Kendra's Korner

April Showers

Did you enjoy the beautiful gentle rain we had all day today? After church, a couple from church hosted lunch in their home for anyone who wanted to come and fellowship and have lunch with a visiting missionary couple. So, I went and took a vegetable dish. I cooked onions; red, yellow, and green peppers; and yellow squash together. Afterwards, I added some tomatoes and sprinkled it with oregano, thyme, and parsley. Then, I topped it with some Mozzerella cheese and let the cheese melt over the top. When I got back home, I lit all of my jar candles and got cozy--perfect day for that today.

Well, it has been entirely too long since I have updated my blog. I have been super busy at night after work and on weekends trying to finish that chest of drawers I have been working on. I am almost done--thank goodness! As I have gone along the project has become more involved. But, all of the hard work is slowly paying off and it will be well worth it when it's done. Be looking for a blog post with a picture of the completed project sometime soon!

Did you know that April is national garden month? Well, appropriately, my iris have all been in bloom over the past week.
Aren't they beautiful? The entire side of my house is lined with iris looking just like this!

Did you have a good Easter? My aunt Peg and uncle Tom came to Virginia for Easter. Easter dinner was at my house. Our menu was: hamloaf, roasted red potatoes, asparagus, tomato and cucumber salad, cottage cheese and pineapple salad, and parsley parmesan biscuits. For dessert, I made dad's favorite--lemon meringue pie.
 

While I have been busy working on my chest of drawers, mom and dad have been super busy in the basement working on a project for the grandkids--a real labor of love, I must say. Dad built the children a sandbox, mom helped to paint it, and voila...
a sandbox shaped like a sailboat! Isn't it darling?!?! They did a fabulous job.

On Wednesday I am flying to Indianapolis. I have never been to Indianapolis before. But, I was invited to be a co-speaker teaching a short course at the American Occupational Therapy Association's annual conference and expo. The woman with whom I'm presenting owns a consulting business and has been a pleasure to work with for this project. We put together a power point presentation via e-mail and talked on the phone a couple of times. I'm looking forward to meeting her in person. Anyway, be looking for some pictures of Indianapolis when I come back next week.

Well, that's all for today. I will try not to make it so long before the next post--I have really missed blogging! Have a great evening!

Spring Projects

It's hard to believe that Sunday will be the first of April! I've been keeping myself quite busy here in my corner of Augusta County. Remember that chest of drawers that I started refinishing...
Well, I have been hard at work in Mom and Dad's basement and backyard trying to finish up this project that I started more than 5 years ago. This chest of drawers belonged to my great grandfather and grandmother--so, it is a piece of family history. I stripped the oil-based paint using an industrial strength heat gun--which, in case you were wondering, is a very amazing and handy tool to have around the house. I purchased mine through Amazon for around $20. Last Saturday afternoon, I was busy sanding in the backyard.
When I was finished, this is what the dresser looked like from the front...
and from the side...
What a difference a heat gun and some sand paper make! After we carried the dresser inside, I started to work on priming the piece.
When I was finished, my chest of drawers looked like this--
It is now ready for the pretty lavendar paint I chose to use! :)  You'll have a chance to check it out in my next post...so stay tuned.

Happy Spring!

I hope you enjoyed our first official day of spring! I don't know about you, but, I've been enjoying the lovely spring-like weather we have had for the past week or so. There are signs of spring everywhere around my yard--my tulips, daffodils, and lily are all pushing up through the mulch in my front yard. Unfortunately, the daffodils got frosted this year, so, they haven't bloomed. My wigelia and hydrangea bushes have green on them. My butterfly bush looks like it kept growing through the winter--I can't believe how much it's grown. While I'm sure that it didn't really grow over the winter months, it is looking promising to bloom and be beautiful again this year. And, last, but certainly not least, my pansies are blooming again.

Some of the unfinished projects around my house have been getting some steady doses of hard work and TLC from me over the past couple of weeks. Look to see some pictures and updates in the near future... 

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Well, I am not wearing anything green today. I celebrated St. Patty's Day at work yesterday. I wore my green shirt and my St. Patrick's day scarf with 3 leaf clovers all over it. One of the nurses brought her panini press to work and we all brought various ingredients for our Reuben sandwiches and some of us brought desserts. We had fun celebrating St. Patrick's Day a little early. I do have a little bit of Irish in my blood. My great grandmother on my Dad's side of the family was Irish. Before my Dad's mother's mother, Beatrice, married Charles Percy Owen (who was Welsh), she had the maiden name Lavin. So, I am indeed just a little Irish. Maybe that's why I like Celtic music so much.

On Thursday, my tear off desk calendar had the following quote for the day: "Reading is a means of thinking with another person's mind; it forces you to stretch your own." -Charles Scribner Jr.  I really liked that quote--perhaps because I love to read so much. Right now, I am really enjoying my Bonhoffer book--definitely a mind-stretching book. It is a fascinating, thought-provoking read and I highly recommend it.

Last Saturday, Mom and Dad and I went to Hagerstown to pick up the dining room table that I ordered. I have my first real dining room table!
I will be able to seat more people at this new table and I'm looking forward to having friends and family over to share a meal at my new table. :)

Well, I hope you're having a fantastic St. Patrick's Day and had a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather today.

Signs of Spring

What a shock to look out my window this morning and see it snowing! Well, it took Dad and I over an hour to get to work instead of our normal 30 minute commute. The roads were not plowed or salted and there were multiple wrecks. But, thankfully, we made it to work safely, although a bit late. In spite of the commute headaches, the snow was beautiful to see--especially covering the trees. I've been so happy with our mild winter this year. Even when it snows, it melts the same day or the next day. That is the way to have snow and winter.

On Saturday, before all of this cold, white stuff covered the ground, I went out to check on the flower bed in the corner of my front yard where my varigated Wigelia is planted. All around the outside of that flower bed, I planted various bulbs--hyacinth, tulip, and daffodil. When I went out there, guess what I found?
All around the border of the flower bed were signs of life just like this! Spring is coming indeed. I can't wait to see how many of the bulbs will bloom and how all of the various flowers and colors look in combination aroud the border of that flower bed.

A Prayer

I love this hymn by Stuart Townsend and Keith Getty. It is an appropriate prayer to begin any day, but, especially a Sunday. Have a blessed day! 

Speak O Lord Lyrics

Stuart Townend

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility;
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of pow'r that can never fail—
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us—
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we'll stand on Your promises,
And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.

Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2005 Thankyou Music
 

 

Have Your Cupcake...and Eat it Too!

This past Friday, I had the day off of work and Mom and I spent the day together. After doing a 7:45 Zumba class together, we headed off to the grocery store, the Cheese Shop, and the Stuarts Draft Antique Mall. When we got home, we started working on dinner, since our friends Lou and Judy were coming to Mom and Dad's house for dinner that night. We made two kinds of homemade pizza and a salad. For dessert, we decided on cupcakes. My friend Deb over at Mountain Musings had mentioned a blog, Your Cup of Cake. Mom and I had to check out the blog and decided on the Golden Graham Cupcakes for dessert on Friday night. Here is the finished product:
Aren't they pretty? When you have a chance, you should visit that blog...I had no idea someone could think up so many cupcake combinations. She has the greatest ideas. It is an absolutely amazing and really fun blog! She also has some good tips for techniques both for making the cupcakes and for the icing. In case you wondering, they were also delicious! :)

Snow Day

Did you take advantage of the snow day on Sunday? I did. After church on Sunday, I spent the afternoon at mom and dad's house. Mom and I sat in the living room sipping tea, watching the snow come down, and chatting while I did some knitting. Sounds cozy, huh? It was. My knitting project is a baby blanket that I started about 3 years ago. I keep saying that I'll finish it up--I have about 2/3 of it completed. Well, I'm slowly whittling away at that last 1/3 this winter and hoping to finish it by this summer.

At church on Sunday, our message came from Matthew 20: 17-28. Here is one thing that Esson had to say about this passage:

"Love is hard.  Real love means that we must serve rather than be served.  We have a hard time loving because so much of us wants to be served rather than to serve.  The Gospel is the story of how the most powerful Person in the universe gave up His power--His strength and security--so that we might be made secure in His love. And the more secure we are in His love, the more we'll be able to serve and to love, just like He did."  Esson Daley

He also said that the question for high school students and, particularly, seniors is not, "What do you want to do in life?" Rather, the appropriate question is, "What do you want to do for others?" Thought-provoking stuff.  Needless to say, the message was very good.

On another note, the Cheese Shop in Stuarts Darft is having their Customer Appreciation Week this week. Make sure to get there if you can. Mom and I plan to go on Friday--I'm needing some herbs and spices.

A Blustery Day in My Neighborhood

It got really cold and windy here today. I'm sitting in my living room listening to my house occasionally creaking from the wind outside. When I was doing my grocery shopping this morning, there were snowflakes falling in the Walmart parking lot! I must admit that I have truly enjoyed our mild winter and hope that it will continue to be mild.

Tomorrow is Abraham Lincoln's birthday. So, in honor of that, I thought I would give you some Bing Crosby music to listen to that celebrates Lincoln's birthday. This song is from one of my all-time favorite classic movies, Holiday Inn.

I have a list of unfinished projects that I hope to finish this year. Most of them are at my house, but, one is at my mom's house. The project at my mom's house is an old oak chest of drawers that she got from my dad's parents and painted and used for my brothers' room when they were living at home. It is a solid, well-built piece of furniture...with at least 3 coats of oil-based paint on it. About 5 years ago, I decided that I wanted to strip all of the paint off, re-paint it, and use it for myself since my mom no longer wanted it. Well, it was a nice thought, but, a bigger task than I realized. I painstakingly stripped much of it, but, got weary with the project and it has been in my mom's basement ever since. However, I am in the process of turning my back room into a dedicated sewing/work area for myself. In addition to creating a cutting table/work station for myself, making a cover for my sewing machine, and sewing some curtains for the room, I decided that I needed to come up with a creative storage solution for fabrics, sewing projects, and scrapbooking papers. That is where the chest of drawers comes in...if I could just complete the re-finishing of that piece of furniture, it would make perfect storage. My co-worker told me that the secret was in using an industrial heat gun and he loaned me his. So, tonight, after dinner, dad and I went down to the basement and worked on the chest of drawers. This is what it looked like before we started.
Do you see all those little grooves that we need to get into?
I found pink and blue paint underneath of the brown on top and I'm pretty sure there is a layer of varnish underneath all of that. I must say that the heat gun is an amazing tool! When we heated up that paint, it bubbled right up and, at times, began falling off of the dresser before I even started scraping it. We got the majority of the dresser scraped in only an hour and a half (including all of those little grooves). We're going to finish it up on Monday night after work and I'll post an "after" picture to compare with this "before" picture. I'll keep you posted on the progress of this project.

Mom has requested chili and cornbread for lunch tomorrow. So, that's what we will have. That's a perfect lunch for a cold day, isn't it? It is already put together in my crock pot sitting in the refrigerator and ready for me to simply plug in before I head off to church.  I love easy lunches like that.

Today, in the mail, I got the sweetest Valentine ever.
That is from Brook and Pierson and Brooke made it herself. Didn't she do a great job? It's a lot of fun being an aunt.

Well, have a great weekend everyone!

More February News & Notes

Well, Monday was Ronald Reagan's birthday. I was just recently cleaning out some of my things in my mom's basement and found many, many newspapers that I saved from the time of Ronald Reagan's death and funeral. He was such an incredible man and an incredible president. I really wish we had a similar candidate running for president this election cycle.

Did you see the full moon on Tuesday night? I hope so. It was absolutely gorgeous! I wish that my camera was powerful enough to get good pictures of the moon, but, I have never been able to get great outdoor nighttime pictures with my camera. I knew that my camera would not do justice to the beauty of that moon, so, I did not even attempt.

Today was one of my Thursdays to work at ALS clinic all day. One of our patients will be turning 80 next week, so, we helped him celebrate his birthday today. Mom made a bouqet of cake pops for him (they were Valentine themed for the upcoming holiday) and we sang Happy Birthday to him.
ren't they beautiful? In case you were wondering, they were absolutely delicious, too. Our patient took all of his home to enjoy--as well he should have. But, mom had three left over in the refrigerator and I had one with my coffee when I came home from clinic tonight.

Have a lovely evening and a fantastic Friday!