Diane's Place

Another Update On Lamar's Eye

2009-11-10T20:02:00.003-06:00

It's just after 8 pm my time as I'm typing this. Jessica drove Lamar's Mom's car and they rode in the front while Lamar and I rode in the back seat. We left our apartment at 11 am and made good time, arriving at Lamar's eye specialist's office about 12:15 pm.

Lamar's appointment wasn't until 1 pm but we wanted to have some extra time to allow for heavy traffic or other delays. As it happened, we didn't actually see the doctor until 3:30, but isn't that the way it usually goes?

As we hoped, Lamar's eye looks much better, according to the tests they performed in the office and what the doctor saw when he examined Lamar's eye. The pressure in his bad eye was down to 5 and 10 in his good eye, which are excellent numbers.

That's the good news.

The bad news? They still have no idea what is wrong with Lamar's eye, how long this may last or if it will later affect another part of his body. Lamar's taking an antiviral and they're assuming that since his eye is getting better that it must be some form of virus, but at this point they're not even certain of that.

Lamar has to call the virologist that he saw back in the Summer when this all started with his eye, and we may be making another trip to Memphis soon to see the virologist. We're assuming that she may want to draw blood for more tests, but we won't know about that until later.

Also, there's a possibility that Lamar may have to have surgery on his eye again, but that's still to be determined. The eye specialist is the one pushing for the surgery, but the eye surgeon is hesitant and we're a little hesitant about another surgery as well.

For one thing, Lamar couldn't tell much difference in his vision after the other surgery, and every surgery has risks of infection and other complications.

Also, if this is going to keep happening to Lamar's eye, why go through this every few months? Eventually the scarring from the surgeries will harm more than it helps.

As you can imagine, we are still dealing with more questions than answers. So much uncertainty and it's weighing on us every day, especially Lamar.

Another thing is the medicines that Lamar is taking every day. He is taking prednisone by mouth along with the antiviral and two more forms of prednisone eye drops, as well as a drop that keeps his eye dilated to ease the pressure in his eye.

Lamar has been on prednisone constantly since May and this can't continue indefinitely. Pred has many side effects with long term use, and one is suppression of the immune system, which is definitely something that Lamar doesn't need at this time.

One of the main reasons for seeing the virologist is to see if she can prescribe an anti-inflammatory that has the same benefits of prednisone without the side effects. Lamar will call her office in Memphis on Wednesday to try to set up an appointment with the virologist, if she thinks it's necessary.

Lamar will see the eye specialist again on Friday at the Jonesboro office, so we may get more news then, but we're not holding our breath. We hope to get answers, but it's so frustrating to still be without any real answers after all this time.

Lamar's problems with his eye began on May 13th and we're no closer to having a diagnosis and treatment plan now, almost 6 months later to the day, than we were back in May. And that's after countless tests, visits to eye doctors and specialists, virologists and eye surgeons, one surgery and a pharmacy full of drugs!

But, we know that God is in control, and the Great Physician will work all this out according to His will, not ours.

Please keep praying and thinking those good thoughts for us. You'll never know how much we appreciate those who are lifting us up in prayer daily before God's throne. I pray God's richest blessings on all of you, dear family and friends.

That's about all I can share right now, but if we learn anything new I'll post another update as soon as I can.

I hope everyone is having a great week.

Sunday Dinner, November 8, 2009 & Assorted Blatherings

2009-11-07T18:08:00.006-06:00

This has been an eventful week in some ways, and just a common, ordinary week in others.

Is that wishy washy enough for you? Then you'll be delighted to know that the rest of this post will be chock full of even more of the stuff.

Let's deal with Sunday Dinner first, shall we?

I gave my usual Sunday Dinner guests a choice of going out to eat at Cracker Barrel or having white beans, cornbread and spaghetti chicken from my freezer stash, and the general consensus favored eating out at Cracker Barrel.

Works for me and I can use one of my gift cards for Cracker Barrel that a dear friend gave me for my birthday. I really like the part where someone else cooks the food, serves it to me and cleans up afterward too.

What's for Sunday Dinner at your place? Share your plans/menu in the comments if you'd like.Lamar's eye is looking and feeling much better, praise the Lord! Thank you all so much for your prayers and keeping him in your thoughts. Of course that's just what we can see on the surface, so we have no idea what's actually happening inside the eye.

Lamar goes back to Memphis on Tuesday to see the specialist and I'll try to post an update with any news as soon as we hear anything.

We still have so many unanswered questions regarding the cause of Lamar's eye condition, any further treatment, if it can be cured or if it will be a recurring thing and so many more questions. We hope to have at least some of these questions answered on Tuesday, God willing.This first full week of November has graced us with some of the most glorious Fall weather that Arkansas can offer. These sunny and warm but not too hot days and chilly clear nights have been very welcome after the seemingly eternally soggy October we endured!

Our trees and foliage have finally put on some decent color, though not as brilliant as we've experienced in some years. A lot of the leaves have just fallen off the trees without changing to bright colors and now piles of dull brown leaves are drifting everywhere.

I took advantage of our sunny, breezy Wednesday afternoon here and stripped my bed, then washed my handmade quilt and some of Emmy's bedding and hung them outside on the clothesline.

I used my beloved original Gain detergent and just a touch of bleach, and then used Gain original fabric softener in the rinse before I hung them outside in the fresh air and sunshine.

I don't think there's anything that smells better than freshly laundered bedding that's been dried outside on the line. My freshly made bed sure did smell wonderful Wednesday night! Still does, as a matter of fact. :-)And on a related note, Lamar and I went with Jessica, Emmy, and my sisters Cecil, Ducky and Sue to a movie this afternoon. More on that in a bit.

I took one of Emmy's handmade baby quilts with me that I'd line dried, just in case she got sleepy or cold at the movie. Emmy didn't use the quilt, but my arms got chilled so I threw her quilt across my front, and that wonderful fragrance of clean laundry dried in the fresh air and sunshine wafted up to my nose.

I love the convenience of my electric dryer, but nothing can replicate the smell of clean laundry dried outside in the sunshine and fresh air. I really should try to hang more of my linens and such outside.

However, I do have to say that I'm not fond of blue jeans and towels that are so stiff you can stand them up in the corner, so anytime I dry them outside I usually tumble them in the dryer for a bit to fluff up the towels and soften the denim.Now, the movie we went to see was the new 3-D animated version of "A Christmas Carol" with Jim Carey's voice, among others. The special effects were out of this world! Emmy even kept her 3-D glasses on for almost the entire movie, and for the most part she was really quiet and watched the movie.

A few times when the action slowed down a bit Emmy got a little restless, but I was pleasantly surprised at how attentive and good she was for the movie.I'm beginning to get a little hungry and I still have to study my Sunday School lesson, so I think I'll get this posted and go find a snack. I have a Gala apple here on my desk that's really calling to me.

I hope you all have a blessed Sunday and a great new week. My prayer for each of you is that God will richly bless you by meeting all your needs, and that you'll have enough to share.

Happy Birthday, Jessica, Sue & Ducky! & A Prayer Request

2009-11-02T23:43:00.023-06:00

Wishing a very happy 22nd birthday to my beautiful daughter, JESSICA! Mama loves you more than I can ever express, Babe. It doesn't seem possible that it's been 22 years since you were born..........

............And 5 months later you experienced your first Easter, pictured here with your Great Grandpa, Horner Davis.

Here you are at 8 months on June 28, 1988, enjoying frosting from your Grandma Lue's birthday cake. Cake's not really good unless you get it all over you. In your opinion, anyway. ;-)

This is one of my all time favorite baby pictures of you. I wish it had scanned a little sharper and brighter.

Can you see Emmy in your face? Because I see a lot of you in her and vice versa, especially as Emmy gets bigger.

I can really see hints of Emmy in these two pics taken when you were 2 years and 10 months old. Emmy is almost 2 years and 6 months, so not much difference in your age in these pics and Emmy's age at the present time.

Lots of resemblance between Jessica and Emmy here, I think.

Fast forward a few years, and here you are with your cousin Devin at almost 4 years old.

My, how the time flies!

I blinked it seems, and here you are with your cousin Jon at around 12 years old, I think.

Another blink and you were graduating high school.

And just a little while later, on December 9, 2006, you became a beautiful bride and made me a mother in law to a handsome son in law. :-)

A short time after that you became a Mama, and the cycle of mother and daughter started all over again.

You bring me joy every day and I'm blessed and proud to call you Daughter. I love you so much, Jessica Rose Jennings.

I pray you enjoy a long, full, healthy and happy life, filled with God's love, joy, and blessings on your life.

I also want to wish my sisters Sue (left)................

and Ducky (right) a very Happy Birthday today!

Yes, that's right ---- Jessica, Sue and Ducky all share the same birthday. Sue and Ducky were born on November 3rd, 2 years apart, and then Jessica came along some years later on November 3, 1987.

Happy birthday to my beloved sisters and daughter. :o)

And on a more serious note, if you're a praying person, please remember Lamar when you pray. If you don't pray, positive thoughts are most welcome as well. Lamar's eye is inflamed again and it's just as bad as it was when this all started with him back in June of this year.

Jessica had to rush him to his eye specialist in Memphis this morning, and the pressure in that eye is sky high again. We still don't know what caused the problem with his eye to begin with back in June, and they still don't have a diagnosis or any real treatment plan for him now.

At first they were going to do emergency surgery, but they decided against that. Then they discussed giving Lamar shots in that eye, but eventually they changed their minds about that too.

After doing some tests on Lamar they sent him home with 3 prescriptions for various eye drops and 2 for pills. One pill is an antiviral and the other is an oral form of prednisone. If he doesn't get worse before Tuesday of next week, he has to go back to Memphis to see the eye specialist again.

We are so weary of this illness, and especially all the doctor visits, medications and still having no diagnosis or real answers as to what's happening to cause this problem with his eye. Lamar already has permanent vision loss in that eye and this whole roller coaster ride seems never ending.

Please pray for guidance and wisdom as the doctors treat Lamar and for a correct diagnosis and treatment plan as soon as possible.

Thank you all for your prayers, dear family and friends. I know many of you will answer our plea for prayers for Lamar, and we appreciate them more than we can ever express.

If anything new develops I'll post an update to keep everyone informed, whether it be bad news, God forbid, or good news, please let it be, Lord.I pray you all have a blessed week full of love and joy and that God will rain down His blessings upon you all.

Sunday Dinner, November 1, 2009 & Halloween Pics

2009-10-31T23:01:00.010-05:00

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time you know when you see the Sunday Dinner graphic that features the chef with a question mark on his tray it means I have no idea what's happening for Sunday Dinner this week.

Lamar's already informed me that his Dallas Cowboys play football at noon tomorrow so I know I'll be a football widow Sunday afternoon. He's already set for Sunday Dinner. He got some packaged pork barbecue at Wal*mart when we did our monthly shopping so I don't have to worry about cooking for him.

So I've decided to take another break from cooking Sunday Dinner this week. I have no idea where I'll end up eating but I won't be doing the cooking or the cleaning up. Works for me.

For those of you who'd like to share your Sunday Dinner plans this week just leave a comment.I'm just going to scatter some pics of Emmy in her Halloween costume and from the weinie roast tonight in the rest of this post. Click on any of them to enlarge-ify.

As I mentioned earlier, Lamar and I went to Jonesboro this morning with his Mom to run some errands and do our monthly Wal*mart shopping. I usually get all my household cleaning supplies and other necessities on or near the first of each month and go about a week later to do my monthly grocery shopping so it's not such a big hassle all in one day.

I sometimes pick up a few grocery items on the first, but for the most part I wait until the next week to do my "big" monthly grocery shopping.

We ran a few errands and paid the cable bill first, then went to eat at Ron's Catfish again for lunch. It was great, as usual. I could eat there at least once a week if we could afford it. It's probably a good thing we don't have our own car or we'd probably eat there a lot more than is good for us.

After lunch we headed to Wal*mart, and let me tell you, apparently everybody else within a 50 mile radius had the same destination today. It was a madhouse! The fact that it was Saturday, Halloween and that everybody that gets their government checks on the first got theirs Friday because of the first falling on the weekend had a lot to do with the crowds, I'm sure. If I hadn't been out of a lot of things, including some of my prescriptions, I'd have waited until later instead of braving those crowds.

It was hard to get down the aisles without running over people, and they would just stand and look at you with their carts right in the middle of the aisles, almost daring you to ask them to move! So frustrating, and rude people just do not make for an optimum shopping experience. Whatever that may be.

We finished our day by stopping at Sonic on the way home to take advantage of the half price drinks during happy hour. I was more than ready for a drink by then, let me tell you.We got home and unloaded our purchases and got to rest about an hour before my sister Ducky and her granddaughter Genna arrived to pick us up to go to a bonfire, weinie roast and hayride with our church.

Jessica and Emmy arrived about 10 minutes after Ducky and Genna, so we took a few pics and then headed to the weinie roast. By the time we got there the sun was beginning to set and it was indeed a glorious sunset. I took about 2 dozen pictures trying to capture the beauty of the sunset, but apparently sunsets are beyond my grasp and abilities.

We enjoyed roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and some people made s'mores. (Ick!) I like all the ingredients in s'mores, but not together, thank you very muchly. And I'm not much on chocolate anyway so to me putting chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers together just ruins some good marshmallows and graham crackers.

After everyone had eaten, we piled into the trailers filled with bales of straw and pulled by tractors. We had 2 trailer and tractor combos and we made 2 trips so everybody could ride at least one time each. Some of us (me, Lamar, Jessica, Jason and Emmy included) rode for both trips, and it was grand!

The moon was almost full and so bright it was almost like daylight! The stars were shining and it was so good to see clear skies after all the rain we've had lately. It was a little chilly so my sweatshirt, jacket and quilt that I brought to snuggle up in felt good.

There is still a LOT of water on the ground and over the country gravel roads. We went through a lot of water and Emmy was amazed at riding the trailer through water! She wanted to get out and swim, lol! We told her it was awfully cold to be swimming tonight, with the temps in the mid-50'sF.

I thought I had my camera with me on the hayride, but someone moved my purse and it fell out of the top of it, so I don't have any pics on the actual hayride. I was so disappointed! Boo hoo!All in all, a good day, but I have been going since my feet hit the floor this morning, so Diane is a TARD girl tonight. Even if I'd wanted to cook Sunday Dinner, I didn't get home until 10:30 pm and I'm not about to start cooking at this time of the night, not to mention that I'm worn to a frazzle!

I hope you've all had a great Halloween, and don't forget to Fall Back and set your clocks back an hour if you haven't already done it by the time you read this. I for one am glad to get that hour back that we lost last Spring.

I'm going to get this proofread and posted and I think for once I'm going to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Allowing for that hour we're getting back, I may even get in bed before midnight. What an interesting concept! ;o)Y'all have a blessed Lord's Day doing something you enjoy with people you love. May God meet all you need, and may you have enough to share is my prayer for you all, dear family and friends.

Sunday Dinner, October 25, 2009 & Various Ramblings

2009-10-25T00:26:00.007-05:00

It's already 12:30 am here in my part of the world as I type this, so I'm going to try to be brief with this post. However, I am aware that brevity is not one of my strong points, so we'll see how this unfolds.

Friday, October 23rd was my 46th birthday and Sunday, October 25th is my 24th wedding anniversary. Jessica treated us to lunch at Don Jose's Mexican restaurant on Thursday to honor our anniversary and this evening we went with friends to Ron's Catfish for supper.

After Lamar and I got home from eating catfish, Jessica picked us up and we rode around, chatted and listened to music for several hours, which was part of her anniversary gift to us and part of my birthday gift from her.

Cruising and listening to music is one of my favorite things on this earth to do, and I thoroughly enjoyed my evening. Thanks, Jessica! I love you, Babe.

We just got home at midnight which is why I'm just now getting around to writing this post.

Lamar and I received several nice gifts for our anniversary and I've been blessed with some really nice cards and things for my birthday, but I'll get to that in a bit.

I'm not cooking Sunday Dinner this week because it's my anniversary and I'm going to take advantage of some cash that was given to us and go out to eat for lunch. I have no idea where we'll end up and at this moment I don't really care, as long as I don't have to cook it, someone else brings it to me, and I can walk off and leave the dirty dishes for someone else to deal with.

What's for Sunday Dinner at your place this week? Share your plans/menu in the comments if you'd like.My dear friend WANDA @ WANDER'S WORLD sent me a beautiful birthday card and I've received many, many birthday greetings and ecards on Facebook and by email. Thank you, dear Wanda and all who've taken time to send me birthday and anniversary greetings. I love you and appreciate each and every one of you, dear friends and family. :o)

I was pleasantly surprised when Jessica brought me something today from a dear blogging and Facebook buddy that we have in common. Our mutual friend sent Jessica a package and included some things in it for me.

Jessica will share about her gifts on her blog I'm sure, so I'll leave that for her to do.

Our friend included 5 (!) boxes of Trader*Joe's Earl Grey tea bags and 2 generous gift cards to Cracker*Barrel for me! I was thrilled and humbled by our friend's generous gifts.

I'm enjoying a cup of the Earl Grey tea right now, and it is mighty tasty and really hits the spot on this chilly Autumn night. It's really good and I like it every bit as well as my usual brand.

I won't have to buy any tea for a while, and next time I go to Cracker*Barrel I'll make use of those gift cards. :o)

I purposely haven't mentioned the name of my generous friend because I don't know if they want to be in the spotlight, so to speak, but they know who they are.

Thank you, dear friend, for the tea and the gift cards, but most of all, for your friendship and generous spirit. May God bless you for your generosity and the love you've shown to me and Jessica.So much for this being a brief post, huh? lol

But I really am going to wind this up now and wish everyone a wonderful Sunday and new week.

May God bless you with all you need and enough to share is my prayer for each and every one of you, dear family and friends.

Book Review: 02: Breathing New Life Into Faith

2009-10-19T22:51:00.007-05:00

About the book:

Your physical body needs oxygen in order to survive. Inhale, exhale ... one leads naturally to the other. Inhale too long and you feel as if your lungs will burst. Exhale too long and you get light-headed.

The same rhythm is essential in the life of faith. You inhale life-giving strength from God through things like prayer, study, solitude, and silence. You exhale generosity, hospitality, and service to the poor. If you try to do one without the other, you wont' last very long.

This fresh perspective on the classic disciplines of the faith will empower you to process the oxygen of the Spirit. Discover how you can develop a balanced spirituality that reflects the life of Jesus and keeps your faith growing stronger.

About Richard: Richard Dahlstrom is Senior Pastor of Bethany Community Church in Seattle , WA , in the heart of the city, among university students, young professionals, families, the homeless, and the elderly. He is also a popular teacher in North America and Europe for the Capernwray Missionary Fellowship of Torchbearers. He holds a M.Div. from Talbot Theological Seminary. Find out more about Richard at: http://raincitypastor.blogspot.com/

Link to buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/O2-Breathing-Life-Faith-ConversantLife-com®/dp/0736922148/ref=sprightly-20

Extras:

Watch a video about the book: http://www.conversantlife.com/life-with-god/o2-breathing-new-life-into-faith

Read the first chapter: http://www.conversantlife.com/files/resource_downloads/O2.pdf

Study Guide: http://www.conversantlife.com/files/resource_downloads/O2%20Discussion%20Questions.pdf

I have to say that I found a lot that I could agree with in Richard Dahlstrom's book, but also some things that don't totally mesh with my personal views on Bible doctrine.

I didn't really expect to agree with every single point, but that being said, I do think this book can be a good tool to spark insight into your own personal beliefs and would also be great for small group Bible studies.

I'm not hosting a giveaway for this particular book, but if you're interested in entering to win a signed copy of the book, see the contest details below.

Contest: The contest for this blog tour is: (Please tweet & facebook this contest – please use the hashtag #O2)

Win a signed copy of 02 for yourself! There are two ways to enter! The winners will be announced 10/26.

Jump over to Pastor Richard’s blog “Pastoral Musings from Rain City ” (http://www.raincitypastor.blogspot.com/ ) and leave a comment between October 5th and October 24th. Just say hi or tell Pastor Richard what you liked about his book, or share with him how you’ve experienced ‘new life’ in your faith!
Tweet this: @raincitypastor Pub. Weekly voted Breathing New Life into Faith as top 10 book in 2008 check it out! http://tr.im/Au8q #02

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Sunday Dinner, October 18, 2009, Laundry & Answered Prayer

2009-10-17T17:42:00.012-05:00

****Warning: This post will include frequent
stops and starts due to laundry
that must be done tonight.
Thank you. That is all.****

If you've inferred from the warning posted above that the dirty laundry pile here at my place has reached critical mass, your inference is dead on.

Oh, I still have stuff to wear, just not my first choices since they're all dirty, so laundry I must do. When the dryer beckons I must answer its siren call lest my jeans and such be all wrinkly, and nobody likes wrinkly clothes.

****Slight pause here while I put the 3rd load of
laundry in the dryer and the 4th load
of laundry in the washing machine.****

Now, on to the subject at hand: Sunday Dinner.

I won't be cooking Sunday Dinner this week because I've been invited to eat with my nephew Danny, his wife, Mikki and their 2-year-old, Seth.

I haven't the faintest idea what's on the menu for Sunday Dinner, thus the chef's hat in my Sunday Dinner graphic. It's chef's choice for Sunday Dinner and I'm sure whatever Mikki and Danny serve will be delicious.

What are your plans for Sunday Dinner this week? Share your plans/menu in the comments if you'd like to participate.Danny and Mikki's invitation to eat Sunday Dinner with them this week actually came at a precipitous time for me. Again this week many of my usual attendees for my Sunday Dinner are going to be gone or their plans are still in limbo, so I was glad to have the decisions of what to cook and how many to cook for taken out of my hands.

Lamar is spending some time with his Mom so he wouldn't be home for Sunday Dinner. Lamar's stepdad is gone squirrel hunting and Lamar's Mom is scared of boogers, so Lamar's spending the night with her tonight, then going to church with her on Sunday morning.

They'll go eat lunch somewhere before she brings Lamar home so he can watch his usual Sunday afternoon football games.

Jessica, Jason and Emmy have somewhere to be at 2 pm so it would rush them to try to eat here and then drive about 15 miles to another town for their activity, so they wouldn't have been eating Sunday Dinner with me either. They'll probably pick up Mc*Donald's or some other fast food on the way to their destination.

And my sister CECIL who usually eats Sunday Dinner with me may not be around as well. She has tentative plans to go out for lunch with her husband, but it all depends on whether he can get away from work.

Of my usual Sunday Dinner crowd, that leaves me and my sister Ducky that will be going to her son Danny's and Mikki's for lunch. Ducky will also get to spend some time with her grandson Seth, always a bonus for a Grandma.The answered prayer I alluded to in my title concerns JESSICA, my daughter. Several weeks ago there was a blood drive at the hospital where she works, and Jessica gave blood, as she's done regularly since she got old enough to donate.

Well, about 10 days ago she received a call from the blood donation center that she had tested positive for hepatitis C, which is a very serious, life threatening disease.

Jessica works as a certified nursing assistant and is exposed to blood and other bodily fluids on a daily basis, so her being exposed to diseases is a constant worry of mine. I don't dwell on it every day, but it's always in the back of my mind. That phone call was devastating to all of us, but most especially to Jessica, of course.

To make matters worse, it took Jessica 5 days to get an appointment with her doctor to have more blood drawn to be retested and to have a physical examination to evaluate her health. We all know that the longer we have to worry and dwell on something, the worse it becomes in our minds and the more stressful it is.

After finally getting in to see her doctor and getting her examination and blood drawn on Thursday, Jessica now has a few more answers.

First, her liver is definitely enlarged and that's not good at all. But the lab that did the testing on her blood work did a rush job and faxed the preliminary results back to Jessica's doctor's office on Friday, which is almost unheard of in this day and time. We're all thankful for their understanding and special efforts to get us the results as quickly as possible.

The blood work came back NEGATIVE FOR HEPATITIS C! Thank you, Jesus!

But.....And there always seems to be a "but", now doesn't there?

Jessica will have to be retested in a month just to make sure that the results are accurate, and we now know that she DOES have a disease known as fatty liver. It's still a serious disease, but it's treatable and it's not contagious or a danger to anyone else who's exposed to Jessica's blood.

As you can imagine we've all been under a huge burden of fear and uncertainty for Jessica, and the blood work coming back negative for hep C was a HUGE relief and such a sweet answer to our prayers. God is so GOOD!!!

But now Jessica still has to deal with the fatty liver issue. For some reason some people have a build up of fat in their liver, and Jessica happens to be one of those people it seems. If she can lose weight, get more exercise, eat less fatty foods and stay away from alcohol and acetaminophen, we're hopeful that Jessica can manage this disease without any further medical treatment.

It won't be easy, and Jessica will have to be monitored medically most likely for the rest of her life, but of the 2 diseases, fatty liver by far offers her the best outcome.

I would ask for your prayers for Jessica's health, most especially until she's retested in a month for the hep C. Until we hear that she tests negative for hep C again in a month's time, I still won't rest easy.

I worry about her and so many who work in the health care field and are exposed daily to serious and life threatening diseases. It only takes one accidental needle stick or exposure to infected body fluids and their lives will never be the same again.

****Pause here to unload dryer, reload dryer,

load more clothes into washer and
fold/hang/put way clean laundry.
We'll be right back after this short break.****

Okay, last 2 loads of laundry are in the washer and dryer, so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I want to reiterate how much I'm enjoying this cool Autumn weather. How cool? Well, tonight we have frost warnings, so that should give you a hint how cool it's been around here.

It's about average for our first frost, but it's been about 15 degrees cooler than average for our temps with much higher than average rainfall. Farmers are still trying to harvest their crops, but unless it dries out soon with lots of sunshine, many farmers are going to do well to break even this year, much less make a profit.

It's difficult to believe that we're already halfway through October! Halloween is only a few weeks away and then it seems like Thanksgiving and Christmas are upon us before we know it.It's looking more and more like our Fall foliage is going to be a bust this year. Most of the leaves are just falling off the trees without much true color change. I had to go back and look at some of my photos from previous years so I could post one for this blog entry.

I took the photo at left on October 1, 2006 in front of the Cracker Barrel restaurant in Jonesboro, Arkansas. You might be able to tell that it was taken the same time as the one I'm using for my Fall blog header. The crabapples aren't nearly as plentiful or as pretty this Autumn as they were in 2006.

My Uncle Dwight took this next photo in the Fall of 2007 near Calico Rock, Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains. The leaves in the foreground are brilliantly colored while the nearby mountainsides are just beginning to blush with color.

Can you see why I love the Ozarks so much? They're gorgeous in any season, but I think Autumn is when they wear their best finery.

I hope there's still time for our leaves to exhibit some good Fall color, but I fear with this frost tonight that even more of the leaves will just drop off the trees green instead of changing to the vivid oranges, fiery reds and rich golds that we enjoy most years.

No particular reason for including this

pic of Emmy all ready for bed,
other than the fact that I think
she's cute as a bug.
I might be a little partial though. ;-)

And I think that's about enough from me tonight. The dryer has stopped again and I need to get those clothes folded, hung up and put away before they wrinkle.

Y'all have a wonderful Sunday and new week. May God bless you with all you need and enough to share is my prayer for each and every one of you, dear family and friends.

Sunday Dinner, October 11, 2009

2009-10-10T18:45:00.007-05:00

Well, I've procrastinated long enough. I've got my cup of hot Earl Grey tea and my snuggly fleece throw over my feet and legs to ward off the delicious Fall chill in the air and it's time to get down to the business of this Sunday's Dinner.

Today has been cool and overcast. Our low for Saturday morning was down into the low 40'sF and the high today was in the mid-50'sF. I love this kind of day and took full advantage of it by doing a little reading and playing on my laptop and not much else.

I did make a simple supper of scrambled fresh eggs that were given to us by a neighbor, and also fried some smoked sausage to accompany them. Other than that I haven't done anything that could be considered constructive.

My lazy day was one reason I've put off writing this post.

Another is the fact that my guest list for Sunday Dinner is hanging in limbo, and I don't deal very well with uncertainty when it comes to cooking a meal. I like it much better when I know exactly how many I need to feed, whether it's just me and Lamar or a crowd of 25.

I promise I'm getting to the point. Like right now.

I bought a 5 lb. beef tip roast at $1.98/lb. at Wal*mart Supercenter when I did my grocery shopping last week. I cut it up into 2 smaller roasts to cook for me and Lamar, and cut the rest of it up into stew meat.

We had beef roast with potatoes cooked with it and gravy made from the roast juices for supper Friday night. I still have another roast to cook for later, and 3 packages of stew meat in the freezer for later meals. Each will yield a meal with the meat costing about $2 per meal. Not bad for beef in this day and time.

I'm going to cook a package of the stew meat tonight. When I get home from church tomorrow I'll heat up the stew meat and broth and make some simple homemade egg noodles to add to it. According to how many are here for Sunday Dinner I'll adjust the amount of noodles I make.

I've been craving fried cabbage so I'll fix the appropriate amount of that when I get home. It only takes about 15 minutes to cut up the cabbage, fry it fast and hot in a little oil to brown it, then add a couple of tablespoons of water, salt and pepper to it and cover it to steam for a bit.

I have garden green beans in the freezer and I also have some canned green beans, so I may take the more convenient route tomorrow and just heat up some canned green beans.

That's the menu for La Casa de Jennings tomorrow: Homemade beef and noodles, fried cabbage, and green beans, with portions adjusted to accommodate the number of guests to be served.

What's on the menu at your place this week? Just give a shout out in the comments to participate.I am thoroughly enjoying our cool Fall weather. It's rained 5 out of the last 7 days, and the coming week promises more of the same. I don't mind the rain as long as it doesn't flood and get into the apartment, which it's never done, so I'm good in that respect, but area farmers have an entirely different perspective regarding the cool, rainy weather.

Most years by the middle of October well over half the cotton, soybeans, rice, corn, milo and other crops have been harvested, but not this year. There are 2 cotton gins just a stone's throw from my apartment and they have yet to run for the first time this year.

This has been a weird, strange year for weather and crops. A cold, wet Spring and early Summer meant crops were planted late, and then June set records for heat and drought. July through the present has been much cooler and wetter than average, so crops are at least a month behind schedule in maturing.

And even for the crops that have managed to mature, it's been so wet that farmers can't get into the fields to harvest.The cool weather has varying effects on how I feel. I love the cool weather, but add rain and storms to the mix and it tends to make my arthritis more painful. I want to do more, but my arthritis really protests when I try to do too much.

So this week has run the gamut of lots of productivity to getting almost nothing at all accomplished.

I have problems with pacing myself. When I feel reasonably well I tend to push myself and work until I can't go any more. Then I end up hurting and don't feel like doing anything at all.

So I'm usually either working like a fiend or sitting on my prodigious rump. I don't have much middle ground when it comes to activity, it seems.

Here's hoping that I can find some equilibrium and manage to get some things done around the apartment this week while still remembering to take time to rest as needed. Since it's supposed to rain most of this coming week I should have plenty of opportunity to work and rest in the appropriate proportions.Y'all have a great Sunday and new week, spending time with people you love and doing things that bring you joy. May God meet all your needs and may you have enough to share.

Sunday Dinner, October 4, 2009 & Camping Pics

2009-10-02T21:12:00.020-05:00

I'm typing this post on Friday evening because my sister Donna and I are leaving Saturday morning to go camping again.

I have no idea what I'll be having for Sunday Dinner this week, but I have pics of last week's Sunday Dinner in the camping pics that are coming up next.

Feel free to share your Sunday Dinner plans/menu in the comments. Even though I won't be here to participate until it's all over, I know many of my readers enjoy checking out all the menus that others share.

We'll be going back to Gunner Pool to camp overnight Saturday night, then back home on Sunday afternoon. The weather is almost perfect for camping right now so we're taking advantage of it while we can.

So much of the year the weather is "too". Too hot, too cold, too wet, too something. Or we're just too busy to get away. But right now we're enjoying some of Arkansas' best weather and we want to make hay while the sun shines, as it were.

Fall in Arkansas can be just magical, and last weekend and this coming weekend are good examples. The highs are hovering around 70F and the lows are around 45F-50F.

Rain is forecast to move in on Sunday afternoon, so we may have to break camp in a hurry to keep the tent and our stuff dry, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.Now, pictures from last week's camping trip.....

A view of the road in front of us, driving into Batesville...You can't get much more Fall-like than this load of bright orange pumpkins, gourds and corn stalks.My Saturday supper plate: Fried potatoes, roasted hot dog and bacon, all cooked on an open wood fire. I brought some hickory wood from home and the rest of our firewood was limbs and dead falls gathered from around our campsite.Donna was beginning to feel the chill and stayed pretty close to the fire until we went into the tent for the night around 9 pm. We're real party-ers, we are.Another pic of our campfire.Mid morning, bright blue cloudless sky and sunlit tree near our campsite.Biscuits in Donna's cast iron skillet.Biscuits warming by the fire while the rest of our breakfast finishes cooking: bacon and sausage and hot coffee perked over the fire.My brunch plate, which was also my Sunday Dinner: Biscuits, sausage and bacon. Might not have been the healthiest meal I had last week, but it sure was good!Scenes from the ride home.....This last picture was taken at a little town called Oil Trough on the Black River. I thought the river was pretty framed by the ivy draped trees.Well, I still have things to do before bedtime, so I'll get this posted.

Y'all have a wonderful weekend doing something you enjoy with people you love. May God meet all your needs and may you have enough to share.

Winner of Book Giveaway, "The Great Christmas Bowl"

2009-09-30T13:49:00.002-05:00

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2009-09-30 18:49:22 UTC

Congratulations, V from Idaho, comment #4. You're the winner of the book giveaway. I'll be in contact by email to get your mailing info.

Sunday Dinner, September 27, 2009 & Gone Camping

2009-09-26T16:00:00.000-05:00

***Special note to reader Kellie Bell: You didn't leave a link or email addy to respond to your question, so this is the only way I know to contact you. I use Sure Jell powdered pectin to make my muscadine jelly and follow the directions for making Concord grape jelly, substituting muscadines for the Concord grapes. It's always turned out great for me. Hope this helps you, but if you still have questions, comment again or use the link in my sidebar to email me.***

Any of you that also interact with me on Facebook more than likely already know that I won't be at home for Sunday Dinner this week. My sister DONNA and I will be gone camping by the time this post publishes if I manage to get the autopost feature on here to work right.

We're set to leave sometime Saturday morning and should be home Sunday afternoon if all goes according to plan. I have no idea what we'll be having for Sunday Dinner, but anything cooked and/or eaten outdoors is better than anything cooked and/or eaten indoors, in my decidedly prejudiced opinion.

One thing's for sure, if it's cooked it will be done over a wood or charcoal fire and I can hardly wait!

We had showers and rain again Thursday and overnight into Friday, but as I type this Friday afternoon it's dry and the sun is attempting to burn through the clouds. I've seen a few peeks of sunshine, so I have high hopes that we'll have a pretty weekend for camping. There's still a 20% chance of rain for Saturday evening but I'm praying it won't materialize.

A tent in the rain is a miserable place to be. Just sayin'.

Temperature wise it's looking great. Highs of around 80F and low Saturday night of about 65F. Just warm enough by day to swim and cool enough by night to make you appreciate the campfire and sleep comfortably.

I can hardly wait!

Of course I still have my packing and gathering of camping paraphernalia to do but that shouldn't take long since we're only going to be gone overnight.

I also have about 2 gallons of muscadine grapes to cook down into juice tonight. These are more of the cultivated golden muscadines given to us by a good friend and neighbor. I'm going to freeze the juice to make jelly at a later time.

Part of the reason for the camping trip was prompted by the fact that the wild red muscadines are ready for picking in the Ozarks where we're going camping. I hope to get a 5 gallon bucket full at least for jelly making, and maybe more if we really find the muscadine mother lode.

I told my sister Donna, if we do get a lot of muscadines, her car is going to smell like a winery on the ride home, lol. ;o)

I've posted lots of pictures from our past camping trips, and I'll likely take lots more on this trip. Hopefully I'll be back on Monday or Tuesday with pictures and a post about our trip.

In loving memory of my beloved Daddy.

September 26, 1923 - December 19, 2004.

I love you and miss you every day, Daddy.

I still have LOTS to do this afternoon/evening, so I'll set this to publish on Saturday afternoon, hopefully, and get busy.

Y'all have a blessed weekend doing something you enjoy with people you love. May God meet your every need, and may you have enough to share.

Book Review & Giveaway: The Great Christmas Bowl

2009-09-26T00:01:00.001-05:00

Recently I received a copy of Susan May Warren's THE GREAT CHRISTMAS BOWL to read and review here on my blog. I'm sure it's no coincidence that the book is being promoted at this particular time with the holiday season quickly approaching, and the book's message is very timely and appropriate.

The book's main character, Marianne, is a woman I and most of my lady readers can relate to in our own lives. Marianne is a typical busy wife and Mom who unintentionally lets the busyness of life overshadow the real meaning of the Christmas season.

All the time she thinks she's working towards making Christmas special, she's forgetting the real reason for the season, until some life-changing events make Marianne realize that Christmas is about Jesus, not about rituals and tradition.

If you'd like to win a copy of this book, just leave a comment on this post. This giveaway will be open until noon Central Standard Time on Wednesday, September 30, 2009, at which time I'll use a random number generator to choose a winner.

Please NOTE: This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. only. Please be sure you have a working link or a valid email address with your entry comment.

I'll announce the winner on Wednesday or Thursday.

Best of luck to everyone!

***Pssst! If you don't want to wait to see if you win a copy of the book, or if you don't win and want a copy, you can get this book on sale for only $5.99 by clicking HERE or any of the other links for the title of the book. There's also a great contest you can check out at the bottom of this post.***

About The Great Christmas Bowl:

Marianne Wallace is focused on two things this holiday season:
planning the greatest family Christmas ever and cheering on her
youngest son’s team in their bid for the state championship.
Disaster strikes when the team loses their mascot-the Trout. Is it
going too far to ask her to don the costume? So what if her husband
has also volunteered her to organize the church Christmas tea.
When football playoffs start ramping up, the Christmas tea starts
falling apart. Then, one by one her children tell her they can’t come
home for Christmas.

As life starts to unravel, will Marianne remember the true meaning of
the holidays?

About Susan:

Susan May Warren is the RITA award-winning author of twenty-four
novels with Tyndale, Barbour and Steeple Hill. A four-time Christy
award finalist, a two-time RITA Finalist, she’s also a multi-winner of
the Inspirational Readers Choice award, and the ACFW Book of the Year.
Her larger than life characters and layered plots have won her acclaim
with readers and reviewers alike. A seasoned women’s events and
retreats speaker, she’s a popular writing teacher at conferences
around the nation and the author of the beginning writer’s workbook:
From the Inside-Out: discover, create and publish the novel in you!.
She is also the founder of www.MyBookTherapy.com, a story-crafting
service that helps authors discover their voice. Susan makes her home
in northern Minnesota, where she is busy cheering on her two sons in
football, and her daughter in local theater productions (and
desperately missing her college-age son!) A full listing of her
titles, reviews and awards can be found at: www.susanmaywarren.com

Link to Buy the Book:

http://www.christianbook.com/great-christmas-bowl-susan-warren/9781414326788/pd/326788?event=AFFp=&

The Great Christmas Bowl website:

http://thegreatchristmasbowl.blogspot.com/

The website features a note from the author, fun updates from Big Lake
Gazette, info on how to host your own Great Christmas Bowl Tea to
benefit a local ministry or charity and a fun Recipe Exchange contest!

CONTEST:

Be a part of the Great Christmas Bowl recipe exchange!
Susan loves getting recipes from friends, and sharing the delicious
cookies, soups, breads and other fun fixings that go with celebrating
the Christmas season. More than that, she loves the crazy stories
about favorite Christmases – serious, touching, funny…whatever. Find
the recipe contest here:
http://thegreatchristmasbowl.blogspot.com/2009/07/recipe-exchange.html

Will you share your story and recipe with Susan and the readers of the
Great Christmas Bowl? She will post your story and recipe on the FRONT
PAGE of the Great Christmas Bowl website, and send you a link when it
goes up so you can tell all your friends. Then, at the Great Christmas
Bowl party (December 5th, 10am, online! Details TBA) she’ll make the
entire cookbook available for download!

For every recipe/story you submit (up to 3), you will be entered in a
drawing to receive one of SMW’s collections (Noble Legacy, Team Hope,
Heirs of Anton, Deep Haven Series, Josey series, or THE ADVANCED COPY
of Sons of Thunder – Susie’s brand new epic World War 2 novel, due out
in January 2010!)

Go – run, get your recipe, then come back here and click on the link
below to share your Christmas memories!

http://www.litfusegroup.com/latest/current-blog-tours/91-the-great-christmas-bowl-blog-tour

Sunday Dinner, September 20, 2009

2009-09-19T19:05:00.009-05:00

This has been a busy week for me. Besides having Emmy here Wednesday through Friday, I've made and canned more muscadine jelly, HOMEMADE SALSA and HOT PEPPER JELLY, and that's in addition to my usual cooking and the odd household chore here and there.

Our neighbor, Mr. S. shared more of his garden bounty with us today, so I'll be making more hot pepper jelly after I fix a quick bite of supper and get Sunday Dinner in hand. The green bell peppers and jalapenos Mr. S. brought over are huge, and just gorgeous!

He also gave us more okra which I'll add to my freezer stash, and some beautiful new crop sweet potatoes that will make some great candied sweet potatoes. I think I'll make some candied sweet potatoes to go with our Sunday Dinner, as a matter of fact.

Did you like how I tied that all together?

Sunday Dinner this week is going to be Chicken Spaghetti. I make it just like my MEXICAN CHICKEN CASSEROLE, except I leave out the nacho chips and cook spaghetti to add instead of the chips. I also add a couple of cans of drained whole kernel corn, and I'm adding a big can of sliced mushrooms to it this time.

I have my chicken breasts cooked and cooling right now, so I'll skin and debone them and tear the chicken into bite sized pieces, then combine cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, Ro*tel tomatoes and Vel*veeta cheese in a pot and heat it until the cheese is melted and everything is blended together. The drained corn and mushrooms and torn chicken breast are then added and mixed to combine.

I'll cook my spaghetti until it's still a little al dente, then combine it with the soup/cheese mixture in a large baking pan and refrigerate it overnight. I'll reheat it in the oven when we get home from church tomorrow afternoon. I'll reserve a little of the cheese to slice over the top so it will be all gooey and melted when it comes out of the oven.

With the addition of the Ro*tel tomatoes, corn and mushrooms, the Chicken Spaghetti becomes a perfect one dish meal. You have protein from the chicken, dairy from the cheese, a starch from the spaghetti and plenty of veggies.

I'll also cook my sweet potatoes tonight, then refrigerate them until I get home from church. At that time I'll dot butter over them and sprinkle on plenty of brown sugar. They can cook in the oven at the same time the chicken spaghetti is reheating, so that will work out great.

That's my menu for Sunday Dinner: Chicken Spaghetti and candied sweet potatoes.

What are your plans for Sunday Dinner? Care to share your menu/plans with the rest of us in the comments?As I mentioned earlier, I've been busy again this week canning salsa, hot pepper jelly and muscadine jelly. As Fall approaches and the garden produce and fruits trickle to an end, I want to preserve as much of it as I possibly can. It may sound like a lot of hard work, and it is, but I can sit down for much of the preparation so it's not as tiring as it might seem.

I really like to can, freeze and preserve food because you have something to show for your time and effort. Every time I go into my pantry I can see the results of my labor of love on the shelves, and a jar or two of salsa, jelly or pickles makes a nice gift. It shows that you care enough to share your hard won bounty and in my opinion is a generous gift, more so than something you just buy off the shelf.

Not that there's anything wrong with a purchased gift, just that something homemade has more love and thought to it, I think.My sister DONNA and I may be going camping next weekend in the Ozark Mountains at GUNNER POOL, our favorite camping spot, weather permitting. The wild muscadine grapes are nearly at peak ripening there, so we hope to kill two birds with one stone: enjoy our first camping trip of the year at Gunner Pool and also load up on as many muscadines as we can find and pick to bring home.

The muscadines can be processed to render the juice and the juice can then be made into jelly immediately or frozen to make jelly at a more convenient time.

I'd love to have some of the wild red muscadines for jelly. I haven't had wild muscadine jelly in over 20 years and I've got a hankering for some with toast or hot homemade biscuits.

I'm also looking forward to going camping, especially at Gunner Pool. It's been a long time since we got to camp there and I'm almost afraid to get my hopes up. It's been raining for a week here, and more is forecast for the coming week, so I hope it quits raining at least long enough for us to get our camping trip in.

If it does rain, we may still make a day trip of it on Saturday just to pick muscadines and enjoy the time away in my beloved Ozark Mountains.I've got a lot to do in the next few hours, so I'd better quit yammering on about it and get busy.

I hope y'all are having a great weekend. May God richly bless you with all you need and enough to share.

Sunday Dinner, September 13, 2000

2009-09-12T18:02:00.011-05:00

It's been another busy week for me, and judging by what I've been reading on other blogs and Facebook, you've all been pretty busy as well.

It's now the middle of September, difficult as that may be to process, and our weather is mild compared to most Septembers in Arkansas. With the cooler weather I've been making more soups, casseroles and heartier dishes. This week's Sunday Dinner is no exception.

I bought a large beef chuck roast last week when I did my grocery shopping. It's in the freezer (I really need to get it out to thaw before much longer!) and I'm going to cube it, brown it and cook it, then thicken the broth to make gravy.

I have a big bag of egg noodles to cook and some sour cream for those who want to add it to their beef, gravy and noodles. Of course that makes it beef stroganoff when the sour cream is added, but for those who just want beef and gravy they can pass on the sour cream. It's kind of do-it-yourself beef stroganoff. ;-) (Thanks to my niece, Mikki, for the idea. :o)

I have some garden green beans and purple hull peas in the freezer that I've put up this week, and I also have some canned corn and a few other veggies I might fix to go with the beef and noodles. I'll take a quick poll when we get home from church to see what everyone wants and make my decision then about what side dishes to fix.

What's for Sunday Dinner at your place this week? If you'd like to participate, just share your menu/plans in the comments.As I mentioned earlier, this milder weather has made me want to cook heartier foods lately. When it's really hot I tend to fix more sandwiches and cold dishes, lighter fare rather than heavy casseroles and hot soups.

With our daily high temps topping out in the low to mid-80'sF and cool nights down into the 50's at times, I'm feeling the seasons changing. Fall is nearly here, and I'm also feeling an urgency to preserve the last of the garden stuff and make jelly, stock up nature's plenty now in preparation for the cold, barren days when this time of fresh produce is just a pleasant memory.

I've mentioned before how blessed I am that dear friends, neighbors and family are so kind to share their garden produce, fruit, other homegrown foods and wild fish and game with us. This Summer I've stuffed my deep freeze with sliced okra, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, green beans, purple hull peas, blackeyed peas, strawberries, deer meat and Mississippi River catfish.

I've also been stocking my freezer with soups and casseroles to take advantage of that fresh garden stuff. Whenever I cook soup or a casserole or other dish, I try to make a double or even triple batch so we can eat supper from it and then I still have at least 2 meals' worth to freeze for later.Friday I made some of MY HO MEMADE PORTUGUESE BEAN SOUP. I made a triple batch and we had it for supper and then I put 2 big bowls in the freezer for other meals. It will sure taste good on one of those nights when I'm just too pooped to think about cooking.

I also made up a triple batch of MY TACO SOUP for supper tonight. I did everything last night except add the browned ground beef. As soon as I finish this blog post I'll brown the hamburger, add it to the soup and simmer it for about 2o minutes. After we have it for supper tonight I should still have enough for 2 more meals that I can put in the freezer.

I don't know if I'm the only one, but I've just got this feeling that this is going to be an early and a bad Winter. I feel the need to stock up not just on food stuffs, but to build up my stores of household goods and make sure I have plenty of everything. Maybe it's just me feeling this way.I used some of those fresh green bell peppers and jalapenos to make some of MY HOT PEPPER JELLY last night, and some dear friends gave us enough golden green muscadine grapes to make 2 batches of muscadine jelly.

I made one batch last night and still have enough muscadines to make one more batch of jelly, but I'm about out of sugar. I'll have to extract the juice tonight and freeze it until I can get more sugar. There are plenty more muscadines left on the vines and our friends told us to take all we want, so Lamar will pick more next week so I can extract the juice and make more jelly.

Muscadines make the best jelly I've ever eaten! These happen to be a golden green cultivated variety. I've never made jelly with this type. We've always picked the wild golden red type and they make the prettiest ruby red jelly and it's delicious!

As Fall progresses I'll be busy stocking up, freezing, storing, putting away, canning and otherwise preparing for Winter along with my usual chores. I hope you're blessed to be able to put something away for Winter too.That taco soup is calling my name. I need to brown the burger and fix the soup, and I also need to get that beef roast defrosted in the microwave so I can get it on to cook for Sunday Dinner. I still need to study my Sunday School lesson and do some more Saturday night chores, so I'd better get this posted and get after it.

Y'all have a great Sunday. May God meet all your needs and may you have enough to share.

Sunday Dinner, September 6, 2009

2009-09-05T17:56:00.006-05:00

This post will be short and sweet, literally. My church is having an old fashioned fellowship Sunday afternoon out in the country at some fellow church members' home. We'll be having potluck dinner "on the grounds" outside, weather permitting. If it rains, and there's a good chance of it, the fellowship will be moved inside to the church fellowship hall.

We'll also have singing, preaching and testimony service before and after dinner, with services dismissed for Sunday evening.

I've mentioned this several times before, but it bears repeating - "dinner" here in rural Arkansas refers to the noon meal. "Supper" is the evening meal.

Now, back to that "sweet" thing I referred to back at the beginning of this post, if you're still with me. I'm making my Mama's ITALIAN CREAM CAKE to take to the fellowship, along with a couple dozen deviled eggs and some of my homemade jalapeno pepper jelly and cream cheese to eat on crackers.

What's on the menu at your place this Sunday? Share your plans in the comments if you'd like.

Lamar is gone to an Arkansas State University Red Wolves game with my nephew Danny, so I saved my cooking until he was gone so he wouldn't be underfoot. He's usually pretty good about leaving me alone when I'm cooking though, so I can't complain too much about that.

Lamar's eye is still about the same, not much improvement at all. He says occasionally he can see better, but a little while later it's just as bad as it ever was. It's just too early to tell if the surgery helped or not.

Well, those deviled eggs and that cake aren't going to cook themselves, so I'd better get this posted and get busy in the kitchen.

Y'all have a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend. May God meet all your needs and may you have enough to share is my prayer for each of you.

We Have A Winner!

2009-09-01T07:10:00.002-05:00

We have a winner in last week's book giveaway.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2009-09-01 00:09:57 UTC

If I counted correctly, the number 3 comment was left by WANDER @ WANDER'S WORLD. I'll be sending Wander's book out today or Wednesday.

Congratulations, Wander!

I have a few more book reviews and giveaways coming up in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Hope everyone is having a great last day of August. :-)

Sunday Dinner, August 30, 2009

2009-08-29T23:55:00.019-05:00

*****I HAVE A BOOK GIVEAWAY GOING ON HERE FOR THOSE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED****

I had plans to cook Sunday Dinner this week, but was given a reprieve by my nephew Danny and his wife Mikki, who invited us to eat Sunday Dinner with them and their 2 year old son Seth.

So Danny and Mikki will be cooking my Sunday Dinner this week, and it's perfectly fine with me to let someone else wear the chef's hat this Sunday. I have no idea what's on the menu but I'm sure it will be delicious.

What's on tap for your Sunday Dinner this week? Share your plans/menu in the comments if you'd like.Lamar's eye is the same as far as his vision. It doesn't seem to have improved any at all so far. It seems to be a little more swollen so we're keeping watch on that. Otherwise there's not much change in his condition.

Thanks again to all those who've prayed and are still praying for him. Once again we wait to see if his vision will improve.I took some pics last week of Emmy that I'll share with you all. I think they all speak for themselves, so I won't caption them.Okay, I lied a little about not captioning these pics. This is the rocking chair that Jessica had custom made for me. See what I meant about it being extra wide and extra low? ;o)

Diane is TARD tonight and it's already late, so I'll wind this up and get it posted. Y'all have a blessed Sunday. May God meet all your needs and may you have enough to share.

Last Update On Lamar's Eye

2009-08-28T14:46:00.004-05:00

Emmy just went to sleep with Winnie the Pooh and Lamar's resting on our bed, so I have time to post an update on Lamar's surgery checkup.

After the patch was removed, the eye specialist says that Lamar's eye looks good, but now a bubble has developed in the eye where the needle was inserted. The Dr. hopes that the bubble will resolve on its own before Lamar goes back for his next appointment in 4 weeks.

Lamar has a tiny bottle of very expensive antibiotic drops (thank you Lord for our insurance and $3 copay!) that he has to use in his left eye 4 times a day until they're gone to guard against infection. His eye looks awful, all red and bloodshot and swollen, but the Dr. says everything looks good to him, praise the Lord!

There's been no miraculous restoration of Lamar's sight. He says he can't tell any real difference yet, but the Dr. says as the eye heals and the swelling goes down that Lamar should see improvement in his vision.

We're certainly hoping and praying for restored vision for Lamar's eye, and we thank each and every one of you that are supporting us and praying with us. Now once again it's a time of waiting on the Lord, as so much of this journey with Lamar's eye has been.

I'll keep you all informed if anything new develops and if Lamar's vision improves or is totally restored, which we're praying will happen, if it's God's Will.

Now, I'm off to answer some emails and maybe play some of my farming games on Facebook before Emmy awakes. I'm almost sure there's a tea party planned for this afternoon after a certain little lady gets her beauty nap. ;-)

Y'all have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend. See you on Saturday evening for my Sunday Dinner post. And right now I have absolutely no idea what I'm serving for Sunday Dinner.

Update On Lamar's Eye Surgery

2009-08-28T01:56:00.005-05:00

****For those interested, I have a book giveaway going on HERE!****

Lamar finally walked in the door from his surgery in Memphis at 1 am Friday morning. After finally going into the OR at 8 pm Thursday night he was released to go home at 9:30 pm. After a 2 hour drive home from Memphis, they still had to take Jessica home and stop at a Wal*green's pharmacy to fill a pain med prescription.

Lamar hadn't had anything to eat for over 24 hours so he was starving. The only place still open at midnight in Jonesboro was McDon*alds so they stopped for a quick burger before coming back here. Lamar's Mom let him out and headed home. It was nearly 1:30 am when she called to tell us she'd made it safely home.

Lamar's eye is patched and will remain that way until the eye specialist removes it when Lamar sees him on Friday morning. Lamar's appointment is at 10 am and we hope after the doctor removes the patch that we'll be able to tell if the surgery has helped improve the vision in his eye.

As soon as I find out anything new I'll post another update.

Lamar is settled in bed, trying to unwind and get some sleep before he has to get up and be at the Drs. office at 10 am. I'm headed that way soon myself. I'll have Emmy again as usual so I need to get some sleep too. It has been one more long and seemingly unending day.

Thanks to each and every one of you for your prayers and warm caring concern on Lamar's and my behalf. You are appreciated and loved more than I can ever express, dear friends and family.

Y'all have a wonderful and blessed Friday, and Happy Weekend!

Sunflower Serenade - Book Review & Giveaway!

2009-08-27T02:40:00.008-05:00

****My apologies to Amy Lathrop and Tricia Goyer for missing my original post date for this book review. It was entirely my fault as I misunderstood the posting schedule.****

About "Sunflower Serenade": A small-town summer...

The days are long and lazy, the corn is high, the sunflowers are in bloom, and everyone in Bedford is gearing up for the biggest event of the summer: the annual county fair. But when a Nashville music producer approaches Bob about using Heather Creek Farm to film a country star's new music video, he and Charlotte are faced with a dilemma. Will they allow the glamour and enticements of big-city life to encroach upon their peaceful home? Will the excitement of celebrity drown out the simple joys of summer?

About the Home to Heather Creek series: Charlotte Stevenson's world is turned upside down when her daughter, Denise, dies in a tragic car accident. She ran away at eighteen and Charlotte has never forgiven herself. Now, Denise's children, abandoned by their father, are coming from California to live on Heather Creek Farm in Bedford, Nebraska.

Charlotte is uncertain about her ability to care for three grandchildren who are not thrilled to give up the beach and sunshine for snow and farm chores! But she sees a chance to make amends and will do whatever it takes to keep her fragile family together. Feel the courage, strength and commitment of this family as their lives unfold in the Home to Heather Creek series.

Link to buy book: http://www.guideposts.org/heathercreek/linked_pages/book7.html The books come in a series and you can order those at the link. However, if you just want to order "Sunflower Serenade" you must call the customer service number (1-800-431-2344).

About Tricia: Tricia Goyer is the author of eighteen fiction and non-fiction books, including Blue Like Play Dough.

She won Historical Novel of the Year in 2005 and 2006 from ACFW, and was honored with the Writer of the Year award from Mt. Hermon Writer's Conference in 2003.

Tricia's book Life Interrupted was a finalist for the Gold Medallion in 2005.

Tricia writes magazine articles for publications like Today's Christian Woman and Focus on the Family.

Tricia also enjoys speaking.

She and her family make their home in Montana.

This book continues a series that I've been fortunate enough to read and follow. I must say that I really enjoyed "Sunflower Serenade" and so far it's my favorite of the series.
As the characters are continued in each book of the series, it's like reconnecting with old and dear friends and catching up with what's been happening in their lives since we last got together for a visit.
"Sunflower Serenade" is set at the end of Summer and the county fair features largely in its story. This is particularly appropriate and appealed to me because county fairs are in full swing in my area, and my county's fair begins in a few weeks.
It was also interesting to me to compare notes about the county fair events in the book and our own fairs, and to conclude that people and fairs are much the same around our country if Tricia's book and my experiences are enough to judge.
As always, the characters' Christian faith plays a large role in the book and there's an unbroken thread of love, hope and endeavoring to live Christ before others without being self righteous or preachy as they go about their lives.
"Sunflower Serenade" is nicely paced and made for a good evening read for me. If your reading pace is a little more leisurely, it could still be read over a weekend or even an afternoon. It left me with a smile on my face and I'm already anticipating visiting with the characters again when the next "Home To Heather Creek" book comes out.

Now for the giveaway details:

If you'd like to enter to win a free copy of TRICIA GOYER'S "SUNFLOWER SERENADE" leave a comment on this post. Only one comment per person will be counted.

This giveaway will be open until noon Central Standard Time on Monday, August 31, 2009, at which time I'll use a random number generator to choose a winner.

Please NOTE: This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. only. Please be sure you have a working link or a valid email address with your entry comment. It's a bit difficult to contact you to tell you you've won and get your name and address information without a valid link or email address.

I'll announce the winner on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Best of luck to everyone!

On a different note, Lamar is having surgery on his eye in Memphis this afternoon. Surgery is scheduled for 5 pm, but he has to be there at noon to consult with the surgeon and anesthesiologist, and we all know what schedules mean when you're dealing with doctors and hospitals: not a thing.

I'm keeping Emmy all day so Jessica can drive her Daddy to Memphis and back after the surgery, but Jason should be here to get Emmy after he gets off work at 6 pm. I'd like to be with Lamar, but if I go with him and Jessica, we'd have to find someone to keep Emmy since Jessica's driving Lamar and it just seems simpler to do it this way.

Your prayers would be much appreciated today for Lamar, and I'll post an update as soon as I get any news about his surgery. As I said though, it will probably be late tomorrow afternoon or more likely into the evening before I hear anything.

Y'all have a great Thursday!

Sunday Dinner, August 23, 2009

2009-08-22T14:59:00.010-05:00

First, I have a confession to make. I did indeed cook okra and tomatoes and a whole chicken in the crockpot for Sunday Dinner last week, but my sister CECIL'S hubby, Brian, treated us to lunch at a local Italian restaurant so my Sunday Dinner was eaten there, not here at home.

Not to worry though, because nothing went to waste. We ate the chicken later in the week and I took the okra and tomatoes to my church ladies' meeting on Monday night.

Now for this week's Sunday Dinner. As you may have guessed from the chef's tray on my Sunday Dinner button, if we eat Sunday Dinner here, sandwiches will be on the menu. Fried ham sandwiches to be precise.

I bought half a ham when I got groceries a couple of weeks ago. I debated whether to bake it and fix some sides and veggies to go with it or slice it and fry it for sandwiches, and sandwiches won the debate. For one thing, it means less time and preparation in the kitchen for me, and another, it just sounds good right now.

What's on the menu for your Sunday Dinner this week? Share your plans in the comments if you'd like.It's not the weather that's keeping me from cooking right now. Usually August is our hottest month, with temps well into the 90'F to over 100F, but not this year.

We're experiencing a rare August cold front at the present and I must say, this rare Summer weather is refreshing. It's partly cloudy, breezy and only 79F as I type this at 4:30 pm, with low humidity. Delightful for Arkansas in late Summer is what it is!

I know we'll more than likely still have some hot and humid weather before Fall arrives, but I so hope the really torrid heat and humidity is behind us for this year.

This has been the strangest Summer here. Unusual to say the least, starting off with a very cool and soggy Spring, then June set records for drought and high temps. We had several days with temps over 100F and weeks with temps in the upper 90'sF.

Then July dawned with record rainfall and flooding and cooler than normal temperatures, which has continued into August. We've had a few hot days that made it back into the 90'sF but for the most part our daily high temps have been in the 80's and we've even had a few days where we didn't make it out of the 70'sF.

I want to go on record here that I'm not complaining! I love the cooler temps.

But this strange Summer has me wondering what's in store for our Fall and Winter. Hmmmm........Changing the subject rather abruptly, I spent most of the night trying to evict a rather nasty virus from my computer.

It was really strange how it started. I was on Facebook and one of those ads about using a "free" antivirus scan just took over my screen! The more I tried to click out of it, the more pages it kept opening, until eventually it shut down my Firefox browser.

Keep in mind that I have 2 anti-virus programs that run continuously, and a program to detect and deflect unwanted pop ups and ads, and yet it still managed to somehow bypass them all.

I thought it might be linked just to Firefox, so I started my anti-virus scans and opened Internet Explorer. It started out fine, but after a few minutes the same thing happened with IE and the virus shut it down too.

I was one mad and frustrated fat girl for a good while, let me tell you! I was about ready to pitch my laptop out the window, and I wasn't really very particular if the window was open or closed!

Long story short, I eventually got rid of the virus and everything seems to be operating normally at the present time.

The bad new is that I have no idea how the virus bypassed all my anti-virus and anti-ad programs, so I can't prevent it from happening again. I keep all my anti-virus programs up to date, so maybe that one virus hadn't been caught yet and now it's in their databases.

I sure hope so. I was up all night and only got a few hours sleep. I didn't want to sleep all day because I need to go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight so I can get up for church on Sunday. Besides that, I still have to fix supper tonight, change my bed and remake it, and wash about 4 loads of laundry tonight after I get this posted.

Supper is going to be fried baloney sandwiches, so that's not any trouble at all, but I dread stripping my bed and remaking it. Which is a quandary, because I love a freshly made bed equally as much as I hate to strip and remake one.Well, time to quit blogging about all this and start actually doing it. My tummy is rumbling and that fried baloney is sounding better all the time, not to mention the laundry behind me that's staring at my back.

Y'all have a wonderful remainder of your weekend. May God richly bless you by meeting all your needs, and may you have enough to share.

Sunday Dinner, August 16, 2009 & Selected Ramblings

2009-08-15T15:15:00.005-05:00

Wonder of wonders, I have my Sunday Dinner menu all settled and Saturday's supper as well, and it's only 3 pm.

Saturday's supper will be TEXAS HASH and there's still plenty of CORN SALAD left from the triple batch I made on Wednesday.

For Sunday Dinner, I'm cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot, fresh garden purple hull peas, basmati rice and some okra and tomatoes. I have a canteloupe that we can have for dessert if anybody still has room for something sweet.

As soon as I get this posted I'll dive right into cooking supper and preparations for Sunday Dinner. I like to get as much as I can done the night before so I don't have to spend any more time than I have to in the kitchen on Sunday afternoons.

What are your plans for Sunday Dinner this week? Just share your menu in the comments if you'd like.Where has this Summer gone? Public schools start back here on Wednesday, August 19th, although some private schools and most colleges won't resume until after Labor Day.

I believe I've made it quite clear that I'm not a fan of hot weather, so I don't mourn the passing of the heat and humidity, but the time itself has positively whizzed by in the blink of an eye, or so it seems.

Oh, I'm well aware that there's still plenty of hot weather ahead before Fall really arrives, but it seems once school starts that Summer is officially over for the most part. I can hardly wait for those crisp Fall days and nights, with impossibly blue skies by day and clear, starry skies by night.

And no more mosquitoes till next Summer!Last Fall I bought a food dehydrator from an online company. They'd occasionally sent me brochures through the mail over the last several years and I had a bad case of coveting for one, but they were just too expensive for my budget.

Finally they had a big sale and combined with a coupon I'd saved from them, I managed to procure my dream dehydrator. I have a Wal*mart cheapie dehydrator that I've used for several years, but the trays have gotten brittle and are breaking, and it takes fourteen forevers to dry anything with it.

Comparing the Wal*mart dehydrator to my dream dehydrator is like comparing a Hot*Wheels toy car to a real Ferrari! My new dehydrator has 8 drying trays, a big multi-power fan for fast, even drying and a timer so I don't have to babysit it and watch the clock so I can unplug it when it's done drying.

I had grand plans for drying garden veggies and making beef jerky, fruit leathers and other treats. I did make bags of deer jerky, and still have more deer meat in the freezer so I'll be making a lot more deer jerky in the near future. My nephew, Danny, provides most of the deer meet for the jerky, and deer season isn't that far off.

But one thing I really wanted to try was drying tomatoes. Well, forget that. This year has been the worst for growing tomatoes that I can ever remember. We had a cold, wet Spring that had many gardeners having to replant their gardens multiple times, and many gardeners just gave up and didn't even have a garden this year.

The gardeners who actually got their tomato plants to live and grow into the Summer didn't fare much better. We had a hotter and dryer June than average, followed by a record setting wet and cool July.

All this, combined with drifting chemicals from rice fields around here that damage or kill the tomato plants, have resulted in little or no tomatoes for area gardeners. And the few tomatoes that have managed to actually set fruit are not the best quality. Some gardeners that are fortunate enough to live away from rice fields have had better luck than most.

Usually by now my family and friends that garden have more tomatoes than they can use or give away, which means that I have all the tomatoes that I want, but not this year. I sure wanted to try dehydrating some tomatoes to put away for Winter. I usually can my excess tomatoes and occasionally even put some in the freezer for soups and such, but not this year. I didn't even really get as many as I'd like to eat fresh.

Maybe next year will be a better year for tomatoes.Life continues around here. I spend most Mondays and Tuesdays with my sisters CECIL and Sue, and sometimes JESSICA and Emmy join us. We sometimes eat out together then go to the mall, or sometimes we eat take out burgers here, and sometimes I cook for us.

Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays Emmy is here with me from early afternoon until her Daddy gets off work and picks her up around 6:30 pm every evening. While it's so hot and humid we spend most of our time inside, but once it cools off we'll spend more time outside.

Lamar takes Emmy for walks in her stroller, but they wait until late evening when it's a little cooler, and they make frequent stops at home for cool drinks and so Emmy can go potty. For all intents and purposes, Emmy is potty trained except for naptime and at night, and for long car trips.

Yay!

Saturdays are a lazy day for me. I take my time deciding what to cook for Sunday Dinner, making Saturday Supper and writing my Sunday Dinner blog post, then making Saturday Supper and Sunday Dinner happen.

Sunday is church day. Sunday School, preaching and then Sunday Dinner either here or eaten out somewhere with various family members and sometimes friends also join us.

Sunday afternoon is usually spent in my living room, making fun of those who doze off and snore or snort themselves awake.

Sunday night, church again.

There are occasional variations in my routine, but most weeks fit into the pattern.

And now I need to get this posted and go make Texas Hash for supper!

Y'all have a great weekend. May God meet all your needs and may you have enough to share.

Sunday Dinner, August 9, 2009

2009-08-09T01:48:00.004-05:00

It's nearly 2 am my time, so this is going to be a quick post for sure. Lamar, JESSICA, Jason, Emmy and I went to my father-in-law's 77th birthday party this evening and enjoyed pork barbecue sandwiches, Kentucky Fried Chicken and all the fixin's, plus hot dogs for the kids and followed by chocolate cake, carrot cake, chocolate ice cream and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

By the time we finished celebrating and got back here, it was nearly 8 pm and then Jessica did some deep cleaning for me, bless her heart. This was partly in return for my keeping Emmy for her and Jason, and partly because she's just sweet and she knew my living room and kitchen really needed a good cleaning.

Thanks, Babe! Mama loves you and really appreciates your help. :-)

Long story made longer, by the time Jessica, Jason and Emmy left here, it was nearly 11:30 pm, and I still had lots to do in preparation for Sunday Dinner, and I'm not done yet! I still have to study my Sunday School lesson, type up 2 sets of business minutes for my church and debone some chicken for Sunday Dinner as soon as I get this typed, proofread and posted.

Now, on to Sunday Dinner, and I am cooking this week, for the first time in several weeks. I say several because I'm not sure exactly how long it's been and I'm too tired to look back over my blog and figure it out.

My menu this week consists of homemade chicken and rice, fresh garden green beans cooked with bacon and potatoes and fresh garden purple hull peas. I have some canned corn so I may heat up some of that, and that's the crop as far as I know right now.

What's on tap for your Sunday Dinner? Share your plans in the comments if you'd like to participate this week.

And that concludes this Sunday Dinner post. I'll try to get a post done early next week and update y'all with all the exciting happenings around my place. Ha! Nothing much exciting going on here, and that's just the way I like it, especially if it's the wrong kind of excitement.

Y'all have a fantabulous Sunday. May God richly bless you with all you need and enough to share.

Sunday Dinner, August 2, 2009

2009-08-01T18:53:00.005-05:00

I have to start by saying that I had every intention of cooking Sunday Dinner this week, but circumstances have plotted against me. I have no idea what will be happening for my Sunday Dinner this week, or if I'll even feel like eating by lunchtime Sunday.

First, I'm experiencing a little digestive upset that has kept me in the bathroom more than I really like to visit there. Yesterday I started in with the green apple quick step, the back door trots or whatever euphemism is used in your part of the country. That malady has continued today, unabated.

Sorry if that information is a little too graphic or more than you really needed to know about me and my health issues.

I haven't eaten anything unusual and didn't really feel bad on Friday, but today I'm not quite up to snuff. I've had some occasional nausea, but not enough to keep me from eating, and I'm achy and sore all over.

Added to my physical issues is the fact that I had Emmy on Friday afternoon while Jessica did some running around, getting her car to the shop to be worked on, etc. As much as I love Emmy and love to have her with me, it's still work when you're in top form, much less when you're a little under the weather.

It IS the transmission, by the way. $7oo up front and that includes the price of a rebuilt transmission.

And these are church friends who are doing their best to help them, charging almost nothing for labor! No telling how much it would have been if they'd had to go to *Sears* or any other mechanic shop!

Our mechanic friends hope to have JESSICA and Jason's car fixed and back in their hands before Wednesday. CECIL will help get them to and from work on Tuesday, and in the meantime Jessica and Jason are borrowing Lamar's Mom's car until Monday.

Praise God for family and friends who care and are willing to help, even when it's an inconvenience and a sacrifice!Now that I've chased that rabbit to a long and lingering death.....

Secondly, I should mention that added to my icky tummy and other health problems today, I had to make my monthly trek to Wal*mart for household supplies, prescriptions and a few groceries.

Besides the fact that today was Saturday, it's also the next to last weekend before school starts around here, so people were out in full force to do their back to school shopping, and Wal*mart was even more of a madhouse than usual.

If there had been any way to put it off I would have, but we were dangerously low on some things and it couldn't wait until next week. By the time I finished my shopping I was dead on my feet and barely able to put one aching foot in front of the other.

Bless Jessica's heart for loading everything in the back of her Granny's borrowed car and then helping her Dad unload everything once we got home. I still don't feel well at all and most of the non perishables that I bought are still setting in the living room floor waiting to be put away. Hopefully I'll feel like dealing with all that later on tonight. If not, they'll still be there when I get around to them.Jessica got me a handmade red maple rocking chair from a guy she works with at the hospital, and I love, LoVe, LOVE it! It's custom made for me, which means extra wide and sturdy, and extra short so I can reach the floor, lol!

Now I just have to find a place for it in my living room, which means I'll be doing some furniture rearranging just as soon as I feel better. Pictures coming when I feel better also.I've been on a hot tea kick lately, and Bigelow's Earl Grey is my favorite hot tea. Emmy has to have some of whatever Gramma's eating or drinking of course, and she also loves my Earl Grey hot tea.

So I looked at Wal*mart today and found a little girl's plastic tea set for us to drink our tea from, and also a children's stainless steel pots and pans set, complete with metal utensils. Emmy loves to pretend she's cooking so I have high hopes that someday she'll love to cook as much as her Gramma.

Fortunately both the tea set and the pots and pans set were very inexpensive. I foresee lots of cooking and tea drinking in our immediate future. :-)I'm sure there were more things I wanted to share, but my thoughts are flying every which way, more than usual, and I'm going to get this posted and wish you all a wonderful Sunday. May God meet all your needs and may you have enough to share is my prayer for each of you, dear friends and family.

Sunday Dinner, July 26, 2009

2009-07-25T20:30:00.007-05:00

I've had Emmy Thursday, Friday and today, and Diane is a TARD girl tonight, so I imagine you can guess what I'm about to say.

For the third Sunday in a row, if my figuring is right, I'm not cooking Sunday Dinner. I kept Emmy from about 8:15 am till almost 7 pm today and there were lots of potty training efforts (no accidents at all today, Yay!) splashing in her wading pool followed by a quick bath and shampoo in the kitchen sink, snacks and meals and much more that filled our day.

As you can imagine, I'm not up to cooking supper tonight and also preparing for Sunday Dinner, so we'll be eating out somewhere tomorrow. No idea where and at this point I don't even really care, as long as I'm not the one cooking it. Supper tonight was fried eggs and sausage and Emmy ate her share.

If you'd like to share your Sunday Dinner menu/plans, just leave them in the comments.Adding to our eventful day, as Jason was on his way here to get Emmy, his car quit on him. Apparently the transmission went out on it and it's setting on the side of the road for the night. My niece was kind enough to go get Jason and then bring him by to pick up Emmy and take them home.

Tomorrow will be a busy day for Jason as he makes arrangements to get his car off the side of the road and get it worked on, hopefully before he has to be at work on Monday morning. However, if it's the transmission as we suspect, it's highly unlikely that there's any chance that it can be fixed before Monday morning.

It's probably going to be expensive and take several days to repair and get it back in running order, which leaves Jessica and Jason without a vehicle and needing a way to and from work for both of them.

Your prayers would be greatly appreciated for Jessica and Jason as they deal with this new crisis.

If it's not one thing it's another, it seems.My last post is a 10 THINGS MEME that I made up due to lack of blogging inspiration. If you're interested in reading it or doing the meme for your own post, have at it. I'd love to read your version of the meme so if you do this one, please let me know by comment or email.

As people let me know they've done the meme, I've been adding their links to the bottom of the meme post so we can all participate and read each other's answers.I posted some new recipes on MY RECIPE BLOG this week if anyone is interested. They're all holiday recipes from our family Christmases, but they can be enjoyed any time of year, of course.

This recipe for BLACK CHERRY JELLO COMPOTE makes a great Summer salad or light dessert, and MAMA'S BLACKBERRY JAM CAKE and ITALIAN CREAM CAKE are fabulous anytime, not just for the holidays.

If you missed this recipe for CORN SALAD last week you might want to check it out.I still have to study my Sunday School lesson and shell a mess of purple hull peas, and I'm in great need of some hot shower therapy, so I'm going to make this shorter than usual tonight. I trust you're all having a wonderful weekend thus far.

May God richly bless you and meet all your needs, and may you have enough to share is my prayer and my wish for each and every one of you, dear friends and family.