Today was a bit cooler but still very pleasant and there was no rain, so I was able to do some gardening. Unfortunately, the gardens were let go last year, I am sure and now are so overgrown that I am having great difficulty determining what is a plant and what is a weed and for that matter, where the gardens begin and end.

I drove to Falls today and took Mother her card and a bottle of wine. We are giving her the season tickets to the Sheboygan Theater Company again. She said today that maybe that is too expensive. I told her that we only asked her if she wanted them again because we were afraid that maybe it might be too much. But she and I went over things and we can take our time getting down into the seats and then take our time getting back to the car. She never goes to bed before 10PM anyway, so we won't be keeping her up much later than her normal bedtime. Dick and I would miss our evenings with her anyway.

I stopped at the cemetery on my way to her house and threw the flowers that Courney had for her birthday away. They were completely dried up. I kept the pot they came in. It is truly lovely.

Then I spent a couple of hours in the gardens in back. The weeds from the woods have completely covered the gardens that the person before Judy Richards put in. I am finding the edges which are surrounded by rocks and trying to determine what are weeds and what are actually remnants of the original plantings. Anyway, I am exhausted tonight. That was really hard work.

This afternoon the door bell rang and there was a delivery of a beautiful floral bouquet from Leslie and Bill. I was so delighted. They are perched right under the skylight on the counter where I see them every one of the "hundred" times I walk by. I also got a wonderful card from Bobbie today. I love to be remembered. Sometimes one wonders if one does a good job in our little vocations.

Tomorrow will be fairly quiet, though I do have to work at Rhine with Bobbie. Dick is going to take me out for dinner in the evening. That will be so pleasant. We do like our dates.

Love

Mary

Today was a whirlwind. Chelsea and I went for our walk at 6AM. It was just beautiful. If only ALL mornings could be that beautiful. I saw two cranes and heard them circling over to the south.

Then I cleaned the kitchen. The floor was filthy as Chelsea has been hauling crud in for a week.

I left the house at about 9:15. Stopped and dropped off the last items Mark needs to finish our taxes, went to Kohls and had to get a rain check on a weather radio and headed over to the Blood Center. Today was the annual blood drive my friend Peggy Feider puts on in memory of her son Joe. I now have my second bracelet that says A Gallon or so for Joe. They got about 100 donors coming in today. Quite a successful drive. Our friends, Ione Gregiore, her daughter Debbie and Shirley Moioffer came in for the first times. Shirley couldn't give as her iron count was low but we had a lot of fun anyway. This year they had some hand painted tiles that say thank you, I think made by patients who have received blood. Mine says Thank you Your on the spot. I love it.

Then I went to the house to run the water, air the place out and do a bit of garden freshening. Soon I will have to trim the bushes. Sure wish that place would sell. It is SUCH a nice place. We were very happy there. I hate to think of it empty and alone. Pray for new residents.

Tonight I worked the last day of league at Rhine. The shooters were done by 8PM and Bobbie and I left at about 8:45PM. Then when I got home, I zipped over to visit with Boots as Jim and Michelle are spending the night away from home while they visit a friend in Lake Geneva. I hope they take advantage of a trip round the lake while they are there.

The kid's mother is doing pretty well, considering the seriousness of the surgery. She MAY be leaving the hospital on Sunday. It will be determined if she can go home or should go to a nursing home until she is stronger and able to hold food a bit better. Please continue prayers for her.

I don't think that I ever shared the following poem with you. If I did, that is just how it is. I love it. It was writte by a Leo Marks.

The Life That I Have

The life that I have is all that I have,
And the life that I have is yours.

The love that I have of the life that I have,
Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

Have a great weekend.

Love

Marymom

Chelsea is bugging me to go to bed. It is 9PM and she doesn't like it when I stay up too late.

It was very warm today, up in the 80s. This morning it was comfortable and a bit foggy when we went for our walk. I started cleaning the "wine cellar" and added the yeast to the dandelion wine this morning.

Dick saw Dr. Hodous for his feet today at 9:45AM. They are very slow healing, the diabetes contributes to that, but we are slowly making progress. We stopped at Mother's on the way home so I could give her some of the chicken chili and cornbread for a meal or two. I know that Donna is always bringing her food too. She will forget how to cook pretty soon. I am going to bring her the recipe for the "Omelets in a Bag." That will be a great easy supper for her sometime.

When we got home, I finished cleaning the "wine cellar", the bathroom and my desk. Got a nap in too.

I hung the beautiful pot of pansies that Dick and Brenda gave us on the front porch so they can be seen by everyone driving by. Nothing like being smiled at by a whole pot of beautiful smiling flowers.

We just had leftover veggies and rice with Polish sausage for supper.

Tonight I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Kohler Art Center to hear Dr. Arthur Derse, professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Ellen Kort, the past Poet Laureate of Wisconsin speak on the importance of training physicians in the humanities along with the clinical studies that they do. The program has been in place for quite some time and is met with mainly positive but sometimes mixed reviews. Some of the students say, Why do I have to take this when I have spent all this time avoiding it in the past. Others love it. It is good for physicians to listen to the "stories" that their patients tell them.

I am really looking forward to the workshop with Ellen Kort on May 19 and 20. There is still a small doubt that it will take place as they need 6 people to sign up and as of Tuesday they only had four. BUT, they handed out several applications tonight and they were interested. Anyway, when I left I told Ellen that I was planning to spend my birthday weekend with her.

When Bret was a little boy, he saw a women wearing a red dress one day and said to me. "Oh Look Mommy. That lady has a dress just like yours only it is shorter, doesn't have sleeves and is a different color."

Love

Mary

Such a beautiful day. The temps got up to 78 (at least at our last look). The house did not get too hot and it was not too humid.

Chelsea and I went on our walk at about 6Am more or less. It was a perfect walk. When we stepped out of the door there was a pair of geese in the green space honking away. Chelsea was very excited but lost interest immediately when I headed her towards our usual route. (Not much of a hunter, that one.) The rest of the walk was pretty normal. I took note of all the dandelions in Lions Park.

When I got home and we were organized, we went grocery shopping, (after breakfast at the Family Restaurant. I had a pecan waffle that was excellent, and a stop to fill up the gas tank.) We got home at about 10:30AM.

At 11:30AM we went to the Plymouth Clinic for Dick's weekly blood test. Then we had lunch and I headed out into Lions Park and harvested a container of dandelion blossoms. Seemed silly to let all that harvest go to waste. I now have a gallon batch of dandelion wine fermenting in the "winery". I still have to construct or find a sign for that room in the basement to designate it as the "MaryE.R. Winery."

It took me about an hour and 1/2 to harvest the blossoms. If the wine is good, next year I will do two batches. Got to try it first.

We had Chick Chile and Corn Bread Muffins for supper tonight. I kind of adapted a Chicken Chili recipe to use up some leftovers and it was wonderful. We have two more meals of it. That is getting to be quite a problem. There are just too many leftovers. Oh. Well. We, or I, will work it out eventually.

From the Essential Handbookof Victorian Etiquette by Professor Thomas E. Hill.

From the Chapter The Rules of Conduct that Govern Good Society

Do not when narrating an incident, continually say "you see? " "you know" etc.

Do not use profanity, vulgar terms, slang, phrases, words of double meaning, or language that will bring the blush to any person.

I think that these rules sound basic and should be in force now. We have become too entrenched in the right of everybody to say anything they want under the umbrella of
"free speech". What about "free hearing."

Regarding the first. There was a saying on the wall at St. Brendan's that says "Profanity is ignorance made vocal." I love it.

May you sleep easy and deep tonight and wake up rested for the day.

Mary

It was a nice quiet day today. We did not have to go anywhere. Chelsea and I went for our walk at 6AM. The weather was perfect for walking and we really enjoyed it. The temperatures got up to 79 Degrees and it was still and rather muggy. Dick tested out the air conditioning this afternoon. It works, but now we have the conditioner off and the windows open.

I spent the day cooking and gardening. It was fun. Could have gotten more done if I had pushed myself but decided not to. The caregivers need to take care of themselves too.

Yesterday, when I was at Mother's, she sent the two books that I bought for her at Galena home with me so that I can read them. They are The Essential Handbook of Victorian Etiquette and The Essential Hanbook of Victorian Entertaining. She commented that the rules said that if a lady went to tea, she was to keep her gloves and hat on but if she went to a dinner it was permitted to take them off.

We are sure these rules were only practiced by the "upper class" though ---- Even when I was in High School, when Mother, Nora and I went to church, we word gloves and a hat. There were gloves in many colors to match the various outfits that we had. We were remembering a time when there was a hat that all three of us just loved. It was a straw hat with a wide brim with four large cloth roses in different colors in the brim. We all went to different masses on Sunday so that we could wear "the Hat."

We were remembering that when girls went to the prom they also had matching gloves to go with their formals. The gloves were long and reached way beyond the elbow.


Times have changed.

Love

Mary

I did not post Saturday or Sunday because we were celebrating Dick's 77th Birthday.

Saturday, Dick and Brenda, Bobbie and Bill and Jim and Michelle took us to the Villager for dinner. We had such a pleasant evening. Good food, good company and all that love can't be beat. Dick and Brenda then spent the night with us and were able to stay a bit later this time because they were not stopping to visit the other parent places on the way home. The kid's mother, Barbara, had surgery today. Our prayers are with her as it is a serious surgery. I placed her name on the prayer chains at both Blessed Trinity and St. John's. I don't know her personally but she raised four people well who mean the world to me.

The omelets in a bag were WONDERFUL. They come out just perfect. People can make them custom for their own taste AND they are all ready at once. I wouldn't have believed it but they DO just roll out of the bag, a perfect shape and really nummy. The Grandma Pekarski cake was good too. Brenda says now she KNOWS there must have been some Polish in my background. I don't think so actually. I am not sure WHO Grandma Pekarski is actually but she sure had a good coffee cake.

Dick and I left on his surprise getaway at 3:30PM. I took him to the Outback in Appleton where we used the gift certificate that Bret had given us for Christmas. They DO have good food. We were in the mood for steaks. The fillets were tender and tasty. They had a salad with a dressing with cinnamon covered pecans in it that was SO good.

After dinner we drove on to Green Bay to St. Brendan's Hotel, one of the four owned by our friend Rip O'Dwanny. I had booked a "romantic" weekend special. (A room with a whirlpool, a walk in shower, champagne and a full breakfast in the morning for a really good rate.) We had been talking about spending a night there and I felt this was a good way to GET away with not too much stress or activity for Dick. He really enjoyed it too. We were home before noon, rested and content.

The drive home was so pleasant with green all around us. We know why we live in Wisconsin. As we were driving along and Dick was dozing, I remembered the three things about farms that I know for sure.

1. If the cows are all lying down, it is very probable the it is going to rain.

2. Look at the round blue metal silos. If there is an American flag painted on it, it means it is paid for (Bart told us that.)

3. When corn tassels out, you can tell feed corn from sweet corn. Feed corn tassels out brown and sweet corn tassels out white.

And that's the truth.

Mary