150 Years!

No, people! I’m not a 150 years old!

(Was that colloquial? Should I have said I’m not *one* hundred and fifty years old instead of *a* hundred and fifty years old? Sometimes I write stuff, and even I don’t understand my Southernisms when I reread them. The voices in my head are loud, y’all. They’re the ones doing all the writing.)

Trinity United Methodist Church

Large enough to serve – Small enough to care

CELEBRATE!!

PLEASE JOIN US to Celebrate 150 Years of Ministry and Service by Trinity United Methodist Church. Our 150th Anniversary Celebration is Sunday, September 10, 2017. 

The church will also be open on Saturday, September 9, from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. for those unable to attend on Sunday. There will not be a service, but light refreshments will be served. You may pick up your Celebration Booklet, tour the church, and view the historical exhibits. 

Founded by the Lenoir brothers in 1867, the church moved to the present location at the corner of 2nd Avenue and C Street in the early 1900s. 

Rev. Andy Ferguson and Rev. Henry Lenoir will assist Rev. Kristie Banes with Sunday Worship. 

Worship on Sunday will be at 10:30 a.m. in the sanctuary, followed by a barbecue lunch in the Fellowship Hall. 

Hosts will be stationed around the church so you can tour and look at the exhibits.  

We look forward to seeing you on the 9th or the 10th. The registration table will be set up in the Education Building hallway at the top of the ramp. Be sure to register your attendance and receive your Celebration Booklet – one free to each family. 

The Trinity History Committee and Members of Trinity United Methodist Church. 

I think we know the answer to 150 years old. 

A New Project

The contents of the cart reveal a new and exciting creation. 

No, people, I’m not making cat food quiche or dog food trail mix. The clue is the wax paper. 

My friend Lynda, who just happens to be Sugar’s cousin, has a clever little Etsy shop that features Scottish tartan jewelry. I ordered some jewelry from her for several Christmas presents, and the gifts arrived in these adorable little paper packets. Lynda makes the gift envelopes from vintage papers sandwiched between wax paper layers and then zig-zag stitched together. 

I was in love with this idea. I actually felt guilty that I was getting so much for my money. The item I purchased plus? An amazing gift holder. Lynda did all the work for me. 

I wondered if I could figure out how she did it. But you can see that now it is August, and I haven’t done anything more than wonder. 

Suddenly Lynda’s shop “Diva Designs” had the very tutorial that I needed offered for sale. It’s only ten dollars, people! Ten. Dollars. 

Even I have ten dollars. 

After the instant download, I realized that I needed some supplies, like wax paper, hemp cord, and something called Washi tape. Your friendly WalMart should have these items. At least mine did. 

Note: HEMP cord, which has nothing to do with cannabis, or the possibly pronunciation of Washy tape (was-high). 

I suppose you are thinking that it is sad that my kitchen set-up lacks wax paper. But I’ll bet that if your kitchen has wax paper, it has probably been there since the last century. I wonder how long wax paper lasts? Yours is probably still good. I won’t judge you if it’s not. 

I have downsized so much that I don’t have any old books that I could tear pages out of. Don’t be shocked about the page removal part. Who is going to miss a page out of a dictionary? That’s what Lynda uses, in addition to any other vintage-looking book that you could pick-up at a yard sale or thrift store. 

I found an old cookbook. If I don’t have wax paper, you can rightly guess that I am not doing any farmhouse cooking. 

I couldn’t find my button stash, so have a look at the first few that I made, pre-buttons. 

I had ordered some photo cards from VistaPrint a few weeks back, but had no way to give them away as a little gift, and I supposed a legal sheet of paper might be the solution. I had an old DAR record that became an experiment. 

This was actually perfect. It can hold up to 6 sets of 5×7 cards and envelopes. 

I located the button stash. 

A bonus recipe with this one.

So go see my friend Lynda at “Diva Designs” at Etsy.com. Her tutorial is like Gift Envelopes for Dummies. I’m living proof. 😸

In Which I Make A Promise

Only I didn’t know I was making a promise. 

This story involves my mother-in-law, an OCD little controller. Perhaps she was this way because her father was like that, and she learned those behaviors. Perhaps it was reinforced by her Swedish mother who was a perfectionist in word and deed, an immaculate housekeeper, and an educator. 

At any rate, it took years for her to calm down. This effect was made possible by cancer. She learned to accept things and move on, because sometimes things were bigger than the control we have over them. 

She could be an angry little woman when things didn’t go according to plan in those early years when I first knew her. I wasn’t part of her plan. Eventually she learned to accept me when she was presented with her first grandchild, a granddaughter. It seemed that I was able to achieve something she had never been able to do. 

That day came when the little granddaughter graduated from high school. 

See that black strap around my MIL’s neck? She carried a small spray water bottle in a holder that she wore everywhere she went. The radiation for her mouth and throat had destroyed her salivary glands, and she suffered from dry mouth. Enter the water bottle. 

On this day, while we were waiting in the auditorium for the graduation to start, my MIL considered that the next grandchild’s graduation would be about 17 years later in 2017. She said that she would be in a wheelchair because she would be 79, and I said that I would be using a walker, so I could manage somehow and push her in her wheelchair. 

But in 2006, that woman up and died. 

She and my FIL were out to dinner. They were in the bar having a drink while they waited for their table. He said, “We were sitting there having a drink, laughing like hell, and she fell off her stool.”  She had a massive stroke. She was flown to the medical university where they kept her on life support while preparations were made to harvest her organs. Heart, liver, kidneys, eyes, skin, and anything else that was needed. 

*****

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Rest well, Barbara. I’m thinking of you.