January 31, 2009

Landon "The Tool Man" Strite	Went to church Sunday morning at Barnwell.  Gary Hege brought another sermon from his Genesis series entitled "Man's Supremacy in Creation".  Carolina Sue was invited over to the Stovers for the afternoon to help celebrate Ivana's birthday.  She thought she was pretty big stuff!  The rest of us came home to a dinner of leftovers from the night before.  We all had nice naps in the afternoon then I had to get up and get ready for my part in the evening service.  I was responsible for children's meeting and had an object lesson from a toolbox.  Carl Heatwole had the main topic on "What I Wish I Would Have Known When I was a Teenager".  Good.  When we got home we had boiled peanuts for a late night snack.
The New Life church in Springfield.	I headed off to work Monday morning without breakfast.  This diet is a real drag!!!  Ina Sue started on the laundry but kept getting interrupted by the power outages then the water pressure died off.  On top of everything else it started to drizzle outside so she had to use the dryer for everything.  She did get everything washed and folded by the time I got home at 7:30.   Landon seems to have suddenly become quite pious.  While Ina Sue was disciplining Carolina for some wrongdoing, he kept emphatically saying "Nina, Jesus is not happy!  Jesus is not happy!"  :)
"Helping" Mommy make bread.	I got up Tuesday morning and made us breakfast of grits and puddins to break my 1-day fast.  I went off to work.  Ina Sue baked up a batch of bread.  She also finished up the ironing and did some sewing.  After I got home from work I fried up some catfish and french fries for supper (fish 'n chips).  Ina Sue fixed us a salad to go with it.  After supper I played "Chutes & Ladders" with the children while Ina Sue got our Quicken caught up.  After we got the children in bed I worked for an hour or two getting all of our tax information together for my tax lady.  I went back in to the ship at 10:45 and worked until 2:00.
Reading books at the library.	Ina Sue made us Irish cream muffins for breakfast on Wednesday.  She wasn't feeling very well and did various tasks around the house.  Also did a little scrapbooking.  I had a full day at work.  When I got home we had supper of skillet lasagna then rushed around to get ready to leave.  We took Wendell & Naomi along with us up to the New Life church in Springfield for a presentation by Olive Branch Missions.  The mission has outreaches in S. Dakota, Nicaragua & Grenada.  Got home around 10:00 and had a quick snack of Gibbles and mocha shakes.
Carolina & Landon loved Ms. Ashley.	Thursday was a little more relaxed.  Ina Sue sewed and cooked.  I meant to come home early but didn't get left from work until a little after 5:00.  I came home helped get the children loaded up then we drove back in to Barnwell for supper at Mi Rancho.  Myron & Jane had kindly given us a gift certificate there in thanks for them using our house over the holidays.  We had an enjoyable time "eating out" then drove over to the library for a while.  We found that three children are not necessarily conducive to proper library etiquette.  We will have to do it more often for training...
Out Fishin'	I left for work Friday morning with Ina Sue starting on the cleaning.  After dinner, Ina Sue took the three children over to Josh & Marcia's to pick up pecans.  I was able to get off work around 1:30 and came home and helped them for a while.  Savannah got a little cranky so Ina Sue had to take her home.  I stayed with the children for a while then took Landon home and got more buckets.  We ended up with about 120 lbs. of unshelled nuts from our work.  In the later afternoon Ina Sue worked on getting supper ready while I picked up pecans from our tree behind the garden.  We had our first grade school teacher, Ashley Sanders, over for supper.  Stuffed taco shells, corn, salad, garlic bread and bars with fruit slush for dessert.  We had a delightful evening visiting and it got pretty late before we got to bed.
Nailing in the cookie sheet dividers with my new gun.	After our late night we slept in a bit Saturday morning.  I thought I got quite a bit done during the day.  In the morning I cleaned out and straightened up our shed, picked up the rest of the pecans from our back tree and picked up 2 more 5-gallon buckets of pecans from Josh & Marcia's, and nailed in the dividers in Ina Sue's cookie sheet cabinet.  In the afternoon I cleaned off the asparagus bed, pulled out the old broccoli, cabbage & pepper plants, and planted lettuce & spinach.  I also washed both vehicles, mowed the grass in the front yard, and sprayed a couple gallons of Round-up.
Scrubbing up the back porch.	Ina Sue cleaned and scrubbed the back porch, took care of children, and made us a scrumptious looking lemon meringue pie.  We were pretty tired by supper time so the children and I drove up to Denmark and picked us up eggrolls and veggie fried rice for supper.