FABULOUS PLAYGROUND

Have you ever seen anything like this playground?

This past weekend we went to Grand Forks to see our grandson, Sammy and his parents.  It was a bit windy and chilly, but we did take Sammy to this awesome playground. 

Which way should I go, grandma?

Maybe to the swings?

Cute little house.

Even grandpa has to check it out!

Nope, not the slide.

What's down here?

Another little place to hide.

It goes on and on...........

This dragon greets you by the entrance.

Boy, if I was a kid I sure would have a lot of fun on this playground.  Just as we were leaving, about 6 families, each with several kids, came.  It was fun to see the kids all scamper off to different areas of the playground, and there was plenty of room for all.

BUILDING THINGS

Last week I took my 9 year old granddaughter to the park, and after she played on,

 and posed on,

 every single piece of playground equipment, we walked around the little pond in the park.  It was still mostly frozen,

 
although the geese did find a little water to practice their swim strokes.

They would not be able to walk on the ice this week.  It is gone!  Ice has gone out on the little lakes around our area.  It sure seems like spring.  My iris are up, my day lilies are up, and a couple of other things that I can't identify yet are up.  The little greenhouse on the patio is housing scores of tiny little green seedlings, too.  We are waiting for the other shoe to drop.  I can't believe spring is here so early, so I do expect a good old snow storm before it really is here to stay.

Doesn't this look good?  I made a wonderful orange flavored chicken veggie dish last week.  Served over rice it fed us for two wonderful nights.

But I have been busy with things other than taking granddaughters to the park and cooking dinner.  I have been involved in a construction project.  This project didn't involve a trip to Home Depot or Lowe's, though.  Instead I bought my materials at my local quilt shop, and I have been busy building.

First I laid out the walls.

Then I hung the doors

The roofs came next,

then the sky background.  I am now sewing each little house block together.  Aren't they fun?  This is the Schnibbles pattern, Full House.  I love it!  I'll be sure to post a photo of the finished project.

Off to get the taxes done.

WISDOM FROM MY DAD

I think I have shared this with you before, but it should be repeated often.  I read something on a friends blog post today that jarred my memory and I've been thinking of my dad, and his wisdom ever since.  I'm a preacher's kid, and I was privileged to have my dad instruct me in confirmation class.

This little saying was one of the little extra things we were to learn from him in addition to the Catechism and Bible studies.  I don't know if these are his original words, or if they came from somewhere else, but I do know I have remembered them since I learned them in 7th grade. 

Do not say what you do not want to be saying when Jesus comes.
Do not do what you do not want to be doing when Jesus comes.
And do not go where you do not want to be found when Jesus comes.

Oh, yes, I have at times forgotten to put those words into practice.  I've sinned much!  But because of His Grace, I have been forgiven.  And that is the most important thing I learned from my dad!  Jesus loves me and died for me.  And the older I get, the more I appreciate this Grace.  What a beautiful word!  Grace.

 

HAPPY ST. URHO'S DAY!

And I'll bet there are very few of you who know who St. Urho is!  According to my sources, this is the story:

The legend of St. Urho originated in Northern Minnesota in the 1950s. However, there are differing opinions as to whether it began with the fables created by Sulo Havumaki of Bemidji, or the tongue-in-cheek tales told by Richard Mattson of Virginia. Either way, the legend has grown among North Americans of Finnish descent to the point where St. Urho is known and celebrated across the United States and Canada, and even in Finland.

St. Urho's Day is celebrated on March 16th, the day prior to the better known feast of some minor saint from Ireland, who was alleged to have driven the snakes from that island.

The legend of St. Urho says he chased the grasshoppers out of ancient Finland, thus saving the grape crop and the jobs of Finnish vineyard workers. He did this by uttering the phrase: "Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen" (roughly translated: "Grasshopper, grasshopper, go to Hell!"). His feast is celebrated by wearing the colors Royal Purple and Nile Green. St. Urho is nearly always represented with grapes and grasshoppers as part of the picture.

And now you know the rest of the story.

This educational moment is coming to you from Minnesota, where the temperature outside this afternoon hit 80 degrees, and our little greenhouse was sweltering in 104 degree heat.  Maybe this story is all nonsense, caused by fried brains!  But I doubt it.  I believe in St. Urho.  And I don't have a single drop of Finish blood.

MINNESOTA WARMING

This is Minnesota, folks.  You know, Minnesota?  The land of snow and cold?  The land of below zero?  The frozen north?  This is our forecast for next week. 

There is only one word to describe this. 

Unbelievable.  Absolutely unbelievable.

IS IT OCTOBER OR IS IT MARCH?

Well, I do know for sure that it is March because it is a special granddaughter's birthday today.  Happy 14th  birthday, Jaden!

After the time changes to daylight saving time this weekend, the sunrises will be an hour later.  I'll have my coffee gone by the time the sun comes up!

 

 This morning the sky was pinky, purply, orangy, yellowy.....And very pretty.

 

 This afternoon we went out to the nature center just west of town and took a little hike.  I think these pictures look like October 8, not March 8.

 There was no snow in sight.  The color was pretty blah, except for some green moss on the bottoms of the trees.

 I love the bare, twisted sumac plants.  Soon they will be greening up.

 I saw one beautiful bit of color, but didn't have my camera out at the time.  This cardinal was closer, and sitting in the bright sunshine, his brilliant red breast almost glowing in the light.  I grabbed the camera and he flew to a more distant tree and turned his back on me.  That wasn't nice, was it?

 And these two guys also turned their backs on me and flipped their fluffy white tails in the air and ran off.

TOMATOES AND PEPPERS AND BEANS, OH MY!

No, my staycation did not turn fatal!  Wow, I don't think I have ever gone this long without posting.  It's just been so normal around here, nothing out of the ordinary to post about, that I have kind of neglected this blog.   But we had something exceptional happen yesterday so now I have something to say.

And I will say it nice and loud!  Shout it from the rooftops!  It was 64 degrees yesterday!  March 6th in Minnesota, it was 64 degrees!  What a lovely day it was.  We had bright sun and light breezes and balmy temps.  And guess what it made me think about?

Time to get those seeds picked out and purchased or ordered.  And guess what we did yesterday in celebration of the warm temps?  We did some construction!

Our new structure is built of metal shelving and plastic wrapping......

It has 6 nice shelves.....

It sits next to the patio door on the south patio, is right in front of an electric outlet, the water faucet is right there behind the air conditioner, and it gets full sun.  Now we have to figure out when we can start to use it!

And I washed sheets in anticipation of a good night of sleep, which didn't happen.  As usual.

And my pretty blue Prius in again a bright shiny blue instead of a dingy grey.

The forecast for today is not as exciting as the numbers are on their way down.  However, by the weekend it will be 50's again, and next week will boast 50's and 60's.  And, an occasional 70 in the way southwest part of the state.

Come on spring!

MY STAYCATION WEEKEND

My weekend included some of this

and some of this

and a little of this

and also of this

This last picture is the net produce bags I am making for grocery shopping.  No need to use the cloth shopping bags and then fill them with plastic bags full of produce.  I decided I also needed reusable bags for the fruits and veggies.  These are the regular size.  I am making some larger ones for the larger amounts of apples or oranges that we buy.  I'm thinking they cost about 60 cents apiece to whip up, and maybe 6 or 7 minutes!  Easy peasy!

Hubby is home, with no fish.  Son and his friend caught walleye, Ernie got a couple of perch.

MY MINI STAYCATION

Someone is gone for 4 days.  Someone went with his son up north to the fish house.  Out in the middle of a big lake.  To live on the ice for 4 days.  Round the clock, live on the ice, for 4 days.  And that someone is not me!  Not in a minute would I live on the ice for 4 days.  How would I shower?  Plug in my phone?  Computer?  Nook?  Nope, I don't think so.

But, that leaves me with a little mini vacation right at home!  No cooking unless I want to cook.  TV if I want, otherwise it's off.  Jammies until noon if I want.  Go to town if I want.  Whoo hoo!

So, yesterday I sewed, I read, and I made a pizza out of one of my freezer stash of gluten free crusts that I make six at a time. And  I did something I have never done before!  I watched American Idol because a local girl was in the top 40 or whatever the cut off was.  However she didn't make the top 24 that will continue on.  And I went to bed without my ear plugs in because someone wasn't snoring!

Now today I am heading into town to buy some scrubby net, I think it's called, to make some veggie bags to take with me to the co-op to put my veggie purchases in.  I have used cloth shopping bags for years, but every single time I shop, I end up with a dozen plastic bags with fruit and veggies in.  No need for those.....I'll make a bunch of net ones.  Save the world from a bunch of plastic bags each week.

And then it's lunch with my daughter at a gluten free friendly spot, Chipotle.  When I get home I will sit at the machine for awhile, then head into town again to pick up my sister to have her out for another pizza! 

What a life!

A PRAYER WITH THIS MORNING'S SUNRISE

The radient sun shines in the skies,

With joy from sleep we now arise.

All praise to God, who thro' this night

Hath kept us from the devil's might.

Lord Jesus Christ, guide us this day;

Keep sin and shame far from our way.

Thy guardian angels to us send

And let them to our wants attend.

Direct our hearts to do Thy will

And for Thy Word true love instil

That we may do whate'er is right

And ever pleasing in Thy sight.

Crown all our labors with success,

Each one in his own calling bless.

May all we do or think or say

Exalt and praise Thee, Lord, this day!  Amen.

Nikolaus Herman, (1480-1561)  -   #547   The Lutheran Hymnal

VACATION FACTS AND FIGURES

My husband thinks I'm crazy, because he doesn't care a bit about these kinds of facts and figures.  But I love them!  I always write down things I want to remember, things that are important to me, things I find fascinating.  So here are the figures from our recent trip to Florida.

Going from Minnesota to Florida:
1340 miles
59 MPH average speed
49 MPG

Coming home from Florida to Minnesota:
1442 miles (we took a different route)
61 MPH average speed (more freeway driving)
45.6 MPG

So what does this tell you?  I don't know....maybe that driving faster lowers the MPG?

I have been grocery shopping and restocked the frig and pantry, I have washed clothes, and I have perused the seed catalog that came in the mail while we were gone.  Spring is coming, you know!

This morning we are heading in to a grandson's basketball tournament.  That should be a fun thing to do on a Saturday morning, don't you think?

DAY FOURTEEN: HOME

We arrived home about 6:30 pm after almost 11 hours of driving today.  I am pooped!  Get back to you tomorrow. 

DAY THIRTEEN: 524 MILES TO GO

We are in Missouri, just across the Arkansas Missouri border.  524 miles from home.  We thought we'd go out for a nice supper, but at six o'clock on Valentine's night, you don't just walk into a nice steak house and plan to get served and out within a decent amount of time.  The places we checked were packed, and had long lines.  We went to a Mexican restaurant, advertised as authentic.  It was pretty good.  I can say that I have never seen staff work as fast as they did in this place.  All male staff, and they were almost running the whole time.  Really busy place, but very fast service.

So, now it's a little TV to relax and then to sleep.  I haven't slept well for several nights, so I'm hoping tonight I will.  Then we have a busy day tomorrow, with 524 more miles.  Then we're home, and staying there!

DAY TWELVE: BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI

We are the Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.  We arrived early enough to do a little tour of the city.  I had many surprises.  First of all, Biloxi is much smaller than I had envisioned.  And I believe it was much larger before Katrina.  Many folks just left.  But it is a charming little town, and I think it is a Phoenix and that it will rise from the ashes.

First of all, it was a lovely sunrise back in Florida where we started out our day. 

Our travels took us through Mobile, Alabama where we saw this battle ship off to the left of the highway.

We also saw this fancy new bridge off to the right.

At the Mississippi state line we were greeted by this beautiful visitor center.

This is an area inside the visitor center!  Isn't it beautiful?  We were offered a cup of coffee along with our free maps and other information.

We took a tour of the city of Biloxi.  In the old grave yard, this crypt was ruined by Katrina.

A new bridge, thanks to Katrina.

A FEMA shotgun home that the residents were allowed to buy for their permanent home.  Tiny, isn't it?

This home is fixed up to it's pre-Katrina beauty, but they have added a high water sign.

This home has been condemned, but it still standing with the marks still visible on the door.

Biloxi was changed forever by Katrina.  Huge hotels, casinos, and many businesses, in addition to private homes were lost in the storm.  They received the full force of the category 5 storm, winds and all, not just the flooding as other places had.  The people seem strong and determined to rebuild a town that is better than the one that Katrina tried to destroy.

DAY ELEVEN: WIND CHILL?

The temperature in Panama City, Florida this morning is 29 degrees with a "feels like" of 20.  Yes, folks.  I said Panama City, Florida.  And I said 29 degrees with a "feels like" of 20.  Heading home tomorrow.  Well, to be honest, we were already scheduled to head to Minnesota tomorrow.

DAY TEN: WINDY

I headed to the beach by myself this afternoon, and I really did have the whole beach to myself.  It was extremely windy, and probably a bit cool for many, but I loved it!

I met one young man on his way back to the parking lot, and a couple came down for maybe ten minutes and then left.  I was alone.

I should have taken video as the waves were making quite a lot of noise as they crashed into the shore.

The sand was blowing just like the snow does back home, but it was much warmer!

Warmer until tomorrow morning.  An Arctic blast is coming and they are talking temps in the 20's for parts of this area.  Might as well go home!  Which we will do on Monday.  We will head north on Monday, probably taking it pretty slow, maybe taking four or so days.