Cooking Thursday

I've got a cookie recipe for you today.  It's an old one that I got from my SIL about 35 years ago. This is a crispy cookie that people tell me is perfect with coffee.  I don't drink coffee, so I can't vouch for that, but they are very good! These cookies have to be mixed and then refrigerated overnight, so you do have to plan ahead.  However, they mix up quickly and since they are a roll and slice cookie, they are very easy to bake the next day.  They freeze very well so they can be made ahead of time.

Old Dutch Sand Cookies

3 sticks butter (1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir flour and baking soda together and mix with butter/sugar mix, add vanilla and beat until smooth.
Shape dough into rolls and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice dough rolls into cookies, about 1/4 inch thick for 12 minutes until golden.

Wordless Wednesday

(Oak Leaf Hydrangea)

 

A little show and tell

We were doing some rearranging of our pictures on the wall in our downstairs family room recently. I have a special piece of art in that grouping and thought I should share it with you.

Here's a grouping of photos I took of different lighthouses and some of their interiors, in the middle is the artwork I'm talking about.

When I worked as a nurse in the hospital, I worked on the ortho/neuro floor.  We had patients with fractures, total hips and knees, back surgeries and patients with neuro injuries like paraplegic and quadriplegics.
One of the patients that was on our floor several times was a quadriplegic. He was unable to move anything from his upper shoulders down. He was hurt in a diving accident and had a wife and young daughter. Sometimes people with injuries like this are not easy to care for, probably because they've been through so much and can't control anything, so they act out. This man was kind and a joy to work with. He was a Christian and shared his faith openly.
After his injury, he worked hard to learn how to draw using a pencil in his mouth. The picture you see above is one he did for me, from a photo I had taken of the Little Au Sable Lighthouse in Pentwater Michigan.
I find it amazing to think this was all done with using his mouth.

 

Do you see the signature? It's signed "in CHRIST, Will".  I've had it for close to 40 years and treasure it.

I don't know if Will is still living, but in searching online, I found this Youtube video where he was interviewed 8 years ago. If you have 10 minutes to watch it, I think you'll find it very interesting.

All a-bloom!

Flowers are bursting open in our area.  It's so fun to watch this happen.  Bob and I take a walk around the yard daily and find new things coming to life. Here's a few things that we're enjoying.

Bob moved this azalea last year as it wasn't getting enough sunlight and only got a few blooms.  It's much happier here!

The dwarf lilac is almost ready to open up.  The flowers look just like regular lilacs, but are about 1/4 the size.

These are alliums, purple balls that are so fun!

Our Japanese Maple has tiny little red seedlings that I think are pretty cute.

The snowball bush...

All the hosta plants are growing.

These lily of the valley are so delicate and pretty, and they smell wonderful!

This is one of our favorites.  It's a type of Viburnum bush.  The flowers bloom along the top of every branch giving it an unusual look.

Here you can see how each branch looks.

Here's a close up of the flowers, blooming in a ring around the center.

Thanks for walking around the yard with me!

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

Todays recipe is a good one for a brunch, but would be good anytime you want fresh fruit.  I made it last week to serve with breakfast when Jenny was here and we enjoyed it.

Fresh Fruit and Yogurt Salad

1 small orange, peeled and diced
3/4 cup fresh pineapple, diced
3/4 cup fresh strawberries, sliced
3/4 cup fresh blueberries
3/4 cup fresh raspberries
1/2 cup sliced grapes
1 small banana, sliced
4 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 teaspoon white sugar

Stir yogurt and sugar together in bowl.  Stir in fruit to coat with yogurt mix.  You may add more yogurt if needed and can change fruits to your taste.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Art Show

Last week we went to a school art show for Ruby.  Every year the school does this, with the art teacher choosing art pieces done by students from Kindergarten to 12 grade.  Ruby was so excited to have a piece chosen to be shown again.

Here's the entrance to the show.

There was a lot of art there!  We had to go looking for Ruby's piece.

Here's Ruby with her art work.

After seeing Ruby's piece, we checked out some of the other art work.  Aren't these cow bowls cute!

This cute little ostrich was drawn by a 3rd grader.

This is a ceramic piece done by a 10th grader.

I thought this painting was incredible - done by a student in 11th grade.

After the art show was done, Ruby was notified that her piece was chosen to be displayed at the DeVos Center in Grand Rapids; they chose 6 pieces out of several hundred so she was excited and we're very proud of her!

The Pirate comes to visit

I left you all a week ago, telling you we had special friends coming to visit.  Now I'm back and reporting on the great time we had with Jenny from I'm Having a Thought Here and her husband TG.
Jenny and I met blogging, and have been friends for years.  Last November we went to South Carolina to celebrate their daughter's wedding, and now they drove up to us for a short visit.

The first night Laura, Heather and families came over to meet them. Because Jenny is a pirate lover and goes by 'Jenny the Pirate', Cassie came in a pirate costume.  By the time this photo was taken, all the remained was the cap!

Connor was there too, but was cranky when we took the photo of Jenny and the girls.

The girls had made gifts for Jenny.  Alaina made this pencil holder and paper flower.

Ruby made the pirate bracelet.  Cassie had drawn a picture for her.

We girls spent some time chatting on the porch.

Another thing Jenny is very interested in is old cemeteries.  We found an old one in Grand Rapids and went to check it out the next day.

It was a sunny day, perfect for wandering in this beautiful place.

This is the Bissell Obelisk, marking the grave of the man who invented the Bissell carpet sweeper.

This mausoleum cost $200,000 to build in the early 1900's.  It's estimated that the cost now would be two million dollars.  Look at the front of it - there are 2 Sphinx guarding it!

Here's one of them.

Some of the monuments are so beautiful. 

This mausoleum looked like a pyramid. Although the outside looks like wood shingles, it's actually stone.

We saw many headstones that were for children.  This one said "Little Blossom, 5 years".  So sad!

After this we headed to Holland, where the annual Tulip Time festival was going on. Unfortunately it was so busy we couldn't even find a place to park...
So we headed on to Grand Haven, to check out the Light House and Lake Michigan.

It was so cold on the pier! 

We didn't spend much time here, walked down and back quickly so we could get back to the warmth of the car.
We went into town and did a little shopping in the cute shops.

Then we headed off to the last stop of the day.

We drove about 40 minutes north of Grand Haven to the White River Lighthouse. It wasn't open for tours, but is always fun to walk around and see.  It was built in 1875.

Here's TG and Jenny in front of the Lighthouse.

They headed back home the next morning, but we sure enjoyed the time we spent with them!

A Day in my Life - May

May is here and it's officially Spring!  This is my favorite time of the year, as everything comes to life, flowers bloom and it finally gets warmer.  Here's how the first day of May went for me.

My usual start to a morning is a walk on the treadmill; I walked for 30 minutes, then went back upstairs and had breakfast.

I'm still enjoying my read through the Bible in a year devotional and I did that after breakfast.

Here's a view out our front door; it was raining and cold, only 46 degrees.

I've talked before about the newsletter I do for our church.  I had to work on finishing that as it was scheduled to be out on Sunday.

The kids had a Pinewood Derby on April 30 and I had a lot of pictures to get put on a page about that, so I could finish it up. Above is a picture of a few pages of it, this time it was 20 pages.

Then I headed back downstairs to do some cleaning.  This is our guest room and I had to get it ready for some special guests who are coming next week.

I also cleaned the family room downstairs.

After eating lunch, I did this bacon in the oven, which I've found is the easiest way to cook a bunch of it.  I usually do a whole package, then put it in the freezer where it's easy to pull out and use just what you need.

I washed some windows using this glass cleaner I just got.  A few of my friends were on FB discussing the best glass cleaner and said this was great.  I love this brand for stainless steel so I decided to try it.
I agree - it's good!  It wipes off without smearing and it also smells wonderful!

It had stopped raining (We got almost an inch!) and had warmed up to 60 degrees, so I went outside to check out the flowers.  Bob and I do a walk around the yard almost every day, because things change so quickly right now!  This is our redbud tree.

The grape hyacinths are happy.  If you look close, you can see raindrops on the leaves.

In the front yard, the hosta seem to grow a few inches every day!

Our tulips will soon be done.

I spent the afternoon getting a meal made for someone from our church who had a total knee replacement.  It's ready to go here; a pan of lasagna, garlic bread, a salad and some cookies!

When I made the lasagna, I made an 8x8 pan for them and another small pan for us, so when we got home from delivering that meal, we had lasagna waiting for us.

We had a quiet evening, I baked just a few cookies from some cookie dough that was already made.  We watched a few episodes of The Repair Shop, a show we are really enjoying lately. It's from England and they repair all sorts of well loved items from the living history museum.  It's a feel good show!

And that was the end of this first day of the month!

After this, I'm taking a break for the rest of the week.  We have special guests arriving on Tuesday and we're really looking forward to having a good time with them!  I'll tell you all about it next week.