Strange Snacks.

 Strange Snacks.

 

Did you know that you can eat the leaves and blossoms of snapdragons? Well, you can. Laisha was saying that they almost looked good enough to eat, and sure enough, a query to Siri told us that we were not the first to think about the edibility of those beauties. However, apparently the taste is not as wonderful as the appearance. Oh well.

 

Finished putting together and tightening all the screws on the new raised bed form yesterday. Boy! That was a real workout! This morning, some cut limbs from a pile made by Lance were thrown into the bottom of the form and some hay piled on top of that. The hay was from the long coop, but still have two bales next to the washing machine drain that will go in there sometime today. Got a little pooped out already and needed to just take a break. Doesn’t take long to wear out an old body.

 

Kept thinking something was making this beeping noise here in the house and it turned out to be a wren! He or she keeps doing it and making me wonder. Not sure whether it is a mating call or what, but it sounds just like the beep of the alarm on the door at Jennifer’s house.

 

Speaking of Jennifer, she was on her way to see her chiropractor this morning when the old woman called to sing happy birthday to her. After all the lifting and stuff she did here over the weekend, it is not surprising that she needs an adjustment—at the very least. Then she said she managed to fall UP the stairs at work yesterday. Talent runs in our family!

 

Max and Laisha gave me the sweetest card addressed to “Mama Nancy.” Between those kids and the backdoor neighbor, it is making me wonder if every neighborhood might have a “mama” who watches after all the folks. After all, Patty’s dogs thought the old woman was their “other mother” part of the time.

 

My friend John Rhoads stopped by this afternoon to drop off egg cartons. That is the only way egg cartons get here—someone brings them to me. Sent a dozen eggs home to his wife for their breakfast this weekend. And then John had to get a picture of the snapdragons. They really are the prettiest ever! John noticed that the old woman was drooping a bit and reminded me that even the red ants rest in their nests when it gets hot and the cows go soak in the stock tanks. Thinking he might have had a very good idea.

 

Bought four small containers of plants for 89 cents apiece at Sutherlands along with 20 sacks of dirt (top soil that was soaking wet mud!) to put out back or at the bottom of the raised bed before the good stuff is put on top. Left most of the “top soil” in the back of the truck. That stuff was just totally too heavy! Maybe it will dry out in the back of the truck after a bit. If not, it can be pushed out under the carport to dry out there. The raised bed soil is much lighter stuff.

 

Sterling called and said that their garage sale or whatever has raised four thousand so far. Tomorrow is its last day, and this is the last time this woman plans to do this kind of sale for the missionary work. Just going to pray for their safety when they go down there where folks have very little concern for human life, much less feeling they need to be the object of someone’s “help” in their community. Not sure why people can’t see the good that is intended, but then, that is just how things are nowadays. Sterling said that younger folks don’t do what they say they will do like we were taught as kids. When we said we would do something, we did it or did our best to do whatever was needed. That was the way we were raised to behave. Today is definitely different. Sterling was just a young boy when he helped put the roof on the Petrolia Baptist Church, but his daddy was right there beside him with his hammer, too. Kids worked with their parents back then. Guess that is harder now.

 

Saw Paula Holland Swenson today at Sutherlands, and she said that our old English teacher, Mrs. Glascow, had passed. The older we get, the faster it seems that our older friends leave us behind. Told my brother he needs to stick around just a bit longer for both of us. He will be 79 in June. He is the only person who is going to remember how things were for us back when we were kids growing up. No one else will ever know what life was like back then. Even the kids we grew up with did not know our family that well. Oh, such memories.

 

Let us be grateful for those who mean so much to us now and who know how life has changed. Our grandchildren may love and admire things about us, but they will never know how hard it was for OUR parents to raise us to be the kind of people we are. Praise God that He will bring our children to Him when the time is right for them.

 

Rest well, my friends. You are loved.