THREE FRENCH CHICKS, FRIENDS AND FAREWELLS

This has been a very busy time for me. It seems as though the faster I go, the behinder I get! I took some time out and did a little painting. I call this one "Three French Chicks".

They are painted on individual 6x6 canvases and then framed together in one frame. My grandson, Nicholas, is making frames for me He is very talented and does a great job. Speaking of Nicholas, I was on one of my all too frequent "scavenger hunts" last week (that's what we call it when we are looking for something we have carefully put away). This seems to be our favorite pastimes around our house now that we're in the twilight years of our lives. I ran across this photograph.

A friend of my Mother's painted this when Rachel and Nicholas were 2 and 4 years old. Here they are now, 28 years later. Same precious children but bigger and better, older and wiser.

It's such fun when you run across treasures such as these, especially when they're unexpected.

I have noticed that sometimes the verbiage in my posts will appear to be broken or some of the text has lines through it. If you are having this challenge, you can double right click on the right hand side of the text it will correct this error. I have no idea why this does this and I apologize for the inconvenience.

The last couple of weeks have been very full. I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon that my friend, Diane (I have several Diane friends ;-) gave for her sister-in law who was in town from Florida. Her husband George and I were Email friends for years but I had never met Ruthie.

It was a lovely luncheon and gave me the opportunity not only to meet Ruthie but also to visit with old friends.

The next day I went to lunch with an artist friend of mine, Claire. I had not seen her in several months and it was wonderful to be able to catch up on things.

We have painted together for several years but somehow in our busy lives, we don't see each other as often as we used to.

Then last weekend we celebrated a big birthday with our friend, Steve.

I won't say how many years he's been around but the number ends with a zero ;-)

I took a break from lunches for a day and did more bird watching. These lovely little Finches are back again and we just love to watch them as they feed in our back yard. The finch feeder was empty so they went to this one until Frank could fet theirs refilled.

I had no idea that these little beauties could be so mean. When they are on their own feeder, there are only 6 perches as you can see below, and they fight for their spots. There were 11 of them there this day and the battle was on. Between the birds and the squirrels we manage to keep ourselves amused when we're home.

The next day we went to Piccolo Mondo for lunch with our good friends, the Walkers. It's a great place for a nice meal and it's quiet so you can really visit.

It's also a real pleasure to not have the dishes to do once the meal is over!

I received an Email from my "other" Diane friend with a site to check out that has her Grandson as the star. He lives in Virginia and has a band.

It was so much fun listening to him and seeing what he was up to. She and her daughter were "Groupies" along with us when Franklin had his band when he was in college, so this brought back lots of memories. Franklin's band was called Temper Temper and EJ's group is Braves and Bullets.

I always wonder where and how they come up with these names!

Last Saturday we attended another party for the Minshew's daughter. It was a couples shower with dinner and the meal was catered by Babe's. In case you're not familiar with Babe's, they have the best fried chicken in the WORLD!

We don't have a Babe's here yet, but it is rumored that we will have one soon. we can't wait!

We had a farewell reception for Father Matkin at our parish on Sunday. He and his family will be moving to Comanche, Texas where he will be the Vicar of 2 parishes, one in Comanche and one in Dublin. It was a bittersweet time as we all love him to death and will miss him terribly. There is a slide show following this post with some of the photographs that I took at the reception. If you put the mouse over each photo as it comes by you can read the captions.

Then on Monday we had our final Book Club meeting with him as our leader and teacher.

This is the front of the card that I designed for him. We finally finished Henry VIII and I must admit, I'm a little thankful that I'm through with the book. It was one of the most difficult studies that I have undertaken ... HOWEVER ... thanks to Fr. Matkin's teaching and wisdom, we all agreed that we learned SO much about English history and the Church. We gave him this bookmark as a reminder that we, as his students, will always think of him when we study and learn.

The lone gentleman in this study (aside from Fr. Matkin) picked it out, and I must say that he has wonderful taste!

He seemed very pleased with the selection.

Father's wife, Melisa, is an artist and this is a sketch that she did of their darling daughter, Maddy. I copied it and put it on the front of a card to go with the gift we gave to this precious child.

We started our Monday morning as we always do, with the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. The altar in the chapel was given by us in memory of our son, Jim. That always makes going in there very special for us as it is a reminder to us that he is with Christ now. What a blessing!

Once the celebrating was over, we settled down and finished our book and our study.

We are going to miss all the wonderful wisdom and insight that we were given through his teachings. The churches where he is going have no idea what a blessing he is going to be for them. And now we, his students from the Monday Book Club, bid him a fond farewell and say we love you and will miss you. "Go in Peace to love and serve the Lord".

XOXO, Pcasso

FATHER MATKIN'S FAREWELL PARTY

HENRY, LUTHER, THE TUDORS, EASTER AND FAMILY FUN

If you've been following my blog, you know that I've been studying Henry VIII and the history of the Reformation and the Church of England.



I'm suddenly fascinated with this time in history and can't seem to get enough information about it in this old brain of mine. While I was "Googling" I ran across these images of Martin Luther's hymnal and Bible. I thought these were very interesting artifacts.




My Great Aunt was married to Frank Wassall who was the brother of Dr. Sam Wassall who was responsible for the vaccine to cure Malaria, and I have the Wassall family Book of Common Prayer which I really treasure. Guess that's why I'm so interested in old books.

I've also been watching The Tudors on Showtime and that has really peaked my interest in English history. As a gift to myself, I have purchased seasons 1 & 2 of this series. It's really fascinating.

Since I'm such a visual person, I find it much easier to retain facts if I can see them as well as read about them. Season 3 has just started and is on Showtime on Sunday nights. I highly recommend watching it. I never realized how truly mean Henry turned out to be. One thing's certain ... you don't ever want to be sent to the Tower for a "visit". The chances of your returning are pretty slim!



My dear friend and prayer partner, Diane, had a birthday last week and I painted this little butterfly for her. I feel as though our friendship is like a metamorphosis .. always changing and growing, so the butterfly painting seemed appropriate for this occasion. She appeared to really like it.



We had the pleasure and privilege of seeing the Monarch Butterflies when we were in Pacific Grove in California. They are so beautiful and fascinating to watch.
I took a break from study and The Tudors to get ready for Easter on Saturday. Last week was Holy week and we were extremely busy with church activities. There is a slide show following this entry if you'd like to take a look. Most of the photographs in this show are taken from Father Matkin's blog. He's so good about keeping all of the parishioners up to date with photos of things going on around the church. My thanks to him for his many talents.

We attended daily mass last week so on Saturday I decided that I'd better get my act together and get ready for the family gathering here on Sunday.
The first thing I did was to set the tables.





I've always loved these little dancing rabbits so they make their appearance each Easter.

Once the tables were set, Frank and I went grocery shopping. He's always such a dear to help me out on all occasions but especially on holidays. Easter is so very special to us for many reasons. We MET on an Easter Sunday 53 years ago, so it's a very important day in our lives as a couple and a family.


We've changed a little since then, but our love for each other had not changed. it's only grown.
While we were shopping we found these wonderful strawberries, so I decided to give the boys a special treat. They aren't always as interested in the desserts that the adults have, so I had a special plan for them. These particular strawberries were almost as large as a small egg. They are amazing!



As soon as we returned home, I started to prepare the big people's dessert. For some reason, Easter brings Pineapple Upside Down Cake to my mind.

Here is the pattern that I made in the bottom of this huge cake pan. The fruit and nuts are sitting on a caramelized glaze on the bottom of the pan. Of course when we turn this cake out, this will be the top .... and here it is .... Voila!

Sunday morning after church I hurried home to put the ham in the oven, slice the tomatoes and green onions. I had already cooked the navy beans on Saturday, so with the exception of cooking the ham and the cornbread, the meal is almost ready.

Ian arrived wearing his new Fedora. When I told him that he reminded me of Justin Timberlake, he didn't take that as a compliment even though I meant it as one!

Connor helped devil some eggs for snacks when they first arrived. He's lots of help in the kitchen. We were waiting for Ethan to arrive so we could all get started. It was great that the entire family was present!



And here comes Peter Cottontail! Actually, this is a painting that I did a little while back that is painted in the style of Albrect Duerer.




The day started out to be very dreary with lots of rain but about 1:00 it started to clear up and turned out to be a beautiful day after all. My ham turned out well also ;-) I might add that it was delicious.


After the meal was finished, I brought out the boy's surprise. They loved the warm, melted chocolate that they could dip these wonderful strawberries in.

That's an egg sitting on the table, so that will give you an idea of the size of the berries!

Dayna was checking out the family pictures that grace our refrigerator. Those of you who have been to the house know all about our "fun wall" in the bar. We have photographs everywhere! It's a visual history of our lives.

The boys decided that they needed to go for a swim and we had heated the Jacuzzi in anticipation of this decision. They put on their swimsuits and we put on our jackets and out we went.

Harry even got in on the act. He always wants to be in the middle of everything and he always is!

The boys debated for a long time and then finally decided that they might try the pool which is NOT heated.

Connor checked with his folks to see if it would be all right.

I only wish that I would have always said yes to my own children when they wanted to swim and it was still too cold. They would not have stayed in the water very long and would not have asked to go in again for a very long time! Guess we get wiser with age!

Franklin was checking his IPhone to see what the temperature was (and also to check on the golf scores at the Masters). We need to get a TV for the deck. It would make life much simpler.

Ethan, out Great grandson is getting so big. He's 14 now and it seems like only yesterday that I was babysitting him as a cute little boy. Now he's a handsome young man. The young ladies had better watch out!!!

The weather warmed up to nearly 70 degrees so the jackets came off and everyone enjoyed basking in the Easter sunshine.

Since tomorrow is a school day, the troops left about 6:00 p.m. My baby boys are growing up They're all such cutie pies! After all, if you have a skateboard, wear a fedora and bring your own champagne, how can you miss?

Have a great week. I'll write again when I have something to say!

XOXO, Pcasso