October 28, 2006

Carolina holding a conference with herself	Sunday we woke up to a beautiful rain.  Soft and easy.  Gerald Eshleman preached at Barnwell on "Small Things that God Uses to Confound the Mighty".   We decided rather spur of the moment to have company over to share our meal.  Carls kindly agreed to come and sit around our table and we had a nice meal together.  We had a beef roast cooking in the oven, Ina Sue fixed mashed potatoes and I made up iced tea and tried to make biscuits.  I make biscuits often and they normally turn out fine.  This time I was in to big a hurry and used bread flour instead of self-rising flour.  Needless to say my biscuits looked like flat cakes... :)  We went ahead and served them anyway and I didn't think they were so awful.  We got a little nap in then before going to church in the evening.  Randy told us about his time at NYP in their "Personal Worker Training Camp"  Then Daniel and Richard showed slides of their recent trip to Israel.  Very interesting.
Bryan Ranck & Peter Byler were our guests	Monday was a normal busy day with Ina doing the wash & me spending the day at work.  She fixed us a delicious broiled parmesan fish recipe for supper along with baked rice and green beans.  We were both pretty tired and spent the evening resting then went to bed in good time.
Heading out early on Wed. morning.	I went in to work early on Tuesday again but was able to get off a little early to come home and help get things around for our evening.  Ina Sue spent most of the morning cutting up and cooking a pumpkin that Naomi H. had given us.  She also got our finances all caught up, finished the ironing, and took care of the children.  In the evening, SMBI's chorale gave a program at church.  It was a really nice program and the young people seemed really nice.  We kept two young men here with us for the night and thoroughly enjoyed our time visiting with them.
Telling secrets...	I got up early on Wednesday and fixed our company a breakfast of waffles.  We needed to have them up in Denmark by 6:30 in order for them to meet their bus.  Needless to say, we didn't have a lot of spare time to visit in the morning.  After I got them dropped off I came back home for a little time with my family then headed in to work.  Ina Sue made up some pumpkin torte and mexican chip dip for our small group meeting in the evening.  Carl Heatwoles, Aden Diems and Richard Brubaker are in our small group this year.  We had a devotional, a bible game and a time of prayer then visited over a snack.
Painting lath for our screen porch.	I stayed home all day on Thursday.  Ina Sue sometimes gets frustrated trying to get work done while two children both want her attention.  We decided that we would switch roles for the day.  I took care of the children while she spent her time caulking and painting on the porch.  She got a lot done but I thought I got a fair amount done as well.  Carolina & I made pumpkin bars, repackaged and froze 4 gallons of grape juice, made bread,  and froze the rest of the pumpkin sauce.  We also fixed supper of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  In the evening we took a snack over with us to see our neighbors Freddy & Bobbi.  We had a wonderful time visiting with them and after we got home Carolina Sue just kept talking about "the nice old lady" that gave her candy.  :)
My caulking queen	I went in to work early on Friday for an employee meeting while Ina Sue kicked in her Friday house cleaning.  It was rainy most of the day.  We kept Andy K's two youngest children from 4:00 on.  Andy was taking Mary out for an evening to celebrate her birthday.  For supper Ina Sue served us chicken wild-rice casserole, corn & fresh cucumber salad.  After supper we had a nice evening reading stories and playing Memory.
Washed the car...	I made us waffles and sausage gravy for our breakfast on Saturday.  I started the day by vacuuming out our minivan to get it ready for our trip to Monticello tomorrow.  Ina Sue volunteered to go get milk and took my car.  I had put a pint of concentrated grape juice on my front passenger floor to take to one of our employees at work.  Unfortunately, Ina Sue took along an empty quart jar to give back to Grace and during one of her flying turns the empty jar detonated itself on the jar of grape juice.  Talk about a mess!!!  I got most of it out but my carpet is still a really neat shade of purple...
Played Memory with Carolina	After that mess was cleaned up we worked on some more painting on the porch.  I rolled most of the ceiling and Ina Sue came behind and did the corners.  While she continued the painting I mowed the yard, made bread and took care of the children.  I also made up a batch of shrimp 'n grits for supper.  That is one of my favorite ways to eat both shrimp and grits.  While I was making supper Ina Sue bathed the children and made up some food for the carry-in dinner tomorrow.  I drove down to Olar and filled the van up with gas then picked up some milk from Carls.