"Earth laughs in flowers." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 All the trees up at work are in full bloom, they are so pretty. When I was opening buildings on Saturday I stopped and took a couple pictures with my phone. Enjoy....

 So I finally took my bow out and made sure my site tape was on. I shot about 40 arrows at 20,30,40,50 and 60 yards. I managed to keep most of them in the yellow. Still have not decided if I am going to shoot the Fita on June 7. I need to get out and practice a few more times if I am going to.

 I have been wanting some lawn furniture to put in the front of the house since we widened  the cement sidewalk.  Last year I found this set at Fleet Farm but never got it. It went on sale this week so Rick surprised me and got it. It fits perfect. Of course once the mosquitoes come out I will not be able to enjoy it. They are going to bad this year with all the rain we got this spring. I saw my first one on Saturday. It make me sad to see them. 

Hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend.

Sharon

For those of you who might be interested Christa started a new blog: http://thewrlife.blogspot.com/

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” ― Bil Keane

 Josie graduated from Pre-school this week. She was so cute in her cap and gown. Just think in 13 more years she will be graduating from high school!

                                          Eli, Josie and Liam after the program

                                          Josie even let me take a picture with her.

 On Wed. Rick had surgery on his thumb. He had trigger thumb. It was a minor surgery that only took about 15 minutes. It went very well. He is able to move his hand and thumb normally again. He has to keep it wrapped up until Saturday and then just have a band aid over the stitches until they come out.  He had the surgery at 7:30 in the morning so after it was done we went for breakfast at Perkins. Since Rick was feeling so good we spent the day running around from store to store. It was a fun day.

Yesterday I got some yard work done. I repainted my pots and got them all planted. Since I had so much trouble with the squirrels digging up my plants last year I covered the dirt with dried red pepper. Last year after I did it they never dug it up again. Hopefully it works this year.

I was lucky to have nice days off so I could be outside working. Now I am back at work wishing I was at home enjoying the weather today.

Have a safe and Happy Memorial Day weekend!
Sharon

Day Full of Memories

 

One of the best memories I have of my Grandma Trenda was her kolacky's.  I could always count on her  having  some made every time we visited her and if she came to see us she always brought some with her to share. The picture above is Grandma's recipe that she wrote out for me years ago. Now that she is gone I treasure it even more.

Well for a few years now Christa and Amy have been asking my Mom to come over and teach us all how to make kolacky's. It just never seemed to work out. Well this past Sept. when we were at one of the many funerals we had to go to Amy decided that we need to set a date and do it. We agreed that it would be fun to have all the aunts come over too and make a family baking day of it. We got a date set and were ready to go. Of course that date got changed several time before we finally made it happen.

My Mom, Aunt Sandi, Aunt Monie, Amy and Christa all came to my house bright and early on Monday morning

Aunt Sandi took the lead roll on showing us just how it was done. She is a pro at it.

                             She took us through it step by step

This is my favorite pictures from the day. My Mom, Sandi and Monie are reading out of book that I had Grandma Trenda fill out for me years and years ago called Grandmother Remembers. It is full of family pictures and stories about Grandma. It was fun to see and hear them read it out loud. They even found out things they did not know about Grandma. 

                           Sandi getting the kolacky's ready be filled

                     Showing us how to fold them over

Aunt Monie took the easy way and used frozen bread dough for her batch.

                         A pan full of kolacky's

         Sandi showing Amy how to wrap them up. Amy got it down pretty good!

          Grandma Becker taking a break and reading Oliver a story or two

I pulled out all my recipes and found all the ones that Grandma Trenda had written out. It fun to talk about them all and the memories of Grandma making them for us.

                                     Waiting to rise and get baked.

Sandi also made us some cinnamon rolls from the dough she made.

This picture got out of order. It is Amy doing her best to fold the dough over.

                               Christa, Mom and Aunt Monie

                                                     The Finished product!!!!

                            Oliver's very first bite of a kolacky. He loved it!!

I cannot express how much this day meant to me and to Christa and Amy. Not only did we learn how to make kolacky's we also had lot of laughs. There were so much talk about Grandma that day. We all hope she was watching from heaven and had a smile on her face knowing that a family tradition was being carried on.

When I took a bite of a kolacky that day the memories of Grandma flooded back. Aunt Sandi made the kolacky perfect they tasted just like Grandmas.

It was a perfect day and I am so happy that Amy and Christa insisted that we do it.

Later Sharon

"Sandbox"

                                       

                             "Sandbox"

      There are few things that can make a child smile
      As much as playing in the sand -
      Where one can build moats and castles
      With as little as their own bare hands.
      It trickles through their fingers -
      Such warm and tiny grains;
      Between the toes it is cool and squishes
      After a welcomed summer's rain.
      The sandbox is a wonderful place
      To pass the time of day;
      Where imagination is limited only
      By the child who loves to play.
                                                        Author: unknown

On Sunday Rick and I went down to Truman so Rick could see Christa and Jese's new house. We also went there so Rick could build Oliver a new sandbox since he had to leave the other one Rick made him at there old house in New Prague. He only had the little turtle sandbox to play in when they were living in the rental.

Now Oliver is going to have a huge sandbox to play in. He was very excited. To bad we did not bring sand to fill it. Christa and I dumped the sand in it from the turtle but that did not even fill the corner of the  sandbox. But Oliver still was excited and played in the little sand he had.  Christa said he has been playing in his sand/grass box all week.  Rick is going to bring a wagon load of sand down to them on Saturday. Oliver is going to be very happy to have more sand then grass in his sandbox to play in!


                                         We have been busy doing a little yard work.

The city came around and picked up brush this week so we trimmed all the bushes/trees that are on the property line. They were hanging over so far that it was pretty much impossible to mow under them. The area is also full of leaves from last fall. So I spent Monday raking. I got the wagon full and still have at least two more wagon's full to get rid of. To bad the city would not take leaves when they picked up the brush. Hopefully it will be nice out on my days off so I can finish cleaning it all up. Maybe we will even get some grass growing again in the area.

Rick also needs to get the big logs cut up from the two trees we had taken down a month ago. Then we need to rent a log splitter. We should have wood for the fire for a long time.

Since our lawn is mostly in the shade we have not had to cut it yet. With all the rain we have been getting I'm sure we will have to soon.

The deer have found our yard again. They have been coming right up the front of the house to eat acorns. I'm glad to see them so they can clean up more of the acorns. I have raked them up again this spring and Rick ran the sweeper over the yard too but there is still millions of them in the yard. I am glad that we only have a big crop of them every other year.

That's about all the updates I have for today. Enjoy the weekend

Sharon   

Finding The Good.......

What a awful news day it was in Waseca yesterday.  In case you have not heard about it here is a link to one of the many stories about the teen that planned a school shooting in Waseca It was shocking and so very sad to hear about it yesterday. Thank God the women who saw the teen go into the storage locker that he was storing his bombs in called the police when she thought he was acting suspicious. It was because of her an unimaginable tragedy did not happen.

When you hear about the school shootings you always think to yourself that it will never happen in my town. It is easy to detach yourself from it because it did not affect the people you know. Well reality hit very close to home yesterday. When I think about all the people that I know that have kids in the Waseca schools and how tragic it could have been it just makes me sick.

So I decided that after the bad news of yesterday I would share some happy things.....

Yesterday was May Day and several of the neighborhood kids came around with May Baskets.

   It is so sweet! I love that they, along with there parents take the time to make them up and then come around and leave them at our doors.  It made me smile when I opened the door and found them. Dexter loved it too since he also found them before me and was feasting on one of them before I got to it.


Today while at work I went into the business office and they also had little May Baskets for the taking. They were so cute that I had to take one when I was told to. I now have a couple treats and some flower seeds to take home.

Morgan likes to chase squirrels. She pretty much spends her day looking out the windows for them and then running out the door and chasing them up trees. She can just barely reach to look out the living room window. She is so cute. It made me smile last night watching her.

Today is Amy's 30th birthday. She was telling me yesterday that she was feeling really old turning 30 and was feeling a little down about it. Then she remember that I would now have two daughters that were in there 30's so that made me "really" old. She said that thought made her cheer up about turning 30. It made me laugh when she told me and was glad my oldness could make her feel better.

Rick had some people over to pick up strings so by the time he got upstairs it was 6:45. Neither of us had eaten supper yet and since it was already so late I figured we would just eat left overs again. But Rick decided that he was going to grill and made up some chicken for us. I was grateful to have him take care of supper for us after a long day at work for both of us. It is nice to be taken care of sometimes.

So  even if the news out there is awful and you are feeling down try to find the good in the little things. The neighbor that waves and smiles as you go by, seeing the neighborhood kids playing and laughing every afternoon, the smile of your love ones or even watching to dog get all excited by the chase of a squirrel.  It is not hard to find the good if you just look.....


Later Sharon