Bats in the belfry

You've all heard of bats in the belfry, how about bats in the church basement during choir practice? Happened last night. The bat was huge, looked like a bird! One of the men noticed the bat flying around first and had us women putting our books on top of our heads. The basses finally got it into the kitchen and caught it in a dish that had a lid and then brought it out to show us. He was BIG! They let him go outside. Ask Sandra Horman about bats--she was cowered in a corner with the song book over her head. We were told that bats can't fly if they are on the ground;(especially if I step on him, Joy said); that they need lift under their wings to fly. True?

It was interesting in that Pastor Steve had said on Sunday we should think of humerous things that happened in our church life -- now all the choir members have a great memory.

I got the lawned mowed Sunday afternoon. I don't remember ever having to mow lawn in March, but it surely needed it. Yesterday seemed cold, after the 70 & 80's we've had!

cookbook

A lot of my time lately has been taken up with typing recipes for our new cookbook. We have over 500 so far and I just got a phone call this morning saying she would mail me her recipes so I know more are coming. I type, Marilyn proof reads and then I retype! We have a meeting next week so we will know then how many Vicki and Julie have typed. Should be a wonderful cookbook according to the recipes I have received.

The rest of my time, it seems, is taken up with doing stuff for mother. I took her some summer clothes yesterday; I called her lawn mower person from last year and told him he won't need to mow this year. Sherrie & Milan are going to do her yard. I am glad she feels comfortable in the nursing home and seems to be doing well.

Racing season begins in two weeks. Ben has been getting things ready, and hopefully he has a safe and fun season.

I have been sweeping up gnats. Those little things are between all the windows. The other night I was knitting by the open windows in the back room and was nearly inundated with them. YUK! Anyone else have this problem?

Hanging clothes out to dry

This week I've been hanging my wash out on the line to dry. How wonderful is that? The bedding was hung out Tuesday, yesterday I washed extra blankets and hung them out, today I've got one load of Bill's clothes out and when the towels get out of the washer they will go out too. I am heading to the nursing home this morning, Pastor Steve is doing the church service at 10:00 and I need to talk to the administrator there. After that I want to get some groceries and then come home and type recipes.

We had our joint Lenten service at our church last night. Our Circle served the meal: lasagna, lettuce/dressing, garlic bread and bars. Julie, McKayla and I waitressed and we were very busy. As I told Vicki as we were sitting in the choir loft before church started; when you look out at the congregation--90% have grey hair, does that tell you that only the older folks care about attending Lenten services?

Is it summer yet?

Or did it just feel like it yesterday? If it hadn't been for the wind it would have been hot! When I went to the nursing home they had the windows open in the big room where the dancers from Cal-Wheat were performing. One resident was going outside to sit on the patio and enjoy the weather. The one down-side: until the road dries up it is muddy and my car must weight 100 lbs. more with all the dirt. Doesn't pay to wash it, one mile down the road and it is muddy again.

Choir went with Pastor Steve to the nursing home in Clarence Sunday to sing our anthem during his worship service there. The residents sure enjoyed the service. They sang 3 hymns and Pastor Steve gave a nice service. I stayed and talked to LaVonne Chapman, Louise Hasenbank, June Rowser, Mary Ann Fehling, Lester Rix and others. Came home to visit with Caleb who planned to go back to NC on Monday, but due to plane misfunction; left yesterday instead. Good to see him again.

Congrats to Noelle! Next she will be running all over the place!

Snow in the forecast

Cheryl comes to Iowa today and will probably be greeted by snow. There was snow on the ground the last 2 mornings when I got up; but in a couple of hours it was completely gone. This time they are predicting more, that is how we welcome Californians to Iowa!

We had Circle Monday night and made and baked small cherry pies for our shut-ins and nursing home residents. Marlene W. and I headed to the Clarence Nursing Home to deliver 2 pies; and then to Wheatland for the next 4. We have one parishioner in the assisted living part and the other 3 in the nursing home. Mother's room mate, who also belongs to our church, didn't want her pie so I took it over to Uncle Elmer. That made his day. He just couldn't wait to find a fork! As usual, we had a lot of fun making pie dough (well, I sort of watched) and putting together lattice tops and baking the pies. The people in charge of refreshments made cherry pie for us to eat too! Those not making pies make labels that we put on the plastic bags that the pies go in. It is a fun night. Our next project will be serving a meal before our Lenten service in March. I get to make chicken lasagna; we also serve beef lasagna and salad and garlic bread.

Tomorrow night is our Legion fish fry again. Always a busy night. Ben and Sue are bringing Cheryl so she gets a taste of what real food tastes like!

The sun is shining

What a pretty morning it is. I am so used to not having the sun shine, it looks wonderful today. Sherrie and I will meet at Wheatland to have our first staff meeting at the nursing home. Hopefully, we will find some answers, and the staff will probably too. Last night mother took a trip by ambulance to the DeWitt Hospital, but was back in the nursing home within a couple hours. She has had a stroke, but it has affected only her right leg/foot. Sherrie noticed it on Sunday because mother was lifting her right leg high; mother said her foot felt "heavy". She was able to answer questions, the rest of her is fine too.

We had supper at Schneid's last night for Valentine's Day. Ron and Kathy joined us at our table and by the time we left the place was filling up and was getting noisy!

School was fun Monday with lots to do. The kids were excited about Valentine's Day and the teachers, well, let's just say the kids have more fun than the teachers! I listened to stories, the 4th graders can pick which book they want to read to the volunteers and I love listening to their good books. Only wish I could hear the whole book instead of a few pages. The 1st grade all read the same story and the volunteers mark on a page how well they did. The 2nd graders do "rocket math" which is a timed test that we get to check. Usually the same for 3rd grade but Monday I got to count out 10 Valentine candy hearts, 3 chocolate animal cookies and 3 vanilla animal cookies to put in a bag for each of them for their Valentine treat. In kindergarten a few read to me; one girl named Gabby is well named!

Recipes please

Today we went with Rick and Deb to Riverside for the morning. We get there early enough that there aren't many people there. We came back to Iowa City for lunch and some shopping. I have decided that we have to enjoy every day as much as we can because life can be too short.

The Legion beef supper went over well Saturday night serving over 500 people. We are still eating some of the left-over beef we bought afterwards. It is really good, but I think I will need to make something else for tomorrow night. We are taking Grandma to see her surgeon tomorrow morning; hopefully they will take out the staples and her drain tube. I wonder how the cold weather will affect her as she hasn't been outside since we took her to the nursing home. And hopefully we can find the dr.'s office without too much trouble!

We are working on our cookbook for church, getting the recipes we have typed up etc. Still need more recipes--Shirlee, Lynne! I know you have some, just email them to me.