E–is for EEEEE

     EEEEE!!!!!  I finally made it to 200 published posts!  (Yes, I know that's hardly any for most bloggers, but obviously I don't publish daily, and sometimes I've even gone months at a time without posting.)

     In case you happen to wonder what it is with all the Es on this blog, our last name begins with the letter E.  Five in the family.  Five Es.  There you have it!  Now wasn’t that EEEEExciting?

     In the EEEEExtra miscellaneous information category, the KS instead of X in my blog title has to do with the spelling of our last name.

D–is for Draw This

     Once upon a time (at least 2007-2012, but I don't know for sure when it began) there was a blog entitled "Draw This". It was a place where a few people who had an interest in art could share their artistic endeavors, whether painting or drawing or crafting or photography.  "Sticky", "animal", "sharp", "insect", and "bumpy" are just a few of the weekly topics posted by the moderator and left open to interpretation by the artists.

     I'm pretty sure that "insect" was the first topic I posted under.  I shared a photo I took of a baby praying mantis, one of dozens and dozens that had hatched out from our pasture-cut Christmas tree one year, after being in our warm living room for the season!

     I finally got up the nerve to post a pencil drawing.

     That whale, and many of the subsequent drawings, were rather coloring book style with their dark outlines and one-tone, if any, shading.  I kept trying, though, and in 2009 I took a drawing class, which helped quite a bit if I do say so!  I never got it posted on the "Draw This" blog, but here's one of the drawings I did for that class.

     Sadly, interest and time to keep up dwindled, so that eventually no one was posting, and finally the entire blog was removed.

     But, in addition to encouraging me to keep working at my hobby, another good thing about that blog was the connections from it.  I feel like I would know Wanda, Priscilla, Rachel and "New York Martha" if I saw them on the street, just from keeping up with their own blogs.  I only wish a few more (Oregon, Minnesota) had kept their blogs going.

     Time will tell if I ever get back to drawing on my own.  Here's hoping!

C–is for Corn Flakes Candy, Cantata and Christmas

Mixed up some Corn Flakes Candy this afternoon.  So simple!

Combine 1 cup corn syrup and 1 cup brown sugar in a 3-quart saucepan.  Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture bubbles.  Remove from heat.  Stir in 1 cup peanut butter and 6 cups corn flakes until well coated.  Drop by teaspoons on waxed paper.  Or, press into well-buttered 9 x 13 pan and cool until firm before cutting.

I usually make some for Christmas, but we had plenty of other sweets around, so didn't this time.

Christmas–that's my second favorite holiday (after Easter).

In a way, Christmas always begins in October for me, as that is when rehearsals for the community Christmas cantata begin.  I’ve missed a few years, maybe more than a few, but have usually sung in it over the past thirty-eight years!  I had an uncle who taught music here one year in the early 1960s, and apparently he was instrumental in getting the annual event started.  What a joy it is to sing about the birth of Jesus, the real meaning of Christmas!

Our traditional Christmas Eve soup and gifts with Benny’s side of the family was at his sister’s, just up the road.

Usually we go to a Christmas Eve candlelight service, but since Christmas was on Sunday, the Lutheran church (which we attended until a few years ago) had a Julotta (Christmas, just before dawn) candlelight service we went to instead.  Then we went to our Berean church's Christmas Day service.  Had a non-tradtional Christmas Day dinner here of crockpot BBQ pork ribs, followed by a relaxing day of nothing in particular.

Midweek my side of the family gathered for our WWW Christmas, always fun and filled with laughter, food, games (always Nerts), gifts, traditions and memories.

This would be our three (so far) grandkids!

Some of the immediate family was able to stay the entire week. Then we celebrated Christmas again with all the immediate family on New Year's Day!

Blessed, blessed, blessed!

B–is for Blog

     I started this Blog over ten years ago, but have yet to publish my 200th post.  I know, I know!  That's not much of an average, but like I said Back in 2006, it's always Been "A POSSIBILITY..... IF I COME UP WITH THE TIME AND INCLINATION TO ADD ANYTHING THAT MIGHT BE OF THE SLIGHTEST INTEREST TO ANYONE."  So, hopefully, there are a few of you out there who will still Be slightly interested as I continue on!

     It took until my fourth post to include a picture.  This was the first one, Back when we had chickens.  That seems forever ago!

     I enjoy posting my Bits and pieces of life, but it seems I've always spent more time reading other Blogs (Janet, Martha, Karen, Linny, Priscilla, Christine, Rachel, CiCi, Wanda, Renee, ...) than working on my own.  Oops!  Thank you to those of you who have not given up on me.

     I'll Be Back, hopefully soon, and I hope you will Be Back too!

A–is for Apple, of course!

A new year.  A fresh start.  A different approach (at least for today!) Chances are good that forthcoming topics will be random, and they may or may not relate to the current day or season.

Our Apple tree didn't do so good this past year.  This is the beginning of last year's Apple harvest.  

Alas, it is also the end of last year's Apple harvest!  Can't complain though–it produced much good fruit for us for many years.

Apple fritter bread

 

Still have some Applesauce and pie filling in the freezer.  Guess I'd better work on getting that used up!

Trunk or Treat

Have done trunk or treat at our church's fall fest for three years now.

2014

That's Brittany helping out.

2015
"It's a zoo in here! How many of the creatures God made can you find?"

There's a mirror at the back so they can count themselves as made by God too.

2016

"Don't be an Angry Bird"

Bible verses about anger and forgiveness.

Ping Pong!

Ping pong.

Do you remember the first time you saw the game being played?  I don't either, but this past weekend I had the fun of watching Andrew, our oldest grandchild, see it for the first time.  He was completely enthralled and couldn't stop grinning!

Golden Pennies

Thirty-two pints of carrots finished out this year's gardening!

July of 2014

July of 2014.  That's as far as I got previously with posting events going on in my life.

July of 2014.  That's when my life changed.  Not in a way that doesn't happen to people every day, but still a change that no one wants to go through.

Mom took a tumble in her living room, broke a vertebra in her neck, and was hospitalized not quite two weeks.  We always worried about her falling and breaking something, because of extreme osteoporosis.  That hospital time is not something I want to dwell on.  Just suffice it to say that it was awful for all of us watching her be so miserable because of getting very little much-needed sleep and from the hallucinating effects of pain medicine.  Rant: Hospitals--let your patients sleep if they're asleep!  It was a hot, hot, July day when Mom left the hospital and was transferred to a care home.  So many little things added up to more frustration, but we were glad to have her closer to her own home. That night brought swift-moving pneumonia.  It was just a week before Mom's 90th birthday. So grateful to have been able to be with Mom.  So grateful for loving and supportive family and friends.  So grateful for God's love and never failing promises.

July of 2014.  That's when Mom left this world and moved on to the glory of her eternal home in heaven.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God,who is to come into the world.”

John 11:25-27

Let's Try This Again!

How could I let most of a year go by without posting anything? I have kept up-to-date reading several other people's blogs, but haven't done much commenting. I'll try to do better, as I know how encouraging comments can be!

So, over the last several months there have been a good number of family gatherings.

Andrew continued to grow.

The whole family pitched in to help Trina and Josh move in February.

Visited at Mom's several times. She went with us to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in February.  Wish the photo wasn't so blurry.

Benny and I toured our newly refurbished state capitol building in Topeka. I'll try to do a separate post about that another time.

We took a trip to the Amana Colonies. That should be a separate post also!

In April I sang with the county community choir as we presented selections from Handel's Messiah. What a joy that was!

Look who learned to walk!

I lost something the end of May! Fifteen inches were chopped off, destined for Children with Hair Loss, a group that does not charge for wigs for children who need them.

In June we celebrated Andrew's first birthday!

I helped with VBS, which is always a fun time!

Brittany (DIL) and my sister-in-law and I went on a walking photo tour of our county seat the middle of June. Of course that resulted in many interesting photos, so I have my blogging work cut out for me with yet another potential post!

There's more to catch you up about, but I'll leave off here for now, with this shot of Andrew and me on the Fourth of July.