Looking Back, September 2023

 

A favorite flashback photo of Nicole with Rebekah in her K-State cheer uniform, above right.  

The Fillmores had gatherings at the beginning of this month.  John attended alone as I'm no longer up to date with Covid vaccinations because of my response to the booster last April.  The Rausch family went down with another round of colds and so I sent meatloaf, melon, rolls and cookies for supper for them on the 6th.  

Our new grandchild is a baby girl named Kathryn Rose, due in February.  I made her Christmas stocking on the 15th!  

We had a family supper here on the 10th and Bekah spent the afternoon on the 14th.  Nicole flew to L.A. via a Phoneix layover on the 20th.  Everyone but Nic was here to celebrate Brian's birthday on the 24th.  Jon and Bekah spent the night and attended church with Bri & Mel.  Nic arrived home from CA on the afternoon of the 24th.  

Daniel didn't have school on the 26th and so I had Mel and the boys out for spaghetti and meatballs.  Gorgeous fall morning; 47 degrees out when I got up.  

On the 28th we learned of multiple health problems for our kids including cataracts and high cholesterol, and that Nicole has placenta previa.  Prayers begin going up!  

My eye remained painful and exhaustion was constant (it improved in November with adjustment of thyroid meds).  

John finished combining corn on September 29.  I had my last appointment with Dr. Rettig on September 30.  The vitreous has detached further, but the back of my eye is A.O.K.  

Some of the food made for the freezer and for family meals this month:  

• Homemade ketchup
• Homemade pizza
• Salisbury steaks
• Froze and ate lots of pesto
• Brisket
• Meatballs
• Browned 2 lbs seasoned hamburger for freezer (I actually boil it with chopped onion, garlic, salt, and pepper.  A higher amount of the fat drains away with the water, and the seasonings add flavor.  We can't tell the difference from skillet-browned).  
• Meatloaf
• Brisket
• Potato casserole
• 1 peach pie
• 1 cherry pie
• Birthday cake for Brian

Looking Back: August, 2022

All the Rausch family except Brian were very sick with colds the first week of August but not with Covid, so soup and a baked chicken went to them.  They were better by Friday the 5th and headed to a Royals game.  

John was all about making hay this month.  

I got a new tracfone for Johnnie and Irma and programmed it, and sanded and repainted the island drawers.  I continued with reading lessons for Isaac and resumed writing devotions for Daniel as he prepared for his freshman year of high school. 

I made trips to the dentist struggling to get my bridge to stay and fit.  Headaches and eye aches most days. Profound exhaustion. Dental work may have aggravated migraine-like pain.  Bright and hot days are not my friends.  (However, we learned in November that my TSH had risen nearly 3 points in the wake of slowing my metabolism by beginning Atenolol. And so adjusting my thyroid meds sure helped everything--energy levels as well as headaches).  

Meals and food mentioned this month:

• cherry sheet pan pie
• 2 dozen rolls
• roast
• Taco bar
• Sent cookies to Denise and Todd. 
• Multiple batches of pesto to eat and for freezer. 
• 4 dozen cookies for Gould funeral.  
• Flank steak over noodles.

Looking Back: July 2022

 

Our Logan turned ten in July.  

July 2 at 2 a.m. lightning storm brought two inches of rain.  

Irma's birthday float was a winner this year, a train with Logan and Isaac as engineers.  The Rausch family came for supper and fireworks on the 4th.  

I spilled a cup of tea on my old computer and ordered a new one this month. 

On the 9th we put up 14 pints of sweet corn, 15 pints on the 10thm and another 15 pints on the 11th.  

Our "new" swather arrived on July 18th.  Jonathan and John busy spraying and mowing hay.  

I painted a cute "leaner" for a front porch decoration.  

Grandson Daniel really helped us out this month by weed eating, mowing, and cleaning out my flower bed.  We did battle with the power washer against wasp nests.  He was valiant! 

Lots of prayers for the Garnett Borns this month as they all, including momma to be Nicole, had Covid.  

• 2 cherry pies
• sheeet pan meal
• Another birthday cake for John! 
• Prepped 5 lbs carrots and 6 pks celery for a funeral dinner
• Froze 84 pints of sweet corn
• Roast beef and fixins for a family meal on the 17th.  
• Browned 4 lbs hamburger and froze
• Multiple batches of fresh pesto
• Vegetable soup for Jon and Nic as they were sick
• Put up 6 pints zucchini relish
• Made cookies and played aggravation with Logan
• Sweet and sour chicken and rice
• Cowboy cookies

25,185 Days and Counting

Weather statistics show that residents of Kansas City, Missouri enjoyed unseasonably mild temperatures on December 21, 1953. The afternoon's high temperature reached nearly 50° F.  That night, a cold front brought plummeting temperatures and snow. 

At midnight, my dad drove my mother to the hospital in a blizzard.  Entrusting his wife into the capable hands of the medical staff and knowing her doctor had arrived safely at the hospital, he breathed a premature sigh of relief.  

I was a transverse presentation and the doctor was unable to turn me for a normal birth. My mother needed an emergency C-section, and a surgeon was called. Winds gusting to 25 mph and blowing snow kept the surgeon from arriving at the hospital in time.  

The doctor somehow delivered me at about 5 a.m., breaking my right arm in the process. He told my father, "Your wife will be ok but I don't know about the baby."  My dad had to be helped to a chair.  The doctor felt certain I had breathed amniotic fluid.  

Morning light revealed 8 inches of new snow and an inexplicably healthy baby girl who was breathing normally, albeit with a broken right arm taped to her chest and a left arm that was lifeless because of birth injuries.  

Several days later, I moved my left arm for the first time, inspiring tears from an entire shift of nurses. They gathered in my mother's room, taking turns holding a baby whose Christmas miracle was to be that she would go through life with two working arms.  

Today I am humbled by the fact of God's love and grace. Apart from events termed "miraculous" by the doctor who delivered me, I would never have had one day of life. Instead, as of today, I have enjoyed 25,185 days and counting.   

Dear Lord, thank You for life.  Thank You for my mother's prayers. Thank You for Your grace and mercy, that cover us. Thank You for loving us so much.  

June, 2022

 

We celebrated our July birthday boys in late June this year.  Logan is 10, John is 70!  

We (even me) attended some of Isaac's t-ball games, Rebekah's soccer games, and Logan's baseball games this month.  We attended Rebekah's dance recital on June 4, so cute.  

Some folks had extensive crop damage from a hailstorm on the tenth but we did not. 

Kathy Vickery came for lunch on the 17th and we had a nice visit.  John and Jonathan stayed busy spraying and planting all month.  

On the 19th we had a wonderful family meal celebrating Logan, age 10; John, age 70,;  and Baby Born, 2 months gestation!  We are to be grandparents again!  

The partial vitreous detachment in my right eye was diagnosed June 24 by Esther Rettig.  

List of cooking projects mentioned this month:  

• potato casserole and I baked my first ever Texas chocolate sheet cake for a funeral dinner--they sent part of that cake home and oh my.  No wonder that is a famous recipe. 
• fried fish
• snickerdoodles and chocolate crinkles for Johnnie for Father's Day
• Chicken casserole for lunch with Kathy
• enchilada casserole
• 2 pans cinnamon rolls
• meatloaf
• 2 roasts

John had his final follow up colonoscopy after his health ordeal last year, and all was well.  Praise God.  

May, 2022

 

Jonathan roofed our house a year ago but for the porch roof, which did not show! But it bothered him and he came over and finished that little job this month.  

Upper left, Mom's beautiful peach colored iris.  Glad if I have only succeeded in saving a couple of her iris, this was one of them!  

Mother's day was blessed!  I accidentally placed Mindy's family's photo from Daniel's 8th grade graduation in this collage, but have ended this post with a photo of her and her boys on Mother's day.  

I decorated my folks' grave for Memorial day.  I always like the reflection of the oak tree in the center of their stone--and I feel sure those are oak trees on either side of our family name.  

Our Daniel graduated from 8th grade in May.  He is about four inches taller than me and still growing!  

Hard to believe I've been out of high school for 50 years!!  Even 68 year old ladies are concerned about their appearance at a class reunion and try out several different outfits ahead of time...well..at least this 68 year old gal did!  Out of 21 original class members, 4 are deceased. We had 13 people present for the gathering, an excellent attendance percentage.  

 And here is our beautiful daughter with her three boys in the photo snapped on Mother's Day.   

On the 1st I made baked cube steaks for Bri & Mel.  Nicole, Bekah and Jonathan stopped in after laying Addy the beloved corgi to rest on their land, then they headed to Topeka.  

We had a wonderful Mother's day on the 8th with a roast beef dinner for lunch and a carry out pizza for supper. 

 I planted an herb garden and zinnias.  We attended Daniel's 8th grade graduation on the 14th and a nice gathering for him at Bri and Mel's.  

On the 12th the film over my right eye was bothersome and the eye and right side of face ached.  I saw Joan Grother (Nurse practitioner) on May 16th, and Esther Rettig (Ophthalmologist) on the 18th.  I returned to her on the 24th and she inserted a punctal plug in my right eye, thinking the blurriness might be from dry eye.  (I'm recording this after the fact--at this time she hadn't yet diagnosed the partial vitreous detachment that we decided was responsible for increased floaters.  The pain in the right eye was never explained, and gradually abated.  By February of 2023 the pain is mostly gone, though the film remains).  

On the 21st Jonathan, Brian, and a friend of Jon's finished roofing our porch and deck windows. Melinda watched Bekah and I fed lunch to the roofers and family members that were here (10).  

John got all the corn sprayed on the 22nd.  

I had a migraine with aura on May 28th and felt concern over ongoing chronic migraine-like pain since my last rosacea attack.  I suffered migraine or eye pain constantly for months.  It was made worse by exercise.  (At this writing, February 2023, the constant pain is mostly gone but the film, light sensitivity, and increased numbers of floaters remain).  

April, 2022

Once in awhile I catch a photo that reminds me of the kids' growing up years. Melinda wasn't actually responding to her brother, here (lower right) but it looks like she was in the photo, and I couldn't resist.  

Upper left--I was on a walk up on the hill and caught a photo of this pasture fire (controlled burn) that looked a little different than usual with the setting sun behind it. Lower left: Wait'll you see how these tiny little flowers ended up overflowing this bed.  In July's post, I'll include a photo of them side by side with how they look at this writing.  

Here are the grandkids opening their Easter baskets.  

Far left: I get such a kick out of this photo of Rebekah--I have one someplace of Mindy sporting exactly the same braid.   Bekah's mommy did this braid for her...but as I look at it I have such a sense of deja vu that I feel I was the hair stylist myself!!!  Upper right--a friend posted a pineapple bunny like this on FB and I replicated it for our Easter dinner.  Lower right--lovin' Isaac's gap-toothed grin!!  

Rebekah did a great job decorating cookies for Easter.  Top right shows the deck decor for this season and lower right are bunny cupcakes that were Ester dessert.  Some of them look more like kittens than bunnies but oh well.  

 Family photos from the month--daughter-in-law Nicole missed getting into one of my photo frames this month so I'll fast forward to Jon and Nic's family vacation in July and include a borrowed photo--they had a beautiful time.  

We got Covid boosters in Emporia on Friday, April 1.  On the 9th I had a rosacea flare on my left cheek and neck.  On the 11th I had a spontaneous bleed on my right hand between the knuckles (swoll grotesquely with trapped blood) and went to the R.R.  

Watched Bekah on the 15th, prepped and served a lovely Easter gathering on the 17th.  

I developed odd eye symptoms and saw Ester Rettig on the 23rd.  Veil over right eye and increased floaters. Repeated eye exams finally revealed a partial vitreous detachment which may be the reason for the visual disturbance, or maybe chronic migraine is to blame.  

Nicole's beloved corgi, Addy, died on April 30th.  

Some Throwback Photos

Me (Linda) at one, 1954 or 55

Another of me at 1.  

2 years old, 1955 or 56

Probably about 1962, I think I was 5 or 6 here.  

This is how I think of my parents--Mom would have been about 35 and Dad around 42.  

At Grand Canyon in about 1961

Our engagement photo, April 1973

March 30, 1974

Mindy at about 6

Jonathan's kindergarten photo.