I am trying to crochet 50 scrubbies for the Mennonite Relief Sale and also knitting all cotton dish cloths for the sale.

I reached my goal to crochet 50 scrubbies for the Sale.

I’ve always liked Irish sayings

“May the road rise to meet you.”

“May the wind be always at your back.”

“May the sun shine warm upon your face”

.”May the rain fall soft upon your fields.”

“And, until we meet again

“May God hold you in the palm of his hand.”

“Gifts that would delight me For A Dollar or less.”   Byline Virginia Whitman

“It’s a standing joke about women and dime stores, but that’s where I like my friends to shop for my gifts.   I wear a glamorous housecoat maybe once a week-but I’m sure to dust furniture at least 100 times a year, peel potatoes around 200 times and wash dishes better than 500 times.

I’m grateful every day to the friend who substituted a vegetable peeler for my paring knife.  It cost her a dime to do it!  And that little copper-mesh ball on my sink tumbled out of a holiday package.  I think warmly of the giver each time I scrape a pan and save my nails.

Someone also presented me with a couple of loosely knit, treated cloths-they must be magnetized, the way dust clings to them.   I’d never have bought them for myself, chronic procrastinator that I am!

The other day, a friend gave me a little squeeze-bottle that squirts a fine stream to banish rust stains.   Could you beat that for 100 cents or less.

My gift set of aluminum scoops may have crowded the dollar limit, but how handy they are.   The biggest went into my flour canister, next size into the sugar, and so on.   My metal pick-ups (long live their donor!) are handy for grasping hot foods such as roasting ears, string beans and baked potatoes.

Now I am not hinting.  But in any dime-store houseware section, you can find: kitchen shears, a set of metal skewers, pickle and ice-cube tongs.   Also a crimper to Fancy-up pie crusts, a cheese slicer and fancy molds for extra special desserts.

A large, wooden mixing spoon; a pronged metal “frog” for flower arrangements; coasters, plastic spears for appetizers,a pint-size measuring cup,  a platoon of clothespins or bouncy sponge.    Thank you very much!

Another first for me is playing the FreeCell Game on my computer which I spend to much time on it.    I think it is becoming addiction. Solitaire on the computer has taken a back seat to The FreeCell Game.

Today is a good day to stay inside as it has been snowing since 6:00a.m. and it just stopped about 2:00p.m.   I think it snowed between 4-5 inches.   That is a guess.

Several days ago, actually almost a month ago I had read an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune about a man with others saved 5000 people in Poland during World War II.

“Dr Eugene Lasowski held disease-wary Nazis at bay and saved hundred of his Polish countrymen-Jews and Gentiles alike-from slave labor and death by creating a fake typhus epidemic in a dozen villages during World War II.”

‘A fellow doctor in Poland, Stanislaw Matulewicz, had discovered that an injection of a particular bacterial strain would cause the person receiving it to test positive for typhus and suffer no ill effect.’

When blood samples were given to the Germans they were afraid of an epidemic thus they quarantine the area which had about 8,000 people.

Another story of heroics:

Le Chambon a small Protestant French village in southern France  saved more the 5,000 Jews, in full view of the Vichy government and a nearby division of the Nazi SS,  Great reading in the book by Philip P. Hallie, LEST INNOCENT BLOOD BE SHED.

The two of us went to Dury Lane at Oak Brook theater to see    “nunsensations” which we enjoyed very much.  We stayed over night at a nice motel.

The first of May my youngest sister and I went to May Day at Bluffton University, Bluffton, OH.   We both graduated from there and it was my 55th anniversary .  It was fun to see old friends.  Our stay was shortened as we were notified that my husband oldest sister had died in Southern Indiana.  She was 97 years old.

I drove out to Ohio in a new car that we had purchased the week before.  That was a pleasant experience to drive that far in a new  Mercury Montego.  My sister helped drive home as I had to drive to Indiana after I picked my husband up.

New Years weekend we celebrated my brother’s 80th birthday in Birmingham, AL.  Earlier in the day his family had a reunion and later he was surprised birthday party.  We had a good car trip to Alabama and back home.

Happy New Year wishing every one a healthy year.

God grant you peace at Christmas
And fill your heart with cheer;
God grant you health and happiness
Throughout the coming year.
God guide you with His wisdom
And keep you in His Care;
This is our special wish for you–
This is our Christmas prayer.
-Author unknown

The fruit of Silence is prayer.
The fruit of Prayer is faith.
The fruit of Faith is love.
The fruit of Love is service.
The fruit of Service is peace.
… Mother Teresa

So Monday morning as early as I could I called my dentist and got an appointment for Tuesday morning.

This morning Halloween, I went to my dentist and I was accosted by all kinds of bugs, spiders and devil horns.    The dental hygienist and others wore bugs or other such creepy things on their heads.   The Dentist had the devil horns on his head and I laughing told him I was not sure I wanted the devil to work on my tooth.  It was a fun beginning and they even took a picture while I was it the dentist chair.  The procedure wasn’t too uncomfortable. My lip still feels three times as big as normal.   The area was frozen.

I was concerned that the tooth would have to be capped but that wasn’t necessary.   He was able to fill it and we are hoping that it will hold.

Yesterday morning I stepped into our attached garage and pushed the button to open the garage door and then I opened the car door on the driver’s side.   Before I was completely in the car a large black dog came up to me.  I didn’t recognized the breed.

It startled me, (I am not afraid of dogs but I approach strange ones cautiously) and I told it to go home but it didn’t move.  Finally I was able to closed the car door and I back the car out of the garage very slowly as not to hit the dog.

I called it from the car and it would come near the car but as soon as I started to close the garage door the animal would run back into the building.   We continued to do this routine for three or for times.  Then I rolled my car window all the way down and banged softly on the side of the car and it came to the drivers side of the car and I was able to get the garage door down.

I went on to my health club to walk, work on a few weights and then swim about 20 minutes.

My husband told me later that the dog stayed out front of the house for about and

A number of things happened during the last two months in my life.

Number one:   My husband and I celebrated our 50th anniversay with my sibling and with his siblings at a dinner.   Since we were not bless with children we decided on a small celebration.

Number two: I had a birthday, I am twice 39.

Number three:  My husband and I went to Oak Brook to see the musical: Nunsensations!, The nunsense Vegas Revue, it was hilarious.
Number four:  Went to Women’s retreat with ladies from my church and Had a very good time.  The company, speaker, music, and the food was very good.  I drove and the trip was very pleasant.

Sad events:   Learned my brother’s widow has lung cancer but she is doing all right now.

Several older relatives have passed on.

In July I found two caterpillars on the parsley in my garden.  Each one was about 3/4 to a 1/2 inch long, black with a yellow stripe in the middle.

I put them in a glass jar that I had made holes in the lid.   About every day I put fresh parsley in the jar after I cleaned it out.   As the caterpillars grow they become green with several yellow/black stripes.  The pretty caterpillars attach themselves to a stick that I put in the jar when they are ready to form their chrysalis.  Sometimes the chrysalis is tan or green.   After about 7 to 12 days the butterfly emerges.   It is a beautiful swallowtail butterfly.   They are always released in a tree or a bush when they are ready to fly.

The most enjoyment is to share the emerging butterfly with someone.   In the past I have shared with headstart children and Sunday School children.  These I have shared with a neighbor and with two ladies walking on their morning walk in front of my house.