I am going to try this one more time. I have been having a heck of a time with my blogging site. I write a blog and when I go to publish it, it just disappears. If it happens again today, I’ll have to call in my favorite techie, aka Julie and see what the heck is going on. 

Like most of the country, we have snow on the ground and the weather sucks. We had two winter storms last week which resulted in me having to clear my driveway twice. Thank goodness for the John Deere and for Jim for coming over and putting the blade on before this stuff started. I’m not sure but I think all totaled we had nine inches of snow and a layer of ice for good measure. There are trees everywhere with broken branches laying on the ground including in my back yard. By now, we have had enough “warm” weather to at least have melted all of the snow and ice off of the trees. However with the temperatures staying way below freezing most of the time, this snow will be here for awhile. 

Ms. Kate is doing very well with her cardiac therapy. I’m very proud of her. Next week I think she has her followup Echocardiogram and hopefully it will show us that her blood output has improved and maybe she can get out of the portable defibrillator. She had an appointment with her Nephrologist last week and got a good report from her. All positive things. 

The birds and squirrels have just about depleted everything from the feeders, even all of the stuff that they had left to get old. When I can get out there I will have a big job refilling everything. 

Okay, I’m going to try to publish this thing. Wish me luck. Peace.

 This is a test posting. 

 1/1/2025: Just Wow!!! Happy New Year to one and all. I pray this year will bring good health and peace to all of us. I pray this year will bring us each closer to God and more secure in our relationship with Jesus Christ. 

How did you spend your New Years Eve? Ms. kate and I spent it just like we do every night; watching tv until some time after midnight with Bobby Flay or some other cooking show or watching lottery winner buy houses. My celebratory libation was my cup of coffee and Kate had a bottle of water to take her last pills of the day. We are a lively bunch. 

The weather has certainly changed for the next few days. We are supposed to get bitter cold temperatures with the possibility of some kind of wintery mix whether it will be rain, snow, sleet or what ever, the forecasters are not sure yet. Anyway, it is supposed to come in over the weekend with Sunday and Monday being the “weather-alert” days. I still don’t have the snow blade on the JD but our current prediction is for maybe an inch of snow which doesn’t require a blade and if it comes in as sleet or ice, the blade is useless anyway. Then, the temps are supposed to go back up to normal, ie. In the 40’s. So we’ll see what happens. 

Ms. Kate has a pot of beef barley vegetable soup going. Sometime today we’ll have our black-eyed peas and some greens to celebrate our New Year and “bring us good luck”. I may go ahead and make some corn bread to go with it. 

That’s it for today, just wanted to share a blessing for a wonderful 2025. Peace. 

 It is the last weekend of 2024, in three days it will be 2025. Isn’t that part of the lyrics of some song from the ‘70s; “In the year ‘25, ‘25 ——“ something. I don’t know, but the tune is rattling around in my head. 

Here’s an update on Ms. Kate for all her fans. She finally got sick enough to call the doctor’s office and ask for some help. Of course I had suggested that several days before but she has to do it her way. (The only person more stubborn than a German is a short German) I think though I scared her with the notion that she might have Whooping Cough and that it as highly contagious. Anyway, she did call Doctor Jackson’s office and of course, both he and his main NP were off for the holidays. (How dare they enjoy life????) But the office did contact a doctor and he first prescribed another round of antibiotics and told her to get a chest X-ray. She did that and the film showed that there was no pneumonia and but that her bronchitis was back with a vengeance. So he added Predisone to the mix. This was all yesterday but this morning she is doing better. For days she has been suffering with spasmodic coughing spells several times a day. She is still coughing but not as severely. Bless her heart, (which by the way is holding up well) she just doesn’t seem to catch a break. I’m sure hoping that 2025 will be much kinder to her than 2023 and 2024 were. 

We are supposed to go to Karen’s house today and celebrate Christmas with her and her family. I pulled the last three packages of our corn out of the freezer and we will take that up to add to the meal. Our freezer of starting to have gaps on the racks where favorite foods used to be. This coming year we need to put up more corn and more peaches. We put up nothing last this year nor last year because Kate was always sick. So, hopefully this coming year will bring her excellent health and also good crops. If she isn’t well, I will just have to do the stuff by my lonesome. I have to restock my fav’s. I found a recipe for a peach custard pie that I am anxious to make. It’s another five months or so until peach season. 

I have spent hours upon hours searching for a vacation spot for the girls and hubbies to meet for a weekend. I need a 5 bed / 5 bath place that will also allow a “service dog”. Tough to find a place without breaking the bank. I need to narrow it down quickly because we’re only six months out from our desire time frame. I’ll keep looking. 

That’s it for today, and maybe for 2024. Have a blessed and peaceful rest of your year. Peace. 

Christmas 2024 has come and gone and unfortunately it was extremely anticlimactic. We went no where, we did nothing, no one came over, it was just another Wednesday. Kate is still battling her cough and feeling like crap. We did fix a special meal for the two of us. We bought a nice prime rib and fixed that for our dinner. For our brunch I fixed some waffles for us. Kate bought me a new waffle iron that I had been wanting. It’s one of those like they have at hotels these days. So, yesterday morning we sat around for awhile on our IPads and then finished our coffee and exchanged our gifts, then had lunch. 

I had hoped that we could make one of the Christmas Eve services in person but we sat and watched it on television. It’s just as well because she coughed her way through the entire thing and would have been a total distraction had we gone in-person; and she did not want that to happen. 

I guess I could take down the Christmas tree today but I think I’ll just leave it up through New Year’s Day.  It’s not hurting anything sitting there. We don’t even go into that room very often. In fact I forgot to turn it on most days. 

We’re just six days from 2025. Who would of thought I would be alive in 2025?? It will be interesting to see what the new year will bring. I pray it will be a better year health wise for Ms. Kate. 2024 totally sucked for her, and yes, for me too. But, God has gotten us through it. I retired a year ago this week but neither of us has had a chance to enjoy any of that. Hopefully 2025 will reboot us. Again though, I know that God will get us through whatever is in the future. 

Okay, this whole blog today has turned out to be an exercise in depression. I had not planned to do that. Time to pull the boots up and step out with some joy in my heart and gratitude in my soul. 

Peace. 

 Happy Tuesday! It’s a beautiful day. I wouldn’t want to stay outside in my swim trunks very long since it is 53 degrees, but a fellow could walk to the mailbox and back and be almost comfortable. The sun is shining and the birds are having a big breakfast and or brunch at the Backyard Buffet. 

Kate and I basically “have the day off” which means no doctor’s appointments today or other places we have to go. I could go to my Neighborhood Walmart and do some grocery shopping but I need to put together my list first. I’m seeing some things that I need to put on the list for sure. I’m making a pot of vegetable soup this morning and I don’t have any barley to put in it. I also used most of my Beef Broth. And of course, the milk is running low and I need some other everyday items. It shouldn’t take me very long except that it is Christmas season so people will be doing their early Christmas meal planning and shopping. Kate and I haven’t even thought about that since it will just be her and me. Maybe we’ll sleep late that day and I’ll make some pancakes for brunch. No need to get up early because I’ve have had permanent residency on Santa’s naughty list for decades now. LOL. 

Kate had her cardiac therapy again yesterday and did well. It was luring like crazy when we got there so I dropped her off and went and parked and waited for her to call me and then went back and picked her up. The place was an absolute zoo yesterday because of the rain, and because it was a Monday. Monday through Wednesday are the worst days to go to the hospital for anything. Parking is always at a minimum no matter which hospital you go to. Tomorrow morning she goes again and we are projected to have rain again. Yuks. 

Today seemed like a good day to make vegetable soup so I have a pot going. We’ll have it for our early supper. I fixed biscuits and eggs around 11:00 this morning so that will hold us until maybe 4:00 so so, maybe later. I really like to make vegetable soup and have learned how to do it pretty well. I had a great teacher (Kate) who also had a great teacher, (her mama). But it has gotten a lot easier these days as opposed to the day when my mother in law had to cook up meat and make her own broth. But, I have had to make some changes now that Kate has to really watch her sodium levels. I used to just use “Vegall” but now I uses strictly fresh or frozen vegetables, and low sodium V-8 juice and low sodium broth when I have it. It tastes just as good and I can add salt to my bowls if I want to. 

That’s it for today. I hope your day and your week is blessed. I hope you share the blessings a a new born Savior with everyone you know. Peace. 

 Wednesday, December 11th, the month is going by quickly. I suspect that 10 year old me would think that the month was creeping by and that Christmas is a loooooong way off. But 80 year old me thinks that the days seem to pass pretty quickly. Blame Santa Claus because it makes a difference whether you are waiting for Santa Claus or you ARE Santa Claus. 

We have started this week off in good stead. Ms. Kate is feeling so much better. I think she is about 99% over the bronchitis with only a little of the lingering cough remaining. And, she has officially started on the Cardiac Rehab program. She went Monday and again today and we go back again on Friday. It does give  some sore muscles but that is to be expected. She makes it through what they want her to do in the class pretty well. Monday she had a followup appointment with her cardiac NP and got a good report from them. I think we can measure her progress by the fact that she has no medical appointments for the rest of the month except for the rehab three days a week. We give God all glory for her progress. 

Did I tell you that I got into a cookie making mood? I made chocolate chip, Springerlies, and snickerdoodle cookies and then while I was at it I made a pumpkin pie. The pie is all gone by now of course so I have to think about what I want to do next. I’d really like to make a good Coconut Creme pie but I don’t think I’m quite ready to jump on that horse. But, I love a good coconut Creme pie. I have found that there are a lot of places that make them but some of them are wonderful and others are just; meh”!

My bird feeders are empty and I really need to get out there and fill them. I put in an order with Wild Birds Unlimited this morning for $170.00.  That was for only seven items. I can’t believe how much more it costs me to feed these guys, but then I can’t believe what it costs me to feed Kate and me these days either. If I would just put out the sun flower seeds it would provide them food, but they really flock to all of the different varieties that I buy. I also have to get hold of an electrician to replace the outlet on the back patio. I’ve studied how to do it but I just can get down to do it because it is so low and I would have to lay down on the concrete to do it. That ain’t happening. Until then. The birds will have to deal with the fact that they won’t have unfrozen water at times. 

That’s it for this Wednesday. Have a wonderful rest of your week. Peace.