Hectic!

If anyone asks me for one word to describe my life, right now, that one word would have to be "HECTIC!

The past couple of days have been extremely that -very hectic!

Last Friday, there was the rush to get the kids ready for school and get their Halloween costumes into their back packs or a separate bag so they would have them at their fingertips to change into and be able to participate in the Halloween parade at school. Don't tell Maya and Kurtis but Mommy and Gram were running really late and were also starving so stopped at a little local eatery for a bite to eat and our timing wasn't the best so -we ended up finishing our meal and skipping attending the parade at school. Not that we didn't WANT to be there -exactly -but just that it's usually so crowded that getting a seat where you could even get a glimpse of your kid up on the stage -well, next to impossible. Since we saw their costumes on them earlier in the week and would get to see them again Monday night when they actually went out trick or treating, we figured we could slide on the parade plus, the kids would never know (unless we -or some other big mouth in the vicinity) told them about being absent. I know -bad Momma and Grammy, huh?

The weekend was one with Mother Nature turning into a trick or treat (depending on how much a person loves -or hates -winter) with the snowfall we got on Saturday into Sunday. Sheesh. Enough already!

Sunday morning found all four of us rushing around like crazy people -Mandy, Maya, Kurtis and me - trying to get ourselves all dressed and ready to go to church because it was a big day for our family there. My older daughter and grandson were here too but they went next door to our neighbor Deb's house to shower and get ready to be at church on time. We were almost ready to leave when Mandy went out to start my jeep and her car and came running right back into the house in a bit of a panic because, well -both my jeep and her car doors were all frozen shut! Tighter than a drum!

So she had to do a quick thaw process (hot water on the doors, ya know) to get them open and pray that both of them would also start up with no added problems.

Here's what Mandy's car looked like when after she finally got her doors thawed enough to open 'em!

After she got things squared away with her car and my jeep, she told me to get Maya and for us to head out to church so that Maya, at least, would be there on time for her big event that day!

This past Sunday was Reformation Sunday, which in all Lutheran Churches world-wide, is a very important day on the church calendar as it is in honor of Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Thesis way back when in the 15th century! Martin Luther as you may -or may not -already know is credited with beginning the reformation of the Catholic church and separation from the Vatican with his posting of those edicts a long, long time ago.

Reformation Sunday in our church is also now the Sunday when we welcome those children in the parish who have completed instruction in First Communion and this year was Maya's time when she took the instruction and on this past Sunday, she and three others her age all got to take their First Communion.

She looked so doggone beautiful -all dressed up in her white fancy dress, with the flower in her hair -and she even announced to her TSS yesterday when I was showing Miss Britt the pictures we had taken at church that she "looks like an angel!" (No conceit in our household cause Miss Maya's got a bit of an overload of that commodity!) But, I have to agree with her on this instance. Here's a couple of the pictures from Maya on the occasion of her First Communion.

Here she is holding the Bible given to her by the church -which she asked on numerous occasions throughout Sunday afternoon who this book belonged to anyway! We had a heck of a time getting her to understand that it is HER book because it has, after all, her name written in the very front of it!

 This is Maya with our minister, Pastor Carrie Anderson, after the service Sunday.

 And here's Maya (again) with Pastor Carrie and another First Communicant, Megan Anderson, granddaughter of our neighbors, Daryl and June (Force) Gurbal.

 And this was Maya as Mandy was trying to finish getting her dressed at the house Sunday morning so we could leave and get to church on time!

After church, we had a big meal here at the house of Stuffed Cabbage Rolls and baked Ziti and Cheese. When Maya had seen me making the cabbage rolls the day before, she asked me what I was making and I told her these would be "Pigs in a Blanket" mainly so as not to mention that there would be cabbage involved in this food item. Any mention of cabbage in front of her or her little brother would produce an immediate reaction of "I DON'T LIKE THAT!" and an adamant (guaranteed) refusal to even taste them. So when I was dishing up their plates, she had told me that she would like to try a little of the Pigs in a Blanket and I cut one in half-giving half to her and half to Kurtis -and also, cut it up into tiny bite-size pieces too in hopes of getting her to eat a bit more of this then.  After dinner, she did come and tell me that she had liked the filling in the Pigs in a Blanket very much but that she didn't "care for the blanket!" Gotta love that girl, don't 'cha!

Monday found me running around like a chicken with my head cut off because the cookbooks I had slaved over for almost two months this summer had arrived at our church! All twenty three (23) cases worth! Actually there are only 22 cases of the big cookbook and a smaller box with 30 little booklets of special cookie recipes that the publisher included with our order! A little appreciation gift from the publisher to our Women's group, ya know!

After all the things I've said back in July and August about this cookbook and the preparation that went into getting it done, here's a couple preview pics of the cookbook so you can now see what I was talking about during that time!

This is the front cover and in case you can't read it all -it says "A Bountiful Legacy -A history of Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church through Food." It's very pretty -very regal looking actually and inside this book are 586 of some of the best, tried and true recipes you'll ever find anywhere!

These two pictures below are something I am really pleased we could insert in our book. The top photo is of some events in our church over the past couple of years -and the top photo on the right hand side are of one of the courts at one of our St. Lucia Day celebrations -a big event honoring the patron saint -St. Lucia -of Sweden. Because our church originally was founded by Swedish immigrants and we still have quite a few members with a Swedish heritage, it is a tradition we have kept and celebrate every year on the Sunday closest to December 13th, which is the actual St. Lucia Day. (This year, our celebration will be on December 11th and will be a nice big pot luck dinner with a very pretty pageant and the arrival too of our St. Lucia -a teenage girl from our parish! It's a big deal in our church and one I as well as my kids too all enjoy very much!)

 This photo though is the one I take great pride in having it in our cookbook as it is a dedication to many of the women who once served our church during the 127 year history of our parish! Yes, there is one photo on this grouping of a woman who was a member of the earliest church -the one that stood in the now ghost town of Peale, PA -and that would be the woman in the first row, coming down the page to the fourth photo and it just so happens to be that is my Great-Grandmother!

(My Mom and my maternal grandmother are also pictured on this page along with my maternal grandfather's baby sister too! And I don't know why, but I can't get the hyperlink thing to turn off on my post right now. Go figure!)

Yesterday -that would be Tuesday in case you forgot -I spent most of the day cursing my lovely, handy-dandy filing system here in my house. Mainly because I have NO actual system with respect to where I file -or hide -things! I was hunting for the copy of the deed to the house which I need to take to one of the county agencies tomorrow so we can apply for funding for some much needed repairs to this old barn of a house and finally, after about 6 hours of going through all my hiding places for papers, I ended up calling the courthouse and speaking someone in the office of the Registrar of Deeds to see about getting a copy there of the darned deed! Took me about an hour though to find the phone number for that office because, in our lovely telephone directory provided by the wonderful telephone company, there are no individual listings of the various offices housed in our courthouse! How nice! I ended up speaking to a secretary in one of the district magistrate's offices to get the number of the Registrar's office!

And today looks to be just as hectic as the previous days have been for me! Starting with a young woman from the village who stopped by the house today and purchased seven cookbooks from me! (Lucky for her I had brought a case of them home to get ready to ship out and fill requests I have on file from people around the country who want to buy one of these lovely books!) Then I had to run out to church and grab yet another case to take with me this afternoon when I go see the oncologist for my monthly appointment and port flushing. I called and told the receptionist to alert the rest of the staff that I would have cookbooks with me if any of them wish to purchase one (or maybe even more!!) today when I come in for my appointment!

Tomorrow and Friday are both going to be zoo days here as I have to make 2 big pans of lasagne to take to church Saturday for the dinner part of our annual bazaar! In addition to that, I'll be baking a couple batches of Swedish breads and probably some cookies or a cake of some type too that I will take out for sale on the baked goods table at our bazaar too -along with a few of my embroidered pieces that will go for sale on the crafts table as well!

Then, Saturday will be the real test of my endurance! I will be manning the cookbook purchase table and will have as my "assistants" (using that term very lightly here) will be Maya and Kurtis! Yes I will have to take them out to church with me to stay by my side while I try to help people get cookbooks and other things and hopefully, I can find enough coloring books to set them up at a little table beside me where they can keep busy and out of trouble while I work at the Bazaar. To say the least, that day will sure be interesting!

Got an e-mail too from a cousin who lives down in Indiana, PA telling me she will be coming up here Saturday to come to our Bazaar and will be bringing her Mom and her niece with her too! This really excites me too since I haven't seen those cousins in almost 18 months now so will be great to get to see them again!

And there you have it -the things that will be keeping me very, very occupied for the rest of this week now!

Hope you day -and the coming days ahead are full but maybe not so jam-packed as mine are gonna be the next couple of days!

Some new things!

I've been so engrossed in so many things the past couple of months that I kept putting off taking some pictures of some of my favorite stuff -things I've finished embroidering!

I have an album on my Facebook page that had about 9 items in it that I had embroidered between April and June but since then, although I have done a few things along those lines, I just kept procrastinating taking photos of the stuff and posting it here on my blog.

But tonight -I finally broke down and got pictures taken of all the rest of the stuff I've completed since June through tonight!

So, if you're ready -here goes with a string of pictures for your viewing pleasure -or at least I hope it's a pleasure for you to take a peek at these items. Some of these things will go this weekend to our church for sale at the crafts table at our annual Fall Bazaar while the rest will be here at the house, waiting patiently for someone to come along and decide they really like, really need this or that particular item!

 This first item -and the last item shown in this listing -is a tablerunner -about 44x14 inches. My apologies in that my background on these two pictures and two other pictures of another tablerunner doesn't do much in the way of showing the design very well because I have a red table cover on my dining room table right now. Oh well, such is my luck, ya know -and timing too! LOL

 This is the second tablerunner -Christmas floral design -and also is about 44x14 inches in size.

 The next three items -six or seven photos though -are each tabletoppers -about 32x32 inches in dimension. All are done in cross stitch. The first one is really a very pretty, rather dainty floral display.

 This one I really thought was cute and I liked it much better than a similar Christmas tree tabletopper I did last year -because this one the trees are smaller and the colors are more muted -makes for a very pretty cloth.

 Here's candles and tree ornaments shown with an evergreen spray background -also 32x32 inches.

 Next up -Terry cloth hand towel sets -here's some strawberries for a cheery little towel.

 Maybe some pretty little lavender colored flowers?

 Like cats? How about a pair of 'em?

 A pretty Christmas wreath to trim your kitchen maybe?

 O how about some holly berries too?

 Angels -always a great thing to have hanging around your house!

 And this is a set of three terry cloth hand towels each in a different Christmas design.

A

 Want a neat pillowcase on which to rest your weary head and have some whimsical dreams on whimsical pillowcases then?

 And, finally -the full view of the Christmas church in snow scene of the first photo at the top!

And that's what I've been doing this summer in addition to spending roughly two months that I normally would have been doing other embroidery projects but I took that break in order to compile the cookbook for our church women's group!

And surprise, surprise -our cookbooks arrived today and so I even have a photo or two that I can share here -in a "Sneak preview" of the cookbook we will be selling starting this Saturday at our Fall Bazaar at our church (at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lanse, PA -starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, November 5, 2012!) The cookbook sells for $12.00 per book and shipping charges run an additional $4.95 for 1 book -multiple orders have a higher price of course, for shipping but it also reduces the per book price too. (A package of 2-4 books will cost $10.95 shipping and a box of 5 or  6 cookbooks will cost $14.95 in shipping fees.) Overall, it really is a decent price though for a great book, full of all kinds of different recipes from old Swedish traditional things to even some great Slovak traditional foods and a whole lot of other stuff in between -to the tune of 586 recipes in all! And I love it! It's gorgeous!

And, here's what the cover to our three-ring binder cookbook looks like too!

If you see anything of the above craft items I have pictured here that you're interested in purchasing, drop me an e-mail and let me know and I'll post prices on items then. Same goes for the cookbook  -so if you would like to order one of them or a bunch of 'em for Christmas gifts or a birthday present or just a nice cookbook for yourself -e-mail me and I'll tell you who to make the check out to (WELCA) and where to send it -to me -and I'll pass the check along to our treasurer and will ship your cookbook out within 1-2 days of receiving the check by first class, priority mail!

And now -I should go to bed but want to try to write yet another post tonight -if I can stay awake that long, that is.

On second thought -I think I'll go to bed!

Peace!

The Three F's -Family, Food and Friends!

If you've followed my blog from way back when I first started blogging, you may remember that one of my favorite interests is family tree research. Two years ago this month, there were four geneologists from Sweden who came this area and showed off a really slick program by which -if you subscribe to it -one can access records of Swedish ancestors with a lot of speed and ease.

One lady in that group -Anneli Andersson, from Mellerud, Sweden -is the lady who helped me track my ancestry on my Grandpa Eld's side back to the early 1600's through church records which she copied and e-mailed me. That was almost ten years ago now and I met her for the first time when she visited this area with the three others two years ago. Last year, she and another lady came back to America and did a small workshop on Swedish family tree research over in Clearfield, PA and I got to see her again there.

Now, she is here again and this time, she has her fiance as well as her son with her and they will be visiting in this area for a whole week! They arrived Thursday, around noon, and are staying at the home of Janet Rydberg Larson -who was my typing teacher back in high school and who is also really into geneology as well as being pretty much the resident historian for the township where I live. So, I got to visit a little yesterday with Anneli, met her fiance and son and am really looking forward to being able to perhaps spend a little more time with her while she visits this region.

One thing in particular though that I am really hepped up about is a program that Anneli and a friend of hers in Sweden designed and received some type of grant money to put it into effect this coming school year. It is geared primarily towards students in the middle school range and is intended to teach the children about immigration -actually that should probably be emigration because they will be studying the people from Sweden who left their homeland many years ago and emigrated to America. And to do this in a way to help not just the Swedish children understand what problems existed that really forced so many of that nationality to come here primarily in the late 1800's, they also want to help the children learn about what the living and traveling conditions were for those people, what they encountered upon arrival here in New York, where they went from there and where they ended up settling and the type of work they found here too. But the big value of this program really is that it will help kids learn about other cultures and also, help the Swedish students to improve their communication skills in the English language.

To do this, Anneli wants to find a school -or perhaps a couple schools -in this country that had a fairly heavy concentration of Swedish immigrants, primarily coming here from the Dahlsland area in Sweden and this little area where I live is a prime example of that type of immigrants! Yep! That bill fits my great-grandparents and their family to a tee! So Janet Larson, her daughter-in-laws, Judi and Cathy and I are trying to find a way to convince our school district that this would be a very interesting and worthwhile program to give our students here a chance to learn about history, geography, world cultures, immigration -all those things -and also, to communicate via e-mail with the students in Sweden in this class and who knows, perhaps make some life-long friendship too in the process!

The week ahead is going to be very full, very busy for me, that much is for sure! Because my grandson, Alex, and Anneli's son Jonaton, are only a year apart in age and Alex is quite interested in perhaps participating in this program if possible, we had hoped the boys would be able to meet this weekend, but by the looks of things, that isn't going to come about as Alex has boy scout activities this weekend and the school district where he lives doesn't finish up until the middle of June so his dad won't permit him to miss a day of school so I can bring him up here to meet Jonaton during next week sometime.

Besides being engrossed much of this week in a new embroidery project I started -a 50x50 inch tablecloth which is simply a border around the entire cloth of strawberries, vines and leaves, as I mentioned in an earlier post yesterday, our Youth Ministry group is having a fund raiser today now -Saturday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. up at the grocery store parking lot in Kylertown. A car wash and a bake sale combined. The purpose of this fund raiser is to get needed money so that around 15 kids from our Youth Ministry group can go to Cincinnati, Ohio for a week where they will work in a setting kind of like Habitat for Humanity -helping primarily senior citizens by doing repairs or yard work around their homes there. A very worthy cause, that is for sure.

So today, I was one busy little beaver, baking the Swedish bread my family and I love -Swedish Limpa Rye bread. I made two batches of it -four loaves per batch and we polished off one of those loaves here tonight at supper! Kurtis and Maya both love the homemade bread and I cheated a bit and fixed a package of the Cheesy-noodles and tuna "helper" type mixes for supper -because I know they love that too so both kids had seconds on the casserole as well as downing a couple wedges of the bread too. Yeah, we all ate heartily tonight -for sure!


Here's a picture of the bread I baked today -all bagged up and ready to go up to the bake sale in the morning.

I also had some homemade pepper slaw that my friend Janet Larson got for me from the folks at her church as yesterday morning, she had been there helping them make this special slaw in preparation for a big fund raising dinner they are having there Saturday evening too. So, I had a feast of a big, big helping of that pepper slaw along with some fresh, Swedish Rye bread tonight too! Love that stuff.

But boy, you know what happens when one gets to eating way too much of the good foods like that too, don't 'cha? And if I keep eating good stuff like that the way I did tonight, I most certainly am going to be in dire need of some extra-special weight loss supplement, for sure, aren't I?

Oh and to top it all off, tonight, Mandy baked up some kind of chocolate chip cookies to take up to the bake sale on Saturday too! However, I didn't sample any of her baked goods as I figured I had stuffed myself well enough with the bread, tuna casserole and pepper slaw already! For once, I was able to exercise a little bit of will power anyway.

Anneli would like me to think of some "sights" in this area that I think might be interesting for her and her family to see while they are here and of course, don't you just know it but now, much as I love this area and think it is really nice, pretty and all that, I have gone pretty much braindead in trying to think of some places where they can visit that I can direct them to while they are here! I'm going to have to give that a bit more thought, for sure though.

She had learned already about a place over in the county to the east of us -Centre County -and there is a great tourist attraction there called Penn's Cave. This cave is visited by boat! Yeah, you get in a boat and it goes underground and you get to view all the attractions then inside the cave from that angle. And believe it or not, I have never been there! Lived here all my life and have never seen it! She decided they are going to go there next Thursday which means I can't go with them though as Mandy and I have to make a trip to Pittsburgh that day since I have a check-up scheduled with my great (also wonderful eye candy) surgeon there at UPMC, Dr. Hughes!

But, since my grandson isn't going to be allowed to miss a day of school and go with them too, I'm also trying to find another child in Jonaton's age range, preferably a boy, who would be interested in visitng Penn's Cave and keeping company for the day with a lad from Sweden who does speak some English but is not fully bi-lingual. If I were a child in that age range and this opportunity were presented to me, I would be so happy and excited to go there, to meet someone from another country -the whole nine yards. But thus far, the only boy from our church I've found in that age range is unable to go that day either as that poor kid has already been scheduled to see a foot doctor and have an ingrown toenail removed! Boy, I betcha he's wishing he could somehow weasel out of that appointment, don't 'cha think?

My son will be home sometime Saturday night too -until early Tuesday morning when he goes back out on the road so I'll be trying to figure out what I can cook and invite him and his girlfriend and her daughter down then for supper on at least one of the days he will be home. Gotta try to get some good family time in with him too, ya know.

So, wish me luck as I try to get the documentation Anneli has about this program she wants to hook up here with our school -and if that can't be done, then our Pastor has said our Youth Ministry can do the program as part of their outreach stuff. So one way or another, kids from our region are going to have what I think is really a fantastic opportunity to learn a lot about ancestry stuff plus gain some friendships on an international level through this program too. Oh, and an added bonus is that Anneli is also hoping to work things so that a year or two from now, she will return and bring some of the students participating in this program in Sweden here to meet the kids they will have been communicating with too!

I think that Saturday evening I am going to cheat on the cooking though, make things really easy for myself and talk Mandy into getting the kids alicked up a bit and we'll go and enjoy the roast beef dinner that will be served up at Janet's church across from our school. That way I can have a lot more of the delicious pepper slaw too then!

Yep! That sure does sound like a darned good game plan to me -no cooking, but good food, and a chance to visit with some darned good friends too over the meal.

Does all of this make your mouth water?

It sure does that to mine -already!

Now, I best get to bed so I can get up bright and early (that's the only drawback to the day for me -the getting up early) and take the bread and cookies up to the kids at the bake sale. I suppose I should break down and let them wash up the little old jeep of mine too while I am there -give them a chance to earn a couple more bucks too that way, huh?

So if you're anywhere in this area today -Saturday, May 30th -stop up at the parking lot by the Market Place store in Kylertown, get some good home-baked goodies and a car wash and support a really great cause in doing that!

Peace.