Time At Home 05/08-06/16/19

Countryside Campground, Mogadore, Ohio

…to love their (spouse) and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind … so that no one will malign the word of God.  ~ Titus 2:5

HAPPY MAY/JUNE BIRTHDAYS TO:  CHAD, DORIS, MADISON, HARPER, MELANIE, RICH, BRIAN, GAIL, ALEX, KERRI, PHIL AND GAGE!!  That’s a lot of Spring/early Summer babies!  We love you all!

Well, we certainly had a variety of experiences this past month!  Every square on our May calendar, from the 8^th to the 31^st (except for the 24^th) had an appointment of some kind written on it. 

But before we get started, I discovered that I never mentioned our grandson, Kade getting his yellow belt! Pictures were sent to us on May 1st via text, but they never got moved into the picture app. So a belated Congratulations Kade!!

Also, sometime during the month, our oldest, Chris, cooked up commemorative “Game of Thrones” meals one day. It was so impressive looking (and he and his family swear it tasted great!), I went ahead an inserted the pictures he sent us, even though we weren’t actually there.

• 

• 

On our first day back, we stopped at my Mom’s and visited with her and my brother, sister-in-law and nephew.  The next day, was a couple of appointments and Blaine’s parents.

Then our sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren met at a local Mexican restaurant.  At the end of the evening, it was decided that from this time henceforth and forevermore, I should never stand next to Kyle for pictures – unless he sits and I remain standing.  😊

A surprise Mother’s Day gift for my mom as we tagged along with my brother and his family one day.  I can’t believe we didn’t take a picture of my family!  But we got a second chance later and I included it here.  😊  It was a Christian wax museum called “Bible Walk”, that’s been an on-going 32-year project of the Diamond Hill Cathedral in Mansfield, Ohio that keeps expanding.  It’s a self-guided walk-through that’s in several buildings depicting various themes in Christianity – the life of Christ, the miracles of the Old Testament, the Martyrs, the Reformation, and Paul’s missionary journeys.  It was much better done than we were expecting!  But they didn’t allow pictures of the scenes.  However, rebel that I am, I snuck one in.  Just one!

And then it was Mother’s Day and most of us got together to celebrate our wonderful Christian mother heritage!

We made three different casseroles to feed 18 people, and others brought macaroni salad, dessert, bread and drinks.  What a blessing to be with all the family again! (well, all those in Ohio at any rate)

The next evening, we were at Kyle and Shena’s to celebrate Harper’s 3^rd birthday.  I’m here to tell you that as cute and adorable as she is?  She’s a female version of her father!  And I didn’t even pronounce the “Mother’s Curse” on him! It’s fun to watch!  😊

And now for a little surprise!

Blaine and I went shooting with our oldest, Chris!  He picked us up and started driving.  It wasn’t long before I began wondering (from the backseat), where in the world he was taking us.  It just didn’t seem like we were headed to a firing range as I was expecting.

It wasn’t.  Before long, we were pulling into someone’s driveway, and there was his wife, Jessica standing there waiting for us.  And then Jessica’s friend came walking out.  Hmmm . . . Why are we here?  Chris started unpacking the car – gun case, rifle, a bag of ammunition, paper plate targets, gallon jugs of water and a case of water bottles – and headed into the woods using us as pack mules with Jessica taking up the rear.  We kept walking and walking and when I questioned Jessica about where we were going, she replied with a sinister tone, “The shovels are in the trunk . . .”

And then we laughed out loud!  😊  Turns out, her friends own a large patch of woods behind their house and are kind enough to allow shooting practice back there for select people.

It was fun, but I discovered I couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, which was very discouraging.  I used to be a pretty good shot.  Chris tried his best to figure out what was wrong, but I think the problem lies with my eyes.  They don’t focus normally anymore and I think that affects my view of the site alignment.  Sigh . . . .

Blaine did much better, as he hit most everything he aimed at.  And of course, Chris was the best shot.  😊  Jessica was happy watching.

The very next night found us at our grandson, Alex’s string orchestra concert.  He just began playing the cello this past October, but is already doing well.  Alex seems to have an ear for music and picks up instruments pretty quickly.  We enjoyed the concert, which included students from 6^th grade through high school.

The next morning, I paused during my teeth-brushing to snap pictures of this!

No, she’s not a burglar. I suspect her 4-year-old twin boys locked her out.  Hahaha!  I know.  I shouldn’t laugh at other people’s misfortune, but I can’t help it!  It was funny!  And it brought back similar memories from my boys’ childhood.  Although they never locked us out of the house.  But in the interest of honesty (because I know she’s reading this), I locked my mother out once.  As a teenager.  On purpose.  Because she returned home from a trip with her long hair cut off.  Why I did it?  I have no idea.  But I’m pretty sure she was disappointed with the homecoming she received.  I’m sorry Mom!

That same evening, we got together at Macaroni Grill with friends from Blaine’s former workforce, in  celebration of Rich’s birthday.  It was a grand time!  And Blaine made a mess when he didn’t pay enough attention to the uneven tables butted together, and after the waitress warned us, and after Blaine himself drew a warning line with a crayon.  His ice water flew all over our birthday masterpieces we’d been drawing!  And the waitress had to clean up yet another mishap, which she said happens all the time.  Later, back at Rich and Martha’s, we all played Left/Right/Center, and in honor of Rich’s birthday, we let him win the pot!  (Not really.  It just happened.  But “letting him win” makes us sound very magnanimous, don’t you think?)

And now for the grandest adventure of all!   (Drumroll please!)

Do you ever watch AFV (America’s Funniest Videos) and shake your head in your holier-than-thou-attitude saying, “What were they thinking??”  Well, if someone would’ve had their phone on and rolling, that person you’re watching could’ve been me!  It was a less than fine idea coupled with poor execution.  Are you saying to yourself, “Get on with it!  What happened?”  I’ll get to that momentarily.  You need some background first.  😊

It was pouring down the rain that morning and quite cool.  And we were supposed to be on Mogadore Reservoir with our sons and all but one of our grandchildren.  After postponing for about a ½ hour, the rain let up and we all met and got our boats into the water – Chris had his canoe and his two youngest (Cody in the middle, and Max up front), Blaine was in our new(er) kayak with Chris’ oldest Alex in front of him, and I was up front in our old kayak (now Kyle’s) with Kyle and his 3-year-old daughter, Harper.  (Got all that?) And off we went!  Little Harper did very well staying in the boat and every once in a while, she’d stand and play with my hair and talk to me, or we’d make Kyle do all the work so she could drag her toes in the very cool water.  We all watched some kind of gigantic fish (large mouth bass?  Carp?) frolicking in the water, making big splashes and swimming close to the boats!  Very fun and exciting!

I don’t remember exactly how the subject came up, but the two boys up front wanted to switch boats and Gma said, “Sure!”  (Doesn’t musical boat seats sound fun to you?)  And in the background, I heard Chris say, “Shouldn’t we go to shore to do this?”  And I said, “Nah!  We’ll be fine!” 

And we were. 

Until it was my turn to move. 

Let me see if I can paint this picture decently for you without using my gesturing hands or voice inflections.  The problem for me was in my execution.  I should have gone over to Chris’ canoe head first, or at the very least, stood up and stepped over.  Instead, with Chris and Kyle holding each other’s boats together in the back, I put my phone on the front seat of the canoe, and followed it with my feet over the edge.  So picture that – the edges of the boats are almost level with each other, my feet are in the canoe, my behind is sitting on the edge of the kayak, my hands are beside me.  Got that picture?  Good!  Now I pushed with my hands to scoot my backside over to the canoe.  And therein lay the problem.

When I did that, it pushed the front of the kayak away, and suddenly, I was butt-first in the cold water with my arms and legs up in the air!  I had enough presence of mind to hold my nose and my glasses, but I went under. When I surfaced, I was kinda gasping from a little shock and cold water – you know, like if ice water gets dumped over you? – yeah.  Like that.  And all I could hear was Blaine yelling about my phone.

Once I regained my composure (after having a fleeting thought that I was really glad I’d chosen to wear my black t-shirt!), I was able to tell my very loud husband that the phone was fine. 

And then I burst out laughing!  And continued to laugh!  And told Blaine (who was now fine, since the phone was okay) to take a picture, because apparently, no one had.  And still I laughed! 

But I laughed alone.  Which I found very strange considering the rest of the company I was with.  (I found out later that my sons didn’t laugh because their father was so upset, but they laughed later when talking amongst themselves and then retelling the story to their spouses! 😊)

Back to the dilemma.  So now, Gma’s in the water and there’s no way to get back into any of the boats.  Although my husband had so much faith in my abilities, he was certain I could hoist my body, along with my sopping wet heavy jeans and other clothes up out of the water, over the edge of the kayak, and back into the boat.  Wow!!  Wouldn’t you have been majorly impressed with me??  I looked at Kyle and said (very quietly), “Yeah.  That’s not gonna happen.”

So what to do?

Max is back in the canoe by this time (and Cody’s still in his same seat), Kyle and Harper are alone and Blaine’s got Alex back.  And I’m hanging onto the front of Chris’ canoe and he and Max are paddling backwards to the concrete dam that was just a little ways away from the incident.

I decided to help out, because essentially, Chris was dragging me, and it was my fault he was having to exert so much extra energy, so I pushed the canoe with my arms and kicked my legs (my triceps ached for several days). And Alex and Max kept encouraging me, “We’re almost there, Gma!  Hang on!  Keep going!”  Sweet boys!

Once we arrived, I climbed out of the water (still laughing, I might add) and we played musical boat seats – Chris, Cody and I in the canoe, Kyle, Harper and Alex in the old kayak, Blaine and Max in the new one.  And we all headed back to the dock, safe and sound.

Until near the end when Harper went over the side. (She’s soooo her father’s daughter!  He once took a flying leap into the deep end of a pool – without a life vest and before he could swim.  Yeah.  He would’ve been about her age. 😊)  I heard tell that Kyle snatched that child right out of thin air with his bare hands and only her face hit the water!  (Chris, Cody and I were otherwise occupied watching a water snake at the boat dock and missed her attempt at escape.)

And this is why, any sailor will tell you that it’s bad luck to have a woman on board.  😊

I also heard that the moment Harper got up from her nap that day, she told Shena, “Gma and I fell in the water!”

And thus ends the harrowing tale of “Mishap on the Reservoir”.

Are you laughing??  You should be! Despite the dour countenance of my family, it was very funny!

Next up.  A tour of the new Summa/City Hospital building in Akron.  It was touted as a big deal, and they held a weekend long open house to show it off.  There are out-patient surgery rooms and a new maternity ward – including some water-birthing rooms.  When we showed up Sunday afternoon, there were quite a few people touring the place and there were a lot of volunteers, RNs and Doctors strategically placed to answer questions and direct the public.

But when we came in the door, Blaine saw a couple of former co-workers and struck up a conversation.  Before long, we were given a private behind-the-scenes tour!

And then we picked up the public tour.  It was interesting.  And very clean and new looking.  😊  And I imagine everyone at Summa would want to work here.  So much innovation! 

And I suppose, if you’re into that sort of thing, the water-birthing rooms will be great.  But we just think it’s strange.  What can I say?  We’re old.  Still, since there were only a couple of those rooms, I’m thinking most people agree with us.  Oh.  And another thing.  I was told by someone on the outside that there’s a pretty substantial risk of the babies born that way to pick up infections from breathing in the gross water filled with the mother’s bodily fluids (you can use your imagination on that one), so why would you want to do that??  Plus, I don’t believe any race throughout history has given birth in water.  Fields, yes.  Home, yes.  But water?  No one that I’m aware of.

By the time we finished up, they were closing the place down, but there were still snacks outside under a tent and we wanted a cookie. 

Big mistake. 

I don’t know who provided these things, but they were awful – very hard, very dry and very tasteless.  I took one bite and Blaine made it through 2-3, before tossing our cookies (get it?  Tossed our cookies? 😊)  Anyway, at least they looked nice. . . .

Monday, we worked around home until I had a covered dish dinner with my former Bible Study girls and Blaine went to his Mom & Dad’s for a combined birthday dinner for him and his older brother, Brian. (no pictures ☹)  They had good food – his Mom’s lasagna – and so did I.  In fact, here’s three recipes to prove it.  Jen hosted and provided the soup, Karen brought the cranberry-apple cobbler, and I brought the appetizer.  The other two girls brought a great spinach salad.  I didn’t think you’d need a recipe for that.  😊  Everything was so good, I had seconds – of everything!  Ugh!!

CREAM CHEESE DIP 

1 can Ocean Spray whole berry cranberry sauce

1 small can diced green chilies

8 oz. cream cheese, ROOM TEMPERATURE

Spread cream cheese on a large platter and set aside.  In a small bowl, combine cranberry sauce and chilies, mixing well.  Spread evenly over the cream cheese. 

Refrigerate until ready to serve, but soften to room temperature before actually serving.

Serve with crackers.

CHEESEBURGER SOUP Makes 2 1/4 quarts 1/2 pound ground beef
3/4 cup chopped onions
3/4 cup shredded carrots
3/4 cup diced celery
4 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
4 tablespoons butter, divided
3 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup flour
8 ounces Velveeta cheese
1 1/2 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup sour cream

Brown beef in a 3-quart saucepan, drain and set aside. In same pan, saute onion, carrots, celery, basil and parsley in 1 tablespoon butter until vegetables are tender (about 10 minutes). Add broth, potatoes and beef and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until potatoes are tender (10–12 minutes). 

While the saucepan mixture is cooking, melt remaining butter in small skillet. Add flour and stir for 3–5 minutes over medium heat until bubbly. Add to saucepan and bring entire mixture to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes, and reduce heat to low. Add cheese, milk, salt and pepper and cook until cheese melts, stirring occasionally. Add sour cream into soup and stir until completely mixed in. (Note: Be careful that the soup does not boil during this process or the sour cream will curdle.) Remove from heat.

APPLE CRANBERRY CRISP

¾ C. plus ½ T. flour

½ C. brown sugar

½ C. old-fashioned oats

1 t. cinnamon

1 stick cold butter, cut in chunks

½ C. pecans (optional)

2 ½# apples, peeled, cored and cut into ½ chunks

½ C. craisins

¼ C. maple syrup

For the topping, put ¾ C. flour, sugar, oats, cinnamon and butter in a food processor and pulse to form moist clusters.  Mix in pecans (if using).

Place apples in a buttered 9” pie pan.  Add craisins, syrup and ½ T. flour.  Mix together.  Scatter on the topping.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes.  Serve warm.

Serves 10

Tuesday was a work day at Blaine’s Mom & Dad’s.  He worked outside giving their fish pond its Spring cleaning, and I worked inside cleaning out kitchen cupboards.  I remained much tidier.  😊

The next day, I was supposed to do some cleaning at my Mom’s, but by the time I arrived, and we took a look at what she wanted done, we decided we just weren’t into cleaning, so we worked on a very difficult 2,000 piece Thomas Kinkade puzzle instead.  That was much more fun.  😊

Then Blaine and I actually had one day where we stayed at home!  More cleaning . . . FYI – cleaning is not something that’s included in my personal list of favorite things to do or enjoy. Actually it’s more like a necessary evil. But my mom taught us kids well when we were growing up, so I reckon I should thank her . . .

We also fried up four pounds of pork tenderloin chunks to use for sweet and sour pork.  Once we were finished and they completely cooled, we froze them in three additional batches to make three meals in the future. 

Of course, we ate the fourth batch!  One of our favorite meals, and super easy, once the meat is fried.

SWEET AND SOUR PORK

1# pork tenderloin, cubed

1 C. onion, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 C. green pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 C. red pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 can (14 oz.) pineapple chunks, drained

1 t. salt – DIVIDED

1 pinch baking soda

1 T. soy sauce

1 egg

9 T. white vinegar

6 T. ketchup

15 T. cold water

15 T. sugar

2 T. tomato paste

3 t. sesame oil

Cornstarch

Heat vegetable oil in a deep fryer to about 400 degrees.

Mix together ½ t. salt, 1 T. cornstarch, baking soda, soy sauce and egg.  Add the pork and marinate for at least ½ hour.

Mix together the vinegar, ketchup, water, ½ t. salt, sugar, paste, 3T. cornstarch and oil in a large bowl.  Set aside. 

Remove pork from marinade and coat the pork with cornstarch (about ½ C.) in a plastic bag.  Fry in hot oil until brown.  About 2 minutes.  Remove from oil and place on paper towels to drain.  Reheat oil to 400 degrees and re-fry the meat for another 1-2 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.  Move to paper towels again.

Stir fry the vegetables in some sesame oil until crisp-tender.  Add the sauce and continue to stir until thickened.  Add pork and pineapple and heat thru. Serve over rice.

Serves 6?

And then there was the day where Gma decided she wanted to feel young again.  Our oldest has three sons whose birthdays are scattered about the calendar.  But now that we’re on the road, they’ve chosen to have one party for all three on the same day sometime when we’re home.  Isn’t that sweet??  After the first time, the parents decided that this was a spectacular idea, because then they only have to host one party!  (In case you’re wondering, their family still does something special on their actual day for each son. 😊) 

Anyway, one of the gifts they received was Twister.  It’s been many years since I’ve played, but after giving the kids a shot first, I had to get myself in there.  It was fun, but more difficult than I remember . . .  hahaha! I’m going with the excuse that as an adult, I’m further from the floor. Yeah. . . that’s it . . .

A couple of days later, we spent the day with the little ones at their house.  They certainly are busy little beavers! 

Thank goodness we wore them out enough that they were eager to take a nap after lunch.  😊

At which time, I worked on the laundry.  Kyle and Shena received a boat-load of baby clothes from a friend and it all needed to be washed and sorted.  Once Shena returned from work, we were able to tackle the sorting task together, making piles everywhere.  It felt good to use my gift of organization.😊  And they took us to a local restaurant for some terrific wings for dinner!

The next day, it was time to take on my Mom’s cleaning project.  She’s got five dressers a cedar chest and a bed in her room and it all had to be pulled out and cleaned behind and under.  By the end of the day, my back was a little sore from shoulders to waist, but by the next morning, I felt fine!  I was ecstatic not to have sore muscles!

We also received word on our new great-nephew, Tobias, grandson of Blaine’s sister, Sandy.  He was taken early because of pregnancy complications, but is doing well!  So’s Mom, Dad and big sister, Eliana!  God is good!

And we watched corn grow in a field we drive by frequently – from a dirt field with tiny blades forcing their way through the soil, to mid-calf high by the time we left.  It will have no trouble reaching “knee high by the fourth of July” (as they say in Northeast Ohio)!  Had we known it would grow so fast, I’d’ve considered taking a couple of pictures.  Too bad.  I’m sure you would’ve been excited to see that.  😊

One evening, we were to meet with family for dinner, we drove in a torrential – and I mean tor-ren-tial – downpour!  We’ve never seen anything like it!  We had to sit in the restaurant parking lot for a few minutes before we could even think about leaving the Jeep!  Good Mexican dinner at El Fogon, although the place was unexpectedly packed to overflowing for some reason.  It seemed even the staff was surprised, because they were shorthanded.  We thought maybe because it was the last day of school and families were celebrating???

We were up and at it again the next morning, with a full day of helping out our sons with their projects.  Kyle requested help assembling his new playhouse/swing set (babysitting for Gma!  Yea!!) and Chris needed help moving a living room suit they purchased from a friend from church who was preparing to be deployed to Iraq.  Be sure to offer up a prayer for this brave woman (and all our service men and women) – she’s leaving a three-year-old and an eighteen month old, for a year (maybe more, I can’t remember)  ☹

Now it’s June 1^st and we set aside the day to celebrate Blaine’s birthday, since he will have to share his actual day with Harper.  Kyle continued working on his big play project by himself (with some help from Shena and the kiddos – and Shena sent us the pictures) and we ended up working at home much more than playing!  Some birthday celebration!  But we cleaned ourselves up for dinner at the Bistro of Green – our favorite restaurant.  Still is!  Great meal as always!

• 

• 

We were so busy mmmm-ing and ahhh-ing over our delicious food, I almost forgot to take pictures! Blaine had ribs (with house-made bbq sauce) and fries, and I had the daily feature – cherry glazed pork chop and sauteed spinach. Yummy!!

And after we got back home? A hail storm!! It went on for at least 10 minutes! Fortunately, no damage to either vehicle. Whew!

• 

• 

I’ve been looking into the lives of the 12 apostles during my Bible study time this month, using John MacArthur’s book “Twelve Ordinary Men” as an additional resource.  Looking at the life of Andrew, MacArthur brought me into the life of Dwight L. Moody.  Of course, I’d heard of him.  He was some kind of well-known evangelist from a while back who founded Moody Bible Institute.  Well, now I’ll have to do a “Special Edition” piece on him!  A truly remarkable man of God!  (It was hard for me to refocus on Andrew after I found this out!)  Look for this fascinating Special Edition to appear down the road at some point.

• 

• 

June 2^nd.  Blaine’s 60^th birthday – as you already know if you happened to catch my post for that day.  If not, and you’re interested, scroll down and check it out!  He’s such an incredible man!  And I know my post doesn’t do him justice. 

Anyway, June 2^nd was also the day Kyle and Shena chose to celebrate Harper’s 3^rd birthday.  There were quite a few people there – friends and family.  It was good to surprise him, because that rarely happens.  And I covered all this in my June 2^nd post, so I’ll not do it again.  Tempting as it is.  😊

But I do have a couple of additional videos . . . .

And this doesn’t have anything to do with us personally, but it did affect our family!  One day, Chris notified us via text and pictures and constant commentary that Akron SWAT was positioned on their street!  Supposedly, there was a man wanted for murder in an apartment a few doors from Chris and Jessica’s home.  The police were their from roughly 5:30-10pm.  Late in the evening, the neighbors were all ordered to evacuate their homes because they were gassing the apartment.  That meant Chris and Jessica had to get the boys up from bed (after they’d just fallen asleep) and walk down the road.  They weren’t permitted to take their car anywhere.  Craziness!  Chris finally had to ask an officer if they could return home.  The ‘okay’ order came through a minute later.  Turned out, the guy they were looking for wasn’t even there. . .

And the party continued as our friends helped celebrate Blaine’s 60^th!  Dinner at the Bistro (again) and a round of mini-golf.  We had planned an outing with them a while back, and I had sent a text message to Rich asking if he had an opportunity, if he would mind trying to get his hands on a new Lake Erie Electric cooler for me because ours was on its last leg (a surprise gift for Blaine).  I should have known that where Rich and Martha are concerned, I should expect above and beyond!  Not only did he get the cooler, but they stuffed it to overflowing with all kinds of snacks – – and a picture of them to take on the road with us.  😊  Plus, Rich asked Blaine’s former warehouse superintendent to put together a “care package”.  And he did!

We had a blast playing mini-golf at Rolling Greens in Uniontown!  And even talked someone into taking our picture when our selfie attempt didn’t turn out so well.  We closed the place down.

There were lots of work projects we needed to complete (besides cleaning), like the annual “tune-up” for the coach in which we have to drive it down to Canton, Ohio to the Freightliner garage, which was only supposed to take a couple of hours.  We were there six. Who knows why. Did a lot of research for Canada though!  And Blaine washed and waxed the entire thing over the span of several days while I was out gallivanting and doing lunch.  He also tore apart our dashboard to fix the squeak caused by plywood and fiberglass rubbing together.  At least he took a couple of pictures of that, since once again, I was gone all day.

And of course, there were almost daily lunch and dinner meetings with various family and friends!  What fun we had catching up and handing out lots and lots of hugs!  It’s always so wonderful being home!

But after this whirlwind six weeks, we need to get back on the road to rest.  😊

FYI – If you haven’t seen it already, and you’re interested, there’s a post for Blaine’s birthday on June 2^nd. It follows this one because I actually posted it right after his birthday.