Just Whatever

We brought the potted plants indoors this fall before they froze. I had started marigolds from seed and that tall one grew and grew all summer but never bloomed until it was inside! 

It was appalling how iced up and dirty the freezers were. We cleaned them out before we butchered the steer. How wonderful to once again have clean freezers, though they are half empty. 

We didn't have a fruitful year in the garden. Sometimes I think it would be nice to live in Lancaster, PA where the Amish raise food that one can buy for reasonable prices.

Christopher working to get the ice off the sides.

Christopher decided one day he wanted to refinish this little table. He promptly did just that.

 Reference the picture below for the former appearance.

On December 17 my sister, her daughters and I spent the afternoon at Mama's place, in honor of her birthday (the 18th). We had a tea party and played a game together. Poor photo, I know. I'm not a pro at sellfies.

The cute nephew who came along, sitting in a cute little rocking chair.

The same little party got together for my birthday on the 10th. We had a tea party and a sugar free, gluten free, yummy cake! Not something I get very often. And Verina gave me an Instant Pot! That is also not something I get very often. Ha ha. I'm having fun learning to use it.

Austin gave me this nice, big mug for my birthday. The I in HIS is an arrow pointing up, to indicate the mind of God. Okay, you want to know how old I am? 46. (I just used the calculator to make sure that's correct!)

Christopher carved a heart out of a cedar shake and put it in the fire. See how it glows in there?

A contradictory church sign we saw during one of our recent trips.

Please come.....worship with us

This is hard to see, but in the top photo the house windows glow with the sunrise. A few minutes later they're dark (bottom photo). 

Okay, that was a bunch of random stuff. None of it worthy of a post of it's own, so there! 😀

Another mug

When one has multiple interests, one receives multiple mugs. Here's to Stephen as an avid photographer.

When he brought this one home, I asked, "You got a new lens?" It is too realistic. A birthday gift from a friend.

Today I'm thankful for...
...sunshine.
...a son who voluntarily cleaned up the kitchen this morning.
...a plate of salad.

Mug

Stephen has really bad luck with coffee mugs. Every nice, high-dollar one he gets, lands on the cement floor or falls in the ceramic dish sink and breaks. What is a man supposed to do?

For just a couple dollars I found a very appropriate mug for him. He spends so much time on his computer when he's at home. 

He says it holds almost half a 12 cup coffee pot.

How ya like it?

How to Clean a Coffee Mug

When my brother brought his friend from Poland to visit, we didn't know exactly what to expect. He wanted a cup of coffee in the morning and then asked for salt. Do the Polish put salt in their coffee?

 The mug was stained from coffee.

 He put salt in the cup.

 He added a bit of warm water to make a paste.

 This paste was used to clean the mug.

He used his fingers to rub the paste on the stains until they came off.

 He returned a sparkling white mug to us.

 Try it. It works!