the pictures that I took yesterday. Tonight's photo is one of my favorites so far. I just realized that I missed an opportunity for last night's photo. I definitely should have posted pics of a green barn...we saw at least one yesterday...as a matter of fact one farm was pretty much all green buildings except for the house and it had a green tin roof! Woody did his usual Saturday errands: library, groceries (this time a stop at both WalMart and Kroger). This afternoon he went for a four-mile walk. I have done some laundry and some cleaning. I vacuumed in the living room and dining room and actually mopped the kitchen floor...and then guess who walked through with shoes that had dried mud on them (not me because I haven't been outside to get mud on my shoes and the neighbor grandchildren weren't home during the day today...so that pretty much leaves only one suspect. He did help me out with the vacuuming. He vacuumed the family room for me. So now the vacuum has come back upstairs to vacuum up little pieces of play doh! We can both say "not me" to being the reason to need to run the vacuum in the school room! Settling in for another quiet Saturday night in this Dorrell household.

Barns Coming and Going!

My friend, Marie, and I had the best time today driving through hills and valleys in Middle TN looking for barns. If you don't live in this area you have no idea how MANY barns there are...just about around every bend in the road. I have a lot of fodder for the blog for some time to come! And, we didn't just take pictures of barns. Stay tuned and I will share with you our fun picture taking day. Woody stayed behind and held down the fort. It was a good day to work in the yard. When Marie and I returned he was working in the neighbor's yard (Nathan and Kathy and family's) planting more grass seed. We had leftover Corned Beef and Cabbage (and potatoes, carrots, and onions) to keep with tradition of St. Patrick's Day. I wore green...not sure that Woody did...but I was nice and didn't pinch him. Children are away so no pinching from them either. Happy St. Patrick's Day 2017! Oh, and, this is my 2800th blog post...oh, my!

Thursday

Well, was going to blog early tonight...an hour and a forty-five minutes later here I am finally at the point that I can type something. I needed to get pictures uploaded from my cameras as tomorrow I am going on another photographic excursion and didn't want any pictures on any of the cameras. Well, the laptop continues to be slow as molasses. Woody plans to take it in next week to see if "things" can be speeded up (or whatever) on it. I figured that I would upload the pictures, choose a picture and then blog. Well, that is what I did but with a lot of steps that shouldn't have had to been taken. I have had a really lazy day. I didn't have school today and took advantage of a "down day" and did as close as nothing as possible. One thing that I did manage to do yesterday that I didn't mention yesterday was that I did get the newly emptied drawer in the kitchen filled with items from two other utinsel drawers. I think that it is going to help the over crowded conditions of those two other drawers and I "think" that we will be able to remember that there is another drawer to look for items in when we can't find something! Woody took a four-mile walk this afternoon. And, I guess my major effort of the day was try to make this laptop behave! We are both settled in for another dullsville evening. Tomorrow night I should have some new barn pictures to post. A friend and perhaps another and I are going off on a "barn picture taking" day...no telling what hiways and biways we may venture down. Hope that we find our way back...if I don't blog tomorrow night I am either lost out in the TN rolling hill country or...there are still computer problems...take your pick!

The Ides of March

The computer isn't being very cooperative this evening. It has taken 45 min. to get to this point in tonight's blog. So I will write quickly in case it decides to be even more uncooperative! I had school this morning with Isaac and Joseph and then read with Elijah, Esther, Joy and Abigail. Isaac and Joseph have started having school at the same time and it is working out pretty well. Woody did his usual Wednesday grocery shopping at Aldis and Krogers. I had enough of a break between Joy and Abigail's reading times that I was able to put away most of the groceries upon his return. I didn't follow my usual Wednesday afternoon routine as we didn't work in the church library today. It is Spring Break for Tullahoma City Schools and the church is having abreviated office hours and our work time would have been cut short so we decided to take a Spring Break from the library. After lunch Esther and Elijah came over to enjoy the new play doh that Isaac and Joseph made yesterday. While Woody walked his four miles, I took a nap...still trying to get used to the new time, I think! Woody got a good deal on corned beef so I made another New England Boiled Dinner for tonight's supper...the meat cooked while I napped. Then I was rested enough to prepare the veggies after my nap! So we enjoyed our second St. Patty's Day dinner of this year and...it isn't even St. Patrick's Day yet. Looks like we will have enough leftovers to eat this meal on St. Patrick's Day also. At this point in the day we once again are settling in for a quiet evening in this Dorrell household. I got the flowers in tonight's photo from Nathan, Kathy and family for my birthday. The poppy plant had one flower when they gave it to me and today I realized that another had opened. The blooms are so pretty...the petals look like they are made of paper.

Play Doh Day

Isaac and Joseph and I made play doh after they finished with their school today. After it cooled off, they brought it upstairs to have some fun with it. I followed behind them with the drawer from the kitchen that has always contained items to use with play doh. That is it contained them until today. I decided that I was going to do some reorganizing and free up that drawer in the kitchen for cooking utinsels. The two drawers that are designated for cooking utinsels are maxed out plus some! I emptied out the drawer and the boys played with what was in it. When they got finished, Joseph decided that it was time for him to go home. But Isaac wanted to stay and help me organize and sort things. I had to find space for all these things that they use for play doh...lots of cookie cutters, rolling pins, etc. I decided the best place to store these play doh items was in the school room. I have a bin designated for art items...so what better place?!? Of course it meant that I had to reorganize and clean that bin out some. We managed it and got all the play doh items including the play doh into the art bin. I have mostly found places for things in that drawer that weren't play doh related...still a few items to find homes for...lots landed in file 13! Good job done...next...start moving cooking utinsels into the "new" drawer. I need to make sense out of what to put in there or we will never remember which items belong in that new drawer. I have one drawer that has items not used often and one drawer of items used a LOT. And, both are way too full. One drawer probably isn't going to solve the problem of over crowding but will hopefully help some! I'm thinking that the new drawer I will take things out of each that deal specifically with baking...maybe then we will be able to remember their new locations? Probably not! Woody fixed us salads for lunch...ate light so we could have my birthday Blizzard treat after lunch...we had another of those DQ coupons for buy one get one free for my birthday and the date to use it by was the 17th...so it was time to "use it or lose it!" It was a rather cold day to get a very cold dessert...but we sacrificed!!! I had just finished my Blizzard when I heard little feet (after the squeak of the front door) on the stairs. Isaac and Joseph had come back over to play with the play doh. I got everything organized during this visit and by the time they headed home I had the play doh items all neatly put away in the tub. At that point I was ready to land in my chair for a rest! Woody bundled up really well to head to the prayer room late this afternoon. It is going to be really cold here tonight...into the teens...time to let faucets drip probably. I have my curtains all closed to attempt to keep as much of the warm air in as possible...or is it keep cold air out? Whichever, every little bit helps. No snow for us in the blizzard to the north...but definitely the jet stream has dipped down from Canada and is delivering very cold temps. Brrrrrrrr! It is already 28 degrees. I feel it in my bones! Woody's main accomplishment today was to get our taxes ready and signed and sent off. Good job done for another year!

Moo Day!

Woody had me take this photo on our photo taking jaunt last Friday. He wanted me to take it and send it to Joseph. Joseph loves cows! These cows were very interested in what I was doing. The moment that I stepped out of the car to snap their picture they started heading my way. Well, today has been sort of a regular Monday. I didn't have school as Nathan, Kathy and family didn't get back till late last night. I spent a good part of the morning getting caught up on church library tasks that could be done here at the house. Woody headed off on his four-mile walk this morning as he knew that rain was heading our way. While he was out walking, Isaac and Joseph came over and played for a while. Late morning Woody went to the Life Care and had Bible study with Jeff. Isaac and Joseph came back over a while after lunch and played in the school room for a while. It started raining while they were over here. Their mom and dad gathered them up when they came over to deliver my birthday present...flowers to plant...and candy to eat! Abigail borrowed our oven to cook a cheese cake. While Woody was at the Mondy night prayer meeting, I got our supper ready. We have eaten and Abigail just knocked on the door with a piece of cheesecake for each of us. Yummy! Good cook, Abigail! We are settling in with our cheesecake for a quiet Monday evening planning to stay warm and dry!

Sunday Blessings!

Spring One Day...

Spring one day...winter the next! The top picture shows Woody's attempt at not having to scrape/shovel the front steps in the morning. Note that the burlap is already pretty covered with icy precip. The second picture shows what it was starting to look like just before the sun went down. It has been a mixed bag of rain, freezing rain, and snow. Guess we will see in the morning if we are the ones who just get a dusting or if we are the ones who get an inch or two. It is right at freezing now and is supposed to drop down into the mid-twenties over night. Brrrrrrrr! Woody did his usual Saturday errands--library, Aldis and Walmart. He went on his walk before lunch trying to get ahead of precipitation. It was quite cold for his walk and he had to bundle up to head out. He made a stop to see one of his deacon family shut-ins. He visited for a few minutes and then continued on his walk. I have done a little of this and a little of that today...some cleaning...mainly dusting and then did some sewing. I did complete the sewing project that I had been working on...a zippered pouch for our Sunday School treasury. The pouch we had been using had seen better days so I decided that it was time to replace it. I have also been working on getting our clocks moved ahead one hour. I still have my watch to fix and one other clock that is upstairs. I think that everything else (laptop, iPad and probably my phone) will set itself at 2am. I will have to set clocks in the cars when I am in them next. At this point in the evening I am very confused when I look at a clock and it says an hour later than it really is! Of course, it would probably be just as well to start believing the time they say right now! This is always a hard time change to get used to. We are all settled in hoping to stay warm inside despite the cold temps outside.

Birthday Soup, Etc!

Birthday Soup = Hearty Italian Bean made by Woody = Delicious!

And, here I am another year older with my banana cake with cream cheese/pecan frosting made by Woody. Add in a scoop of vanilla ice cream = Scrumptious!

After lunch off for a drive which landed us at Tims Ford State Park. We decided that we could manage the 1.1 miles to the lookout point and the 1.1 miles back. Woody's walk for the day and mine for the year so far!

A beautiful day for a little hike...a bit breezy and thus nippy...but scenery was beautiful to behold! (You will probably get to see more of today's picture taking adventure in the next days of the blog.)We wended our way back home through all the winding roads that luckily Woody knows well from his bicycle riding days. I would have been very lost if I had taken off on some of the roads we took today! I took a nice birthday nap upon returning home. We are now all settled in for another quiet evening in this Dorrell household.

Attempting Secrets!

Woody hustled around in the kitchen this morning attempting some secret baking. That's pretty hard to do when the smell of something baking comes wafting up the stairs! When he went for his four-mile walk this afternoon, I snapped the above photo of his secret baking project. He also made rye and whole wheat pancakes for our breakfast. He has spent a lot of time puttering around out in the yard today...doing a little of this and a little of that...shifting dirt from one place to another...raking and mulching leaves, etc., etc. I spent the morning puttering around in the sewing room. I'm a little farther on my sewing project. I'm easing back into my sewing...not pushing myself to get in a hurry...sewing for a little while and then stopping...and then "perhaps" getting back to it later. We are settling in for pretty much a "do nothing" evening...typical for us!

Blue Bird Day

Our blue birds have started to come back to their dead branch perch...right outside our bedroom window in the front yard! Perfect place for me to get some blue bird pics. Their bird house had fallen over and is now up again...so hoping that they decide to be our bird house renters again this year. Tonight's picture is from several years ago...but I took a couple of pictures of one sitting on or close to that very branch today...I just haven't uploaded them from camera to computer yet. I had a lazy morning...no school as the children were occupied with something else. Woody ran errands this morning...Credit Union, Aldis, and Kroger. I caused him to have a delay at the Credit Union. Last night I guess my debit card got hacked...but Credit Union was on top of it, as they called very soon after the transaction attempted to go through. It happened in Mountain Time and I am very much in Central Time. When I got the call Woody was at the prayer room. As soon as he got home, he checked things out in our account and sure enough there was a rather large transaction to Apple. Woody called the Credit Union's 800 number and got the transaction stopped which also put a block on my card. At his stop at the Credit Union this morning, he got things straightened out the rest of the way...including getting me a new debit card. While he was running his errands, I got a call from Apple checking to see if I had made a purchase last night. I am pleased that both Credit Union and Apple were on top of things. The transaction was made from California. I asked the Apple rep who called just what it was that I hadn't bought! It was for a highfaluton I-Phone. He said that it is a red flag to them when a card holder is from one state and the transaction is coming from another state...especially when the states are far apart. All I can say is "all's well that ends well!" After lunch I headed to the church library and worked for a couple of hours. We had quite a lot of maintenance (check ins and outs and reshelving)due to not going in last week. While I was at the library, Woody took a four-mile walk. He has also worked some in the yard today. I came home and worked a little more on my sewing project. We are now settled in for an "as usual" quiet evening.

Good Day for Ducks and Boats!

Lots of rain today...not the best day for me to drive out of town. Me, who doesn't like to drive much anyway...and especially don't like to drive in bad weather. Woody "thought" that I could get to my destination before it set in...but wrong...started pouring not long after I got out of town. One good thing was that it was a back road and most folk were wise and stayed off that road due to the inclement weather, so I was pretty much alone for my little trip. A downside was that a good portion of this road is very curvy with lots of ups and downs and places for standing water. But I made it to the little tea room in Bell Buckle and had a good time with ten of the ladies in my Sunday School class. I am becoming quite the "tea party" person...twice to this tea room in the last couple of weeks! The drive home wasn't quite as harrowing as the drive there. It rained most of the way home, but no where near as hard as on the way there. Tonight's photo is taken just as I was getting onto the one-way bridge over the Duck River. I stopped, checked to make sure no one was coming, rolled down my window, and quickly took a picture. The river was running quite high...much more rain and it will be running over the bridge and folk will have to turn around! I was very glad when this little outing came to an end and I pulled back into our driveway. The rain has pretty much kept Woody in the house today. He did walk to the prayer room at church after supper and has yet to return. After I got home, I decided to start on a little sewing project that I have been "meaning" to start for a while. So far it is turning out to my liking. Don't know if this will be a "continue-to-sew" kind of evening or a "read-in-my-chair" kind of evening! Whatever, I am just glad to be in the house...safe and dry!

We've Had Company!

Graham, our oldest (15) neighbor grandchild spent the afternoon and part of the evening with us. He had a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) meeting tonight and the rest of his family had a performance this evening. He needed a ride, but his meeting time and Goosey's (Woody's) prayer meeting time conflicted a bit. So one of Graham's friends who is also in CAP with him picked him up (Well, it was really his friend's dad, as these young men aren't quite old enough for driver's licenses. The next big event for Graham will probably be getting his Driver's Permit!). Graham is at his meeting now and will come back here and continue working on his homework, that is, if his family hasn't gotten back before he does. I had a fairly normal morning of school with the children. We changed things up a bit and Isaac and Joseph came at the same time. Then some of the rest of them read with me. As soon as school was finished for the morning, I got busy on our dinner (When I planned dinner, I didn't know that we were going to have a guest.). Graham lucked out that we weren't just "scrounging" tonight! We had our traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner aka New England Boiled Dinner...just a bit before St. Patrick's Day this year. Woody had gotten all the makings so we saw no reason to wait another week+ to have it. It really tasted good and Graham really enjoyed it too and there was plenty to fill up a growing boy! I think that he liked the corned beef and the carrots best, but he had seconds on cabbage, too. We also had potatoes and boiled onions. So we had a meal worthy of company without knowing that company was coming! Graham can almost be considered company. He's so busy these days with school and just being a teenager that we don't see him as often as we see the other six. We had a nice visit. Woody worked really hard out in the yard today...his exercise for the day...he mowed some and just did general this-time-of-the-year yard maintenance. He will probably spend more and more time out in the yard as the days grow nicer. He put in extra effort today as we are supposed to get quite a bit of rain tomorrow. It has been quite a breezy and, at times, blustery day today...typical March day! As Graham said, "A good day to fly a kite!"

Ta-Da!!!

At last I can say that the undecorating and redecorating is complete...and, I can stand in the kitchen door and look through the dining room on into the living room and there isn't anything else that needs to be done. I can now sit in the living room and sip a cup of tea and enjoy the room back in its normal mode. Just before coming in to blog, Woody and I carried down the last item...the model boat that my grandfather made of the USS Constitution...it is a two person job...one to carry the boat and the other to carry the stand. I placed the stand and Woody placed the boat and the mantel was complete also. Now on to everyday things that need to be done around the house...some that have been ignored because I was "stove up" for so long with gout and part because I was concentrating on getting decorations put away. Now...no more excuses for letting everyday chores go...other than just not doing them! Woody did his usual Saturday errands...the library, Aldis, and Walmart plus a stop at Lowes. He has spent quite a bit of time in the yard today...planting and cleaning the yard up...his exercise for the day. We are both ready to settle in for a quiet Saturday evening.

Only Memories Left

At last I can say that there are only memories left of Christmas 2016! Today I traded out the every day dishes for the Christmas dishes that I still had out on the kitchen counter waiting to be put up on high shelves. I think that was the last job that required a step stool at least for the reason for putting away Christmas. I spent a good part of the day getting things back in everyday order. I vacuumed the living room and dining room, did some dusting, found everyday items and put them back where they belong. I still have the mantel in the family room and a small bookcase and corner tiered shelves to get back to "normal"...perhaps tomorrow...enough for today! Reading or needlework sound like the best tasks for me this evening. The house is looking so much better already...so good to see things back to "normal" and straightened up from the undecorating mess. Woody completed his monumental task of getting all the boxes back into the Christmas closet...so we have a hallway once again upstairs! Woody also worked in the yard some today and went on a four-mile walk. We are both ready for our recliners this evening!

A Drive-By Shooting!

Tonight's photo is proof to a couple of our blog readers that a drive-by shooting occurred at their home-in-progress today! We were up and out of the house a little before 7am on this very chilly morning. The car said that it was 34 as we were driving away from the house. Woody had a follow-up appointment with his Vanderbilt urologist this morning. We didn't have to go all the way into Nashville, as this doctor is located in one of the many off-campus locations that Vandy occupies...a closer location for us. He was in and out of the office very quickly and we were on our way home. When we were driving through the town where our close friends live, I asked Woody if we could take a little side-trip and drive-by and see the progress that has been made on their house...thus I was able to take a couple of shots at/of their house! Even veering off the path on the way home a couple of times, we were still home a little after 11am...so a very short Vanderbilt appointment day for a change.

Came In Like a Lion!

The first thing I heard this first morning in March at 5am was a voice coming from my iPad across the room: "There is a tornado watch for your area." Not exactly the words that one wants to be awakened hearing! Though, for those not used to tornado terminology..."watch" just means that the conditions are right for a tornado to form. The word that you don't want to hear is "warning" which means that there is a tornado on the ground heading in your direction. But it was an indication as to what sort of day it might turn into! Woody headed off to the grocery store a bit earlier than usual hoping to avoid the rain...which he did. Since I was up early, I got underway with making Boston Baked Beans (my mother's recipe). I got them cooking on top of the stove for two hours. In between two of the children's reading times I put them in the pot with the other ingredients that I had all prepared and popped them into a slow oven to cook for six hours. I had preschool time with Joseph and then Isaac. Then Elijah, Esther, Joy, and Abigail each came over for a reading time. Not long after Abigail finished her reading time, I heard my 2nd weather warning come from my iPad. This time it was for a severe thunderstorm warning. I looked at the radar and the line of storms was heading our way and was supposed to arrive about the time that I and my library workers would have been thinking about heading to the library. I got on the phone and cancelled our church library work time for today. The storm did hit about the time that they said it would...hard rain and some hail. Our area has definitely fared far better than many in the U.S. today...lots of rough weather...quite a few devastating tornados touched down and changed many lives today. Definitely March came in like a lion today! After the storm passed through, Woody went out and picked up some sticks/branches that had come down. He has started on the daunting task of getting the Christmas decoration boxes back into the Christmas closet. I started cleaning up the living room...vacuumed where the tree had been...getting ready to move furniture back to "normal" positions in the living room. I have done a couple of loads of wash...which included a couple of Christmas towels that need to be put away and also the table cloth that had been on the dining room table since our family Christmas dinner...it had been covered with Christmas objects since the undecorating started. The table is finally cleared. The table pad is rolled up and put away till next time we entertain in there. I can once again see that the table is made of wood!!!! Also the coffee table has its covering off that I have on it for Christmas so the children can play with the Fisher Price Nativity and not scratch the table...amazingly enough I can once again see that it is wood also! Slowly but surely the room is coming back together. I am ready to have it finished so I can sit down in it and enjoy it "normal" once again...no Christmas and also the mess gone that has overtaken it since I have been undecorating. But for tonight we are both ready to just sit and rest...reading or watching TV or working crosswords or all of those! As soon as the storm went through this afternoon, the temperatures started to drop...so once again there is a chill in the air. It's supposed to be in the upper 30's by morning. It is back and forth and back and forth with temperatures this time of the year. Woody has a doctor appointment in the morning so we will get to experience the chill in the air as we will be heading out fairly early...at least this Vandy appointment is in one of their "satellite" offices so we don't have to go all the way to Nashville...but will still "get" to experience rush hour traffic.