On Christmas Eve my sister said to me "I have a gift for you, but you might not like it." She then gave me a cold jar of oysters and a bag of oyster crackers. The oysters in the jar were gray and slimy. "Thank you," I said. "I've never made oyster soup, but I can try." On Christmas Day I was invited to a friend's house, so today was the day for making oyster soup. I found a recipe in the Mennonite Community Cookbook. To prep, I watch a YouTube video on how to make oyster soup. … [Read more...] about The World Is My Oyster… Soup?
Family
An Unwelcome Guest
Keeping things running smoothly behind the scenes is their job. Mom and Dad are on the board at Martindale Mennonite Fellowship Center, which is a venue used for church services, hymnsings, meetings, funerals, and of course, weddings. Last Saturday morning, like most Saturdays, there was a wedding at the center. There's always a board member present to take care of the air conditioning and the sound system, etc. It was my parents' turn to be there, and in the late morning, Dad was … [Read more...] about An Unwelcome Guest
To Catch a Tabby Cat
A furry orange kitten glares at me from the corner of the live animal trap. He's clearly a toughie, with a lean body and a red scratch next to his eye, probably a scar from fighting one of the other cats that roam our neighborhood. I'm careful to keep my fingers away from him. I call my sister immediately. "Are you at home? Because I have a kitten for Patrick!" My sister Joanne and her husband Lamar and their seven children live some twenty miles north, on a small hobby farm in Berks … [Read more...] about To Catch a Tabby Cat
Blood, Sweat, and Tears
"What a week!" The week that spanned the end of July and beginning of August is a week I won't soon forget. It was a week that included blood, sweat, and tears. Blood On Thursday I went to donate blood at a local fire company. Blood banks are hurting for donors since COVID started. Naturally, donating blood doesn't seem like a desirable thing to do during a pandemic, but sick people still need blood, COVID or no COVID. I hadn't donated blood in years since my iron count is often too … [Read more...] about Blood, Sweat, and Tears
Letter from the Yellow Zone
In March I wrote a blogpost in which I mused about what it would be like to live through some sort of natural disaster. Three years— excuse me, three months later, my curiosity has been sated. Lancaster County is now in the Yellow Zone. Pennsylvania is re-opening in stages: red was the total shutdown, yellow is partial, and in green you're to good to go (but not without your face mask, of course.) Most counties in Pennsylvania are green, but Lancaster and several other high-population areas … [Read more...] about Letter from the Yellow Zone