Labor Day Weekend?

I’m feeling a little melancholy this evening…

A quiet labor day weekend… no longer able to go to Camp Wanake and be “campers brave and true…”

Not able to go to Linwood and play some fun card games with family members…

I sit here in my living room alone…

OK… that’s not entirely true…

There is a 13 year old yorkie-poo snoring under the coffee table. There is a “fatty mcfat” calico cat sleeping on the loveseat. A white-ish cat just walked through… she’s a hot mess from her flea allergy. Sleeping on the desk chair is a black and white kitty missing her person (Lydia). Gingersnap, AKA Fred, was just playing with a stuffed racoon… NOT his racoon, but he claimed it anyways. He loves stuffed animals. The black blob, that is Jupiter and who is almost 21 years old… oh… poor jupiter… he is on is final journey… but that is a whole other story.

I am surrounded by yarn for multiple projects…

Still… I’m feeling a bit lonely. Daughter #1 is camping … Daughter #2 is probably camping too… Daughter #3 went to the Columbus zoo today… Daughter #4 is at the cottage…

It has now been 1,885 days that I have been a primary caregiver. I’m not certain how many more days there will be. It is getting more and more clear that the end is creeping up.

As I told a friend recently, I keep saying: I’ll take care of that… I’ll do this or that… when I no longer have my mother to take care of. But will I really?? I hope so. I’m sure I probably won’t do some of it. I just don’t have the motivation.

Last year, we had campfires regularly… I haven’t had ANY this year! Last year, our gardens were weeded and the yard looked good… we have a wonderful crop of weeds this year!

Since I opened the computer and started this blog, I have forgotten where I thought it was going to go!

In the past 5 years, my life has gone in directions I never thought it would!!

Of course, I expected to have an empty nest. However, I expected to be able to go and do things as we wanted to along with that. The day will come…

If you have known me for more than a few minutes, you know that I am very capable and can do just about anything. In the past 5 years, I have added more “nursing” skills that I ever really wanted to have.

At the beginning of this caregiving adventure, it put a huge strain on my marriage and family life. We have worked through most of that. I’m sure the full impact on the kids might not be evident for years to come. I tried hard to keep them a priority and make sure they got and did everything they wanted to. Once my mother was moved into my home… and even more so the past 6 months… it has become abundantly clear how much I need the help of Wayne. He has been a ROCK STAR in caring for his mother-in-law…. from giving her meds, feeding her, carrying her up the stairs, pushing the wheelchair down the trail so we can get exercise, and overlooking the household chores that I do not get done because I’m emotionally and physically spent from caring for her.

The other thing that has become clear to me is how glad I am that I finally have some friends in my life. Go back to some early blogs and you can read about how lonely my life was without close friends. I have friends now that have stepped up and allow me to be me. They listen, they talk, they walk, they text, they call… they provide a support system I had long been lacking. Now, if they would fold and put away laundry! LOL!!

Let’s come to some point with this rambling blog post.

POINT: It has been a horribly long 5+ years. However, some good HAS come out of it. I’m still lonely on occasion, but this time next year, I will probably be either camping or playing blimey OR BOTH. We are taking one day at a time and getting through, TOGETHER.

Grange Results 2021

I entered several plants and a few baking items in the grange this year. In fact, Lydia and I both did… but then she got a job, so I had to entered for both of us.

Cherry tomatoes (both of us) – nothing. But they have been tasty!

Herbs display (4 varieties) – (both of us) – one got 3rd, one got nothing. It ended up that I had 3 really great varieties (Sage, Rosemary, Basil) and had to scrounge some small baby dill plants for the 4th. = $2

Marigold specimen (both of us) – 2nd and 3rd = $1 + $1

Cone Flowers (both of us) – 2nd and nothing = $2

Cut Marigold (both of us) – 2nd and nothing = $2

Hosta leaves – small and medium for both of us… NOTHING!

Jade plant – 3rd = $2

Small House Plant (both of us) – nothing and 1st = $4

Large house plant – 3rd = $2

Herb display (yes… I know… again… this time it is supposed to be a bouquet, so I could just use the basil, rosemary, and sage) – 1st and 2nd = $4 + $3

Banana Cake – 2nd – but they seemed to really like the frosting! = $5

White Cake Pops – 1st = $4

Chocolate Cake Pops – 2nd = $3 (the ones that came in first were really, really cute, so I’m OK with second)

Dutch Apple Pie – nothing

And there you have the fair results for 2021. Unless there is something I missed in the art hall because I couldn’t see the tag – my filet afghan, primarily!

Art Hall 2021… sort of…

Went to the fair this morning to drop off baked goods and check my art hall results.

Unfortunately, while, yes, the afghans are displayed better, one cannot see the tags/ribbons on all of them. So, I’m not entirely certain of all of the results.

Here are most:

Any variation crochet granny – 3rd = $3.00

I didn’t get a photo there because it was too hard to see the ribbon from the aisle.

Baby afghan – nothing. 😦

Knitted afghan: First = $6.00

Thanks, Melissa, for loaning it back to me.

Fillet Pattern – I couldn’t see if it won anything. It should have…..

Rainbow/Fiesta: 3rd = $3.00 Can’t show you a photo because it isn’t published yet. Melinda, I’ll send you one separately! 😉

Unique use of leftover yarn: I’m pretty sure it got nothing, but it was hard to tell.

Any other afghan – I think it got nothing, again… hard to tell.

Crochet Toy: Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus – 1st = $5.00

Crochet Animal: sheep – 2nd (there were some amazing Llamas, that probably got first) = $3.00

Lydia’s Photos

BW Animal – nothing

BW Nature – nothing

BW Action – 1st! = $5

BW Architecture – 2nd = $4

BW silhouette – nothing

Color portrait- pet – 1st! = $5

Color nature- floral – nothing

Color special effects – 3rd = $3

Color action – nothing

Color sunset – nothing

Antiques

2 different sad irons – nothing

opera glasses – nothing

ladies handkerchief – nothing

shaving plane – 3rd = $2 (it was on a shelf too hard to see to photograph)

Your wedding china:

1. My grandma’s – 3rd = $2

2. My mother’s – First and BEST OF SHOW! = $5 +

I do have some grange results, but I’ll hold that till I get them all on another day.

Semi-successful year at the fair. Entries are down, but there is still some good stuff there!

On Hold

Do you ever feel like your life is on hold? That you are just waiting for something to come… or something to be done… or something to happen?

I don’t mean the kind of hold where you call the cable company and listen to bad music for 2 hours… I don’t mean the kind of hold when you can’t find a bathroom…

I know some people will probably say that they felt like their life was on hold while they raised their children. Waiting for the empty nest so they could do “adult” things that they wanted to do. THAT IS NOT ME! I loved raising my kids. We did lots of things as a family. I never wanted to hurry those years along. In fact, I would take those years all over again. I’m sad that in October I will no longer even have any teenager!

Was I looking forward to an empty nest? Not really…. maybe a little… but I so enjoy having a family, getting them all raised and out of the house, while important, was never some goal that I was constantly striving for.

However…. lately, taking care of a sen-ager… a quickly failing one… really does seem to have me in a holding pattern. This has been a long 5 years of caregiving. The first 4 weren’t too bad. She was able to do personal care for herself. We could still go and do many things without much disruption. These last 6-8 months have been steadily decreasing. I now feel like I cannot do anything that I really want… that I am in a holding pattern waiting for an end that I don’t know when it will be. I’m trying to keep doing some things, but there are just some things we cannot do. 😦

What am I to do? Nothing, I guess. I’ll keep holding on. I’ll keep ordering take out instead of eating in a restaurant. I’ll keep walking while pushing a wheelchair, on flat, boring trails. The hold could be short… it could be long… only God knows. Though, I sure would like Him to lean more to the short side.

Girl Scouts… still…

I haven’t written a blog post in ages… since I stopped blogging about the meal delivery services, I guess.

In the past week I’ve had a couple conversations with some friends and have been pondering this.

Info you may not know:

Girl Scout Motto: The Girl Scout motto is “Be prepared.” In the 1947 Girl Scout Handbook, the motto was explained this way: “A Girl Scout is ready to help out wherever she is needed. Willingness to serve is not enough; you must know how to do the job well, even in an emergency.” 

Girl Scout Slogan: The Girl Scout slogan, which has been used since 1912, is “Do a good turn daily.” The slogan is a reminder of the many ways girls can contribute positively to the lives of others.

Girl Scout Promise:

1927 
On my honor, I will try:
To do my duty to God and my country,
To help other people at all times,
To obey the Girl Scout Laws.

Current use:
On my honor, I will try:
To serve God and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

The GS Law has gone through at least 4 adaptations since 1912. I won’t bore you with that.

I was a Girl Scout from 1st or 2nd grade all through high school. I have been a leader/co-leader since Abi was in Daisies in 1999. I have been a lifetime registered Girl Scout for the last 18-20 years or so.

Now… to what I’ve been contemplating.

Do you have a friend(s) that if you step back and look at your friendship you think, why are we even friends? How did we become friends? Should we even be friends?? I had that question posed to me recently because I have a friend that, from the outside, you wouldn’t think we would have ever met, let alone become friends. The thing is, that is true!

In high school, I was the goody-two-shoes…. she was not. I went to church, was in band, didn’t drink, smoke or fool around… she was the opposite of all of that. We went to a HUGE high school (graduated with over 700)… how would we possibly crossed paths? I certainly wouldn’t associate with “burn outs!” She wouldn’t be caught dead near the “band nerds!” AND YET… here we are over 40 years later… walking together 4-5 days a week. In fact, she was even my matron of honor at my wedding! WHAT??? Exactly!! How?

GIRL SCOUTS!!

Yes, that’s right. In 1978/79 the “burn out” joined my Girl Scout troop! Because she enjoyed Girl Scouts. She enjoyed camping. She enjoyed the comradery of the troop. Her former troop was disbanding and she wanted to continue and my mother said yes to taking in more girls. There is the answer to “how.”

1979 Thinking Day

Were we fast friends immediately. Almost. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times my mother “warned” me that I shouldn’t be good friends with her because she was a “bad influence.” I did counter back that maybe I was a “good influence.” Maybe, I became friends with her to spite my mother… always a possibility… as a teenager, maybe this was my way to rebel?

I can tell you that 40+ years later (which is really impossible since we are not over the age of 28) we are still great friends. There was an era when we were not in contact as much… raising families and such. However, we have reconnected in the last year. Our 50-something year old selves are much different than our teenage selves… maybe… I’m still mostly a goody-two-shoes… she isn’t quite the burn out but still has some of those bad habits. 🙂

However, we are still accepting of each other, respectful of each other, honest… fair… considerate… caring… despite our differences (which from an outsider’s perspective is many)… we are still sisters through Girl Scouts! Isn’t that really the point of Girl Scouts? To teach girls that those many parts of the law:

Those parts… are NOT just for while you are active in a troop, but are to be incorporated into your life! They are to become a part of you and make you a better person. They are why a burn out and a band nerd can be BFFs. They are what we both hope we have taught our daughters. You shouldn’t judge someone based on outward appearances… you need to get to know people and accept people for who they are… and LIVE the Girl Scout law everyday!

Granted… that burn out… and band nerd… could have gone much different ways and parted company and never connected again… I think maybe… just maybe… there was/is a little bit of “goody-two-shoes” in that burn out… and little bit of “bad girl” in that band nerd… and together they bring out the best in each other. To look at them/meet them now, I don’t think you could guess the past differences.

THIS! This right here is one example of the great in Girl Scouting! This is why I won’t give up on the organization that has given so much to me for the past 50+ years!

AND… the cookies are yummy!

Too much garlic??

I know I promised this yesterday, but things got crazy around here.

We have been getting those meal delivery boxes since August. (See all those previous reviews.) If garlic is an ingredient, they usually send a whole head of garlic. Must be cheaper that way.

I had never bought fresh heads of garlic, but I did usually buy those jars of fresh minced/crushed garlic. Since I have so much garlic on hand, I decided it was time to make my own jars of garlic! I little bit of time on google… and here you go!

What you need:

All the garlic (OK… this wasn’t all of it but it was 8 heads)

Glass jar

food processor

salt

olive oil

1. peel and prepare all the garlic cloves to be chopped. Because some of mine were older, I also cut them in all in 1/2 and took the green sprout/growing part out. This step takes a while and your hands end up sticky and smelling like garlic! I think they still smell slightly of garlic yet today. 🙂

2. buzz them up in the food processor. Mine is a little tiny one that I got decades ago to make baby food in. I also use it to chop nuts for baking. Add a little salt when you do this. Helps with preservation.

3. Fill the glass jar. Press it down in there.

4. Add olive oil to the jar. Let it settle down between and fill the air pockets (if you have any). Fill it until you have a layer of oil on the top. This will also help with preservation and won’t let air get to the garlic and oxidize it.

5. Put it in the frig. The oil will solidify. Then you can spoon it out and use it as you want. Remembering that the garlic has a little oil and salt mixed in with it, so you adjust any recipes accordingly.

This is the 3rd time I’ve done this. I still have 3-4 heads in the frig that need dealt with, but my jar was full. This will last me a very long time!

I still have this much left in jar 2. 😉

Green chef – week 2… and final week

Delivery day was fine again. HOWEVER, the chicken was leaking into the box for the second week!! UGH!!

Meal #1 – shrimp

I added extra shrimp and some egg rolls.

Again with the over packaging. Precut veggies?? Really? I can cut peppers and onions. I don’t need to pay extra for that.

Rating: Wayne ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – very flavorful. Good sauce. Me ⭐⭐⭐⭐- good. Not quite enough noodles for 3 people.

Meal #2 – chicken

It was leaking chicken juice everywhere. 😦 I added extra chicken. I also added Brussel Sprouts for me and extra potatoes. I did the veggies in the oven instead of the skillet.

Interesting note included with the potatoes! What makes a potato conventional???

[ I accidentally deleted the finished photo – sorry. It was quite tasty and lovely. ]

Ratings: Wayne ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – solid 4! Pleasing and tasty. Lovely presentation. Me ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – very tasty. Esther ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2!

Meal #3 Pork

I added more pork and more rice. Again with the precut veggies. UGH!

I wasn’t a big fan of some of the spices.

[again… accidentally deleted all the photos for this meal… it wasn’t anything earth shattering to see.]

Rating: Wayne ⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 – like it but not as good as some things. Me ⭐⭐ 1/2 – the pork was good. The rice had waaaaaaay too many carrots and spices.

Green Chef – week 1

Back to trying other meal delivery services. There was a coupon code for Green Chef. Apparently it is “green” and organic! Whatever.

It did arrive promptly on the day it was supposed to. Something Dinnerly hasn’t been able to do recently. However… while the food might be “organic” – the packaging is definitely NOT green. Everything is prepackaged and in plastic baggies!

Another complaint: the chicken package was leaking a bit.

Meal #1 – Tilapia

OK… it has a mango and pepper salsa to make to go with it… but why are they already cut and in plastic bags??? I can cut mango and peppers. That’s why this is such an expensive plan.

I added an extra tilapia that I had in the freezer. I also added some brussel sprouts for me, since I’m not a fan of green beans.

We found this label funny! What did you expect would be in a baggie that says shredded coconut? Chocolate????

Cauliflower rice… what is the point?? It was very bland. I even added some extra garlic to it to try and make it tastier… didn’t really work.

Ratings: Wayne ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – very tasty. Great flavors. Run to eat. Appealing to the eye and the palate. Me ⭐⭐⭐1/2 – it was good. An interesting meal.

Meal #2 – Chicken

I added extra chicken and broccoli for a green veggie. It came with mushrooms. I don’t do fungus… but my mother likes it and Wayne tolerates it.

I was very UN-impressed with the chicken breasts. I have had better looking ones with the other meal services.

Barley – what is the point?? It is another long cooking thing like the rice and I am so over long cooking rice. Too tedious.

The chicken was to be removed from the skillet and put on a cookie sheet in the oven to finish it. I just put the whole skillet in the oven, so much easier.

Ratings: Wayne ⭐⭐ ⭐ – not very good. The broccoli was the best. Bland. Plenty of substance but no flavor. Me ⭐⭐1/2 – eh. Not the tastiest. Esther ⭐1/2 – not a fan of the barley!

Meal #3 – Greek Feta Burgers

I added extra burger and more potatoes. Good thing I was adding more potatoes because of the 2 they sent, one was completely rotten. 😦

Again with the pre-cut and packaged stuff. Why send me pre diced onions instead of an onion for me to chop?? After all, they sent an onion with yesterday’s meal. More trash created with the plastic bag.

The buns were very dry. Even the sauce on it didn’t moisten them.

Ratings: Wayne ⭐⭐⭐1/2 – good, not outstanding. Me ⭐⭐⭐ – fine. Nothing spectacular. I didn’t ask Esther her rating. She had one of the extra burgers and only the potatoes. I’d guess her rating would be⭐ ⭐at best.

Another week from Green Chef and then I’m bailing on the other potential discounted weeks. The discount is not nearly enough to make it worth my while. Back to plan that I actually like.

Some PW History

Again… this is from the 5th anniversary. Since then, obviously, things have changed drastically. 2020 was the first year without an ornament exchange. 😦

PW Email List History

and other memories…

Amy Osborn originally began the Pastor’s Wives E-mail List on June 28, 1998.  According to the list at Yahoo Groups, the members that joined within the first 6 months that still are members are C.C. Almon, Connie Armstrong, Bev Bowles, Kerry Cirillo, Elaine Peters, and She Wren.  The original Pastor’s Wives website was created shortly after the list came into existence.

On September 12, 1998, we had our very first ICQ Chat.

In October 1998, we had Prayer Sisters where we were assigned a fellow PW to pray for.  Later that month, we all sent in information and Amy created “Getting to Know You” pages for everyone.  That tells you how small the list was at that time.  Can you imagine having pages like that for everyone now that the list is so huge?  That month, we had a then record number of 40 members on the PW List. Here are some statistics from that month:

We are on the average 36.6 years old and range from 21 to 57. Here is the breakdown:

21, 27, 28, 2 @ 29, 30, 2 @ 32, 2 @ 33, 34, 37, 38, 39, 3 @ 40, 2 @ 43, 45, 55 and 57 years old.

The Fall/Winter of 1998 also brought about our First Annual Pastor’s Wives Christmas Ornament Exchange.  C.C. Almon has led that project every year.  ICQ Chats were also an event that everyone tried to participate in.  Jenny Lovitt posted our weekly prayer lists.  Various other areas of ministry opportunities for PW came about such as picture scanner, birthday lady, chat hosts, etc.

As the months continued, we talked about capping the number of list members, having “headers” in our subject lines, etc.  If only we knew what was to come in the next 5 years

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Our mission statement was shared with the list on November 15, 1998:

PastorsWives in an international, interdenominational Christian email discussion list for Pastor’s Wives and Ministry Wives. At the heart of the ministry is the Biblical principle found in Proverbs 17:17, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother (or sister 🙂 is born for adversity.” (NKJV)

This ministry exists to encourage and uplift Pastor’s wives and Ministry wives. This is done through:

1) Sharing prayer requests, praises, life lessons, humorous stories, favorite verses, and those trials and tragedies that occur in the life of a Minister’s wife.

2) Focusing on giving encouragement and lending a caring, nonjudgmental shoulder to cry on as needed.

3) Growing friendships with one another through group-wide, small group and one-on-one email discussions and on-line chats

The end of the year also brought about the Victorious Video Adventure where members signed up to have a video sent to their home, they video taped themselves, their families, their churches, etc. and then passed the video on to the next member.  I’m not sure where that tape is now, but I’d love to see how much we’ve changed in the last 5 years 🙂

In December 1998, we had our first “role call” where we shared all about ourselves with the list.  Late December also brought about the beginning of the Pastor’s Wives Webring for those of us with websites to link our sites together.

The first round of Secret Sisters started in January 1999.

5th Anniversary Poem…. 2003

I wrote this poem for the 5th anniversary in 2003. It is fun to look back on these things. Hard to believe I have been friends with some of the PWs for 20+ years.

Amy Osborn originally began the Pastor’s Wives E-mail List on June 28, 1998. 

Who would have thought five years ago The world would ne’er be the same. Friendships with women you did not know But all with the “Pastorswife” name. Together a community over 300 strong Has prayed and laughed through the years. Only God knew it would last this long And we pray an end isn’t near. Support and encouragement, love and hope, Are hallmarks of this “nation.” Women together helping each cope Regardless of race, age, or denomination. Rejoicing together and praising our Lord For the mercy and grace He has shown. Powerful prayers when in one accord We lift one before His throne. Friendships are forged across the miles With women we may never meet. But cyberhugs and cybersmiles Are what make this group so neat! So many memories over the years Stories and jokes and more… Surveys, laughter, and, of course, tears… What will the future hold in store? Though women come and women go The goal of “sisterhood” remains the same. Only God will ever fully know The impact of the “PW” name. The Heavenly Reunion we anxiously await Putting face with a name we’ll be able. All sisters because of our earthly mate Joining at the PW banquet table. God has blessed this group and ministry here With fishbowl living women. We pray for five or fifty more years… Until our joyous party in Heaven!