What to Cook

 

Ada says, “Hum, what should I cook on this rainy day?”

Finally Rain

 Finally, a nice shower came yesterday.  Maybe a half inch of water. We may get more today.  Now, it’s only sprinkled, but maybe more will come. 

Wordle Nerdle

Wordle 405 3/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩

⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I’m still doing Wordle everyday.  I don’t think it’s staving off dementia because as soon as I have finished the days’ puzzle I forget what the answer is.  Sigrid enjoys the puzzle.  Something about that makes me smile.  A quarter of Sig came from me💗

Aunt Jennie And Uncle Merriman

The lady with the swooped up hair and maybe a bow is Larry’s Great Great Aunt Jennie,  the girl in front of her is Nettie, her oldest child.  She is 4 years old.  The baby is Leonard.  He’s less than one.  The guy with the fiddle is John Merriman  Whisenant.  The rest are Merriman’s family.  Aunt Jennie and Merriman  married near Snowball in 1905.  Nettie was a twin.  Her sister Ettie died at age two.  Aunt Jennie had reason to be sad but she always tried to look on the bright side.

John M. Whisenant was born May 20, 1889, near Snowball, Arkansas.  John Whisenant was his father and his mother was Mary Jetton. He married Mary Jane “Jennie” Renfroe on September 17, 1905. They had eight children.  He died on March 13, 1958, at the age of 68, and was buried in Muskogee, Oklahoma.    

The story told by Walton Renfroe's granddaughter was that his sister Mary Jane was going to get married riding a mule.   Walt said no one can go to their wedding on a mule and had her ride his horse and he rode the mule. 

Mary's granddaugther told me that Mary's husband always taught school and Mary ran the farm.  She loved baseball and would go to all the games she could and would also listen to baseball on the radio.  Another thing that Mary Jane loved was ice cream.  She never passed up a chance to have ice cream.  Hearing about her from her granddaughter made me think that was was a very happy person who found pleasure in many small things!  She was born in Searcy County, near Snowball but lived most of her life in near Muskogee, Oklahoma.

Here you can see Aunt Jennie as an old woman, smiling and happy.  They had a family of 8 but only 6 lived to adulthood.  Ettie died at 2 and Dorcie, a son, also passed young.

Jennie is with three of her children.  Dorothy is holding a doll.  Aunt Jennie had a second set of twins after the first.  The second was a boy Alfred Dorcie and a girl, Anna Dorothy.  Aunt Jennie had an older niece come and live with her and help her with the twins.  And still Aunt Jennie lost Dorcie.  He  died young of spinal meningitis, only 15.

Dorothy and Dorcie above 

Merriman and Jennie much older

Dorcie and Dorothy

Marriage License

Marriage License and below Jennie’s copy of her family record.  She asked her niece to type it.

 

 

Sweating Bullets

 Greta works on her basketball skills every evening.  This is how she looks when finished.  She is a hard worker.

My Flock

Poor Phinnie thinks he is a chicken and my Easter Egger hen thinks she is a Mockingbird!

 

Deaf

 Well, I’m really old.  I can tell I can’t hear much with my left ear.  I thought maybe it’s clogged.  So this is what I stooped to or exposed myself to…

It did not help.  A hearing aid is in my future I think.  Oh, dear what to do!

Trapper

I missed my calling.  Look who I nabbed yesterday.  I should have been a trapper!  A coon and 5 squirrels since June.  My sign Sister Fleta fixed didn’t work.  The varmints can’t read.

 

New Graduation Photo

 Got a new Grand photo.  Sigrid will graduate in 2023.  Then Clayton will be next.  

Oops I had Sig graduating way in the future.

Powell Lily

Just when I thought all the flowers were dead from no rain and 100 degree days, this morning my Crinum Lily was full of beautiful blooms.  I water it everyday, but I thought this year it probably would not bloom.  The last picture isn’t my Lily.  These are sometimes called Powell Lilies.  From the Sermon on the Mound—Luke 12 : 27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

 

Cup Plant

Sister Helen holding a sunflower and Sister Patsy doing the same.  Old hands wither from age.  

This is a Cup Plant.  The second photo is of Sister Helen’s holding her bloom.  Hers may be a Sunflower.  Not sure but it looks like a cup plant too.  It’s of the Daisy family.  Cup plant gets its name from its leaves. The upper leaves grow in pairs that completely encircle the stem. The leaves are very sturdy for a wildflower and the paired leaves form a “cup” around the stem.

 

Clayton’s Gone Home

Clayton, Greta and Ada went to Auntie Laura’s and played before they headed home.

P

Heat Way

 

It’s usually 10 degrees cooler on Mt. Nebo than down in the valley below.  This week it would still be above 90 up there.  

I have 5 granddaughters and one grandson.  Clayton is staying with me a few days.  He is pretty easy to please. In the evening, he swims a while.  Not a lot to do here and I’m not a great entertainer.  I’m glad he came.

Cleaning House

Laura and Eric scrubbed the outside of their house today.  The white siding gets pretty dirty and even mildews.  

Looks like Siggie supervised.

 

Ben Hur Post

Ben Hur post office in 1969 and 2022.  Same two trees on either side of door.  

 

Going Back

I grew up poorer than a church mouse.  By sixth grade, I knew I was going to college.  I decided to go to School of the Ozarks in Missouri.  I had a sponsor who paid my tuition and I worked.  I stayed almost two years then I transferred to ATU and finished my degree there.  I had not been back until today, 53 years passed. Laura took me and we had reservations at their restaurant.  My experiences came rushing back to me. I saw the dorm where I arrived when I was 17.   I had forgotten how beautiful it was and so thankful to see it again.

The School was supported by the Presbyterian Church.  It was private, no public funds.

We had to go to chapel Wednesday evening and Sunday.

The dorm I lived in…