Wordless Wednesday - and then a break

 The flowering dogwood in our back yard is beautiful right now!

Bob and I are going to be gone for a short while, spending some time with our son and DIL!  I'll tell you all about it when we get back.

Art Show!

Last week we got to go to an art show.  It was put on by the Hudsonville School District and included pieces by kids from kindergarten to 12th grade.  This is a large district and includes several elementary schools, several middle schools and the high school.  The art teachers select art pieces to be put in it, and one of the artists was our Ruby!

They gather the pieces and put them on display in the town hall.  They assign different days for the schools, so the kids can invite people to see their work.  It's always a fun thing to go to.

Each artist gets a name tag to wear.

The room is filled with art!

There's such a variety; pottery, paintings, ink drawings, digital media, yarn and wire creations...  Lots of talent!  These were done by middle schoolers.

A frog tic tac toe piece done by a 7th grader.

A drawing done by a kindergartener.  So cute!

A high schoolers painting.

3-D art, I'm not sure of the age of the artist

A 7th graders ink drawing of snails

A ceramic sculpture by a 10th grader

An acrylic painting by a 10th grader

This painting was done by an 11th grade student.  I never thought possums could be so cute!

Speaking of cute - this snowy scene was created by Hendrik who is in first grade. His mom is Sara, one of my friends from work. I think he did a great job!

And here's our Ruby!  She's in 3rd grade and painted this stained glass window.

We had fun and Ruby was proud to have her piece of art shown.  It's pretty incredible to see what some of these kids do.  As we walked out, Laura said something about feeling like her talent is at kindergarten level after being there.  I'm thankful God gives all of us different talents, but I do wish I had just a little ability to draw!

Spring is here!

 It's the most wonderful time of the year!  For me, that's Spring.  After a long, cold winter, sunshine and warm temps are so welcome.  Seeing the spring flowers, buds and leaves begin to pop is a happy sight.
We don't have too many yet, but they are starting.

The forsythia is full of flowers.

The hosta are popping up and we can see the change in them each day.

Pansies are such cheerful little flowers.

These are Grecian Wind Flowers.  They are small; 1 - 1 1/2 inches across.  But they grow close together and and create a brilliant purple carpet.

The snowball bush has tiny little flower heads popping out,

and the dogwood blooms are starting to open.

On the front porch, Bob has taken our glider chairs out of the barn where they were stored for the winter.  We're looking forward to spending time on the porch, enjoying the next few seasons.

Friday Funny

 Jenny the pirate!  This is for you!  When I saw this, combining pirates and the English language I knew I had to post it.

Cooking Thursday

The recipe I'm sharing today is one that a friend at work told me she was making for Easter.  She said she's asked to bring it every time they have a family gathering.
It was easy and sounded good, so I made it when we had our family over.  Ruby said I have to make it all the time now! It's light, refreshing and so easy to put together.
It's called Orange Fluff, but you can use any flavor jello and change out the fruit if you want to.

Orange Fluff

5.1 ounce Vanilla Pudding mix
6 ounce package orange jello
12 ounces Cool Whip
1 cup milk
8 ounces crushed pineapple
11 ounces mandarin oranges

Stir pudding and jello mix into Cool Whip. Stir in milk, then stir in oranges and pineapple with juice.
Place in refrigerator and allow to set for a few hours before serving.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Cloudy Days

We've had some cloudy, rainy days lately, and although I love a blue sky, a dark cloudy sky has a dramatic beauty.
Here's a few pictures I took on those cloudy days as I drove home.

By his hand the heaven is covered with clouds and rain is stored up for the earth; he makes the grass tall on the mountains.
Psalm147:8

Eclipse!

I'm a little late, but wanted to share my eclipse experience with you all, even though you are probably sick of it!  :)
I was working the day of the eclipse and figured I really wouldn't see much.  

However, one of the girls in the office, brought in a bunch of eclipse glasses!  For our area, we were to be at 95% of totality.  The eclipse was to start about 1:40, be at 95% at 3:10 and be done at 4:30.

Shortly after 2, we started going out to the side yard one at a time and checking how it looked.

As it got closer to 3, more of us went out.

Here's a few pictures I took to show how the sky was getting darker as we approached 3:00. The white spots in the pictures aren't clouds, the sky was clear.  They're reflections of the lights in the building and as it got darker outside, the  reflections got brighter.

At 3:10, we all went out to the front parking lot and watched for about 10 minutes.  Then it was back inside and back to work.

Here's some professional shots taken in our area that shows what we were seeing.
I was so glad I was able to see it.  I was reminded of how amazing God is, to have created a huge universe, that has moons revolving around planets and planets going around the sun, with all of them at just the right distance to allow humans to live on the earth.

"The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words, no sound is heard from them. Yet, their voice goes out into all the world."
Psalm 19:1-4

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

I tried a new recipe recently that combined chili and pasta.  We like both so I thought it would be a good one, and it was! The original recipe said it froze well, so next time I'm freezing half right away because when we reheated it, it was dry.  So, if you aren't eating it all right away, freeze some for later.

Chili Pasta

8 ounces short pasta, cooked and drained

1 small onion, chopped

1 lb ground beef, browned

15 ounces tomato sauce

15 ounces kidney beans, drained and rinsed

15 ounces black beans, drained and rinsed

15 ounces tomatoes with chilies

1/4 cup water

1 T plus 1 1/2 t chili powder

2 t cumin

1/8 t cayenne

1/8 t salt

1/8 t pepper

4 ounces cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 350

Brown onions and beef. Stir in tomato sauce, kidney beans, black beans, tomatoes, water and seasoning.

Cook until warmed through - 5 minutes or so.

Stir in pasta and sprinkle on cheese.

You can put this in a 9x13 pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or put in two 9x9 pans; bake one and freeze one. If freezing, allow to thaw before baking.

Serve with sour cream.

Wordless Wednesday

 Signs of Spring!

Big news!

We had a little family gathering this past weekend.  Aaron, Laura and girls, and Andrew, Heather and Cassie came over and we had pizza for supper.

Before supper, I gave them these little ducks that a friend from work sent with me.  We took this picture to send to her.

Some reading took place...

A little time was spent in Bob's barn to trim down a door.  Cassie liked his Bob the Builder poster.

But...  the real reason we were together was:
A few months ago I shared with you the news that Heather and Andrew were expecting and that this was such an answer to prayer after a long wait.
Well, she is now 18 weeks pregnant and doing well.  She has to go to her regular OB doctor, the high risk OB doctor and her diabetes doctor every month so she is monitored regularly.  Last week she had an ultrasound that revealed the sex of the baby.
So, now we were gathered to hear this exciting news.  Andy and Nikki in KY got a phone call ahead of the rest of us.

The girls had been allowed to choose their clothing to go with their guess.  So Alaina had pink, Ruby had blue - and they had slippers to match!  Cassie has said all along that she was going to have a sister, so she had a pink shirt.
All of the adults were guessing boy...

And the answer is...

This will be a change after having all girls!  We love girl stuff and now will have fun with boy stuff too.   :)

Here's the happy family.  (Although Cassie still says she is having a sister.)

A Day in my Life, April

Here we are in April already!
Here's how the first day of the month went for me.

I left my house a little after 7.  This is on the corner down from our house.  It was a beautiful morning, only 35 degrees, but a pretty sunrise.

Not a great photo, but by 7:30, the sun was getting really bright as I drove.

I was almost at work when I saw these cranes out in the field.

I arrived at the office about 7:45 and got things opened up.
Mondays are always busy, lots of people calling about things that came up on the weekend, lots of meds to refill.
My job on this day was handling lab results and messages from the doctors.  That means calling patients to tell them results and new orders, finding out information and getting it back to doctors, placing referrals...  It's never the same and never boring!

Here's my computer and the view out my windows.  See the bird on the feeder?  We have lots of birds to watch. Sometimes they perch on the window and watch us.  :)

We have a golf course on the side of our building, and a sign that Spring is coming, is seeing the golf carts out there.

I left work about 5pm.  It was getting cloudy and was 43 degrees.

This barn is on my drive and I've been watching it deteriorate slowly.  Now there is a sale sign on the property, so I think it won't be long before it's knocked down and something else is built there.

On the way home it started raining, and didn't stop all night.

We had an easy supper - just leftovers to heat up.

I started up some laundry.

Then I started the dishwasher and tidied the kitchen.

Then I started working on my menu plan and grocery list.  I do meal planning in a little calendar book, and order the groceries online. Then I pick them up on my way home from work.  It works well for me and I find it stops impulse purchases.

Then I did some reading.  This book was passed on to me by a friend at work who said it was very good.  It's about army nurses during the Vietnam war.  So far, I'm really liking it.

Shortly after 11, it was time for bed, the end of another good day!