Recuperating...

I've been absent from my blog while recuperating from a summer virus.  I'm on the mend now but while I was taking life easy I watched A LOT of YouTube cooking videos, particularly by the Royal Chefs - Graham Newbould and Darren McGrady.  Graham Newbould said the Royals are used to the very best of everything and that includes their food: not too spicy, not too cold [to be hard on their teeth], portions not too small but not too large, simple but elegant, and  no garlic or onions for the Queen.  There is no room for error in the royal kitchen!  The videos were both entertaining and educational and I learned a few tips.

I've had Darren McGrady's cookbook for quite a while, so it was fun to watch videos for some of the recipes in his book.

In one of his videos he talked about the movie, Spencer, that came out last year.  I decided to order the DVD and regretted wasting my money.  Have you seen the movie? It's classified as historical fiction, but it portrayed Princess Diana in such a bad way.  She struggled with mental-health issues [depression] and eating disorders after becoming part of the Royal Family, but she wasn't a lunatic as portrayed. 

On another subject, I promised I'd share a picture of the rug I ordered for my front porch when it arrived, so here it is.  It's still flattening out after being rolled tightly for shipping, but I'm pleased with it.  Now I need to get a solid black mat for in front of the door to coordinate. Where does it end?  ;-)

We had lunch with our son, Steve, yesterday before he left on his west coast 40-day sabbatical. He's in Los Angeles as I type this post.

Also in California is our daughter-in-law, Samantha, granddaughters Izzy and Ellie and Samantha's mother.  They had a three day journey by car and arrived early Sunday evening. Izzy began a tennis summer camp at Pepperdine University yesterday.  When it's finished they will drive from Malibu to Escondido, where Izzy will begin her summer intern job. No pictures yet.  Guess that means they're busy and having a good time.

Hubby and I are holding down the fort here in Michigan while everyone is away.

Father's Day 2022

I hope you enjoyed celebrating Father's Day with those you love.  Our daughter-in-law, Sharon, made 3:00 p.m. reservations at The Voyager restaurant on the St. Clair River in St. Clair, MI.  To kill some time after church and before our dinner reservations, we walked through an antique mall in Algonac, but I came out empty-handed. 

Seven miles north was Marine City where Jerry and I antiqued a few days ago on our 56th Wedding Anniversary.  We decided to visit Rantiques, housed in a former church building, and was closed on our previous visit.  It's a beautiful upscale antique shop, but I didn't make any purchase there either.  Steve thought it was sad that a beautiful church closed and transitioned to an antique store.

It was approaching time for our dinner reservations so we traveled north another seven miles to St. Clair, MI.  It was a picture perfect day - sunny and 79 degrees.  We were the first of our family to arrive, so we took pictures on the boardwalk along the St. Clair River and beautiful Palmer Park next to the restaurant.  

As always, we saw several freighters on the St. Clair River, and even though there's none visable in the photos, several boaters were enjoying a day on the lake too.

   

Biking Sculptures in the Park

Picnickers were enjoying the park, which is also a favorite of Lori and Dave's.

Celebrating the father of my three children!

Daughter Lori, son-in-law Dave, Son Steve, Daughter-in-law Sharon.

~ Granddaughter Brooke, Jerry and Me ~

When we left the restaurant, we headed over to daughter-in-law Samantha's family Father's Day gathering to spend some time with Jeremy and the family.

~ Father and Son - Jerry and Jeremy ~

~ Granddaughter Izzy with her Dad and Papa ~

~ Jeremy with his three children - Landon, Ellie and Izzy ~

The gathering was held at Sam's sister's house [the one wearing the Detroit T-shirt].  Sam's from a large family and the photo below was taken yesterday.  Her mom is on the right, and Sam's next to her. Then her three sisters and sister-in-law.  There are 19 Theisen cousins [and another one on the way], so the kids had fun together yesterday swimming in the pool, bouncing on the trampoline, swinging, and playing corn hole.

It was a very enjoyable day for all.  How did you spend Father's Day?

Izzy leaves this Thursday for Escondido, CA where she will have a summer intern job.  She was recently in California with her dad to meet the lady she will be staying with, seeing where she'll be working and attending her new church.  Selfishly, we're hoping she doesn't like relocating and gives up the idea of going to university there.  She has grown up so quicky, and California is SOOO far from Michigan, but she's got to spread her wings and fly.  Granddaughter Brianna lives in Nashville, and Brooke says as soon as she graduates from university next year that's where she'll be heading.  Kids don't stay close to 'the nest' anymore.

Porch Makeover Completed

In the middle of May I was inspired by one of Alda Ellis' books to give our front porch a makeover.  It's been a process and I blogged about two stages of the process on May 17th and May 25th.

Today's post is the final stage and completion of the makeover.  I ordered a large rug for the porch that was supposed to be here the first part of June but now they're saying it won't arrive until the end of the month.  I didn't want to wait that long to finish this post.  If/when it arrives I'll post a picture separately.

Our jockey that holds our address, got a fresh new coat of paint.

Grass never grows successfully in the patch of dirt behind him.  My hubby thinks it's because there's too much cement in the ground left by the brick layers when our house was built.

So he filled it in with lava rocks and it looks so much better.

The wicker chair I purchased got a coat of white paint.

It looked lonely sitting in the corner by itself, so I ordered a wicker table from Wayfair to sit beside it.  I also purchased a red seat pad to match the swing.  One project always leads to ten more!

I had a teacup planter sitting in the garage not being used, so my hubby gave it a coat of red paint and I planted white geraniums in it.  It turned out cute.

A shepherd's hook was also put into use for a hanging planter of white geraniums.

A new wreath was hung on the front door.

The freshly painted and repaired swing was hung back up.

And the completed makeover.

We have been enjoying the porch now that it's had a makeover, but not the last couple of days during the heat wave!  So thankful for air conditioning.  My hubby is hoping I don't get any more home improvement ideas for awhile! ;-)

Celebrating 56 Years of Marriage

Today is the actual day of our anniversary, but since today's a work day for me, we celebrated yesterday. We left home around 11:30 a.m. bound for Marine City, about 40 miles from our house. There are ten antique stores in the small city, so we did some antiquing before driving to Lexington, where we had dinner reservations at the newly restored Cadillac House. 

It was a beautiful day [77 degrees and clear skies] for traveling and walking around the city located on the banks of the St. Clair River [which connects to Lake Huron].

Photo of a freighter going up the river.

Our first antique store was Back Porch Antiques.   Nothing called my name to come home with me!

After browsing through four shops we headed to Water Street where we paid a visit to The Sweet Tooth for ice cream.

We both got Pistachio Almond in a cup - Jerry got the large size and I got the baby size [still watching my caloric intake].  It was very good, and I definitely could have eaten more!

Just a few doors down from The Sweet Tooth, is Big River Antiques.  I know I'm old when I see things in antique stores that my mother had when I was growing up!  Among some of those things was a full set of dishes in Big River Antiques.  I've seen various pieces in antique stores but never a complete set before.  I learned yesterday it was made by Homer Laughin and the pattern is Mexicana.  I definitely don't need another set of dishes for the sake of nostalgia, but it brought back fond memories from my childhood.

 

The last antique store we went in [we went to six out of ten because some were only open on Saturday and Sunday] was Fast Eddie's Timeless Treasures.  It's the only store where we bought something, and the owner said they're permanently closing in July.

The purchase was a Paul Cardew teapot of Queen Elizabeth II from her Golden Jubilee.  It was 40% off, so we got it for $15.  A bargain!

Then it was back in the car to drive another 43 miles north to Lexington.  We arrived in time for our 4:00 p.m. dinner reservation.  We were the first people to be seated for dinner so we had the place to ourselves for awhile, but by the time we left the dining room was almost full.

Lexington is  a quaint village with a population under 2,000.  It's a beach village on southern Lake Huron so it's a vacation spot.  Below is the Cadillac House that originally opened in 1860.  It sits on Main Street so you can't miss it when you're driving through Lexington.  It was restored in 2018 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also a Michigan Historic Site.

~ Main Dining Room ~

Yesterday was National Iced Tea Day so I ordered iced tea.  When it was brought to our table by our sweet server, Rachel, it was very cloudy and she said she wondered why.  I explained when tea is steeped and put in the refrigerator to cool [instead of cooling down at room temperature], it becomes cloudy [technically the tannins and caffeine bind together].  Adding boiling water to the tea helps to clear up the cloudiness.

June is National Iced Tea Month and it's also National Earl Grey Month, so drink up and enjoy!

We ordered Portobello Fries as an appetizer.  They were delicious!

Our dinner salad.

Jerry ordered Perch and I ordered Salmon.  Below is Rachel delivering our meals.

If there was such a thing as a 'clean plate' sticker, I would have got one!  ;-)

We passed on dessert since we had ice cream earlier in the afternoon, and made our journey back home grateful for a lovely day together.

While I was at work this afternoon our daughter brought over a cherry nut cake from the bakery - the flavor served at our wedding reception.  I cut myself a small piece and Jerry enjoyed a larger piece.  I forgot to take a picture before I cut into it, but here it is minus two pieces.  It was yummy and will take willpower to use moderation! ;-)