Good food; remembering Dad; house for sale!

It was a dreary Monday here in State College, not cold enough for snow, just occasional drizzle.   We DID have some cold weather this past week, however, and snow quite often.   When we came out of choir practice Thursday evening I knew it was COLD, so I checked the Dark Sky app on my phone.  This is what it said.  BRRR!!

One morning as I looked out the front door I saw a rabbit hopping hesitantly along our snowy street.  It would stop and look around, then go a few hops forward, then stop and look around.  I felt sorry for it.  I might even have fed it some flowers if I had any, hahah!!  Seriously, as mad as I get when rabbits eat my flowers in the summer time, I felt really sorry for that rabbit.  Frozen snow covering everything.  Where do they go?  What do they eat?

This week Lisa posted some really special pictures on FB.  This is a collage of Sophie and her friend Maggie over the years.  It gave me tears when I looked at it.  Children are little for such a very short time.  These girls are so sweet at each age.

Here's a picture of Sophie with a carload of birthday gifts, HER birthday gifts, which by her choice were for the homeless dogs at Humane Society of Tampa Bay.  She has done this before.  I love her giving heart.

Yesterday after church we ate lunch at Olde New York with Austin then came home and had the best kind of Sunday afternoon napping - all three of us sacked out in the living room with a low-volume sports game on TV, nowhere else to go later in the day.  I woke up now and then, but was so comfy I would just drift back to dreamland again.  At one point we were wakened by Austin's LOUD proclamation that he had won the WHOLE tennis game.  I sleepily asked him who he had been playing with, but he didn't know.  Before long he was sleeping again!

In the evening I finished what I had started Saturday evening.  I rarely use my cookbooks, because most of my favorite recipes are saved in my computer or are in notebooks, and when I want new ones I get them online.  But this weekend I pulled out two old favorites, and I made Split Pea Soup and Bran Muffins.

When our children were young this meal was a real favorite.  On Saturday evening I started the soup with a big old ham bone and the dried split peas.  Sunday evening I took the bits of ham off the bone and added shredded carrots and onions and seasonings.  And then the muffins.

Oh my goodness!!!  This meal was every bit as scrumptious as I had remembered!  I told Dick, "I feel like I'm in East Petersburg!"  That's where we lived when I most often made this meal.

There are very exciting things in the works around here.  A few months ago Anthony and Lori discovered a property for sale that would enable them to pursue some dreams and visions.   I won't say more than that until it becomes theirs for sure.  At this point they have an accepted offer on the property and have been getting their house ready to sell.  It hasn't even been listed on the realtor's website yet, but they've had three showings and one offer already!  Here are some pictures.

From the street their house looks like any other rancher.  I took this one last fall.

But seven or eight years ago they got rid of the walls that gave it the normal small kitchen, living room, and dining room and turned it into a modern, open living space.

The green tape will be coming off.  They are in the middle of a project that is turning out really cool.

This is the basement family room.

And Austin's cool playroom.

Today my dad has been on my mind a lot.  We would have been celebrating his 92nd birthday today.   Sometimes it's hard to imagine that he's gone, even five years later.  His presence and influence in our lives was so incredibly profound.  I cannot tell you how often I long to have a good talk with him.  Like my brother said on FB today,  "So many questions, no one to ask."   I love this picture of him a few years before he died.  I like to remember him robust and healthy.

And now, like always, I have music prep to do.  Thank God for music!  And for good friends to do it with!  I really am thankful for the musical opportunities God has given me in this "Plan B" part of my life.