Happy Birthday Mom!

When I was quite young I took a picture of my mother sitting with her mother while both were doing needlework with my old Brownie camera. I thought it was quite a feat that I found a verse that said, "As is the mother so is the daughter" from Ezekiel 16:44. I found out later that my mom didn't really like the picture because she thought it made her look old.

Today my mother celebrates her birthday. While I don't have a copy of the picture, I do have the verse.

Mom, these are the things that I hope I am like you.

1. I always want to have a desire to learn. I like that you are always reading and learning new things. While you may not become an expert you are interested in a variety of things and you always are interested in going to see new things.

2. I know I will never be the cook you are, but I'd be satisfied with "as is the mother so is the daughter a little bit" when it comes to cooking.

3. I hope that I am as open to hospitality as you are. From you I learned the joy of inviting others into your home. While entertaining may have been more of a chore for many years, you have always welcomed many different people into your home.

4. I hope I have the desire to be in the Word as you do.


Mom and Dad:

Mom and Dad with Andrew at his senior recital

I love you Mom! Have a wonderful day--I wish I could be with you on your special day.

Thankful Thursday 3/15/12

1. March Madnes is here! This is always a fun time of year although I'm probably "into" it less this year than others.

2. On my 4 month anniversary yesterday at work I was able to correct all the reconciliation issues for my ARC numbers without asking any questions. I'd promised everyone a party when I did so today I brought in angel food cake, fruit, and whipped topping.

3. Had a very enjoyable dinner at AlpenRose tonight. We were there for our work team lunch before Christmas and got mystery cards with discounts of $5-25. They scan the card when you are ready to pay and Renae had a $25 card!

4. This weather is too amazing!!! Love it, love it, love it; however, it may be too warm and the tulips will be gone before Tulip Time. Can't believe we saw some tulips that were about 3" high in downtown Holland tonight.

5. My class is complete and grades are turned in.

6. I really enjoyed my nieces and nephews when they were little but there is something nice about sending several of them a text when I'm having a computer issue and all respond.  Which brings up how thankful I am for text. While I like to hear people's voices, it's great to stay in touch in this way.

Kitchen Woes

In the past few weeks I've made a renewed effort to cook on the weekends to have good food available throughout the week. With dinner plans tomorrow evening I thought I'd make some soup today to have for lunch tomorrow and during the week.

It's a chicken cheese chowder which I usually just throw everything in the crock pot and let it cook but I thought since I had time today I'd actually follow the recipe and cook it on the stove. I got the carrots and onions cooking and had some flour measured out when I could not find the recipe card anywhere. I thought, "There is NO way it fell between the oven and the cabinet!!!" However, since the card was not to be found I turned off the burner and pulled out the stove. Yes, the card had fallen in that teeny, eeny, weeny crack!

Oh well, I swept out under the stove just glad that I didn't find any toys or money as a friend did last night when several of us went with her to her new home to clean. She pulled the stove out and found about 3-4 match box cars, a stuff toy and other "treasures".

Thankful Thursday 3/8/12

1. Finished a 5-week class last night. Now to do the grading, but I was tired tonight.
2. Beautiful starry night to sit in the hot tub. Great moon too.
3. Love having a bathroom sink drain that does that--drain!!! Sometimes I run the water just to see it go down!!!

And most importantly--
4. I've been going to BSF with several ladies. One asked another to attend starting last fall. The askee knew very little if anything about the Bible, but she has diligently done the lesson each week. For Christmas she asked her husband for a study Bible. I will never forget her excitement and joy about showing me her Bible "with real notes to help me with the lesson!" On Tuesday after Monday night's study on Ephesians 1, one sent out a message to the other three that said simply "In Christ." The one lady e-mailed the other and asked, "What do you have to do to be saved?"

Wow, thank God!!! How exciting.

Never Again, Please

Because I'm single, because I live alone, because I have a friend who can do about anything, and because I like to think of myself as a diy-er, yesterday I decided to tackle my very slow draining drain in the bathroom sink. I had been told to take the trap off which I was able to do. Yes, I remembered to have something underneath it to catch the water. No, I was not prepared for the gunk or stench of the gunk. I cleaned out the trap and the pipe going into the sink as much as possible and put everything back together. The drain was still going very slowly so I thought I would need to "snake" the drain.

My friend brought a snake over later and I tried to get it down the pipe, but it went pretty much straight through so apparently the problem was further down and I needed a longer snake.

Then she asked, "Did you take out the stopper?" I don't know how to do that so I hadn't. Despite her instructions it doesn't just screw out. She fiddled around underneath and got it loose. Yep, we found the problem, and it was gross.

I cleaned the stopper, she put it back, and now I run the water just to see it go down the drain!!!

I then cleaned out the tub drain as well although it wasn't that bad.

Two observations:

1. Taking apart the trap, etc. to clean a clog at the stopper is like remodeling the kitchen when you just need a new microwave. A bit of overkill although I will say the trap is very clean.

2. At various times in life I've done things thinking God must have given me the experience to use again, but I really don't want to ever have to do that again. One of those is roofing, and now another is cleaning out a drain.

Thankful Thursday 3/1/12

1. Have another wedding to attend sometime. Congrats Whitney and Josh!!!
2. Had a nice lunch with former co-workers. Haven't seen them since I left.
3. Have a good class. Only one more week.
4. Had my first work at home day last Friday with the snow storm.
5. Road were clear later in the day to do Penn Station with friends.