Hope everyone had a great weekend! We had a slumber party with three grandchildren. Now we are resting. 

Our exciting news is that I hooked up with a new egg dealer. My old egg dealer and her wife and biracial daughter have all their ducks in row to move to Windsor Canada on May 18th and have sold the flock. 

The new eggs! I used to work with her mother when she and her brothers were in 4H. And raised chickens. She is now a registered nurse in the big town ER and has four children of her own. And chickens. 

She sells them for $3 a dozen at a cute little stand on her farm. She found out that people were buying her eggs and selling them for $5 as their own. She posted that she is only selling to friends now and I got on the list! She texts when she puts them out and I pick up from her driveway where they are in a cooler in the stand, washed and with an ice pack. 

Washed is a big deal because around here the cool kids like the unwashed ones (you know, with chicken poop on the shell). They also like unpasteurized milk which is somehow legal to sell now in my state.  And they feed the unrefrigerated, unwashed eggs and unpasteurized milk to their unvaccinated children. Luckily I'm too old to be a cool kid. 

We have an exciting week planned! Today a man came to our driveway and fixed a chip in the windshield of my husband's vehicle. 

Tomorrow my stove is being delivered! And I am pretty excited about that! Just in time for another family dinner Tuesday.

Wednesday my state genealogy conference starts and I will be busy through Saturday. And because it is meant to be, my Thursday May 1st protest will be at the mall just down the highway from my conference. 

Sunday I will be attending a preschool music performance at the Lutheran Church and leaving the parking lot to drive 1 hour and 45 minutes to my granddaughter's high school performance in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. 

I am grateful for some new fangled thing that her school is doing online. I was able to order a rose and some candy with a personal note to be delivered for every performance. And three roses (big spender) for the final performance which is the one I will attend.  This way I don't have to find a florist, transport the flowers and clutch them during the play. And the profit goes to the theater department. 

#FieldTripFriday

 

We are down to one juvenile participant in Field Trip Fridays. Today we headed to the Amish nursery for our tomato plants.

When I travel with my daughter we generally stop at about five other Amish nurseries before we reach this one. My husband is a one and done shopper. 

I will be doing a return trip with my daughter for flowers and hanging baskets. This is not my hanging basket nursery. 

I like my baskets with a variety of flowers and dangly vines. But this nursery has the best vegetable selection. Most of these nurseries also sell wholesale so you want to go early in the season before they ship everything out. 

These are the tomato plants, the primary reason for our trip. We like our tomatoes early so we cheat with patio plants. The prices at the nurseries are usually half the price of something similar at Walmart (which is the only garden center in my town).

There were many Amish housewives shopping today and I tried to be respectful about photos. This group hired a man with a white suburban and a trailer. Most were buying large ferns. We caught up with the same group later at the Amish grocery store. They sell sandwiches and the ladies were lunching outside at umbrella tables. 

I lost the grandchild! But the pots didn't tip. 

This year's plan for the grampa gardener's raised beds. He puts the lettuce in pots.  I made him a list to help with choices next year.  

We got home just in time for a rainstorm. I'm sure the tomatoes are enjoying a drink. 

Thursday

A better photo of my apple blossoms. 

I found some substitutes for my church shift today since my husband had an out of town doctors appointment. He neglected to look at the calendar when he made the appointment so we also took a preschooler with us since his teachers had an inservice. 

Since we were in the big town, we stopped to look at lighting fixtures for the bathroom. Of course I fell in love with one that was not on the shelf. A lovely clerk named Monique actually found a case that was being checked in and managed to secure the fixture for me. We also picked up towel bars, tp holder and hooks in a matching metal for the project spending only double what I had budgeted.  

Since we were in the big town with our little helper, we had to stop for lunch at Applebees which is his "date night" restaurant. It did not compare to my sandwich earlier this week. 

We headed home so I could make my Thursday dinner for my son's family on their way to soccer. Tonight was breaded pork steak, scalloped potatoes and carrots.  

They left for soccer and we left for a cocktail party fundraiser.  This is not our normal Thursday activity but I was there in gratitude that the party was not for me.  I was recently asked to serve as our county's Democratic Party Chair and declined. They almost begged.  I just feel they don't really know me. I told them from the get go that my mouth can't be trusted and I would not represent them well.  In addition, I really feel like more of an independent voter who isn't happy with almost anyone.  

They did find a chair and this was a fundraiser for her since the last chair did not leave much in the account.  I thought her name was familiar but she had to remind me who she was.  

Way back in the day (I believe 2017) I joined the Indivisible and thought we could save the world with postcards.  National organizations as well as state and local candidates would send me hundreds of postcards and mailing lists and I would host parties at my dining room table where we would address these to voters and write personal messages.  She had contacted me via facebook and volunteered to take some home to work on.  Several people also did that but she requested 300!  And let me know two days later that her husband, her sister and herself had completed all of them.  So yes, I did remember her! 

As I said, we don't go to parties like this and I promised my husband we would drop off our donation and leave. He was the talkative one, lol.  First we sat with an old friend of mine whose husband also retired from the railroad. They had to share stories. Then the county auditor who I worked with previously had a petition for reelection and my husband cornered him with questions and his opinion on property taxes. I was edging toward the door when we were caught by the mayor and his wife (I also hosted meet and greets for him pre-covid) where I found out some interesting gossip about the sale of property in my neighborhood.  Then the mayor introduced us to a district court judge made a two hour drive to this thing.  

They were all trying to corner me into volunteering for some kind of position, but fortunately I couldn't hear what they were saying with my ears blocked from the sinus infection so I just kept saying no and smiling. And finally got him out the door. 

I should mention I purchased a cosmopolitan at the bar. I drink about 2 cocktails a year so this is of note. The drink was $10 and I tipped. This is one reason I do not drink often. I guess this is what cocktails cost? I thought we weren't tariffing Russia - isn't that where vodka comes from?

I did speak a little with an old friend whose sister I was very close to when we were raising our children.  Her sister was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last summer and went through chemo and radiation. The cancer has come back and she is not doing well. She began chemo again, but is very ill and taking a break.  

She was the prettiest girl in my high school, elected Homecoming Queen and the envy of all. She was a few years older than me and I always admired her, she was my Taylor Swift.  When our girls started preschool I discovered in real life she was a sweet and kind mom and we shared so many adventures together. She still looked as gorgeous as ever, at her last class reunion she was voted "least changed" which I did not know was a thing. And neither did she.  The chemo has caused her to lose her hair and changed her appearance and she doesn't want anyone to see her like this. She doesn't want to talk to anyone or have any visitors.  I have been sending her a card every couple days.  I know this is a horrible thing for her to deal with and her husband is just devastated too. It's all so sad. 

Tomorrow I am hoping to take the husband and preschooler to visit the tomato plants at the Amish nursery. And late afternoon we are picking up the next oldest grandson for the weekend. He is a kindergartener and gets bored at his brother's sports tournaments.  Oh, and one of those tall grandsons tore something important in his hip yesterday and is on crutches for the next five weeks in hopes to avoid surgery.  His mother is thinking she will need tranquilizers for both him and her to keep him down. 

Meanwhile

I left us standing on the side of a road last Friday.  My daughter, who had borrowed our 8 passenger traverse for a birthday outing for my granddaughter was first to arrive to take us home.  Late afternoon on a holiday weekend meant no one would look at my vehicle until Monday morning.  All grandchildren headed to their homes and I believe we skipped supper after all that ice cream.  

Saturday morning I was up bright and early and my husband gave me a ride to the protest across from the library. There were three men in the gazebo when I arrived and once I got out of the car, two more women exited their vehicles. By the time our speaker started I counted about 61 in the crowd and at least a dozen more joined us as the morning progressed.  My daughter and three grandchildren arrived to pick me up and were chanting "Love, Not Hate, Makes America Great" along with the crowd when I got to them.  They want to come with me next time. 

Not my grandkids, photo by permission

We had a lovely birthday lunch for the nine year old at Bob Evans. I had three cups of coffee since I was afraid to eat or drink before the protest - I wasn't sure the public restrooms were open for the season yet.  

After that I returned home where I made the base for my asparagus soup (everything but the cream), 

Ready, set go

Cooking the base

(I love my emersion blender. )

Baked a 13 pound ham, baked a tray of split cornish hens flavored with lemon and honey and got ingredients ready for my red potato and spinach casserole.  

Easter Morning the ham and hens were reheated and put in crock pots. My plan was to reheat the soup base in my daughter's microwave and then add the cream in it's crock pot so that I did not have to try to transport soup in a crock pot.  Well, I forgot the cream. Not just forgot to bring it, but forgot it even was part of CREAM of asparagus soup. No one noticed.  And I baked the potato casseroles. I made 2 9x13 pans and it is one pan too many. Note for next year.  

They loved the amusement park drink passes. 

After the meal we were treated to a soccer game complete with a camera man, an announcer (with the paint brush microphone) from ESPN, bleachers and a concession stand. 

My daughter was wearing the cutest pair of jeans she found online at Walmart. They were almost like a bell bottom, but very cute. Both her mother-in-law and I found them on our phones and ordered them in "short" length because we are short.  They came yesterday and were miles too long, almost 12", and very unflattering. I returned them today in the store. 

They did not get a chance to look at my car on Monday. Tuesday we got a call it was the fuel pump which was replaced and we went and picked it up. The car only has 14,000 miles on it but, as I told my grumbling husband, now it has a fuel pump with zero miles wear on it.  It was all covered by warranty.  

We took the receipt from the tow truck to our insurance company and they wrote us reimbursement check on the spot which was very nice. And the insurance office is next door to the local appliance store. Of course I went inside to visit my stove. The price was still the same as it was in December and January and February when I visited and I decided the time has come. I should mention that the price is three times the price of my original choice as I have upgraded my stove dreams. I bought the stove.  It is being delivered next week. I am going to be scrubbing my stove and calling the offices of our local Catholic Charities who help people move into housing.  I can keep it in our garage until needed, but I bet they have someone in need.  There is nothing wrong with the stove really, I just dislike it. I purchased it during covid and I think the burners heat too hot and the oven is just wonky.  I do not recommend Samsung as a brand.  But it is better than no stove. 

I talked my husband into trying a new restaurant in our town. The owners formerly had a food truck with a few Irish dishes.  When a restaurant closed and later went up for sale, they purchased it and kept the same menu until they got their feet wet. They have a nice menu now and a liquor license. I have eaten there before with friends.  I talked him into a reuben instead of his usual hamburger order and he was very impressed.  I had a patty melt smash burger and it was fabulous. 

Last night my oldest son sent a message that a steam locomotive was leaving the yard where he works. My middle son and his sons were here for dinner and we left our plates and went to the crossing at the end of the street.  My daughter and her two joined us.

We were getting updates from other railroaders along the route and a little crowd gathered at our gate and others across the city. The locomotive was headed to the Cleveland area for excursions this weekend. As a plumber on the railroad Mr Merry used to fill their water tanks as they passed through. 

Today our apple tree burst into bloom and my husband is pouting.  I bought this tree in 1979 at a little farm market and it is some kind of heirloom apple. The apples are tiny and a little bitter and good for baking. Through the years I have had people stop and ask if they can buy the apples (which I can't remember the name of). We let anyone who wants some to have as many as they want. They are a lot of work to can into pie filling since they are so small.  The tree is fragile and won't bloom if the frosts hit at the wrong time.  Or as my husband thinks , the right time.  Some years we have blossoms and apples and some years we do not.  He took one look at the tree and said - well, I guess I will be making lots of trips to the city compost pile to keep the bees down. 

Every since I stopped PT I have had a sinus infection which is making me light headed so I have been skipping doing the therapy at home.  I am worse than a toddler.  

Off To A Great Start

We had a house full of grandchildren with no school today and whose parents had to work.  After lunch we drove out in the country to our favorite ice cream stand. We had almost made it back to town when my car coughed. And stopped. 

We had to call a flat bed wrecker. This is an unhappy man. 

These are concerned passengers.

The littlest one told his stepdad that a very bad thing happened but a kinda good bad thing too. (That would be watching the tow operator at work). We all loved the tow truck man. 

My oldest two sons work nights and were asleep. My youngest son was on special assignment with the police department and couldn't answer his phone. My youngest daughter was two towns away but was able to swing by and pick us up. 

I can't wait to hear what went wrong and how much it will cost to fix it. But at least we had ice cream first. 

Easter Dinner

In April 2006 I received my Family Circle magazine in the mail. And on page 142 was a Celebration of Spring Menu.  I made a grocery list (substituted ham for lamb chops since my husband has to have ham for every holiday) and went to the store. 

This has been our Easter menu almost every year since. And the Cream of Asparagus Soup is our all time favorite. 

My Cornish Hens are not that black. I cover with foil after they are brown. I also serve with lemon slices. 

I still have some frozen rhubarb and strawberries left from last summer. If I have time on Saturday, I will be making the cheesecake. 

The potatoes.  Delicious! I have enough to double the recipe but I am going to make it once to remember how many servings I think it makes. 

The rest of the story.  The sad part is that the recipes ceased to remain online when the magazine quit publishing. 

When I was searching for my recipes, I came across a number of clippings of meals we like.  I went ahead and scanned all the pages today and will be sprinkling recipes on my posts.  

Happy Easter! 

Another Tuesday

Well, in six minutes it will be a week since my last post. From what I can remember I was busy with physical therapy (now just continuing exercises on my own), working in the charity office, and lots of cooking. 

My divorced son picks his boys up in our town two nights a week. And now that spring has sprung, they have sports practices in my town and he doesn't have time to take them to his house and back in time for practice. So two nights a week they are coming here for dinner before practice. And since that is the same time my daughter picks up her two after school, we are now hosting dinner for nine every Tuesday and Thursday.  Last Thursday was spaghetti pie and tomorrow is baked chicken.  I love to cook and I especially love it when my kids and grandkids come for meals.

I have a special thank you for my friend Betsy from The Simple Life of a Queen who promoted this wonderful can holder for my trumpcession pantry. Luckily my grandson brought his tools to help assemble it. 

How is the bathroom remodeling project coming? Well, slow. But then we are old and slow so I think we are right on track. He did remove the rest of the wall tile and put up some temporary drywall. Here is a glimpse of the mirror. 

And here we are deciding placement over the cabinet (which is in my guest room). 

And here we are marking the bathroom wall so that he can make a cutout for the inset mirror cabinet. We can't remember if we had a mirror that was inset in the past . . . So we may find a surprise. 

Note, it will be higher. I am not sure how short he thinks I am as he kept asking are you going to be able to see to do your makeup? Or maybe he was insinuating that I need to wear makeup? Anyway. 

Our sneaky state government has restored the name of the fund that funds libraries in our state, but not the funding. See what I mean about sneaky?  So we are protesting on the sidewalk across the street this coming Saturday from 10am-noon. My signs are ready! And I will be home in time to make my Easter dishes. 

My lovely daughter is hosting Easter and I am bringing some of our favorite dishes.  Way back in the olden days, maybe the late 80's?, I think Family Circle had a suggested Easter Menu with a timeline so you could fix and ready dishes ahead.  I lost my original copy, found one on Ebay and then found mine so I have a backup. The original menu was lamb (we substitute ham) along with Lemon Honey Cornish Hens, a Red Potato and Spinach casserole, Cream of Asparagus soup and a dessert I can't remember.  I will be bringing my ham, hens, potatoes and the soup which is my favorite to the meal.  I also purchased chocolate marshmallow eggs for my deviled egg plates. 

Facebook claimed it was siblings day recently so I posted this. It was the beginning and end of my career as a dancer. 

It's Only Tuesday

Well, tonight I ended up with five adults and four children for dinner which was fortunate because I happened to have made two 9 x 13 casseroles. My daughter (who was a last minute addition with her two children) said, "You just happened to have two casseroles hot and ready five minutes after I call?"  It's like she never met me. 

I was going to take a photo of my beautiful table settings, but I forgot. 

I was supposed to be at a "Townhall" meeting with an invisible representative tonight. After I got tickets for a very special and inspirational speaker who was standing in for him, I remembered I cannot climb stairs or bleachers and that there would probably be stairs or bleachers. I gave up my tickets. It is my understanding it was sold out and over 1,000 people were in the overflow room. I have been getting texts and photos and wish I could have been there. 

I went to my final PT therapy yesterday and she gave me pages of exercises to continue with, each stage a little more challenging. I came home and had a bad attack of sciatica and could barely move the rest of the day. I am now using the ramp to get to my weekly Monday meeting.  Tomorrow (Wednesday) I have my final review, with someone new since my therapist transferred to a different facility after my appointment. I  have done well at therapy since I really hadn't had any attacks of sciatica or vertigo since I started.  But I don't think further sessions will change anything. I just need to keep up with exercises to strengthen my foot and leg and keep marching down the hallway with the head motions for the vertigo.  

Tomorrow we are going to "early" vote since I am not clear what is going on with the "Save" Act where I can only prove I am a citizen and can vote if I have a passport. And I need to apply for a passport.  Then I am having lunch with my high school friends at the same restaurant I will be having lunch with my library friends on Saturday. Small town life doesn't have a lot of variety sometimes, LOL.  Then on to my PT review.  Thursday I will be in the office all day and Friday the brown truck should be dropping off the stickers for my next protest sign. 

Ohio is changing how they are funding libraries since 1983 when the state established a Public Library Fund, based on a percentage of that year's budget, and distributes the funding for operating libraries. Communities have a property tax for infrastructure and maintenance. The State actually sent libraries a forecast of the funding for 2025 in January. They have now introduced an amendment to this year's budget eliminating the Public Library Fund entirely forever and replacing it with a line item amount that has cut the funding by 27 million dollars.  They have also included verbiage that requires libraries to remove any materials that might mention LGBTQ+ ( you know, like a newspaper or a book) as well as anything else "objectionable".  And your guess is as good as mine on that one. 

I worked for our local library as a library assistant, as well as children's programing, in the 1980's and 90's.  I had two objections made to the board at that time. One was that my theme of "Bells" for my monthly "Kindergarten Club" storytime  and craft for December did not mention the birth of Jesus and the other was for a book in the collection - The Little Witch Goes on Vacation.  This toddler level story book showed the Little Witch and her cat riding a broom to an island for vacation. The objection was that it portrayed witchcraft in a good light. I would like to say that on my Sundays off, I was a first grade Sunday School teacher where I did mention Jesus's birthday. We did not receive one complaint about the book of naked pictures of Madonna that had a long wait list for check out. 

My sign for this protest will simply say "Restore Library Funding".  

AFTER WRITING ALL THIS - And in the middle of proofreading - I just got a text that the state is already back pedaling on this.  They are going to restore the Public Library Fund, but are not going to use the same funding formula. I may wait until the last minute to make my sign to make sure what is going on.  Instead of a percent of the total budget which is how the fund was previously funded, they are going to assign an amount each year.  I think I am staying with Restore Library Funding.   

Meanwhile the state budget is giving the owners of the Cleveland Browns $600 million dollars to build a new stadium outside of Cleveland which is not making anyone I know very happy either. 

A Week

I have had a week.  I am faithfully doing my PT twice a day and it is wiping me out. These activities include walking up and down my hallway. I am a dish of jello. Meanwhile I have a star student. So proud

I started my week using my lego leftovers to make some signs. 

I attended a protest against a candidate for state governor who wants to abolish public schools. He wants to use my tax money for private school vouchers and the rest of us can home school. He used to be the co-chair of doge.

Me and 100 friends. My youngest grandson told his parents grampa dumped me out on the side of the road. 

The next day was warm and sunny and the preschool got to stand across from a man with a jackhammer! 

Registered for my state genealogy conference this year. This is from their Facebook page - so cute. It is at the end of the month and I am so excited. You may remember last year I won five door prizes, LOL. 

Did you see this? A photographer was taking portraits during cherry blossom season and planning to edit out the people walking on the sidewalk behind. The parents behind her were yelling did you get that!  And when she looked in her camera, Obama had passed behind them. So cool. 

And then we had a first wedding anniversary. They celebrated with pizza. 

Saturday arrived cold and windy and raining.  We were hoping for at least 100 people at our sidewalk along a state route in a neighboring city. 

Hat to keep the rain off my glasses, chair because sciatica. Woman to the left is a new friend who has health issues. I offered my chair as needed and she was a frequent sitter.  I had a second sign but a young man with dreads came unprepared. That one was Hands Off Unions. He asked if he could keep it. 

I am on the look out for a bubble umbrella. What a great idea. 

I met a woman in the parking lot and we became buddies. She is in her 80's and is a retired art teacher.  This Viet Nam vet was very animated about the loss of Veterans Health benefits, especially the defunding for Burn Pits and Agent Orange in the proposed budget. Luckily his wife was there to curb the language from our tender ears. 

I love a sense of humor. 

A screen shot from the video shows we were up to 700.  Yes. 7 times the amount of people we expected. I never left my spot because I didn't want to fall in front of another audience. But there were all kinds of people I was surprised to see, former members of my church, school friends and even my physical therapist and her husband. I met all kinds of new friends, too! Standing for three hours in an icy rain helps bond you together. 

This was the corner across from me. I stayed in one spot.  The traffic was unbelievable. It was bumper to bumper the entire time - in every lane! I have never seen this much traffic here. The local township police stationed an officer across from us as a precaution and there was only one ticket. Someone in a very large black truck thought it would be fun to blow a cloud of black smoke at us. He started way down from me and was out of smoke by the time he got to us (it was useless in the wind and rain anyway). Then he did it again for the second half of the crowd, but started squealing his tires and shooting the big cloud right in front of the officer! Dude, pay attention to your surroundings.  

Meanwhile, hundreds of honks and waves and thumbs up and fists out of sunroofs! Lots of waving little American flags out the car window.  I didn't know that was a thing, I guess I will be investing in little flags for the car. 

Some people drove by and dropped off cases of gatorade.  Another group bought deli trays of little sandwiches at Kroger and dropped those off down the line.  It was very sweet.  And we saw lots of puppies in car windows too. 

It was such a sense of community. Everyone was so positive and happy.  We all looked out for each other. I hope this sense of community spirit continues. 

I should mention the librarians. Our state has decided, along with the federal government, to eliminate funding for libraries and museums. One local library gets 90% of their funding from these sources. They were ready to fight! 

And then I got to come home, dry off and host a sleepover for these two rugrats.  Mom picked them up this morning, dried them off and took them to meet the REAL Easter bunny! 

And now we are scrubbing and deep cleaning our kitchen AGAIN.  We are at war with some tiny ants and I am about ready to get out the blow torch. And yes, we have dumped vinegar all over everything, we have dumped lemon juice all over everything, we have sprinkled cinnamon from ceiling to floor. We bought ant caps and then more ant caps. And sprays safe for kitchens and I think one that isn't.  He sprayed the foundation of the house with something I am sure is not safe for the environment. Today he went to the "man store" and gosh knows what he bought. I am staying out of the line of fire.