Saturday, January 15, 2011

Life in My World – Food and Friends


Laurel, Sheila, Grace, me, Julie

1.  Steve and Julie Phipps were Ty’s first host parents when he went to the Air Force Academy.  When they went to Norway on assignment they asked the Greens to take care of him.  Julie reminds me of a Swiss pocket knife – she can do anything.  She’s fearless and talented.  And, to say she loves Polish pottery does not give you an accurate picture.  To say she drove to Poland and picked up 36 boxes of it does.  Julie and her friend, Laurel, flew to Seattle to pick up the Phipps’ car and came through on their way back home to Colorado Springs.  We met at the Bistro for lunch. 


Grace


2.  The new recipe Grace and I tried this week was Guy’s pretzels from The Food Network Magazine.  I’ve made worse pretzels.  These were not stellar; albeit they were fun to make.  Trevor said his tasted good so we’ll have to call him and find out what the difference is.


Daisy

Chelsea, Laska, Jamie, Daisy

3. We invited friends over to make cards. Grace organized it and had everyone bring an idea and supplies to make a card. We spent the afternoon making hello, thinking of you, valentine, birthday, and thank you cards. They’re cute. Really cute, and it was fun spending time together.

4. A good, albeit temporarily camera-shy friend, stopped by to visit and for lunch on Friday. I made a chicken taco soup in the crockpot before I left for work and when we both got here it was warm and ready. I like crockpots. I like taco soup. I especially like it with a friend.





5.   A group of our scrapbooking friends met to scrapbook for the day today.  Though the idea of scrapbooking with these friends was very tempting, it was more alluring not to have to pack up shop and just keep scrapbooking here at home.  (Grace and I moved our scrapbooking projects out into the family room a few weeks ago.)  I stopped by to tell everyone hello and drop off these little bags of Scrapper Jacks.  Every retreat we give caramel popcorn with a doo-dad as a prize down in the bottom; it only seemed right they have some for today.     


Shelly, Dan, Carol, Marlo
 
 6.  With plenty of taco soup leftover from Friday's lunch and a fresh pot of clam chowder, we invited friends over for a soup, salad, and sundae supper.  We like soup.  We especially like it with friends.  We had a great time and even got Ken to play a homemade version of “What’s Yours Like?” (All but one person in the group is shown a word – like showerhead, or ego, or favorite magazine.  The person who did not see the word asks each member of the group, “What is yours like?”  And everyone gives a one word adjective describing what their showerhead, or ego, or favorite magazine is like.  The person who was not shown the word has to guess from the clues what it is.  The object is to guess the word in as few clues as possible.)  Dan won.  Hands down.  Elliott's ego gave it away. 
 

Tom and Gail, "Yours is like WHAT?!"





Calvin added dried cranberries and sunflower seeds to the bread

7.  Calvin made a loaf of bread for a friend who wanted some.  Calvin's made a lot of things to give friends through the years:  an African wambat bag, possibles bags, scrimshawed powder horns, hand-crafted knives, bows, and guns, but never something so domestic as a loaf of bread. 

Truly this was a great week of food and friends . . . and food friends:

“There are three types of friends:  those like food, without which you can’t live; those like medicine, which are occasionally good for you; and those like an illness, which are never good for you.”

And that is life in our world this week.

6 comments:

Jill said...

Wow, you're overflowing with good friends and activities! What a blessing!

Unknown said...

What a week you've had, Jane! You are such a blessing for many, many people to call friend.

Deanna/Mimi said...

And what a wonderful world you have created for your family and friends. You make the simple things of life fun and memorable. You are most creative, thoughtful and caring. You are certainly fulfilling your mission here on earth with gusto, laughter, comfort, generousity, and all the time being the same sweet, loving and charming woman you are. You are loved!

michelle said...

I love seeing all the things you have going on! You are much more social than I, what a very good thing.

I love crock pots and soup, too. Now I want to try taco soup.

Derek-Jenny-Kaitlynd-Ethan-Dylan said...

I do love to have friends over for dinner. It is so relaxed. Much better than going out to eat, where you feel rushed.

Please give Grace a BIG hug from me! We have been thinking about her.

Samantha said...

I'm behind on blog reading, and I've loved catching up on yours. I think I'm going to be thinking about your record keeping post for a while. Record the memories that are important to you, that you want to remember. That's such great advice. But I had to comment on this particular post because I LOVE all of those people in your pictures. Tom & Gail, the Merrells, the Nelsons. They are all like family to me and I love seeing pictures of them.