Busy

Wow, between Easter, a funeral, doctor's and dentist's appointments, I haven't had much time to post. And actually nothing much is happening. I am in the process of doing two different carvings, a mindless piece that is a swirly Christmas tree and still working on the VanGogh drawing. I have a couple other projects in line for when the first two are done.
Sunday we are doing The Church has left the building where different groups go out and do different acts of kindness. One group will go out and do yard work for someone who can't do it on their own, the youth will be collecting food for the food pantry, our Cut & Sew will work on quilts that will eventually leave the building, and a group will go out to visit a nursing home.

Whew!

Easter is over, had a houseful for dinner which I served buffet style that turned out ok. I don't have enough seating space to serve a sit-down dinner for that many people. It seems that it was easier on me, we used plastic forks and styrofoam plates, so less to clean up. Although Karrie did most of the cleaning. I had ham, polish sausage, kraut, dill buttered carrots, asparagus, salad, jello, cheesy potatoes, and fried rice casserole, the last three brought by my sister-in-law Jan. My sister brought the lamb cake and a couple of appetizers and my  niece and daughter brought appetizers as well. I also made a new appetizer made with crescent rolls in mini muffin tins filled with chopped mushrooms mixed with onion and chive cream cheese and parmesan. They were quite good.
So today is the wake for my stepmother and tomorrow the funeral. Then I have a dentist appointment and a followup appointment with my oncologist during the rest of the week.

Death in Family

My step-mother, Jo Kulik passed away early this morning after suffering a massive stroke a week ago. She was in the South Suburban Hospital's Hospice care unit. She died peacefully early this morning. Her wake and funeral will not be until after Easter due to the Catholic practice of not having any services in the latter part of Holy Week. Please pray for her family, that they too remain peaceful.  

Bird House

The old bird house bit the dust and I do mean bit the dust. During our windy days this winter it blew from the tree onto the stones below and broke in two. It was to be replaced anyway because some critter made the hole so much bigger. So now there is a new bird house out there, I hope I'm not too late for the birds to use it this year.I had some gourds left from when I thought I wanted to be a gourder, so just make a hole, clean it out,  decorate and hang..

Too Nice

Its too nice of a day to spend it in the church basement making quilts. I wonder if they all will show up. I made a cole slaw with mandarin oranges and pineapple for the soup supper tonight. It's supposed to be 80 today, a little warm for soup.
I've been working on a new gourd bird house. The old one blew out of the tree and broke in two. Some critter already had made it useless by chewing around the opening to make it big enough for it to get in. I suspect a squirrel.

Lifeline Screening

Our Church was the sight of a Lifeline Screening event, so I went down for an hour and a half to welcome people, offer coffee, juice and cookies plus Portals of Prayer booklets and even a Bible if anyone wanted one. There were 80 people coming through for the screening today.
Next week we will have Spring, just hope old man winter doesn't return.

Chili Cook-off

Last night was the chili cook-off at Church We had 14 chefs submitting their chillies to be judged including me. At first they had few chefs so I signed on but couldn't use my normal recipe because my husband called it "its not chili chili" so I made up a recipe using chuck steaks and adding different ingredients that I though would be good. I didn't win but I thought my chili was pretty good. My friend that made the turkey chili won the for best chili and for the mildest. I guess we had a bunch of wimps voting for the best.

I also want to post this picture of my daughter. As a baby we used to call her the Michelin man because of all the creases on her chubby legs and arms. So here is my Michelin baby.