Today is a repeat of most Wednesdays. I just did cleaning, walked around the yard, read book 5 in the series I’m in the middle of, washed a load of towels. That was the excitement for today. I was going to cut the grass but it was 90*!

I did get an email notification that a very dear friend of my sister’s from grade school lost her brother today. He was considerably older and had been ill for a while, on and off. Mae has lived with her brother for years and years in Kentucky, and I know this will be a huge adjustment for her. If you think of it, send up a prayer for Mae, and for Jim’s family and friends.

Last night, amidst the fireworks, the moon once again was bright, and illuminated the clouds.

As I look outside I can see fireflies flitting around. These are the first I’ve seen this summer. I almost feel like going out and trying to catch one! The little rabbit that lives under my azalea bush keeps pushing the mulch onto the sidewalk. I sweep it clean, she pushes it back! Tug of war! That rabbit will undoubtedly win!

I noticed that the neighbor has lights strung on his back patio. Don’t they look like Christmas ones???

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When Gen called me yesterday she said she wanted to wish a happy July 4th to the most patriotic person she knew! So, maybe Linus beats me out!

TOMORROW July 6th is:

International Kissing Day; National Hand Roll Day; National Fried chicken Day.

Hoping you can celebrate by kissing someone you care for very much! Or — have a piece of fried chicken. That’s probably what I’ll do… God bless.

Last night the sky was beautiful – fluffy white clouds on a blue background. Then after the moon came up, it was also bright and beautiful. The July full moon is the a Super Moon.

My 4th was very nearly perfect! Started my day with a phone call from my long-time best friend, Gen, from New York! She called to wish me a Happy 4th – and we talked for 45 minutes! Yesterday she took a 40 mile bike ride and I’m sure I would not have been able to do ONE! Her son Dan’s family was in from Colorado for almost a week and her whole family was together – a rare occurrence. They had a great visit, and we had a great chat!

I was at Hanna’s Town at 10:45am, not necessarily thinking that we would have much people traffic. Boy, was I wrong! It was a steady stream of people from 11am until 4:35pm. Here are a few early photos:

I left Hanna’s Town – after helping lock up – and drove over to Teresa’s. We put together a salad and garlic toast, took a walk, and solved a bunch of the world’s problems. Well, maybe not solved. But we did hash them out!

I got home just before dark, and the fireworks were already going off all over the neighborhood. I did try to take pictures but I’m never successful capturing the lights.

Also got half an email from a friend from out of state. So the day was very full!

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TOMORROW July 5th is:

National Graham Cracker Day; National Apple Turnover Day; National Hawaii Day; National Bikini Day; National Workaholics Day.

Ummm. Hawaii sounds fun. And I tend to be a workaholic. I’ll just clean the house and have a happy day. God bless!!!

“… Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,…” God bless America! *1776

I stopped at Jeannette this morning, even though there were no deals. I had to organize the documents listing the new fees for the sales department. Also I wanted to take a card in for Rege’s daughter Kelly & her new husband Justin. There weren’t a lot of pictures on facebook yet but I did pirate a photo of Sir Rege dancing with his ‘baby’ daughter! She’s beautiful!

From there I went to Greensburg, and Joe had a fairly big pile on my desk. He was in a super good mood and the morning went very well. I got everything finished and was home by noon. Changed clothes and made myself a cup of potato soup. I trimmed more dead stalks and pulled some weeds on the hill. Here are before and after photos:

I took time to put out a few 4th of July decorations. I thought I should be a little festive!

In addition, I spent the afternoon listening to CD’s with music from the 1700’s and 1800’s. THAT was fun, too.

Now I’m typing, and I have ‘Haul out the Holly’ playing on Hallmark in the background. It’s so silly it’s ridiculous — but really very funny!

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TOMORROW July 4th is:

National BBQ Spare Ribs Day; National Caesar Salad Day; Alice in Wonderland Day; Independence Day.

I love July 4th! Where would America be without it? Plan your day tomorrow around some reflections of our great nation, and thank God for the blessings we enjoy.

It was rainy this morning, but no storms. Mary and I taught our class about ‘Jesus is the vine; we are the branches bearing fruit.’ We had Max and his two cousins, Jack and Josie. They love being together and had a good time in class. Here they are, eating grapes!

After we left church Mary and I went to Eat n Park for breakfast. We haven’t done that since the pandemic. It was nice to just sit and chat. It’s so nice to have someone to talk to that will listen, share thoughts, be honest, and comfort and encourage. It was a lovely almost-two hours!

When I got home, since I didn’t need to eat, I changed clothes and went outside. By then the sun was shining so I trimmed overgrown stalks, pulled some weeds, and cut the grass. It was warmer as the day went on, and by the time I was done I was soaked. But the yard looked great!

It felt good to get a shower, and now I’m in my red star PJ’s, watching ‘Christmas by Starlight’ on Hallmark. I will work in the morning for a short bit, but nothing else planned. Maybe some writing!

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TOMORROW July 3rd is:

International Drop a Rock Day; National Eat Your Beans Day; National Compliment Your Mirror Day; National Fried clam Day; National Chocolate Wafer Day; International Plastic Bag Free Day.

Chocolate is good. I’m good at dropping rocks but not so much eating beans. Enjoy your day, whether you work or not. God bless….

I waffled all last evening and even most of the morning about going to the Twin Lakes festival. I kept watching the weather and finally decided I could go first thing when it opened and leave if it started to rain. So I did my typical Saturday morning change the sheets chore, then headed out. It’s a good thing I didn’t wait, because traffic was bumper to bumper and I sat for about 20 minutes before the park even opened. I was able to park in the park-sponsored lot — first time EVER. Normally I parked in a farmer’s field and risked sliding or getting stuck in the mud.

There were crafts and booths with just about anything you can imagine, including music stages, kids area, winery section, artist and author section, and food all over the place.

One of my primary focuses was to find Noah’s food truck – Tiny’s Tacos – which I did. I said a quick hello and finished looking around. Once I had seen everything and resisted multiple temptations I went back and got fresh-cut fries with cheese. I sat in a covered pavilion and ate before heading out. Just as I got to the car it started to drizzle. So that was timed well!

I was only home about half an hour and the thunder and wind came, and it started to pour down rain. I turned on the TV, and ‘Christmas in July’ is playing on Hallmark in the background while I type. Just now the sun peaked out, but I don’t think our storms are over! I know when I left the park, the line outside the taco truck was about 10 deep. I hope they did well in sales today.

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Chase – the youngest (for now) of the family but growing up fast! I’m looking forward to his coming up to stay a week next Sunday through the 15th. Happy Birthday, Chase! Love you!

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TOMORROW July 2nd is:

National Wildland Firefighter Day; World UFO Day.

I feel like I should be doing something patriotic every day from now until the 4th but don’t know what! I’ll think about that. Today I was listening to holiday-related music – especially Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA and Toby Keith’s American Soldier.

God bless — the USA!!!

You would think with summer here there would be a lot of things to share. Not so. I’ve been busy all day – but nothing noteworthy. I worked at the Greensburg store, stopped for one item at WOW Outlets. Mike P needed me to stop and help with something, which I did. I chatted with Mike and Renee (talking car-shop!) and chatted for about 20 minutes. Also stopped at the bank before coming home.

I had a Panera Bread bagel for lunch, did a load of laundry, fussed around outside doing little things, answered some emails, talked to my friend Teresa on the phone for an hour, then came inside and made potato soup. Swept the floors, changed a lightbulb, and filled the M&M bowls. So there. Isn’t that an exciting day? But I did keep busy all day. We’ll see what I can get into tomorrow!

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TOMORROW July 1st is:

National Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day; National Gingersnap Day; National Play Outside Day; National Hop A Park Day; National U.S. Postage Stamp Day; Camera Day; National Postal Workers Day.

Doesn’t it seem like we just had these days? I’ll stick with the ice cream. Happy first day of July – the year is half over. God bless…

The air quality has been horrible the last few days. I decided I would be pro-active and did use my inhaler twice yesterday. That being said, it ‘wires me up’ and I could not fall asleep. When I got up for a drink at 2am this is the photo I took out my bedroom window. Spooky!

Kelly and I left the house about 9 am and did some serious research shopping. We both did buy a few things but have a fairly clear picture of what we both want to accomplish for our respective parties. It will help that we can share the plunder! We started at Michael’s, then WOW Outlet, then Ollie’s and the neighboring Dollar Tree. Joanne Fabrics was next, then Walmart, Sam’s Club, and the other Dollar Tree. We didn’t spend much money but again we know where we are headed. She left for home about 2pm and I went to work. It’s 8:20pm and that’s mostly all I’m doing today. We did finally stop for lunch at Chick-Fil-A – which was of course yummy!

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TOMORROW June 30th is:

International Asteroid Day; National Meteor Watch Day; Social Media Day; National OOTD Day; International Cream Tea Day.

For most of the world every day is social media day! And OOTD is Outfit of the Day. What will YOU wear tomorrow? Watch out for meteors and asteroids! God bless…

My sweet daughter came up tonight and we are shopping in the morning for the Loyalhanna Review Publication party and Peyton’s grad party. WOW Outlet has a ton of Red/White/Blue stuff and that’s what we both chose! So I’m just going to post the national holidays and catch you up tomorrow!!!

TOMORROW June 29th is:

National Bomb Pop Day; National Handshake Day; National Camera Day; National Waffle Iron Day; International Day of the Tropics; National Almond Buttercrunch Day.

Buttercrunch sounds good. So do waffles. I’ve never been good at taking pictures. So – I’ll just go shopping with Kelly and call it good! God bless…

A few things to do at work – but it was a busy morning. Finished paperwork for Mike G; got a call from Mike P; stopped at a few stores to handle little chores. Kelly called me right when I was zipping into WOW Outlet. She had some ideas for Peyton’s grad party that coincided with my idea for the LR Publication party. So we are working together on that. I’ll use them first and then pass everything to her for August. Good plan!

I was surprised that a) the new Smail Ford dealership is so huge! and b) the Kia building is gone! They demolished it to build a new building for the Mazda franchise. Kia will go in the old Ford store building. Lots of changes!

Running errands had two purposes – one of which was to stay close to the chiropractor’s office so I didn’t have to go home and come back. I popped into McDonalds and got a very small milkshake. It was the size of a small sippy cup. But it hit the spot and kept me going until I got home at 1:30pm.

On the way home I got gas for the car, and for the mower. I had to do that very last because the smell of gas would over power the car! I had hoped to weed what today but it was too wet. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday.

I was excited to get my sunflower comforter delivered today! The Crooks room needed an upgrade, especially since the quilt on the bed was ‘vintage’ and needed to be preserved. So it worked out perfectly!

After lunch I made a batch of cinnamon rolls for Peyton’s party. I won’t ice them until the day before, but can freeze them in the meantime. I can’t manage to be neat when I make them!

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TOMORROW June 28th is:

National Logistics Day; National Alaska Day; National Paul Bunyan Day; National Parchment Day; International Body Piercing Day; International Caps Lock Day.

Not sure why locking our caps is important. But celebrate whatever you like – God bless!

There were chores and deals to do at both stores, and today I was glad to be of help to Joe, as he just got back from vacation. I stopped at the post office on the way from Jeannette to Greensburg – I needed stamps to mail the invitations for Autmn and Noah’s baby shower, and needed to send a license plate back to PENNDOT. The postal clerk chastised me because I didn’t have the house number on the return address — I took it in stride, because it wasn’t mine anyway! Between USPS and PENNDOT — Yikes!

It was actually a nice day, and I spent some time outside pulling weeds and cleaning up a part of the garden areas. Just when I got inside the rain came, along with thunder and lightening. I may get to do some more weeding tomorrow.

But after lunch and before weeding I did a little office work. I sorted the research documents for Letters to Mary and put them in envelopes on the shelf in the garage. I also cleaned out some of the files in my little filing cabinet by the computer. There were some LTM reference material in there that I wanted to put with the rest. In addition, when we cleaned out the farm in 2021 my step-siblings found a cigar box with letters sent between Charlie and Annie (his eventual wife). So I put them in a smaller envelope and tucked them into the original wooden box that all the letters were in.

I found some cute articles, writings, publications, and cartoons in the file cabinet, and one I txt to Autmn. I wrote it when she was seven! There were a lot of good memories in those files, especially several that I wrote about vacations – “I could drive 500 miles”. There was a trip to Williamsburg, one of a college tour when Kelly was looking, one to a wedding in New York… Lots of fun things to remember.

My AOL email account just had an update, and all the settings changed. The first positive thing I found was that any pictures I sent myself from my phone were automatically saved in a file! It’s normally quite a chore to save them and label them all individually. So, I was happy with that. What else is new remains to be seen!

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TOMORROW June 27th is:

National Ice Cream Cake Day; National HIV Testing Day; International Pineapple Day; National Onion Day (???); National PTSD Awareness Day; National Sunglasses Day; National Orange Blossom Day.