TODAY is Friendship day and Sisters day. My friends and support circle are amazing and I value every one of them! So sending hugs and thanks for their unfailing support in my life! And here’s to MFS (my favorite sister) – couldn’t navigate the roads of life without you, sweet sister!

Max’s family was out of town, and Jackson/Cody came for second service, so it was just Gracie for Sunday School. She is such a sweetheart and we are going to miss her quiet, sincere spirit when the classes move on in September. Our lesson was about Jesus blessing the children, and she was so fun to teach.

Todd had another very compelling lesson. It was about Jonah this week. Why do we run from God’s directions? We need to just obey, and never say no to God. He will never fail us. He brings us back, doesn’t PAY us back. My favorite thought of the whole sermon was that God reroutes us from where we ARE, not where we started. He doesn’t reject us but guides us in every circumstance. I’m glad He’s a God of second chances — and 3rd, and 4th, and…..

I had toast and tomato (my last tomato!) for lunch, then cut the grass. It was pretty hot but there was a breeze and I took several breaks. Nice to have it done for a few days.

Tomorrow is corn day at the farm, so I made macaroni salad for lunch to take. Kath and I will leave early and make a day of it, and take sandwiches and dessert for us all. This is last year’s photo from corn day!

My blessing today was actually Todd’s message, making a story that I’ve heard my whole life come alive with a new meaning!

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW August 5th is:

Blogger Day; National Oyster Day; National Pink Flower Day; National Underwear Day; Work Like a Dog Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Frog Day. Tomorrow, of course, is CORN day! And we WILL work like a dog. Have a great day, and put on clean underwear…. God bless…

These last 2 days have been a crazy whirlwind of fun, family and friends! Kelly and I had several things to help with for Chrissy’s graduation party, which was Friday night at Mammoth Park. We spent part of Thursday and Friday getting organized. We had to be at the pavilion at 2pm on Friday. We both drove because Kelly was leaving before I was — she had to get Chase at the house (he was still coughing) and drive home late Friday night.

Autmn got to the house just as we were leaving, and we had to take time to cuddle Cameron and have some one-on-one baby time. That little guy is so cute! But we finally tore ourselves away and headed out to Pavilion 13.

When we got there – WOW! I think Jen had cleaned out Amazon’s stock on Graduation decorations! They were fabulous. She had banners and photo boards and citronella candles, and centerpieces, and balloons and snacks and table clothes and napkins and … just WOW. We spent two hours putting everything together and it looked fabulous. Only Jen…

And the view! We were right at the lake, with flocks of ducks swimming around and the sun reflecting on the water. There was a volley ball court, shuffle board, swings, and a corn hole game. And also a blue tooth speaker system that played Christina’s playlist. She did, however, sneak in a few Beach Boy songs for her Mimi!

Jen ordered cupcakes and cookies from a specialty bakery. They were beautiful and delicious! There were cheese and cracker trays, fruit, veggies and dip, pretzels, bowls of chips, and six or seven coolers of drinks.

I obviously didn’t know everyone but did get to catch up with a few friends that I knew from Jen’s rescue or Chrissy’s friends. Her ‘bestie’ Hope was there, too, and they kept jumping in the Acura and driving around the parking lot! But they all had a great time.

My friend Teresa, my Violet cousin Deb and her husband Jim, and Skunk Hollow cousin Beth and her husband Harold all came. Nate came over and sat down, and he and Kelly sat and talked with us for a long while. That doesn’t happen too often!

Cameron made his rounds, passed around to his adoring public, keep him and us entertained. We couldn’t put him down in the grass or the cement so we waltzed him around or pushed him in the stroller.

And Chrissy just loved everybody and everything going on around her. I love that girl and am so happy for her and proud of her! What a lovely evening!

This morning I started the day by stopping by the funeral home – an older lady in our church family passed away. Her daughter Judy and I were the first two to spend a week at Camp Christian from Hempfield Church back in the 60’s, and before long the whole youth group was going to camp! I also got to see my friend Patty Buschek, who was going to play the piano for the service. I was touched by the fact that she and her daughter both said they missed seeing me since they switched church attendance. I love that lady!

From there it was the Steiner Family Reunion. It was again at Altman Park in Jeannette and it’s a very nice big pavilion. Also again, so much food! I won’t have to eat for a week, after yesterday and today. We had a nice turnout and the weather stayed clean until after we were all packed up.

My blessing these past few days has been spending time with sweet, precious family and friends.

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW August 4th is:

American Family Day; Assistance Dog Day; Hooray for Kids Day; National Frog Day; National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day; National Friendship Day; National Sisters Day; Single Working Women’s Day; US Coast Guard Birthday; Exercise with your Child Week.

Yesterday’s fake day was Meatball day. Tomorrow — Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! The best! Friendship day, sisters day. Near to my heart! God bless…

Well, let’s see if I can recap this day. To begin with, I didn’t fall asleep until after 1:30am. When the alarm went off it felt like I was shot out of a cannon. But I was fine all day. Starting to run out of energy.

I worked both stores, then stopped at Giant Eagle for a few things I couldn’t find at Dollar Tree or Walmart. When I got home I decided to cut the grass, even though it was fairly hot and humid. There was a breeze and that helped. I was halfway through with that when Kelly called and they were only 10 minutes away.

Kelly made a hat for me to put with the raffle basket for the reunion. She is making several – I think she plans to sell them or give them as gifts.

Once the grass was cut, all the walks, etc, blown clean, and the two trash cans scrubbed and hosed out, I went in and got a shower. Kelly needed to get some things for her projects for Chrissy’s grad party tomorrow, so after I wolfed down the last of the roasted veggies we went over there. Chase came with her, but he has a cough — and I hope he feels better quickly. We installed him in the upstairs bedroom to contain his germs and give us a little extra room downstairs.

I had a few projects today, and boiled eggs to make deviled eggs. Then we mixed up brownies for Saturday and I’ll ice them tomorrow.

Brown’s PHAC is coming in the morning to put a new spigot on the laundry tub sink. There are no shut-off valves in there so I’m assuming the main shutoff will have to shut the water down in the house. Kelly and I are going to fill a few pans with water so we can at least do a few things, like make her mac/cheese for Chrissy.

It was a long day and now I’m tired. I do want to say that there will be no Word Garden tomorrow. The party runs late into the evening and I’m sure I’ll be exhausted by the time we get done.

My blessing today is having the kids here! And we had spaghetti for supper! With garlic toast!

PEANUTS Thought for the day:

TOMORROW August 2nd is:

International Beer Day; National Coloring Book Day; National Meatball Day; National Ice Cream Sandwich Day; National Water Balloon Day.

Yesterday there was no ‘fake’ day. Tomorrow: ice cream, balloons, and coloring books! God bless…

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…