Celebrations – Valerie's Voice

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

I’m not Irish but I do like the color green and I do like tales of St. Patrick – I read he used the shamrock to explain the trinity to others.

We have traveled to Ireland, the emerald isle. It is charming and picturesque, and green.

So, for those silly reasons, I decided to have a little St. Patrick’s Day celebration.

The seasoned brisket on top of the vegetables.

For the first time, I made corned beef and cabbage. I found a crockpot recipe that had good reviews. It called for red potatoes, carrots, onion, cabbage and corned beef, which my husband purchased at a store in the cities.

The cabbage is added to cook for the last hour.

I followed the recipe carefully – 8 hours in the crockpot, before our planned dinner time.

The crockpot on the counter, cooking the corned beef meal.

While waiting for our dinner to cook, I set the table, looking around the house for green items to use for decoration. I had bought some fun napkins for the occasion.

Green tablecloth, candles and themed napkins.

Also, I found a BINGO game online, using the Irish theme. Gary helped me make up several “boards” and we went out to find some prizes which I wrapped in green tissue, of course.

As dinner time grew closer, I put soda bread (another first for me) into the oven. When it was done, we were ready to eat. The corned beef and cabbage turned out, and were very tender and very tasty. The soda bread was a little doughy. But overall, we deemed the meal a great success, all the while Irish music was playing in the background. Delicious lemon bars were brought for dessert.

We had a fun time celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.

A traditional Irish Blessing for all...

May the sun shine warm upon your face. And rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

New Digs

My “Van”-na White pose with the moving van.

Last Friday morning the moving van arrived in the driveway of our old house. The four movers packed up all our heavy furniture and moved it a mile south to our new house. It took about six hours. We set up the beds and slept in our new place for the first time Friday night, and slept well. It was an exhausting day.

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise Saturday morning, over the field and bluff out our back windows.

And saw the beautiful sunset that evening.

We’ve been unpacking for almost a week and we’re making progress.

We’re celebrating the next chapter in our lives.

March Celebrations

Our family has many reasons to celebrate lately.

Our fifth grandchild, Mila Hope, was born on March 19. A sweet, healthy baby girl.

I celebrated my 71^st birthday on March 20^th.

Gary and I are celebrating our 46^th wedding anniversary today, March 25.

Our two grandsons celebrated their birthdays this month.

And, we celebrate Easter early this year…March 31.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow….

An Anniversary Haiku

We're celebrating 
Forty-four years of marriage.
What an adventure!

North Morristown’s Oldest Ongoing Fourth of July Celebration

We celebrated our Fourth of July holiday at the oldest ongoing celebration in Minnesota. For 126 years North Morristown has put on a fun, old-fashioned 4^th of July get-together and hundreds, if not thousands, find their way to this small town (if you can call it a town- it has a Lutheran church with attached school and two or three houses) out in the country, close to nowhere.

Interesting, but a little threatening, cloud formations.

However, on our way there, we were threatened by storm clouds that were pretty ominous looking, and yet so artistic. Soon the skies burst open and down came the rain, hard! We passed many cars heading away from North Morristown as we continued to drive into the area, now full of mud. We quickly decided to go elsewhere for our late lunch.

After eating, the skies settled down and we had heard at the restaurant they had put wood chips down to help with the muddy paths on the grounds at North Morristown. So we decided to head back there.

In the “band shell”, Monroe Crossing: a banjo, a mandolin, a fiddle, a guitar and a bass.

We are so glad we did. Monroe Crossing, a talented bluegrass band, was playing under a shelter, and we sat on bleacher-style wooden boards under the trees and listened to an hour-long concert. It was wonderful.

After the concert we walked around the grounds, being careful where we stepped, to look at the old-fashioned children’s rides and games, the bingo hall, the hamburger stand, the beer garden, the pork stand, the pie and ice cream stands and picnic tables strewn about. We tasted some pie and ice cream.

This brought back memories for me. I always liked this fishing game. You attach your ticket to the clothespin at the end of the fishing line and then throw it over the wall. The person on the other side would replace the ticket with your prize. (I asked permission to take this little boy’s picture…he was so excited for his prize.)

Cars were getting stuck in the fields where they parked because all the rain turned the fields to mud. Tractors were recruited to help pull some cars out. Fortunately we found parking on the church’s paved lot….no mud.

One of the muddy parking areas with tractor standing by to help get out.

The air was festive and it was fun to be at the oldest ongoing Fourth of July gathering to celebrate our nation’s “birthday.”

Summer Solstice

It was my turn to host my book club this month and even though we met a week earlier than the summer solstice (today, June 21) I decided on a summer solstice theme to celebrate the day of the year with the most hours of daylight…something I’ve wanted to throw a party for, for a long time…so I took advantage of my captive audience!

The focus was light, of course, and I used a white lace tablecloth with a center white candle, clear glasses and white plates. I turned on the lights wrapped in the deck fence, and gathered lots of votive candles in clear glass to set around.

The weather was in our favor as it was a beautiful, Minnesota summer evening. We were able to sit on the deck until after dark, and then the mosquitoes joined the party.

I served a dessert with a fruit of summer – strawberries – and for a short time we stopped our discussion and read through “A Summer Prayer” from the book The Circle of Life by Joyce Rupp & Macrrina Wiederkehr. After each section we lit a candle and I placed the candles around the deck. It looked so festive and pretty especially as it got darker. (Celebrating the longest day of the year makes it hard to light up the dark with candles at 7 p.m.!)

Here are excerpts from the prayer:

“May the God of summer give us beauty.”

“May the God of summer give us rest.”

“May the God of summer give us joy.”

“May the God of summer give us inner light.”

“May the God of summer give us what we need for healing.”

“May the God of summer give us a sense of satisfaction in the work of our hands.”

“May the God of summer give us shelter when inner storms threaten our peace of mind and heart.”

“May the God of summer lead us to amazing discoveries as we travel the inner roads of our soul (as well.)”

Thank you fellow book clubbers for indulging me in my first summer solstice party…not to be the last!

Birthday Celebrations

My birthday is in March. I met a friend for dinner last night. We usually walk, but the wind was so strong we decided to have dinner instead and she surprised me with birthday blessings. It was special and we had fun. When I threw a birthday party for myself a few years ago I handed out this quote by Henry J. M. Nouwen:

Celebrating Being Alive

“Birthdays are so important. On our birthdays we celebrate being alive. On our birthdays people can say to us, “Thank you for being!” Birthday presents are signs of our families’ and friends’ joy that we are part of their lives. Little children often look forward to their birthdays for months. Their birthdays are their big days, when they are the center of attention and all their friends come to celebrate.

We should never forget our birthdays or the birthdays of those who are close to us. Birthdays keep us childlike. They remind us that what is important is not what we do or accomplish, not what we have or who we know, but that we are, here and now. On birthdays let us be grateful for the gift of life.”