A Proud Grandma Moment

Here is my 2 year old Granddaughter Saranita. The voice asking the question is none other than the head of the household, my son Nick as Luther suggests in the Catechism.

Let's hear it for Rose

I am so weary of politicians taking my money and spending it freely. This latest trillion dollar forced buying of business just burns me up. IF I wanted to own mortgages, I would have become a landlord. I am angry that people
******who shouldn't have applied for a mortgage and
******shouldn't have been given a mortgage
*******by companies that have made money from a mortgage that they *******shouldn't have given to someone are all going to get MY money!

They are all going to be rescued by MY MONEY and they are not going to suffer for their bad decision. I will feel the pain. The person who shouldn't have signed the papers will NOT suffer. The company who shouldn't have made the mortgage will NOT suffer. They will not learn their lesson because they will have no pain.

I agree that SOME taxes are necessary for the running of a government. Roads need to be built and maintained. An army must be paid and equipped. Money must be minted (although it should be backed by gold). I can't find in the constitution where it authorizes the government to take my money to buy businesses, or healthcare, or welfare, or study the life cycle of seals or any of the other wasteful uses of MY money.

And now to Rose. She fought the battle and won. It was hard but one person can make a difference and I will continue to resist and vote against every tax I have the opportunity to oppose.

Similes to Make You Smile

This past week, the girls at St Barbara's Academy learned about similes and metaphors. Their assignment was to write 10 similes and 5 metaphors. Here is the effort of Marina, my 8 year old granddaughter.

Similes

1. My sister is like the flower in the green grassy meadow.
2. I am as quick as a bunny.
3. Daddy is busy like a bee in his hive.
4. Grandma is as happy as a bird in the sky.
5. Mommy Danylle is as happy as a clown.
6. Grandpa is as busy as a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter.
7. Lily is as sweet as a peach.
8. Theodore is as handsome as a rooster.
9. Dean is as tall as a vanity.
10. I am as pretty as a flower in its pot.

Metaphors

1. Lily's skin was the sunshine shining brightly in the sky.
2. Dean is the first star in the sky.
3. Theodore is a sharp little knife.
4. Daddy was the silver moon in space.
5. I am a beautiful smelling flower petal.

Didn't she do a great job for her first time writing similes and metaphor? The girls had so much fun writing these out and enjoyed reading them to each other.

Lovely Rita, Pita Maid - with apologies to the Beatles

In August I had the opportunity to visit my sympathera, Sandy. In the Greek culture you are closely related to more than just your blood relatives or in-laws. Sympethera means that she is mother-in-law to my son and I am mother-in-law to her daughter. We are both mothers to the same couple. The Greeks have a word for that. If we were talking about the dads, they would be sympetheros. Welcome to My Big Fat Greek Wedding!

I was bringing the ingredients to make red pepper hummus and I asked Sandy if she would have the opportunity to get some pita bread or pita chips during my 4 hr drive to her house. Imagine my surprise when I got there and she was making pita bread from scratch! She taught me a thing or two about pita making and I decided to try it on my own a couple of weeks ago.
If you want the recipe and an easy tutorial on making pita bread, you can look where I looked. I did decide to use 1 cup whole wheat flour with 2 cups of white flour. Here are my pita balls resting.

I rolled them out into not quite perfect circles. I figured they were not thick enough to actually make a pocket when they baked but I was wrong. Whenever I use a rolling pin, I think of my mother. She died when I was 15 and that was a long time ago. I do have pleasant memories of my mom and the sound of the rolling pin as it worked it's magic on pie crusts or cookies.
The next step was baking them in the oven and I inverted a large jelly roll pan to substitute for a baking stone. Some years ago I gave away my baking stone because I never used it. I do regret that now but it is gone. The upside down pan worked well. You can see that they are puffing up; some more than others.

This was my final haul and my dear husband was so glad to have fresh Syrian bread. His family never called it pita bread; it was always Syrian bread. I have made it several times since my first attempt. It is easy and delicious!

For Unto Us a Granddaughter is Born!

As you can see, God has given us another gift! This is our beautiful granddaughter, Susan Camille. She was born on September 17th (the same day as her second cousin Zoe was born a year ago). Nick and Naomi now have 2 lovely September born daughters.



Here is Susan with her grandparents. Rob and Sandy made it from Indiana (a 4 hr drive) before I was able to get to the hospital(a 10 min drive)! It was good to see our friends and rejoice together over our 2nd joint granddaughter.



Rob was able to get this picture of Susan's yawning. Imagine that mouth opened with some volume in the coming months. OK, we won't imagine that! You can see in this picture the black head of hair that Susan has. It is not just dark brown hair; it is black!!!

Naomi is well and everyone is at home right now. Daddy Nick has a couple weeks off to help at home. I wonder if he is going to bake a cake for Saranita's birthday, a week from today.

My Grandma's House

Here is a descriptive paragraph that my granddaughter Lily wrote this past week. I thought you would enjoy reading it. This is her first attempt at a descriptive paragraph and I think she did a great job.


My Grandma's House

I go to my Grandmother's house for school and I learn a lot of things there. When I get inside, I can smell good food*. Grandma's house is pretty and it is really clean**. Outside she has a pond with many fish. I like to play in her toy room. She has numerous cats. She has a piano and I like to play on it. Grandma has a big cabinet with glass doors. Grandma has quite a few beautiful pictures. Grandma's house is my favorite place to go.


So do you feel like you've visited my house????

* Lest you get the impression that I am super grandma, Lily wrote this paragraph while I had swiss steak cooking in the crockpot. I am making a real effort to feed my husband food that I cooked!!
** Since the children are at my house 4 days a week, I have incorporated house cleaning into their school schedule. Each day they have the responsibility for cleaning a different part of the house. Her comment is more about her cleaning ability than about mine.

We Were Impressed With Ourselves!

My friend Deb and I decided that the altar flowers needed sprucing up for our church. They have been around for many years and as hard as it is to believe, fake flowers can look droopy! Our first step was reconnaissance to the local craft store. Neither Deb nor I have vast experience in arranging flowers so we desperately needed help.

We found an arrangement which we really liked and took a digital photo of it. One thing which Debbie did remember is that odd numbers of things are used in an arrangment. We settled on 3. These roses in full bloom look amazingly real.


After positioning the roses, we added height with another red flower. We chose to replace the red flowers first since the Chaplain will be installed as Pastor at Christ Church on August 24th which happens to be the festival for St Bartholomew.

We added contrast with the white flowers. Notice that they are in 3 locations. We finished it off by filling in the bare spots with greenery and adding Spanish Moss to cover the foam in the vase. Hey, I think we're getting the hang of this!!!

What do you think??? We each made one flower arrangement to go on the side of the altar on pedestals. When we finished, we shook hands like partners in a venture. Then we hugged and congratulated ourselves on our impressive work. Now that we have one down, we may just use the same form with different colors.

Walking in Downtown Milwaukee

This footware was seen on a walking tour my husband I took of downtown Milwaukee. Can you just imagine the clothing possibilities which would coordinate with these foot-loose-and-fancy-free shoes?



These shoes cry out black and white tux affair...or maybe a Mardi Gras dance....or maybe a chess tournament.








Obviously, these shoes would be worn by the well-shod pastor during the Trinity Season, don't you think? Or maybe they should be saved for once a year on March 17th to wear to the St Patty's Day parade. They might cause a PETA demonstration or by a firm well-placed kick, end a PETA protest

I really had to dissuade my husband from purchasing any of these.....do you believe me?????

Phase III has arrived

I am finally in phase III of therapy for my shoulder and I am happy progress is continuing to be made. If you are bored and want to see what is involved, you can find the information here.

At long last, my therapist has reduced some of the exercises I have been doing and we are just concentrating on strength building actions. Therabands are my friends!!

She has also given me the OK to do the exercise regime only once a day....except for the therabands which I will continue to work twice a day.

Stepping out in faith (and with a pillow under my arm) this weekend, I will drive to Chicago and WI to visit my friends Susan, Melody and Cheryl. I'm happy to say that I will also get to see Sandy (Saranita's other grandma) on the way there and on the way back.