July Goals

Spiritual
     ABF/Church
     Daily Bible Reading
     Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Physical
     Chair Dancing DVD 
     Water
     WW

Quilting: Start quilting on baby quilt

Reading
     

Cooking
     Veggie Soup
     Slow Cooker Chicken in White wine with tarragon and Cream Sauce (first time to make this new recipe)
     Steak, GMP, GB
     Baked Fish, Carrots/Thyme, Corn on the Cob

Home--look into having sewing machine cabinet refinished

Personal
     Get ready for Alaska cruise

August Menu

August Menu

1. Baked potato, Veggie tray, 

    Bacon sandwiches, Oven fries

2. Macaroni and cheese 

3. Baked fish, Carrots/Thyme, Corn on the Cob

4. Slow Cooker Chicken with White Wine, Tarragon, and Cream; Asparagus p.80

5. Steak, GMP, GB

6. Leftovers 

7. Alaska

8. Alaska

9. Alaska 

10. Alaska

11. Alaska

12. Alaska

13. Alaska

14. Alaska

15. Baked potato, Veggie tray, 

      Bacon sandwiches, Oven fries

16. Corned Beef Hash

17. Tuna salad sandwich, Veggie tray 

18. Slow Cooker Cassoulet p. 106. 

19. Cutlets, GMP, GB

20. Leftovers 

21. Out

22. Baked potato, Veggie tray, 

      Bacon sandwiches, Oven fries

23. Schlotzsky's 

24. Shrimp Jambalaya

25. Fruited Chicken Salad

26. Spaghetti and meatballs 

27. Leftovers 

28. Out

29. Baked potato, Veggie tray, 

      Bacon sandwiches, Oven fries

30. Schlotzsky's 

31. Shrimp 

Garden Spider

Spiders are not my favorite creatures but I do admire their intricate webs.  For something so large and brightly marked this garden spider is remarkably difficult to see. 

Around OakMeadow

Around OakMeadows

This morning I had a brainstorm.  We were taking the van through the car wash and it suddenly came to me how nice it would be to have a people wash.  One would shed one's clothing in a dressing room, sit on a comfy bench on a conveyor belt which would move us through a nice warm spray down, then suds us and pass us through all those dangly ribbons of jiggly washcloths, we would be rinsed down and finally blown dry. Then dress and you are ready for the day. Granted there are some details to be worked out but there you are. 

I hear Garrison Keillor will be retiring from Prairie Home Companion next year. After 40 years, I will grant you that he has earned it but by gosh I will miss knowing what is going on with the Lutherans in Lake Wobegone. 

Finally finished the repair on the border of the baby quilt and while I can see clearly  where the repair is, it isn't all that noticeable if you aren't looking for it. I hope to get it all basted and ready to quilt this week.  

This year has been such a good reading year--I've read so many really good books. But the last two that I tried to read were just not up to snuff. I used to feel that if I started a book, I was under obligation to finish it to the very last word.  Fortunately, I have learned that not finishing a book does not mean that your time in Purgatory will be extended as you will be required to finish every unfinished book to the very last word there before moving on. I have a very enjoyable Bruno, Chief of Police murder mystery going and am enjoying Bruno's French village and his cooking and his friends.  I continue to hiss at foolish Isabelle who continues to spurn Bruno.  Joe and I are reading aloud each evening, David McCullough's 1776 and so far it is excellent. 

I have a couple of salad recipes that I want to try this week. One is a grilled veggie and pasta salad and the other is grilled chicken and zucchini & cherry tomatoes. It is just too darn hot to cook and eat  anything but chilled soups and salads. We are going through lemonade by the gallon--seriously I make a half gallon jug at least twice a week. Iced tea too. We still haven't gone over 100 degrees but at 98 degrees and high humidity who wants to cook?

Two weeks until our Alaska cruise. I am looking forward to a week of cooler temperatures. 

That's all the news from OakMeadows where the birds all wait for me in the mornings to fill up the birdbaths and feeders and the squirrels get fat on peanuts.  

July Meditation

When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love. 

Marcus Aurelius 

July Poetry

I taste a liquor never brewed 

I taste a liquor never brewed, 
From tankards scooped in pearl; 
Not all the vats upon the Rhine 
Yield such an alcohol! 
Inebriate of air am I, 
And debauchee of dew, 
Reeling through endless summer days, 
From inns of molten blue. 
When landlords turn the drunken bee 
Out of the foxglove's door, 
When butterflies renounce their drams, 
I shall but drink the more! 
Till seraphs swing their snowy hats, 
And saints to windows run, 
To see the little tippler 
Leaning against the sun. 

Emily Dickinson, 1860

July Goals

Spiritual
     ABF/Church
     Daily Bible Readings 
     Saying of the Desert Fathers

Physical
     Chair Dancing DVD daily
     WW breakfasts
     Water

Quilting: Finally get the baby quilt basted 

Reading
     1776 by David McCullough
     The Resistance Man by Martin Walker
     Harvest for Hope by Jane Goodall
     All the Single Ladies by Dorothea Benton Frank

Cooking
     German Chocolate Cake for Paul's birthday 
     Stuffed Weiners
     Chicken Parmesan
     Cutlets, GMP, GB

Home
     Hang new door wreath
     Start looking for new bed linens for guest bedroom

Personal