Friday's Fave Five 1-4-19

LINK to Friday's Fave Five host blog

I am writing this on Thursday night due to being very busy tomorrow with Homecoming activities at my school.  I will set it to post early morning, and hopefully will remember to link it sometime during the day tomorrow.

1. The biggest thing is what happened yesterday.  My husband has had some autoimmune joint issues for about three months now, and they have been steadily getting more serious and incapacitating.  We had had the usual experiences with the medical community - delays in getting tests done due to the holidays, etc.  The worst was having his referral to a specialist lost in a hospital system network, which delayed getting help for him by two weeks.  However, yesterday we had an appointment with a young rheumatologist in a nearby city.  This doctor spent almost an hour with us.  He took a thorough history, did a thorough exam, and drew fluid off his knee.  He gave us a tentative diagnosis, which I read about online later, and this diagnosis fits Mike's symptoms to a T.  We think we are on the way to getting him taken care of, and we are very, very thankful to God for this development.

2. I came down with bronchitis last Saturday.  I went to an urgent care on Monday morning, got on an antibiotic, and am still dealing with the aftereffects.  But it is improving!

3. Daughter got back to her city safely today.  That is always a big relief.

4. Productive day at school today.  My first day back, since I went with Mike to his appointment yesterday, and was sick as well.  I have to have three exams ready for Monday, so have to be on the ball to get everything done.  It's a good feeling to know I'm getting somewhere.

5. Finally - these are repeat pictures from a previous post.  But they are so beautiful that I wanted to put them on FFF.  My niece made the first dish, a kale salad with pomegranates, goat cheese, and nuts, for our Christmas meal.  And my sister is into making macarons, and they look very nice in this dish.  

Beautiful Christmas Pictures

I meant to put this up with FFF and didn't think about it.  But these pictures from Christmas are too pretty not to share.

My niece made this beautiful Christmas salad.  Kale, pomegranate seeds,
feta cheese, nuts, and a  homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

The ladies of the family

My sister is into making macarons.  They are especially pretty in this dish.

Table setting

Table setting

Friday's Fave Five 12-28-18

LINK to Friday's Fave Five Host Blog

1. On Christmas Eve I finally got to meet this special little boy.  He is the son of my own son's best friend and his wife.  He is precious, very cuddly, and loves attention.  And I loved finally getting to meet him.

2. Several great Christmas celebrations - three were on the 23rd and 24th, and the last one was on the 26th.  (Christmas Day itself was relatively quiet.)  Here is the spread from one of the  celebrations - we have really eaten well this week.

 3. Today I finally got my china cabinet set up again - everything has been in boxes for 20 months due to our long-term home renovation.  I'm so glad to have it all out again, and it was a little like seeing old friends.  :-)

4. Today I put all the Christmas stuff away, including this nativity scene.  It was originally made by my great-uncle for my grandmother, so it is a treasure to have.  

5. And finally - we finally have our new bed set up.  This is its own saga in the middle of the saga of home renovation.  The bed came in two weeks ago - and it was NOT the bed we ordered three months ago.  Turns out the furniture store's website was outdated and the bed we ordered was no longer available - yet the number was assigned to a different bed!  The headboard is the same, so we decided to live with it.  

However, when the foundation and mattress were delivered, they were too tall for the new bed.  So, for ten days I had to use a step stool to get into bed.  And I am tall.  Finally, yesterday, the lower foundation was delivered.  We got a spread yesterday, and maybe we are finally on our way to being done!!  

Oh, that's without including the fact that we started to buy two lamps yesterday that match perfectly.  And right before saying "Yes, we'll take them"--we discovered that one of the shades had a bird poop stain on it.  I am not kidding.  So, if we want them, we'll have to order a new set (can't get the shade alone) and it will take 10-14 days.  That seems to be the story of every step of this renovation.  So I am so glad that it is almost done!!

Our new bed.  First king-size bed we've ever had.

Christmas at Grandma's House

(as posted on our EJK family page)

The last two days were crazy, and tomorrow will be busy also (going to Atlanta for family Christmas), but today has been quiet. And I’ve been fondly remembering Christmas days from the late ‘60s at Grandma K’s house, now the homestead of Perry and Carol Klopfenstein. 

Our specific family would always leave P-ville fairly early in the morning (having had Christmas the night before with Grandma Hemmer and the aunts) in order to arrive in Gridley in time for church. I remember that all the ladies would sit together, and I remember Aunt Ruth's strong and lovely soprano voice singing in church. Church had an air of excitement about it because of the holiday. 

The whole K family would descend on Grandma’s house afterward, and the pre-meal activities would commence. We five who were about the same age (David, Cathy, Larry, Mark, and I) – maybe Mary and Rhoda also – would play on the stairs while the men sat talking in the living room, and the women chatted and got the meal together. From time to time, Uncle Perry would come out and tell us we were too loud. I'm sure he was right.  :-)

I don’t remember much about the standard meal, but do remember specifically the sponge cake dessert, and the sweets plates – Caramels, chow mein clusters, fudge, chocolate cookies with white icing. There were more, but those are what stand out to me. Oh, those caramels were good!! I’m so glad that several K’s continue the tradition of those. 

The time it took to get the kitchen cleaned up seemed like forever, but no presents could be opened until everything was done. 

People packed into the living room for the gift exchange. Chairs lined the walls, and some of the smaller children sat on the floor. The large tree was loaded with wrapped boxes underneath. It seems like maybe we drew names among the younger generation, but all gave to Grandma, and Grandma gave something to everyone. Her gifts were not large – maybe nice socks or something like that -- but everyone was remembered. 

Some of the younger children passed out all the presents. The gift opening was different from more organized Christmases at other places. Everyone got all their presents at once, and everyone ripped into them all at once. It was glorious Christmas chaos! What a great memory!

Afterward, the unwrapped presents were placed on the dining room table (covered with a lace tablecloth) so that they would not get lost in the shuffle, and so that all could admire what each other received. Then sometimes we would have a “program” in the living room for different ones to perform with piano playing, singing, or saying a piece. Things would wind down a little after that, with people getting leftovers from the kitchen or sneaking just one more caramel or sweet. Children played with new toys, and people talked among themselves.

Our family was always the first to leave, which I always hated. Even though we were going 60 miles to have Christmas with our Uncle Chuck’s family, and it would be fine once we arrived there, I was always saddened to leave the atmosphere of Grandma’s house on Christmas day. We would pile our gifts in the station wagon, back out of the driveway, and head up the highway. I was always in the back end, looking out the windows. (I first saw the belt of Orion in the night sky every year on those trips to Peoria, not knowing what those three stars in a row were, that they are most obvious around Christmas, or that I would teach about Orion in 8th grade science classes for 30+ years—always remembering that yearly drive as I taught those stars.)

We would discuss the wonderful events of the day while riding, and I would silently think about everything as well. I loved the Christmas memories from Grandma’s house.

Friday's Fave Five 11-23-18

LINK to Friday's Fave Five Host Blog

1. Great Thanksgiving day with family on Mike's side.  Our spread was as good as all the others I've seen pictured.

2. Time with some sweet little great-nieces who aren't sure what to think of me, but sure did enjoy the stickers and tablets I brought for them.  Here they are watching their daddy shoot skeet.

3. Anytime we are at my brother-in-law's house for Thanksgiving, shooting skeet is always part of the afternoon activities.  We haven't been there for several years, so we all enjoyed being out on the field either shooting or watching.

4. A two-day work week!!

5. I did NOT get out on Black Friday.  One of the things that I am grateful for, is that I neither need nor want anything that requires getting out in that mess!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all American readers - also the Canadian ones even though their celebration was earlier.

Friday's Fave Five 11-9-18

 LINK to Friday's Fave Five Host Blog

1. Autumn decorations on the mantle!  First year we've had a mantle; therefore, the first year we've had decorations.  

2. I am doing something new this weekend - participating in a craft fair.  Not really me; not really something I have time to pursue, but a church nearby is having one this weekend and I decided to participate.  I've visited it in the past, and it's in a big gym with lots of atmosphere, so it should be something enjoyable and relaxing.  I've enjoyed getting some things ready for it.

3. My parents gave us the shepherd's hook from their back yard, so now I have more feeders than ever outside the kitchen windows.  Makes me happy.  This little shot is of a female purple finch that has been visiting.  We have lots of house finches, but purple finches are much less common.

4. Productive week at school.  Exhausted by the time I get home, but the paper grading has been under control lately.  That's a bigger deal than one may think.

5. This is a funny.  The teacher across the hall took this as proof why 7th graders need us.  :-)

Friday's Fave Five 10-19-18

LINK to Friday's Fave Five Host Blog

 1. The house is coming along!!  We can actually live in it again.  :-)  We still have a lot of pictures to hang, but slowly we are getting it done.  Mike's shoulder and my recent (again) back problems make it difficult to do too much at one time, but progress of any kind makes me happy.

This will be the study/extra room/man cave when it is done.

 2. This is the second week in a row I've had a day of no teaching.  Last week we had a day off due to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Michael that was passing through.  It turned out to be a bust - a delayed opening would have been just as good.  By 10:00 everything had passed through and we had sunny skies!!  Today was a teacher work day, to finish up first nine weeks grades and get anything done that was needed.

3. Very happy students.  (Most of them were here today anyway for an extended day of play practice.)  Our boys won their quarterfinal soccer match yesterday, which ensures that they are going to the state tournament next weekend, for the first time in ten years.  Our girls play their volleyball quarterfinal on Monday (at a school that you, Barbara, are very familiar with.)  :-)  It will be really special if both our boys' soccer and girls' volleyball teams would both get to go to the state tournament at the same time.

4. I've been doing a lot of crochet, in preparation for a craft show next month.  I've never done anything like that but have kind of gotten the bug to try participating in one.  And it is very relaxing to work on small projects in the evenings.  

 

5. Last week we were contacted by a family member - would we like tickets to the Carolina football game?  With a great parking spot?  Well, I really shouldn't have gone due to lower back issues.  But I did.  And we did have a nice time getting out of town.  The only thing that wasn't great was - the team didn't get a win.  Oh well.  We take what we can get.  :-)  And we are very thankful for our family member's kind gift.

Friday's Fave Five 9-28-18

LINK to Friday's Fave Five Host Blog

1. First big thing:  I wasn't going to be able to post anything today due to being at our annual regional Christian school convention in Myrtle Beach SC.  However, it was canceled a week ago due to floodwaters reaching that area.  Now, usually I do enjoy going to the convention, and I'm saddened that the reason it is canceled is due to the hardships of the flooding.  But this year, with all the home renovations and several other things going on, it was a wonderful break to be home for 2 1/2 days more than usual.  We can't really try to have school after all, because parents have made plans, looking forward to this break.  So we just got it off!

2. The wood floors are DONE in the entire house.  At left is a picture from a couple of weeks ago, and at right is from exactly a week ago today.  Carpeting in the den was completed on Wednesday.  It is so nice to have the floors done in the entire house. We are slowly getting furniture moved back in place.  It's a little difficult when Mike has shoulder issues and I have lower back/knee issues.  But piece by piece we are getting everything back to where it belongs.

3. Furniture was delivered today.  I don't want to post a picture yet - not till everything is right.  But here is a sneak peek, actually taken at the furniture store a couple of weeks ago.  The ottoman matches everything else in the den, so can be moved around from piece to piece.  The lady sitting there looks very comfortable.  :-)

4. This one makes me sad, but it is still sweet.  This is the recliner that we got 30 years ago this week, when I was in the last months of pregnancy with our first child.  It's on the loading dock of our local rescue mission's thrift store.  I remember we didn't have two nickels to rub together, but we scraped together enough to get it on a $300 / 3 month same as cash deal, and we thought we were royalty.  I survived two pregnancies and reared two children with this chair.  It's survived a lot of tears, a lot of roughhousing, a lot of reading, a lot of everything.  But it was time to let it go.  There is still some good living left in that chair, and I hope someone else appreciates it as much as we did.

5. Thankful for safety when a tornado touched down north of our town last night.  We were leaving Home Depot and saw the cloud and the funnel.  It could have been very bad, but fortunately little damage occurred.  

Friday's Fave Five, 9/14/18

LINK to Friday's Fave Five Host Blog

It's been awhile since I've done one of these.  The start of the school year can really keep me busy.  

1. We are doing renovations in our house - thus have been living with our bed in the den.  That and our two recliners are the only places in the house to sit right now.  Oh, and there is one stool at the kitchen counter, and two places at the kitchen table.  And that is it.  Bedrooms - completely empty.  "Big Room" - full of stuff.  Oh, and I guess I can count the bathrooms too.  Anyway, I am thankful for at least a few places to sit.

 2. Great progress being made on the wood flooring.  The installers should finish at the first of the week.  That makes for another weekend of sleeping in the den. . .but by next week maybe we will have a bed in the bedroom again.  :-)  The pic is of the entryway, partially done.  I've learned a lot about how wood flooring is installed.

3. This picture was in another post, but here are my newly painted kitchen cabinets. They were finished at the end of the week.  I am LOVING them.  This is the first time I have ever had a really nice kitchen.  It makes wanting to work neatly in it so much easier.

4. Thankful that our son and his wife have been willing to come over every weekend to move the furniture that needs to be moved at that time.  Mike's other shoulder is giving him trouble, so he can't move it right now.

5. It appears that Florence will just give us a lot of rain.  Of course, it's too soon to know the exact track, and those forecasts are notoriously fickle at the end, but right now cities just 30 miles away are slated to get much more.   We shall see.  Very thankful for a warm and dry house when major storms like this are coming. 

Kitchen Before and After

The top picture was taken in April 2017.  The tile and wall painting got done back then, before all our surgeries set the project back for close to a year.

This picture was taken yesterday, September 8, 2018, after the cabinets were painted.

Right now we are living in the den and the "big room," because the wood flooring installers come tomorrow.  Then the furniture will be moved out of the den; it will be painted, and then new carpet will be installed.

Exciting times - that we are ready to have over with.