As quiet a day as the critters will allow. Roxie has taken to being somewhat of a nag in the wee hours of the morning but she goes away when I cuddle her too long. I got up at about 6:30AM. (Of course there is always that little potty break for Chelsea earlier.)

I cleaned the kitchen floor this morning. Dick slept until almost 9:30AM so it was really quiet around her. Chelsea and I had a really great walk this morning. It was nice and crisp and clear and dry. The rest of the day she has been a bit lethargic. Not a lot of zip and she has an OLD look about her eyes. This happens to her every so often. Even her tail droops. But usually after a day like that she perks up a bit again. Lets hope. We always feel so sorry for her when she is like that.

Today was Dick's shower day. That is still a production though we are getting really good at it. The callous with the blister on his foot is now oozing a bit. We are concerned, of course. Wounds we don't need. We are going to check it twice a day for a while and see if it will dry up faster. I put a bit of Neosporin on it today just in case.

I went to Mass at 4PM. Now I think I have some strength for the coming week. It is not too busy but a lot of preparation is needed for the next week. This week I just have to take Mom to the eye doctor on Thursday and work at Rhine on Friday which is the beginning of league. Nancy and I want to go out to practice once more before league starts. We didn't do TOO bad on Wednesday but are rusty.

So that was our Saturday. Busy but just us. It was nice and tomorrow will be more of the same it looks like. I will be watching out for our neighbor Dick's dog Katrina tomorrow and Monday. He and his friend are going to drive up north to try to catch some color.

So enjoy your Labor Day weekend. I talked to my Bret yesterday, his birthday, you know. He is out at his place on the Colorado River and sounded happy as a clam. He said his Aunt Jacquie called him for his birthday too.

Take care

Love
Mary

Except for going over to Capelle's to get our fresh corn and tomatoes, we got to stay home all day. Was that ever nice. Chelsea got to ride to Capelle's with me so she was a happy happy little doggy. She has been very tired most of the day.

Actually, between 3 and 4 AM, Roxie came in to pester me. She is getting used to Chelsea getting me up for a bathroom run by 4AM. Finally at 4:30AM, I got up to peek at Chelsea to be sure she was OK. I was beginning to think that maybe Roxie was trying to tell me something. She was - she wanted a snack. The little minx, Chelsea, saw me so I did take her out and then went back too bed til 6:30AM.

I mixed up the beginning of a batch of lemon balm wine in the primary fermentor today. That is a rather complicated process as this wine required boiling and then steeping the lemon balm leaves then straining the cooled water into an also boiled mixture of water, sugar and lemon juice then adding other things. Before I go to bed, I have to add the yeast. I also checked the Specific Gravity on the peach and will do that for the next few days until it is right.

The nights are cool now. It is only in the mid 40s when I wake up though it did get into the mid 70s today. Some of the tomatoes are showing color, I just hope they ripen before the first frost.

Tomorrow will also be a quiet day, I hope. I will end with PART of an email I got today. I liked this message.

Mary

My Dear Friends,
'Life isn't about how to survive the storm,
But

"How to dance in the rain.."

Well, Chelsea got her bath today and it sure took the zip out of her. She seems exhausted and has been coughing a lot. She was having a rough time about the time I woke up so I know the bath did not cause the problem. She sure looks pretty all white and fluffy.

I got my first bid for having someone come in to vacuum and do the floors for me. I have two others that I will look at before we make up our minds. I still want to be sure that we can work it into the budget. I just know that right now, I never get caught up - my knee hurts very badly when I vacuum. That must be just the wrong leverage. We will see. I hope it works.

I dried some basil today. That plus some that I froze will provide enough basil for the winter. I will try to keep a couple plants alive over the winter too. Next I will dry some thyme, oregano and rosemary.

The rest of the day was very quiet. I took a nap, did some quilting and worked a bit on the Celtic Music workshop that I will be giving in two weeks. I have chosen the music for the Manx and Galacian samples. Not to hard as I only have one Manx song and two Galatian songs. Next I will pick the Irish and Scottish.

Packer game tonight. The last of the pre season. I am gathering my information for the big first game next week. Have to have my picks in by the 10th. Hope I do well this year.

Have a nice evening and enjoy your Friday. Remember to wear red to honor our GIs over seas fighting a police stating for us. We need to honor them and pray for their safety.

Love

Mary

Grocery Shopping day. I went early and was back before 9AM. I did not have as much to get as usual so the trip was quick.

I picked up a really cute little miniature rose plant for Mother. The cut flowers just looked droopy and this has the prettiest little white roses on it. Mom was delighted. It is her and Dad's anniversary you know. They would have been married 70 years this year. Isn't that just amazing.

When I got home, I fixed gnocchi for lunch with spaghetti sauce. Bobbie came for lunch as she was working on the peach wine today. So we had gnocchi with sauce, salad and pumpernickel bread with cream cheese, tomato and basil leaf. As Bobbie explained to Dick, a smaltsy smaltsy treat. It sure was good. Then Bobbie and I went down and added the sugar and additives to the peach juice and racked it into the primary fermentor.

By then it was 1:00PM so I left to pick up Nancy to go to Rhine Plymouth to practice pistol shooting. We both did pretty well. My second one was not good but I was able to somewhat correct my aim on the third one. League starts a week from Friday. We want to go out one more time before it starts for one more practice. I also would like to get a new site on my gun and if I could have someone be sure that it its sited in correctly.

When I got back, Bobbie was still her so we got more chance to visit and be sure that all is well with the wine. I will be checking specific gravity so Bobbie will know when she needs to come back. It is SO nice to have her coming out regularly.

I took a nap when she left and have been reading and catching up on email since then. The day is almost over and again, I am very tired and my knee is sore. I guess over all things are better but it is SO slow. God is teaching me patience.

Love

Mary

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT REGARDING RAISING CHILDREN!

1. You spend the first two years of their life
teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend
the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.

2. Grandchildren are God's reward
for not killing your own children.

3. Mothers of teens now know why
some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom misquote you.
In fact,
they usually repeat word for word
what you shouldn't have said

5. The main purpose of holding children's parties
is to remind yourself that there are children
more awful than your own

6. We childproofed our homes,
but they are still getting in.

We were really busy today until noon anyway.

Travis from Steger arrived at 8AM. He was doing the winter check on the furnace. Everything is OK. The furnace filter is fine but he did have to change the filter on the humidifier. I never knew they had filters. Originally, he was going to order it and come back, but they had one in stock so he came back and finished the job this morning.

Then at 10, just as we finished getting Dick all ready for the day, the bell rang again and it was Ed and his family workers from Servicemaster here to clean the carpets. They did most of the moving that was necessary and did a great job. They finished in less than 1 1/2 hours. The animals were fascinated and the cleaners enjoyed them too. The temperatures were in the 40s when Chelsea and I went out this morning but did get up into the low 70s today. That was good because I left the doors open for several hours after Servicemaster left to speed the drying.

After they left, I fixed lunch then we took naps. I could not sleep unfortunately and am feeling it now. It is only a little after 7 and I am exhausted.

I am investigating the costs of getting a cleaning service in to vacuum and do the floors for me. It would free up a lot of my time once I am healed and perhaps help me heal as when I vacuum, I always am very sore the next day. Hopefully it will work out.


Guess that is all for now.

Tomorrow will be busy too. Shopping and shooting and going to Mother's with some money and pills.

Love

Mary

 

This is a picture of the flowers in the berm at the front of our unit that are all squished down. Remember, Jim and Michelle? It is the same this year. Perhaps it is some creature that lies in them or perhaps, as Bobbie said, the weight of the flowers just causes the stems to collapse. I like the first theory best but have to admit I have never seen any critters near them.

Mary

A very active day today and I am ready for bed. However it is only 7PM and I have to wait until 9 so that Chelsea can get her last try at the bathroom. Since she sometimes gets me up at 2PM even when I do take her out at 9, I don't want to do it any sooner.

I had bible study this morning. We are such a good group and really support each other in prayer. We discussed the fact that Jesus was so accepting of the handicapped and put them right in the middle of things for acceptance and /or healing. This was the story of when he healed the man with the withered hand after the Pharisees asked him if he was REALLY going to do this on the SABBATH.

Then I went over to Mom for a visit. I took her some turkey and stuffing for a meal. We had our usual nice conversations and I got a couple of errands to do for her. As usual she said there is no hurry but, of course, since Wednesday is her and Dad's anniversary, I will take a run down there in the morning to bring her flowers as I have since Dad passed. I also have a box of candy for her. That will be fun. I do believe that this would have been their 70th anniversary if our Dad was still with us. We talked a bit about how cold it is this year and she remembered again how hot it was on their wedding day and the weekend following.

When I got home Bobbie was here already working on the wine. She had looked at her calendar and realized that three of her wines needed racking along with the two big ones we have working down there. So she had finished racking the three gallon batches before I got home. Then after lunch of Irish bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches she and I went down and racked my 5 gallon White Zin and her 6 gallon that I keep forgetting the name of. They both smell good and the racking went quite well. Roxie joined us. She complained for a while, then just hung around and observed. Bobbie also started peaches fermenting for a peach wine. There is a lot going on down in the MaryER winery. Wonder what Bobbie will call hers.

We are going to a Taste of Home event at the Weill Center at the end of September. We are excited. You get to taste stuff AND get a bag of goodies AND get in on a drawing.

Tomorrow will be a super busy day but it is all at home. Steger is coming to check the furnace for winter and Servicemaster is coming to clean our carpets.

My knee really hurt in the middle of last night and was pretty sore most of the day. I seem to have good days and not so good days. Tomorrow will be better, I hope.

Yesterday I told you about Miss Spratt. Mom reminded me today how scared Nora was of her. She hated kindergarten. Miss Spratt's father, George, was the last living Civil War Veteran from Sheboygan Falls.

Sleep tight.

Mary

It was a quiet day. I would not have left home at all, except that Nancy and I had intended to do some shooting so she picked me up at 1PM. We drove out to Rhine and discovered that there was a private party using the place so we turned around and came home and rescheduled, tentatively, for Wednesday. We know that league will be starting soon and haven't shot in weeks so we want to at least be sure our guns are working.

Dick had his shower today which is always somewhat of an ordeal though it is getting easier all the time. He is able to do more for himself as he becomes more mobile.

After I got home, I took a nap then read for a while. I am trying to make a point of reading every day and sewing every day. I have been pretty good about writing every day, even if it is only this blog. Doing this does keep me doing other things. So you are all good for me.

Now I am watching the Daytime Emmy Awards. I loved the lifetime award to Sesame Street. The cast sang their song and it was such a pleasure watching as they panned the audience and you could see all those grown people, actors mostly, become children again and mouth the words along with the song. If they didn't grow up with it, their children did. Would you believe that Sesame Street is 40 years old.


I was remembering my grade school days. I went to kindergarten in the same school that my Dad did. I even had the same teacher. Her name was Miss Spratt. Her family was quite prominent in early Sheboygan Falls and she was a spinster lady. I remember her as being quiet and very old. The school was a two story brick building with wooden floors and stairways. That is all I remember about the building. I remember having milk and graham crackers for snack in kindergarten and lying on mats for a rest. We were little people you know.

The only other memory I have is that I wanted high top black shoes for school. When I got there noone wore high tops and girls did not wear black high tops. Kids teased me. So Mom had to get me a new pair of shoes.

Have a save end of August and beginning of September. The months are flying.

Love
Mary