FAMILY

Handyman and I came from very different families. I grew up in the city and he grew up in the country on a farm. I have only one brother and he had 5 siblings. My grandparents lived hundreds of miles away and he got to see his paternal grandparents nearly every weekend. We've been married now for 37 years. We've both lost our dads and I've lost my mom. Handyman lost a sister in the prime of her life. But the kids are "carrying on" the families, especially on Handyman's side of the family. From his five siblings we have 9 nieces and nephew, 16 great nieces and nephews and 1 great-great niece. That's a wonderful thing about large families. Ages are spread out all over the place and someone is always having a baby!! Unfortunately, Handyman's family has gone the way of my family and they are spread out all over the Eastern United States & Texas.
We rarely get together with more than a family or two. Nieces and nephews are in NY, Texas, Georgia, Florida, Maryland and Kentucky.
Even our small part of that big family is in two states with our oldest daughter, son-in-law, and 3 grandchildren being in Kansas. At least our youngest is still close by, even though we don't see much of her.

RESERVATIONS

Yesterday my Outlook Calendar reminded me that it would soon be time to make Labor Day reservations at the lake. You see, they fill up quickly for all summer holidays, but you can only reserve 6 months in advance. Every year we tried to figure out if we would want to camp the holiday weekends while we were still coping with cold weather and sometimes snow on the ground. It's exciting this year that we don't have to make decisions 6 months in advance about when we're going to go to the lake, but at the same time, after camping for most of my life, it's kind of strange too. It will be nice to be able to make last minute decisions about spending a night or two or even a week at the lake. No more checking to see if an acceptable spot is available. We'll be able to decide on the spur of the moment to go or not go if the weather turns off bad or something else comes up. I'm looking forward to spring and many great trips up to the cabin!!

ASH WEDNESDAY

Ash Wednesday marks the first day, or the start of the season of Lent, which begins 40 days prior to Easter (Sundays are not included in the count).

Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline. During some Ash Wednesday services, the minister will lightly rub the sign of the cross with ashes onto the foreheads of worshipers.

FAT TUESDAY

What is Fat Tuesday?

Fat Tuesday is Mardi Gras, the festival New Orleans, Louisiana, is famous for. "Gras" is French for fat and "Mardi" is French for Tuesday.

The annual festivities start on January 6, the Twelfth Night Feast of the Epiphany, when the three kings are supposed to have visited the Christ Child, and build to a climax on Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, which always occurs on the day before Ash Wednesday. The parties and parades will continue until Lent begins at the stroke of midnight on Tuesday.

VALENTINE'S DAY

I was listening to the radio at work on Friday and they were polling people on whether we should do away with Valentines Day. Some said it wasn't fair that a girl would get roses from a fellow she had only been seeing a couple of weeks. Why does it matter what other people get or don't get? I had the distinct impression that those without a significant other didn't like the day, while most people who had someone to share the day with were more than happy with the holiday. For a lot of years we have followed the same tradition of sharing our Valentine's dinner with about 20 other couples from our church. Some years I get flowers, some years not. I've never gotten expensive jewelry. After 38 Valentine's Days together, it doesn't matter as much what I get, as it does that we're still together and still love each other. Of course, flowers are always nice!! I hope everyone has a Happy Day!!

CABIN UPDATE

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Handyman & I drove up to the cabin this morning so I could see the progress he's made the past two weeks. The creek was up quite a bit and there was a dusting of snow on the trees and in the grass.
He has applied the mud to drywall joints upstairs and in the bathroom and has built the half wall by the stairs. Earlier, we had talked about putting a window in the front door opening but today we were looking at the closet and decided that we could make it a little bit larger and move the closet door around the corner and have quite a bit more storage space. The downside being that we wouldn't be able to put the other window in. Since handyman didn't want the window anyway, we're going to go with more storage. He was going to have to tear all the closet down anyway to rework the stairs so he pulled down the wallboard off the side of the stairs. Just getting rid of all those green walls is going to help the looks a lot.

HANDYMAN - AKA "THE COOK"

Since his retirement handyman has also taken on the chore of cooking dinner several days a week. He's really pretty good at it which surprises some people. He's been asked to help get together a Wednesday night dinner at church to benefit "Habitat for Humanity." We have tossed around some menu ideas and BBQ pork was mentioned as an option. He started looking at recipes for smoking your own and decided that he could do that! So today he went and bought a smoker and proceeded to smoke a pork roast (as a trial). Even though we've only had a few bites so far, it seems to have turned out well. He also found a BBQ sauce recipe that he's made and it tastes pretty good. He's planning on making a mild and also a hot.