MORE BUSYNESS

I just told you about the water heater problems. While I was trying to get that carpet dried enough to put things back, I was also preparing to have my Friday morning Bible study here.

I was up at 5 Friday morning and had everything ready, had my mug of coffee, and waited for the gals to come. A car finally arrived, but only one gal came in. It seems the other gal forgot about meeting that day! So we had a short chat and she went back home, and later I went back to bed for a little while.

I couldn't be in bed too long as I had an appointment at 11 at the eye doctor for a glaucoma pressure check after using some eye drops for a month. Everything was good with that. Then I headed for Walmart to pick up a few things like milk and cereal that I was out of. I didn't get many things but it still added up to $45. I can remember when I could get a whole cart full for only $12. Those days are long gone!

Then I needed another long nap because I had a big day coming up on Saturday. I was going to drive back to the town I lived in for 10 years and where my kids all graduated from high school. I was meeting two second cousins who were driving there from several miles east of there, and together we visited with my elderly cousin. I don't have very many cousins left, and I had not seen him for a long time. We had a wonderful time visiting and talking about the old days and what he could remember of growing up, and of our grandparents. And we looked at old pictures, those that he had, and the ones of relatives that we brought along. Time went far too quickly!

I also spent a little time in the cemetery there, and located my grandparent's grave stones. I remembered about where they were but had not been there for so many years that it took a bit of slowly driving around before I finally found them. With great difficulty walking over the rough ground, I managed to hobble over there and took a couple of pictures. I plan to enter them on findagrave.com soon, as I am surprised they were not already there. I was really glad to get back to the car again, and decided walking in cemeteries is no longer possible for me right now. Therefore I did not even get out to my husband's grave to put flowers this year. I think the next time my daughter comes I will have her do it for me, although she has a really bad knee right now too. She had injured it at work a few weeks ago and it still is not doing so well.

With all that activity I was totally worn out on Sunday, and I slept very late in the morning, and took a few long naps during the day. As my niece likes to say, "Getting old is not for wusses." My suggestion to you - take care of yourself when younger, eat right, exercise. If you are overweight now, get down to normal weight. If you don't you will regret abusing your body at a younger age. It may not have bothered you much then, but you will pay for it when you get older. Hear??

BUSIER THAN PLANNED

May 17 seems like a long time ago right now. I had written about that time that I was preparing for my kids to come visit, and had some things I wanted them to do for me. On the 17th, a Saturday, I spent several hours making potato salad, cole slaw, thawing chicken breasts and boneless thighs, and mixing up a pot of baked beans to put in the crock pot on Sunday. Then I baked a Marie Callendar pumpkin pie that I had bought on a good sale earlier. Thank goodness for my rolling stool or I would not have been able to do it. I was even able to get all the dishes washed the same day, and that is usually impossible for me to have enough energy left to get done. As it turned out, it was a VERY good thing those dishes were washed.

Because. . . . I woke up Sunday morning with wet carpet in front of my bedroom closet! The water heater, in the closet, had sprung a leak. Always on Sundays, right?? The landlord and the plumber had both already left for church but I called both and left messages. It is good that the water was not gushing out like happened on a heater in another house years ago. No, just sort of a slow leak, but getting worse.

So that meant I had no hot water, and no water at all except for the kitchen sink, while my kids were here. We had to fill a pail with water in order to flush the toilet while they were here. And it meant that first of all, I had to pull everything out of the closet that was on the floor, thankfully all in plastic, and move the hanging clothes all to the other end so the landlord could get in there to work. So he was in and out all afternoon and evening while my kids were here. Can you tell that having that water heat leak at some time was on my mind? Otherwise I probably would not have had everything in plastic but cardboard instead, or loose on the floor.

The landlord had to drive 60 miles to find a place open that sells water heaters, then took time to try and find one that would fit so he wouldn't have to change the plumbing, and then drive the 60 miles back. Our little towns in the area don't have many places open on Sundays, especially any businesses that involve house fixing or remodeling.

When he got the new heater in the closet he found that it did not fit and would have to change the plumbing after all, so he could not hook it up that night. The next morning he got the supplies he needed and I finally had hot water after 10:30 am Monday.

That still left me with soggy carpet in spite of him using his shop vac and my son getting out my carpet shampooer and sucking water up with that. It was still very wet. I finally had to get my old table fan out from the garage that had about 8 years of dust and cobwebs on it. So first, I had to give that a good cleaning, and then set it on the floor aiming it into the closet and set on oscillating. Had to run it for about 3 days before I finally felt that it was dry enough.

I am still slowly sorting through things and putting them back in the closet. Am putting the hanging clothes in order with all the sweat shirts on one end, and the summer tops in the middle where they are the handiest for me to reach. I still have a little more to do with that also. I feel like I am working at a turtle's pace, and I am. But it will get done, hopefully by the end of this week.

LISTENING TO THE RADIO

I guess I took this picture because of the kitty on the chair. But what I want you to see is the old console radio. It was a Philco. And the clock on top is an electric chime clock. I still have the clock, but the chimes don't work anymore. The room they are in is the dining room.

That radio was always on before we got television. I used to come home from school and lay on the floor in front of it, listing to Roy Rogers show, Gene Autry show, The Shadow, Fibber McGee and Molly, Queen for a Day, and many more. Soap operas started on the radio before moving to television, and I always listened to those too. That is where I first got hooked on the soaps. As a teenager I listened to the Top 20 - the most popular songs for the week.

The door in the picture is the stairway to the bedrooms upstairs. Those were narrow steps as I remember. And unheated, of course. In the winter time you hurried to get to the bedroom where it was slightly warmer.

COOKSTOVE

Going through some old albums I found this one picture of the old cob burning cook stove we had in the kitchen. Mom also had a more modern gas range on the other side of the kitchen, but she used the old cookstove quite often, especially in the winter as it warmed the kitchen up. There was no heat in the kitchen otherwise. The house had two large kerosene burning space heaters, one in the living room and one in the dining room. The stovepipes went up through the floor of the two bedrooms upstairs, then out through the roof. In the floor around the stove pipe was something like a register. It had holes in it that allowed the rising heat from the heater to come up into the bedroom and provided a little bit of heat up there. Not much, but it helped. They could be closed if the rooms were not used.

It still amazes me how women were able to bake accurately in these stoves. They had to know how many cobs or how much wood to put in the firebox to keep the oven at the right temperature. Mom heated the wash water for laundry in an old copper boiler on top of the cookstove. There was also a water reservoir on the right end, so as long as there was fire in the stove we had warm water. The reservoir is behind me and the dog, Taffy. That is the last dog I had on the farm before we moved to town in 1961. And Mom was still using that cookstove until then as well. She may have been the last one in the area to still use one.

On the other side of that window is an enclosed porch. That is where the old wringer Maytag washing machine and rinse tub sat. And there was a chest freezer at the other end. Before we got the freezer Mom rented a freezer space in the local town locker inside the butcher shop. They used that mostly when they would butcher a whole beef or hog. Town was only a couple miles away, but what an inconvenience having to run to town to get the frozen meat for a meal. That freezer also held the home butchered chickens

LAST SET OF GRANDPARENTS

I have shown you wedding pictures of many of my ancestors earlier on this blog, but this one was missing. This is my dad's parents, Aielt and Aleida. I had been asking other relatives if they had a copy and I finally found a second cousin that had this one.  It has had some damage but at least the faces show up in good condition. They look so young, don't they? So I had to look it up. She is 18 and he is 21. That is exactly the same age I and my first husband where we we got married!

MOI

I think this is one of my best pictures. At least it is the one I like best. It was taken in 1991, less than 2 years after Les and I were married. We didn't have an official wedding portrait done, so when the church did a new picture directory, this is the closest we can consider for that occasion. This dress is not the one I wore for the wedding. I wish I could still get my hair to look like that again! Age changed things.

THE GOD OF WHAT'S LEFT

FAITH FRIDAY

Jentezen Franklin is another tv preacher I have watched a few times. One of his sermons was titled "The God of What's Left" and that caught my attention. You can watch videos of his sermons, or watch pod casts here. Check the TV schedule for channels that might carry his program, or watch it on TBN on Sundays at 8:00 am CT, or Monday nights at 8:00 pm CT.

Here are the notes I took:

The devil takes from you, but God does not allow him to take everything. There will always be a "stump" left. God will cause that "stump" to flourish.

Trust God to do what He promises. Look at Job. Job lost everything - his livelihood, all his children died, and he lost his health. All he had left was his faith in God. God is the God of what you have left.

He is not just the God of what you had, He is the God of what you lost, and the God of what you have left.

Restoration begins in your head. Ashes are what you have left after the fire. If you throw the ashes in the air toward God, they will come down and cover the enemy.

What is gone is not needed to be what God has planned for you. Your latter will be greater than your former.

_______________________________________________________________

After Job lost everything, but still trusted God, God blessed him with much more than what he lost. After you have been through a trial and feel like you have lost everything, don't lose hope, and don't lose your faith in God because He has not left you. He has left a 'stump' to sprout new growth. God prunes us and gets rid of what is not beneficial to our producing fruit. When He uses that pruning shears it hurts! It leaves a wound, but then a scab grows over it and it doesn't hurt as much, and eventually it leaves a scar. That scar is a reminder, but it no longer hurts. And now something new can start growing and take us a new and better direction.

I know this is true. I have seen it happen in my life, and I am better for it. It hasn't been easy, but it has been blessed. Never ever give up hope in what lies ahead.

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

I often talk about the house I lived in with my husband, and the house I was forced to move out of almost 8 years ago. I did show you some pictures of the inside earlier. This is the pretty side of the house. I guess it is actually the 'front' door, but it faces the side yard.

I loved the vines that crawled up on the brick. In the fall, as this picture shows, they turned such pretty colors. Every fall my husband pulled the vines off of the house and cut them close to the ground. One year I made several wreaths out of the vines by wrapping them around a pail. They were not grape vines but did resemble them, right down to the little curlyque tendrils in places. I still have a few of them.

Our double garage is to the far right, behind the old van.

And this is the ugly side of the house! It faces the business district. Those windows behind the awnings were where my husband's first wife had her beauty shop. They were two small room. The washing station and styling chair were in the room on the left, and the hair dryers were in the room on the right. After we got married he sold the equipment and made a sitting room and office which worked out well.

Les that ugly patchwork looking rock facade on after I met him, but before we got married. He did NOT ask my opinion!! I would have chosen something much different. He had that done after he discovered a leak. I think he just needed to have it tuck pointed and the leak would have been fixed. But he had his own ideas. You can see that we did not have a very pretty view out our back door. Grain elevators. During harvest time they were very noisy  because of the corn dryers working all night long. And red corn chaff would blow all over and be like red snow on everything. I don't miss that at all! I am still just close enough that I can hear the corn dryers if I listen close enough, but at least they aren't right outside my bedroom window.

A PROPER LADY. . .

A proper lady. . . wore hats.

It seems my grandmother thought so. The two portraits I have of her in later years have her wearing a hat.

I like this fedora looking hat.

She looks quite a bit older in this picture, and the hat is highly decorated.

After working on family history I have learned a little more about her. She had to have been a very strong and determined woman.

She gave birth to 7 children, and the 5th weighed 11 pounds at birth! That is according to a newspaper announcement. Unfortunately that baby died about a month later. He seems to be the only one that was born in a hospital. All the rest were born at home. Women had to be tough in those days. Her babies were born between the years of 1908-1923.

SCRAPBOOKING - AS IT USED TO BE

This poor tattered scrapbook is one my mother did in 1941. It is actually a diary with pictures and mementos of the trip my parents took to Washington and California to visit relatives. They made quite a tour of it as they came back to Iowa via New Mexico and toured the Carlsbad Caverns. They were gone from December 3, 1940 through January 16, 1941. I am sure it must have been the first big trip either one had ever taken. As a kid I was always a bit miffed that they didn't wait until I was born and old enough to be aware of the sights to take such a trip!

This is the first page. You can see how badly it has deteriorated over the years. The car in the picture is the one they drove on this trip - a 1936 Chevy coupe. She wrote that they drove a total of 6,243 miles on this trip. Can you imagine? It is probably a good thing they went in the winter, as the desert would have been unbearable without air conditioning in the hot summer!

Mom kept record of a lot of details which makes it very interesting reading. I just wish she had written in ink and not pencil as some of that has faded out as well. And you can see that some of the pictures have fallen out over the years too.

These are pictures of my dad's cousin and family in Washington. That was their first place to visit.

As a kid, this was my favorite page! This old postcard would meow when you pressed the red dot under the cat's chin. That no longer works. I guess either I or my kids wore it out. Look at those bright green eyes!

I guess one of these days I should transcribe what Mom wrote so the story can be preserved. Add that to my long list of 'to-do' items. Oh, why didn't I think to do this years ago??

COOL DUDE

This is a drawing of my oldest grandchild, Jeff. He will be 31 this month (I think). I lose track of time and years. My youngest daughter knew a guy that did this kind of work, so gave him Jeff's senior picture and ended up with this. She gave it to him as a graduation gift. I really like this.

CLUTTER, CLUTTER, GO AWAY. . .

AND DON'T COME BACK ANOTHER DAY!!

I need to sit a bit and take a break. I have been working on my laundry closet. I only call it the laundry closet because it is across the room from the washer and dryer. The only thing in the closet that is even remotely connected to laundry is the extra jug of Tide that I bought some time ago when it was on sale for a really good price and I bought two. It really holds things that I don't know where else to put them, including the carpet shampooer, season items, shelves with Bible study reference books, tools, humidifier, among several other things.

I am working on that closet today because two of my kids are coming on Sunday and I knew there were some things in there that I want them to take to the garage for me, and a couple of small boxes of stuff that I will donate the next time the Goodwill trailer comes to town, or the next time I get to Sioux City, whichever comes first. They will go directly into the back of my van.

It was long past the time that the closet should have been cleaned out, and it probably would not get done now if the kids were not coming. I don't have time to do a proper cleaning or organizing in there this week, but at least I got the things out that need to be out, and the rest put back in a reasonable fashion. I did not take time to get a before picture taken, but I will try to get a picture of all that is going out, if I don't forget later. Right now I just need to rest.

I am also watching other people work outside the window. I love watching other people work. <grin> My neighbor that hauled in loads and loads of dirt is now having his patio done. There are guys out there putting in forms for cement and now have dumped sand in and packing that down. I hate to say it, but I would make that patio larger if it were me. It always seems that they are never big enough once you start using them. The same with porches.

Back to decluttering. I was reading A Slob Comes Clean early this morning and she mentioned something I should listen to. She had a collection of pictures and signs she planned to put on the wall once she had the 'perfect' arrangement and the ideal place to put them. They were scattered here and there and a mess. So she finally decided to 'just hang them'! She dusted them off and hung some up on nails that were already in the wall. The rest she set around on shelves and wherever she could find a place to display them. So now they are visible even though they are not in their final places.

I know exactly what she is talking about! I had many wall things either still in boxes or in drawers or standing on the floor along side a piece of furniture, but out of the way (until time to clean) that used to hang in the other house, but I had not found the right spot in this house. One day I got tired of moving some of them to clean, so told myself I just needed to find a place for them or get rid of them. So I did get several hung up. I still have two that are sitting on the floor next to this computer desk, plus two 'new' ones that I really want to hang. Those last two I just recently framed of my mother's baptism and confirmation certificates. They are really large for certificates. One took a 16x20 frame and the other a 12x16 frame. They are beautiful pieces of artwork and calligraphy, not to mention the sentimental value. So I am adding that to my to-do list for my kids to do while here. That list keeps growing and they are not going to be here very long, and we need time to visit. So it will be interesting to see how much we get done.

Now I better get busy again. I still have lots to do before my Bible study meets here early tomorrow morning. (groan) I am writing this Thursday, so Bible study is Friday morning, not the day after this is published.

TYING THE KNOT

FAITH FRIDAY

I have been neglecting Faith Friday for quite awhile. Genealogy got in the way, folks. But I have been collecting notes along the way. I just didn't find the time to formulate my thoughts enough, nor find the time to write.

I have been blessed by a few sermons I heard by tv preachers in the last few weeks. I recently discovered James Merrit on Touching Lives. He started a new series on marriage entitled "The Knot" Here are a few of the notes I made, though there is much more valuable advice than what I got written down. I finally went to the website and found videos of the shows, so you can go here if you want to hear more. The first of the series starts with "Bound" on April 27, 1914. This is the one I talk about today. You can see Touching Lives on TBN Sunday mornings at 7:30am CT.

The secret to making a marriage last is to tie a knot that will never come untied. Marriage is God's IDEAL idea.

We take an IDEAL

and make it into an ORDEAL

and then want a NEW DEAL.

Isn't that the truth?

Today's culture goes this way:

HOOK UP

SHACK UP

BREAK UP

When we get married we call it 'tying the knot.' We need to bind our marriage with the sailor's knot. This knot is used to hold the boat to the dock or pier, and it will hold through the strongest storms. The more storms and water that the knot goes through, the tighter it gets.

That is what marriage needs when things get tough, when life gets hard and there are many problems to deal with. That is when the knot should get tighter to hold it all together. If the wrong knot has been tied, it won't hold, and the marriage falls apart.

I could write my own thoughts as a sermon, but I will stop here. I think there is enough food for thought here that needs to be digested. It seems too many marriages are tied with a slip knot. Do you need to take the time to retie your knot and make it a sailor's knot?

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW - TWILIGHT TIME

I have taken several picture I intended to use on this blog, and then I get busy with other things and forget about them. Obviously this was awhile back since there is still snow on the ground.

This picture does not do justice to the beautiful colors of the sunset. I am actually looking south, not west. I have always enjoyed the beautiful colors of sunsets. The few sunrises I have been up to see are also pretty. But you know I am not a morning person.

I should have thought to take a picture of the western sky last evening as the sky was a very bright neon orange. I actually don't get to see much of the sunsets since I live on the east side of town and have a large two-story house next door that hides much of it. But this time of year the sun sets more in the northwest and the house next door is not in the way. I need to keep my camera handy and remember to take more sunset pictures when they are spectacular.

THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKING TO IT

Everybody has a story. Many years ago, if I had been asked to tell my story, I would say that I didn't have one. There was nothing out of the ordinary in my life, or so I thought. Or I wasn't willing to tell my story when my marriage was in big trouble. I didn't want anyone to know what was happening behind closed doors. I pretended my life was good. I didn't want anyone to know that my husband had had an affair and was going to leave us. We all have secrets. Now, as you can probably tell, I am an open book. I have shown you some of my dirty secrets here. I mean real dirt. You saw my cluttered pantry. Then I showed you my clean and organized pantry. And now it needs to be done again, as well as all my other closets.

On one of Joyce Meyers programs she talked about when we have tough life problems and how we handle them. And we all have times like that. She told a story of parents with a lovely little boy who was so delightful and smart and showed videos of his story. Then he became sick with a genetic disease that destroys the nerves of the central nervous system. It was devastating. He soon lost his ability to walk well, and then couldn't walk at all. Later he lost his eyesight. I don't remember the age of the boy, but he was little. I would say he was between 3 and 5 years old. How frightening that had to be for him. It was tough. And it was hard on his parents.

As I was thinking about things Joyce had said, I thought about my story. I decided that I must have been meant to be alone.

First, I am an only child. Yes, I did have my parents, and childhood friends, but that is not the same as having siblings. Life is very different as an only child, some good, some not so good.

Then I got married when I was still 18, and had 3 babies within 5 years. Now I am no longer alone, but whew! I sure didn't know how to deal with kids and the problems they bring to the mix.

And then my parents died when I was 24 and 28 years old. And I have three kids that I need advice about bringing them up. No parents, no grandparents, no siblings to ask what I should do. And my husband was no help either. I had friends but not the kind I could ask those kinds of questions. Alone. And I tried to handle it all. . alone. I didn't do a great job, but I could only do what I knew at the time, and that wasn't much. Where was Dr. Phil when I really needed him? (or the internet)

Alone. A husband that was there physically, but not emotionally. A husband who decided to give his love and time to another woman for a time. Another huge problem that I had to deal with alone. No parents or siblings to take my problems to, and I sure wasn't going to go to my husband's mother or sister.

The marriage died and we separated after 25 years. The kids were now out of school and working jobs. Alone. I finally found a full time job, and after 2 years I was in danger of losing that job, not because of anything I did wrong, but what would I do if I didn't have a job so I could afford rent, etc.? No one I could go to for help. Alone.

Then I met a man who became my husband and we eventually married. No longer alone. Oh, but after 15 years he died of pancreatic cancer. Alone. His daughter and family no longer kept in contact once he was gone and the estate settled. Alone.

My kids are scattered all over the country - Wisconsin, Virginia, Seattle, and the closest at Omaha is 160 miles away. I don't see them very often, and they aren't here when I need help. Alone. I seem to be destined to be alone.

But since I was an only child, I learned to entertain myself. I developed several hobbies. Actually too many hobbies! I like to read books and watch television. And now that I have a computer, I can reach out and contact many people that I had lost contact with, both friends and family. I have made new friends online and that is wonderful. But I am still alone. Do I mind being alone? Sort of, but not really.

And I am not really alone. God is here. He is with me all the time. He has taken care of me. I see that as I look back on my life. He has guided me even when I didn't ask for guidance. He has a plan for me and He has worked out my life to get me to where He wants me. It hasn't always been pleasant. It hasn't been easy. But now I can see why things happened to get me to this place. I have no doubt why I am at this place.

I was always concerned if I would have enough money to live if I was alone and unable to work. But God has taken care of me in every way. He has seen to it that I have had enough money to survive. He has even seen to it that I received sums of money from unexpected places and people. He saw to it that there was the perfect house available for rent just at the time I was forced to move, and at lower rent than any other place available in town. People in my church have helped in so many ways. Many men and women saw to it that I got moved which was amazing! There has always been someone ready to help when I asked, and some have even helped out in answer to a prayer that I had not even uttered yet! Yes, God takes care of His people. Don't ever doubt it.

That's my story, and I am sticking to it!

CINNAMON ROLLS - bread machine style

I shared my mother's favorite cinnamon roll recipe some time ago. They were made the old fashioned way, and I know some of you still prefer to make bread and rolls that way. But all that mixing and kneading doesn't work so well with my wrists and the arthritis at the base of my thumb, so I have the bread machine do all that for me. It might take a little longer but it works really well. Some of you have the big stand mixers with the dough hooks and I have an old style one that has them too. I did use it to make bread dough when it was new, but now it is old and the speed is unreliable. I think it has something to do with a rheostat, and not worth fixing since I don't do a lot of baking these days.

I do like making cinnamon rolls the easy way with the bread machine and I found a recipe that I like quite well. Some time in the mid-to-late 1990's I ordered a small bread machine cookbook called "Fleischmann's Yeast Bread Machine Favorites" I don't know if it is still available. I just checked the Fleischmann's Breadworld website and did not see any mention of it, nor is this recipe among the ones they have on the site. But I did see several yummy sounding recipes that I might have to try, so you might like to check it out as well. http://www.breadworld.com

The recipes in this book have amounts for both 1 pound loaves and 1 1/2 pound loaves. My machine makes 1 1/2 pounds. I don't know if you can even buy bread machines that only make the 1 pound anymore. Many of them now make 2 pounds, so if that is what you have, you will have to figure out how to make adjustments, unless it will also make the 1 1/2 pound. If anyone wants the 1 pound recipe, just ask me for it.

Awhile back I got hungry for cinnamon rolls, so I made a pan full. My intention was to blog about it right away, and I remembered to take pictures, although I did not remember until 3 had been eaten. According to the date stamp on the pictures, that was back on April 12. My goodness, time does flit away. You might guess that I got involved again with genealogy research, and when that happens, nothing else matters.

I am rather proud of how uniform I managed to get the slices without measuring before I cut! I also do not roll out the dough with a rolling pin. I just push it out with my finger tips, pushing out any big air bubbles as I go. I start in the center of the dough and work toward the edges.

Later I decided I wanted them a little sweeter, and I was pretty sure I had a can of frosting in the pantry. Sure enough, after a little digging I came up with a can of cream cheese frosting. Perfect! As you can see, I wasn't aiming at making them look pretty, I just wanted them to taste good. And they did! So here is the 1 1/2 pound recipe for the rolls ~~

OLD-FASHIONED CINNAMON ROLLS

DOUGH:
3/4 cup milk
3 Tablespoons water
1 large egg
1/4 cup butter or margarine, cut up
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 1/3 cups bread flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

FILLING AND TOPPING:
1/2 cup coarsely chopped almonds, toasted
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
Glaze (see recipe below)

Add dough ingredients to the bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select the dough/manual cycle. When cycle is complete, remove dough from machine to a lightly floured surface. If necessary, knead in enough flour to make dough easy to handle. If dough is too elastic, cover and let rest for 10 minutes before shaping. Meanwhile, for filling, stir together almonds, the 1/4 cup sugar, and cinnamon.

Divide dough in half. Roll half of dough into a 9x8 inch rectangle. Spread with 1 tablespoon softened butter. Sprinkle with half of the filling mixture. Beginning at long end, roll up tightly as for jelly roll. Pinch seam to seal. With sharp knife, cut into 6 equal slices. Repeat with remaining dough, butter, and filling. Place all the rolls, cut sides up, into one greased 9x9x2 inch baking pan.

Cover dough and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until almost doubled in size, 20 to 30 minutes. Bake rolls at 350 F for 25-30 minutes or until done. Cool slightly; remove from pan. Drizzle Glaze over warm rolls. Serve warm Makes 12 rolls.

Cycle: Dough/manual cycle.

GLAZE:
Combine 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar, 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, and enough milk (2 to 3 teaspoons) to make glaze of drizzling consistency.

_________________________________________________________________

Here are some of the changes I made. I often use part whole wheat flour, usually 1 1/2 cups of the total amount of flour, and the rest  is white bread flour. I measure out the 1 1/2 cups plus the additional 1/3 cup white flour. Or I will just use 1 cup whole wheat flour to 2 1/3 cups white. Either way is good and it isn't that noticeable to the eye.

I had planned to use what was left in a package of chopped pecans as that is what I had on hand, but I forgot them.

I do not bother to divide the dough in half and roll out 1/2 at a time. I leave it in one piece, then cut into 12 pieces. I have never tried to get all twelve into a 9x9 pan! As you can see, mine filled the 9x13 Pyrex dish. If any of you try the 12 in the 9x9x2 pan, tell us how it worked, please!

I always let bread do the last rise in a slightly warm oven with the light on and that always works well for me. I turn the oven on at the lowest temp for just a few minutes, and turn it off before putting the bread or rolls in. Leaving the oven light on also gives off a little heat.

As I said before, I used part of a can of cream cheese frosting instead of the glaze.

SPRING - TULIP TIME

Tulip time. I should say, Tulip Festival time. Every spring a neighboring town, Orange City, Iowa, has a 3-day celebration called Tulip Festival. This year it is May 15-17.

Orange City is proud of its Dutch heritage and show it off during this time. The pictures I show here are not recent. I am not sure what year - late 50's or early 60's I am guessing. There are two parades each day, afternoon and evening. The parades start with street washing. You know, the Dutch are noted for their cleanliness! As the above picture depicts, the men, in authentic Dutch clothing, dip their buckets into the stock tanks filled with water along the parade route. They then throw the water out on the street. Even the little boys, and boys of all ages are out there with their small pails.

Then the women and girls come along with their big street sweeping brooms and scrub the street clean. They also wear authentic Dutch clothing. I almost forgot. They also all wear wooden shoes. Once the street is clean the parade can begin.

The event has changed a little over the years as new things are added to the festivities. And the city now requires each business building have a Dutch facade to make the town resemble a village in Holland. They had not done this yet when these pictures were taken. There are thousands of tulips planted all over town, and hopefully in full bloom during this time. Last year and this year the city fathers have been concerned that they would not be blooming in time because of our late springs. I know my few tulips are just barely showing a bud stalk, and a long time before they bloom. But there are early bloomers that might be ready in time.

The high school band is the only band in America that marches in wooden shoes. They have been invited to march in the Rose Bowl Parade twice now, and have done other traveling appearances over the years. The Rose Bowl Parade is long and those wooden shoes wear out before they are finished, so they have people along the route with extra shoes so they can switch them. They also wear several pair of socks - all at once - in order to prevent blisters and provide a little bit of comfort. It is NOT fun to march in wooden shoes!!

If you can't decide where to spend your vacation next year, you might want to plan to come to northwest Iowa and take in the atmosphere and fun of the Dutch Tulip Festival. It always draws a big crowd from all over the country.

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW - update

Recently I wrote about the neighbor having some trees cut down, which looked like this ~

                                 

Things have been busy over there the last couple of days, and this morning it looks like this ~

It may be a little hard to tell since you aren't familiar with the house and yard, but 6 loads of black dirt was hauled in yesterday. I wish I had taken pictures of that. There were long rows of piled dirt from the front sidewalk to beyond the back end of house, plus along the driveway in front.

The neighbor attached 3 window wells - the brown patches on the black foundation. You can see those windows in the earlier picture. The previous owner had leveled the front lawn, and then there was a big dip down at the corner in the left side of the picture which is hard to see here. It was impossible to mow and ended up being weeds more than grass. Now that is all filled in and the side yard is raised to about level with the tops of those windows. He still has two piles of dirt to take care of.

My yard is the green grass and goes as far as the dirt. Actually some of that dirt is on my yard. If I owned it I would say something about it. I am sure the neighbor will take care of it by the time he is done, but the lawn boy had a bit of a problem mowing yesterday.

You can see my huge maple tree in the bottom picture, but you can't see how far out the branches extend - over my house and my garage, and over the neighbor's yard. The tree he took down was the same kind, but not as many trunks. Mine actually looks like it was 4 trees that grew too close together.

And right now it is raining. Thank goodness it is a very light rain or that dirt could be washing out and down to the back yard. The birds are sure enjoying looking for bugs and worms in that fresh dirt. I have even seen a couple of birds that I have not seen before, nor identified, as they were here and gone so quickly.

That was my 'entertainment' yesterday.

1921 FASHIONS

Earlier in the blog I talked about my mom in the 1920'sand talked a bit about the flapper era. I mentioned the clothing styles they wore. In one of my internet groups we discussed how women rarely wore slacks of any kind when I was younger. They wore dresses even at home and to work around the house.

Yesterday I was going through the online newspaper archives of my home town, looking for items about my ancestors and extended family, and I read some very interesting stories about other people. Plus I saw these clothing ads in the 1921 papers. I thought you might enjoy them as much as I did.

This first one is showing a HOUSEDRESS. There is a good description below the picture that you will want to read. "They come back from their tubbings fresh and crisp." I never thought about my laundry as 'tubbings'. I wonder what colors this dress came in. I love gingham, and assume the plain yoke, sleeve edges and belt were blue chambray. I think it is rather cute myself. I think I want mine in pink gingham w/light blue chambray.

The second ad shows several styles of 1921 coats. Nice price as well, but I think it might have been a little costly in those days. Price is always relevant to the times. Check out those hats too! I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. They are old photos taken of the old newspapers and then digitized so many of them did not turn out well.

I love the name of that store, too. See? They even changed spelling way back then. I know some people gripe today because signs do not spell words "properly", such as drive-thru instead of drive through. There was a pool hall in this same town called The PlaMor. They wanted you to come in and 'play more'. "Kash Savin Stor", might be a good name for one of the discount stores today, don't you think?
(spell checker is having a hard time with those 'misspelled' words.)