Work this morning – and I had several things to do. Always enjoy days when Rege and I can have fun conversations and try to solve the world’s problems. We never solve anything, but it’s fun to try!

I left Jeannette and went straight to the bank. I was looking for the special sesquicentennial quarters – but all I got was an explanation as to why they didn’t – and wouldn’t – have them. Oh, well. Went on to Palmer’s Farm Stand – got half a dozen ears of corn and a yellow squash. A few fun meals from that!

I drove from there out to Lapp Family Market and got a pound of dark chocolate and a bigger bag of milk chocolate. So now I’m ready for projects.

Milk and Dark

And look what jumped in my cart! How in the WORLD could something like that happen! Very nostalgic – I used to love ice-skating on Uncle Jim’s pond.

Coaster – we all know I can’t resist them!

My Rose of Sharon finally has a flower blooming! Now if the other 5 could start blooming and the bushes could fill up.…

Come on! Bloom little bushes!

Kathy and I went over to the Founder’s Market (Founder’s Park) on Weatherwood Lane – there were only 3 vendors. We walked around and watched the kids (and parents) playing on the equipment and in the water. Lots of things for everyone to do. VERY nice park, with more to come.

Little ‘creek’ for the kids to play in. I wanted to wade in it!

Splash pad – it was full today!

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

Contributed by my boss, Ken!

TOMORROW July 15th is:

Arctic Sea Ice Day; International Stamp Out Spiking Day; National Be A Dork Day; National Clean Beauty Day; National Give Something Away Day; National Gummi Worm Day; National Hot Dog Day; National I Love Horses Day; National Orange Chicken Day; National Pet Fire Safety Day.

I guess if cows have a day, horses should too! I’m going to try and NOT be a dork. Always be safe around fires. God bless…

On this day in History:

It was a slow start morning – took my time getting moving. Shower, breakfast, laundry. Went to my chiropractor appointment, then had to run uptown to Suzie’s Notary to get my signature witnessed for a PENNDOT contract (work). Grabbed a cow coaster (in honor of cow appreciation day tomorrow!). Got gas in the Mazda, came home and had lunch, then set about getting things done.

New cow…

Old cow….

I spent the rest of the afternoon outside. I did several areas and feel like I accomplished a lot. Three big trash bags full of yard clippings. It’s coming along.

Bottom of hill – bare dirt was where the Solomon’s Seal was – it was done, It will fill in.

Across from shed.

Bottom of walk.

Cow patch – again, in honor of Cow Appreciation Day!

All cleared out – far side of house.

Still needs done.

Also took a quick pic of what’s in my shed. It’s not as full as I thought it was. I’m getting Nate to help me clean it out asap – a lot of stuff needs to GO!

And these are the pictures of what I did yesterday outside.

ROSE growing out of azalea bush!

Morning glory vine growing (by itself!) up through little girl’s hands!

Under the deck steps.

Stepping stones.

I looked out the window just now – there is a SHARK in the neighbor’s yard! I think it’s a run through sprinkler. The boys look like they are having fun!

QUOTE of the DAY:

PEANUTS?

TOMORROW July 14th is:

Bastille Day; COW Appreciation Day; National Be Nice to BUGS Day???; National Break Free From the Big Three Day; National Mac and Cheese Day; National Nude Day; National Tape Measure Day; Pandemonium Day; Shark Awareness Day; World Chimpanzee Day.

Now how crazy is it that tomorrow is Shark Awareness Day – and there’s one behind my house! Wow! I don’t like being Nude, even when I have to be. And big three? Look it up – interesting! And no mac and cheese for me either. COWS! I’ll take COWS! God bless…

On this day in History: 1923 The Hollywood Sign is officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles.

I had a decision to make! I wanted to take advantage of the nice day – great ‘work outside’ weather. So after Sunday school, then church, then a quick stop to look for something the Mall did not have, I came home, ate lunch and started chores. It did get a little warm at one point, as I was working in the direct sunlight. So I came inside and did the ironing, then cleaned out both freezers, then took some frozen corn down to Nate and Jen. Also dropped Chrissy’s blankets off. Then I came home and pulled weeds until it got too dark to be comfortable. So I’ll post details tomorrow! God bless…

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.