Fun Times....Growing Times - Week One with Johnny

 Brandywine River Museum

Inspiration in the form of a sculpture.

This fun ended in a hug. :-)

I don't quite think they captured the "spirit" of 

this piece.

The graceful walkway at the museum.

 Johnny's first full day back with us.

We took him to Turkey Point in 

North East, Maryland.

 I love the sailboat in the background.  

In the next photo (not shown) it was on Johnny's other shoulder.  

Ha!

 I took some lying selfies the other day.

The intention was to do a "before" photo as a friend

was giving me highlights that day.

I never got to the afters....

surprise, surprise.

 White roses led Chelsea to a waiting Johnny and the surprise of 

his arrival one day sooner than she expected.

 Sunday was a beautiful day for Susquehannock Park.

The walk to the lookout was easy and the weather 

was so pleasant.

 Then we were off to a horse rescue.

Georgia volunteers here.

 Of course, as with most farms, we found more than just horses

at Noble Hill Horse Rescue....

 T-Bone

T-Bone picked Johnny. 

Isn't it a cute "family" photo?

Ha.  

When you know that neither Chelsea or Johnny are dog people

this is truly funny.

We've had a "few" cups of coffee.....

This one at Cafe One Eight.

 And a quick stop at Longwood Gardens completed the day 

I first told you about with the first photos.

These events were not presented in order of occurance

but that is less important than the sharing of the fullness of 

this past week and the beauty we captured.

We are so blessed to live in a world that God has filled with 

glorious sites, precious animals and delightful people.

Thanks for stopping by.

Something Good, Something Bad

I have learned that white bread gives me headaches.

Weird, I know....but true.

I saw a new doctor today as my former Endocrinologist has left the State.

(Oh yeah, and my family doctor retired...coincidence?

I guess I am just a bit hard on them with all my mystery symptoms.)

I told him this fact (white bread and headaches) and he looked at me as if I was a bit loony.

But, you know, it is what it is.

I've proved it again this evening.

As I ate a hamburger bun on my grilled burger I knew it would be coming.

And then I forgot.

Until it hit.

So...the bad thing?

I have a headache because I was stupid.

I ate a hamburger bun.

Something good?

I've found Gluten Free Bisquick.

Oh yeah!

Tonight I decided to try an experiment.

It was quick.

No measurements here because I am a pour and mix kind of gal.

But I took some of that mix, one of our chicken's eggs,

fresh milk and some raw sugar and combined them to a 

moist but workable consistency.

I pressed it generously into the bottom of a pie pan,

going about halfway up the sides.

Note it was a bit sticky so a light powdering of a bit more 

Bisquick allowed me to work with it while not making it too dry.

I then popped it into a 375 degree oven to pre-bake slightly.

While it was doing it's thing I chopped up some rhubarb and strawberries.

Mixed in some raw sugar and Bisquick mix.

I removed the baking shell from the oven and put the fruit mixture on top.

It was piled high.

I added some pats of butter to the top and let it bake until we had finished

eating the aforementioned burgers.

After letting it cool to just the right temperature

 while we spread some mulch in the garden 

Warren and I enjoyed this fruit tart with some french vanilla ice cream.

He commented on how good it was.

Yep.

That was the something good, indeed.

Now I'm hoping the gluten free will balance out the white bread 

and take my headache away.

Wouldn't that be just great?

Hello....Spring has Come!!

 We have had a delightful but crazy busy couple of weeks since returning home

from North Carolina.  The first week back was all about preparing for our Pastor's wedding.

He and Jenny got married on Sunday, May 4th with a very wonderful showing of people

who loved them and wanted to help them celebrate.

We fit about 130 people in our smallish sanctuary and fellowship area.

Trust me when I say....

we were at capacity.

But everyone fit in and a marvelous time was had.

Mother's Day was wonderful yesterday.

It is a new experience to have "new family members".

But, you know, I really, really love it.

Mikey brought Emily over for lunch.  We had a picnic on the deck.

The day before Johnny had been in contact from Denmark wishing me a special day.

Jonathan, Michael and Chelsea blessed me in various ways

as they made a point of showing me their appreciation

for ....well...you know.

Giving birth to them...and all of that.

This evening we had a bit of rain and after the sun came back out

our dogs wanted to go out and explore.

We found a visitor.

This dog visits whenever it gets the chance.

Initially our girls are never happy about it but they finally agree

to get along.

I revisited an old past time.

That of wandering with camera in hand and snapping

photos of random flowers, plants and trees in the yard.

Thankfully Chelsea has provided me with some new opportunities

this Spring.  She has been planting like crazy.

I buy her plants and she preps flower beds or pots and

makes them quite happy.

What a blessing this has been.

It keeps her busy while she waits for Johnny to return 

for the summer.

He comes next week.

We are very ready to have him back with us again.

We were happy to find this unique color at Cherry Hill Orchard.

The only thing that kind of bothers me about them is that while up 

close they are dynamic and very cool, 

from a distance they look kind of dead. 

Oops! 

Didn't think of that.

But I think that once the greens get going in the basket

they will be great even from a distance.

It is so good to see our trees have survived the horrible abuse they took

during the ice storm that did so very much damage.

We found a stick impaled into our deck furniture.

Just buried in and broken off.

We will never forget that day as we stood and listened to what 

sounded like warfare all around us.

It was terrifying and sad to watch our neighbors trees 

fall one after another into their yard.

However, even after the storm and all that it did 

in damage you can see that life is resilient.

It comes back.

 Dogwood - 2014

 I do love this tree.....

In a winter that seemed it would never end I found myself 

wanting to curl up in a fetal position with my thumb in my mouth 

for the first time ever in my life.

I felt totally out of control.

And I didn't like it.

Weather has a way of reminding us 

that our concept of control

is a deception.

The sooner we realize and surrender to the ONE 

who truly does control everything 

the better.

25 Years....A Celebration

This entire week is a celebration.

Of our 25th Anniversary.

We actually crossed this milestone in March but Warren was 

very busy 

(along with hundreds of others)

 with the preparations of launching Sight and Sound's current

show, Moses.  We decided that it would be prudent and a lot less

stressful to wait until things settled down a bit before leaving town.

This is the appointed time.

We left Easter morning which meant we missed our church family at the 

annual Sonrise Service for the first time in seven years.

That kind of hurt....but it was a long drive to Atlantic Beach, North Carolina.

We were so touched when our friend, Deanna, sent us a video from the 

breakfast as she interviewed several in attendance to give us 

messages.  In fact the messages were about how they liked the 

makeover of the Fellowship Hall.  It was so fun to hear the different 

kinds of responses from teens... to men... to ladies.

And now get ready....here come a bunch of photos from our visit so far.

We've been to local beaches, the Aquarium, Beaufort Historical District and Waterfront

and several local eateries.

 I love that there are many, many public beach accesses here.  No charges for parking.

And very clean beaches.

From the North Carolina Aquarium.  They seem like friends, don't they?

While still a bit on the homely side all of the colors help.....

I've always loved sea horses.  So unusual and kind of elegant.

As close as I care to be to jellyfish.  

After being stung once....

I keep my distance.

Everyone loved the otters.  

They are so cute and social. 

Sweetly brightening the path on the way home from the beach.  It appeared to be a "volunteer" 

as it was all on its own.

Beaufort, North Carolina

Ham and Cheddar hush puppies...with orange dipping sauce

This was fabulous!

Butter cake with blueberries, lemon custard and vanilla cream.

Oh my.................

Everyone on the beach is windblown....

Myself included.

But I've come to be just fine with that.

And you probably would be too.

By the way, 

if you are a Facebook Friend you may have seen most of these

and may be completely tired of the subject.

However, there are a few special people in our lives who are not 

on Facebook and will enjoy seeing these.

So....my apologies if you are feeling inundated and overwhelmed by 

all of the media surrounding our adventures. 

Hugs.

This Week's Big Project

It has been a while since Mrs. Rabe and I have shared a project. 

It used to be that we were together at least once per week with home school group

or something at church.

However, since I'm all "graduated" that is no more.

And things at the church have been rather settled for a while 

when it comes to 

projects.  

But we were discussing the upcoming wedding of our dear pastor 

and our friend, Jenny.

I looked at Deanna and suggested that it would be so great if we could

paint the fellowship hall before the wedding.

She had been thinking the same thing but hesitated to say anything.

That was all it took.

A plan was hatched and colors were chosen. 

All that was left was to set a time and rope in the husbands to assist us.

Well, I really thought we could do it ourselves....

but I was wrong.

That was a HUGE project.

One that required not only our husbands but several others from the church.

Huge thanks to Denny, Jenny, Georgia, Mike L, Rachel, Sarah, Kyle, and Kamryn

for assisting in this project with Warren, Tim, Deanna and I.

We realized that it has already been six years that we've been in the building.

The yellow and bold orange has worn out its welcome.

From our Titanic Event a couple of years ago.

We had also grown into the room so that the prior separation 

between dining and living space no longer made sense.

We need all of it for eating.

 For now we have repurposed many decor items that were already on the walls.

We purposely chose colors that worked with most of the things we had.

Over time I believe we will add photography and art from the congregation.

We want this room to truly reflect those who worship together here.

This was fun.

And it was very hard work.

But it was quite worth it.

We told our husbands this at the end of the project and they were 

very glad that WE thought so. 

Ha.