What is This Bread?

This morning our tiny choir---tiny in number, not in avoirdupois or stature---is singing a communion distribution hymn from the CW Supplement called "What is This Bread?". With each stanza, a question is asked, so each of us, except for Miss Carol, has a question we sing on our own. I go first so I do not have to worry about forgetting which stanza is mine! I can just see me standing there smiling like a fool, wondering why no one was singing, and it was supposed to be me!!

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Oh, boy, it is a nasty, ugly day out there today! Grey and windy, raining a bit, "the sea was angry, my friends!". Some areas north of us have snow predicted so I will gladly settle for an angry sea. Earlier this week I viewed the virtual tour of a home for sale by one of the teachers at MLHS, and got the bug again about moving north. Where is this coming from???? Those virtual tours are really something, eh? Trying to draw me back to the cold, snowy north...indeed!

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I'm watching Fox and Friends this a.m. as I get ready for church and work on the computer. They are talking about multi-tasking. I can do this fairly easily, but am nothing compared the lady who was picked up for breastfeeding while driving and talking on the phone! I used to claim I could drive and shave my legs at the same time, which really impressed some people, the prospect of which baffles others. Here in Florida, as I am sure is true elsewhere, we spend much time in traffic, slowly moving, it is possible to do a day's work while sitting on Blanding! My former spouse often said the benefit of having a mobile phone was being able to do more than one thing at a time, instead of having to wait to get back home or to the office to address a situation on a jobsite. But, I can safely say I would never have tried what that lady tried, putting the infant at such risk.

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Besides the story of the multi-tasker, the anchors are showing spots from the CPAC event which has been going on since Thursday, with the keynote speakers being there yesterday. Wow, I wish I was there! So exciting and inspiring. Rosalie had asked me if there were "tea parties" going on around here and I had not heard of one locally, but later that same day, I heard one was held in downtown Jacksonville sans tea bags in the river. It is already brackish water so it would not have made a difference. It sounds like people are being stirred to action in many corners of my life, and I love it!

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Speaking of being stirred to action, last evening Joanne and I had stay-at-home time, with her signing letters for a monthly mail-out and me working on photos for the Flock Board. It was her birthday and we chuckled about how we know how to tear it up on her birthday!

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After worship today, one of the young ladies and I are going to freshen the existing Flock Board. I had planned to work on it the Friday after I took the LES Team for a drive around town, but Justin was coming here to clean and had forgotten his key, so I had to come home to let him in. Oh well......Tamara asked me about it, and I told her I was already on the project, printing off fresh pictures plus a couple folks had given me updated photos to use. The family with triplets still had a shot of infants in arms, and have since added a fourth son, so they gave me a current photo with all the kids featured, plus mom and dad. It is surprising how many people have photos of the kids only and not themselves. It really helps to have the entire family in the photo so others can get to recognize them, to put name and face together.

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It appears to be letting up some out there right now so will venture out to Bible study. The class on Sunday a.m. is the same study as Tuesday nights so is a repeat for me, which means I should already know the answers!! More later!

Pickers in my fingers!

And I smell of bleach. Even after changing my clothes and washing my hair, I still smell of bleach. Probably a shower and wearing my night clothes would answer that problem but since it is not even dark yet, I am holding off. You never know if someone is going to call about going to supper, even though I finished my leftovers from Koko's only a couple hours ago. I love when it happens---the last minute phone call asking if I have plans for dinner, and my rule is: if the phone rings and a better offer comes up, the stove (figuratively and literally speaking) is shut off and out the door I go! Once I had to wait until a pie was finished baking but still I went off to socialize!

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Last night, Jen called to report they were going to the "new" Smokey's on 218 and asked me to come along. Certainly! I had not eaten bbq in a long time, and did not last night either. I arrived before they did, so the waitress brought me a basket of some delicious looking morsels in a basket. She did not say what they were at first but then told me these morsels are "fried pretzels"! Imagine that! Little pieces of the doughy-style pretzels like they have at the movies, fried, and then salted and garlicked, if that's a word. Yummy! For my meal I had the hot dog and corn nuggets instead of the pulled pork because I ate too many pretzel pieces, I guess!

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It is incredibly windy outside right now, and a lone pelican is bobbing in the river as the water appears to flow away from the shore. It was over 80 degrees today, quite lovely, and perfect for working in the church yard with Tara and family. It is a huge stretch to describe that I "worked" with them but served in the leadership role Cindy recommended for this project. Tara brought gloves today as the other day she tore up her hands trying to pull the picky vines from among the bushes. I picked up what she pulled out in order to shove it in the garbage bag, but without gloves, ouch!!!! My knuckles on the right hand were full of pickers just from that little bit of handling. It gives me goosebumps even now just thinking about it.

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Carl came along with Tara and the kids to work on the A/C in the Fellowship Hall which evidently was on the fritz. He did something which included getting the ladder out, and little CJ helped him wash the filters with the hose. Then he came over to help Tara with some raking while Shiloh watched from stroller, no duct tape! In the meantime, I went in to do the vacuum cleaning in the church. Vacuuming always works up a sweat for me, besides it being warm outside, so I was mopping and vacuuming at the same time. At one point I looked up and there stood the Kelley's, having driven all the way over from Arlington to clean. We are having HUGE problems trying to figure out the cleaning, greeting, and altar guild schedules as some changes have been made to how it is spelled out. Not quite clearly enough, it seems. And the service folder tell us a different story than the posted schedule of duties. So, sometimes the church gets cleaned twice in a week by two different teams, or not at all some weeks. I think we need some clarification on this. Because they came so far, I left them to finish the cleaning and went back outside to oversee the flower bed.

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Two yard sales ago, I sold the pressure washer which had ceased to do the job it was intended to do, that being using pressure to clean. It lost its umph! My plan was to replace it and keep it at church in the garage, once we have a garage again. In the meantime however, the support columns which hold the changeable sign in the flower bed were quite black with mold/mildew, and no way to clean it---------unless...................How about a spray bottle from under my kitchen sink, mixed with dish soap and bleach, and squirted pump-style on the blackness??? No wonder my forearms are complaining now! But it seemed to have done the trick, at least, as far as I could tell. It might not be dark black any more, but was not quite white like it used to be. Only the pressure washer would remove the total soil, but for now, I think it will be okay.

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Little CJ helped his mama and me plant some of the bulbs in the loose soil in the flower bed. We decided to let the lantana grow back in but keep it groomed so it will not be so wild looking. It occured to me that perhaps the bulbs were irises but I simply cannot remember. Like Tara said, we will be surprised---yes, we will, we will be surprised IF they come up, and when they come up!

Well, that is the price I pay for sleeping!

All the missed sleep has been made up, and then some! After going to bed early, at some point during the night I woke up. I started looking around on the channels for something to lull me back to sleep, as I knew it was not morning by the color of the sky. I have no clocks in my room, relying on the sun or light to tell me when to get up. Must be the Indian in me!

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First I found "Roseanne" and let a couple of those go by, reminding me of my sister, Lori. When I got married and moved "away" from home, an hour and half south of my home town, she reported not missing me so much anymore when "Roseanne" was on TV!! On one particular episode back in '74 or '75, someone dropped dead in Roseanne's house and as the gurney is being wheeled passed her, she addresses the corpse with the words, "Say hello to Janis from me", prompting my phone to ring---some of my sisters calling---wondering if I heard that. Neat memory-stirrer, that one. I quit watching her program after it was not so funny anymore, cannot say exactly when that happened.

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Finding nothing else besides infomercials to listen to at that hour, I decided to use "Seinfeld" as my lullaby. The disc in my machine is one which has the "100 Episodes" recap, which is normally quite amusing and causes me to burst out laughing, but not this time.....back toward sleep I went. (If I put on Fox News Channel when trying to fall asleep, it has the opposite result, stirs me up as I get involved in the debate or discussion, certainly not lulling material!)

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At some point I woke again and realized the DVD had ended, so I just pushed the buttons until regular TV came back on, and went back to sleep again. Dream time! My cropping friend, Carol, was joining Martie and me for an afternoon of "work", but her hubby called with an urgent request for her to come home. We walked (now I know it's a dream!) with her to see what was going on, only to find their lawn under water from the sprinklers. Only, it was about a foot deep! Some lawn, and some sprinklers! Her hubby, not her real one in the dream, came out and was arm waving, cursing and swearing at her, all excited as if this was her doing. I reprimanded him for speaking that way to my friend. I guess his father had caulked the sprinkler heads open, thinking he was helping. These males were of Asian descent, another strange angle to the dream.

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Next we were on a huge airplane which had a workroom just for us to crop in, looks like a kitchen. Before we could work, though, we had to sit in seats for take-off and I realized I was cradling my friend, Ellen, in my arms and comforting her, as she held a photo of Billy in her hands. I told her how glad I was that she decided to go with us on this magical mystery trip, as I had no clue where we were going. She tearfully reminisced about how long she knew us (Justin and me) and how much we meant to her, sort of out-of-whack yet from her hubby's death.

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My project was making a housewarming present for someone with a pumpkin theme going on, but before I could get busy, I had to go change my baby's diaper. Where did the baby come from? You got me, but it was my baby! Through the glass windows on top of the plane, it appeared we were dangerously close to rocks, as though flying through mountain passes or something, but I assured all on board that we were fine. As if I knew!

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All of a sudden, as I finished with the diapering, a decision was made to land in Da Nang and someone was going to have get off and take another flight. Of the men on the plane, one was afraid to get off because he had been a prisoner of war, and since there was only a handful of people, including my now former spouse, but for the dream, still my spouse, and the baby, I volunteered to get off. One man cautioned me, gave the serious warnings about the danger, drama, and possible death, but I still said I would go. And my spouse was going to let me, and leave the baby with him! The other man said there are no bathrooms in Da Nang so I said I would take some diapers with me, and he said, "All we have are toddler size", as if those would not quite do the trick. I think I could have made them work, but we will never know, because I woke up.

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I used to tell Justin to write down his dreams because his were so interesting. A fortune could be made by us and for others, in the book stores and on the analysts' couches!

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Once he was relating a dream to Mom and me and I could tell he was pausing, thinking, and then going on. I said, "You're making stuff up" to which he replied, "I'm just adding details for interest." Mom and I lost it, just lost it, and realized that's why we HAD to send him to St. Johns!

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Dreams seem to be recap of a day's events or a lifetime of events, some real, some too real, and some not real at all!

Oh, by the way-----I just found out this is my 500th posting!!!

I forgot to mention earlier that I am meeting one of our younger moms at church tomorrow to work on Timmy's flower bed! She volunteered to pull weeds and help make our church property look presentable so together we are addressing the front flower bed by the sign. In the past week one of the male members trimmed back the lantana which is planted in that bed so all that remains now are the trunks. Lantana is good for attracting butterflies and looks quite pretty when it blooms but also tends to grow a bit wild and looks unkempt if not kept trimmed. I must confess that I have basically been ignoring the flower bed since none of the flowers I would plant in there could live without irrigation, which has been out of service for a long time. There are a couple statues in the memory garden, including one donated by my friend, Cindy, plus one the Douglas family gave us on the first anniversary of Timmy's death. It had been at the cemetery all the while until I had to remove the decorative pieces last July. Now it sits in the flower bed at church in a somewhat obvious spot.

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I had some flower bulbs in the freezer since leaving The Preserve house so I hope they are okay, Joanne seemed to think they would be okay to plant. Tara and I are meeting at church after lunch to stick some bulbs in the soil and wait to see what happens. For some reason, I cannot recall what type of bulbs they are, some sort of lily, I think. In a few weeks there will be an official work day to address the property and get things in order for Easter and at that point mulch can be added to help dress up the flower bed. Tara is taking this bull by the horns and I am privileged to witness to it! She made me chuckle by saying she would use duct tape to secure her young daughter to the lamp post so we can work! Hopefully she is willing to do the bulk of the bending and kneeling work as I am so out of condition for doing this type of yard work anymore!

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It is my opportunity to serve as church cleaner with week so will take care of that before Tara gets there. Judy J. wanted to come with me to see what is required to clean the Lord's house but she might still be keeping her neighbor company on Saturday. We are in such need for volunteers to clean, and even though it kills my back to do it, I will keep my name on the list. Our little vacuum cleaner is so nice, lightweight with a beater brush attachment, but according to Judy, vacuum cleaning is the worst things on backs. Mom will attest to that one! Hers has bothered her for years, and it's all she can do to vacuum her floors.

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One of the ladies who is again serving on the Building Comm. was there last night and asked if there was anything her granddaughter could do to earn volunteer hours needed for school. I guess the criteria is only that it be unpaid service so it was suggested she help with the painting on the classroom building, helping with the Spring Cleaning day, volunteer in the nursery on Sundays, maybe watch kids while their parents are planting bulbs in flower beds....There are many serving opportunities for young men and women, so many that I had a hard time coming up with them on the spur of the moment! Justin earned his hours helping out in the preschool during the summer, but I think that won't work now since the State has more stringent rules in place for the preschool.

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The weather has been most pleasant here the past couple days, with high today being in the mid 70's. Tara and I might be sweating bullets Saturday as it's predicted to reach 80, but then plummet as thunder showers roll through. My friend, Julia, is in Atlanta a potter's workshop and might have to experience driving in snow on Sunday, as foul weather will be passing through there on its way here. I hope the snow stays north where it belongs, and that she gets home safely! Joanne is going up there on Monday as she has a "meeting" planned with King Tut! She asked me to go along but we had already spent time with the King in Chicago a couple CHRISTmas's ago. The first week of the month is too busy for me to go bumming anyway so I will stay here and hold down the fort while she ventures north into snow country!

Koko's for lunch, what could be better?

This morning I was thinking about Carrabba's, having not been there in months, it seems. A fellow I know in Morton Grove who used to work at Carrabba's here reported cooking this type of cuisine for a group at church, which simply made my mouth water! Mmmm, I have had some of Duane's marsala sauce and I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between his and the restaurant's sauce. But since I was not going to Carrabba's for lunch.....

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...I now smell like Koko's. Joanne called me last night while I was at the Building Committee Meeting so I was not able to answer her, but she was up when I got home last night. She said her sister, Toni, and Dad wanted to go have lunch at Kan Ki Japanese restaurant and asked me to join them. Sure! I arrived first at Kan Ki and found the parking lot to be empty, with the opening time posted on the door being 3:30 pm. Nuts! I called Joanne right away and told her the news, so we met at Koko's instead. Yippee! Her dad was not in the mood to eat but the rest of us enjoyed our personally prepared feast cooked by Hung. He always makes an onion special for me as I do not care for the veggies. Such excellent customer service! I have brought half home for either myself or Justin. And Toni paid for my meal, which was icing on the cake!

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After lunch we stopped in at Hang Ups to say "hi" and for Toni to see the lovely art and gift items. They went down to Maggie Moo's to get their dad a strawberry malt so I sat with him at the store until they came back for him. Clyde had gotten into a conversation with another customer regarding their shared service in the Air Force which brought Clyde sort of back to life for a little while. I stayed and chatted after the rest left. Clyde was finally hungry now, since he was getting his favorite treat!

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Justin could not join us as he was quite busy finishing up a house, ready for the final walk-through, and then had to go back to the office to clear some space for a renter moving in today. Whew! He has been kept quite busy on the jobsite these past weeks and it seems he has sort of taken ownership of his job.

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He told me yesterday that he is not been keeping up with the applications he put out closer to his home and school. I realize jobs are not easy to come by for anyone these days but I still encourage him to find a job where he does not have to drive quite so much to this side of the world. Yesterday we talked about how I miss my house on the lake but am glad to have sold it when I did, and he said we had to get away from the spiders! I thought he was over the spider-fear problem but he assured me that, no, oh no, he still has no use for spiders!

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Kelly T. and I had talked about going to Victory for scrapbooking tonight but now that she has her dad and mom staying with her while he recuperates after knee surgery, she is hesitant to be gone so long and leaving them home alone. Since I am weary, it might be for the best to stick around here tonight. Judy J. is staying with a friend/neighbor at the hospital where her hubby is in need of a heart procedure but will be coming by on her way through tonight to pick up the balance of her tuna salad and croissants leftover from Ash Wednesday. She had expected to leave the hospital that day in time to be at church but the neighbor was not doing well so she stayed with them. Our shared friend, Linda O., called me today as I was coming home from Hang Ups to see if I could have lunch with her mom and her at the China Buffet on Tuesday before Frieda heads back home to MN in a couple weeks. Wow, first a couple meals of Japanese food, then a hankering for Italian, and next week, Chinese! Judy will join us if the neighbor is doing okay by then....If I am ever sick, I want Judy on my team!!!

I thought morning would never come

My poor eyes are so tired this a.m. because I barely slept a wink last night. Add another exercise to my work-out routine----tossing and turning 3/4 of the night! Although I had made up my mind to not let things bother me, I never should have allowed the thought of not letting it bother me into my head at all. Make sense? The harder I tried to sleep, the worse it was to let go, and let God.....

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My mistake, depending upon how one looks at it, was venturing to the mail center in the lobby to see what was stuffed in my box. Much to my chagrin was a big, fat envelope from my attorney, which means, which means, which means---what? Once upstairs I opened it and found a more paperwork which spells out about the upcoming Court date in March. My "advisor" friend from church reminded me, certainly the judge will sort everything out fairly, and he further advised me to "not lose any sleep over this" so I did!

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Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? 28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

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I do not wish to be thrown into the fire and truly I was not all that disturbed or upset by this packet of papers, but my brain took over and perhaps even the evil one wanting to stir me up when I was not even willing to go! Joanne told me this a.m. that she also had trouble sleeping and knows nothing of my paperwork---she just might have her own things stirring 'round in her pretty little head! My head kept going to "In Christ Alone" and those fine words offering their calming arms. One of my first memories of this anthem was sitting in the pew at First German, watching the slide show about the young people of the congregation on their trip to Washington, DC to canvass and such. As the slide show played, this small choir of young voices sang this hymn in the background, with periodic shots of them standing in front of the mission congregation they were assisting with outreach. Justin looked over at me, cautiously, and saw, of course, the tears rolling down my cheeks. He squeezed my hand because, as he told me later, he knew that was going to get me. "For I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ." "No scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand....." So, tonight, I sleep, confident in the promises of the Savior.

Back to the Soup and Sandwich Supper

I was delighted to be in charge of the first annual (and probably last annual) Ash Wednesday Soup and Sandwich Supper at church last night, held before worship. The thought was to streamline the evening for parents with small children and anyone on the way home after work to be able to just show up at church, have a nice supper, worship, and then go home. Seems smooth enough to me! I made a kettle of my famous chili, changing it up by using some dark turkey meat Joanne had bought and wanted me to use. Not my first choice, obviously, but it did the trick. The chili and its assembly was flawless and the house smelled wonderful while it cooked. It is the Bloody Mary mix that makes it so delicious, I believe, as well as the can of beer I pour in. Talk about mixing drinks!!!

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My next kettle of soup was a recipe provided by dear friend, Judy R. in MN, for beer cheese soup. Again with the beer! It was really quite easy to make except for the fact that I saw fit to burn some of the veggies instead of sauteing (is there a thin line I was not aware of????) but managed to pick all the black pieces from the pan, transferring to another pot, and soaking the black-bottomed kettle in hopes it would come clean. It did, after I dissolved a cube of dishwasher soap in the pan as it soaked, something I learned from my friend, Jean Nichols. (To my family: I need a new soup kettle for CHRISTmas. My Teflon one is losing its finish.) Can you believe I am asking for kitchen tools???

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After I got the overcooked veggies taken care of and the balance of the ingredients mixed in, the soup took on substance, and as Judy informed, it was more thin than I would have liked. I added more flour to thicken and was surprised the recipe did not mention dumplings, which formed upon the adding of flour. No worries, I squished the dumplings with my spoon and moved on. I added a package of shredded cheddar cheese which enhanced the cheesy flavor. Justin came over as planned to help me transport the kettles plus the other food items to church. He carefully packed both containers with towels to protect them from sloshing around as we drove to church, but I still have a wonderful aroma of cheese soup on my floormat in the backseat. Oh well.....

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He helped me get the stuff inside, set up some tables and chairs, etc. while I put the soups on the stove and plugged in the cheese soup kettle. I was only away for about 10-15 minutes, putting out the plates, napkins, bowls, etc. When I stepped back into the kitchen, I discoverd the kitchen counter between the two stoves was layered in cheese soup!!!! Oh, my goodness! It had boiled over and made quite the mess. My good soup! As quickly as I could, I grabbed a cotton towel to help stop the run, mopped the floor and front of the cabinets, and used paper towels to start corraling the mess into a neat pile. Sandy D. came in and saw my dilemna, pitching right in with paper towels to wipe the mess. She grabbed the wastebasket and we simply swept the entire pile of towels into the trash, using my bare hand to push the rest along into the can. Whew! I know that someday when the stoves are pulled out for some reason, there will be soup dripped down the sides of the stoves and cabinet!

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As mentioned before, only a handful of folks came to enjoy our feast, which included my two soups, plus clam chowder and chicken 'n dumplins' brought other folks. Two other families brought sandwiches and cookies for less than two dozen people including four children to consume. It frosted me when I found out that some people who could have dined at church for free, with "family", opted to have Mexican fast food instead. Here comes my Pharisee-side again! This means I have leftover soup, somehow or another, after all the sloshing and boiling over, in my fridge, to live and die another day!

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Jim and Janet sat with me, as I wanted to be in the main aisle in case people came in, so I could invite them to join us. We had the best laughs! Janet was telling how some friends of theirs from MI are coming down on some kind of break from the school where they all taught, and all will be staying in a hotel in Daytona, using their vacation package. When Janet got the confirmation from the resort where their time share is located, the message started: Hello, bikers. What? Here it turns out this group of Lutheran school teachers and their spouses will be staying in Daytona during the most vulgar of all times---Bike Week!!!! Oh, how we laughed at this picture. Jim, of course, as laid-back as he is, was saying how much fun that would be, but Janet warned the guys not to take any binoculars along. I asked what they would use to keep their eyeballs in their heads then? Fists, perhaps?? That is in keeping with recently read Scripture passage from Tuesday night's Bible study about the right eye and plucking it out if it offends you........

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Being a good friend, I offered to lend Janet my leather chaps and halter top, and she believed me. Poor Jim couldn't eat another morsel after that! Fortunately they are only staying there a couple nights before heading to Orlando for more fun. Janet said the one lady is someone with whom she attended DMLC so they go back many many years.

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Janet gave me the President's binder for the Ladies' Group meeting on Monday as they will still be traveling. Twila should be good to go for heading the meeting again so I will have to make sure she gets the book and such again. No rest for her, she has already missed one meeting this year!

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Well, tonight is yet another Building Committee Meeting. Like someone told me the other day, "and this was the "easy" project!", as we go into nearly six years from conception to this point. It is getting to be "old" but we must press on toward the goal, no good for us to get weary now. The temperatures are warming up nicely, with the high reaching 72 today so far, and hopes of 80 by the weekend. Sorry, you folks in the upper midwest who are awaiting yet another snow/sleet/wind storm. I pray Linda and Tommy have safe travels to Madison to see their grands! Am anxious to hear about the visit!!!