This week I am working with my soon-to-be ten year old granddaughter on a tea party scheduled with five friends for tommorow. We are in the home stretch. Today I frosted six mini three layer cakes (it is a baking theme) for them to decorate and take home and learned to make a ham and cheese tortillia rose sandwich. 

Spread cream cheese on a large flour tortillia.
Layer with ham and cut into 1" strips.
Use a glass to cut cheese circles and then cut those in half. 

Roll and secure with toothpick. 

Meanwhile. Someone had asked about my "little family". The domestic violence victim who relocated from out of state and was couch surfing with two little girls. Between four churches we pulled together a security deposit and first month's rent and she moved in. I couldn't get her out of my mind and went shopping one Saturday and outfitted her kitchen from pots and pans to silverware. 

I checked in with her a week ago Thursday and she still didn't have beds (she does have a toddler bed for the 2 year old).  My son and his wife got a new mattress and I was trying to pull together a crew with my husband who has pulled something in his back, my sons who all have different days off and work weird shifts, the old mattress, a metal bed frame and a possible twin bed on Facebook Marketplace. I gave up and ordered two metal bed frames and two inexpensive-ish mattresses from Walmart and had them delivered. My husband did ask how much more we are going to spend on them, but we are done now. 

I had a busy day in the office this week. I had a family of five, dad works on a dairy farm and his hours will pick up with the weather, mom had a serious back injury and had two surgeries and is off work. And they owed a big electric bill with a shut off as their furnace was out for a month and they were heating with space heaters. 

I had a man (and this situation happened with a lady last month) who turned 65 and switched from disability to a very minimal social security check. When your income is below a certain point, we have a state fund (I think it is through the state) which picks up the $202.90 for Medicare. He was charged the $202.90 for January and February which put him behind on electric and he had a shut off notice. 

I had a woman in her 50's with a $700 water bill. She has an unemployed daughter living with her and two grandchildren. No one is working. Another church offered to split it with us and there are children. . .  She also was ranting to me about a local business that employs migrant workers on H2-A visas. I bit my tongue from saying, well they are at work in the fields all day and aren't here with bills they can't pay. . . 

Well, back to the birthday preparations. I post my list so I can keep on track. 

The peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are cut into flower shapes. The egg salad will go on Hawaiian rolls and I put the cucumber slices inbetween paper towels over night with a little salt before putting them on bread and butter in the morning. 

The note in the middle says "1 cup oil" because my daughter needs a cup of cooking oil and this is not something she has in her kitchen. . . 

Sunday I am taking my two best friends from high school to the restaurant that has the monthly tea to celebrate their birthdays. I will be taking photos of our gorgeous food. It will be nice to have someone cook for me! 

Old Prairie Moonlight

Were you a follower of Oatmeal and Whimsey?  Gayla suffered a great personal tragedy and had not been blogging.  She is back at 

https://oldprairiemoonlight.blogspot.com/   

Be sure to check out her new quilting project! 

Spring Break

 Where have I been?  Spring Break.  

The grandkids all had spring break a different week. My daughter and daughter in-law, who are both teachers, had spring break a different week than their children.  

Here are some photographic memories. 

Road Trip

Engineering at a children's museum.

A candy store/ice cream parlor with toys and an incredible selection of sugary drinks. 

A candy and toy display. I have eight grandsons. This appeals to them. 

An educational field trip (along with four other cousins) to the Birthplace of Thomas Edison for his school report. 

On Good Friday we took six cousins out to breakfast at a local diner. They were having a good time I swear. They do not like it when Mimi takes a photo. 

 A visit to an Aviation Museum. 

Spellbound at the large collection of Tuskegee Airmen memorabilia and the narrated video by Harold H. Brown. 

Pearl Harbor diarama. 

Lunch in a 1952 diner overlooking the tarmac of a small airport. 

Watching planes land during lunch.

This was a milk shake. The table next to us ordered one first. 

A cold day at the Flea Market. 

A man on a mission.

Another diner, not as good. 

Early voting. They got "future voter" stickers. 

A visit to the police station to drop off items to Uncle Scott. 

Hanging out with grampa while Mimi volunteers in the church office. 

A trip to the egg barn. 

Car picnic at the local drive-in on a rainy afternoon. 

Three and a half hours at an indoor playland. 

And yes, they wore the same clothes for days on end. It was spring break and I pick my battles. . . 

Now we are tired. Very tired. Thank goodness everyone should be in school this Monday. 

Memory Monday

 Artemis

I know everyone has been hooked on the latest space venture. I will admit I tried not to pay too much attention. In 1986 I was home making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my one year old, my two year old and my five year old while they were watching a rerun of Andy Griffith. The words appeared on the bottom of the screen about the Challenger disaster. I had it on a network channel and saw her son and his class watching the lift off, but the natives got restless. I was devastated. And now I am too nervous to watch space travel.

Later everyone started sharing memories on our local Facebook page. We live near a NASA facility in a rural area with some very special testing facilities. I think this was in 2019/2020.

"TRAFFIC ALERT—TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16 AND 17.

For the special attention of motorists in the City of XXX/XXX Township and XXX Township areas:

Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 16, and again on Wednesday, August 17, oversize loads consisting of Blue Origin spacecraft components will be transported from the NASA Neil Armstrong Test Facility to the docks. The transports are scheduled to begin at about 7:30AM on both days from the NASA Mason Road gate, just west of the Career Center. The loads will travel eastbound on Mason Road to River Road, and then north on River Road to the docks. Due to the size of these components, various sections of Mason and River Roads will be completely closed to all traffic as the haul vehicles navigate various segments of the route, to include the major intersections of US123 and State Route 123 at Mason Road, and US456 at River Road. It is expected that the transports on both days will be completed by approximately 2:30PM.

Motorists who plan to travel the above route during the time period in question are asked to take an alternate route for the next two days. Your cooperation and patience are greatly appreciated."

According to the local Facebook officials these pieces and parts that went to the special testing facility were the pieces and parts of Artemis. Here they are maneuvering the corner by our post office.

Facebook was full of videos and photos those days. You won't recognized the parts because they are covered in tight white tarps.

Since I don't follow space travel I can not verify the accuracy of any of this. But I am happy and relieved that the astronauts are home and safe.

We old timers call the facility - N A S A - pronouncing each letter separately. When my kids were teenagers they would make fun of me for spelling it instead of saying it as a word. I went through a spell when I couldn't remember which way to say it and usually guessed wrong. Once NASA became more popular on news shows, I figured it out.

The facility in the remote location has a interesting history and maybe I will do a blog about it one day. I used to attend a history group at a local library and people older than me had pretty vivid memories of the beginnings.