All Things Monday…

If you’re looking for the Monday Quiz, it’s at the bottom of the post.  I decided to switch things up a bit, and do the weekend recap first.  You know, it’s good to switch up, every now and then to make things more interesting 🙂

First of all, I didn’t blog on Friday because I went out for lunch and some shopping with my daughter and granddaughter. We were celebrating granddaughter, Madison’s, last day of school!  Madison finished up her first year of home school shortly before lunchtime, on Friday.  I’m so proud of Madison, and everything that she’s learned this year.  My daughter did a fantastic job of keeping Madison on task, and making sure things ran smoothly all year. (She even learned a few things herself, too)  Kudos to both of them!  Madison is now an official second grader!

Below are photographs of Madison, taken on the first and last days of school.  Boy, what a difference a year makes!

By the way, after lunch and shopping, on Friday, we ended our day with a visit to our local Dairy Queen!  I’d been craving a banana split for almost a week, and I gave in and treated myself to one.  I enjoyed every forbidden bite of that sucker, too!

We kicked off our weekend with pizza and a little family time!  Once again, our oldest son, Brett, dug around in our collection of old videos, and came up with some very old footage!  We began by watching Brett’s senior video, class of 2000, then we went even further back in time…  Some of the footage we watched dated all the way back to 1974, when I still had long, straight hair and Ed still had lots of curly, brown hair!  Those were the days 🙂   As we watched footage of our children as babies, it seemed like a lifetime ago–and, you know, it almost was!  Our oldest is now 35, and our youngest will soon turn 29.  My, how the time has flown, as Ed and I are now watching our second generation grow up before our eyes.

In other weekend news, I almost forgot to mention, we also kicked off our weekend by adopting a new kitten on Friday afternoon!  The story of how this adoption came about is too complicated to tell today, so I’ll save it for another day.  Just so you know, this kitten makes cat number thirteen!  I sure hope that number doesn’t turn out to be a bad omen for our sweet new kitty.

new kitty

Our Saturday was almost like a marathon day!  Here is some of what we did:

Ed and I picked a pail of green beans at 7:00 am.  I washed and snapped the beans while Ed and our son-in-law took a load of scrap metal to be sold.  (They hauled off two old water tanks, four old grills, and an old fire pit, in addition to a few other odds-n-ends.)  Ed returned and harrowed around the garden. (the weeds are almost out of control, thanks to daily showers of rain!)  After Ed finished harrowing up the grass and weeds, he plowed up our potatoes, then we picked them up.  After that,  we babysat our two oldest grandsons while their parents went to see about discarding their old stove, then picking up a newer stove.  After the grands went home, I took a nap, while Ed mowed grass for two hours! Later, I cooked supper while Ed canned the beans we’d picked earlier in the day.  (We’ve canned 20 quarts of beans, so far.)

Almost everything we ate for supper, on Saturday night, was grown in our garden.  We had green beans, new potatoes, fried squash, stewed tomatoes with rice, smoked sausage, and cornbread.  Best of all, I made a fresh blackberry cobbler for dessert! Here’s some of the fresh bounty, collected over the weekend:

fresh vegetables and eggs

I’d sort of hoped to make a trip back to the beach, on Sunday, but the weather didn’t cooperate.  It was cloudy, rainy, windy and cold!  It was just as well, since Ed and I were kind of tired from our busy day on Saturday!  I actually got up, on Sunday, then went back to bed for a while–something I rarely do.  Ed spent a little more time in his recliner than usual–something he rarely does.

On Sunday afternoon, Ed and I decided to pay a visit to the assisted living facility where Ed’s mom resided for over three years.  Our oldest son, Brett, has recently begun helping conduct church services there, so we decided to attend one of the services.  Most of the residents at the assisted living home are still the same as when Ed’s mom lived there, and boy,  were they happy to see Ed!  Their eyes lit up and each one had to hug Ed’s neck 🙂  One older lady proclaimed to us that “Ed is like my daddy”,  to which I had to smile 🙂

We had a nice visit with all of the ladies, and really enjoyed hearing our son conduct his portion of the service.  (I was only sorry that Ed’s mom wasn’t there to enjoy the services with us.  She would’ve been so pleased!)  I feel sure we’ll be attending more services with our son and the ladies sometime in the near future.

Since the ladies were so happy to see Ed again, he went out and bought them a couple of watermelons to have for their snack!  Isn’t he something?

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1. My Mom double dared me to actually post Monday Quiz today after its two-week hiatus… what was the last thing someone dared you to do?

I can’t remember the last thing someone dared me to do, but I probably didn’t do it anyway.  I’m too cautious for that.

2. Today is National Rocky Road Day – are you celebrating?

No, I won’t be celebrating.  I love Rocky Road ice cream, but I just ate a banana split, on Friday, and it’s too soon to be bad again!

3. June is Aquarium Month – have you visited an Aquarium lately?

No, I haven’t visited an aquarium lately.  The last time I visited an aquarium (the one in Charleston, SC, actually) was almost seven years ago.  I’d love to go again, though!

4. Have you had a yummy new food or tried a new recipe lately?

I made a fresh blackberry cobbler on Saturday night.  I hadn’t made a blackberry cobbler in years, and it reminded me of my mother because I used her recipe.

My question for you:

How did you spend your weekend?

Thanks to Heather and Wayne for hosting the Monday Quiz!