Today was the first day of the workshop at Kohler Art Center with Ellen Kort. The morning started as usual with an early walk for Chelsea and me. Then I fixed breakfast and puttered on the computer. Actually it became more than a putter because I managed to get down the rough start of a poem that came to my mind on the walk.

I arrived at KAC at 10AM for the workshop. When they were considering canceling, they were short two and they actually got three so we did have a security person. The group are all women and are all interesting people. Two came from Port Washington. We all introduced ourselves and then Ellen began her teaching. She spoke for a while, then we were taken on a short tour of parts of the museum by Lisa Vejos, a member of the staff. We then went outside into the gardens around the museum itself for a session of writing haikus (or really any short poem) on what we observed or felt out there. We then reconvened and shared some of our poems.

Here is one of mine:

Amid the daffodils
And flowering white crab trees
Dwelt a dandelion.

The writing and sharing IS the most fun part. Putting into practice what she talks about.

We then had lunch (I had a nummy Caesar wrap and a cookie) and shortly after that headed to the James Tellen Sculpture Garden in Black River. I did not even know that this existed. It is a garden with cement (at least I think they are cement) sculptures arranged along a pathway through the property. It is fun. I must take Dick there sometime. Some of the sculptures are quite good and they are all interesting. We spent some time wandering that path and writing whatever struck us there too. I came up with a couple of writings there too. Only one related to the sculptures, I will share that with you too.

Standing Stones
Built by God or man
Would knowing the builder
Change the beauty
Standing Stones.

Then we had some more words of wisdom, teaching and suggestions from Ellen before we scattered for the evening. Tomorrow we meet back at the Art Center at 10AM. So I will go to the 8AM Mass and hurry home to fix a quick breakfast for us.

Dick is going to take me out for dinner tomorrow night and for every meal on Monday for my birthday. Isn't that a fun idea.

Tell you more tomorrow. Today was beautiful. Tomorrow is iffier as far as the weather. Sure glad we did most of our outdoor stuff today. Tomorrow we are going to make an embellished personal keepsake book. Dick is sure impressed with that.

Love

Mary

Another busy day. This morning, I cleaned the kitchen while getting the meat and onions all browned for the Calico Beans that I made for the Bust Up dinner at Rhine Plymouth tonight.

The bust up went very well. We had lots of food left over but the club is putting on a Lewis Shoot on Sunday so can use most of it at that event. I got a plaque for first place as sharpshooter in the pistol league. It is quite a nice plaque and I will hang it. My shooting fell apart in the middle of the league because I was so tired and couldn't get focused BUT with the decent beginning and the fact that I was settling down at the end, I DID end up with a 50.2 average so I ended up over 50%.

I am really tired tonight and am so looking forward to the poetry workshop at Kohler Art Center with Ellen Kort. I was rereading the summary and see that we will spend time writing and create an embellished personal keepsake book. (Doesn't that sound oh so cool!) That will also be a fun thing to share to the Plymouth writer's club on Monday.

Hope all is well with you.

Words Women Use:

1.) FINE: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

2.) Five Minutes : If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

3.) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

I will send you some more words tomorrow.

Love Mary

Sunshine all day. Chelsea and I trotted all around the neighborhood and through the park to day. Several areas had been mowed and she came home with a lovely green tinge on her paws and underbelly. She is not a happy girl when I have to towel her off.

Dick got his finger blood test from Sue today. His count is still just a bit low, so his meds are changed again. Now he is back to the dosage that kept him stable for all those months. We are hoping that now that he is off of the antibiotics this will settle him down.

We stopped at Evans to pick up a few plants. I still need to find some Lavender. I actually have some seeds planted but they are not coming up very good so far. We stopped at Mom's on the way home too. I took her some muffins, scones and broccoli/cauliflower salad. She looks good. Yesterday, was the first day that the cleaning person came. Mom seemed pleased with the results and I know that it is a load off of her mind. I dug up some of her lemon balm to plant out in the back garden.

I picked up the Nescos from Rhine after lunch and dropped them off at the Pig so that they can fill them up with chicken and potatoes and Matt can pick them up tomorrow for the bust up dinner. I will make the beans tomorrow too.

Then I did a bit of planting. First I had to get some more weeds out of the bed. I just have one more stretch left. Today, I found green onions amid the weeds. Some must have gone to seed last summer and come up on their own. Anyway, I planted the lemon balm. Those beds are going to take a lot of work and I have to decide how much of them I REALLY want to keep.

I also planted the hanging pots that will go on the hooks in the front flower bed. I will wait until tomorrow to hang them because it may be a bit too cold tonight. No sense taking chances.

Got a call from Michelle this afternoon that Barbara, the kid's mother, had to go back in for more surgery. Apparently she has pneumonia and possibly a tear in the intestines. Jim and Michelle came home but did not tell us what is happening. I can only pray for her and my step children. It is so hard to watch someone you love in distress.

I received a nice letter from Nora today. She was going back to training on Monday. If all goes well, she will graduate on June 8. Let's all root for Nora and give her all the support we can. She is really determined and I am proud of her.

The Mother's Day flowers from Leslie and Bill are still beautiful and brightening our lives.

Love

Mary

It was really chilly today. Chelsea decided to take a short cut on our morning walk (which didn't break my heart at all.) She cut into Lions park after we finished walking around Cattail Court. There is an entrance to the park over the railroad tracks at that juncture and once in a while she decides to go that way. It was cold enough that I was just as glad to have a shorter walk.

We had our fourth diabetes class over at Valley View. There were five diabetics and two spouses at the class this time. That is the biggest attendance that we have ever had. The discussion this time was on cooking, portions, substituting ingredients and that type of things. One of the diabetics is really struggling with the whole concept. It does take a lot of thinking and involves changing eating habits. Dick is doing pretty good. Probably because when things got serious, he got that infection which resulted in NO appetite which has kind of gotten him used to smaller portions and making things count.

Then we went to the bank, grocery shopping and to get his blood test done. We got ALL of that done by 11:00AM. I was really proud of us.

Then I fixed us lunch (It wasn't too difficult, we had picked up a fruit salad at the Pig and I split it up on two plates with a scoop of cottage cheese.)

I am trying to clean out the freezer of the older things and found some cranberries so I went on a baking frenzy. We now have scones and muffins. I also made a nice big Broccoli and Cauliflower salad. Tomorrow on our way back from the clinic we will stop at Mom's and give her some of each.

We worked more on the guest toilet, but it is leaking and still making that noise so I guess we will have to call a plumber. We are going to stop at Menard's tomorrow to see if there is any advice or recommendations. We will also look for plants unless it is raining.

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now,"
he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But
for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm
wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at
all." This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor"
column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until
someone wrote this clincher: "I've been married for 30 years now.
In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of
me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I
do know this. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to
do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically
dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would
be spiritually dead today!" When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to
something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives
the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

"When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say,
"Jesus, could you get that for me?"

Hope your Thursday is super.

Mary

It rained most of the day today. Not expected. The forecasts said scattered showers and from the maps, I truly expected them to be either north or south of us, but here they are. We can use the moisture so I won't complain. I had, however, planned on doing my plant shopping today. I don't like to do that when it is raining so it is put off to a sunnier day.

Chelsea and I timed our walk perfectly, well before the rain. We waved at Jim and Michelle as they left this morning.

Since we couldn't go shopping, I cleaned the refrigerator instead. That is always a job and now I know what is there and that it is all good stuff.

This afternoon, Dick and I filtered the Riesling. Now we can wait a couple of days and then bottle it. Then we can mix up the White Zinfindal kit that we have down there. We have decided to continue wine making. You can all exhale. We are just going to pare down a bit. We will only have ONE 5 or 6 gallon batch going at one time so that we can keep it up on the bench and so that Dick will not have to be lifting those heavy jugs.

Today was the first day that I wrapped Dicks upper legs. I wrapped a bit tighter than we did yesterday and they more or less stayed. He finds that he has to be very careful when he pulls down his sweats as this jiggles everything. But I think we are making headway.

I am going down to watch Dancing with the Stars and to quilt. So I will sign off now. This morning I heard a wonderful quote from Rob Lowe. Not his quote, but something he lives by. "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." Makes me think anyway.

Have a great Wednesday. We will be busy again.

Love

Mary

It was hot today. I saw a maximum of 86 degrees. I am sure that Bret would disagree with me as their temps have been up in the 90s or more and they are in a drought situation. That is why there are all the wildfires.

I was very happy yesterday. Bart called about 8:00PM to wish me a Happy Mother's Day and I told you that Bret had called at about 4:30PM. Bart and Barb had just gotten home from Lubbock Texas. They were there for a very illustrious and special occasion. Barb's son, Timothy graduated from college. The first four years anyway. I must ask Barb if he is done or has to go on for a specialty. But he has the degree now and can map his path. I am proud to call both of her boys step grandchildren. Timothy is handsome, smart and very charming and Adam is handsome, smart and doing well in the Navy and has also provided me with three beautiful step GREAT granddaughters.

Dick had his evaluation at the Lymphadema Clinic. He will be going back for four weeks for continued therapy, including wrappings, massage therapy (involving the compressions that Leslie told us about) and several other things. We are trying to bring down the swelling in the upper legs.

I went to Bible Study this morning. We had a full table. The readings for next Sunday are about the Ascension of our Lord. It will be interesting to see what Fr. Van Beeck has to say. I will be distributing communion this Sunday.

I got a call this afternoon from the Kohler Art Center. The workshop with Ellen Kort is ON. They got at least the two more participants that they needed to go on with the program. They called to ask what I wanted for the lunches that they are providing. I opted for a chicken/Caesar wrap on Saturday and a strawberry spinach salad on Sunday. We will meet at 10AM on Saturday and move from there to the Tellen Sculpture Garden in Black River. Saturday is from 10 to 4 and Sunday from 10 to 2.

Tonight I went to the Sheboygan Falls Library to hear my friend and fellow writer John Textor give a talk on the story he wrote called Phoenix - the Fateful Journey. He have a lot of insight on the conditions and types of travel and some information that turned up after the book published. He hears from descendants of survivors often. John is co president of the Sheboygan County Writers this year.

I am not going to be any more clever than the above tonight as it has been a full day. I did want to mention that we will be wrapping Dick's legs from the feet to the upper thighs now and he will look somewhat like a mummy. To top it off, today the ace type bandages started unwinding and he looked rather like a decrepit mummy. Must master that problem.

Mary

Mother's Day is almost over. I got up at 6:00AM and Chelsea and I had a very nice walk. I am trying to figure out WHY it had to be 36 degrees out there in the middle of May. But there was no wind to speak of so we were quite comfortable. As a matter of fact, Chelsea really does enjoy it when the temps are a bit cooler.

Mass was very nice. Fr. Van Beeck spoke eloquently about the relationship of a mother and child being comparable to the God/us relationship. When I got home we had a nice brunch and then I cut Dick's hair. Strange thing, the hand razer trimmer that used to be in the kit that I used to do all my fine tuning with has disappeared. If we can't find it, I will HAVE to find another as it is very hard for me to finish without it.

This afternoon, Bobbie and I were on again at Rhine. I had promised Tom Lawaan that I would bring some of my pepper jelly for him to try. So I brought crackers, cream cheese and jelly. Worked out quite well for a little snack. It was a very slow day. We had very few shooters. Mother's Day of course. I did some cleaning in the ladies room.

Bobbie gave me my birthday present - a week early but we were together this weekend. We don't usually give birthday presents but she found a tshirt. It is a lovely purple and says A Very Fine Vintage across the front. She said she couldn't resist. I will wear it with pride.

Dick took me out for dinner tonight. We WERE going to go to the Wilderness but they apparently decided to only be open for brunch on Mother's Day so we went down to the Family
Restaurant. I had roast chicken and Dick had meatloaf. Both good. (Dick still likes my meatloaf best though.)

We are going to play scrabble again tonight to finish off the day. My Bret called at about 5:00PM to wish me Happy Mother's Day. He is a good son and I love to hear his voice.

Tomorrow will be a busy day too. We start early because Dick has to go to a test at the Lymphedema Clinic here in Plymouth. They might provide some answers to some of the swelling in his upper legs.

Have a nice week.

According to Victorian Etiquette, "Do not tattle. Do not carry gossip from one family to another."

Good advice under any circumstances.

Mary