The calm before the storm

What I mean is, next week, my "storm" will be the happy addition of three grandchildren for five days.  I know it will seem like this week was calm in comparison.  I mean, I got to watch FIVE movies!  How often to I get to do that???  I finished my first braided rug

while re-watching North and South - no, not the Civil War flick but the BBC mini-series.  I just love that movie.  Thanks, Elise, for introducing me to it.

Speaking of Civil War, after talking to Julina who was with Alex and Shiloh and Stratton back east visiting Gettysburg, Steve and I decided to watch the DVD Gettysburg over a couple of evenings.  It was very good.  And, I began my second braided rug while watching (this one, appropriately, is going to be red-white-and blue and will go in our patriotic-themed family room)

I also watched two documentaries - Man on Wire (what a rather egocentric and strange man!) and The Rape of Europa which tells why, due to Hitler and World War II, much of Europe's fine art was destroyed or lost.  It was incredible to watch.  Monuments Men is next on my Netflix cue!

And, just for fun, I re-watched Avitar.  Even without the 3-D, that is an amazing movie.

Also during the week, I finished a mini-book on Steve's and my trip to Hawaii last fall and I started a Blurb book of my blogs (it was not as intimidating as I thought it would be).  I borrowed Steven and Tamara's steam cleaner and tackled our living room couches (thanks, dogs!).  And, I have to say that I don't know what we did before the internet!  How many times during the week do I check on how to do something from the internet?  This week, it was how to pressure-can the chicken breasts I bought on sale.  My pressure canner instruction manual - written in the 60's - was really vague so I found a helpful blog -with pictures - and viola!  Chicken done.  And, I found another picture-full set of instructions on how to make a fabric camera strap cover.  Done!  Anyone need a camera strap cover????  Serious.....

Saturday morning, Steve and I spread new mulch on the rose garden

Bones was with us for the day while Sarah went to St. Louis. 



Last night, Steve and I attended a Missouri Symphony concert at the Missouri Theater (MU just bought the theater this week.  They had been leasing it and now it is theirs - part of their maybe-it-will-finally-happen new Fine Arts complex).  The concert last night featured a couple of concertos which were lovely and ended with one of my five all-time favorite pieces by Rimsky-Korsakov:  Scheherazade.  It was just splendid.  What a great way to end the week.

Two recipes

Yummy Vanilla Ice Cream

1 qt. half & half

1 qt. heavy cream

1 ½ cups sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1/8 tsp.salt

Mix ingredients right in the ice cream maker can and freeze.  You can add pureed fruit – maybe 1-1/2 cups – but add less cream or it will overflow when frozen.  If you add a chunky ingredient, do not add until freezing is about half done or they will sink to the bottom.

Ruth’s Rolls

(smaller recipe with better instructions)

2 ¾ cups warm-hot water

¾ cup powdered milk powder

½ cup sugar

2 Tbs. yeast

                Combine these together in a large bowl

2 beaten eggs

½ cup oil

                Add these to yeast mixture

7-8 (approx.) cups flour

                Hand-stir in flour gradually until a consistency is reached where it no longer looks wet and the dough can be handled without excessive stickiness. If your Kitchen-aid bowl can hold all these ingredients, use it and the dough hooks.  Otherwise, be ready to use some arm-muscle because if you work the dough too much (i.e. knead) the rolls will be tough.  You also do not want to add too much flour for the same reason. For that last bit of flour, you can gently work it into the dough with your hands.   Let dough rise to double in size 2 times. 

FOR DINNER ROLLS:  Roll into balls and put in greased pan.  Rise. Bake. Brush with butter after out of the oven

FOR CINNAMON ROLLS:  You will need melted margarine or butter (probably 1 stick), brown sugar (about 1 ½ to 2 cups), cinnamon, and optional chopped nuts (about 1 cup) and optional raisins (about 1-2 cups).  Divide dough into two parts.  Roll one part out into an oblong (the thinner the roll, the more “layers” you will have).  Spread thinly with melted margarine or butter.  Pastry brush works well here.  With your hands, you next spread brown sugar in a thin layer.  Sprinkle with cinnamon – you determine how much.  I personally do not like the cinnabon-style of heavy cinnamon.  Add nuts and/or raisins if you want.  Roll dough on the long side of the oblong.  Cut into 1-inch pieces and place in greased pan.  If you like brown edges, keep rolls far apart.  If you don’t, place them in the pan with just about ½ inch distance between so when they rise, the sides touch.  Rise.  Bake.  Let rolls cool for about 5 minutes and then top with glaze.

GLAZE:  1 lb. powdered sugar, 2 Tbs. melted butter or margarine, 2 Tbs corn syrup, 1 tsp. vanilla.  Gradually mix in warm water -  1 Tbs. at a time - to make it spreadable but not too runny.

FOR ORANGE-APRICOT:  You will follow the same procedure for the cinnamon rolls only substitute grated orange peel for the cinnamon and dried apricot bits for the raisins.

Deep breath and slow down

The first "real" week of summer - it was fabulous.  I started reclaiming the flower beds from the weeds and encroaching grass.  Steve just came in bearing three beautiful red raspberries from our yard.  Blackberries are not far behind.  I picked the pie cherry tree this week.  Not very many this year for some reason because we had tons of blooms.  Maybe because of fewer bees?  Maybe next year I need to take a Q-tip and visit from flower to flower?  If I say "bzzzzzzzz" I might fool the tree?  I have picked a strawberry or two every day or so and we are still harvesting an occasional asparagus although I think that will be ending soon.  The beans and squash are up and thriving as are the tomato plants.  I sure love to be in the yard but I have discovered I really need to pace myself because, shockingly, my body is getting old!  I just don't have the stamina I had even a few years ago.  UGH!  I hate it.

I have four new music students - three just for the summer (two cello and one bass) and one hopefully for the long haul.  That one, Anna, is taking piano and she will help me with yard work in exchange.  I am so excited for that.  (not sure what we'll do in winter - maybe some less-regular cleaning chores?) You know I already teach a sister in our ward, Jenna, piano in exchange for dusting?  She comes every week and, after her 30-minute lesson, we both take dust wands and tackle either the upstairs or downstairs.  The house has never been so dust-free.

I'm still tied to school - this week it was to work on selling advertising for the concert program book.  And, I had 19 white tuxedo shirts in varying stages of dinginess and ring-around-the-collar grime that needed to be washed, bleached, and dried out in the sun.  Only, we had overcast/rain for much of the week.  The sun finally came out on Friday and I strung temporary clotheslines around the back yard in the sunny patches to dry all these shirts.  I can't say they are blindingly white but they ARE whiter and definitely look a whole lot better than they did.  And, the smell of sun-dried clothes is just wonderful.

I started TWO projects this week that have been written down in my yearly goals and carried over to the next year for at least three or four years!  I started my braided rug project.  Remember when I made all the patchwork quilts?  That was, in part, to purge my huge fabric collection.  At the same time, I pulled out fabric that I thought would work for a braided rug.  Included in the pile was a bunch of dark double knit and several pieces of 100% wool that had been given to me in the 80's by Leslie Ethington.  So, this week, I looked at all this fabric again and came to the conclusion that I really don't need a braided rug THAT huge and I really don't want to use the wool or double knit.  The wool is better suited for a man's shirt and it also has the occasional hole (as wool will get over time - bugs.  Hence the invention of moth balls).   I guess I will just take all the unwanted fabric to a second-hand store.....In the meantime, I have cut the remaining fabric into strips and I have already begun making my braid.  I did this while tackling my second project which was previewing about 18 OLD videotapes filled with made-for-TV movies or Star Trek Next Generation episodes (sigh - who would have ever guessed back in the day that there would be such a thing as streaming?) and sprinkled with the random family-history events (school concert, a television feature).  Ultimately, these important events will be gleaned and edited and put onto a DVD.  

I had a Prairie Strings duo gig on Saturday at Stephens Lake Park Amphitheater and imagine my surprise when the groom was Kelson Rosbach!  I had been working with just the bride so I had no clue.  Aaron Howard was best man.  Kevin Moegling was a groomsman.  It was VERY windy and I think I swallowed a bug so our performance to not be one of our best.  Sigh.

Finally, Trissy got her summer cut on Wednesday.  Isn't she beautiful?

And, Steve, on one of our daily walks this week, composed this poem about Sadie

Know this that Sadie is a pill
'cause she don't like to walk uphill
She'll do her business on the street
And that will make her walk complete.

The end of May

And so one of the busiest months of the year comes to an end.

Even though Sarah's birthday was the end of April, we didn't get to celebrate until May.  She got a chocolate ice cream cake.



Steven got Italian cream cake (he allowed me to make it gluten free.....which makes him still the favored son!

Speaking of gluten free - around mid-May, Aldi offered a bunch of gluten free products under their label "Live G-Free" and my Mother's Day gift was to buy a sample of each item.  And they all taste terrific.  I ate chicken nuggets for the first time in 14 years!  Their wraps are better than any other brand I have tasted.  I'm not sure when Aldi will bring these products out on a permanent basis but I hope soon.  I wrote them a letter of thanks and maybe that will count for something.....

May was full, of course, of music performances.  Below is a photo of some of the RBHS orchestra members after their spring concert.  They also played for baccalaureate again this year.  And I had quartets providing background ambiance for a couple of retirement receptions throughout the month.

Here are the flowers (and the apple) I got from my five graduating seniors. 

 

Spring started the wedding season and we had a gig in the Governor's Garden in Jefferson City.  The weather was threatening  rain so we played under the covered walkway which gave us a lovely view of the capital.
 

Here we are....Tamara Kitchen subbed on violin, Margaret Lawless on violin, viola sub, Morgan Owen.

On Memorial Day Saturday, we went to St. Louis to attend the temple and to take Noah and Lucy to the World  Bird Sanctuary.  It is a delightful place - quite close to the Southerland's home and it is free and it was shady and not too large and just a perfect place to take two small kids for an hour and a half.  We saw a LOT of bald eagles

and owls 

 and other birds of prey.  We saw (and heard) a kookaburra bird.  There was a turkey family. 

 

 Lucy brought from home a little metal bird-shaped lemon squeezer and her favorite thing was to feed this "bird" the pea gravel on the ground.  She also liked going into this "birdhouse" with her little toy and having it perch.

Noah and Lucy are standing inside a replica of an eagle nest shown in its actual size!

Finally, on the last day of May, Steve and I drove over to Fayette to check out the cemetery.  Plots are waaaay cheaper there than in Columbia so, when we die, I think we will be buried here in Fayette.  Isn't it a lovely place?

And now school is out (as of Thursday).  And I am excited about my summer projects:  

re-covering the dining room chairs

making a braided rug

creating jewelry

working on photo books and family history

gardening -of course!

getting Henry, the parakeet, finger trained

preparing to teach 7th and 8th grade orchestra at Oakland Middle School - not at Lange at all next year

getting ready for two orchestra classes at Rock Bridge - but I'm only teaching one of those classes and one of the band teachers is teaching the other one (he needed it to stay full-time)

AND, blogging every week.....

Elise's graduation from Syracuse University

We had about a week and a half before it was time to drive to St. Louis again (thanks so much to the Southerland’s home for being a parking lot and to Emily for being our taxi to and from the airport)

This time, it was for Elise's graduation from Syracuse University with her Master's in Library Science

 

Here is a rather blurry shot of Elise giving her speech during her convocation.  She was only one of two students invited to talk and it was in conjunction with a leadership award she received!  None of us attended her commencement (which was the day AFTER convocation – the opposite of BYU) because it was Sunday morning and we all felt attending sacrament meeting would be the better choice.

The buildings on campus are SO impressive.

 But, before all the pomp and circumstance occurred, we made a trip to Palmyra and Niagara Falls.  We attended the temple in Palmyra 

 

 

and stayed overnight in a lovely hotel, the Palmyra Inn, right around the corner. 

 The next morning, we headed to Niagara Falls.  This time, we brought our passports and we got to see the view from the Canadian side.  It was REALLY impressive.  Below is the view from the bridge as we walked over to Canada.

 

Horseshoe falls.  See that white stuff to the left of the falls?  That is ICE/SNOW!  And, when you caught the wind just right, it was downright chilly as it blew off the ice.

 

It is incredible to watch all the water that spills over the falls every second.

Upstate New York was about two weeks behind Missouri in their spring and it was delightful to enjoy daffodils and forsythia for a second time this year.

We enjoyed walking around all the tourist-y sites on the Canadian side.

 

 

Yes, that is Carl in Elise's arms.  He went to Canada, too. (without a passport!  Shhh, don't tell)

 

 We didn't go in to this Lego-type amusement but still took a photo outside.

 

 It was a perfect day!  Graduation was the following day.  Then, Sunday – Mother’s Day – and church.  Aaaand then, the travel nightmare!  We had tickets booked for Sunday evening to fly through Chicago to St. Louis.  But, weather intervened.  Storms in Chicago caused delays to our flight until it became evident that, even if we made our flight to Chicago, we would not catch a connecting flight to St. Louis that night. So, we booked a flight for the next day and went back to Elise’s place to spend another night.  (Elise was "thrilled" to spend another night on her couch, I'm sure) 

On Monday, we headed back to the Syracuse airport thanks to a ride with some of Elise's church friends (since she had to work).  Our flight this day was through Cleveland to St. Louis and all went well until we didn’t land in Cleveland.  We flew low over the city, and kept flying low, and then the plane started to ascend and the pilot announced that since there was a TORNADO THREAT to the Cleveland airport, we were re-routing to Pittsburgh!  And, that is where we landed and de-planed and hung around for a couple of hours while the severe weather moved away from Cleveland.  We were assured that all flights in and out of Cleveland were delayed and not to worry about making our connecting flight.  But, when we finally re-planed and flew back up to Cleveland (about 100 miles away) and landed, we HAD missed our flight to St. Louis by just minutes!  Aaaaaaaa.  So, after waiting in a very long line for another flight the next day to St. Louis-this time through Houston, we spent the night in a Days Inn near the airport.  The airline didn’t completely pay for the hotel, unfortunately, but at least paid for part.  I thought the room had a funny cleaning-solution smell but it came with a free breakfast.  And, by now, both Steve and were out of medicines and I was low on gluten-free food.  We had to call our workplaces and find substitutes and cancel appointments for yet another day. We were getting worn down by all this rigamarole.

 Tuesday morning had us back in the Cleveland airport awaiting our afternoon flight.  We had thought to try flying earlier on stand-by but when we learned that we would have to go through Chicago – and risk being booted off the second leg – we said “no thank-you” and decided to wait for our confirmed flight.  The airport has lots of these over-sized guitars all over because Cleveland is the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Not something this classical nerd would know....

 

 And, guess what???? Yep, our flight was delayed.  So, it was back to standing in another slow-moving line to see what our options were should we land in Houston after our connecting plane left for St. Louis.  The only other later flight from Houston to St. Louis had just one confirmed seat so that meant the other was a stand-by seat.  Not good.  And that is when I texted the family and said “prayers would be good right now”. Of course, Steve and I had already been praying.  And, we boarded the plane for Houston and hoped.  That is a LONG flight – long enough for an in-flight movie – and when we landed, we had just 15 minutes to walk/run the huge distance from terminal C,  down long hallways,  down escalators, and ride a shuttle to terminal B and walk down more hallways and up another escalator to arrive at the gate with 2 minutes before the plane was scheduled to take off.  And, although all the passengers were already boarded, seated and buckled, the gate was still open!!!!! With just two seats left-for Steve and me!  How did this miracle occur?  A broken toilet.  A ground serviceman was on the plane fixing it and THAT is the only reason Steve and I made it to St. Louis that night.  I wonder who the lucky angel was who got to break that airplane toilet?  Our prayers were full of gratitude when we got back to Columbia very late that night. And now, after a year of traveling to Arizona, London, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Hawaii, California, Wisconsin, Utah, New York, Ohio, and Texas, we are DONE traveling for a while.