I’m not a gardener, never have been, never will be. It’s just not in me. I find it miserable work. Though I enjoy the fruits of the labor be they flowers, vegetables, or fruit. If I had to do it I would. Mike on the other hand finds it relaxing. He likes to garden and looks forward to it. It’s beyond me just like my comic book hobby is beyond him. He appreciates it makes me happy. I appreciate produce and flowers.
Join me as I checked in on Mike’s garden. It’s coming along fine. The kritters enjoyed watching me take photos of the garden. Except Rappy, she slept in the sun. Can’t say I blame her.
How in the heck Mike gets in there to bring in the harvests he does is beyond me. I think of gardens as being measured in portions of an acre with nice wide rows not a jungle where if you step wrong you crush your next harvest. It’s his garden done his way. Left to me, I’d be living in a condo but it makes him happy. So there for the dense garden makes me happy.
It’s been a busy weekend of fun. Don’t worry I’ve not forgotten you. I’ve been out making photos of all the doin’s. I’ll be sure to share once I get them all sorted out. That should be Monday or Tuesday depending on how long the visit to the DMV takes on Monday. Yeah, that shouldn’t take long.
There was a very sad crisis at my house this morning. The new bag of doggie biscuits could not be found. I KNOW tragedy of epic proportions! Call in the Avengers! Where is the Closer when you need her? It was sad and perplexing.
I did not feel well last night. I went to bed early. The doggie treat jar was empty and is our ritual before I go to bed I let her out and gave her a treat. Not feeling well I didn’t take time to wash the jar and put the new treats in it. I just left the bag of treats on the counter. Aaron and Sara came home to make their dinner as I was heading off to bed. I didn’t care all I wanted was bed.
Cut to 5am this morning, doggie wanted out. I got up and let her out. I reached into the treat jar. Not normal time for a treat but I was still groggy and not up to my usual form. It was empty. My sleep rattled brain remembered I’d left the bag out. I reached for it in the dark, not there. I flipped on the light and looked around the kitchen. Dirty dishes piled in the sink, ran water in them. Yep Aaron’s cooked and moved the treats but where? Dunno. Oh well she’s not supposed to get a treat now any way. I turned off the light and shuffled to bed leaving a very dejected greyhound in my wake.
“But, but you rattled the treat jar…. I was a good girl. You were going to give me a tasty treat. What, what happened? ” Rappy sighed heavily and was left staring at the empty jar. “Momma don’t love me no more.”
Then this morning I got up and went through the morning routine. Rappy out and in again. This time it’s morning treat time. We start and end our days together with tasty basted biscuit treat of love. It’s been our routine for years. I reach for the jar and remember, “Oh yeah Aaron.” I look about the kitchen no treat bag. I shout up to ask Aaron what he did with it. He doesn’t remember. I don’t find it in the storage cubby, in the pantry, in the dog food drawer or cabinet. It’s gone. I show Rappy my empty hands and tell her Aaron ate all the treats. She’s dejected and shuffles off to her day bed in my office.
I take to emptying the dishwasher and loading the dishes in the sink into it. I’m puzzling over where that bag could have gone. Then I see it! It’s on top of the fridge! I’m short I don’t always look up for something. Much less look for doggie treats in non doggie places. Still I found it! The tasty basted biscuit treat of love are back!
I immediately called Rappy, the depressed old greyhound that had moped about the corners of my morning. “Here girl!” I handed her two, yes TWO, treats one stacked on top of the other. I found them! Her eyes lit up, her ears went up, her back feet did the happy tap dance with the big tail wags. “MOMMA STILL LOVES ME!” She roo’d. She grabbed the treats and ran to her bed to enjoy them.
I enjoyed watching her savor them. Then I went and filled up the empty treat jar. All is right with the furry household now. Momma loves Rappy. The treat jar is full. Life is as it should be for doggie and me. If only I could get my printer working. Maybe I should show it the full treat jar…
This morning we got up early Mike dressed in his whites, we picked up Sara (Aaron’s girlfriend) and headed to North Milwaukee to the Military Entrance Processing Station or MEPS as it’s called. Aaron had spent the day there Tuesday doing all he needed to joint the Army National Guard. However, he knew a very special military officer he wanted to perform the swearing-in ceremony for him – his father.
Here’s the pictures from this morning where Capt Mike Eklund swore in his son Aaron Eklund.
Father swearing son into the service of our country
Now may I proudly introduce PV2 Aaron Eklund of the Army National Guard. He’ll be serving while he continues to attend University of Wisconsin Madison. There he’ll be with the ROTC program except when he takes the winter semester off for boot camp. Upon graduation he’ll be commissioned as an Officer and plans to work for the governor’s office in helping with preparedness for pandemics and bio hazards.
PV2 Aaron Eklund of the US Army National Guard and Capt Mike Eklund of the US Navy.
Long break again but at times real life gets in the way of blogging life. I’ve been diagnosed with diabetes (type 2). Which with other issues put me into poly glandular failure. I’m now being treated by the endocrinology pavilion of Froedert Hospital in Milwaukee. I have to be honest they have improved my life immensely so far, many issues I’ve complained about for years are improving with their management.
Which leads us to why I was in the kitchen I have to eat breakfast. It is one their requirements and has always been a personal bodily requirement of mine. However I wake up hungry NOW and/or too groggy to cook. I have dropped my carbohydrate intake due to diabetes (it’s not just sugar but ALL carbs not having a sweet tooth my sins were bread, rice, potatoes, peas, corn, etc.) I looked around for recipes I could do in advance that were low-fat, high protein, and low carb. I came upon one – Spinach Quiche Muffins and thought of one bacon & egg cups. Today was the day I hit the kitchen and tried them.
First up are the Spinach Quiche Cups
low-fat, low carb, high protein Spinach Quiche Muffins
First thing I never do a recipe as written I monkey with it. This one I replaced eggs with egg substitute, regular cheese was replaced by non-fat, chopped onions were replaced by dried minced onions. Why the changes? One obvious reason was to drop number of fat grams. The onions were because sometime ago I made some spinach omelets and froze them in single servings when thawing out I had to drain them. I knew I needed all the help absorbing spinach moisture as I could so dried onion would do that. Also instead of making 12 small ones I went for 6 regular muffin sized. In the original recipe a serving was 2 now it’s one.
Okay you’ll need foil baking cups. I found a light spray of non-stick spray before you put the cups in and in the cups after putting them in the pan added in removal later. Sometimes a bit of it bakes out and the spray on the exterior of the liner helps with that.
10 oz of frozen chopped spinach thawed and drained well. I put mine in a bowl and let it thaw in the fridge sitting on a corner to drain. Then when I opened the package I took out the spinach and squeezed it into a ball with my hands to get out as much moisture as I could. It wasn’t dry but it didn’t drip and when torn apart in the bowl with a fork it was still leafy.
Add to the flaked spinach in the bowl 3/4 cup of egg substitute (if you want real eggs 3 eggs well beaten), 3/4 cup of non-fat shredded cheese (I used cheddar), 1 small bell pepper chopped, and 1 generous tablespoon of dried minced onion. Mix all of this together and divide into your 6 foil cups. I could put it in with a fork it’s that thick. Bake at 350 F for 20 minute until firm. If you are going to eat them right away let stand 5 min to firm before eating. Yes they do freeze and I’ll let you know about thawing tips when I get there.
According to my MasterCook program (I don’t know how accurate but it does for me, it’s up to you to decided if you want to use it. I’m just sharing what information I have) a serving’s nutritional data looks like this for one serving: 66 calories, 1 gram fat, 4 grams carbohydrates, 10 grams protein, and 2 grams fiber.
Next up was my idea of Bacon & Egg Cups from various pictures I’ve seen about. Here’s my versions of them.
Bacon & Egg Cups fresh from the oven
Here I used low-fat Turkey bacon. I stood in the meat department comparing nutritional labels of the turkey bacon and settled on Jennie-O out of what my store had to offer. I used large eggs for six of them and I used 1/4 cup of egg substitute for the other 6. I didn’t spray the pan as it was still greasy enough from the run of Spinach Quiche Muffins. However next time I will be sure to give it an even coating of light spray there was a bit of stickage. I first put a slice of bacon lining the edge of each cup. The I used half a slice to line the bottom. I found if I tore the half into half again (two fourths of a slice) I could position it better to cover the bottom. Then with the real egg I just broke the egg into the cup now made of bacon. For the egg substitute I poured in the quarter cup into the center. I salted and peppered the tops of the eggs and baked for 20 min at 350 F. Here’s what they looked like when they came out.
Bacon & Egg Cup – with real eggBacon & Egg Cup with egg substitute
Aaron ate two regular egg ones and one egg substitute one for lunch pronouncing them good. He wanted instructions for his kitchen in his house this fall. I told him to which he said “I’ll need a muffin pan.”
Okay again according to my MasterCook program here’s the nutritional data per serving. Using an egg it is: 125 calories, 9g Fat, 1g carbohydrates, 10g protein, and 1g fiber. Using the egg substitute it is: 76 calories, 4g fat, 1g carbohydrates, 8g protein, and 0g fiber.
As always I love to hear from you. If you try these let me know how they turn out and what you did to make them your own. Until next time!
I often see people do a list of “10 Things You Don’t Know About Me.” I always find at least one thing I have in common with them that I didn’t know about. Since I’ve not been posting for a while (health issues, improving thanks!) I thought a good post to get back into this would be a 10 Things list. So here is my 10 Things You May Not Know About Me.
I love comic books. I always have and always will. **Let the Geek Flag Fly** Actually I have a pull list mailed to me monthly. For those of you not into comic lingo a pull list is a list of comic book titles to which you subscribe. The big companies DC and Marvel aren’t great at managing subscriptions nor do they offer all titles for subscription. The small companies like Dynamite don’t offer subscriptions nor do Indies like Zenotrope. So if you have a local comic shop you go there fill out a pull list and they make a mailbox for you pulling those titles as they come in. Our local comic shop burned so I use Midtown comics for my pull list and they mail them to me monthly. If you want to read my comic book reviews I post them over on my Google+ account.
As a rule I don’t like chick flicks. I’ve never liked goody-goody sappy things. I hated Little House on the Prairie and the Waltons. I did like Hot L Baltimore and All In The Family. Just an example from my early days of not liking the sappy movies.
I didn’t like My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This doesn’t mean I don’t like love stories or happy endings, I do. I just like a story with meat and realism to it. I find these movies shallow and insulting to women.
I worked in radioactive waste processing. Yep, I was a Regulatory Compliance Specialist. I helped with NRC rules, RCRA rules, EPA rules, OSHA rules, and so on. I taught courses on RCRA compliance. What heck did I just say? Well I worked doing internal inspections of the various processing of radioactive waste for the alphabet soup of laws that applied. Just so you know I went into that job supporting the use of nuclear energy. I left years later thinking until we know what to do with waste beyond make it smaller and leave it sitting in the desert to watch it for thousands of years – we shouldn’t be making radioactive waste for anything except lifesaving medical reasons.
Created using Printshop
I love the paranormal and fringe stuff. Now I don’t buy all of it nor do I discount all of it. I find it fun to read or listen to radio shows. This is a pretty wide topic to me it can be anything from ghosts, aliens, crypto creatures, time travel, conspiracies, and anything weird. Some of it astounds me people actually believe that stuff. Some of it makes me think about what DO I believe and why. Some of it makes me wonder just how much do we know about physics and such. All of it helps me come up with story ideas.
Licensed image from Printshop
I don’t like chocolate or sweets in general. Honestly I’d rather have mashed potatoes & gravy, a good au gratin potato or more steak than dessert any day. I don’t like ice cream and for my birthday want to impress me take me out to a Mexican or Sushi place. You won’t see me posing with a cake. I’m all into savory and my aversion to sweet goes as far as not caring for most fruits. Ruby red grapefruit is my favorite with salt is my favorite!
I’m sodium deficient most of the time. Yep I salt heavily but when it comes time for my routine blood test I’m deficient. It has to with adrenal malfunction – my body doesn’t absorb salt very well.If you eat dinner with me and see me salting don’t fret my blood pressure when I checked in for surgery last week was 118/62 and I was stressed for surgery but had taken no medication yet. So my heart can take it and my body needs it to avoid pains in my legs and general body pain due to malfunctioning nerves that don’t have enough sodium.
Image licensed from PrintShop
I love true crime/missing person stories. I find nothing fascinating that a good mystery and the best ones come from life. Sure it’s great to learn the end but the others fascinate me too. I’ve read all the books by John E Douglas a famous criminal profiler. My most frequently recorded channel is Investigation Discovery.
My favorite channel. Image reproduced under the Fair use doctrine for commentary and criticism under US Copyright law
My heart breaks for the victims and their families. Still I can’t help but be fascinated with how cases are investigated not just the forensic side but all aspects. I’m always intrigued about why someone does such crimes. Why does A react to the situation with crime while B in the same situation doesn’t? Also good plot twists are based on things that can really happen. The plot turns I want to write are inspired by the real twists of life.
No animal creeps me out, none. Mike doesn’t like big bears (Kodiak, Grizzly, etc.). Aaron thinks orangutans are creepy. Sara finds Aaron etymology collection gross and creepy. I can’t say any of those things bother me. Sure I respect big bears and hope to never meet one face to face. I find Orangs fascinating as they are one of our closest genetic relatives. Bugs – heck you’re reading the writing of a girl who used to love to play with bugs, especially those roly-poly ones you find under damp rocks or in rotting trees. So no I don’t find rats, bats, snakes, bears, big cats or anything creepy. I do have respect for wild beasts and venomous critters but don’t find them any creepier than people. Actually I find people creepy occasionally.
I can read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. I took classes for two years to get the basics of reading it. Why? I figured if it was so important to them to write all over everything the least I could do is read a bit of it to see what’s going on. I’m a writer the biggest thrill for me is to be read I don’t see that being any different 4,000 years ago. I studied Middle Kingdom glyphs and can muddle through the basics of an idea that’s written, stumble through Old or New Kingdom stuff. I love history and I love the beauty of ancient Egyptian designs even their writing was beautiful art. So I satisfied my curiosity about the very lean basics of how to read their hieroglyphs.
I enjoy solitude. I think I need more alone time than most people. Not that I’m not a social person, I am, I can be. Yet I love quiet days alone with my thoughts. I think that’s the root of my love of reading, photography, and writing. Those are all things you do alone, just you and your thoughts. I’m not a hermit by any means but for me to travel alone, have dinner out alone, to stay home alone, isn’t a bad thing to me. I just like time to myself to process and create things. I just always enjoyed going my way. Maybe that comes from being an only child raised in area where I didn’t have playmates except in school hours. Maybe it’s just my personality. Either way my good friends concur that I do need more alone time than most people. Too much interaction time makes me grumpy, I feel overwhelmed and become annoyed. I guess it goes without saying I don’t like being in crowds…
So there you go. Did ya learn something about me? Do we have more in common that you knew? Am I an odd bird as they say down South? As always I appreciate you reading and any stars, shares, and/or comment are greatly appreciated. Until next time!
I have a long history here of running into craziness at the HUMGO-SUPER-DUPER market out by the interstate. I’ve had an old lady tell me what fruits were evil and what ones weren’t. She looked like Bette Davis in Baby Jane.
Another time I saw a manager hit in the face with a clipboard by the woman in front of me who was trying to use a stolen debt card and fake ID. I had to make a police statement in that as I witnessed the whole transaction.
Another time in the parking lot I had to help a grandma with an infant. She was hysterical since her husband collapsed and couldn’t breathe. As I got there the ambulance from her 911 call was roaring into the scene. She was having trouble with the baby seat. I took that over got the baby in the seat in her car. Sat there with the baby amusing it until grandpa was loaded into the ambulance and grandma came back to herself enough to drive the quarter mile to the ER.
I witnessed a car hit a pedestrian there and again another police statement. Another statement to the insurance companies of both parties in that case.
Also I caught a run away dog there. He jumped out of the SUV as the owner opened the door and I caught him by the collar as he came up to check me out. I had fresh meat in the cart.
Needless to say that grocery store can be an adventure for me. Then again I turn grocery shopping into an adventure. In TN I freed a kitten stuck in a Pepsi machine. Today was not so adventurous but did witness stupidity.
Picture an old beat up compact car whose driver front fender is held on by a bungee cord and his headlight affixed on that side with duct tape. Got the image? Good!
Now he’s backing out of a parking spot. He turns to block the whole intersection of two lanes in the large lot. One being the double lane in front of the store that has a stop for pedestrian sign mounted in a concrete buoy looking thing in the middle. This tiny car held together by bungee cords, tape and a prayer almost hits it.
I’m thinking “So that’s how he came to need those super-duper repairs.”
The dude driving looks like the inspiration for the character Joe Dirt. HONESTLY! He starts back up again and almost hits the car that had the right of way but stopped because some lunatic backed out into the lane. The bungee car hops as the breaks are slammed. Then it goes forward until the car in front of me honks at Joe who is still looking back at the last car he almost hit. Joe hops the car again.
Poor Mr. Dirt is distressed. He’s flipping his head as if he’s watching a grand championship match at Wimbledon. He turns the wheel to get into his lane, gives it gas and BAM! right into the pedestrian sign. The front bumper falls off and the driver quarter panel drops down to the ground.
Well no worries there, out hops Joe with his trusty duct tape. Yes, right there in front us all he starts duct taping the bumper back. There were now seven cars and four pedestrians watching this show. Once that was done he taped up the back of the askew quarter panel, straighten the wonky taped on headlight then jumped back into his car. He’s now in the lane so he heads off leaving the rest of us laughing, shaking our heads in wonder, and thankful we weren’t hit by him.
It all started when I wanted a big crisp dinner salad. No dinner salad is complete without a boiled egg.
A bowl of boiled and peeled eggs. Some were too fresh so nicked the whites peeling them.
So as afternoon was rolling in it found me standing over the garbage in the kitchen looking out the window peeling boiled eggs. (I always make few extra). Rappy was out in the backyard and I was enjoying the feeling better stage after a week of being ill.
Red Tulip army stands with the Lemon Custard Tulip army.
I noticed how much more had bloomed and greened since the last time I felt well enough to assess the yard. The red tulips had come out and were flanking the yellow custard ones with the same number.
The perennials in the same bed are greening up nicely. Their winter trash getting cleared away. I wondered if Mike had done it this weekend, I bet he did. The purple tulips are just making a showing as the frilly jonquils are doing their finale. The lilac bush Mike had trimmed so harshly not only has leaves but is getting ready to bloom. The cat nip by the fence has grown in leaps and bounds.
perennials returnPurple Tulips make a showingJonquils taking their bowLilac buds to bloomCat mint on the fence
As I stood there watching the wildlife began its activities with no human clamoring around in the small space. Squirrels perched on the back fence running back and forth to keep an eye on Rappy as she romped in the grass. Soon they took a perch up on the peak of the back neighbor’s garage to survey when it was safe to make a run to the currently full bird feeder.
While they wearily watched Rappy a nuthatch landed in the lilac bush. They always make me laugh because they seem to look at the world upside down for most of the time. He’d dart out and land on the feeder to eat a few bite before the chittering of the squirrels made him dart back to the cover of the heart-shaped lilac leaves. It was so loud I could hear them through the glass of the windows. Greedy buggers didn’t want to share with the tiny nuthatch. But remember there’s always someone bigger than you keeping watch, in this case it was Rappy. The chittering would perk Rappy’s ears. She’d prance around looking for squirrels and they’d go silent hunkering down on the shingles of the neighbor’s roof. Then the nuthatch would dart out again to eat. Once Rappy settled down to watch out the gate the squirrels would scold the nuthatch, it would dart for cover and Rappy would prance about on patrol. Then rinse and repeat again.
Squirrel perch to watch RappyThe bird feeder from which the nuthatch got away with eating the “squirrel’s” food.
As this went on a large robin bopped into the scene. He wasn’t concerned with Rappy, squirrels in the balcony, or nuthatches nibbling birdseed. He was collecting the dried vines from last year’s morning glories. Then he was back to pull out the dried leaves from the perennials. He made several trips to our yard then up to our garage’s peak the off in a Northernly direction to return shortly and clean up my yard some more. So maybe Mike had some help with that.
This was just a moment peeling eggs and looking out the window. Yet it was just what I needed after a week of being in bed ill. The freshness of it all, the simple fun and quiet activity that goes on all the time unnoticed. I’m not up to a full day’s activity yet but it was good to see it go on.
Now excuse me I’ve a dinner salad to make now that the eggs have chilled. As always it’s good to hear from you. Until next time.
I found the photos I made back in the Christmas season at the Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center in Townsend,Tennessee. On an usually warm day during the holiday visit my mother-in-law (Donna) and I went over to Townsend to see the decorations in the cabins. Her garden club had done the decorating for a previous year and we were curious to see this year’s decorations. The men were golfing and this would feed my shutterbug. However I downloaded the photos onto my netbook and forgot about them. Until I found them yesterday.
Thus you are getting Christmas at Easter. I have to say much of this isn’t new to me growing up in the Appalachians. Honestly some of the things I’ve seen used or chatted with people that used them in their childhood. Several branches of my family has lived in the Appalachians since receiving land grants for their service in the American Revolution. Much of this speaks to my roots in the area and my genealogy research.
I remember my Granny Rolen (maternal great grandmother) showing me how she spun thread to weave on her loom. I’ve heard stories all my life of her large loom that was in the attic of “the old house.” That house burned, the loom with it I’d guess in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Every time I see a loom in an Smoky Mountain display I always think of the demos she did on how to spin and long to see her loom that burned.The outhouse. Yes I’ve used them. The church I attended growing up that’s all they had. It wasn’t unusal to see old outhouses going untended among outbuildings at farms when I was growing up. I remember my Nannie’s (maternal grandmother) neighbor kept up their outhouse and turned it into a shed where they kept their lawnmower. That’s always struck me as funny.I remember a story my Nannie telling that her mother challenged her to learn to harness a team to a carriage like Nannie’s friend could do. Intending to show her mother she could do it without her stinky ole brother showing her how she went out to hook up the team. Well they bolted, Nannie went to the house and left her brother to catch the team. “Served him right for not ever teaching me until Mama said I needed to know.”Once while visiting my Nannie I went to tour Forbidden Caverns with some cousins. When I got back telling her about all we saw – fish without eyes, neat rock formations, and an old still. To which she said “It was some of your kin that ran that still back in the day.” Truth be told if your roots go back to the depression era or later in the Appalachians the chances are your kin had something to do with bootlegging too. It was a way many families made ends meet in tough time. However be careful of my great-grandpa and his brothers they were revenuers and lawmen.I’ll just say I’m not sure why they have pine cones on the stove. Putting that decoration choice aside let’s look at the coffee pot. I’ve seen pots like that all my life. I even have one we use camping. Coffee from them is great and always has a distinctive taste, not like drip or even electrically percolated. Use it over an open fire and it’ll have a nice smoky note to the coffee.I know this isn’t the best picture but I wanted to share. I’ve never seen a tree this big in the Smokies. Back in the early to mid 1900s lumber was a commodity for the Smokies partly from the old growth forest giving large trees to make long run planks. All those are gone now but I found it amazing there were once trees that big in the forests I grew up knowing. I can’t imagine what my great grandparents saw with a forest that contained those trees.
Here’s a few beauty shots I make of the decorations and place. The stagecoach rules amused me. If you want to see more of the pictures from that day click on any of the photos here. That will take you over to my Flickr photo stream where you can surf about.
Hope you enjoyed this Christmas for Easter post. As I always say I love to hear from you here or any where – don’t be shy!
Let me first say I’d save all family members – skin covered or fur covered. Then at the top of my list is a little red composition book (that’s what I grew up calling wire bound notebooks) of which we must not speak. I have a treasure trove of family history items in my house but if I had to grab one thing it would be this dog-eared red notebook.
The Book of Aaronisms
I can’t share exactly what’s in it but I can tell you why it’s precious. In this notebook Mike and I recorded the things Aaron said growing up that made us laugh. We were that kind of parents. Mike was better at it than I but now we have snippets of childhood earnest conversations that made us giggle at the honesty and simple logic in his comments. We started the book when he was 4 and tapered off when he was about 10.
The Budding Philosopher
I’ve often said this will be my first New York Times best seller. Aaronisms. However I’ve agreed never to publicly share the contents until I have his consent. Right now it’s just to embarrassing for him to share. Even though I think some of them are the wisdom of a child that grown-ups need. No, I’ll wait. There will be a time when all will be revealed. Until then the book is on the second shelf of my office bookcase at the end near the door so I can quickly grab it in case of fire. Maybe I should move it to the safe deposit box.
Short post today. I’m feeling under the weather. Hopefully I’ll be back on my feet tomorrow.
Love to hear from ya! Feel free to find me here, on Twitter, on Google+, (I don’t go to Facebook any more just notices post there automatically), on Flickr, or e-mail me. I so appreciate all the likes and star reviews. They make my days a bit brighter.
Mary Louise Eklund 