Here we are – the last day of July, 2024. I can’t believe how fast the summer is going! Of course I lost about 5 or 6 weeks, being in my ‘zombie’ state. Tomorrow is August and all the school supplies are out, and the fall items are on the shelves, and the Christmas ones will be right behind…

As is typical for a Wednesday, I cleaned the house and did a load of laundry. I didn’t spend any time outside today, except to drag the trash cans up to the road. As also typical, I took time to read a few pages of my current read throughout the process!

I did clean out the downstairs closet and got rid of a bunch of shoes. I’m not sure how I ended up with so many. The truth is, I usually don’t throw any away unless they actually have holes in them or absolutely no tread. I still have too many! Some of them are 10 years old at least!

I was thinking last night about the home movies I have, saved on a DVD. They were transferred from reels years ago, and they are very poor quality. But wow they were fun to watch. I snapped pictures of Grama and Grandad Crooks. Again, not very clear.

While I was looking for the DVD, I found VHS tapes of commercials created by the Smail employees for their individual departments – back about 2000 or so, I think. So many people in those photos now gone – passed away, some of them, and others long ago took other jobs and I haven’t even thought about them in decades! They were also fun to watch.

And that was my day! I had toast and tomato for breakfast, roasted veggies for lunch, and I will probably have corn for supper when I’m done here. A productive but quiet day.

My blessing today was the movies – going back in time!

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW August 1st is:

Cycle to Work Day; Homemade Pie Day; National Girlfriend Day; National Planner Day; Play Ball Day (this is for MAX!!!); Respect for Parents Day; Spider-Man Day (this is for CHASE!); International Mahjong Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Ketchup Day. But EVERY day should be ketchup day! Tomorrow I’ll go with pie, girlfriends, and planning. God bless!

I started out the day very unmotivated. I had one deal in Jeannette and a few things to do for Joe in Greensburg, and stopped to help Mike P with some wayward titlework. Sigh. From there I got gas in the Chevy, stopped at the bank, and did a quick Walmart stop to get a few items for the weekend.

My star capri jeans needed taken in, so I ripped out a few small seams and did that after lunch, which was toast and tomato. Yum. I did answer some emails and looked up some information, then just out of the blue I went outside and weed-whacked the whole yard. The grass didn’t really need mowed, but a few spots were a little scrungy, so I just lopped them down with the weed-eater and called it done. Then I got a shower and clean clothes.

I still have ironing to do.

Today is my dear friend Diane’s birthday – we sat together in homeroom in 10th grade and have been friends ever since. Her daughter was the flower girl in my wedding and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding. That’s a lot of years of friendship! Happy birthday, Diane!

I don’t expect anything else to be noteworthy today.

My blessing today was the sunshine and bright clouds that peeked through after the mid-day rain!

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW July 31st is:

Happy Potter Birthday; Lifeguard Appreciation Day; National Avocado Day; National Ketchup Day; National Jump for Jelly Beans Day; National Mutt Day; National Raspberry Cake Day; Shredded Wheat Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Rock Day. Tomorrow, let’s just…. celebrate! God bless…

Neither store had much going on; I was done before noon. Picked up a prescription refill and stopped at Palmer’s farm stand. Got a few tomatoes, half a dozen ears of corn, and a yellow squash. Had corn for lunch.

Not too much blooming in the gardens right now. It’s been too hot and too dry. But there were a few…

I didn’t have a lot on my list today. The end of the week will be really busy so I’m easing into it. Scrubbed the bathroom sink and put Draino down it. Just a preventive precaution. Did a load of laundry, then scrubbed my outside garden shoes. They had gotten grungy, mostly on the inside.

It’s hard to dust the little Amish people and house on the book shelf, so I put all the little people in a basin of soapy warm water and let them soak (hope they can swim!) Once they dried off on a towel I put everything back together. Looks much better.

I have a tree guy coming tomorrow to give me a price of cutting my trees back. As per picture they are WAY bigger than the house, and bigger than I feel is safe. We’ll see what he says.

Yesterday’s sermon from Todd was very good. It was called ‘Searching’ and was about making choices and decisions. A statistic he quoted was that if you are at least 70, you have made 1,788,500 decisions so far. And as a single parent I probably made more than that (Thanks, Deb, for that thought…)! No wonder I’m tired of making decisions!

Our lives are about the person we become through every situation, not what we actually accomplish. God can use a wrong choice if made with the right heart. Choices are important but what God is doing in your heart while you choose is more important. God doesn’t measure performance, but our intent. So basically we can’t let our mistakes and wrong choices paralyze us – that is Satan telling us that.

My blessing today was the beautiful sky with the fluffy clouds.

PEANUTS Thought for the day:

TOMORROW July 30th is:

International Day of Friendship; National Rock Day; National Cheesecake Day; National Father-in-Law Day; National Support Public Education Day; Paperback Book Day; Share a Hug Day; World Snorkeling Day; National Climb a Mountain Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Turquoise Day. Tomorrow let’s celebrate hugs, friendship, and paperback books! God bless…

Again, I kept busy all day. Kim helped in Sunday School since Mary was on a train excursion in the mountains with her family, which sounded fun and exciting! The lesson was Lazarus and Kim wrapped the kids in ‘grave cloths’ and had them take turns stepping out of the tomb when Jesus called his name. They loved it and had a great time.

In the background of this photo you can see a girl in a gray Hempfield CC shirt looking on. She is a candidate for Children’s director, and she is so nice, and very qualified, and I hope it works out!

I’m still finishing the potato soup, which I had for lunch. After that I cleaned out my two dressers and organized the clothes a little better. Even got rid of a few items.

I needed to defrost the little mini-fridge downstairs, and while I was at it I defrosted the chest freezer in the laundry room and packed up some extra things that I took down to Nate. He has the big upright freezer and Jen cooks almost every night so it made sense. Ranger was very laid back and well behaved – for that, he earned dinner!

I also organized the upstairs freezer, although it was fairly clean and I knew what was in there. It was just really cluttered.

My cauliflower and sweet potato were less than fresh, so I cut them up, added carrots, and am roasting them for supper. There will be leftovers for tomorrow. I usually add broccoli but didn’t have any!

My blessing today was watching a hummingbird right outside my door!

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW July 29th is:

International Tiger Day; National Get Gnarly Day; National Turquoise Day; National Lasagna Day; National Lipstick Day; National Chicken Wing Day; Rain Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Carpet Day. Tomorrow let’s get gnarly, eat lasagna, and pray from rain. God bless!

I did a lot of little things throughout the day, but nothing really worthy of pictures. After changing and washing the sheets – and having breakfast – I headed over to the bank to grab extra check registers. I’m convinced that they are about half the size they were 10 years ago.

Next I stopped at Gabe’s to get a package of AA batteries – they are about half the price there than anywhere else. I decided it was a nice day so I drove down to Irwin to Miller’s Crossing (fleatique). I’m never really looking for anything specific, but I like to wander around and check things out.

I was looking at the Golden Books in one booth, and the lady that owns the booth asked what I was looking for. I explained about my favorite book as a young child: Hi ho! Three in a Row. It was (of course) out of print and I couldn’t find a copy. She gave me a few web sites to check online and gave me her business card. I looked it up and did find a few that were reasonably priced. I’ll check them out next week.

My plan was to stop at Burger King and have a frozen Coke, but when I drove around to pay for my order they explained that the machine was on defrost… Bummer. No frozen Coke.

I had toast and tomato for lunch, then caught up on emails and ironing and working a little more on programming my tablet. I’m having trouble with my facebook app. I don’t think anyone would be surprised at that…

Gen sent me a postcard from The Mount, Edith Wharton’s House in MA – she and her sister Johanna were there last week. The picture is of the library – and yes, Gen, Kathy and I would love that!

Kathy shared a picture of Hattie’s college in Florida. Looks like a lovely place to get an education!

Watching my last viewing of Biltmore Christmas for this round….

My blessing today was the postcard from my dear friend Gen!!!

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW July 28th is:

Buffalo Soldiers Day; National Milk Chocolate Day; National Carpet Day; National Parents’ Day; National Soccer Day; National Tree Day; National Water Park Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Plaid Day. Tomorrow we can celebrate chocolate! And parents – because we ALL had (or have) parents. Trees are nice… God bless…

Today was a full day – lots to do, some of which I didn’t expect. After breakfast I decided to run errands first, then get busy on home chores afterward. I started by stopping at Pinnacle Jeannette and picking up the background report that Ken ran for me. I took several copies – for me and for the church (working with kids) and for Mike P.

From there I stopped at Dollar Tree to pick up a few items for Christina, then deposited a check at the bank. I dropped the documents off to Mike that he needed, then ended up at Walmart. I was just inside the door there with my very short (4 items) list when Ruth called (Loyalhanna Review editor) and said she was ready for the supply bin if I wanted to drop it off.

I buzzed through Walmart, then home to get the tub and drop it off for Ruth. She knows I volunteer at Hanna’s Town so she asked me to drop off a stack of the new Loyalhanna Reviews out there. This weekend is their big WW II event and they expect a nice amount of visitors so it’s a perfect place to put them.

After I got home, put groceries away, and ate lunch I changed clothes. I had two ears of corn and tomato slices.

Then I went outside to finish cutting back the hostas. All done! I’ll wait and see what projects call my name the loudest for my next adventure outside. I went out to drop garbage in the outdoor can and STEPPED ON A LANTERN FLY. OH, YUCK!!!

I had a lot of typing and business chores to work on this afternoon and just finished those. Still have a list, though, so I’ll save some of that for tomorrow!

My blessing today was that I didn’t have a melt down when I stepped on that stupid lantern fly!!! (I thought about it…)

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW July 27th is:

Bagpipe Appreciation Day; Barbie in a Blender Day (just…no.); Cross Atlantic Communication Day; National Plaid Day; National Chicken Fingers Day; National Crème Brule Day; National Love is Kind Day; National Day of the Cowboy; National Sleepy Head Day; Take your Houseplant For a Walk Day; Walk on Stilts Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Rooster Day. Tomorrow let’s be kind, sleep in, and take your plant for a walk. God bless!!!

It was a very busy work day. Jeannette did not have too much, but I had a customer that was selling his car and there were a few tangles with that. All good in the end.

From there I helped Mike P with some notary issues and was there quite a while. It was almost noon by the time I got to Greensburg and my desk was totally piled full of deals! Joe and I helped each other and both got done what we needed to.

I mentioned that I wanted to go to Palmer’s Farm stand to get tomatoes, so Joe called his wife since she was there this morning. And yes they did have tomatoes. But when I got there, they had sold out of corn! I did get several nice tomatoes and had a toast and tomato sandwich for lunch.

By the time I finished lunch and doing a few inside chores it was 4:30pm. I changed clothes and spent an hour on the hill. All I wanted to do was cut back the crumbly and brown hostas, which I did. Took me about an hour. I’m amazed that with the crazy June and July that I had I was able to keep up with this. I still have four in the front yard to do, but I’ll work on those over the weekend.

Right now Bramble House Christmas is on in the background as I type. It’s an older movie and I enjoy watching it.

Autmn called me just a bit ago and was just leaving Med Express. She had taken a home COVID test and it was positive and wanted me to know, since she spent all day Monday here. Then Cameron started coughing and she wanted to get him tested so that’s when they went to M.E. Turns out neither one has COVID, but Autmn has an ear infection and Cameron has an infection, too. They both got prescriptions and were headed home to nap. Noah is off tomorrow and they plan to have a stay-at-home, low-key, recoup day. She sounded upbeat and pleasant and I think was totally relieved to have had both of them thoroughly checked out and on the right track.

Oh, and Cameron learned to do Peek-A-Boo last night. He loves it and laughs and laughs!

My blessing today was hearing Autmn so relieved about getting good care and having Noah home tomorrow!

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW July 26th is:

Auntie’s Day; National All or Nothing Day; National Bagelfest Day; National Coffee Milkshake Day; National Dog Photography Day; National Talk in an Elevator Day; National Get Gnarly Day; National Rooster Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Tickle Me Day. Tomorrow I may have a bagel — but that’s about it. Have a lovely Friday. God bless…

Biltmore Christmas is on! I’m so addicted! I sincerely hope I can eventually purchase it… And having been to Biltmore made it even more magical.

Autmn sent me a few pictures of Cameron from last week to brighten my day. And it did!

After I cleaned the house – took my lazy time! – I used up most of the rest of the milk to make potato soup. That will be supper…

White I was letting the soup simmer, I turned on my new iPad and started to set it up. Still a few things to add, but at least I figured out how to turn it on!

Took a quick walk outside after the rain, and found that I had a bright yellow Stella d’oro lily blooming, and the Pinky Winky finally has some PINK blooming!

Since today is National Cousin Day – here is a photo of my sweet cousins!

Today is also ‘old joke’ day so here’s an old joke: When is a door not a door? When it’s a jar… (har har har…)

My blessing for today is watching Biltmore after a long day of housecleaning and laundry.

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW July 25th is:

Carousel Day; Culinarians Day; International Red Shoe Day; National Chili Dog Day; National Hire a Veteran Day; National Tickle Me Day; National Hot Fudge Sundae Day; National Intern Day; National Merry Go Round Day; National Thread the Needle Day; National Wine and Cheese day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Iris Day. Tomorrow how about hot fudge sundaes and merry go round rides! God bless…

Today was our outing to the Clayton House (Henry Clay Frick’s mansion) in Pittsburgh. After breakfast I did the ironing, then waiting for Kathy to pick me up. She was the driver and I was the co-pilot that helped keep us on the right roads. We got there 45 minutes early with no wrong turns!

Since we were early, we looked in the gift shop and walked to the Car and Carriage Museum. There were several dozen vehicles on display! Kath was busy snapping photos for the car guys in her family. The museum hostess took our picture in the ‘photo op’ car. The dash was so basic I think Cameron could have learned to drive it!

We had a very good tour guide, Barney, and he was a wealth of facts, stories, and details. It was so interesting to hear about the lives of Henry Frick, his wife, his children, extended family, and business associates. We also learned about local Pittsburg history (at that time, there was no ‘h’ at the end of Pittsburgh!). The house was stunning and well preserved – and thanks to the ‘numbers’ skills of Henry’s daughter Helen – remained in its current state far longer than the homes of Frick’s friends and associates.

After the tour, we walked through the greenhouse and gardens, rested on a bench under shade trees, and took pictures of the playhouse. That playhouse is bigger than the house I LIVE in!

For some reason Cordelia (Kathy’s GPS) took us home a quicker more direct way than the trip there. After I changed and had a short break, I was able to get the grass cut. Another successful day!

My blessing today was spending the day with my sister.

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW July 24th is:

Amelia Earhart Day; International Self Care Day; National Cousins Day; National Day of Motoring; National Drive Thru Day; Pioneer Day; Tell An Old Joke Day.

No fake day yesterday – I forgot! Tomorrow I’ll OF COURSE celebrate cousins. Love those Skunk Hollow girls! God bless…

The day started at 7:10am when Autmn txt to see if she could spend the day here with Cameron. Of course I said yes, so I got my work done at Pinnacle and got home about 10 minutes after she got here. Cameron was happy and laughing and clapped when he saw me!

Autmn needed to catch up on her rest, so she got a shower then grabbed a nap upstairs. Cameron and I played with toys and read stories and built towers with foam blocks. We also spent the afternoon watching Sesame Street! He dances to all the songs. He also liked watching the rain through the storm door while it splashed off the deck boards.

So this is basically a Cameron photo dump. And he was such a fun baby and so good, and entertaining!

Kelly and I both bought Tic-Tac-Toe games, and I got creative and spray-painted my X’s purple and my O’s yellow! The other side is still white and black so it can go either way – but that’s fun!

Since Cameron took up my whole day, he is certainly my blessing today!

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW July 23rd is:

Hot Enough For Ya Day; National Gorgeous Grandma Day; National Sprinkle Day; National Vanilla Ice Cream Day; Peanut Butter and Chocolate Day; National Lemon Day.

There was no fake day yesterday. Tomorrow – Ice cream will do, will sprinkles. God bless!!!