Debbie Delozier :: A Casual Affair

It has been raining on and off (mostly on) for the last week and the forecast is for more, more and more.  I’m tired of it, but the flowers, and most probably my vegetable garden, are loving it.

J is looking forward to the approaching weekend.  He has had a very busy and stressful week.  He predicted it would be that way when he and I were at dinner on Friday evening and received a problematic call which set the whole thing in motion.  Of course he has had the usual day-to-day calls, paperwork, etc to contend with also.

The teenager is supposed to leave at 4 a.m. tomorrow with her school choir for the annual trip to Dallas.  Everything has been planned (and paid for) for the last couple of months.  Now with the Swine Flu epidemic we are rethinking the trip and will be attending an emergency meeting this evening to discuss the”should we/should we nots”.

Tuesday was Rotary as usual and I prepared huge baked potatoes with the whole gamut of toppings.  I also made a large garden salad and the Stained Glass Jell-O.  I should have checked my horoscope before I ever got out of bed that morning because I had 3 accidents while cooking the lunch.  The first happened when I was checking the potatoes and touched the bottom of my right arm to the oven rack.  I yanked it away pretty quickly so it didn’t burn too badly.  The second accident was when I was taking the potatoes out of the oven to put into a chafing dish to transport to town.  I was being very careful not to let the bottom of my arm touch the rack again and therefore touched the top part of my arm to the top of the oven.  I wasn’t as fast this time and this one left a pretty good burn.

I finished setting up the lunch at the Community Room and left to go on my regular Tuesday lunch date with J without any further incidents.  We had lunch and J dropped me back by the bank where I began to clean up the kitchen.  I thought I was home free and would make it home without another injury.  I was wrong.  The bank has (had) a large beautiful, heavy, thick glass bowl.  This bowl was sitting in the cabinet near the sink.  I don’t know if the bowl and other contents in the cabinet shifted or what happened but I heard a noise, the door to the cabinet came open, the bowl fell out onto my foot (ouch, ouch, ouch, did I mention this bowl was thick glass and very heavy), then hit the floor.  When the bowl hit the floor it broke into many pieces.  A few of these pieces flew into the air and into the top of my foot and into my ankle.  Of course, my sis-in-love, Debbie and Melissa from the bank had to cluck and fuss like mother hens over my injury and had to get it all cleaned and bandaged.  Thanks Girls.

The cuts are pretty superficial although I didn’t think they’d ever quit bleeding.  By the time I arrived home the bandages Melissa had put on were soaked through, so I cleaned it again and changed the bandages.  The cuts would still break open and bleed off and on.  Today has been better and I have kept the bandages off and there has been no more bleeding, of course I’m not doing a whole lot either.  What concerns me is the bruising and swelling which doesn’t seem to be going away.  But, as I said, I’m staying off of it, for the most part, today so maybe that will help.

Tuesday evening we had a pizza/bowling/birthday party at the bowling alley.  Our church league is over now and the members of our bowling team thought it would be a fun thing to do and have other church family come along.  We were joined by a handful of others and we had a fantastic time.  I hate to brag but I bowled a 143 which is one of the best scores I’ve had.  The top score for me this year was a 172.  In this game I bowled 4 strikes in a row; I was amazed because I’ve never, ever bowled that well (and probably never will again).

Tuesday also happened to be J’s mom’s birthday and sis-in-love, Debbie, baked a cake, so we all celebrated that joy also.

On Wednesday (through the rain) I drove to Tulsa, to the oldest daughter’s house and we spent the latter part of the morning and the first part of the afternoon shopping and having lunch.  I enjoyed it extremely.  Cass and I have not had this kind of time together in many years.  I purchased a few blouses and Cass purchased a blazer with matching pants, a blouse or two and a dress.  She is beginning her brand new job tomorrow and thought she should have a new blazer and she thinks she will take the dress on their Alaskan cruise in June.

Speaking of the oldest daughter; Sunday we will be celebrating her 27th birthday.  Hopefully the teenager will get back from her Dallas trip in time because we all have tickets to the Fleetwood Mac concert in Tulsa on Sunday night.

And speaking of birthdays, May is what is known in our family as “the birthday month”.  This month we will be celebrating the following:  nephew Cale’s, Cass’, the teenager’s 18th, nephew Aaron’s, my mom’s, brother-in-love, Mike’s, nephew Graham’s 3rd, and my darling friend M’s.  Sometime during all these birthdays we will be throwing in the Senior Girl’s Tea, Baccalaureate, Spring Choir Show, and graduation, oh yeah, and Mother’s Day.

It is raining again and I will soon be kicked off of here; so instead, I think I am going to take a rainy afternoon nap.  Hope you enjoy your afternoon also.

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I have combined my two arts;  stained glass and food.  It’s cute, it’s tasty and, as everyone knows:  There’s always room for Jell-O.

Here’s what you’ll need:

4 small boxes Jell-O in different colors
4 cups boiling water – divided
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
½ cup cold water
1 ½ cups boiling water
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

Here is what you are going to do:

Pour each of the 4 small packages of Jell-O into a separate square baking dish or other flat container.  Add 1 cup of the boiling water to each of the containers.  Stir until dissolved and refrigerate at least 4 hours, overnight is fine.

After the 4 hours cut the prepared Jell-O into different sized squares.  From here we can do this 2 different ways.  I chose to put some of each of the different colored squares into separate little glass dishes; you could do that or you can throw all the squares together into a larger flat baking dish or other rectangular container.

Put the 1/2 cup cold water into a bowl, sprinkle the 2 packages unflavored gelatin over the cold water and let it bloom.  This will take about 5 minutes.  Pour the 1 1/2 cups boiling water over the bloomed gelatin and stir until combined and cooled a bit (about 4 minutes, more for cooling than combining).  Now add the sweetened condensed milk to the unflavored gelatin and stir to combine.  The cooler this is the better because if this liquid is too warm it is going to melt your colored squares.

If you’ve done the large flat container you can pour in all the white mixture and refrigerate overnight until chilled and set.  When set, spoon into dessert dishes or cut with cookie cutters into different shapes for a cute treat.

If you’ve decided to put the different colored squares into separate dessert dishes as I did then you need to pour a equal amounts of the white gelatin into the dishes.  Refrigerate and chill overnight.

I know you’ll enjoy this cute, cool, yummy dessert. Give it a try.

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My bush is on it’s way to being in full bloom.  The blooms will get bigger and whiter now and will be beautiful for only a short time.  The flowers are so fragile once they are fully grown and all it takes is one strong wind or a good hard rain, the kind that are so common this time of year, to blow all the blooms totally apart.

J and I worked most of the weekend, side by side, in the yard.  After 31 years (in July) we make a pretty darn good team.  The garden, flower bed and yard look pretty good too, especially after that good hard rain over night.  My body feels a little worse for wear at the moment but it felt so good to get out in the sunshine (intermittent though it was) and use that pent up energy.

J and I neither one slept very well last night, not due to soreness though.  The winds and rain from the overnight storm had the security systems at the office going crazy.  Every time one of the alarms would go off, the security company would check the films, find nothing and call us to let us know they found nothing.  They phoned at 1:20 to let us know this, I finally was able to get back to sleep about 2 and they called us again at 2:30 to let us know the films, once again, showed nothing.  This time I did not fall back to sleep as easily.  Besides, Miss Jade, figuring we were up answering the phone anyway, thought she might as well eat and play a little bit.

I’m working on a surprise for tomorrow’s dessert for Rotary Club. I’ll give you a hint:  it has to do with my stained glass artwork.  Ha; figure that out:  dessert; stained glass; how can those possibly go together?

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The heat has been turned up to high here in Oklahoma.  I told J earlier in the week I would like to at least make it to May 1st before having to turn on the air conditioning; but I broke down late yesterday evening and turned it on myself.  Usually he is the one that can’t stand the heat and is the first one to mention turning on the a/c; but at this time in my life, heat and I are already not on good terms anyway, especially at night. Before heading down the hall towards the bedroom I reached up and switched the thermostat to cool and moved the temperature down to 76.  I slept better last night than I have all week.

I think the last freeze has come and gone so I busied myself planting vegetables and flowers.  We now have tomatoes, cilantro, basil,  cantaloupe, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, sugar snap peas, green beans, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and peppers.  In the peppers department we have green bells, sweet red bell, lilac, chocolate, poblano and jalapeno.   I also planted some marigolds that the teenager won at the salad supper and I planted some sunflowers (the standard yellow and some of the multicolored).

Yesterday I made a trip to Tulsa to shop for upcoming birthdays and graduation gifts.  I also stopped in at the restaurant supply store my cousin works at and ordered a new 3 cup ricer and bought a few things he had on clearance.  I then headed to Woodland Hills Mall to check out a special item (that is a secret for the next couple of weeks) and stop by to see my other cousin and have lunch with her.

As I was headed to another shop in town I passed a kitchen store than I have never been in so I whipped that car into the parking lot and went to see what all they had to offer me.  I found many things I wanted but as I’d already bought stuff for me I decided to buy a few things for my sweet J.

I’m sure we will be using these very, very soon.  Hopefully we’ll have a day this week that they are not predicting rain.

It is time now for lunch, so I think we’ll head into the kitchen and make us a few sandwiches.

Hoping you have a wonderful weekend.

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First of all, don’t be looking at my old stained loaf pan, I have been using it for many, many years and it makes fantastic bread.

Last week I made a loaf (or 2) of beer bread.  I’ve had this recipe for many years but had it stuck away in the back of my mind until recently.  The original recipe called for a whole stick of melted butter and I recommend using only 1/2 a stick. It is really easy quick bread.  You can always drink a bottle of beer while you’re making it.

Here is the very short list of ingredients:

3 cups flour
½ cup sugar (or Splenda)
1 tsp baking soda
1 can or bottle of beer
½ stick melted butter

Preheat the oven to 350 and spray a loaf pan (or any pan you have) with cooking oil spray.  Combine the flour, baking soda, sugar and beer.  Mix well.  Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes.  After the resting period pour the melted butter over the batter and bake for 45 minutes.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

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It is a mixed bag of a blog today.  Real life has taken over lately so my blog life has been neglected.  I’ve been here and there, its been rain storms then sunshine, a little of this and a little of that.  I’ll try to touch on the high points and leave out the low points.

Now that I think of it there probably isn’t a whole lot that is interesting to anyone but me.  Let’s see;  the teenager got all her graduation announcements done so we put those in the mail on Saturday.  Also, yesterday was Senior Skip  Day so she and a friend went to lunch and also to see an afternoon movie instead of going to school.

J was in Tulsa most of the evenings last week on business.

I had a dental cleaning with our new dentist (I really like her).

I planted flower seeds and gladiola bulbs and trimmed my cannas back (I know I should have done that last fall, but I didn’t, so I did it now).   I purchased vegetable seeds and plants for the garden, so as soon as the garden dries up so that J can get back out there and till one more time I am ready to get to plantin’ in real life and not just on Facebook’s Farmtown. Although my Farmtown farm is looking pretty good.

Last night was the final night of our church bowling league.  I really wish last week had been the final week so that I could go out with a bang.  In one of the games last week I had 4 strikes in a row, ending with a final score of 172;  last night I was lucky to get 1 strike and the best I bowled was 110 (which really isn’t that bad “for me”).  We made lots of new friends from some of the other churches in town and we had a really great time.   So great, in fact, that we’re planning a bowling night next week with whoever wants to come and pizza.

Today was Rotary lunch.  I tried almost all new recipes.  I made Red Beans & Rice but I think it needed more “cajun” seasoning.  I made a cabbage and red pepper salad is a bit different, it isn’t exactly a salad but it isn’t a slaw either.  After we have it at dinner tonight I’ll decide what I think and if I should post it or not.  I also made a cinnamon pie.  The flavor of this pie is fantastic (in my opinion) but it didn’t “set” and it didn’t look very pretty.  I am going to do some revamping on the method and see if I can get it to come out a little different.  I really want to improve on this pie because the flavor is really fantastic (in my opinion).  Once I get it revamped I’ll post it for you too.  I also made a loaf of beer bread which vanished.  If I have time between my dr’s appointment in Bartlesville in the morning and then going to Tulsa with J in the afternoon I’ll get it posted here tomorrow.

So that’s how it has been around here lately, a little of this and a little of that.  I hope your lives are filled with the this and thats that make you happy.

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I’ve not been at a circus, zoo, party or any other exotic location like the places Waldo gets to go.  Let’s see;  I’ve been in the kitchen, at the community room, in the kitchen, at the dentist, at the grocery store, in the kitchen,in the garden,  in the kitchen…  you get the idea I’m sure.  I’ve just been living the life the good Lord gave me.

On Monday I roasted, peeled and seeded enough poblano peppers to stuff for the Rotary Club’s lunch on Tuesday.  I was very (very, very) careful not to touch my eyes, nose, lips or any other sensitive, delicate area of my person until I had carefully washed my hands with soap and water.  I was still careful after washing, just in case.

You see, I made this mistake once after seeding jalapenos.  During the seeding procedure the area between my upper lip and nose (it was actually just under my nostril) itched.  I absentmindedly reached up and touched the area.  Instantly an alarm went off in my head: YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE DONE THAT.   Simultaneously a scorching pain began at the spot just beneath my nose at the edge of my nostril.  As is habit when you have an instant pain you inhale and that is just what I did.  As I inhaled the pepper essence, along with the searing pain, spread into my nasal passage and on it’s way into my sinuses.  I grabbed a towel (my hands still had the pepper juice on them) and held my nose while dancing around in the kitchen muttering “oh no, oh no”.   I was actually turning circles wondering what in the world I was supposed to do.

The teenager and J had all sorts of ideas that might help.  Believe me, we tried everything, even (and I’m just a bit embarrassed to tell you this) sticking small chips of ice up my nose trying to relieve the pain.  As you can imagine, I am now, and forever will be, very cautious when it comes to seeding peppers.

Some of the Rotary members thought they were a little warm and were happy they had a cool dessert that helped “cool them down”.  Other members thought the first set of members were wimps.

I also had a dental cleaning with our new dentist.  J had an appointment with her a while back and I think our final consensus is that we like her.  Now the teenager is excited about her regular 6 month check up (that has been switched to our new dentist) so that she can meet her also.  Now, all I have to do is call and “break-up” with our old dentist.

After my dental appointment I headed on to Owasso and did a bit of grocery shopping.  As I was walking into the market, my dad and my Uncle Bob were walking out of the market.  Aren’t they sweet fellas to go do all the marketing for their wives?  I feel fortunate that my J tags along most of the time when I do the marketing and helps with that and putting it up.  These men actually go do the marketing and the putting away.  Great guys!

Yesterday afternoon was so marvelous here that I went out and planted some gladiola bulbs that I had purchased earlier.  I have lots of plants and seeds that I need to be getting in the garden but at the moment the ground is still a bit to wet and we are expecting more rain tomorrow.  Hopefully, very soon, J and I will be able to join forces and get out there together and do all the planting.   Hope, hope, hope.

As for now, I need to go grab a shower and then get myself back into the kitchen.  Tonight is our annual DWF Ladies Salad Supper.  This is a really big deal, we have ladies from all the churches in town (a few from out of town) come and we have many, many, many different types of salads.  I’m excited;  but first I need to fix a couple of salads to take.

I also want to ask a favor of you.  On Tuesday I received my copy of “The Unbreakable Child” by Kim Michele Richardson.  I finished reading this book on Wednesday evening.  This is Kim’s story of her childhood and the horrific abuses she suffered while in a Catholic orphanage, from the very hands who were obligated to care for her and her sisters.  She tells of her struggles to help bring justice for those who lost so much.  Please, get a copy of this book and read it.  We have to become more aware that these types of things are going on in our world and we have to start protecting our children.  Children of this world belong to all of us and it is our responsibility to care properly for them.

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Or:  The Crucifixion Was A Failure

Have you ever thought of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as a failure?  I hadn’t either;  that is, until this morning.  This morning, our message was not the “traditional” Easter sermon.  Yes, we talked about the tomb being empty, and we talked about Jesus rising and appearing before Mary Magdalene. We were told how Mary Magdalene relayed the message to the other disciples and that the word was spread that our Christ is Risen.

First the story of Mary Magdalene was brought to us by my sis-in-law, Debbie, so that we could  learn a little more about her.  Then our men’s ensemble (Rob, Wes & Steve) played their guitars and sang Woman, Weeping in the Garden.
Then Rob shared with us exactly what a crucifixion was and what it meant in those days.  The crucifixion was a horrible, painful, shameful way to be put to death.  The cross was meant to instill silence of the people from the fear, humiliation and shame.  It was meant to totally wipe out a person’s existence.

Normally, because it was so shameful to have a family member crucified, there were not mourners at the foot of the cross because people were ashamed to let others know that one of their family members had been put to death in that fashion.
Secondly, there was rarely (if ever) a burial, because once death finally came from the long (so very long)  suffering torture, the body was left to hang. The body was left to hang so that birds would eat the flesh and then the bones would just fall from the cross and that person was No More.  There were no mourners and there was no marked grave to visit.  It was the end of that person.  Because people were so ashamed the person was never spoken of again.

But this isn’t how it happened with our Lord.  Mary (His mother) and Mary Magdalene and others were at the foot of the cross.  Then, Jesus’ death came quicker than what his torturers meant for it to come.  Then, because of the women, the disciples, the believers at the foot of the cross, Jesus’ body was brought down, wrapped in linen and laid to rest in a tomb. Then people came to the tomb to mourn our Lord.  Then; Jesus did not stay “dead” but He rose and He returned as He said He would.

Lastly, the disciples didn’t keep silent about the way He was put to death.  They didn’t keep it to themselves that He rose from the dead, that He returned. They broke the silence that the shame of the cross was meant to bring.  They spoke of the injustice. They spoke of His rising.

Because of the telling, because of the remembering, because of the failure of the crucifixion; because He is Lord and He is risen;  the cross, the very instrument of an unjust death, has become a symbol of life.  Because He lives, the crucifixion failed.

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We had our Family Easter celebration a day early.  J, the teenager and I packed up and took off for my sister’s house in Parsons, KS to do our celebrating.  Cass & Travis followed us up in their own vehicle.  Shortly after we reached our destination my brother and his wife (Tolly and Chrissy) along with their 1 ½ year old Courtney and my mom and dad arrived.

We shared the traditional ham, which shared the spotlight with a turkey breast (prepared by my brother).  The table was laden with the long-established and time honored sides of potatoes, veggies, baked beans, etc.  My sister did the bulk of the cooking with my Daddy bringing hot rolls, Cass bringing Easter cupcakes and strawberry shortcake brought by myself.  Yes, I took it very easy this year:  I prepared individual pound cakes on Friday then once we were at my sister’s laced the sliced strawberries with balsamic vinegar and sugar then whipped the cream for the topping.

We spent the afternoon visiting and watching my brother hide the eggs for Courtney to find.  At one point she got Uncle Buster’s golf balls mixed up with her eggs:

After the 3rd time of hunting eggs that afternoon our Courtney was totally “over” hunting eggs and began to throw them in her basket and did not care to continue her search.  When my girls were small they wanted to hunt the eggs over and over and over again until the eggs were dirty, cracked open and smashed.

It was a wonderful family afternoon.

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Here are a few things I have received in my email lately.  In some cases you can just follow the links.

This email was titled “Safe Haven”

We all need to be kept warm and feel safe…..especially during these stressful times

   Too cute, isn’t it.

This one I received from my friend Autumn in Tahlequah (Autumn and I graduated high school together).  Her husband just won the Chief of Police election.

Sorry, the picture is pretty small and gets fuzzy if I try to enlarge it.  If you are interested in reading the story go here.

I received this from my friend Kim Richardson, author of “The Unbreakable Child”.  Go here to see her interview on her local television station.

This is a youtube I received.  The heading said it was shown at a Sony conference.  I found it very interesting.

Now I need to get ready to go to the Good Friday service at church.

Enjoy your evening.

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