Ann picked me up for breakfast.  We went to a new place where the lady who owns the store does all the cooking.  Homemade cinnamon rolls.  Homemade blackberry cobbler, etc. etc.  Delicious.

I usually take the paper with me and do the puzzles while Ann goes into the sales.  She has something she looks for.  I don’t--so I usually just wait on her in the car and read the paper and do crosswords.  I like it because she drives--and once a week, I have somewhere to go!

Ann gives piano lessons (OU music major who is super talented) and keeps a basket by the piano--if the student does what they were supposed to do that week and does it well, they get to pick something out of the basket to keep.  So she is always looking for trinkets at the garage sales.  

It is amazing how many things she finds that are brand new with the tags still on them.  And usually for fifty cents, or even a quarter.  The students get all excited about everything in the basket.  It’s a big basket and she keeps it full. 

The important part is that it is a motivator.  Students learn how to play if they practice, and the gift basket always has some new thing in it that wasn’t there the week before.  She is not only a brilliant musician, she knows how to keep students interested.  Win-win.

It has been a fun day.  Tate beat me at Scrabble twice.  I hope I never see another Scrabble tile again!!!  He is better at it than I am.  I am truly worn out, but in a good way.  There is a reason God gives children to young parents.

I am so thankful he came to stay the night with me.  We had a wonderful time.  His dad is going to come get him in the morning.  They start school next week.  Unlike the other boys in the family, Tate is calm.

We put a puzzle together which was a lot of fun.  He told God that we needed rain...and stood out in the yard waving his arms in the air as the rain came down.  I should have had him come sooner.  We needed the rain and he seemed to think that having God answering his prayer wasn’t unusual.  He even yelled into the sky that if someone else needed it more than we did,  that they should get it, but could we have a little of it.

The faith of a Child.  Awesome. 

Today will be exciting.  Jon is going to bring Tate (first grader) over around noon to stay all night.  Tate’s personality is very much like Ken’s was.  Quiet, thoughtful, vocabulary out of this world.  He is the one who came up to me in Bible school and asked me if I knew what a compound word was--that it was made up of two words. Which I thought was a little bit advanced for his age.

I told him that I did know--and he asked, “Well, then...what do you call a word that is made up of three words?”  Which I had never even thought of considering.

We had memorized a verse from Ephesians 2:10 that says, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus...” and of course he had never heard the word work-man-ship, and was trying to figure the word out!  I told him I had never heard of a question about three-word words.  “Let’s give them a name,” I said.  We decided on Tri-pound, which Tate liked.

I have taken his brother Brady to Bible School 6 years, since he was in kindergarten, but this summer was Tate’s first time to stay all night with me.  I called Jon last week and asked if Tate could come.  I would like for him to remember me a little bit after he is grown--my grandmother meant so much to me.   Perhaps he will remember something.  I hope it is good.

Yes, I have been watching the Jan. 6 hearings.  Interesting.  Almost all of the people who have testified are Republicans--they were the only ones in the white house at the time.  They were also the ones at the “rally.”  So it has been their reports and testimony as to what They saw and heard.  

The thing I have found to be the most interesting about it all, is everyday people denying what the witnesses are reporting.  I wonder where Walter Cronkite is when we need him.  Demos and Repubs are at war.  

I’ve just found the reactions to it all to be the thing that is concerning.  Without taking sides, listening to the people who were there has been interesting to say the least.  I hope someone figures out how to keep such a thing from ever happening again.  From either angle.

I’d like to hear Reagan say, “Tear down this wall.”  Or Truman say, “The buck stops here.”  I remember those two standing up to say something that was meaningful.  But I’ve been through so many presidents and Senate members by my age, I doubt there are very many statesmen left in the world.  I think it is “Follow the Money.”  

We just have to never forget that God is in control.  Even though R and D politicians are positive they have God in their pocket.

   

Jeanette brought me 24 sliders yesterday.  I wrapped them in Saran and froze them individually--Breakfast for a month or two.  She does a mushroom broccoli quiche for me occasionally as well.  I freeze those slices also.  

Breakfast is a problem for me--since I don’t like milk or eggs. Jeanette’s gift is taking food to others.  She is a fabulous cook and loves to do it.  

She has finally given up after I have refused to take the food, and let me pay for the ingredients.  We argued over that for months and she finally gave in.  That way I don’t feel like such a leech.  It is such a blessing.  Breakfast doesn’t have to be a surprise-a-meal...like lunch is from all the unidentifiable left overs in the freezer.

Becky Bacon brought packets of oatmeal with freeze dried peaches that you fix with a tiny bit of boiling water.  She got me started on that. If you buy Quaker, it is almost four dollars.  House brand is a dollar sixty eight.  They are exactly the same thing.

Ann and Jeanette both brought me peaches last week, which I cut up on the oatmeal.  Breakfast has gotten easier.  I am so blessed by friends who take care of me.  My surprise-a-meal lunch yesterday was stroganoff that Jeannine brought me a couple of weeks ago.  Delicious.

I have my computer back!!!!  Yea.  I don’t know how I got a bug; I’m very careful about not clicking on stuff.

Pat is talking about getting rid of her chickens.  I am begging her not to do it.  I love the fresh eggs. I like the chickens as well, they aren’t afraid of me.  One of them let me pick her up and stroke her feathers.

But Pat has to let them out of the cage every day, and the coyotes pick them off--even if she is standing there with them.  They run in a pack and never stop as they go through the yard and snatch a chicken.  They aren’t afraid of Pat.  There are so many chickens she can’t protect all of them.

“A coyote got Bess,” she said.  “And Barbara.”  She names all of her chickens after the president’s wives.  Every chicken has a name--which makes it personal when a coyote grabs one of them.  

I hesitate to let Squig out in the yard when I go to her farm.  He only weighs 12 pounds.  And Squig thinks everyone--including coyotes--love him.  I’m sure coyotes would love him.  So I go out with him and stand right by him when he has to go.  All I need is something to swing at anything that tries to hurt him.  I can guard one dog.  But nobody can guard a flock of chickens except God himself.  

I’ve been without a computer since yesterday.  Craig took it home with hime to get rid of a bug that had shut me down.  I’ll post tomorrow.