Well, now Blogger has decided it is time to change all their layout. They had a warning of this and I tried the new version and was not happy. Mostly because I am very used to the old layout and know how it works in the areas I need. I copy and paste each of my Blog entries into a Word file and format it and save them. The new Blogger layout makes that process more difficult. Ugh... Not everything has to be 'improved'. Just sayin'. So, I will now give it another try and see if I can adapt to someone elses 'improvement'. Can you tell I'm not pleased???
We are back in Kentucky and trying to get back into the 'New Normal' routine again.
Thursday, August 27, 2020 was our first full day home. We had a full day planned. I did send Katelyn the Butter Cake recipe she requested when we were in Michigan. I made this frequently when our home was full of kids and lots of people to eat these things. Not so much now. But it is a good recipe. I'll share it just in case you might want a good cake recipe.
BUTTER CAKE:
1/2 lb. butter 2 cups flour
2 cups sugar 1 teas. vanilla
6 eggs, beat one at a time 1/2 teas. almond OR lemon extract
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Can be baked in bundt pan.
We did a Georgetown run. Took Papa a treat. Did our walk at the park. Went to the bank. Had lunch from a drive-thru. Then we came home and got the laundry caught up.
Friday, August 28, 2020 was riveting. I got a robo call and I called the Signature Health Care Covid-19 number to verify they still had no Covid-19 residents or staff. They still have none. Yeah!! I am sure that day contained more that these two significant events...however, I can't remember what in the world they were. Such is the 'New Normal'!!
Saturday, August 29, 2020 I woke up before Claude and headed to my laptop. Each year our Stake Relief Society presidency hosts a conference for the women in the Lexington North Stake. This year, due to Covid-19, we cannot do that in person. So they diligently put together an on-line conference for us. The title this year was ROOTED and the scripture it is based upon is Colossians 2:7 "Rooted and built up in him, stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." There were four on-line classes you could take. I spent Saturday morning listening to two of them. One was on Food Storage and Preparedness by Janet Kappas from the Owingsville Ward. Excellent class. Janet is the Queen of Food Storage. I took notes and shared them with Claude. The second class I listened to was by Darin Griffith from the Georgetown Ward about Improving our Come, Follow Me studying. Darin is the Church Education System guy in our area. The note I took from his class was:
IKEA the Doctrines & Principles
I - Identify and Understand
K - Know the Doctrine & Principle
E - Explain the Doctrine
A - Apply the Doctrine
Both classes were excellent and I appreciated and enjoyed my time in each.
In the evening Claude and I enjoyed the ABBA Forever program on the Public Television station. Excellent also.
Sunday, August 30, 2020 we had a great Sunday morning reading for two weeks. We missed our reading the previous Sunday morning when in Michigan. So we read one block of scripture and then watched the YouTube video Darin Griffith does each week on the scripture block. Then we read the second block of scripture and watch the Darin video. We also watch the Worship Service for the Georgetown Ward via Zoom. Excellent talks by Shad (the son) and Dan (the father) Parret. It was a good Sunday morning.
In the evening Claude again had a Public Television program on Linda Ronstadt that we enjoyed.
Monday, August 31, 2020 was the last day of the month of August. At this point I was immersed in my next scanning project. I have in our basement storage boxes of books that belong to Jacob, our son. I was looking through some of them for a possibile book to read and came across Jake's binder with his mission papers and letters in it. I thought it would be a nice gift to him to scan it and give him his paper as well as his digital copy of all of it. This has not morphed into a much bigger project. But I did get a lot of things done with this project on that Monday.
Tuesday, September 1, 2020 and we are into September...already!! Claude and I had a discussion about how, in a lot of things for two retired people, time has lost a lot of its meaning. We try to go to bed at the regular time each day. Some days we sleep in a bit. I often wake up before Claude. But that scheduling of things changed a lot when Claude quit being the mayor and doing all his political things. Now it has taken a huge nose dive and we often have to check our phones to be sure what day it actually is. That phenomenon of have lots of things on the calendar and trying to keep up with it all is GONE. We both make sure we have things each day we want to accomplish that are productive and not just lay around and eat bonbons all day long. So we both feel we are living a productive life but knowing which day it is, is not really a thing anymore. So the arrival of September just seemed to come very quickly.
This day Claude had an appointment at the doctor's office to check on his diabetes. So we both went in for this outing. Claude treated me to a biscuit and Mt. Dew from Bojangles and I waited in the car while he visited the doctors. We drove to the nursing home and left a treat for Papa. I filled the bird feeder and peeked in the window but Papa was asleep. There was a CNA in the room and she started to wake him but I asked her not to. He can't hear me at all and he would be in a grog trying to figure out what is going on. I'll fill the birdfeeder again this week and maybe have better luck seeing him through the window. Then we went to the park and took our walk.
We finally remembered to take my bracelet Claude gave me for Christmas to Craven's Jewelry to get it fixed. It is a fun bracelet with a turtle for the clasp. The bracelet is one solid silver band that you slide your wrist into. The turtle has a loop on the head and tail and these fit onto hooks on the bracelet. They should pull the bracelet in to keep it closed. But the turtle falls off and I will loose the turtle. We were going to take it back and then the pandemic hit and it has sat in the box on my dresser waiting for us to remember. Hallelujah, between the two of us, we remembered this day. I received a text yesterday it is fixed and we can pick the bracelet up. We'll do that next week. The reality is that we aren't going anywhere to wear a bracelet. I may just have to wear it around the house one day to enjoy it.
We each had one errand we wanted to try to accomplish. Claude's was at Lowe's and mine was to see if Kohl's had any capri pants I could purchase. These stores are right by each other in Georgetown with a street between them. I suggested to Claude that we park at the end of one parking lot and each walk across a parking lot to the store we wanted to go to. Then whenever we got thru we could each come out and have the car to wait for the other one in. This is the 'New Normal' after all. Claude did that and I was grateful to have the car to sit in when I finished not finding any capris. May I just add here for historical purposes that the stores have really lightened their stock. Shelves have a few of each size and racks have only 4 or 5 items hanging on them. There are fewer racks and displays and as a consequence there is just not the choice you had before.
We finished our outing with dinner at the Burger King drive-thru.
Wednesday, September 2, 2020 we made a Lexington run. Claude had some things to do and I tagged along for moral support. I waited in the Jeep as he did his things. Then he waited in the Jeep as I went in to Hobby Lobby. I wanted to check for elastic. I wanted to make some white masks in case we need them in the future for the temple. I found elastic and white fabric. I also purchased some white flannel. One of the things I want to clean out is scrap fabric by making some rag baby blankets. I have scraps of fabric but not the flannel for between the layers. I was very happy to find what I found. Claude treated me to lunch from Chipotle's. Then we stopped for gasoline at Love's on the way home.
My sweet friend, Laura, sent me a picture of a Christmas card she purchased for me and found when going through things in her home. I love it. I do enjoy Groupon. Laura knows me well. We determined it was a good thing to have Christmas in September. Especially this year.
Katelyn and Drew have invited an exchange student from Sweden named Raoul Dalin into their home for this school year. They picked him up at the airport this day.
Then it was back to the storage in the back of the basement. Claude and I had cleared off one shelf already through projects we are working on. He moved all the camping gear to that empty shelf and we now had a metal shelf we could give away. Then we combined all of the items we store for Jake from two different sides of that storage room onto the shelves where I have canning things stored. Now when Jake comes he can easily go through his things and see what he wants to do with them. This left another empty tall shelf in the back of the storage area. I moved all my house decorations (silk flowers, bird houses, etc.) for each season to that empty shelf. This left the second metal shelf to give away. These two metal shelves have now been spoken for and will be picked up later today. Claude and I agreed that the house felt lighter.
One of the fun things is seeing what we have saved over the years. Our middle child, Andie, took several AP (Advanced Placement) classes in Junior High School. In one of these she made a replica of the Kon Tiki. I have saved it all these years. I'll just add here that Andie is in her late 40's now so I have had this item for many years. Andie says she at least needs to be sure her kids see it.
I wanted to take Papa a treat. Claude drove me into Georgetown and we dropped off the things at the nursing home. Then we walked at the park. Then we drove to Formaggio's and ordered pizza and Caesar salads and ate them in the Jeep. Claude then suggested we go to Dairy Queen and have ice cream for dessert. No argument from me on that one. I sent a text to Jake telling him we were out and about and that his Dad was treating me to DQ. Jake quickly replied, "Watch. Your. Step." It was August the 3rd, 2019, that I fell at a Dairy Queen and ended up losing my three front teeth. Jake is a smarty trousers. I assured him all was done at a drive thru and I would be safe...until we got home and then I would need to climb out of the Jeep safely without tripping. Love my family.
Jake has been very careful and social distanced exceptionally well. He sent me a selfie and said he actually reserved a spot at the Chelsea Library for an art exhibit. You had to schedule your 30 minute slot to walk through the art exhibit all alone. Jake loves his library and has volunteered there. This was his first time in six months being back in the library and it felt good to him to be there. Yeah Jake!!
Saturday, September 5, 2020 Claude suggested we start our day with a biscuit from Hardee's for breakfast on the front porch. We enjoy these times to just be quiet together. This morning I noticed that my turtle plant was beginning to blossom. This is a plant the Marx family gave to me for my birthday several years ago. It has blossoms that are a light purple and they look like turtle heads. Now my favorite color has always been purple in all its shades and my favorite word it turtle, so this is really the perfect gift for me. It grows really well in our front flower beed. However, for the last few years the deer have decided that the tops of these stems are a real delicacy and they have eaten everyone. This year we have not had the deer eating out of our front flower bed. Hence, we were surprised to see these blossoms starting to open. I just love them.
This evening we were invited to a wedding reception. We opted not to go. The last one we went to no one was wearing a mask. We just aren't ready to do that yet.
Sunday, September 6, 2020 we started our morning with our reading the scripture block. This time we read 3 Nephi 1-7 in the Book of Mormon. It was so interesting to read these chapters. The people vaccilate between righteous and not righteous so quickly and over and over again. By the end of the assigned reading they had separated themselves into tribes and each group had its own leader. I have often wondered at how quickly in the Book of Mormon the people fall from righteousness or become righteous again. This year, living with the virus, I can honestly say I can see how things change so quickly. Living in a country that is increasingly dividing again over racial issues and over presidential elections I can feel what the Book of Mormon has recorded in its pages. Claude and I talked for a bit and both agreed that the thing that kept those people strong and made the change in peoples lives for the better was the Word of God. It is critical to people to hear it and then let it work in their lives to make the changes so they are obedient and righteous. The Word of God is critical to help those who have remained righteous to stay grounded and strong so they can endure the difficulty of the times in which they may live. I am grateful for my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am grateful for my understanding of the Plan of Salvation and the importance and necessity of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. These understandings and the keeping of covenants I have made keep me on the right path, influence my use of agency, and keep me strong in adversity. I know this to be true and I am grateful for it. It was a good Sabbath morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment