A Little of This, A Little of That

Garden Planted
Last week, I was alone, as my husband was away on a business trip.  I took the opportunity to get some things done around the house that I'd been meaning to do for a while, and on that list was my garden.  We had a hot stretch of weather, so I tried to pick the cooler dry day of the week to get out there, but it was still in the 80s when I went out last Wednesday evening to work my garden and plant some veggies.  As you can see, though, I was able to get almost everything in!  I purchased my peppers and cucumbers from the store, but I planted a patch of beans, four ears of corn, and a row of pumpkins.  I am waiting to plant my second patch of green beans until after the first patch sprouts, and I'm hoping to get a prolonged bean crop this way.  One interesting note: as I was digging holes for my cucumber plants, I began to notice some fine roots around the bases of the limbs we used for trellising.  Apparently, the branches are still alive and trying to take root!  Did not expect that.  Hopefully, it won't last and they will eventually dry out and give up.  We'll see!

Can't wait for everything to grow!

Little red pepper plants

Cucumber plant!

Saturday Fun 

When hubby did return Friday night, we made plans for Saturday!  We spent the morning at rummage sales, and it was a beautiful day for it.  I found a lady who was selling parts of her plants from her garden, and purchased an iris and a shoot of bee balm, which I hope to plant near my garden to attract butterflies and such.  We also found a neat little camping lantern at another sale, and were happy with our finds.  After that, we got some lunch, went to the grocery store, and came home to work on our neglected yard.  We are thinking about replacing our brick patio with a poured concrete one, because we seem to get a lot of weeds and have ants tunneling underneath.  It would be considerably less maintenance to have a concrete patio area.  After the yard work, we ate dinner and had a nice fire in our outdoor fire pit.  That was the night of the mega moon, and it did look bigger than normal.  Over all, we had a great day together.  I'm just not the same when my husband is gone--he is my best friend and favorite companion, and I miss him terribly when he's away.

Garage Sale Plants

Roaring Fire

Burning Embers

Mega Moon

Vacation Plans

I mentioned in my last post that we'd made plans for our anniversary trip.  We've decided to go to Cincinnati for several days, and we'll be staying at a beautiful B&B in Kentucky called the Willis Graves House.  We'll be staying in the log cabin, and I'm so excited!  It looks so rustic and perfect.  I'm especially interested in finding out just how a steam shower works.  We were referred to this B&B by the innkeeper of the Ivy House B&B, who said that if we were ever in the Cincinnati area, this was the place to stay.  I looked it up after we got home and fell in love.  I knew eventually that we'd end up in Cincy for something, so I kept it in mind, and it worked out to go down there for our anniversary.  We'll be seeing two Reds games, and we plan to visit the zoo and The Creation Museum.  Hopefully, we'll also have a day to do some antiques shopping and just take it easy.  I'm very excited for our trip.  I enjoy it when we can get away together and see new things.  I'll take lots of photos, of course!

Mother's Day 
This Sunday is Mother's Day.  To the mothers in my life, and all of the mothers out there, I hope you have a great day!  Thanks for all that you do for your children, even though it might take them years or decades to realize all that you sacrificed for them.  So take the day off and go shopping.  You deserve a day of pampering!

Have a virtual rose plant!

Since we will be traveling in a few weeks, I know that we'll run into all sorts of people--some nice, some strange, and some just mean.  Many will not be Christian.  Most likely, 80% of those you interact with (outside of church) are not Christians, and/or have no Christan background.  I have a hard time connecting with those who don't share my beliefs, and therefore have a hard time creating meaningful conversation with many people.  It's really something I've never been great at--I would not call myself a people-person at all!  I can work on it, but it's a character trait, and likely will never change.  I would just end up being like one of those people who make awkward, strange conversation at parties with other guests--you know who they are.  As a result, I am the kind of person who has a small but loyal group of friends.  So when I saw this passage today, it caught my attention: "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." (Col. 4:5-6).  This is something I should be striving for, not shying away from: for while actions are necessary to share Christ with others, sometimes it is our words that can carry the most weight.  Words have so much power!

Our Trip and B&B

We left after work Thursday night, and in customary man style, we didn’t stop except for gas & bathroom.  We were expected at the Ivy House Bed and Breakfast at 7:30, though, and made it just in time.  It was almost dark when we pulled in due to the rainy weather, but we could see that it was a nice place.  Innkeeper Linda met us at the door, and was quite friendly.  We exchanged pleasantries and then we were offered a tour of the tastefully decorated home and rooms.  We talked a while longer, and Linda told us about a tornado that hit back in February, doing damage to a part of the house and uprooting several large trees in the yard.  Such strange weather this year!  We brought our items into the room and headed out to Pizza King, which was very close and very small—it was actually located in a house.  (If you are not familiar with Pizza King, that’s so sad!  It’s an Indiana pizza chain that has great pizza.)  After dinner, we came back to the room and relaxed before going to bed.  Our room was very nice!  Each guest room has an antique restored door that has a large piece of slate where a window might have been.  On the slate is written “Welcome __________” (the names of the guests staying there that night).  It was a nice-sized room, not extremely large but certainly not small.  Just the right size to be comfortable.  Speaking of comfortable, the bed was very comfy!  Either a pillowtop or a memory foam top.  The room was tastefully decorated with antique furniture and luxury bedding and window treatments, and there was an Ivy House Bed and Breakfast robe for each of us in the closet.  Nice!  A good choice, for sure.

The door to our room

The former door to our private bath-restored and illuminated from behind

Our room, from the doorway-so cozy!

    The next morning, we went downstairs to breakfast at 9 am and met the other couple that stayed that night. We talked over an amazing breakfast—the first course was sliced apples, strawberries and bananas with a sweet yogurt for dipping, coffee, mango-orange juice, and water.  Our main course was stuffed French toast with a strawberry glaze and bacon.  The French toast was perfectly cooked-not soggy at all, with a mild sweet cream cheese stuffing and a just-right strawberry glaze, and the bacon was crisp and delicious.  A fantastic breakfast! (I wish I had taken photos of the food.  You would see what I mean!)  We conversed with the other couple for a while longer after breakfast was finished, then we left for Conner Prairie.

The dining room, ready for us to eat breakfast (2nd morning)

     Our trip to Conner Prairie was wonderful.  The weather, forecast to rain the whole time we were in town, was just cool and cloudy until quite literally the moment we left, and there were few people there, other than four school buses of children.  It was perfect.  We started at the back where the new Civil War exhibit was located, formerly the 1880s section of the village.  It was quite an exhibit, but my husband and I both agree that it didn't fit well into the village.  We spent a lot of time going through the exhibit before moving on to the 1836 section, where we enjoyed interacting with the interpreters (interpreters want to be asked questions!) and strolling through the buildings.  To avoid the groups of school children that were running amok, we went down the end of the lane to the potter’s shop, where we found a family friend of my husband's working.  Since it was a slow day at the potter’s shop, we were able to stay and talk for quite a while before finally moving on.  It was nice to see a familiar face.  Eventually, we wandered through the section and made our way to the Conner house (the namesake of the entire site), where we took our time and enjoyed the peaceful tour of the house, because by this time the school groups had left.  Then we moseyed on to the petting barn, and finally back to the visitor’s entrance and gift shop.  We purchased two pieces of pottery, both made by our potter friend, and headed for the Apple Store for apple cider slushies, apple cinnamon donuts, and hot apple cider.  I love this time of year!  Just as we were leaving the Apple Store, the rain began again and lasted into the night.  But, thank the Lord, it held off all day!  We were quite tired after a long day of walking, so we stopped at Olive Garden and then went back to the B&B for some r&r.  A wonderful relaxing night—just what we needed!

A scene from the new Civil War exhibit.  A wax figure stands "playing" the violin, while a "movie" describing the house and story play on a screen in the doorway.  Many actors filmed small vignettes like this and they play in various buildings as people walk through.

The Conner House

   Saturday morning, we awoke and readied for breakfast again at 9 am.  We were the only ones there that night, so we were the only breakfasters on Saturday morning.  We had warm cinnamon apples and orange juice for our first course, then a homemade blueberry turnover and ham, cheese and basil egg soufflé for our main course.  Incredible!  I think this was some of the best food I’ve had at the many b&b that we’ve stayed at over the years (we count seven now, to date).  Beautiful home, tasteful rooms, comfortable beds, a house with a unique history, and a gracious innkeeper made this one of my favorite B&Bs to stay at, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a weekend away.  You won’t be disappointed!

   After checking out, we headed to Noblesville to check out the outdoor mall and the Borders that was closing.  We walked around, but were still a bit tired from our day yesterday, so we headed back north to the Heritage festival in Pendleton that we’d heard about from the innkeeper.  We drove through, but it was so busy and crowded that we decided to forgo the festival and just make our way home.  On the way, we stopped at Pizza King again, this time in Albany, and enjoyed our last Pizza King experience in Indiana for a while.  After a stop at Sam’s Club in Lima, Ohio, to enjoy the free samples, we headed back home for a relaxing evening.  It was a great time, and felt good to get away, leave the computer and internet behind, and just enjoy spending time with my husband.  I'm including more photos for your enjoyment:

Hand-painted claw foot bathtub in our bathroom-converted into a shower

The entrance to the Civil War exhibit.  The focus of the exhibit is on Morgan's Raid, the only battle of the Civil War to take place in Indiana.

The partially burned depot (actually a new building, with a gift shop and restrooms inside)

Piglet!

A house in the 1836 village.

This kitty was taking advantage of the milking that was going on in the barn!

More free advertising for the Ivy House.  A great place to stay!

We're Baaaack!

Hi!


Well, vacation is over now.  Very sad!  I wasn't able to keep up with the last blog post, but really, I did cover the most exciting things that we did.  The Henry Ford Museum was not as good as I remembered, and there was a large section closed off for remodeling and setting up a new exhibit.  There were what seemed like a million kids running amok everywhere.  (Scroll down to see a few pics from the Museum--click on the photos to see a full-sized image.)  We ate at the Weinermobile restaurant in the museum, and it rained the whole time we were in there (which made it a good day for touring a museum).  It rained hard until just north of Toledo, where it cleared up and became sunny and warmer, then the sky turned that dark blackish-blue color off to the west as we stayed just ahead of a very strong line of storms that was heading through the area.  We watched it build the whole way home, saying, "I'm glad we're going to miss that!"  But not long after we arrived home, the storms had built up to include our town, and we were inundated by very large hail, and some hail chunks were the size of tennis balls.  It destroyed the siding on the north side of our house, damaged our roof, broke a skylight in our shed, and took out a few landscape lights.  Thankfully, we had parked both vehicles in the garage, so there was not any damage to them.  After the storm, we ventured out and saw that we were among the fortunate--many homes had broken windows and torn screens, and any vehicle that was parked outside during the storm resembled a golf ball.  Many vehicles had shattered windshields and/or windows.  The storm was so astounding that I grabbed my camera and took video of the hail during the storm, but sadly, I can't get any of them to load onto the blog!  I think the files are too large.  So, I loaded them on YouTube--click here for the first video, then click here for the second video, taken a few minutes later.  The audio doesn't quite do it justice, but it gives you an idea of what it was like.  Neither of us has ever seen hail like that before, and hopefully we will never see it again.  Can you imagine what it was like in Old Testament Egypt during the plagues, when the hail was on fire??

Chair that Lincoln was assassinated in from Ford's Theater.

Wartime Correspondence from George Washington.

Dymaxion House.  Only two were built in the world, and both were used to rebuild this as a walk-through exhibit.  The entire structure is suspended from a central column, like the frame of an umbrella.  Remarkably stable!

Henry Ford believed that one day people would have their own private planes, just like they had their own private vehicles.  The plane was his prototype.

I can't help but wonder if this unbelievably wild weather we've had this spring is indicative of God's wrath.  I wonder if it is a sign of End Times, and I wonder if it is punishment for the way that America has turned her back on God and everything that our forefathers created this country to be--which includes being a nation under God.  We heard an interesting sermon on Sunday based out of the book of Micah, specifically Micah 3:1-12.  I don't think that I've ever read anything out of Micah until now, but wow, it sure seems to apply to today.  It's a lengthy passage, which is why I've chosen not to type it out, but if you want to read it, click on the link above and see the parallels of then and today.  Those of you reading this are probably of the same opinions on morals, principles and politics as I am, or at least similar; we didn't vote in the current administration.  But the majority did vote them in, and the majority is why we might well be considered no longer under God's providence and protection.  We seem to no longer be Israeli allies, and that has never been the case before!  Of course, you and I know the importance of having Israel as an ally.  Sadly, the rest of the world does not understand or care.  For this reason, we must pray without ceasing for God's forgiveness for this country, even though we (collectively as a country) are to blame now.  I think it's fairly certain that we have not seen the last of terrible storms, violent earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and so on--I really think that we are seeing the birth pains spoken about in Matthew 24:4-8: " Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.  For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of birth pains."  Thankfully, believers in Christ have nothing to fear!