Happy birthday to Paul! Hope you had a great day. As far as I know, Paul and Kathy went to Derry to see the Big Boy pass through. I saw a LOT of posts about the train – very impressive and it would have been amazing to see it in person.

My friend Mary took this (her son Dom cut my grass Friday)

BUT – I had a good day without the train! First thing I noticed was that I was very low on laundry detergent, and Autmn needed to use my washer/dryer on a few loads. So I buzzed over to Walmart – and that’s basically all I got. By the time I got home, Kelly had arrived. She had a shirt order we had to take to Hanna’s Town. We did that, ordered a Giannelli’s pizza, then did a few things after lunch. We ended up going back out to get socks for Logan – he’s going to camp tomorrow and can’t seem to find any in his room!

Kelly and I did a test run on my new laminator – works great. I’m very excited to have it.

Kelly had a few things to prep for VBS that starts Monday. I did some emails and kept the laundry going. We had 4 loads.

After Kelly left (it’s always hard to see her go!) I went down to the shed and finished pulling weeds. Got them ALL DONE! The only thing left is a few patches of ground cover, and I’m going to dig them up carefully and transplant them to the the white fence line. It should help with weeds and also with water run-off. We’ll see how that works!

Right side with ground cover.

Right side lower

Back – all done!

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 12th is:

Eat your Jello Day; Paper Bag Day; National Different Colored Eyes Day; National Pecan Pie Day; National Simplicity Day; Barn Day.

I’ll pass on the Jello. Don’t use paper bags very often, and my eyes are both brown. I do really appreciate a good barn! God bless…

On this day in History: 1804 Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel

In my mind, I thought today would be laid back, easy, with lots of down time. NOT! I woke up at 4:45am and never fell back asleep. I used that time to finish the book I started that morning. The author has an unusual style with phrasing and content and was different than I usually find. And speaking of authors, my friend Liz Bromke has a new book coming out the end of the month. I signed up to be an ARC reader. I was ALWAYS on her ARC list in the past so I’m hopping I’m not too far down on the list. I’ll read it regardless.

I’m excited to read this!

I was even at work early, and was almost finished when my friend called. He offered to cut for me just to catch up – it was longer than I like. So I left work and met him at the house. He had it done in no time and we were both on our way. I do have someone starting this weekend that agreed to mow and also do some lawn projects for me. So now I’m excited. I am pulling the herbs and weeds from around the shed so they can lay plastic and mulch back there. Not looking for pretty; just want to control the crazy weeds!

Dom did a nice job.

Got a lot done behind the shed.

After Dom left I went back to work. I ended up with additional projects and also got in a long PENNDOT conversation with Sir Rege. I didn’t leave there until about 1:30pm. Stopped to pick up a prescription, then groceries at Walmart. I planned to get Cameron a pair of swim trunks to leave at my house, but I wasn’t impressed with the styles or the price. I popped into Marshall’s real quick and got a cute little blue set (nylon matching shirt included!) for less than half of what Walmart wanted.

This will work!

While I was shopping a nasty storm blew through so everything was soaked. I was glad the grass got cut in the morning! I did laundry, put groceries away, had lunch, then went outside to pull those weeds. They were easy to pull since the ground was so wet. Took a few flower photos. Now I have THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN on in the background and will do emails after this. Kelly is coming up tomorrow to bring a few customer products that she imprinted for Kathy and Hanna’s Town, so we’ll hang out for part of the day.

Butterfly bush, day lilies, glads, Lupine, and Pinky-winky all in bloom.

QUOTE of the DAY:

We did that yesterday! True!

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 11th is:

National 7-Eleven Day; All American Pet Photo Day; National Cheer Up the Lonely Day; National Blueberry Muffin Day; World Population Day; International Skinny Dipping Day; National Swimming Pool Day.

Tomorrow is also my brother-in-law Paul’s birthday! And Kathy LOVES swimming. And 7-11 day means free Slushies! God bless.

On this day in History: 2019 Taylor Swift named the world’s highest paid entertainer by Forbes earning $185 million in 2018

Kathy and I headed to Smicksburg at about 9am, full tank of gas, a snack lunch, and a list! We stopped at a fleatique in Blairsville and walked through quickly but no Beanie Baby Skunks. I’ll keep looking. It’s the quest, not the outcome!

There is never any shortage of conversation for us, and we usually just jump from one subject to another. We cover them all. Our first stop was Smicksburg Country Store – our favorite! – Donna’s store. There are always so many cute little items – so hard to resist! We both bought cookies and cheese and double-dipped chocolate covered peanuts. Yum. Good thing we brought a cooler and ice!

It was my intention to stop at the bulk food store to get melting chocolate — but they are closed on Thursdays! We found out that Thursday is sort of the Amish Saturday. So on we went – and stopped at the Shop at Smicksburg. Another favorite. I got one of my favorite dishcloths. A cow!

Good advise….

We had the idea to stop at the furniture store, as they have a section with food and candy. But alas, no melting chocolate. They do have beautiful furniture! Next we drove over to The Country Cupboard, and got fudge. My favorite was the maple nut.

By then we were tired of looking at all this candy, so we pulled into the local park and had our lunch. Finished that just in time to head over to Aunt Joan and Uncle Clifford’s for a visit. We took the scenic route – Pennsylvania hills and Amish farmland!

Horses in abundance

Mama and baby

More horeses

quintessential farmland photo.

Colleen was there so it was nice to visit with all of them. Her son Jason’s family live in and run the family farm, a Pennsylvania Century Farm. How cool is that!

The family farm and barn.

Celebrating America 250

A view of the farm (and farmhouse on the left) from the porch.

Kathy and Colleen

Aunt Joan and Uncle Clifford

Of COURSE there’s a skunk!

Indoor plants

Collection of solar dancers

View from the porch

And another one.

Family crows…

After visiting for an hour, we grabbed water refills at the spring. Can’t get better water than that. It was a fun, fulfilling day and always special. Being HOME, visiting family, a little unnecessary shopping, beautiful farmland — what can be better? PLUS a huge box of frozen, home-grown corn!

Clear, fresh country spring water.

Griffiths

Kath

Quote of the Day:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 10th is:

Chronic Disease Day; Collector Car Appreciation Day; Don’t Step on a Bee Day; National French Fry Day; National Kitten Day; National Motorcycle Day; National Pick Blueberries Day; World Kebob Day.

I’ve stepped on my share of bees. My dad had an antique car, a 1924 Buick Touring Car. I’m glad my motorcycle days are over! French Fries are good! God bless…

On this day in History: 1776 US Declaration of Independence is read to George Washington’s troops in New York

Autmn woke me at a little before 7am – she was dropping off the car seat and wanted me to know what time. So I read until she got here, heard the song of the day (a very early version of THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT) then got a shower and breakfast.

I did the cleaning, then went through a bunch of books. Some I am giving to Kelly for her friend who is a Snoopy fan – as there are 2 bags of PEANUTS books. Then I have 2 bags for Kath to look through since they came from Mom’s. The rest are going to Good Will. I saw an ad that Aldi had Laminators and I’ve always wanted one – we had one at Smail’s and I used it all the time! Hoping that on the weekend I’ll be able to try it out.

Yesterday I had Cameron all day and we did have fun. The three things he liked best were playing with the neighbor’s German Shepherd. Actually, both were in separate fenced-in yards, but they ran the fence lines together. Cameron laughed and laughed and the dog pranced. If a dog could laugh, I think he was!

Cameron also loved playing in the water outside. Once we got cleaned up from that and had fresh clothes on, he decided to dig in the dirt! He was a black mess! Sooooo…. we went back inside, he got a bath, then played with the mini Tupper dishes.

Patiently (?) waiting for the water to fill the tote!

Playing with his monster truck

He’s definitely ALL BOY!

He loves dirt and worms and bugs!

A little (or a lot) of dirt don’t bother him!

Making ‘water’ soup.

Feeding the cow fruit loops

Watching Bluey

I didn’t get any pictures but the third thing was that we were playing catch with a smaller sized ball. Every time one of us missed the ball he laughed and laughed! And mostly, we missed the ball! We ended up going over to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal. The toy in the meal was a mini squishmallow – and his was named CAM! What are the chances! He was pretty excited. I was very tired by the time he headed home with Noah. I got things put away and cleaned up, ate a Klondike and went to bed! But both days went well.

Tomorrow Kathy and I are heading for a quick trip to Smicksburg.

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 9th is:

Fashion Day; Last Kiss Day (Taylor Swift); National Dimples Day; National Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Omelet Day; National Sugar Cookie Day.

I’ve never made an omelet. I have made sugar cookies – Grama Crooks made the BEST sugar cookies – and chocolate chip! God bless…

On this day in History: 1776 Colonel John Nixon gives the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to an assemblage of citizens in Philadelphia

The plan for today was that Autmn would drop Cameron off at a little before 10:30am on her way to work – and Scott or Katrina would get him from 3pm to 8:30pm. Well, Scott got pretty sick and couldn’t watch him, and Katrina works shifts and either needed to work or sleep. So I ended up having Cameron until about 8:30pm. He was exceptionally good – but he IS 2 1/2 and very busy. So I’ll post tomorrow. Have a lovely Wednesday – God bless…

It’s been a quiet day – quiet at work, quiet at Gabe’s (I popped in for a few minutes but didn’t find anything exciting!), quiet at home, quiet outside – except for my neighbor performing his daily grass-cutting ritual. Glad I got mine done yesterday – but by the weekend I’ll have to do it again for sure. The only excitement was that this little guy (or gal) was at Pinnacle looking at cars. I don’t think he could reach the pedals…

Ground Hog.

Sounds like we have a week of possible (probable) storms coming through. We’ll see how much I get done outside – either too hot or stormy. I made a burger on a toasted bun with lettuce and tomato for lunch. Very yummy! I was going to pull weeds but no shade in my yard yet. We’ll see which hits first – the shade or the storms.

Shade or…

Storm.

Last week I took my Christmas CDs out of my stereo and put my 4th of July ones in. Yes, I do have several! They are actually fun to listen to. Sometimes I march around the house. I know, I know…. But I’m glad to get back to Dan and Shay, Jon Pardi, Brad Paisley, James Taylor, etc.

Dan and Shay….

Just finished a load of clothes so the next step will be ironing. I have a few indoor chores after that.

Quote of the Day:

PEANUTS?

Make that Tea instead of Coffee!!!

Tomorrow July 7th is:

National Day of Rock and Roll; National Macaroni Day; National Strawberry Sundae Day; National Koi Day; National Father Daughter Take a Walk Day; World Chocolate Day; Global Forgiveness Day; National Deck Day; Tell the Truth Day.

We should always be truthful. I’m ok with macaroni but I love chocolate. Rock and Roll, people! God bless….

On this day in history: 1942 Anne Frank‘s family goes into hiding in After House, Amsterdam

The day started out mostly sunny. I got through Sunday School and Church with 2 interesting messages. I was happy to see that it was still sunny when I left church, and came home and changed into my mowing clothes and went right outside. It was certainly was still very hot. But the fun thing was that we had patriotic Dunkin’ Donut Holes as a before-church treat. That gave me enough energy to delay lunch and get chores done.

I weed whacked first – the weeds grew faster than the grass (of course). I was out a little over 2 hours – and I took lots of breaks and had lots of water. Got everything trimmed and then mowed. I was dripping wet when I finished but SO thankful for that to be done, at least for a few days. Got a shower then had a salad.

Took a few pictures of new flowers.

Purple vines and red/orange berries

Stella d’oro

Day Lily

Gladiolus – I didn’t plant this here – a bird must have done that!

For some reason I get unreasonably distressed when I can’t keep the grass cut – and the weeds are taking over. So when God provides opportunity and energy I am more than grateful. I’m still working on getting someone to help me. I have a few leads but nothing actually finalized yet.

Since J.D. is done trekking across the U.S., I have A Newport Christmas on in the background. It’s a fun movie!

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 6th is:

International Kissing Day; National Air Traffic Control Day; National Fried Chicken Day; National Hard Roll Day; Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day; Umbrella Cover Day; Virgin Islands Day; Virtually Hug a Virtual Assistant Day (??); World Rural Development Day.

I have 2 umbrellas! God bless….

This year in History: Hank Snow’s ‘I’m Movin’ On’ was number one country hit in 1950.

I woke up this morning with a sense of awe washing over me. If you do any research into the actual events, attitudes, conflicts, personalities, and deep details of the Revolution (or any war) there is so much more than passing a law or taking a side. These men and women were brave, and frightened, and stubborn and passionate and…. Well, I get excited! God bless America – 250!

I realized as I parked that the corn was INDEED at LEAST knee high by the 4th of July!

When I originally thought about what I would like to do best in celebration, I decided there couldn’t be anything more fitting than spending the day at Hanna’s Town – A 1770’s frontier town, that drafted the Hanna’s Town Resolves, a document that pre-dated the Declaration of Independence. It was very hot, especially in the tavern where I was stationed for the day. But sharing information with the guests and visitors is always rewarding for me, and you can always tell when one of them actually ‘gets’ it. At 12:00 noon members of Proctor’s Militia took turns reading sections of the Declaration of Independence under a ‘witness’ tree by the LeFevre House in the field. My friend Louise had her grown children there – and she is from England (But with American citizenship!). Her son took part in the reading, and to hear him passionately declare his sentiments with the British inflection was very moving and impressive.

Lara – our director of education and in charge of the event.

Reading…

Louise’s son on the far left; Scott (Militia captain) third one over.

After the reading, I walked around taking pictures in the buildings.

Prices for ale in the bar.

Currency from the 1700’s

Bedside light

Rope bed – sleep tight!

Spinning

Very unusual day lilies

Inside the Goal (jail)

The militia had a ceremony to take down the ‘Rag of a British Flag’ (their words, not mine!) and raised the flag with thirteen stars and stripes. The American Colonies had declared their freedom.

Militia watching the flag ceremony

Lowering the British Flag

New American Flag

At 1pm Scott Henry (Captain of the militia) explained the purpose, responsibilities, and bravery of the members, and described the weapons and what the differences were. Then they did march out of the fort and shot several volleys.

Scott

Marching from the fort

First Volley

Fire!

I saw my sister and Paul there – but didn’t get to talk to them. They were headed to see Young Washington at the movies.

Demonstrating guns – Kathy and Paul are sitting on the bench by the building (she’s in a red shirt).

It was 92*, with a ‘feels like’ of 99*. I was thankful to have had several bottles of water with me – and everyone I saw was faithfully staying hydrated. I came home with the intention of weeding for half an hour, but after 15 it started to storm, and a loud crack of thunder was so close I felt it in the ground. So I came inside. For a brief moment the sun peeked through and there was a rainbow – but now it’s storming again. Looks like I’m inside for the day.

Rain!

Rainbow.

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 5th is:

Build a Scarecrow Day; Mechanical Pencil Day; National Apple Turnover Day; National Bikini Day; National Graham Cracker Day; National Hawaii Day; National Workaholics Day; Pet Remembrance Day; Work Without Your Hands Day; World Circle Dance Day.

The scarecrow should go in the corn field. Was it an itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny, yellow polka-dot bikini? God bless – AMERICA!

On this day in History:1776 US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Great Britain

AND M&M’s!!

Another HOT day! I wasn’t outside very much. This evening I spent about 40 minutes pulling weeds and hosing off the back patio stones. They look much better. I find that if I just do a little at a time I can manage something every day.

Messy

Pulling weeds

Under the bench

Door mat

Weeded and hosed off

Much better

Looks so nice!

Diane txt me mid-morning and said she was dropping something off for me. I was in the midst of making lunch for Kathy and I – we had our Altoona trip meeting today. But I had time to spend a few minutes chatting with Diane. And the great surprise was that she found a set of salt and pepper shakers that are COWS! How fun is that! Surprises come in the best forms!

Cute little cows!

My long-time friend Teresa called me and we talked for one hour and 16 minutes! We haven’t done anything together in a very long time and I miss that. Hoping we can do something fun this summer! But I finally got the laundry started and the lunch finished, and Kathy and I had a great meeting. She brought me two patriotic donuts and I sent brownies home with her! We had chicken salad on croissants, tossed salad, fresh fruit, and brownies.

The brownies I didn’t give to Nate and Jen.

Donuts!

We got our Altoona trip organized – we know who is bringing who, when we are leaving, which museum we will be going to first, and when the Baker Mansion will be open. And of course, the Boyer Chocolate Outlet! So we are all set. I emailed the details to Kelly.

Baker Mansion- Altoona

Then we planned out a trip to see UC/AJ and called them to verify that the date was good for them. We talked about a fall trip to Gettysburg, but that may have to be just Kelly and I – Kathy has a pretty full schedule, especially with the trip out West she and Paul have planned. We even talked about Williamsburg. Dare I hope???

Uncle Clifford and Aunt Joan

Quote for the Day:

PEANUTS?

Tomorrow July 4th is:

National Play Outside Day; Independence Day; Alice in Wonderland Day; National Caesar Salad Day; National BBQ Spareribs Day; National Hop-a-Park Day; Indivisible Day; National Hillbilly Day; Sidewalk Egg Frying Day.

Never fried an egg on a sidewalk or been indivisible. I think Independence is the BEST thing to celebrate! God bless…

On this day in History:

Actually, today should be Independence Day! July 2 is the actual date the Continental Congress voted to approve the Lee Resolution, legally severing ties with Great Britain. However, we celebrate on July 4 because that is when Congress formally adopted the written Declaration of Independence, the public document explaining that monumental decision. But since we’ve celebrated July 4th for 250 years we may as well keep doing it!

I did have a lot to do at work this morning. But for the most part everyone was in a good mood and figured even the tough ones out. I left Pinnacle and had to stop and help Mike P with something, then talked to Kelly on the phone for a bit. I had to make a few stops on the way home – got a case of water at Aldi, and potato sticks for Cameron at Dollar Tree (he loves those!). Got a few (like, four!) items at Walmart, then a string of butterfly solar lights at Big Lots while they still have some. Summer items are disappearing quickly. Then picked up something from Diane on her front porch.

Butterfly lights on the back deck.

From there I headed to Hanna’s Town as they were having a Happy 250 party, with cake and programs! I was too late for the program but did have a piece of cake.

There were a lot of flowers blooming, especially ones that draw pollinators.

Look like yellow stars

The last of the flax.

Hollyhawks

Cone flowers

Eutrochium?

Black eyed Susans

A full garden

Leadwort

My two new America 250 flags came – they were very inexpensive! They are made of a burlap-type material so they should hold up well, especially since I will only put them out for patriotic holidays and celebrations.

250 #1

250 #2

I plan to do my ironing next, then watch JD (History Traveler) and maybe a new episode of Waardenburg Family Farm. Then we’ll see what tomorrow brings!

QUOTE for the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 3rd is:

Air Conditioning Appreciation Day; American Redneck Day; American Sparkling Wine Day; International Plastic Bag Free Day; National Chocolate Wafer Day; National Compliment Your Mirror Day; National Eat Your Beans Day; National Fried Clam Day; National Stay out of the Sun Day; National Disco Day.

DEFINITELY will be a day to appreciate air conditioning! Chocolate of any kind is yummy – better that than beans or clams. And also a day to stay out of the sun! God bless…

On this day in History: 1962 Sam Walton opens his first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas