2-13-16 Sat.

I have to do the blog early this morning because we have our annual breakfast for church. It used to be a men's breakfast, but last year we invited the ladies because Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday. Well, the ladies liked it so much were inviting them back this year. I hope they behave themselves.

Everything is going pretty much the same as it has been. Daniel is working hard and I guess I can say I'm doing the same.

Today I want to tell you about a lonely plant, that survived my lack of care. I should probably preface this story with a little history. Taking care of plants and everything that goes with it like what plants we bought and where they were planted, was Harriet's domain. We have the plants that are around the house on a timer so that they are watered on a regular basis. But, there are a lot of plants on our porch that do not have a sprinkler system because they are potted plants, even though they are quite large. So, Harriet explained to me the watering and how often it should be done depending upon the heat and time of year. And I've been watering them faithfully and not killed any yet.

So couple of months ago, I noticed that there was a plant that is on Harriet's side of the bed on her nightstand and it's a real plant, as opposed to artificial. I tried to figure out how long it's been since it's been watered and it probably did not get any water for at least 3 or 4 months and I'm so surprised that it was still alive even if just barely. So I've been watering it and making sure that it got some sunlight. We have  the louvered shutters throughout our house and I've not been opening the shutters on Harriet side since she was not here. This means that the plant was not getting any water or sunlight for months. I'm going to include a picture of the plant in its current condition. It's been revived in the last couple of months. Can you believe it's already been 6 months since Harriet died? There is one strand you can see that is struggling, but there is new growth also. It's amazing that this plant survived for so long without water and sunlight.

Next week I will have some pictures that I will take at the breakfast this morning. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and the title of the message is, "All You Need Is Love". Yes it's from the Beatles. But I will not be using their lyrics, I will be using verses from the Bible.

Maranatha,
Frank

                                      Harriet and little Joe

2-6-16 Sat

Hello everybody! I remembered this morning. I have some updates and of course I need some cooking advice.

Everyone asks about Daniel and this past week he got something in one of his eyes while at work and scratched the cornea. We found this out when I took him to the doctor. Because he couldn't see properly to drive. They gave him ointment and pills and told him not the worst contact lenses until this is resolved. Hopefully in a couple of days.

Now we get down to the important things like cooking. My girl Hilda bought some "potatoes O'Brien" for Daniel and I. I know that you are probably all aware of this but for the less informed (Larry) it comes with the potatoes all cut up and onions and peppers included. You just have to put them into a pan and cook them. Unfortunately I did not have a stick proof pan which was recommended. You'll be able to see what I cooked it in when you look at the picture below.

As you can imagine everything stuck to the bottom of the pan. I got it cooked and everything, but I like to have things a little bit crispy or browned, if you know what I mean? So, the question I have you I had a stick proof pan will that allow me to crisp things up? I must tell you that I would prefer to ask for your input then to try and Google it or look it up in a cookbook. It's much more fun this way to get feedback from you. And I want you to know that I really appreciate everybody's help. I guess my rehabilitation is a community project.

That's pretty much the excitement for this week. I am going to include a picture that was taken almost a year ago. This was taken about Easter last year at church. Harriet had finished her 8 rounds of chemo and was doing very well as you can see by the smile on her face. It wasn't until later on toward the middle of May that she started feeling really bad again.

This Sunday the title for the message is, "Mercy, Grace and Tolerance".  Are these terms compatible? The world accuses Christians of being intolerant. Of course the question that comes to my mind is that anyone who accuses another person of being intolerant is showing their intolerance.
Maranatha,
Frank                   Harriet, Hilda, Timothy and Little Joe

1-30-16

Boy am I in trouble. I forgot to do the blog this morning. Check out this picture:

Yes that is an ironing board and iron. I don't want anyone to become concerned that I'm actually ironing clothes, because I'm not. I realized when I got it out that it's been an awful long time. I had a little old lady that I've done work for that needed the hem on her bed skirt raised 2 inches because she had to have a hospital bed installed in her bedroom. So I hemmed it up a couple of inches and then had to press the crease into the skirt.

I made another grilled cheese sandwich this past week. It didn't come out as good as the 1st one and here I thought I had mastered cooking grilled cheese sandwiches. I was concerned about cooking it too long and it being burned so I undercooked it. Here is a picture of it, it looks like it's cooked just right doesn't?

I would like to thank everybody for their help in giving me advice. A lot of the stuff is trial and error and on my part it's mostly error.

I happened to notice when I started this particular blog post the there have been over 35,000 hits on Harriet's blog site.

Things are going pretty well. I guess I'm getting into a routine. But, I miss the routine I had with Harriet. I don't know if it ever really gets a whole lot better than it is right now. I mean the feeling of missing someone? They say the time is a healer, we will see.

I hope that you have a wonderful weekend.

Maranatha,
Frank

1-23-16 Sat

Good morning everybody! I hope you all had a good week. I have been learning to cook, I know this is a big shock. I often smiled to myself when I'm trying to cook something because I think of how well Harriet Cooked. Harriet had the ability to cook the multicourse meal and have everything completed at the same time so that it's all served hot and ready to eat. I'm finding out that this takes a lot of talent and a lot of practice. For you that are not aware of this, Harriet cooked a full meal for everybody in our Bible class on Saturday nights at Sonrise, each Saturday night for at least 3 years. She cooked the entire meal by her self and served it hot for about 50 people every Saturday night. That takes a lot of talent and a lot of energy.

So I cook my 1st grilled cheese sandwich this week. It actually is the 1st thing I've cooked it came out pretty good. I was really happy with myself being able to cook this sandwich.

Then yesterday I heated up some chili that I received in the can from my friends Phil in Rogina. It's called Cattle Drive chili. It has everything in it and it was very good. when I was at Walmart I picked up some of that garlic bread that is already buttered and has the garlic on it. I'm not sure exactly how it works in the oven as far as how long it needs to be in there to heat up the bread and to make it a nice golden brown. Is this boring? I hope I'm not boring everybody with all this information. This is what's going on right now and I'm learning to cook so I'm sharing those experiences with you. So I tried to heat the garlic bread in the oven and it warmed it up but it didn't come out the way it's supposed to like one Harriet doesn't. So I'm gonna need some help in this area. For example what temperature do you put the oven on and do you use the broiler or not and what shelf in the oven do you put the bread to heat up? These are unknowns that I need to answer. So if you read this blog and you want to instruct me on how to probably heat up garlic bread, I would really appreciate it.

Daniel is still working hard with his full-time and his part-time job.

Sunday morning I'll be preaching on The Great Commission. I hope that you can be there to hear the message.

Maranatha,
Frank

1-16-16 Sat. 300th Post

Hello! So today is the 300th posting on this blog. A little over 15 months ago I started this blog to help let everybody know what was going on with Harriet. At the very beginning I was posting every day or at least a couple times a week. Now of course is just once a week.

I've been trying to get rid of this cold that started little over a week ago. The coughing still lingers. I did teach Bible class last night at church.

The big thing that happened this past week was my cooking skills have increased. I know that a lot of people think that this is funny and it probably is. But anyway I wanted to cook some hard-boiled eggs. Harriet used to make them for me and put them in my lunch occasionally. So it's been a long time since I've had one. Well I got instructions and I looked it up on the Internet. I know it's hard to believe but I screwed it up. How can you do that you're asking? Well, it's not that difficult. It wasn't until the 3rd attempt today successfully cook a hard-boiled egg. All these years I've never had to learn to do these things and now, I am in a position that I have to. I've lost almost exactly 25 pounds since Harriet died. I'm just not eating enough.

I'm really not complaining. It's just a matter of telling you like it is. I try to think of interesting things for this blog and that's pretty much it for this week. This Sunday the message I'm going to preach is a quotation by Jesus Christ. Jesus wanted his disciples to be, "Wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove". Hopefully you can make it to the service. I really look forward to seeing everybody this Sunday at church.

I hope you have a great weekend.
Maranatha,
Frank

                           I really like this picture of Harriet

1-9-16 Sat.

Sorry about the late posting this morning. I came down with a cold 2 days ago and it's just starting to get a little better. I'm still in the contagious state. I asked Pastor Ron to take my Bible class on Friday night and to preach on Sunday morning. He's always very faithful And a good friend.

I have sort of shut myself in the last few days because I don't want other people to get sick. But it's difficult to do things that you know you should be doing, even though you don't feel up to it.

Daniel continues to work hard at his job and is always looking for more ways to increase his income. I did mention to you that he has a part-time job with my friend Gaylin. Daniel is working on the computer for him. It seems to be really working out for both of them.

We had so much rain this past week I can't remember the last time we've had this much rain consecutive days. I will tell you a funny story. I put my trash cans out on Tuesday morning. There are 2 of them one for recyclables and the other for trash. The recyclable came and picked up and I brought the trash can in and put it away. Now the rain had been raining hard and there was a nice stream flowing down the street. I'm going to include a picture I took out the front door so you can see the water going by in the rain. Anyway I came out on Wednesday morning and I couldn't see my trashcan anywhere. I look to the left of me and to the right of me and everyone else had the trash can still out, but mine was missing.

 Just in time the trash truck driver was driving by on the other side of the street and I waited till he made his circuit and came back on my side and flag him down. He said that they saw a trashcan a couple of blocks away downstream. Sure enough it was my trashcan and it floated away with all the trash still in it. He brought the trash came back a couple of days later. Very unusual and we are very thankful for all this rain. As you know we're going through a drought and hopefully this will help to lessen the drought effects.

That's it for today. I hope you have a fantastic weekend, Maranatha,
Frank

                             Harriet and me at Waikiki

                    My Dad and Harriet just a months before he died.

1-2-16 298th Blog Post

I hope you had a nice New Year's day. It was very low-key for me. I went through some photos on my Google drive. You've probably seen all these are ready but I'm going to include some anyway. It's hard not to go down memory lane.

I want to wish everybody a very excellent new year.

Maranatha,
Frank