I know that’s a lot for one blog post, but those of you who know me, realize I write what’s on my mind at the time.
As to Birthdays our oldest grandchild, Nelson, turned 13 Monday, and we celebrated Tuesday night with a family dinner of Mama’s Pizza (a place his mom worked at as a teenager and our favorite pizza place in the world), salad, and of course BD Cake.
His sister Lilly, the baker in the family, made the GF and egg free cake with mango ganache (thank goodness for the computer spell check!) in the center. It was yummy, but I didn’t get a big enough piece. There are nine of us in our family. 😊
Anyway, that left me wanting more cake. Now cake is not something I can routinely eat. At least not and expect to maintain or much less lose any weight. Truth be told, I’ve gained back 3 pounds from my lowest weight. Never should have bought those chips! LOL (Nevertheless, I’ve had this giant craving for cake. So, Wednesday, when I had to go by Sprouts to pick up a supplement, I checked out their bakery and this is what I found. Yummy chocolate cake. I ate some immediately, and it was just what I wanted.
I have learned over the years to just go for whatever it is I’m craving and not try to substitute a bunch of other stuff. I will eat more of the other stuff than I ever would’ve of whatever the first thing was I craved. Bob was happy about chocolate cake, too.
Let’s talk about friends. I was fortunate to spend the weekend with a bunch of my women friends from church. We had a retreat Friday night and Saturday in our church building. In years past we’ve had these in some small towns in a retreat center or hotel. Then we had the two years of Covid, and we did the retreat on Zoom. Those turned out amazingly well but being together in person was especially wonderful this year. I chaired the planning committee made up of super women who would do anything for you. It made the work, which started way last fall way, fun and enjoyable. Our theme was “For the Beauty of the Earth,” very appropriate since last Friday was Earth Day. It was great fun to see all the various things our members are doing now to protect the earth.
We made Bee Watering Stations from polymer clay which we baked. The idea is that bees can drown, and we need to provide a place where they can safely get a sip of water. Here are the two I made. Of course, one is turquoise. You push the pointy end into the earth close to your sprinkler system. The bee perches on the edge and can safely drink. I’ve cut back on the number of paper towels I use. I have a separate cloth towels I use to dry veggies, and I don’t clean with paper towels anymore. I’m hoping to stop using them as napkins and use cloth ones. Not quite there yet, but several of my church friends do that. What kinds of things do you do for the environment?
Saturday (yes, during the retreat) I participated in the Worth the Wait Seasoned Romance Readers Facebook group. It was fun. Congratulations: Twila Mason, Karen Geerling, Kennedy Hopkins, and Katherine Dougherty. I gave away a print copy of COMOPROMISE, an e-copy of SECOND ACT, Book 1 The Second Chances Series, a $10 Amazon GC, and a $10 Starbuck’s GC. Thanks for playing along.
Next month, I’ll run another $.99 cent sale. But right this minute, I don’t remember which book it is. LOL Guess you need to subscribe to my Newsletter and follow here and on FACEBOOK to find out. As always, I love to hear from you. 😊
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Happy Birthday to your grandchild. A teenager now!
I eat more than my share of baked goods as you know. (I blame that all on Bill…lol.) I had a friend over this week for tea. She’s into all organic cooking, actually, Deirdre in my mysteries is fashioned after her. She made and brought over delicious lemon ginger cookies. It was great to visit. Four friends moved away this past year including one couple that we did the most with.
Your bee watering stations are cute besides useful. We reduce, reuse, and recycle. Bill does not want to put anything in a landfill if he can help it. Anything that would be normally thrown out, he will pay whatever it takes to fix it. He always mentions the future of our grandchildren. We often walk to the store, library, post office, etc. rather than take the car.
An interesting blog.
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Hey, Susan. I could not live with your husband. I’d be as big as a house. I salivate over all the baked goods you post on FB. LOL I’m not surprised that y’all work to make environmentally sound decisions about things. You are soooooo lucky to be able to walk so many places. It’s what I love most about some of the places we go on our vacations–to be able to walk everywhere. I’m so sorry you had four friends move away. Gosh that’s a lot. Hope they are close enough you can at least see them occasionally. You could make bee watering stations with your grands. It’s pretty easy and a cool lesson for kids. Thanks so much for stopping by. 🙂
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Loved the birthday cake, Marsha. I can’t believe you have a 13-year-old grandchild. You don’t look old enough!
I have my mum living with me now, who lived through the war. It’s amazing how little they had compared to us. They made do and mended, and they probably had a healthier diet in many ways, even though frugal. I try my best to re-use and recycle, but I could do far more. Thanks for the interesting post. Your friends seem really nice!
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Hey, Helena. Thanks for the kind words. I hope having your mum living with you is working out for all of you.. An adjustment, I’m sure. I’ve often thought some of what we need to do is go back to how things were done in the old days. ( Not socially) But like before we had paper towels, we use cloth towels for everything. We used rags for cleaning. Our environment has paid for all the conveniences we now enjoy. Thanks so much for stopping by. 🙂
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