Smiling faces...

 This morning I received a text message with a picture of a boy I used to tutor.  Today was his first day of fourth grade and his smiling face got my day off to an excellent start.

Later my spouse and I and my brother-in-law took a drive to Marble Lake (near Coldwater, Michigan) for a reunion of cousins.  The day included a boat ride, delicious food, including my wonder spouse's fudge (his mother's recipe), a lively card game, lots of reminiscing, and smiling faces all day long.

On the drive home from the lake I received a text from my son and daughter-in-law with a selfie of them on their first day of school, as teachers of course.  This year they are teaching at the same school.  Their broad smiles lit up my evening.  

All in all a smile filled happy day.  I think I will still be smiling as I fall asleep. 

Brace yourself...

 Actually, I'm the one who is bracing myself.  Several months ago my wonder spouse had stem cell injections in his knees to alleviate the pain and the procedure was very successful.  After careful consideration and a lot of pain, especially in my right knee, we decided that I should do the same thing. 

It sounds so simple - inject a concoction of buttery consistency into each leg just at the bottom edge of the kneecap. That part was simple and went very smoothly this morning.  The catch is that, in order to ensure that the stem cell mixture stays in the right location in each leg (it won't do any good if it just leaks away) I must now wear a brace on each leg that is strapped on above and below the knee and holds the knee in perfect alignment until everything is set.  I will be wearing these braces for the next six weeks.  This will be followed by six therapy sessions to assure that all is working as it should be.  

When this is all finished, I will, theoretically, be able to keep up with my spouse on walks and hikes of the sort that occur frequently on our trips.  I will not be running!  I have never been a runner so that is not on my agenda.

Although there was a time when I sprinted really fast to catch a granddaughter who was about to fall into the creek.  But that's a story for another time. 

Mystery solved...

 Not the poster mystery, I'm still waiting for input on that but we have solved another much smaller mystery. 

First you should know that we have finished another jigsaw puzzle. Here it is.

Fifteen hundred (1500) pieces, and as you can see, lots of picky little details.  It was a challenge, I can assure you.  But you know, it keeps us off the streets and out of trouble.  Our grandchildren don't have to worry about what we're up to.  

However we did face one mystery as we completed this puzzle.  There was one piece missing, a bright red and blue piece that should have been easy to spot.  Now we know that puzzle pieces have a tricky habit of falling off the table and on to the floor after we turn off the lights and go to bed, so we have learned to search the floor around our work space frequently to gather up the fallen pieces.  We have never lost one yet, until yesterday.  The puzzle was completely finished, the floor had been thoroughly searched, still one piece missing.  While we were searching my wonder spouse put his hand in the pocket of the old sweater he wears sometimes while we're in the basement, because it can feel chilly down there, and there, in his pocket was the missing piece.  He assures me that he did not put it there and I believe him.  

Now we have learned that we must search pockets as well as the floor for the most tricky puzzle pieces.  

Fear not, this will not stop us from starting another puzzle.  But maybe just a thousand pieces next time?

a 100 year old document

 My mother was born in 1910.  She told me that when she was young (I'm guessing somewhere around 1925 - 1930) she had a Japanese pen pal.  A few months ago I was going through some old things I had stashed away and came across some items that my mom had saved that were evidently from her pen pal.  

Among other things was this poster (for want of a better word) and I've been curious to learn what it represented ever since the first time  I unfolded it. It had been folded and stored in an 8.5 x 11 manilla envelope for all these years.  

It is about four feet long and three feet wide.  Today I finally had a chance to sit down with the minister of the Korean congregation at our church to see what he could tell me about it.  The first thing he told me was that it is not Japanese.  The people pictured are dressed in Chinese style clothing. 

Interestingly, my Korean pastor can read some Chinese.  He and some of his congregation members figured out that it is a poster aimed at converting people to Christianity.  Part of the message printed along the borders says "Read the New Testament."  He used a translation app to read some of the small print.  If you look at the picture you will see that the gentleman on the right is holding a stack of small Bibles (New Testaments?) and giving one to the family. 

My best guess is that this was hung in a church but maybe it was hung in anothe public building where lots of people would see it. If anyone out there knows anything about this or similar posters you can scroll down to the comment button at the bottom of this blog and leave the information.  Suggestions on where I could do further research would also be appreciated.

in the news...

 My west coast brother lives near Spokane,Washington.  If you've been paying attention to the national news you are aware of the wild fires that have been burning in and around Spokane for the last couple of weeks.  Thankfully, my brother and his family are in a rural area that is not threatened right now.  They are however dealing with a lot of smoke.  He tells me that masks left over from the days of Covid are coming in handy.  

 The good news is they have arrested the pyromaniac.  He has admitted to starting 25 fires in the last couple of years.  He is in jail with bail set at $1,000,000.  Again, according to my brother. 

I am writing about this because I just don't understand what would compel someone to start fires.  

When I was a girl livimg with my family on our little five acre farm the farmer who lived across the road accidentally set fire to the tall grass growing along the side of the road.  It had been a very dry summer and the fire burned brightly, but just for a while.  The volunteer firemen arrived before it got very far into the field on the neighbor's side of the road.  The fire was put out, no damage done except a scorched area along the road.

That's as close as I ever want to come to a fire.  Please keep the people of Spokane in your prayers.

more memorable bliss...

 

This evening was another great family time, this time with my daughter and son-in-law, grandson and granddaughter-in-law and, the undisputed star of the show, my great grandson who was five months old yesterday.  

We feasted on steaks, grilled to perfection by my wonder spouse, with tater tots perfectly cooked with the hot air fryer feature of our new microwave, salads and, as the grand finale, made-from-scratch brownies made by my granddaughter-in-law wno happens to be an excellent baker.  

Before the evening ended we took a four generation picture to go with one we already had.

This picture was taken in 2001.  It is a four generation picture.  From left to right my father, me holding my grandson, and his mom, my daughter.

Fast forward 25 years. From left to right me (the great grandparent this time around) my daughter holding her grandson and her son.

You should have figured out that the little baby in the top picture is the bearded daddy in the bottom picture.  

Isn't it fun, seeing the generations grow and thrive?

refreshing.....

 Today, according to my west coast brother, is "National Root Beer Float Day."  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to indulge in a root beer float today, but just thinking about them brought back lots of sweet memories. 

 Do you remember A&W root beer and the stands where you could buy it?  A&W was our favorite (also the only root beer stand in the small town where I grew up). Sometimes we had our root beer with vanilla ice cream (a float) and sometimes we enjoyed our root beer straight and served in a heavy glass frosty mug.  Never with ice, that would dilute the flavor. 

When my first husband and I went traveling around the United States in our trusty VW bus, accompanied by our two children, coming upon a root beer stand was an automatic excuse for a stop.  

When they were very young, we bought two miniature mugs for the kids.  They loved those little mugs and drank everything from them; root beer of course, but also milk, fruit juice, even water.  

Not surprisingly, the more I think about root beer floats the more I want one.  Sadly, it's too late tonight, but there's always tomorrow.

I just did quick check and I may have to change brands.  It's not nice to drink alone and my wonder spouse can't drink anything made with corn syrup.  Happily IBC root beer is made with cane sugar, and our local Kroger's carries it in 4 packs and 6 packs.  

Even better, I need to go shopping tomorrow.