Summer Sweets and Treats

Summer is always full of cool treats – and some that are just delicious room temperature ones! Three examples:

1. I forgot to mention that after we all went to an early dinner after the dance recital, we (Ken, RoAnn, and I) were on a mission to find some good "hard" ice cream on the way home. However, there were so many detours just to get back home that we said screw it – let's just get it at the grocery store near Pine City!

Of course, after being in air-conditioning and walking into their very cool house, Ro and I said we needed to light the fire "pit" on the deck before we sat out there and ate the ice cream. Sometimes you have to warm up enough to eat ice cream, ya know? Smile if you understand our logic!

Side note: It was Cedar Crest Blueberry Waffle Cone. So good!

2. Both mornings I was there, I had a slice of delicious Amish Friendship Bread for breakfast. Amish Friendship Bread is like an adult chain letter for people who like to bake! Once you accept that batch of "starter" you cannot leave the cult. You can only break the chain by throwing away whatever starters you can't give away – including your own! So I resisted getting back into that (been there, done that) but did take a half-plus loaf home.

Got home from work today and this is what is left! So I guess hubby does like it. I remember that now. Should've rejoined the damn cult!

3. On my way home from work, I had to hunt and gather ingredients that may or may not be used in a trifle soon. (Hey, gotta get one more in before we're all working from home for 6 weeks!) And that's when I met my sweetest downfall.

Hadn't seen these before nor purchased them. But they fit my "theme." I am a huge HUGE coconut anything and everything fan. But I still felt I should taste test one when I got home. Just to be sure it would blend with the rest of the flavors and all that. I demand quality in my creations! 

Or something.

Anyway, I kid you not, I moaned out loud at first bite. Holy perfectly delicious flavor combination! Good thing Jim is golfing or he'd wonder what the hell was happening in the kitchen!!

I quickly shoved them in the fridge to chill with the other cookies – you have to do that so they cut up nicely (rather than mushy) the next day. But you know that from my previous Trifle Tutorials. I don't know how I can stay away from them! This will be my biggest test of willpower strength in recent days, that's for sure.

I mean I do have another cookie type to cut up as well for the cookie layer, so I might not need to "use" all them. #MeJustifyingANewAddiction. Bwaahaa.

Just... if you love coconut like I do, get yourself some of these!!!

I mean it is a flavor of summer after all... at least tropical islands that are summer year-round! Enjoy the treats of the season!

Just Go With The Flow of Happiness

It's crazy what makes us happy – or mildly content. For me after two evenings and mornings on my sister's back deck, I was thrilled to capture one hummingbird in action. Though the bird is not in clear focus.

Still... yay!

The focus of the weekend was getting to my sister RoAnn's on Saturday so we could see he granddaughter – my great-niece – Kenlee dance in her recital Sunday.

Let me just say, that was the most awesome experience! You were so good, girl!

In addition to her fans who were there to cheer her on, we all had a late lunch with Sunday. Then, it was a nice relaxing treat at my sister's to just relax by the "fire" in the evenings on the back deck.

Today I headed home and seeing my parents' grave was the only non-detour. Was glad about that. Also it had been pouring rain and it stopped for approximately 8 minutes so I could visit Mom and Dad and then it started within seconds. It was insane. So grateful!

As for the rest of the weekend... I am thrilled to be back home safely (with some parts only $4 per gallon of gas)... and craving to do more for more my nieces and nephews. A project for another day!

I Could've Made That

I am heading to Minnesota tomorrow afternoon and am excited to see my great-niece's dance recital on Sunday. All I was looking for after work was some card that said something like "Good job!" or "You're a rockstar!". But no, Walmart has apparently given up on keeping 70% of their cards in stock. So onto Walgreens I went. 

Nothing 100% applied. But I found something I could make up words with that a 10-year-old would understand.

Thank goodness hubby is out of town with some high school buddies for dinner or he'd say, "Well, you can make a card, can't you?"

Yes, I have the rubber stamps with the unfortunately dried-out ink pads and the actual blank paper cards and envelopes. Someday (in my free time) I may return to that hobby.

In the meantime, thank God and Amazon that there are "dance girl" gifts I can give her and a matching gift bag!

A few dance t-shirts will fit into this bag nicely. SHHH. Don't tell her!

I'm just excited to finally see my Kenlee dance. She has sort of invited me several times! 

Now I just have to figure out what to pack for 88 degrees vs A/C for the next three days. I am so up for the challenge!

A Par-tial Improvement

So tonight was our second week of Ladies Golf League for my friend Molly and me. This time we were in the last grouping at 5:20 p.m. so that meant "normal/regular" golfers had tee times behind us. We were well aware of that. And hoping those guys behind us realized that we were held up by the ladies in front of us and so on.

They never FULLY caught up with us and gave us grief. And for that, we're grateful.

It also helped us maintain our more "relaxed" vibe compared to the first week. It certainly helped that one of us is done with work for the summer (thanks to a school district job) and the other of us was more serene (thanks to a decision/action at work).

I think we both knocked off 7 strokes from our week 1 performance... which is a big deal with just 9 holes. You wouldn't even recognize us... except for our matching clipped up hair. Ha.

We don't normally take a cart because we like to get our steps. But there was this threat of rain. And our hair, OMG, what would we do?! In the end, we did not get wet. AND we had more time to visit than when we use our own pull carts and zig and zang to the green.

Even though some mock lady golfers, I'm grateful God recognizes the importance of female friendships. Any where. Any setting.

Take advantage of those, ladies! 💗 

Those Darn Bad-Luck Bowls

There are some baseball fields we just call “bowls” because they are situated at the bottom of a park ringed with banks of grass where fans could sit and watch the action from most of the sides of the field. For the longest time, the Pittsville “bowl” was our perennial nemesis, almost always knocking the Royals out of the postseason playoffs—while exhibiting highly vocal, annoying behavior from their dugout.

Somehow conferences and possibly divisions have realigned in recent years. So this season, after soundly defeating Gresham in round one of Regionals, we headed to Iola-Scandinavia. My old stomping grounds if you recall me blogging about our 100-mile round trip to work for a dozen years.

As someone with certain sports superstitions, I immediately recognized the similar “bowl” setup to P-town. That was unnerving right away.

But the game was so close. Not a runaway score by either team. We were ahead by 2 then the Thunderbirds caught up. Then we’d make a mini-surge, but they’d catch up. It came down to the last batter for the home team. And they ended up defeating us 6-5 and knocking us out of the playoffs in what was one of our better season record years of late.

For me, though, the fun was running into some of my “Iola people”!

I left the publishing house some 10 years ago now. But Cori the ticket taker who worked at the Fitness Center there remembered me!

Then I ran into Miss Mandy, one of Carter’s first daycare people in Iola. And her mother, Judy, who worked with Jim and I at Krause. Just great to get long overdue (though you didn’t realize they were overdue) hugs!

Of course I then had to check out some of our favorite haunts…

Including Carter’s favorite ice cream place Shivers. Per usual, a long summer line.

Then I took the route home through Scandinavia, which always seems like I just earned another stamp on my passport. If only! Still, all was a great reminder of how we can forge great bonds in the workplace when we work in a friendly community and we, by nature, are friendly too.

Side note: I absolutely do not miss that commute.

Side note 2: Thank you, seniors! What a great season!

Waiting to Bloom

So it's June! That means my column for the June church newsletter is live (or whatever). So I will share it here with you.

Waiting to Bloom for our Master Gardener

As winter slowly loosened its grip this year, many of us found ourselves watching the calendar, peeking outside, and asking the same question: “When will spring finally arrive?” 

All through April and May, we were eager for warmer days, green grass, and especially the chance to head to the garden centers and buy flowers for our yards and porches.

Full disclosure: I have two black thumbs and rely on Google to tell me when I should and shouldn’t buy my hanging flower baskets! Having “freeze warnings” halfway through May was not helpful this spring!

There is something hopeful about planting flowers. Tiny buds and bare stems may not look like much at first, but we trust that, with time, sunshine, and care, beautiful blooms will come. Yet no flower blooms before its season. Some blossom early, while others take longer to unfold. Each one opens in its own perfect time.

Perhaps that is how God works in our lives as well.

Sometimes we become impatient with ourselves. We wonder why we are not stronger in faith, quicker to heal, or further along in life. No matter our age, we seem to fall into the trap of comparing our journey to someone else’s and feel discouraged when we do not seem to be “blooming” as quickly.

But God, the Master Gardener, knows each of us individually. He understands what we need, how we grow, and when we are ready. Ecclesiastes 3:11 reminds us, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

What comfort there is in that promise. God does not rush His creation, and He does not rush us. Through seasons of waiting, growth, pruning, and renewal, He continues His faithful work in our hearts.

So as we finally jump into early summer and enjoy the colors of spring flowers around us, may they remind us to trust God’s timing. The bloom may not come when we expect it, but under His loving care, beauty will come in its season.

The Full Circle of Life

Today was definitely about navigating the full circle of life. This morning, I attended a baby shower for my co-worker and friend Hannah, who also happens to be daughter of one of hubby's high school classmates. That's how things work these days!

I love seeing the excitement of new moms opening gifts they have no idea may be life-changing... well, at least make the parenting thing go a little more smoothly!

And of course I won a raffle basket because, well, I always win!

I then moved from the beginning of life to the end... When I got home, Jim and I went to the visitation for our friends' dad.

As I mentioned last week, we are so blessed to have the Smits family as a second family to us! They really belong to Jim and his sister, but I'm just along for the ride. 💙 

After getting back from the funeral home, I went to the next lifetime milestone – high school graduation. I was blessed to serve as Ainsley's confirmation mentor at church and take her senior pictures. Turned out to be a pleasant afternoon visiting with her family members and my pastor and her husband. 

Just a weird span of covering so many aspects of life in one day! 

What I liked was the hope associated with a new baby and new life at college. What I appreciated was the sense of peace of losing a father and knowing he is no longer in pain. Thankfully we have God and great friends to get us through all of these!