Easter Sunday, April 4 - Happy Birthday, Owen!
As I sit down to write it is 6 pm of a busy glorious day. I realize that I haven't written a word all week - on paper, that is. Every day, I think throughout the day about what I might have to say about the day. It is a process of on-going reflection. But this week I haven't picked up my pen except to write the Saturday reflection which I send to my Sunday School class and a few others. So before I get to today's writing, I'll go back and reconstruct the week.
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It is now 7:30 pm. I've caught up on last week. Today will have to wait until tomorrow!
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Back to Easter morning:
I woke up with a joyful heart to what I expected to be a busy daya. After a cup of coffee, I took the turkey out of the refrigerator to begin warming while I showered. I assembled the dressing and started the green beans and tea. Soon it was time to put the turkey in the oven. Bill will put the dressing in the oven at 11:30 and check the turkey while I'm at church. With any luck, all will be ready by 12:30.
I dressed in my new Easter dress, complete with matching mask. Easter service at church was delightful. Best of all, we got out early! Our flower cross was more beautiful than ever.
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| New Easter dress |
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| Trinity at Easter |
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| Flower Cross |
Back home, there wasn't a lot of work left to be ready for the feast. And what a feast it was! Kathy brought carrot coins, a favorite of Mozelle's, and steamed asparagus with hollandaise sauce. She also treated us to a bottle of chilled prosecco. Laura brought the family favorite sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows, rolls and a scrumptuous carrot cake.
We toasted Owen's birthday and other birthdays we have missed celebrating. We shared memories of Jake. And we ate too much and laughed a lot.
Later in the afternoon, after dished were done and our table back to normal, we enjoyed a birthday Zoom with Owen. They had been to an Easter egg hunt part after church. Owen is ten and so grown up!
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| Back to normal, except neater |
Monday, April 5
Quote from this morning's "Disciplines" reading: "One problem with Christian faith is our tendency to over-spiritualize. We speak of diving things and holy things and things of heaven, but too often we disconnect them from things of the earth. Jesus taught parables to make the infinite finite. ... Christianity that promises only 'pie in the sky when you die by and by' robs resurrections of its power in the world in which we live." (emphasis mine)
Amanda had 10:30 softball practice since there was no school. I had 10:30 UMW meeting. That worked out perfectly. After we were both done, we went to the lake to feed the ducks. I didn't get home until 2 and I was hungry.
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| Amanda and the ducks |
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| One of our "new" apple trees |
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| Dogwood are popping everywhere, joining the beautiful redbuds |
Of course, we had turkey dinner leftovers for supper.
Tuesday, April 6
A sunny morning and a day trip planned. We pulled out at 9:38 am to begin our day to Norris Dam State Park for a wildflower hike. We will go by way of Oak Ridge, a 40 mile trip, each way. We took a bit of time located Bill's doctor's office where he has an appointment Friday morning. At 10:30 we were finally leaving Oak Ridge for Norris Dam.
At 4:45 pm we stopped at the Clinton Food City for gas and beer. In between, we found Norris Dam and after a brief stop at the Park Office we made our way to the River Bluff trailhead. We had been advised that the lower trail was "about a mile to some benches" where the trail turned up a steep climb to the top of the bluff. We would turn around there and hike back as we went in. So at noon, before lunch, we began walking the trail along tailwaters of the Clinch River coming through the dam. We saw a great variety of spring wildflowers. The sparse spring vegetation permitted good views of the river all along the way. We walked and walked and walked, with many stops along the way for picture. The further we walked, the more wildflowers we found. We walked and walked, much more than a mile. After almost 2 hours we finally came to the benches. We were glad for a rest and to have have the snack and water that we had brought along.
Of course, it took us much less time to walk back because I didn't have to stop so often for pictures. The was almost 3 by the time we got back to the RV. We drove across the dam and through the campground before stopping for our picnic lunch. Turkey sandwiches, of course. We drove back through the charming little town of Norris. We made it home at 6 after a stop in Oak Ridge to pick up fired rice take-out.
I'll share a few pictures below and more on this link: Norris River Bluff Wildflower Hike.
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| Red Trillium - Wake Robin |
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| Celandine Poppy |
Wednesday, April 7
What did I do to consume the morning? Not laundry, nor cleaning, nor cooking.Yet by the time I ventured to the garden it was already 11:30. I did spend some time transferring pictures from our hike to the new laptop.
In the garden, my goal was to prepare the row for snow peas and I accomplished that, turning about 8 ft under the bean fence and clearing it of the remains of weeds and roots. I seeded the peas and planted swiss chard, kale and radishes in front of the double row of peas. I sowed a bit of lettuce, also. Altogether, I worked no more than an hour. After, I enjoyed my shady spot watching blue birds on my right going to and from their nest and to my left, tree swallows building a nest in the so-called martin house.
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| Before |
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| After - This looks like HOPE to me |
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| My restful place |
After lunch and quiet time, I started worked on the wildflower pictures. I only have 72 photos to sort, select, edit and label in order to make a slideshow.
Soon it was time to get Amanda to softball and make a grocery run. I didn't make much headway with the pictures. For supper, I made maple-soy glazed salmon with southern fried eggplant and steamed broccoli.
Thursday, April 8
The rain came overnight as promised to nurture my newly planted seeds and it continued off and on all day. In the morning I made gluten-free blueberry scones to take to Missouri. They are pretty good despite the gluten-free flour.
Baking and laundry took all morning. After lunch I finally focused on catching up on my blog post. I had written the entries, but had not matched the pictures. I got caught up through March 31, with just a short interruption to drive Amanda. I made a Charleston gravy to go with leftover salmon and served it with left-over grits with steamed spinach on the side.
After supper, I participated in the Loudon County Democratic Executive Committee Zoom meeting. In the off-election year, the focus will be on noter registration with our target demographic being young people, single mothers and working families. I can get on board with that. We had an interesting discussion about how to bring more diversity to our local party.
Friday, April 9
The Journey continues to Cape Girardeau...
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