May 15, 2010

Our favorite mother on Mothers Day. Sunday was Mother's Day.  I am so very very thankful for the three wonderful mothers that I have in my life!  To church at Barnwell where Bro. Wendell preached on "The Christian's Future".   We came home and I finished making up a lunch of ham biscuit roll-ups with cheese sauce, fresh broccoli, corn, salad and cookies.  We all took naps.  It was a beautiful day outside. We went to church in the evening for a presentation on "Urban Mennonite Missions" in Baltimore, MD.  Interesting and challenging service.
The corn is several feet high now. Monday was kinda different.  I went in to work while Ina Sue started on the laundry.  By dinnertime though I pretty much had all my work taken care of so I took the rest of the day off.  This almost never happens but we have been really slow for the last couple weeks.  I came home and ate lunch then I cut an access hole to the underside of our dining room.  I crawled underneath and spent an hour or two pulling out old insulation, boards and misc. other residue from under that end of the house.  Carolina Sue and Landon helped by hauling away the trash that I shoved out through the hole.  Then I sprayed a bunch of Round-up on our weeds, pressure washed the walks, and sucked up a lot of the pecan fronds that have fallen with our blower/vac.
Claudia at 1 month. Debbie Hochstetler very kindly brought us a delicious supper of rolls, grilled chicken, rice pilaf, peas & carrots, deviled eggs, jello salad, and a spectacular peanut butter pie.  Wow!  On top of all this they not only brought a nice gift for Claudia but also for all the rest of the children.  It is hard to keep of with that kind of generosity!   After supper I read the children their stories and got them in bed then worked for several hours spraying Boracare fungicide underneath of our house.  I hope it can keep this killer fungus dormant... 

Ina Sue worked on the ironing Tuesday morning while I went in to work.  I was able to stay busy today but did come home at 5:00 so that I could spray a sealant on our concrete walks that I had pressure washed yesterday.  After a supper of leftovers, Ina Sue took the children for a walk while I did a touchup with spray paint on our front porch railing.

The ball game at the school picnic. I went to work Wednesday morning and Ina Sue got the children packed up and took them over to Roslyn Stovers for the morning while she took Claudia to the doctor for her 1-month checkup.  She weighed 9lb. 4oz.  We are happy that she is growing well.  After she got home with the children she put the little ones to bed then she and Carolina Sue worked for a while out front raking the road gravels off of our grass yard.  After supper Landon and I took a bike ride while the ladies went over and visited with Hendrick for a while.
Josh brought his own shade.

Thursday found me at work and Ina Sue sewing on a dress for Carolina.  Our midwife Adrienne dropped in for a short surprise visit.  Ina Sue made us a wonderful supper of meatloaf and asparagus casserole with a salad.  After supper we all went for a drive to get out of the house and to get milk.  After we got home the children and I made up a batch of mozzarella cheese.  Duane Bange brought one of his stereo speakers by and we used a jigsaw to enlarge the hole in the box so that a new speaker would fit into it.  A nice time visiting with him.  Ina Sue sewed while we worked.
Landon visits with Ms. Katie Kauffman. Ina Sue did her regular cleaning on Friday while I spent most of my day at work on service calls.  She said that Claudia was pretty restless/fussy.  For supper we had a salad with strawberries, pecans and feta cheese.  Delicious.  Ina Sue worked on making food for tomorrow while I mowed the town square.  Ina Sue took the children with her to Carl's to pick some mint tea.  We had homemade vanilla ice-cream with fresh strawberries for a delicious treat before bed.
Claudia with her birthday tree.  (A River Birch) Saturday was the ending picnic for the school.  We got up early to prepare food.  The event started at 10:00 with ladies softball.  There wasn't really a program this year because of all the preparation that just went in to the 30'th anniversary celebration.  Since Ina Sue and I needed to keep up with 4 preschoolers we both bowed out of playing ball.  The carry-in dinner was delicious and we enjoyed the visiting and fellowship.  We left around 2:00 and came home for a really short nap before I started the mowing.  I also washed the car.  Ina Sue cleaned up in the house but started coming down with a fever in the evening.  She didn't sleep at all well and had chills and ached all over.....
Our little mop-top In case you wonder where the curls came from.. .