Life keeps changing and I sometimes struggle to find my place in all these changes. I’ve got the wide open world opening up in front of me, but it’s not time yet and I’m not sure the direction to take. I got restless one day and drove to Grand Lake about an hour from my town. I drove around, remembering things. Before Tom and I married, he had a lake lot where we kept an old camper and we would stay there frequently, taking a boat out on the lake to swim and fish from. The lot now belongs to someone else with a completely different set up that doesn’t even resemble how it looked 25 years ago. I drove down the hill toward the lake. Much looked the same with the docks we used to fish from and the ramp we used to get the boat loaded and unloaded. The cafe building was still there, sort of. It was being dismantled, one piece of sheet metal at a time. I have been emotionally and physically exhausted and had hoped that the small trip down memory lane would help. Eh, not really.
I did join a group of ladies that meet a couple of times a week to work from walking to jogging. Because my foot did not heal properly after my surgery and have excess scar tissue, I had hoped that possibly taking up jogging would help to break up the scarring. Time will tell. I am mostly enjoying the walks with the ladies and the area around Claremore lake is actually quite beautiful.
A couple of weeks ago, I got an inquiry from my bank about a possible fraudulent transaction. This ended up with me having to discard my current debit card and wait for another to arrive in the mail. I am still learning the automatic payments scheduled that are paid from this card. The whole thing is a hassle, but it’s much better than having my account hacked I suppose.
Kinzie expects to be attending college in a couple of months up in Coffeyville, Kansas. A few days earlier, I was looking into the past; now I am looking into what could be Kinzie’s future. I drove up there to look around. It’s a small college but I believe that is exactly what she wants. I pray it works out for her.
I’m still doing cooking videos at the church kitchen. I posted Hamburger Soup: Another Submitted Recipe for the Cookbook of the Collapse. It can be seen here.
My sister drove up from Texas to attend Kinzie’s graduation. We had a nice couple of days together and I was glad for her company because I was so very stressed worrying about possible trouble at my girl’s graduation. Except for one scary moment that had my heart in my throat, everything went smoothly. Kinzie got to see her brother and her mother and that really made her day. I am so very glad, and grateful. One evening while my sister was here, we went to dinner, taking little Ivy, my other granddaughter, with us and then took her to play in a nearby park. That was very nice, too.
Somewhere along the way, I was able to post the video Cornbread: a Homestead Staple. I’m still learning the convection oven at the church but the cornbread came out pretty good. I had made it the same day as the Hamburger Soup and that made a good meal for the adults on Wednesday night.
I made the soup and cornbread because we have been having several thunderstorms roll through the past few weeks. That particular day, the highs were in the sixties and so cornbread and soup were not really out of line in late May in Oklahoma. I no longer have a rain gauge, so I don’t keep track of how many inches we have received but I heard that one storm dropped ten inches in a nearby town. I believe it.
I still have many softball games to edit and post but I did manage to get this one done. Oklahoma Wildcards vs the Nebraska Quakes, part of a competitive league tournament Kinzie got to participate in can be seen here.
I also managed to research and post a podcast on toxins in our rice. You can listen to Episode 80: Rice: I Thought It Was Good for Us here.
One of the ladies in our church has been living in the parsonage that stays empty most of the time because the pastor has his own house. My son and daughter in law have been very good to me and have let me live with them for the past few months but I was not happy to be there. My presence had turned their lives upside down and I really needed to find another place to live. There was room for me in the three bedroom parsonage and I got permission, both from my friend and the pastor to live there. My friend is now in the process moving to her own apartment but this past week or so has been very healing for me and I am grateful. My friend and I have actually gotten pretty close and it’s been nice. It now seems that my life is very focused around the church that I have loved for the past few years. The clothing ministry that I refer to so often is only feet away from our back door and the fellowship hall where I cook the dishes in my videos is not too far past that. It’s been very nice. I posted another video for depression era dishes playlist. This one, American Goulash: Depression Era Dish Still Enjoyed Today can be seen here.
As much as I love doing my podcasts, I have really slacked recently with life upheavals and moves. I’m looking forward getting back into it better soon, but I did manage to get one recorded and posted for the Books Highlighted podcast. Episode 26: The Treadstone Resurrection can be listened to here.
We’ve had some pretty wicked thunderstorms blowing through recently. One just passed through as I’m writing this. A beautiful, large tree lost a big limb in the front yard one night. I’ve been sleeping so good since I moved into the parsonage that I never heard a thing.
Last week, my brother in Florida called me to say that Dad was in the hospital because he couldn’t move his legs that morning. It turns out that, despite the nurses stating that he should not do his physical therapy, Mom and Dad thought it was a good idea for him to do them anyway, in hopes that they can move out of the assisted living facility some day. He fractured his spine in the process. He did not lose feeling in his legs; he just couldn’t move them at the time. He is out of the hospital now and back in the facility with Mom. Unfortunately, Dad is in later stages of Alzheimer’s and Mom is in mid-stage. They will not be leaving the assisted living facility regardless of any physical therapy Dad would do.
While all that was going on, my friend had a yard sale at the nearby convenience store on the grassy area for a couple of days to try to diminish the amount of stuff she takes to her new apartment. I helped load, set up and take down tables. Those were long days for my friend. The next day, we decorated the sanctuary and fellowship hall for kids camp. We also took inventory of the food for camp. The next four days were long, tiring and a lot of fun. I laughed so much and had a ball. Kids camp is now over and we are gearing up for Vacation Bible School in a couple of weeks.
I did get internet hooked up at the parsonage and my trips to the fellowship hall have diminished greatly. I even got another video posted. Easy Stir Fry for My Friends can be seen here. If you listen, one point, one of my friends didn’t know I was talking to the camera and she can be heard in the back ground saying things like, “Oh really?” “Good.” It was so funny, I had to turn off the camera and start giggling.
All in all, even with all the stress I am still dealing with, life is so much better now that I am at the parsonage and around some beautiful people who are praying for me, helping me to laugh, and loving me through it all.