Happy Jonquils, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Let There Be Light

 1. Every single year the daffodils make me so very happy. Every year! I will never, ever tire of them. 

2. Daughter and granddaughter now play the piano together. They are working on a wonderful duet and they perform a little of it for me.

3. Last night, at the Easter Vigil Mass, Steve had a job to do. The first hour of Mass was held in darkness with only pools of candlelight. When we stood and began to sing the Gloria, the church suddenly became fully illuminated. The effect was stunning. It was as though Heaven said, "Let there be light" and BAM!. Haha! I knew it was Steve. 

Claire and Mari

Celebrate!, As You Like It, All the Joy

 

 1. Good things are about to happen. The beginnings of spaghetti sauce, onions and garlic sauteed in olive oil, is the best aroma in the world. 

2. I am making the sugar cookies the way Steve likes them. They have orange peel and vanilla in them and no sanding sugar on top. As he eats a cookie he asks, "How long have we been married?" I answer him, "Forty-three." He says, "In all the forty-three years we have been married this is the first time you made the cookies the way I like them." I tell him he is being ridiculous.

3. The Easter week celebration encompasses so many of our senses. There is the food, of course. And there is the beauty of nature enrapturing us with its flowering exaltation. There is the church music that turns from mournful on Thursday and Friday to joyful and exhilarating on Saturday and Sunday. Smells of incense, chocolate, flowers, grass, and rain tell our sleepy winter brains that something good is coming.

Craft Day, All That Is Left, They Made It!

  1. Audrey and Violet came over to decorate Easter eggs. They used a technique with Cool Whip and gel food coloring to make tie dye designs on the eggs. It was a fun process and the eggs turned out pretty.

2. Having company come warranted a special lunch and a treat afterward. We had Cesar chicken wraps for lunch and little cherry pies for dessert. Violet preferred the fresh strawberries over the cherry hand pies.

3. The blueberry bushes from Claire's house that I transplanted last year are all in bloom! 

Only Nine More to Go, Relaxing with Dinner, Faith

1. Spent the day painting boxes with Kay. They are the brainchild of our desire to make a fun rug hooking workshop for our group in May. They are beautiful, hand crafted boxes that we are painting and antiquing. Every few boxes that we finish, we ask ourselves, "What were we thinking?" We need to make thirty-four boxes! It's a good thing the two of us never tire of being together. At the workshop, each member will receive a box of their color choice, seven patterns from which to hook a mat for the top of the box, and a serged piece of linen to draw and hook the pattern onto. Everyone is excited about it!

2.  Leftovers for dinner, eaten in front of the television watching an older Netflix series called "Travelers". It is a science fiction, time travel story. It is the rare something on which Steve and I can agree to watch. 

3. The Lenten season has brought us to this final Holy week before Easter. It has been a season of introspection, confession, and reconciliation. I love everything about this season. Unlike the noisy, boisterous celebration of Christmas, Easter comes softly and quietly.

"Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song."

Pope John Paul II

Sunday Dinner, On the Patio, A Teaser

 1. We have an especially good Sunday dinner of breaded pork chops, Brussels sprouts, roasted carrots and parsnips, and applesauce. We used to always have special Sunday dinners and it would be nice to start that tradition again.

2. The sun is warm enough for us to sit outside for part of the afternoon.

3. The lawnmower is ready for the season. I give it a test drive and get rewarded with the aroma of cut grass.

Spring Blooms, Blooms, and Buds

1. We enjoyed the flowering plum and butterfly magnolia for a week or so before the wind and rain took them away. Year after year they delight us with their flowers yet we exclaim over their beauty as if it were the very first time we ever saw such a thing.

2. A friend offered me a container of daffodil bulbs and I could not say no.

3. I took stock around the property to see what survived the winter. It looks like the fig tree I planted last year has buds on it. I was really hoping this particular plant would live.


 

A Day That Is Just For Me!

 1. It was a picture perfect, spring day for a birthday celebration. My gifts are all delightful. Everyone was creative in what they chose for me: worm castings, bath scents, a hand knit hood, a Vermont sweatshirt, chocolate and maple candy, a balsam incense burner shaped like a cabin, pencil erasers, a gift card to the local gardening co-op, a shawl, flowers, and a book. Most of all, I loved spending the day with our children and grandchildren.

2. I now have Medicare. I am not quite sure how I feel about that.

3. Two kinds of cakes baked by two daughters. I eat both.

Good Dirt, Bad Company, Photoshopped

 1. Gardening season has officially begun. I put on my overalls and got dirty to commemorate the occasion. I had time to think about my tasks as I pushed the wheelbarrow across the field. How is it that a garden goes from tame to wild so quickly?! Does anything ever go from wild to tame without assistance or intervention? I can't think of anything.

2. I had sharp words for the Chocolate Chip Ajuga.It really must be pickier about who it allows in its bed. It's keeping company with grass and clover. We will not have that.

3. Trying to make a positive experience out of having a formal photograph taken for the church directory. We are shown the digital samples. There is no way to make my photo pleasing to my eye; no background color, no different poses, nothing. Finally she asks if we want "touch ups". Yes! I will PAY $35 for touch ups!

Making the Best of It, A Fresh Airing, We're Here!

1. Poke and pull; stitch and snip. I am turning nervous energy into something tangible.

2. The porch door is open to the sun and breeze! The black walnut wind chimes that Steve made are rattling on the pergola.

3. Blossoms have sprung out everywhere. The interstate is adorned with the white lace of pear and the yard is ruffled with the pink of purple plum. The blossoms have appeared so quickly that I am sure they have been lying in wait for twelve months, just waiting for this moment to burst open and shout, "Surprise!"
 

On High, Brown Beef Stew, March Winds

1. A winter bare maple tree reveals a small nest perched high up near the tip of the branch.

2. I seek out the recipe from my mom's old 1947 cookbook for Brown Beef Stew. This is the way she always made it and it was my favorite. I get excited when I notice the recipe right above it for Potato Dumplings. How have I never noticed this before? If I make these for the stew, dinner will be a marvel.

3. The winds blew fiercely last night and made bedtime feel unsettled. In the morning I noticed the wind had settled and all was calm. Same room, same house, friendlier feel.

Transformed Into Real Pages

 

Into Real Pages is an online service that prints online content into book form. I decided to give it a try after reading a recommendation on someone's blog. I am pleased with the result and I will have more books printed up a couple at a time.

I started my blog fourteen years ago (!) so there was too much material to all go into one book. I decided to print each year as a volume. They offer different styles and options for design. I went with a design where I could use a different color cover for each volume. The cost depends on how many pages you will have printed. My books cost about $55 each and they have a soft cover. The pages are glossy and all the photos I had on my blog are included. The company is located in the Netherlands and it took about a month for these to arrive in the mail. When I initially placed my order, I did not receive a confirmation page. I emailed the company and they confirmed that they did receive my order, so communication was good.

I have no idea what will happen to internet content in the future. I wanted to preserve my blog for my daughters to keep. I thought they might like to recollect the day to day life of our family from way back when.