Late last night I finished the Sanibel Island 7 book series and I liked the way it ended. The books were well written, with equal parts of humor, drama, mystery, romance, and family/faith. This morning I started another 7 book series by the same author.

I spent most of the day cleaning and doing laundry. A friend of Nate/Jen’s (Pat) who is a contractor of sorts stopped by to look at my deck and my basement doors. He’s going to replace some boards, put in a new door to the garage, and re-align two other doors that do not shut properly. That will be a big help!

After Pat left, it was early enough that I was able to cut the grass. It was a lovely day, cooler with a good breeze. I managed to cut the entire yard without taking any breaks. That’s a first since spring!

Then I dug up a bunch of crab grass along the fence line on Karen’s side of the fence. It was growing up on both sides and the mower wasn’t cutting it. Now it will be better for both yards.

It’s late and I need supper so that’s it for now. Oh! I had a call from Gen today and plans are that she’s coming down on Sunday afternoon and will spend the night at the ‘Burke B&B’! I’m so excited to see her! It will be fun to catch up.

My blessing for today was two-fold: Having Pat stop and confirm that he could do these projects for me, and that Gen is coming down!

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW August 8th is:

National Happiness Happens Day; National Whataburger Day; Global Sleep under the Stars Night, National Frozen Custard Day; Digital Nomad Day; International Cat Day; National Dollar Day; National Twinkle Lights Day; National Pickleball Day (go Logan!!!); National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto your Neighbor’s Porch Day; Odie Day; Peasants’ Day; Wear Your Mother’s Jewelry Day; Take a Penny, Leave a Penny Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Straw Day. Tomorrow – Logan can celebrate Pickleball! Jen can celebrate Cat Day, and I hope someone leaves me a zucchini or two! Have a happy day – God bless…

Kathy sent me an early email, and told me about the lady bugs that her co-workers had spread all over her office space. They like to brighten things up and make it fun. It was a bit of a surprise, then, when I found a little red ‘lady bug’ crawling around on my kitchen floor! I scooped her up and let her free outside. So today was a lady bug kind of day.

There wasn’t a lot in Jeannette, so I went from there to help Mike P with a few small things. Then I got gas for the Chevy and headed to Greensburg. There were several things to catch up since I didn’t work yesterday. I had a follow-up appointment at Forefront Dermatology and everything was fine. Since I still had work to do at Pinnacle I finished up there after the appointment and went on home. I had a few ears of the farm corn for lunch.

Diane txt me that she was taking a bouquet of flower to a friend in a nursing home and did I have anything to add for color. I sent her photos of what few things I have blooming. Not much right now but she’s going to check it out.

Finally got an estimate to have the gi-normous trees in the front yard trimmed back. It’s in the budget so looks like those guys are getting a major haircut sometime in early September. I’ll feel so much better when they aren’t towering over my house.

Another picture from Chrissy’s party – her and Cameron by her graduation banner with her senior picture.

My blessing today was a good report at the follow up appointment.

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW August 7th is:

Aged Care Employee Day; National Lighthouse Day; National Raspberries n’ Cream Day; National Sea Serpent Day; Particularly Preposterous Packaging Day; Professional Speakers Day; National Straw Day; Purple Heart Day; Regatta Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was National Hat Day. Tomorrow – I’ll go with lighthouses. And a sea serpent if one splashes by… God bless.

Today was corn day at the farm. Kath and I left a little after 8am. It was a pleasant drive out, and we needed to catch up on our conversation. We needed extra snack-size zip lock baggies, so we made a quick stop at Plumville Dollar General. These customers beat us there.

When we got to the farm, Uncle Clifford had the corn picked and mostly husked, some of it already boiled and ready to cut. He sent us upstairs first to say good morning to Aunt Joan who was just getting out of bed.

We had all the corn boiled, cut off the cob, and tucked temporarily into the freezer before noon. We took a break and had a wonderful lunch, which everyone contributed to: Turkey and ham and cheese sandwiches, macaroni salad, kettle chips, fresh corn on the cob (from corn stalk to our plate in 20 minutes!) – with brownies and cinnamon swirl coffee cake for dessert.

Then it was back to work. We bagged the corn in snack sized baggies and separated them into the two coolers. Then we walked out to the garden, where Kathy and I each got a big bag of apples right from the tree, a tomato from the garden, little cucumbers, and a few ears of fresh corn in the husk to take home. Plus fresh made apple sauce.

But the best part is always family, and precious time spent with wonderful people. The time always goes too fast, and in between visits seem to drag.

We stopped at Donna’s store and grabbed cheese, then headed home. We stopped at the Blairsville Burger King – Kathy got iced coffee and I got a frozen Coke. Just the boost we needed!

I got home about 4:30, put everything away and cleaned up. Did a load of laundry, husked my few ears of corn, and am done with my day! And it was a good day!

My blessing today was spending time at the farm with sweet family.

PEANUTS Thought for the Day:

TOMORROW August 6th is:

Balloons To Heaven Day; Farmworkers Appreciation Day (a day late!); National Fresh Breath Day; National Hat Day; National Night Out; National Root Beer Float Day; National Wiggle Your Toes Day.

Yesterday’s fake day was pink flower day. Tomorrow for me is a doctor check up, work, and who knows what else. I still like the farmworkers day! God bless…

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!