I'm still here!

I'm just busy! Taking care of the boy (Jaylon), who is a delight! I laid him on our bed late yesterday afternoon while I was getting ready for church (yes, I try to look ahead and get done what I can when I can. *grin*)
Anywayyyy....I was leaning over Jaylon just talking to him and he was kicking his legs crazily and trying to talk back to while smiling and making little facial contortions the whole time, and the tears just came.....I couldn't stop them. Oh, they were happy tears! Thankful tears......the Lord has been so good to us. Thankfulness just welled up in my heart and as I bent over little Jaylon I thanked the Lord for all of His goodness, faithfulness, and steadfastness in our lives.
And then joy just filled my heart, for though I grow weary at times and the world outside my window is so unstable from one day to the next and I don't know what tomorrow holds or even the next minute, I know the One who holds the future. I can trust in Him to see me through, to sustain me as only He can do.
Ed was carrying Jaylon into the bedroom for me and slowly lifted Jaylon up into the air kind of like Mufasa holding up Simba in the Lion King? *smile* And I started singing.."It's the circle....the circle of life....." We had a wonderful laugh and Jaylon smiled and gurgled. He loooooves music!
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Erin's birthday was yesterday but because it was a church night, we are having them here for dinner tonight. She has requested dutch potatoes and shake n' bake chicken, so that's a pretty easy order! And we'll have cake, of course! *smile*
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Well, I am going to close this and go get a few things done before the boy wakes up. Oh, but first let me say......I call little Jaylon "the boy" sometimes and one of my friends said...oh, you shouldn't call him boy....but it just seems so natural.....it is my little nickname for him. I don't call him "boy" directly, just when I'm speaking to others about him, sometimes.
Oh, and it just starting raining again and I love the sound of it on our new metal roofing. It hasn't rained here in so long. It has been so dry and there has been a restricted burn order in place for some time. So, I am thankful for the rain, though my heart AND prayers are with the people in North Dakota. They are being inundated with snow, rain and frigid temperatures.
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Okay, I'm on a roll here, so I'll go ahead and post a few more snippets of things! *smile*
I had lunch with my nephew, Troy, Tuesday. He calls himself "my favorite" and he is but I hesitate to say that too much because I do love all of my precious nieces and nephews and don't want to be accused of being partial but Troy and I have had a very close bond all of his life.
Anywayyyyy......we had a very pleasant lunch at LJ's and caught up on what's been going on in our lives. He took a voluntary severance package from his job of 15 years at Discover Card (he had a great job, benefits and so on) and enrolled in nursing school fulltime! He is doing really well in all of his classes, though he said it is very stressful going back to school fulltime. He has two sons from his previous marriage and is very involved in their lives on a daily basis, taking them to school, picking them up, going to sports activities they are involved in, so he does have alot on his plate.
He had not seen me since I've been able to walk on my own! We last saw eachother at the family Christmas get-together, though we stay in touch through MySpace, Facebook and phone calls. Soooo, since he was already seated when I arrived at the restaurant, I got back up and did a little sashay *sp* down the aisle and back! *grin* He could hardly believe it! *smile
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Now, I don't know if I've blogged about this before (and I don't have time to check *feeble grin*) but somewhere along the line I had this idea that once I got my hips replaced and that pain was gone, I would get all of this vim and vigor and youthful vitality back! Yeah!!!!! No more aches and pains! I'll have a new body! A new lease on life!
It ain't happenin'.......what's going on? *feeble grin*
I mean, my body aches, never taking the time to give me an advance notice of where the aches are gonna show up for the day.
And weariness has become my faithful companion. Except for a few minutes after I have my morning coffee and poptart! (I'm attributing that to a short burst of caffeine and sugar-induced energy.)
I know that taking care of a little for almost 12 hours a day at my age (57) might have something to do with it. And the fact that I need to lose some weight. And the fact that some degree of arthritis has taken up residence in various parts of my body.
But, all-in-all, I truly can't complain. I no longer take medicine for any thing. Just an occasional tylenol for pain, though something a little stronger sure does sound good some days. But then I remember the pain I used to deal with and I am so thankful to be where I am today and I can't complain at all. God has been so good to me!
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So what do you do? Ed and I are talking of going away for a couple of days this weekend but that would mean spending the night somewhere and we just don't sleep well away from home. So that means we would be more tired when we got home than if we had stayed home in the first place but we would enjoy getting away and seeing some sights, eating out, and so on. But is it worth losing the sleep and rest? At our age, we struggle with this! *smile* We do! Does anyone else? I know I must sound like such a whiner! LOL
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Okay, I'm done. I hafta to get off of here and get my day started! Jaylon is really sleeping in this morning. He's usually awake when he gets here at 6:30am but he's still snoozing away! (why else would I be here posting? *smile*)
Have a great day everyone!!!
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P.S. (are there P.S.'s in blogging)
I fixed Mexican Crockpot Chicken for dinner Sunday and it was delish!!! I got the recipe from Mrs. Nurseboy, HERE! I put it in the crockpot Saturday night when we went to bed and it was ready the next morning. I need to use my crockpot more! The only thing I did differently was to not mix the sour cream in at the end. We dished out the chicken and sauce and then put the sour cream on top. Well, I did, because Ed does not care for sour cream. It is easy, convenient and yummy!! Served over rice!

What part of spring am I? :-)

I found this neat little quiz over at Marsha's blog and thought I would take it! The results are pretty close, though I don't know that I would consider myself obssessive? Hmmm......I'll have to ask the hubs. *smile*

What Part of Spring Are You? You Are Baseball Games

You Are Baseball Games

You like old fashioned things. You're one of those people who values tradition. You enjoy a slow pace of life. You believe that life is all about enjoying every moment. You love the changing of the seasons, and you look forward to what each season brings. You are smart and a bit obsessive. You become very immersed in your interests.

What's been keeping me busy?

Here he is! *smile* Erin and I took Jaylon to Children's today for a GI checkup and he is doing very well! Everyone kept saying what a good and happy baby he is! We had to be there at 7:15am, so I've been up since 4:30am and I am ready to go to bed! *yawnnnn*

We had lunch at Steak and Shake in Lancaster with my sister Bev, her daughter Bethany and Bethany's little boy Nathen, who is a cutie pie!
Here is the little guy watching and listening to his "entertainment center" while I do my hair....*smile*

Here he is getting ready to smile at me around his pacifier...*grin*

Looking at Grandma while she takes his picture for the zillionth time!

And here he is with his daddy, sacked out on the sofa shortly after daddy came to pick him up! As you can see, they didn't get very far! *smile*

Catching up! Again!

Hello everyone! It is I!
Where does the time go?! The hours? The days? The weeks? Whew! It's already past mid-March! Easter will soon be here and it is late this year!!
Daniel and I took little Jaylon to a doctor's appointment in Columbus last Friday (Daniel's Friday off). It did my heart so good to see dads bringing their babies and children to the doctor, carrying diaper bags and feeding their babies and taking care of the little ones. Though I considered Ed to be a real hands-on dad, I was always the one who took Daniel to the doctor and so on because Ed worked in Columbus and was gone for about 13 hours a day.
Daniel has a really cool looking diaper bag. I'll have to take a picture of it so you can see it. It's kind of hard to describe. *smile*
We ate lunch at Smokey Bones in Pickerington. I had fish and chips. Daniel about died! "Mom, how can you order fish and chips at a barbeque place?" "Well, that is what I want." *smile* They were really good!
Daniel and I are so much alike in many ways. He was talking to Erin on his cellphone and I heard him tell her, "About the only thing Mom and I have gotten done is trying to remember what we were saying before the other one interrupted us." Okay, now look.....I never realized that I have a tendency to interrupt conversation when something comes to my mind because if I don't I'll forget what it was I wanted to say BUT I am trying to break myself of this habit and so is Daniel but we were having a time of it last Friday! LOL
AND he runs late....Daniel does. Another fine habit he got from me! *sigh* Isn't it amazing how our children develop habits from us that we don't REALLY see until they are older and out of the house? I still have a tendency to run late but nothing like I used to. Oh, and we are procrastinators, too. Sooooooo, ALL OF YOU MOTHERS OF SMALL CHILDREN OUT THERE LISTEN UP!!! Start now instilling GOOD habits into your little ones! *smile*
I read somewhere that there is a plus-side to every less-than-desirable personality trait. For instance, procrastinators tend to do their best work under pressure, which Daniel and I both do. We can also get alot done in a short amount of time!
Now, the interrupting conversation and running late I've not found much good in. Let me know if you know of anything,k? *smile*
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Here's a picture of Jaylon that I just took. He is growing like a weed!! *smile* He just smiles and coos and is trying so hard to talk!! He kicks those little legs and waves is little arms so enthusiastically, trying to get some sounds out!!

Where SHOULD I live?

I found this cute quiz on Barbara's blog and thought I would give it a try! It says I should live in Georgia but if I didn't want to live there, Ohio was another good choice which works out really well seeing as how I live in Ohio! *smile*

You Should Live in Georgia

If you don't want to live in Georgia, you might also consider: Iowa Montana Nebraska North Carolina Ohio

What State Should You Live In?

Okay, I don't have a clever title for this post. So, I'm just posting,k? *smile* It just seems like I don't have the time for the internet anymore now that I am taking care of the little guy (Jaylon). Not that he is a bad baby. He is so precious and content and I love him to pieces! But he is young and I am old. LOL Okay, I am not really OLD. But now I know why the Lord means for us to have our babies when we are YOUNG! Hallelujah. But I wouldn't have it any other way, meaning I love watching Jaylon and count it a privilege.
Now, get ready to hold on because I am going to be going from one subject to another, so you have been warned! *smile*
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I hadn't been able to clean my lower cupboards out for several (4 or 5) years because of the condition of my hips and back and I didn't want to ask someone else to do it for me. (you know how we are, ladies....*smile*) Anywayyyyy.....I finally got around to cleaning out the part where I keep my pots and pans! In this particular section which is next to the stove, I have always kept my aluminum foil and saran wrap, along with the pots and pans. Well, there is a place where things always fell down in by the side of the stove, though there is a piece of wood separating the stove and shelves. Well, in my cleaning out, I still had to have Ed get down on his side and reach back in there to retrieve anything that had fallen down in there over the years. Oh my word!!! He pulled out SEVEN! boxes of aluminum foil and one of saran wrap!!! I couldn't believe it!!

There are only four boxes showing in this picture because three of them had just a little bit on them, so I removed it, folded it and put it away.
Now....if you will look closely at the middle box you will see that it has a $2 Dollar General price tag on it....for 50ft. of heavy duty Reynolds aluminum foil! Heavens! do you realize how long I must have had that????? *smile* I'm going to check the price of it now the next time I go to the grocery store! And it is almost a full roll! Needless to say, I'm not going to need to buy aluminum foil for awhile!!! I've wondered a few times, since finding all of this, if I ever wondered through the years where all of my aluminum foil was going!?!?! *smile*
Now, I 'm kind of anxious to clean out my dish cupboard to see what I might find there!!! *smile*
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And you just HAVE to hear this story! I hope I can get it right!
Erin's grandfather doesn't hear very well. He saw a man from their church in McDonald's or somewhere and asked him how his father was doing for the father had been ill. Bro. Pullin, Erin's grandfather, told his wife that he thought the man said his father had passed away. You see, Bro. Pullin is quite hard-of-hearing. So, of course, Sis. Pullin, upon hearing of the death in this family that goes to their church, commenced to fixing all kinds of food for the family. Well, after Sis. Pullin had all of the food prepared, she found out from someone that the man's father had not passed away. Bro. Pullin had apparently misunderstoood what the man had told him. So Sis. Pullin called her daughters and told them to come by and get some of the food and she started giving away what she could because there was no way that she and Bro. Pullin could eat it all! They were all laughing and getting a big kick out of the misunderstanding and all of the food that had been fixed, only for the man's father to REALLY pass away the very next day, AFTER all of the food had been given away! So, here we go again! LOL Poor Sis. Pullin!
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And I've been wondering about something. Oh, nothing earth-shattering, trust me. But do any of you read the backs of boxes and bottles and things to see where they were made, distributed from or whatever? I guess this is just a little quirky thing of mine. Ed had gotten a package of bacon for me the other day and it was Old Courthouse brand, a brand that I had not seen before and I just wondered if it MIGHT be made or packaged in Washington Courthouse, which is where my dad's family was from. Sure enough, it was!
Another kind of quirky thing that I do: When we go on vacation and check into our hotel/motel and are all settled in our room, I get out the phonebook and begin perusing the yellow pages for United Pentecostal Churches. Then I usually look for people with the same last name as ours or other family members. Then I just peruse the yellow pages and the rest of the book. You never know what you might find out about a place by looking in the phone book! Pastor Martin said that his daughter, Robin, does this same thing. *smile*
Okay, that's all of the "quirks" I'm tellin' about today! *smile*
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Jaylon is taking a nap, so I am going to go and rest a bit myself!

Good Friday Morning!

Okay, that might sound a little more chipper than I am actually feeling. :-/ Oh well.....I press on because I have alot to do today. *sighhhhhh*

Erin has had to take little Jaylon to the hospital lab for bloodwork this week because his hemoglobin levels are not where they should be. Ed and I have to take him again today because they couldn't take all that they needed yesterday afternoon. Poor little guy.
Our church dinner is tonight and we're hoping to get there in time to help clean-up which is usually what we do, though I think Ed is going out at four (when it starts) to help serve beverages and so on.

The monthly youth rally is in Nelsonville tonight at 7:30 and we want to go so much. I love youth rallies and this one is where Daniel and Erin go to church, so I would really like to be there but I may not be able to. I mean, after a day of watching the boy and then finishing up the dinner. Well, that may be about all that I can do. *smile*

It is sooooo beautiful outside this morning! It is so balmy. It is about 60 degrees already! And it is supposed to be 70 tomorrow!! Everyone is so ready for some warmer temps around here and thankfully we are getting them. I just wonder if winter is over though. Hmmmmmm....

I haven't posted any pictues for awhile so I thought I would share these with you! This first one is Jaylon taking his morning nap all wrapped up in this furry blanket that our neighbor Jackie got for him!


I finally got a picture of me holding the boy! *smile* There aren't many picture of me and Jaylon because I am most often the one behind the camera!

Oh, and here is Jaylon wearing the cutest sockies!!! LOL I just love these little sockies! I had to take a picture!

And here he is responding to grandpa talking to him! *smile* He is sooooo close to making sounds and noises! Sometimes he acts like he just might bust! LOL

Please join me in prayer

I received this from the World Network of Prayer this morning and wanted to share it with those of you who will join with us in prayer over this very urgent matter.


Today we are calling the Church across the nation to pray.Today, March 5th, one of the most significant court cases in America's history will take place. The California Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding the overturning of the vote of the people last year to pass Proposition 8, which defines marriage between a man and a woman. If this vote is overturned, not only will it set a major precedent of the court's power over the will of the people, but it will likely be the flash point that will determine the future of America as liberal and homosexual agendas will disseminate throughout the educational systems and into the very fiber of American culture. The California State Senate just ruled against the peoples' vote and asked the court to overthrow the defining of marriage as between a man and a woman. This hearing today will be followed by a 90-day period in which the court must make a decision.

This is a moment in time that calls for crisis intercession.

Cutting Corners

So many people today are talking about cutting back on everything because of the economy. I saw this unique segment on GMA last week about a lady named Clara who has videos on YouTube demonstrating how to fix some of the meals she used to fix during the Depression. You can view one of themHERE. Her nephew or grandson does the videoing. I'm not able to watch them because I don't have high speed internet, but I have done a search on depression-era cooking and have been amazed at how much info is out there.
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First, let me say, that I was not even born when the depression was going on. Nevertheless, our family lived modestly. My mother did not work outside of our home. Dad was a plumber and had his own business. By that I mean, he had a van with all of his tools in it and he worked by himself. He didn't have a "crew" that worked for him. He left each morning at 8am and arrived back home at 5pm on the dot! He didn't work evenings or weekends. Oh, occasionally, he might have worked a half-day of Saturdays, but I believe my dad realized the importance of being home with his family in the evening and on weekends. We never felt deprived as children. We had eachother and were content with what we had. Now, what was I going to say? Oh yes, I remember.......*smile*.......
One dish that I remember eating alot of when I was a little girl is what my mom called Stewed Potatoes. Ed and I still love them. So does Daniel and I believe Erin has had them here a time or two.
To fix them, you just peel and slice as many potatoes as you think you'll need. Cover them with water in a kettle. I usually fix mine in a 2qt. saucepan. Drop in 2 or three slices of raw bacon, then bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and let them cook until tender. You might want to push the bacon down into the potatoes a little. Once the potatoes are done, just serve them, along with the broth. We usually mash them up with our fork and have them with cornbread and butter. I like my potatoes and broth OVER the cornbread and slathered with butter. I don't salt the potatoes as they are cooking, though you could. We each prefer to salt and pepper them ourselves, the way we like them.
If you are fixing a larger quantity of potatoes for a bigger family, you would want to increase the amount of bacon that you are using also.
It's amazing how much flavor the bacon adds to the potatoes and water!
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Another memory that I have is remembering how we used to have green beans and corn to eat so much of the time. Well, as I got older, I was wondering why we hadn't had green beans and corn to eat for awhile, so I asked mom why, because I loooooved green beans and corn. (I still do!) Mom told me, a bit wistfully, that the reason we had eaten them so much when I was a little girl was because much of the time that was all that we had to eat. And I hadn't even realized it! That's because my mother always set a pretty table and made the most of what we did have to eat, I'm sure. Ed and I still love green beans and corn and I fix them fairly often with lots of bacon for flavoring! *smile* And sometimes I will cube some potatoes and add them.
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Mondays were wash days for my Mom. While dad was at work and we kids were at school, Mom would do the weekly washing. Then, on Tuesday, she would do the ironing, which had been dampened, rolled, and put in an old basket that had been lined with a doubled sheet. The rolled up clothes were wrapped snuggly in this sheet so they would not dry out. This was done because we didn't have permanent press clothes back then or steam irons or spray starch! *smile*
Because she would be ironing most of the day, Mom always cooked a big kettle of beans on Tuesday. We knew, without fail, that we would be having beans and cornbread for supper on Tuesdays! Mom made her cornbread out of white cornmeal. She baked it in a big black iron skillet and I can remember her melting bacon drippings and pouring them right into the cornbread batter and hearing the sizzle. *smile* Sometimes she would make what we called "potpie", cut it in squares and cook it in the beans. She only put this in pinto or cranberry beans. We loved it!!! And it seemed like there was never enough! Mom's "potpie" was made of flour, salt, and shortening/lard with a little water added. She didn't measure anything. *smile* I've made it a few times over the years and still love it!
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One last memory, lest I make this post tooooo long. I don't remember having many cookies, cakes or pies, but I do remember having home-canned fruit alot. Mom would serve raspberries with sugar on them in a pretty bowl. The raspberries would be served to us in these pretty little dessert dishes and we would pour milk or cream over them. Yum!!! And, after the raspberries were gone, we would drink the "purple milk" with great relish! *smile* And if it wasn't raspberries we were having, it might be peaches or strawberries or pears.
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Though we didn't have alot of material things growing up, supper was always a special time of day for each of us in our family. My dad was home by five o'clock every evening, just like clock-work. We sat down at the table together. We each had our place at the table (mine was right between mom and dad????) and we would share the goings-on of our day. I endeavored to do this same thing when we were raising Daniel. Dinner-time is such an important time for families to share together. I am thankful that my parents were diligent about all of us sitting down to supper. We have some wonderful memories.

Do you have special mealtime memories from when you were a child or even now with your children and family?

Suggestion

Okay, I know I haven't blogged since last Tuesday...egads!...and I probably will post a little later but for now, I wanted to quickly share this little gem I found. It helps to keep your computer monitor clean. So, if you would like to give it a try, just click HERE. I hope everyone is having a great week!