Birthday Wishes to Our Son & Granddaughter

Today is what's called a 'double blessing.'  45 years ago today our youngest [and last] child [a son] came into this world.  What a blessing Jeremy has been to our family.  And 19 years ago today, our daughter-in-law, Samantha, gave Jeremy the greatest birthday present he's ever received, when she gave birth to Isabella - who we affectionately call Izzy.

We couldn't be in Zeeland today for the double celebration [although Jeremy prefers for the emphasis to be on Izzy's birthday], so I'm sharing a photo Jeremy posted on Facebook earlier today.

Jerry and I went to Michigan State University on Thursday [where Izzy is a sophomore] to take her to lunch for her birthday. 

[Izzy and Papa]

We let her pick the restaurant and she chose Bravo! Italian Kitchen.  It was a very good choice.

We all got something different.  Izzy ordered Fettuccine Alfredo, Jerry ordered Eggplant Parmesan and I ordered Chicken Marsala.  Everything was delicious.  My entree came with mashed potatoes but they let me substitute sweet potatoes.  I had never had roasted sweet potatoes cubes before, but they were SO good and so were the roasted green beans.  I was almost finished eating [hence the messy plate, sorry!] when it dawned on me that I needed a picture for recreating them at home. As soon as we dropped Izzy off at her dorm I began searching on my phone for recipes, and found several.  After work on Friday I stopped by the produce market and bought some sweet potatoes and made them for our dinner.   Yummy and so healthy!  

For dessert the birthday girl ordered Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Bean Gelato.

Jerry and I each got Tiramisu ~

It was a lovely afternoon with Izzy and we look forward to going to Zeeland soon to have a belated celebration with Jeremy.  We invited him to join us for lunch in East Lansing but grandson, Landon, had a 4:30 football game that Jeremy was coaching so it wasn't doable. Landon is a quarterback and they won their game 37-14.

In closing, our prayers are with the countless people impacted by hurricane Helene in Florida, Georgia, North & South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee.  Such tragic devastation.

All in a Day...

The street storm drain near our driveway has been sinking for a couple of years.  The city finally decided to repair it and dropped off several orange barrels yesterday with a note stating they'd be coming this morning to begin the work and we should park our cars in the street because we won't have access to our driveway for 8-10 days.

About 8:30 this morning this is what I saw from my bedroom window.  If any of our neighbors were still sleeping, they weren't for long when the huge chunks of concrete were dropped into the truck to be hauled away.

I had lunch with my high school girlfriends today, so I left my hubby sitting on the front porch watching the men work.  Two of our classmates were missing today.  The girls on each side of me have birthdays this week.

I got a yummy apple cake recipe from one of the girls that I'm anxious to make and take to work to share with the servers.  

When I returned home the workers had finished for the day and will return tomorrow.          

After fixing my hubby something to eat, I began the task of washing, wrapping and packing away the teacups from last Saturday's tea.  I sure am glad I don't have to do that job very often!

One of my girlfriends donated several teacups before she moved away, and those were the teacups I used at last Saturday's tea.  Among them were five black and white ones.  Aren't they beautiful?

First Day of Fall

Happy Fall!  I can't think of a better way to begin the first day of Fall than by sharing photos of the Ladies' Fall Tea that I coordinated at my church yesterday.

It's the reason I've been missing from my blog for awhile because work began long before yesterday's tea.  Once I determined the theme - "Broken Vessel Restoration" - preparations began. We don't usually think of ourselves as clay vessels, but Biblically we are since God formed our first parents, Adam and Eve, out of the dust/clay of the earth and breathed life in them. Because of their sin we all came into this world broken and in need of restoration by the Heavenly Father, our "potter."

I removed the spring flowers from the tiered servers and replaced them with fall flowers.

I ordered small terra cotta flower pots [in keeping with the pottery theme] for favors, and filled them with Chex Mix. [The recipe is on the box of Chex Cereal].  Yum!  It's addicting!  Below is a tray just out of the oven.

Ephesians 2:10 was attached to each flower pot: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Two boxes of favors finished and ready to go!

I ordered 'Ancient Clay Pots' fabric from Spoonflower to go on the assigned table board as well as in the center of each table and to decorate the table number cards.

We don't have a lot of storage space at church, so all the tea equipage gets stored in my basement. Which means bringing all the totes and boxes upstairs and transporting them to the church.  What a job for my hubby!  Glassware is heavy, but he's a trooper, and a great help with these teas. Our garage looked like we were moving, and it took both of our cars to transport everything   When the teas are over the process repeats in reverse, except it takes me a day or two before I'm ready to tackle washing all the teacups and other equipage and neatly repacking it for next time.  As I type this post, all those totes and boxes are sitting in the garage waiting for me to get busy tomorrow!

Since I had to work at The Whitney on Friday, we went to the church on Thursday to set-up. My dear friend, Lori Bloss [and her husband], met us there to help with set-up.  She's my right-hand in any and all my tea endeavors and I appreciate her so much.

~ My 'bestie' and me ~

The tea had a 12:00 noon arrival time with serving at 12:30.  My hubby and I arrived at the church at 10:30 a.m. and our wonderful caterer, Francine of Pamela's Catering arrived with her helper shortly after as well as Lori.  While Lori filled water goblets with ice and put milk in the creamers, I got busy brewing the tea - Harney & Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice and Pumpkin Spice Decaf, and the caterer began plating the food.  We were an efficient team.

Menu:  Chicken Salad Mini Croissants, Cucumber Sandwiches, and Ham Salad in Phyllo Cups.  Scones were Blueberry and Raspberry with Mock Devonshire Cream.  I only charge our ladies $25 to make it affordable.  It's a bargain and not a fundraiser.  

Desserts were: Brownies, Spice Cake Pops [without the sucker sticks], Strawberry and Chocolate Cheesecake Bites and Linzer Cookies.  Are you hungary yet?  ;-)

Lori and my hubby were photographers for the tea and got some really good pictures of the ladies at their tables.  The ages of ladies were well mixed.

After the meal I gave a brief devotion about how God our potter molds us into His purpose and plan for us.

We closed with one of the ladies from our 'Mother Church' [the church who helped sponsor us as a new church plant 21 years ago] leading us in the chorus of 'Something Beautiful."

Below is a picture of Linda [the lady who sang] along with Lori, her husband, Rick, and the oldest lady in attendance [96 years old].

And the 2024 Ladies' Fall Tea is in the books!  I have a while to rest-up before thinking about a spring 2025 tea!

 

September 11

September 11, 1989 was a memorable day for me.  It was the day I became a grandma [Nana].  My first grandchild, Brandon, was born at 4:50 p.m. 

I gave him three pictures with the caption 'then and now.'  It seems like 35 years have passed in the blink of an eye!   Yes, that's Jerry and me!  Amazing how much we've changed in 35 years.  We don't even look like the same people.

When Brandon was 12 years old, and our family gathered at his house that evening to celebrate his birthday, the happy occasion was overshadowed by the tragic events that had happened earlier that day at the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon.   It was a birthday he will never forget and neither will any of us.

We gathered last Sunday night to celebrate Brandon's 35th birthday...

But today we reflect on what happened 23 years ago, and ask God to unite our divided country and bring us together again just like He did in 2001.

Peach Festival, Autumn Tea & Back to School

Did you have a relaxing Labor Day?  My hubby and I went to the Romeo Peach Festival along with what seemed like most of Macomb County.  It was very crowded. There were a lot more vendor tents at Frontier Town this year than last year.  It was a picture perfect day with temps in the 70's - the kind of weather when you shut off the A/C and open all the windows. 

Romeo is a small, quaint village about 21 miles north of where I live.  We didn't go to the parade that started at 1:30 p.m. but our son did and took a picture of the Peach Festival Queen, Joanna, who attends our church.

The first three pictures below were at Frontier Town and the last one was at Westview Orchards.  The only thing we bought at Frontier Town was a bag of cinnamon almonds [yum] but it was fun looking at all the vendor tents.  

Background music for shopping!

Westview Orchards is where we bought our fresh peaches and handpies [peach and cherry].

When we returned home, I began working on favors/gifts to be given to guests at the Whitney's Autumn and Apples Tea this Saturday.  Please don't pay attention to the ceramic tea houses on the top of my bookcases that are still up from last Christmas.  Hubby says we might as well leave them up there since this Christmas is only four months away!  ;-)

Inside the red plastic apples are packets of Apple/Cinnamon black loose-leaf tea that we will be serving the guests this Saturday and featuring throughout fall.  Below is a close-up front view of the baskets.  I found the fall colored burlap leaves at Dollar Tree and thought they were cute.

Some schools resumed before Labor Day and others started back today.  My two great-granddaughters in California went back last week.

Evie [Evelyn] is in the second grade this year.

 Jules [Juliette] started Kindergarten.  Her mom said she was so excited to start school like her big sister.

Later that same day was one tired little girl... the first day of Kindergarten is exhausting!