Well, it has been several years since I posted anything here.  I wasn't sure if I still could, or if blogs were a thing of the past.  I really did enjoy posting and most of my friends here have probably gone on to greener pastures.  

Sooo many things have happened in the past 8 years, it's gonna be hard to catch up, but I'll try to hit the highlights. 

In January of 2016 I began working for the Town of Groton as a Town Clerk/Tax Collector and ended my long commutes, praise God!  I was subsequently elected to that position in March of that year.  It's hard to believe that I have been at this for 10 years, but I have enjoyed this job and working in the Town.  We have some wonderful people working here and living here.  I have learned a ridiculous number of things and at times it's hard to remember everything, but some things just become routine.  

At a Town Clerk I have many hats.  I am a municipal agent for the DMV, so I do registrations and titles for vehicles.  I license dogs, keep records safe, and do deposits and such for the Town.  I help to organize our elections (that's a team effort, but I am responsible for Town election ballots and keep records for all of the elections that take place).  As a Tax Collector I work in conjunction with the Tax Assessing to get bills out on time and maintain tax accounts.  We send bills out twice a year which is a big job and then I collect money for taxes.  I don't have much to do with assessing thankfully and I am handed the warrant "on a silver platter", so I do very little on that end with the exception of fielding questions from residents on why the taxes are so high... etc.  I have a deputy who works with me.  Some days are very busy and others not so much.  On the "not so much" days I can get other things done besides working with customers.  There's always something that can be done.  

I can honestly say that this is one of the best of many jobs that I have had over the years.  My favorite by far was teaching, but I'm quite sure at 71 I would not have the stamina to take on a classroom of middle school students.  It was so fun when I was teaching and I am so thankful I had that opportunity.  Now my students from back then are parents and grandparents some of them.  So hard to believe.  I have a grandson now who has graduated from college and is teaching.  I guess I'll need to live vicariously through him.

pictures of the missing years:

Took a trip with Joanna and Norman to DC to visit Heather and Brandon:

Norman, Joanna, Heather, Brandon and me stuck in the middle :)

The whole family.  Taken at Hill Village Bible Church a few years ago:

Well maybe not the whole family... a couple were left at home

This is Skippy and Bandit - our other boys.

Joanna took Norman and I on a visit to "The Ark".  So fascinating and fun.

God has blessed us with many abundant harvests... 10 to be exact since my last post.

resulting in a VERY full freezer.

Doug and I a couple years ago now.  Nice fall Sunday in Vershire where we attend church.

Vershire Bible Church.

More recent Christmas photo.  Doug was not there, but nice pic of the rest of us.

Now for some of the not-so-nice yet noteworthy events:

In 2021 on Memorial Day, we were visiting in Maine when we got a call from Joanna saying that our house had perished in a fire.  All was lost but what we had with us on our trip.  God is so good and has helped us recover and we have wonderful neighbors and friends who came to our aid, and we thank God for every one of them!

a few months later we had a bit of an accident in the truck...

but God has provided us with a new truck with a longer bed which we needed.  We thank Him for that. No one was hurt in either one of these events except Norman's kitty, Jack Jack who we assumed perished in the fire.

 a couple of years ago Doug lost his precious father and my "father in love".  We miss him sorely.

Through all these things, God has been faithful.  We know we will see Dad again some day and received confirmation of this through a letter that was written some time before his death.  

The end of last year I got a pretty intense infection in my toe and in the process of getting that tended too I found out that I have diabetes.  This has been a bit of a life changer... drugs which don't agree with me and a much healthier diet which does agree with me.  I'm feeling good most of the time and the toe did heal...

On a much lighter note.  Our old Dodge Neon is still going strong.  Though we've tried to replace it a few times it doesn't want to give up and has left those others in the dust.  

It actually has 511,000 now since these pictures were taken.

Grandson, Brandon graduated from Middlebury College the day these were taken.... on our way to his graduation.  He had made us very proud!

I could go on, but I'll save some for another post later.

In God will I praise his Word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Psalm 56:4

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise ... be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.  Psalm 57: 7, 11

From my daughter Joanna's FB page... just had to share...

I was having a “feel sorry for Joanna” kinda week. I started to come down with a cold on Sunday, (sore throats are just the worst). Absolutely tuckered out by the end of the day (blowing your nose 50 times in a day takes a lot outta ya). I secretly wished Norman would come down with the cold too so I had a good excuse to stay home from work (I guess he’s healthier than me cause he’s still chipper as always).
Nope. God had another plan for Norm this week. I picked him up from school and first thing he says “*** got saved today!” (A buddy at school, I’m not sure if I should say his name on FB)
Norman said “I told him John 3:16... ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ I told him, Jesus loves you and He took your punishment for your sin so you could have everlasting life in heaven and not die. Well, you’ll die but then you’re immediately in heaven and everything’s beautiful and there’s jewels but then there will be a new earth where you can ride on animals. So, then he prayed, I helped him, and he asked Jesus into his heart.”🤗
Norman agrees we need to see if he can come to church with us! My little missionary.
This has changed my whole attitude. When I’m selfishly grumbling I’m missing out boldly proclaiming.
Lord, get me out of the way so others can see You!


Grand children are such a blessing to me... children too!!! 

Summer 2018

We have had a VERY busy summer.  It seems it's not over yet.  It started out with the garden.  We usually plant on Memorial Day and this Memorial Day was wet, so we planned to do it over the next couple of days and that ended up dragging out to a week.  Finally it was all in the ground.  Whew.  What used to take one day took us several.  I guess we aren't as spry as we used to be. 


This is what it looked like in May/beginning of June:

beans and a couple zucchini we didn't know where else to plant

winter squash

some winter squash in the front, peas, beets and summers

Then the garden grew... these are from July:

hollyhocks



Winter squash, chard, Holly Hocks, squash, cukes and summers.

Then it turns into a jungle.  The squash just took over everything.  Thankfully we needed a LOT of winter squash this year to fill the void in the freezer. 

In mid August the girls invited me on a camping trip... actually I may have invited myself, but it seemed like a great idea.

Never a dull moment with these people.

sunset the first night

 beautiful little pond, no one but us

loons the next morning

Random summer...

pickles

big fish at the fishing derby

 He's aiming for first place next year

grampa and a trophy from the derby

green beans for the freezer

Skippy comes with me in the morning for my Bible reading and prayer time.

my pal "Skippy"

my garden buddy too



Squam Lake's Science Center

 This was the mountain lions cage.

in awe of nature

during our camping trip.

swimming buddies

new driver

new driver's license

the Lord blessed him with a new-to-him Chevy Impala

new car and first day of school 2018

our newest nurse.. her daddy would be so proud of her

Leah graduated …  yea!!!

lupines from my kitchen window

I'd say that about wrapped it up... but summer isn't quite over.  I have lots to harvest out of the jungle still and I'm just not ready for cold weather yet.  This week's going to be warm... but frost is imminent.  I just don't want it yet.

Hope you had a wonderful, glorious, beautiful and God-filled and blessed summer.

A Jazzy Hodgepodge

1. April is National Jazz Appreciation Month. Are you a fan? If so what's a favorite you'd recommend to someone new to jazz listening?
I really don't care for Jazz.  I love hymns and songs of praise to God.  I love a good listen to music from Majesty Music and others like that. 

  

2. Mandolin, ukulele, harp, accordion or banjo...which would you be most interested in learning to play? Or do you already play one of the instruments listed?


I play guitar and have a uke.  I did play the uke, but haven't in so long I'd probably need to relearn.  I know the basics of accordion from my dad and have played it some.  Other than that I think I would like to learn to play the harp.  I've always enjoyed listening to harp music.


3. Do you judge a book by it's cover? Elaborate. You may answer in either/both the literal or figurative sense of the word.


I always have a first impression of people and books, but I try to reserve judgement till I know a little more.  I say about books if it doesn't grab my attention in the first chapter I probably won't finish it unless for some reason I must - for instance reading tax laws or DMV laws for work.  With people, they don't always have their best foot forward when you first meet them, so give it some time.  My best friend in high school had an awful first impression of me, but thankfully she was patient with me and we ended up being quite close.


4. According to a recent studythe ten  most nutritious foods are-almonds, cherimoya (supposed to taste like a cross between a pineapple/banana), ocean perch, flatfish (such as flounder and halibut), chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, swiss chard, pork fat (shocking! but I don't think they mean bacon), beet greens, and red snapper. Are any of these foods a regular part of your diet? Any you've never ever tasted? Which would you be most inclined to add to your diet?

 We butchered two pigs year before last and are still eating those with lots left in the freezer.  We also butcher chickens which we have plenty of still.  Mr. D eats almonds like they were going out of style and we eat LOTS of chard and kale in the summer and often I pick it up with the groceries in the winter too since it's so much better if it's fresh.  We just had a beef-based soup with turnip, carrots, onion and kale last night and it was quite good.  I do not eat chia seeds, rarely do we eat pumpkin seeds though sometime I add flax or sunflower or even pumpkin seeds to my bread for added crunch.  I've never heard of cherimoya.  We eat lots of fish, but flounder, halibut and red snapper are not within our food budget.  We do eat tilapia and swai.  I like both and though they aren't as high in omega 3 they are better for us than a red meat meal.  We eat quite healthy, just too much.


5. Besides a major holiday what is the most recent thing you've celebrated with your people? Tell us how.

We had a birthday boy last week and a birthday girlie this week.  Our birthday months are December, April, and September with two birthdays in each (or we could just make up a holiday to celebrate).


6. Insert your own random thought here.

Join the Hodgepodge fun at:
http://www.fromthissideofthepond.com/

Happenings in March and April

We have had quite a busy March and April so far.  It all started with a huge snowstorm early in March the same day as Town elections.  The Secretary of State sent out warnings the day before about the laws on cancelling or postponing elections which some did the year before when we had an Election Day storm, much the same only worse.  In NH we cannot cancel or postpone elections based on the weather, so we had 60 show up and went through the process regardless of the weather.  I was elected for another 3 years as Town Clerk, which I am very happy with, and we had beautiful sunshine for Town Meeting and though it snowed a little this afternoon, I think all-in-all the snow is finally going away.


In March we adopted a little pup from a shelter in Mississippi.  His name is Skippy and he's really adorable and well behaved. 

He's a lot smaller than we expected since the pictures we had were of when he was younger.  Mr. D is a little concerned that he might not be able to handle rat hunting.  He's got a good nose and great digging paws and I hope once he matures a little he'll develop into a good hunter.  He is learning how to stay home right now.  He loves to go play with the neighbors dogs (boxers) and is not timid about picking on dogs that are a little bigger than him.  He is house trained though piddles when he is nervous and he doesn't beg at the table.  He doesn't like laps, so is not a lap dog, but loves cuddles.  He doesn't shed very much at all because he has a semi-rough coat with the cutest whiskers and eyebrows.  I call him "old man" cause he's a puppy, but his face looks like an old man.

We also had a great Easter with friends at church and family at my daughter Joanna's home.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  We feasted and had some play time with dogs and J & H went for a walk with the pups.  We got home before dark and to bed early... it was a wonderful day.

J & H and Norman for a walk on Easter

After the crowd went home and Mom cleaned up the debris.

I just finished typing the minutes from Town Meeting which was especially long this year.  I had 26 pages typed and they were just submitted to the DRA yesterday.  I'm so happy that is over for another year.  It is quite a process.  I also had 4 workshops to attend in March which cut down on my work time.  I am grateful that the Lord helped me wade through and I'm mostly caught up now.  I have some filing chores that need to be done to keep up with the "retention policy". 

Last Thursday we celebrated a boy birthday.  Norman turned 6.  He's growing up into a fine young man and is reading and doing well in school.  I'm pleased as peaches with his Momma and how she's doing as a Mom.

Here they are being a little silly...

This was on his birthday I think.  She had the day off and let him stay home from kindergarten for the day.  Then they came to our house.  We gave him his presents then we had a vet appointment for Skippy and then we went to "Old McDonalds" for lunch.  I think the only reason he likes to eat there is because he gets a toy in the lunch box.  This time is was a Snoopy spinner.  He really doesn't like the food so much, but he did enjoy a Strawberry shake... not a big cake eater either.

Out for dinner with Auntie Heather.  What a birthday!

I didn't have an Easter picture of Brandon and surely don't want to leave him out.  Here's one from Christmas with the boys and Spot.  This is the last picture of all of them together.

Next big adventure is going to the Middletown Bible Conference.  I'm leaving my Deputy alone for the first time for 3 office days.  I know she'll be fine, but it will be a little nerve wracking for her probably.  Praying we have a wonderful time together.  We haven't been away for quite some time just the two of us.  It will be refreshing.

We still need to find a doggie sitter and I'm hoping we find one soon.  If it's warm enough the chickens will probably do fine, but we can't take the pup.  I'm thinking of a doggie daycare for him for the 3 nights we'll be away.  I'm just not sure how much it will be.  We do have neighbors who would probably keep him but they all have dogs already and Joanna has two and Heather has a cat.  We'll keep looking. 

A couple of verses that I've been memorizing lately.

Jeremiah 32:17

Ah, LORD God! Behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing to hard for thee;

Psalm 40:5

Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou has done, and thy thoughts which are to usward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee;  if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

God is keeping my husband, children and grandchildren before me and I know there is nothing too hard for Him or too small either.