Our little Landon came through his surgery very well. He begins chemotherapy in St. Louis tomorrow, (Monday). Also, Bob's dad is not well at all. Bob spent about a week in Effingham, helping his mom, and then the kids and I were all there last weekend. We continue to be very concerned for both of them and ask that you might remember them in your prayers, too

Last Thursday was "Puttin' up Corn Day" in Indianapolis. Lindsey purchased 15 bags of corn from her friend, Betsey, whose family has the "My Dad's Sweet Corn" company in Tipton County. Lori and Baleigh decided to drive up and over from Carbondale, as they had been planning on spending some time with friends in Effingham, anyway. (they're trying to get all the gusto out of their summer before they have to start thinking about going back to school) Here's a picture of Lindsey and Bonnie the Barbarian proudly showing off our corn bags. Sorry that I chopped off the top of your head, Lindsey.

It was an afternoon of work, and we ended up with a mighty sticky kitchen, but we had fun too. Oh, how we shucked that corn. We had to keep our eyes on Miss Bonnie, though, because she also wanted to shuck corn, She kept stealing ears when we weren't watching, and she's quite the little corn shucker, or maybe I should say corn mangler. She ate some too. We even made up a little ditty about the afternoon, You know how we like to make up a ditty:

Bomp Bomp do dah
Bomp, Bomp do do do

Bomp Bomp do dah

Bomp Bomp do do

Like a thief in the yard

She'll come and grab it
She can creep up beside you

And nab it
It's too close for comfort

CORNSHUCKIA!
Are we shucking corn tonight?
CORNSHUCKIA! CORNSHUCKIA!

Little Roxanne visited us this afternoon. She had a barbecue snack, bullied Maddie around a little bit, then went into the backyard where she found something interesting in the very spot where the big oak tree fell a couple weeks back. She sniffed and sniffed and then she flopped on her back and started to roll around. I hurried over to investigate and found a smelly, dead, giant grub worm, which I immediately scooped up and out of the way. Here she is leaving with Rob. Bye Roxanne! Hope you had fun at Grandma's and I hope you don't smell like grub worm carcass!


Recipe of the Week: A tutorial

From the Garden

To the Pyrex

To Bob

Eggplant Parmesan

1 large eggplant, about 2 pounds

3/4 cup olive oil

2 cups canned tomato sauce

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

8 ounces shredded Mozzarella cheese

Peel eggplant and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Fry on both sides in skillet in hot oil until browned. Drain well on paper towels. Place a layer of eggplant slices in a shallow baking dish; cover with some tomato sauce, a sprinkling of basil and garlic powder, a little Parmesan cheese, and a little of the Mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers until all ingredients are used, ending with Mozzarella cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 4oo degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

"If you define cowardice as running away at the first sign of danger, screaming and tripping and begging for mercy, then yes, Mr. Big Man, I guess I am a coward." Jack Handey

Please pray for our beloved little Landon Kutscher, as he will have one of his kidneys removed on Tuesday morning in St. Louis. Last week, a 5cm tumor was discovered on the kidney. They will remove it and analyze it immediately to find out if it is cancerous, and then proceed from there. We are all very hopeful.


This news has been first and foremost in our thoughts this week. We did get the big tree down. I made a trip to the Shipshewana Flea Market, in an effort to avoid the whole thing. (Also, I got stopped for speeding on the way, but don't worry, just a warning ticket. The officer asked me where I was going in such a hurry, "umm to the flea market, sir"). Anyway, I still did not manage to escape the tree chopping extravaganza. As I turned the corner on Hickory Hill Drive, I noted that the air was heavy with testosterone, and that the mighty trunk still stood. Oh, the men that were in my yard - crane men, tree cutting men, my men, old men, neighbor men, and boys on bikes. How they love watching a big one come down. The boys counted nearly two-hundred rings on the oak.









Recipe of the Week: I was in charge of the cookie table at church today. I made chocolate chip cookies, and these cream cheese sugar cookies and Reese's peanut butter cookies shown here. The recipe for the sugar cookies can be found in the November 2007 posts. Here's the recipe for the peanut butter cup cookies:



Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 & 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon soda
1 pkg small Reese's peanut butter cups



Mix all the ingredients, except the peanut butter cups. Form dough into 1 inch balls and place in ungreased mini muffin pans. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden brown. Remove from oven and place a peanut butter cup into each cookie. Yields 4 dozen cookies.

Menarda, or Bee Balm, is a great addition to the flower bed because it looks good for a long time and the hummingbirds like it. It's prime-Menarda-time here in northern Indiana, and we're seeing a lot of daylily activity as well.

Bob was on vacation this week, but I worked for Sally at the park department. He spent his time trying to get things going on our new addition, and by that, I mean the deck and big tree removal mentioned in last week's post. Alas, it did not happen because the guys went up the tree, cut a couple of limbs, got worried, and came back down. They decided they needed a crane, and we haven't heard a peep from them since. So, we've had more tree trimmers come out and give estimates and after some discussion, it was decided that the beech tree would have to go, also, so Bob took that down, with some help from neighbors, this afternoon. We also got some new carpeting for the family room on Thursday.

My sister's dog, Puppa Sade, is missing from my family dog cartoon lineup. She's been on the drawing board for a long time and I'm feeling guilty about it. It's because she's hard to draw, and I'm not sure why, but I think it's her ears. Puppa Sade is a very nice little Shih Tzu. She sort of reminds me of a Furby. You remember Furbies. They said things like "Feed me," and "Yum," and they didn't like loud noises. Oh, and they said "Coco," and I don't know if the one we had was named Coco or if they all said that, or what. Anyway, Puppa Sade, in her Shih Tzuiness, looks a little like a Furby, and she has one eye that's somewhat askew, which makes her look a little like the late character actor, Jack Elam, who lost lost the sight in his eye when a fellow boyscout threw a pencil at him at a troop meeting.

I considered drawing Puppa Sade as the typical googly-eyed Shih Tzu, like this:

But she never wears her hair like this, so it's inaccurate. For now, this is the best I can do, unless any of you have can offer me assistance. And, I hope that I have not offended anyone in my family by making light of Puppa Sade's eye affliction, because she's a wonderful dog, who almost never barks.

Recipe of the Week: Is one that I found in the American Profile magazine that comes out with the Saturday paper. It's pretty tasty, but rich, so you might want to serve it with a simple vegetable.

Crabmeat au Gratin

1/3 cup unsalted butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 medium celery stalk, finely chopped

1/2 cup flour

2 (12-ounce) cans low-fat evaporated milk

2 egg yolks

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 pound fresh crabmeat, picked over for shells and cartilage

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 11 X 7 inch baking dish. Melt butter in a large skilled over medium heat. Add onion and celery; cook until onions are translucent, about 6 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add flour and stir until well blended. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Add a ladle of milk mixture to beaten egg yolks; stir well. Pour egg mixture back into milk mixture in skillet. Add salt, cayenne and black pepper; book, stirring until thickened, about 5 minutes.

Place crabmeat in a medium bowl. Add sauce and mix gently but thoroughly to blend. Spoon into prepared pan and sprinkle with cheese. Bake, uncovered, 25 minutes, or until cheese melts and begins to lightly brown.

"If you're being chased by an angry bull, and then you notice you're also being chased by a swarm of bees, it doesn't really change things. Just keep running." Jack Handey

Flip-flops on the Prairie. No, of course these zipper-flowered flip-flops have nothing to do with the 1885 classroom, but somehow, it just didn't seem to matter to us. We made them anyway. Rest assured that we did plenty of 19th century activities and crafts. We cooked Swedish potatoes and johnny cakes over the fire and churned butter and made lemonade and ice cream (which set up in record time this year). It was a very cool summer camp - the first one I can remember that required sweaters and jackets. We jumped rope and had a spelling bee and played croquet. Lori brought Baleigh up and stayed to help. It was her fifth One Room Schoolhouse summer camp.

Here is a picture of the teams showing off their scavenger hunt finds, and another displaying all of the cool stuff we made: gourd bowls and dippers, clay pinch pots, God's Eyes, and dirt candles. We also painted on sandollars. Everybody had a great time. We always do. I think it's because the schoolhouse attracts a certain desirable kind of clientele. Hooligans and rif-raff rarely darken our doors.

On the evening of July 3rd, Bob and I packed up dilled chicken salad on croissants, pasta salad, and the world's best brownies and drove down to Conner Prairie to meet Lindsey and Brent for a Symphony on the Prairie - Stars and Stripes Concert. The concert and fireworks were great, but it was the fourth largest crowd in the 28 years of Symphony on the Prairie concerts. That's correct, the fourth largest crowd in 28 years. It took us 2 hours to get out of the parking lot. On the drive down there, I suddenly remembered that I had to have a raspberry-white chocolate cheesecake ready to be picked up at 10:00 AM on the 4th. Well, we got home at 2:30 AM and I baked the cheesecake and did't get to bed until 5:00 AM, and then had to get up at 9:00 to finish it up, as it was a two-parter. Anyhoo, I felt kind of crappy after that, so we opted out of going up to Sylvan Lake for their fireworks on Saturday night. Here's Lindsey , at the concert, wearing red and blue, and Brent eating melon, in Purdue-wear.

On Sunday, Bob, Rob, Andrew, and Mike worked on taking our deck down, because they're coming to take the big tree down this week. It was scheduled for Tuesday, but the tree guys dropped by this evening and thought it was supposed to happen tomorrow (Monday), so Bob worked until dark to get the deck off so they can proceed. I hope this whole thing comes off without injury or property damage. Michael managed to whack himself near the eye with a crowbar. I'm working for Sally at the park department this week, so I won't be home tomorrow. Please pray with me for a safe and happy ending to this project. Here's Bob hugging our big tree goodbye. How we will miss it. It supported our beloved hammock and was home to many of our critters. What a pilgrimage of retreating raccoons I expect there will be tomorrow!

From the Archives: Birthday wishes to our July firecrackers, Maw-Maw and Candace. Here's a picture of Maw-Maw and me, from 1958, and one of Candace and Rob taken in 2008 at her prom. Candace turned twenty, and Maw-Maw is older than Candace.

I even had a recipe for you tonight, but I really think this is enough for one week, already, so I'm saving it for the next post. But, I'll leave you with one last thought regarding the celebration of the birth of our nation - from Maddie, the Amazing Barking Dog, Slobbery Stella, Bonnie the Barbarian, Little Roxanne, and Puppa Sade (not pictured):

So, we had tickets to the Saturday afternoon Cardinals/Twins game at Busch stadium in St. Louis. We, being thirteen members of my family, because my brother, Jeff, ( number 14) stayed at home as they are so behind in the planting. The temperature at the stadium was 99 degrees. Our group included a two-year-old, a queasy pregnant woman, and two 70-ish ladies. Did we have fun? Well, let's just say we were committed to following through on it. And the Cardinals won and Albert Pujols hit two home runs and my favorite player, Yadier Molina bulldozed this runner at home plate and got him out, and we all lived through it and not one of us fell out of our seats during the singing of the national anthem (which really happened there on Friday night) so we considered the whole thing a success. Here we are after the game, looking a little rough, and any money in our pockets was moist money, very moist.

Since there was such an overwhelming response to my query a couple of weeks ago about the best rock and roll song of all time, a-hum, I thought I would pose another question to blog readers. Which product brands do you buy faithfully? I'm talking about brands that you are so loyal to, that you would refuse any substitute, even if it was given to you free of charge. Here are mine:

Heinz Ketchup

Jif Peanut Butter

Kraft Miracle Whip and Mayonnaise
Tide

Oscar Mayer Bacon

Duncan Hines Cake Mix

I'm sure there are more, but these are certainly critical ones. What are yours?

Getting ready for the One Room Schoolhouse Camp tomorrow. I was there this evening, writing spelling words on the blackboards and I took this picture of some cornhusk dolls and twig stars that Debbie and I stuck on these small trees, just for fun. We used these trees at a Halloween event a couple of years ago, and certainly have got a lot of mileage out of them.

"I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it." Jack Handey

Cartoon Maddie, the Amazing Barking Dog is celebrating an occasion this weekend that merits even more fanfare than her usual five-woof salute. So, she composed a celebratory song that should be sung to the tune of YMCA by the Village People

Young Girl!

No more need to feel down.

Young Girl!

No more reason to frown.

You went there

And you gave it your best

And you fin-ally passed

The last test.

DOO DOO DOO DOO DOO

Now Lindsey is A CPA

It's fun to be A CPA

She can count all your stuff, She can take you to lunch

Just give her the numbers you want her to crunch.

Because Lindsey is A CPA

It's fun to be A CPA

Hmmm hmmm hmm and so on and so forth

Yes, we're very proud. I also find it pretty amusing that my daughter is a CPA. In fact, what I'd really like to do is call up all my old high school math teachers and give them this little tidbit of information. I think they'd be very surprised.

I spent the week reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins for my English Lit class. I also had a couple of meetings and went out to lunch on Wednesday with the Tri Kappa ladies to the Adam's Lake Pub. On Thursday, I had another lunch date that was scheduled for the park, but was moved to my kitchen because of rain. Tuesday evening was my second cake decorating class of the year. Here are a couple of photos from that evening:

From the Archives: Just a couple of years ago. Rob and I are happy grads. (But we are not CPA's)

Recipe of the Week: I fixed this pasta salad for my Thursday lunch with Vi. I've been looking for a mayo-based pasta salad for some time. I found the recipe for Ruby Tuesday's pasta salad online, but it called for ham chunks and I was already serving my dilled chicken salad on croissants, so I didn't try it. (but I will in the future). This one is pretty good. I did blanch the broccoli and carrots slightly. I would also double the recipe, as this doesn't make a whole lot.


Creamy Shell Pasta Salad

1 cup small uncooked shell pasta
3/4 cup fresh broccoli florets
1 small carrot, thinly sliced
1/3 cup cubed cheddar cheese
1/4 cup chopped cucumber
1/4 cup diced celery
1/4 cup sunflower kernels
1 hard-cooked egg, peeled and chopped

Dressing:
1/2 cup may
1/4 cup Ranch salad dressing
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon prepared mustard

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse in cold water. In a large bowl, combine the pasta, broccoli, carrot, cheese, cucumber, celery, sunflower kernels and egg. In a small bow, combine the dressing ingredients. Pour over salad and toss to coat. Serve immediately.





"Beauty is like a fox in winter bouncing through the snow. All is well, all is innocent. But there! Lurking behind that tree trunk is the fox's mortal enemy, the fox. He waits until the fox is within range, then he springs. Fox on fox. Man, what a sight." Jack Handey

After much research, well, not much... some, after some research, Bob and I have decided that the most bathingest bird on the block is the American Robin. Every time I look out into the backyard, there's a robin sloshing about in the birdbath. In fact, Bob insists that recently, while mowing, he was harassed by a couple of robins who wanted fresh water added to the bath. Do they just like water or are they trying to keep their orange chests nice and bright? We may never know. Second place in the bird-bathing competition goes to the always-pushy, but also body-conscious blue jay.

Bob and I spent the weekend in Effingham. We went to my nephew, Kyle's wedding in Shelbyville on Saturday afternoon, and then down to my brother's house in Hord for a cookout that night. My sister-in-law, Conni dug up two boxes of perennials, including some great daylillies for me to bring back and add to my own collection. We also got to spend some time with the toddler formerly known as the cutest baby in Springfield, Landon Kutscher, who is a very big Uncle Bob fan. On Sunday, we visited with Bob's mom and dad. We did not get home until late Sunday night, and that is why the blog is late.

Here are a couple of pics from the wedding:

Conni, Landon, (with blue cupcake), me, and Megan

Aunt Kae, Lindsey, and Baleigh at the reception

Are you wondering why there are no men in these pictures? At about the same time these photos were take, the deejay announced that a Bonneville was blocking a service entrance road and almost every man at the reception got up and went outside to check and see if it was his Bonneville. Men. They're hard to keep track of unless you can hold them on your lap.

On the drive to Effingham, Bob and I had a discussion about music. I asked him to name the greatest rock song of all time and he said it was Free Bird, by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I told him I thought it was Layla. Bob said it couldn't possibly be Layla because the ending was too long and repetitive. And the ending of Free Bird is not?????????

Please leave your comment. What do you think IS the greatest rock song of all time???

"I think we should let kids play around in those big underground catacombs they have because, to an adult, a skull is just a skull, but to a kid, it's a truck or a boat, or anything his little imagination can come up with." Jack Handey