What a nice day. It was hot though, highest temps being in the upper 80s. It would be Indian Summer except that we have not had a freeze yet and that is one of the criteria.

Dick opened the door to the bedroom at 6:30AM and Chelsea bounded up onto the bed and woke me out of a very deep sleep, I could even remember the last part of the dream that I was in the middle of. I was telling some little girl that it was alright that she could not understand something yet. That in a year she would. I told her about trying to read some book when I was her age and could not get it but that a year later I loved it. WHAT did that mean?

Then Dick took his nap and Chelsea went with him so I had a couple of hours alone. So I baked the pumpkin pie with the fresh pumpkin that I had cooked and pureed yesterday. I had mentioned to Bobbie yesterday that I was going to do so and that she and Bill were welcome to join us for dessert. She called this afternoon and they WERE able to come. Boy was it a good pie. I tell you anything from "fresh" or from scratch is usually best.

I finished sewing the lapels on four CWI sweatshirt jackets and cut out the collars. I should have them done by mid week. The upcoming week is so quiet. We do not have even one doctor appointment. I can hardly believe that. We do have to have a lab test done. I don't know if we could just go cold turkey.

We had the stew for supper again tonight. Boy am I glad I found THAT recipe.

I wrote the following poem at a writer's class that was taught by Ellen Kort, Wisconsin's poet laureate. I had submitted it in the Jade Ring contest for WRWA. That contest was over last weekend. I had mentioned the poem to Joanne, one of my fellow 1958 graduates, and told her I would print it here when the contest was over. So here it is.

SHE WAITS

by Mary J. Kunert

I am weary with the burden of time.
My mind feels young but tires too soon
Because my body lets me down
Before I am done with a task.

What is this new me?
This skin that's parchment thin
This hair that's white and sparse
This unsteadiness of feet and gait.

He went ahead, you know,
And left me here to wait.
But I know that he hovers near
Just barely out of reach.

One day, he will appear again.
One day, reach out his hand
And say to me, “That's long enough
You come along with me.”

And I will join him, young and vital,
And walk with him to the place
That has been promised
And we will be forever.

Make your Sunday special.

Mary

I woke up this morning feeling pretty good considering that is is the second day of my cold. I slept like a rock for 9 hours which helped a LOT.

Chelsea and I had a nice walk and then I got right into cleaning the kitchen and putting a stew into the crock pot. Up until a few years ago, my stews were notorious for being really disappointing, but NOW I have two stews that taste very good. One I found a couple of years ago and this one just recently.

All you do is put stew meat, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, potato, salt, pepper, tomato paste, oregano and beer in the crock pot and cook it for 6 to 8 hours on low. Then mix some flour and melted butter and let cook until thickened. It is marvelous.

I went to a workshop on Stretching your Food Dollar today at 10AM. I learned quite a bit. Much of the tips I know and am already using or have found don't really work for us. I am also in a drawing for a shopping spree at the Pig in Sheboygan Falls. The odds are pretty good they are picking four and there were only 16 attendees at the workshops. Cross your fingers, it would really be fun. I told Dick, if I am drawn, he can't be my partner, I need someone faster. I thought I might ask Bobbie.

I mailed Bret his fudge today and sent a couple of books, mine and the one of my Dad's poems, to my friend Janet in Costa Mesa. I hope she enjoys them.


Maxine on 'Technology Revolution' 'My idea of rebooting is kicking somebody in the butt twice.'

The above was part of a plug to nominate Maxine for president.

Have a great weekend.

Mary

Well, the allergy that I thought that I had has blossomed into a rotten cold. I am not happy. Actually, I can't remember when I had a cold last.

We stayed home all day today. When I talked to Bret the other day, he put in a request for fudge. Naturally, I can't resist my boys, so today I made a batch and will send most of it to him tomorrow. I also put my pie crust together and baked the pumpkin that I picked up when I went to the Pumpkin Farm with Jim and Michelle. We are having pumpkin pie this weekend.

I did some sewing today too.

Now I am really exhausted as I have been sneezing most of the day. SO this is about all you are getting today.

I am now going to take Chelsea out for her last walk of the day, go to bed and sip a cup of herbal tea. That should relax me.

Have a good day tomorrow and stay well. Colds are sneaky.

Mary

Just got home from Seussical. It was quite a production. A HUGE cast. There is a lot of talent in Sheboygan. I am glad they turned out in force for this one. Seussical was on Broadway in 2001 and ran for 179 performances. It is lively and a nice compilation of Dr. Suess's stories. It revolves around Horton the Elephant. I wish they had showed the Elephant bird. But it was still a lot of fun.

We went grocery shopping this morning. We decided to go to Sheboygan Falls to the Point for breakfast as we are tired of Mc Donalds and the Family Restaurant. There are two other places in Plymouth that serve breakfast BUT one allows smoking and the other is the Exchange Bank which is a Coffee House and Dick is not really happy with it. Anyway, we went to the Point and were very happy with it.

I did a LOT of computer work today. I am down to one project, a summary of how to start a CWI branch (with the suggestions that I used anyway).

At 4:00 I picked up Market Day and then we got ready to go and pick up Mom for dinner and Seussical. We went to Richards for dinner. It was very pleasant. I had scallops, Dick had steak and Mom had the seafood platter. They have wonderful fresh dill rolls and crisp fresh salads. The scallop special says that it is deep fried, but they were sweet enough to saute them for me as deep fried does not set well for me.

Anyway, it was a good day. And I am up VERY late for me. Tomorrow is supposed to be clear and sunny warm. I am kind of looking forward to a warm day and I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow. The next day will be busy though.

I love going to dinner and the theater. I remember taking Bret to see Fiddler on the Roof at a dinner theater when he was about 10. We had front row seats and he loved it. The bottle dance just blew him away. I must ask him if he remembers that.

Have a nice Thursday. I will be baking and cooking.

Love

Mary

The end of another busy day.

It was foggy most all of the morning, despite the fact that the weather people said it would be cleared up by 10AM. Chelsea and I, however, did not let that bother us.

Dick had two medical appointments today. First we saw Dr. Hodous at 10AM to have his calousses checked. He trimmed them. One is slowly healing, one is almost gone and the worst one is not growing, so I guess that is good. Then we went to see Sue at the Anticoagulation Clinic. His count is perfect again. So we are home free until after the next surgery unless he gets another infection and has to take antibiotics.

We swung by Kurt and Jody's house and gave little Sean his blanket. I also bought two cans of caramel corn with peanuts in it from Brandan, the scout. He is quite a little man. It would not surprise me at all if he continues with scouting and goes on to Eagle like his daddy did.

Our Water Pick had died, so we stopped on the way home and picked up a new one. Then home for the day. I baked a loaf of bread and worked on the desk and computer most of the rest of the afternoon.

Tonight I watched Bones and Dancing with the Stars. I don't like much that is on. It is unusual to have two shows I like on the same evening.

An old proverb says that "You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother." They were speaking of my mother. I remember one incident when Bart, my staunch Republican son, was going to talk about something to his carved in stone Democratic grandmother. He told me he wanted to discuss this with her but needed more facts before he tried.

Yesterday, we were talking about blankies. Bart had a bunny. It started out as a yellow Easter bunny and ended up a gray smelly blob. But he loved it. We went on a jeep camping trip one weekend and he dropped it at a place we stopped to get our bearings. He was heartbroked. Then, some of the kids went out riding on their mini bikes. As they were coming back into camp we heard them shouting, We found bunny! we found bunny! He ran towards them and Danny pulled bunny off of the back of the bike. As she handed it to him, they realized that it was smoking. She had carried it back resting on the muffler and it got so hot it started on fire. We had not choice but to have a funeral.

Several months later, Bart told our friend Orrin Nordin that he wanted to go back out there and dig Bunny up.


Love

Mary

Here is the quilt that I made for new baby Sean. Happiness is a warm baby.

Mary

Another full day. Chelsea and I were lucky again. It rained during the night. We went for our walk between the storms, by the time I left for bible study at 9AM it was just pouring. I live walking in the fall of the year. It is usually cool but not too cold. Of course, there is the fact that it is starting to stay dark a bit later too. Pretty soon, I will just take her out front to do the necessary stuff and then we will take a walk after my shower and breakfast.

Bible study was interesting. I mentioned to one of our people that apple cider vinegar and honey would probably help her husband clear up his sinuses and she mentioned that a friend of hers takes apple cider vinegar and honey for the symptoms of menopause. That old Vermont Folk Medicine is interesting. I am going to start taking it every day. Must tell Bret to try it too. I called him last night and he has a sinus infection.

We worked on Dick's legs this afternoon AND cut his hair. Tomorrow we see Dr. Hodous and Sue at the Anticoagulation Clinic just before noon. Then I am going to go over to Kurt and Jody's house to drop off the quilt that I made for Sean, the newest munchkin. I will put a picture on the blog.

Tonight I had to go to Rhine Plymouth for the monthly meeting. Dennis Behr, our Vice President, ran the meeting and zipped through things fast enough that I was home by 8:15PM

I fixed a potato salad this morning. Took some to Mother along with some soup and the Sunday casserole. She is always delighted to get casseroles because she never makes them. I told her I was glad I had someone to share with or it probably wouldn't be practical for Dick and me either.

I showed her the blanket and we reminisced about our "blanket babies." George, my brother, had a blanket when he was little. We both remember him napping beside the washing machine and lying under the clothes line when it became too stinky to bear.

Bret had a blanket too. I remember vividly the day I "killed" it. It was all worn and faded. The satin binding was lost except for one side which was hanging on by only threads. I asked him if it was all right if I tore that raggedy piece off of the blanket. He said OK. I asked him again and even kind of showed him what I was going to do. He agreed. So I did it.

His eyes got wide with shock and he wailed, "What did you do to my blankie" He did survive though. I wonder if he remembers.

Be good and remember: "If raising children was going to be easy, it never would have started with something called labor."

Actually, I remember saying to Dr. Roper when I was hours into delivering Bret that I was really tired and he said, "That's why they call it labor."

Love

Mary

A Good Sunday. The Packers Won!!! And Favre beat the record he has been creeping up on- most touchdown passes in a career.

I got up at 6 to walk Chelsea so I could get to the 8AM Mass on time. Fr. Van Beeck spoke today about St. John's collaboration with St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Elkhart Lake. Their collaboration will take place next May 31. A year behind the Kohler/Sheboygan Falls one. I guess the diocese is not up to too much going on in one area at one time. I found out today that Bishops are also becoming scarcer. Archbishop Dolan will now be the administrator of the Green Bay diocese as well as the archbishop of the Milwaukee diocese. I wonder why they did not just send Bishop Sklba. Oh well, what do I know. Perhaps he is earmarked for something else.

Bobbie and I were assigned to work at Rhine today. It was totally dead because of the Packer game so the guys told us to go home at about 1:30. That was nice. I finished the quilt for little Sean. I will take it to show Mother tomorrow and then figure out how to get it to him. It is very cheerful and soft.

Bobbie and I were talking tonight about recipes. I remembered a meal that my cousin Patty had cooked for us when she and her girls stayed with me when I lived in California. It was something that she learned from my Grandma Deeley. Patty and her brother Doug were raised at Grandma and Grandpa Deeley's by that whole crew from the time that Patty was about 2 or three when her mother died. That is a whole other story.

Patty wanted to cook this meal so we got a nice pork roast, which is the base of the meal and some white bread which we dried out a bit. She took the bread and soaked it in milk. Then she squeezed the milk out of the bread and put the bread in a bowl with eggs and pepper and added a bit of flour, kind of to feel, so that it would form nicely. Then she make dumplings of the mixture and plastered them all over the salted and peppered roast. The whole thing went into the oven in a roasting pan until the roast is done. Cook according to pork road directions. You have to throw out the milk which is really salty and icky. She called it pork with bread dumplings. The dumplings are great with gravy on them and then if there are leftovers you can slice them and fry them in butter the next day and they taste wonderful.

I must try again. Patty is gone now too and I never got the exact ingredient proportions so it is a bit of a guess.

Tomorrow is October already. Enjoy your week.

Mary