Category Archives: Uncategorized

So Certain Man and his wife have been rather running on the smatterings of almost no energy since the departure of Marty and Diane Wenger yesterday morning.  We had had a wonderful July 4th picnic, but the older we get, the longer it takes to recuperate.  There was the usual work for Certain Man, and small mountains of laundry — sheets and towels and regular family laundry to do, as well as getting picnic things washed up and put away.  Yesterday was a day when there was almost NO REST for the weary. 

And today has been a busy day.  Romey, the neighbor boy was here, and Mama needed a prescription, and it was my regular day to go to her house to do bookwork.  I felt all day like I could hardly go another step, but there was always something else that kept me going.  And then, too, all day long I’ve been thinking in terms of Small Group.  Middle Daughter, home for the day, had picked up the living room, straightened the house and worked on the last few loads of laundry left over from yesterday.  Then this afternoon, I realized that my dryer was not behaving, so I got my stick of great length, put  a plastic drum liner down on the ground, and crawled part ways under the deck, and poked around in there for some great expenditure of energy that I didn’t have, trying to get it to shorten its four hour drying cycle into something more acceptable.  Then I got supper over early for a change, and made apple crisp and got the questions ready for the DVD — and nobody came and nobody came and nobody came.

“This is really strange,” I thought.  “I know that our group is often a little tardy in coming, but this is REALLY late, even for them!” 

Certain Man was out and about, fixing a water line in the chicken house, and finally, I decided to check the bulletin.

“Maybe,” I thought, “there was something in there about not having small group since there was a visiting speaker on Sunday, and the picnic on Monday.”  So I went back into my e-mails, and found Sunday’s bulletin, and lo!  And behold!  There WASN’T small group.  Nope.  There was PRAYER MEETING AT CHURCH!!!  In charge of Dave Hertzler.  At 7:00.  Oh, dear.  And it was now 7:30.  I went out and found Certain Man coming in, all confused as to why no one was here yet.

“I kept watching,” he said, “to see if anyone was here, but nobody came.  I couldn’t figure it out!  Finally decided that I better come in and find out what was going on!”

“There’s no small group!”  I told him, and filled in the details.

Talk about embarrassment!  We honestly don’t believe in just “missing” prayer meeting.  Middle Daughter thinks it’s the funniest thing of all time.  She has laughed and laughed at these two “old people.” 

“NOT FUNNY!!!” I tell her.

She is not convinced. 

And now I will tell you what I think.  I think maybe, just MAYBE I needed this quiet evening at home.  I am sorry I missed going to church but maybe that is better than going and sleeping through the service.

Sweet dreams, dear friends.  I’m going to try to make up for some of the sleep I lost.

I had a comment from @earthmechanic wondering if I hadn’t gotten my Aunt Orpha and My Sweet Mama mixed around when I labeled this picture in my Reunion post.  Lo, and behold!  I HAD!!!  So, just in case some of you were thoroughly confused, and others of you too polite to tell me and (and probably others of you that never even noticed) — HERE is the corrected list with the same picture — and I still think it is the rightest of right pictures.  I fiercely love these eight people — especially the one all the way to the end on the right in the front row, but every single one of the others, for sure.

My Sweet Mama’s siblings are all still living.
In fact, the only one missing from even the spouses is my Daddy.
In the back, from left to right:
Aunt Gladys (Married to Jesse Yoder) Dover, DE
Aunt Alma Jean (Married to Harvey Yoder) Harrisonburg, VA
Aunt Freda (Married to Vernon Zehr) Greenwood, DE
Aunt Ruth Ann (Married to Allan Shirk) Lancaster, PA
Front Row, Same direction:
Uncle Lloyd (Married to Beverly Shriner) Gap, PA
Uncle Harold (Married to Mary Hepner) Lititz, PA
Aunt Orpha (Married to Lloyd Gingrich) Richfield, PA
My Sweet Mama (Married to the late Mark Yoder, Sr.) Greenwood, DE

(Thank you, Merle.  I sincerely appreciate it!)

Annual 4th of July picnic at Shady Acres.

Thursday, Certain Man gave me an incredible gift.

It all started when I saw in an e-mail to our family google group that I was going to drive Mama, Aunt Freda and Uncle Vernon, Aunt Gladys and Uncle Jesse up to a Lauver (my maternal grandmother’s family) Reunion that was being held on June 30th at Landis Homes in Lititz, PA.  I had told Mama that I was planning to go and take her, but I hadn’t been pre-informed about the passengers.  I decided that it would be just fine, though.  I am not particularly fond of driving,  but I CAN do it, and have had reasonable experience with short day trip kinds of things.  The thought of being with those five wonderful people was especially inviting, so the plans were made.

Now Uncle Vernon has some good days and some bad days.  He is battling an especially unpredictable liver disease, and the last few weeks have been a bit more challenging, so he decided that he would just stay home.  I really hated that he wasn’t going.  He is an encourager by gifting and a kind and thoughtful man.  We would have been blessed to have him along, but of course, we understood.

But that left an empty seat in the mini van, and it suddenly dawned on my fur brain that maybe — just maybe — Certain Man could be prevailed upon to drive this motley crew.  He has a few vacation days rattling around, and he guards them zealously, but he happens to like my relatives pretty well, and he likes to drive, so MAYBE?!?!?!?!?!? 

He said that he could!!!!!!!!!! Glory Hallelujah!!!!!!!!

Family reunions are wonderful things, and spirits were high as we started off.

Certain Man and Uncle Jesse in the front.  (MAN power!)   Sweet Mama and Aunt Gladys in the middle two seats
(SISTER power!)

And Aunt Freda occupied the seat beside me:

The back seat was just plain POWER!
(We could “boss” from back there!)

Here are my favorite pictures from the day:

My Sweet Mama is the “secret-est tellin’ woman” and she dearly loves her older brother, Harold Wert.
I don’t know who they were discussing, but I think it had something to do with a “couple they weren’t quite sure who they were” business.

My Aunt Mary (Uncle Harold’s wife) is suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia or some other tragic disease.
She and my Sweet Mama were always best friends, and the disease hasn’t taken that away.
Yet.
I am so thankful to God for good memories.
These two have some memories together that are really great!

Glen and Emma (Bender) Myers.
Emma (Mama’s cousin) helped out at our house when I was a toddler and my little brother, Mark, jr., was born.
I remember their wedding day.  And that was 50 years ago this summer.
For those of you who may wonder how this family is part of my mother’s family —
My Grandmother Wert, Alma Lauver, was a sister to Esther (Lauver) Bender,
who married my Grandmother (Savilla Bender) Yoder’s brother, Nevin.
(This is one family that showed up at the reunions on my mother’s side and on my father’s side.)

Mary Lou (Lauver) Blank, cousin to Mama and her siblings, suffers from Parkinsons, but has a sweet, gentle and joyful spirit.

My Uncle Jesse, with Mama’s cousin, Paul Bender, and his wife Ginny and one of their sisters in law

Nevin James Bender and his brother, Paul, sit together, watching the all the people.

Another brother of Paul and Nevin James, this is Don Bender talking to my uncle, Harvey Yoder,
who is married to my mother’s sister, Alma Jean.
I heard the comment on Thursday that Don looks like his father, Uncle Nevin Bender.
(What do those of you who knew Uncle Nevin think?)

This is my Uncle, Allan Shirk, with his grandson, Ethan.

This is a cousin of mine that I honestly hardly know.
She is Uncle Allan and Aunt Ruth’ Ann’s daughter, Melissa,
talking with Uncle Jesse.
She is also Ethan’s mama.  She and her husband recently moved from Indiana to Pennsylvania,
seeking greater opportunities for their only child, Ethan who is autistic.
And the whole family is pleased with the progress that he is making. 

Uncle Allen talks with Certain Man as they both take a much deserved break.

My cousin, Barb Gingrich, looks over the shoulder of her mother, my Aunt Orpha (Gingrich),
who is looking at a photo album with my Aunt Mary. 
The gal in the white blouse is my cousin Jeanne Witmer, whose husband died of cancer 16 months ago.
Next to her is my aunt, Freda Zehr.

My Sweet Mama’s siblings are all still living.
In fact, the only one missing from even the spouses is my Daddy.
In the back, from left to right:
Aunt Gladys (Married to Jesse Yoder) Dover, DE
Aunt Alma Jean (Married to Harvey Yoder) Harrisonburg, VA
Aunt Freda (Married to Vernon Zehr) Greenwood, DE
Aunt Ruth Ann (Married to Allan Shirk) Lancaster, PA
Front Row, Same direction:
Uncle Lloyd (Married to Beverly Shriner) Gap, PA
Uncle Harold (Married to Mary Hepner) Lititz, PA
Aunt Orpha (Married to Lloyd Gingerich) Richfield, PA
My Sweet Mama (Married to the late Mark Yoder, Sr.) Greenwood, DE

It was truly a great time together, and well worth our time to go.

On the way home, after dropping off Uncle Jesse and Aunt Gladys in Dover, our trusty mini-van developed some problems.  Certain Man couldn’t get it to shift into third gear.  We had just been talking about it on the way up to the reunion — how much we liked it, how the transmission had been replaced some time ago, and how it had almost 250,000 miles on it.  And, how thankful we have been for this trusty servant. Certain Man towed it into the transmission shop this afternoon, and we shall see what is wrong and how much it will take to fix it.

1½ Cup Sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1½ cup hot water

3 egg yolks, slightly beaten

3 Tablespoons butter

¼ cup lemon juice (I ALWAYS use fresh)

4 teaspoons (1 1/3 Tablespoon) fresh grated lemon rind

3 egg whites

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

6 Tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

Mix sugar, cornstarch and water in saucepan.  Stir and boil for one (1) minute.  Beat 1/3 hot mixture into egg yolks.  Add to saucepan mixture.  Boil one (1) minute longer, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and blend in butter, lemon juice and lemon rind.  Pour into baked 9 inch pie shell.  Beat egg whites until peaks form.  Sprinkle in cream of tartar and sugar and beat well, then add vanilla, beating again.  Spread on pie, being sure to seal edges and bake at 350º until golden brown.  (ten to fifteen minutes, probably, but keep close check on it.

. . . Just because some of you asked!

One more thing — those of you who asked about ordering something from Uppercase Living web site and it counting as credit to my party —

Just go here:   http://joykrupka.UppercaseLiving.net

Do your shopping, and you can pay on line and have it shipped to your house — and at the end, they will ask you if you want to have your purchase associated with a party, and at that time, you can put in my name.  It will ship directly to you.  If you have questions, you can contact me.  That’s it!

What is really, really fun
is baking pies for my party tonight.

I do love me some Lemon Meringue Pie.

So I dug out the Greenwood Mennonite Community Cookbook
(Red Edition)
And looked up a recipe
(that I had put in there a l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-g time ago . . .)

Mrs. Handy’s Lemon Meringue Pie.

Got busy, and they came together wonderfully!

Mrs. Handy sure knew how to make Lemon pies.
She was the Home Ec teacher at Woodbridge High School.
I actually got the recipe from my sister, Sarah Yoder Slaubaugh
(who got it from Mrs. Handy.).

First you gotta’ get those crusts just right!

Then you gotta’ cook that filling just right!
(And fill them thar’ pie crusts!)

 Then you gotta’ beat those egg whites just right!

And add the cream of tartar and sugar.

And beat it some more until it is just right!

Then you put the meringue on the top and spread it around.
If you are Beebs, you do it like this. ↑

(Buckeyegirlie did two of them another way)
And then you bake them again until the tops are golden brown.

And there are the pies, all done. 
Waiting for the party tonight.
And I’ve got a bunch of straightening to do.
So I am outta’ here!

Take heed to this sign.

On my way to my personal 1,000 Gifts . . .

Tuesday, June 28, 2011–

#603.  A bouquet of flowers,
all picked from bushes and shrubs
that Certain Man has planted at Shady Acres.

I enjoy using the “doorposts” and the walls of our home to speak to the lives of our family and friends.
Come to see how you can do the same!
There is going to be an “Uppercase Living” party at our house tomorrow night
(Tuesday, June 28, 2011)
at 7pm.
Anyone is welcome, but it would be helpful to know if YOU are coming. 

We have a “room of doors” that is our entryway. Four full size doors in a little tiny “room.” One goes to the garage, one goes to the back deck, one goes to the basement, and one comes into the living areas of the house. I was so pleased when I could put this Uppercase Living “Welcome” sign on the door that comes into the house. It makes it easier for people to know where to go when they are unfamiliar with the house.

We have this above the opening into our sun room.
It is one of my all time favorites.

Uppercase Living has this sort of thing, but they do astonishing things with photographs and such, too. If you want to check out more,
You can go to my demonstrator’s website and look and even order here:

http://joykrupka.UppercaseLiving.net

LET THE FESTIVITIES BEGIN!

2011 RALPH YUTZY FAMILY REUNION

@

SHADY ACRES

More to come!

When you are in the “business” that I am in — providing care for handicapped adults, one of the things that is of utmost importance is being very, very careful with medication.  I handle meds for seizures, schizophrenia, depression, allergies, angina, high blood pressure, anemia, osteoporosis, constipation, stomach acid, asthma, pain, fluid retention, and then over the counter meds such as aspirin, cranberry extract, daily vitamins, etc..

As you can well imagine, due to the fact that I am not as young as I once was, and due to the constraints of time and scheduling, I have to have a plan.  Or else I get mixed up.  One of my rules is that I never, never, NEVER give medication to two different people at the same time.  It is too easy to give the wrong person the medication that has been pulled for another.

And in addition to that, I try to never take my daily vitamins and prescription meds at the same time that I am getting my ladies theirs.

This has worked quite well for a long time.  Not that I never make errors.  I do.  I am human, and flawed.  But it is and always has been my intent to have as few errors as I possibly can.  One of the things I do is take my own medications as soon as I get up.

Yesterday was a very backwards day.  Wednesday is the day that I take my Mama to appointments if we can possibly get things scheduled, pay bills, organize her medications, and whatever else might need doing.  So yesterday, we were scheduled for a dentist appointment in Dover.  I got up and got the morning started, and began a glass of airborne — that I always use to take my morning medications.  But then it was time to get Cecilia up, and so I went about other morning things without taking my pills.  Certain Man came down from his shower and was getting something to drink, and I saw the airborne there and decided to just go ahead and drink it and never even thought to take my pills.  Certain Man left for work, I got breakfast around for my ladies, and started to get Cecilia’s morning pills out.  Then the phone rang, and it was Certain Man, needing to discuss some church business, and wondering what I had to say about the coming weekend.  I remembered then that I hadn’t taken my morning pills, and so decided that I would take mine while I was talking to Certain Man.  I got a glass of water, took the pills from the container that was sitting on the cupboard and swallowed them down.  I finished the conversation with Certain Man, hung up the phone, then went to get Cecilia’s Wednesday morning meds.  They were gone. 

Now I am very slow of heart to understand, and I was puzzled as to where they all were, so I began a search to see if I had set them down somewhere.  I looked and looked and looked, but could find absolutely NOTHING.  Suddenly, almost a heart stopping moment, I began to wonder if maybe — just Maybe I had given them to Nettie.  But Nettie is very, very observant and she knows if she has the wrong pills.  And she won’t take them if they aren’t hers.  Then I noticed that the Wednesday morning container on my medication planner was still full — and in that terrible moment, I realized that I had taken Cecilia’s morning meds.

I cannot begin to tell you what went though my head at that point.  Cecilia is on 1,000 mg of strong seizure meds twice a day.  She takes another seizure med that’s 100 milligrams twice a day, too.  As well as seven other pills with her morning meds.  They started her on both seizure meds on very low, low doses and kept upping it as they felt it was safe.  I kept thinking that I had dumped all that medication into my unsuspecting, unacclimated system, and I couldn’t help wondering what in the world the consequences were going to be.

It was not yet eight o’clock, so I could call neither pharmacist or doctor, so I flew to the trusty “google spot” and discovered that I was probably not going to suffer any lasting effects.  I discovered that I may experience dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, and many, many other things, and that there was “no antidote.”  Groan.  

Eventually, I got ahold of the pharmacist who reassured me that I wasn’t going to die.  He also said, “You may not even suffer any adverse effects.  You might not even be able to tell you took it.”

Yeah, right! 

I said, “I was going to drive my mother to Dover today for an appointment.”

He said, “Well, I don’t know as to whether I’d advise THAT.  You should probably stay home today and take it easy.”

So I called Eldest Daughter, who had been considering going along anyhow, and she said that she would be glad to go along.  And DRIVE!  What a blessing that proved to be.

For you see, I really was pretty much out of it for most of the day.  I couldn’t walk a straight line to save my neck.  Maybe five or six steps, but then it was weave city.  Certain Man and Middle Daughter were so amused.  I did go to Dover, but I didn’t get much accomplished.  And when I came home, I got on my chair and pretty much stayed right there.  I managed to get a simple supper together for my ladies, but I didn’t even consider going to prayer meeting.

Today, I’m a whole lot better.  I can walk straight, and I can make intelligent conversation.  But I am so incredibly tired.  All I want to do is sit on my chair, sip iced tea and sleep.  Which isn’t good at all.  I have a women’s tea to speak at tomorrow night, a state inspection next Wednesday, and there is a Ralph Yutzy Family Reunion here next weekend.  This gal has things to do!

But if taking it easy is what is best for me, then I guess I should give it a few more hours at least. 

At least I don’t think I need to worry about getting a seizure.

If you need anything, I’ll be on my chair . . .