The morning started with heavy rains, straight down – cloudy and cool and dreary. But now – at 7:15pm – it’s sunny and bright and the rain is gone. Isn’t that a song? “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone…” Ha! But I was pleased to be able to finally, late afternoon, get groceries purchased and put away without dodging raindrops. Had to go to two stores to get what I needed, but then, I was happy with just two. Tomorrow I may finish up my non-grocery list at Lowe’s or Home Depot.

My first chore this morning was to change and wash bed sheets. I also took off the new, dark plum comforter and put the light spring one on. Also took off one of the thicker blankets and tucked it away. There may be some cooler nights yet but I have a knitted throw at the bottom of my bed!

Since I didn’t get to the ironing last night, I did that this morning, as well as ran the sweeper downstairs. I was ready to leave at 11:45am when Kathy and Tonia picked me up for a special program at River Hill Church, where Paul preaches. It was a Biblical Portrayal done by LuAnne Baker, who shared ‘Martha’s Kitchen’. As I am a ‘Martha’ I was excited to see this. LuAnne did a wonderful job sharing Martha’s story as well as her view of stories of Jesus’ ministry and miracles.

If you don’t know the story of Martha and Mary – Martha was always busy doing the ‘work’ of the household, while Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn. Read the story for yourself in Luke 10:38-42. Are you a Mary or a Martha?

One of the ladies at the church arranged the program, and she (Paula) and her sister Pat led us in a few songs and talked a little about Mother’s Day. After the program we gathered in the fellowship hall for cookies, punch, and …. fellowship! It was a lovely afternoon and I was so glad to be able to attend. And it’s twice as fun to have cookies for lunch! Now it’s time for a healthy supper.

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TOMORROW May 14th is:

MOTHER’S DAY!; National Buttermilk Biscuit Day; National Decency Day; National Underground America Day; National Dance Like Chicken Day.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers – and those who provide loving, motherly support. God bless each and every one of you! No greater blessing!

Before I get started on my day’s post I just need to say that there is a tiny corner of my heart and mind that did NOT come back from Williamsburg. Sigh.

But, almost next best historic thing: Hanna’s Town School Tours (tongue in cheek). No really, I do like helping with tin punch. Today there was almost 85 students from 3rd grade, and these 3rd graders do so much better than the 2nd graders. Their finished projects aren’t that much better, but their concentration and project orientation are very much different. But we enjoy the students no matter what age!

And I have been also enjoying the interaction with my co-volunteers, as well. The ages, experience, and personalities are so varied and it’s very fun to share experiences with them. One of the ladies, Mary M, just started working at a flower farm in Norvelt! She loves it, and it sounds fun to me. And another girl – Amber – is originally from Erie, so we have a lot to talk about.

When I got home I answered some emails and paid a few bills, then changed clothes and went outside to play in the dirt. I got 2/3s of the right side of the hill done and it looks much better. It’s growing in nicely.

I also hosed the bird droppings off the deck and the side of the house. Those darned birds! You can see that even after spraying, the house still looks nasty. I need a ladder or a long handled broom to do a better job.

I have a load of clothes in the dryer and then will have ironing to do. Eventually I need to get groceries, which MAY be tomorrow’s job, but groceries on a weekend is not a good plan. We will see!

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TOMORROW May 13th is: (Lots to choose from tomorrow!)

National Frog Jumping Day; Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Day; Cornelia Lange Syndrome Awareness Day; National Apple Pie Day; National Train Day; National Fruit Cocktail Day; National Archery Day; National Miniature Golf Day; National Dog Mom’s Day; National Crouton Day; National Birth Mother’s Day; National Babysitter’s Day.

Not sure why croutons get their own day. They must be more important than I thought! If I see a frog I will watch it jump, I suppose! So, pick something fun and celebrate. God bless…

First off – Happy birthday to my nephew Jesse! Enjoy your day and look forward to a brand new year!

I was home early from work – but I stopped to get a gift card on the way home. Who knew it would take three stores to find an Amazon one?? But after a quick lunch I changed clothes and went outside to work. I touched up the paint on the foundation in a few places, since this seemed to be the painting day. Yesterday when I was spray painting I accidently (?) got purple paint on the walls. All good now and back to the light gray. I also moved the purple stars so I could appreciate them more.

Jerome the Paint Guy and his crew got all the new replacement boards painted on my decks (after Mark and Paul got them trimmed and fastened down), and left me the extra paint. It looks very nice and I’m glad to have that all finished now.

I weed-whacked the yard then cut the grass. The front yard looks better without the little maple helicopters but I’m certain that by morning the lawn will be covered again!

That was enough of a task for outside today. I had a few emails to send (including one to Marilee about the Flax Festival in September) and now I’ll think about supper. I am defrosting a container of Stuffed Pepper Soup but it’s still too frozen – so I may have to make something else tonight and have the soup tomorrow. Another school tour tomorrow but only 83 kids rather than 100-plus.

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TOMORROW May 12th is:

National Fibromyalgia Day; National Sapphire Segulah Day; International Nurses Day; National Nutty Fudge Day; National Odometer Day; National Limerick Day; National Provider Appreciation Day; National Military Spouse Appreciation Day; National ME/CFS Awareness Day.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the weekend – so be happy! God bless… (and thank a nurse…)

Today was (you guessed it!) cleaning day. I kept at it all day, with a few extra chores thrown in, like defrosting the mini fridge’s freezer downstairs. All good now.

I finished up just in time to get Chrissy and take her to work – she got called in for an extra shift. I noticed that the front yard was FULL of those crazy little maple-tree helicopters. I just CUT the grass and it looks awful. But I think I have to cut it tomorrow again since it grew so much.

Mark (cousin) came over to cut the deck board to size and fasten the two boards in. Jerome (paint guy) is going to paint the new boards and spindles tomorrow. We did make a mess cutting the board – but I swept it up.

The little kitchen rug was a dirty mess, so I scrubbed it as best I could and hung it on the fence to dry overnight. Also painted the two stars that hang on the gate – I sprayed them purple. I still think they are not in a good place as they are barely noticeable. I’ll try to find a better spot over the weekend if it doesn’t rain.

So that was my day. I will get something to eat and be done. I forgot to write in my journal for a few days so I must catch that up.

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TOMORROW May 11th is:

National Twilight Zone Day (did you watch that as a child???); National Eat What You Want Day; National Foam Rolling Day.

Tomorrow is my nephew’s birthday. I’ll post about that tomorrow. Have a wonderful day and God bless…

Today was another school tour at Hanna’s Town. There were 108 kids signed up from Norwin 2nd grade, plus teachers and parents. This time – for tin punch – there were two of us. That made it much easier. We always have a variety of skill levels, from over-achievers to ‘why am I here again?’. I don’t think I mentioned that last week one student asked me if I lived there full time (in the 19th century house we were working in). He was amazed that I DIDN’T and wanted to know where I really lived and WHY I didn’t live there. Well….

Today we had three sessions before lunch, then a break. The kids were outside running through the yard when the mail truck came up Forbes Road and put mail in the box. I heard one little boy shout excitedly: “I KNEW we weren’t in the 1700’s! There’s the mailman!” So, I guess he thought the school bus traveled back 200 years to get to Hanna’s Town. I hope he wasn’t too disappointed!

I went to work when we finished school tours. At the Jeannette store I did a DL inquiry and put it in backwards! I realized my mistake but since when does PENNDOT EVER want first name, middle, last? It’s always last name first! I guess I just need to pay closer attention. Or maybe I just need to stay in the 21st century and pay attention.

While I was waiting for Chrissy yesterday I snapped two pictures of the view from Nate’s driveway. It’s a beautiful view.

The neighbor (the one who cuts his grass every day) bought a swing set for his 3-year-old. I know he’ll have trouble adjusting to mowing around it. I hated mowing around our swing set back in the day!

In the meantime, the neighbor across the street has his antique cars outside yesterday morning. Not every day you have a car show out your front door!

It was a comfortable, sunny day for being outside, so I spent two hours cleaning out the front flower beds. I think the only thing I have left to do is the hill (both sides) and a small section along the driveway. I also need to get some Round-up for the stones on the hill. After I finish this I will do the ironing from the weekend and make myself supper.

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TOMORROW May 10th is:

World Lupus Day; National Lipid Day; National Third Shift Workers day; National Clean Up Your Room Day; National Receptionists Day; National Shrimp Day; National School Nurse Day; National Washington Day (the state, not the General!)

Tomorrow for me is ‘stay home all day’ day – I’ll celebrate that! Have a wonderful Wednesday! (I still may celebrate George…) God bless…

Kelly and I hung out this morning, and when she left after lunch I went to work. From there I picked up Chrissy and took her to work, then came home and cut the grass. Now — I’m typing!

I’ll recap yesterday’s Free Museum Day (Ligonier). We went ‘to the top’ and started with Compass Inn. We went through the Inn and all the outbuildings, then walked across the road to a little Country Cupboard gift store – I bought 3 small sample bars of soap to try. From there we walked across to the Pie Shoppe and had a piece of pizza for lunch and some Snails! Yum! I took a lot of pictures at Compass Inn, and Kelly sent me the ones she took.

We got down to Fort Ligonier and watched the French troops drill in the side field, then walked to all the out buildings. It was just starting to rain when we finished outside so we hustled inside and went through the museum. I read lots of little bits of information about George Washington, which I enjoyed.

We decided not to go to the Railroad Museum because the parking lot was across the road and it was mostly muddy (experience from other years). We drove on to the Lincoln Highway Experience, which I particularly like, and walked through there. Often I sit through the movie about how it was made, but it was pretty crowded so we bypassed that and walked through the other room. Went we went back to the 1938 restored Diner section Kathy and Paul were there. Since they had a longer way to get there from church they were just starting. We all had pie (cherry or apple) except Kelly, and they left to go to the next museum and we headed home.

After supper we finished the binders for 4H and then watched an old CD of family movies from my childhood. We did a lot of laughing. Kelly offered to be the videographer if Kath and I wanted to recreate some of the scenes. They were copied on the CD from old projector films. So funny! The best thing was seeing Grama and Grandad Crooks on the movies!

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TOMORROW May 9th is:

National Sleepover day; National Alphabet Magnet Day; Europe Day; National Butterscotch Brownie Day; National Lost Sock Memorial Day; National Home Front Heroes Day; National Moscato Day.

Sleepovers are fun! Kelly and I just had one. And we should remember our lost socks…. There are many worthy Heroes to honor! Have a Happy Tuesday! God bless…

So this morning Kelly and I gathered up a few items for the day and set off to Sunday School. Our lesson was about being happy/joyful while we wait on God’s direction. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) We made a list of that make us happy so we can think about them when we are having trouble being joyful!

But that’s for tomorrow! I will recount the day at Hanna’s Town yesterday, as I spent the whole day with a group of lovely, talented, hard-working ladies as we put together the Spring Victorian Tea. The day started a little after 9am when we checked all the tables and made sure they were set. Becky did the decorations and she always uses fresh flowers. So delicate and appropriate.

Lillian, Roxanne, and Michael were the tea crew – they made the spiced, made-to-order hot tea. Michael is a great help, making trips back and forth to the kitchen for water and requests.

The menu is always decided ahead of time, and then volunteers step up to make or bring all the food. By about 10am we began working on making sandwiches, plating the food, and organizing the process.

The servers, Deb, Carol, Cathy, and Janice, poured the tea from delicate tea pots and made sure the plates were in the tiers on the tables. The rest of us – scullery (kitchen help) – stayed behind closed doors, plating the food in lovely arrangements and seeing that everyone got to sample all the food.

We had two seatings – one at 11:30am and one at 2pm. There can be 26 at each seatings. Everyone invests a lot of themselves to make the teas a success, and this one was! We received (as a group) so many compliments. The food is always delicious and the atmosphere is delightful. It’s a big job setting up, serving, cleaning up, and then starting again. But it’s mostly a labor of love and it’s a great feeling of accomplishment when we are done at 4:30pm. I was glad to get home and unwind.

BUT — Kelly got here around 5:15pm and we set about our first task: She needed some perennials to plant at their 4H headquarters. So we dug three boxes of plants. Glad we did that yesterday as it would have been wet to do it today!

After a supper of grilled cheese made with homemade bread and cream of potato soup we put together a pile of binders for a 4H project about threes and leaves of West Virginia. We got all but two of them done. We watched North to Home while we worked – she had never seen it. It’s actually a favorite of mine.

So that’s it for today – tonight we’ll finish the last two binders and try not to do much.

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TOMORROW May 8th is:

National Student Nurse Day; National Thalassemia Day; National Women’s Checkup Day; National Coconut Cream Pie Day; World Ovarian Cancer Day; Time of Remembrance & Reconciliation; National Have a Coke Day; World Red Cross Day.

Have a Coke! And God bless us, every one!

(TOMORROW I WILL RECAP OUR LIGONIER MUSEUM DAY!)

Today was the Victorian Tea at Hanna’s Town. It was a beautiful day and the event was a huge success! I got home close to 5pm, and my daughter came up within the hour. We have several projects to work on this evening so I will postpone sharing today’s adventures with you. It may even have to wait until Monday, as tomorrow is Ligonier’s free museum day and Kelly and I are going after church.

Have a wonderful weekend – God bless!

TOMORROW May 7th is: National Infertility Survival Day; National Tourism Day; National Leg of Lamb day; National Lemonade Day; National Paste Up Day; National Barrier Awareness Day.

Here we are, back to real life! I was mentally reliving a few Williamsburg adventures last night as I snuggled in bed – the full moon was bright shining in the window.

I was at Hanna’s Town before 9:30am this morning. The County was cutting the grass and the sidewalks were heavy with wet grass clippings. I found an outside broom – with the help of Stacy – and cleaned off all the walkways. By then Claudia, Priscilla, Lillian, Roxanne and Cathy were there and we got started setting up tables. I left there about 12:25pm.

The Whirlpool repair person came about 2pm. He took apart my freezer drawer and made some adjustments, explaining everything as he went. By the time he left everything was realigned and the drawer was closing perfectly. He even gave me a few tips on cleaning the stainless steel outside.

Today was a beautiful, sunny day – not extremely warm but very pleasant. I weed-whacked the yard and blew the walks and driveway clean. There was a very fat robin hopping around by the lilac bush – I think she is possibly with child – or with egg, or something.

Once I cleaned up from that I went to Diane’s church for their Trash to Treasure sale. It was nice that it started this evening because my tomorrow will be very busy with the Tea and Kelly’s visit. I bought a little flat, wooden house that I hung on the star hook. 50 cents. They won’t fund their next project on what I spent, for sure!

As the sun went down it looked like the hills behind the house were glowing. I paid some bills and will get a salad for supper later. I’m still half-way in Williamsburg!

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TOMORROW May 6th is:

International No Diet Day; Free Comic Book Day; National Start Seeing Monarchs Day (Butterflies); National Nurses Day; National Play Outside Day; National Crepe Suzette Day; Kentucky Derby Day; National Homebrew Day; National Beverage Day; National Bombshells’ Day; Join Hands Day; National Scrapbook Day; National Fitness Day.

Lots to choose from! I will spend the day celebrating the Victorian Tea at Historic Hanna’s Town. It’s such a lovely event! Have a wonderful day – God bless…

Reluctantly we were up early and took our time organizing and packing to leave. It was very hard for me – I was SO not ready to walk away. I really could have stayed several more days. There was still more to see and do. We would have even had options to visit Yorktown and Jamestown if we had the time and finances to do so. But THAT is why it’s a vacation!

Turned out we had parked the car in our designated area on Sunday evening and not moved it until we left Thursday morning! It was SO convenient. And fun! And exciting! And PERFECT!! But before we loaded the car, we took an early walk up and down Duke of Gloucester Street, then ended up at the Raleigh Tavern Bakeshop. I promised a friend a Ginger cake so I got that last minute with our breakfast. One last muffin and hot tea!

Photos from our early walk:

While we were loading the car, Kathy met the people staying in the Market Square Kitchen, with level entry and handicap accessible amenities. It slept multiple guests and sounds like a perfect fit for 4 or 5 travelers for a week, and it would be reasonable for Duke of Gloucester Street. Something to think about!

The car is packed; we checked out at Williamsburg INN, and we headed up to the visitor’s center. I was still hoping to find a sweatshirt. We visited the REVOLUTIONS gift shops but there was nothing different there. Kathy bought two rulers – one listing presidents and one listing first ladies. I bought a post card with coordinates for Williamsburg and a coaster (we all know my fondness for them…). I also bought a cake of ‘LET IT SNOW’ soap that smells heavenly! I’m saving that for winter!

We settled in for the long ride home, heading up Route 64 West. I just about have the route memorized even though we don’t go that often any more. We stopped early on to get gas in the car, then waited until about 1pm to get food. We were blessed to find a Chick Fil-A and fill our own tanks! We never have a lack of topics to talk about, including over-riding Cordelia’s driving directions (Cordelia is Kathy’s GPS – mine is Gwyneth). We took it straight into Breezewood and filled the car with gas for the last stretch. I was glad we did, because the centrally located plaza gas station on the mountain was closed for remodel!

I dropped Kathy off at about 6:30pm and came home to unload the car. So now the work began – putting everything away, looking for things I couldn’t find (found everything but one thing!), do laundry, tuck away suitcases, re-stock food, file maps and travel brochures. It was a somber, quiet evening, with lots of reflection and contemplation. I loved this trip more than any I’ve had in a very long time. It spoke to my soul! Maybe I’ll reflect on that tomorrow, or over the weekend. Thanks so much for reliving this journey with me!

In the meantime, I have to take Chrissy to work in 15 minutes, and tomorrow is prep day for Hanna’s Town Spring Tea – then the repairman for my new, way-too-expensive fridge! Saturday is the Tea itself and I’ll be at Hanna’s Town from 9am until 4pm, then Kelly is coming up. We are going to Ligonier’s Free Museum Day on Sunday after church. So… no time for wallowing in my nostalgia!~

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TOMORROW May 5th is:

School Lunch Hero Day; National Hoagie Day; World Portuguese Language Day; National Cartoonists Day; International Day of the Midwife; National Space Day; National Silence the Shame Day; National Totally Chipotle Day; African World Heritage Day; Cinco De Mayo; National Astronaut Day.

I’m celebrating Charles Schulz – the most brilliant cartoonist ever (in my opinion). Celebrate your favorite cartoonist, and take lime to laugh. God bless ….