July 10, 2010

Ready for church.	We went to Mt. Pleasant for church Sunday morning.  Chad had the opening and Elvin Shank preached.  We came home for a big family lunch.  Mother fixed us dilly rolls, canadian bacon, fresh potatoes, green beans, squash pie, angel food cake and fruit.  It's hard to stay on a diet up here...  We relaxed over lunch then packed things up and left for SC around 3:00.  The children were a little restless coming home but we had a fairly good trip and got back to Govan around 11:00.
Ella shows off Tinkerbell's tricks.	Many businesses were closed on Monday to celebrate July 4'th (which was actually on Sunday)  We decided to stay open but it was a very slow day.  I went in and did two quick service calls then I took off for the rest of the day.  Ina Sue worked on the laundry.  I mowed and sawed off low hanging branches around the yard.  Also cleaned out and washed my car.  It was high time!  I also started a fast today to get me weight back in line.  We bought a big deli ham at Sharp Shopper in Harrisonburg over the weekend so I spent a while in the afternoon slicing it up into chunks, slices and ground ham for the freezer.
Savannah & Claudia	I had a fairly busy day at work on Tuesday.  Ina Sue finished up the laundry, and put some tomatoes in the freezer.  After I got home from work we all took a walk around the block.  Stopped and visited with Ms. Naomi for a while.  She is really suffering from a pinched nerve in her lower back and can hardly sit down.  We pray that she soon starts to see some improvement.
The dreaded tree trimmers at work again.	Another normal day at work for me on Wednesday.  Ina Sue and the children worked outside for a while, trimming ivy, picking up sticks, pruning bushes etc.  Ina Sue made up a batch of apple dumplings and shared them with the neighbors.   In the evening we went to prayer meeting where we had a special commissioning/send-off for Starla Diem who is going to be serving at Hillcrest Nursing Home, and for Laura Dickerson who is going to be serving at a mission in Cherry Creek, ND.
Apples from our own tree.	I was still fasting on Thursday.  Life just is not as much fun when you are not eating....  I went in to work at the normal time but stopped in at home over lunch from a service call.  While there I picked a small batch of apples from the tree so that Ina Sue could try making a batch of apple sauce to see how they do.  She called me later in the afternoon and said that the sauce was a big hit with the children.  The apples on our tree need to be picked green because they get mealy by the time they get yellow.  So, they are more on the tart side and seem to be really good for baking.
Making apples snitz for pie filling.	I was able to get home around 5:30 and we went out and picked a big laundry basket full of apples with many more hanging on the tree yet.  After supper we started peeling and cutting them up.  They have some mildew on the outside so we felt like we needed to peel them.  We got about half of the apples processed and ended up the evening with over 13 quarts of beautiful apple pie filling.  Done around 12:00
The results of our labor.	The children had us up soon after 6:00 on Friday.  I headed off to work while Ina Sue started on the cleaning.  For supper she fixed us a delicious vegetable pizza.  The crust was made of zucchini with onions, peppers and spinach on top.  I started to break my fast and ate more of the pizza then I intended.  After supper we started on the rest of the apples.  We didn't get done until after 12:00 but had over 40 pints of applesauce to show for it.  We are very pleased with it.
Helping sweep off the deck.	I had to work on Saturday until 3:00 when we close the shop.  Ina Sue cleaned, did misc. jobs and played mommy with the children.  After I got home Ina Sue went out and mowed while I weed-eated, edged and pulled weeds.  I finished up the mowing then while she made us chicken quesadillas for supper.  We knocked off around 7:30 and relaxed for the rest of the evening.