Summer is going by at a nice slow rate.

Wait until August - it will fly by, which I hate.

I had Bible Study this morning which means we meet for coffee and conversation and discuss bible verses that seem to be on whatever subject we may be talking about.  Ex.  One of the ladies said she knew an older person who thought he was too old to become a Christian.  She wanted to know what bible verse would be apropos.  Can any of you think of a verse?   Someone suggested Godquestions.com. 

It is a beautiful day today and was also yesterday.  I'd score it a 10.   As I pulled up to church there were a lot of children and young adults outside on the playground.  Vacation Bible School is this week.  There were quite a few children there. 

Leslie, whom I've mentioned several times, (but I will mention her again) is now 98 years old, a former minister's wife. She's a  Bible Study friend.   She had brought in a special book.  She's been a widow for 20 years.  Actually there were two books - one was titled "The Child".  There was a picture on each page, across from a couple of sentences that had been written.  Then under these words, in red ink, her husband, Earl, had written his own comments, in poetry form. 

SO - and this is where I have gotten confused - either Leslie or one of her children, had made up a new book using Earl's poems and family photographs of grandchildren. I think her children did it for her.   So each picture had a caption of its own, in her husband's handwriting in red ink.  She said she looks at it a lot.  I can imagine.

  Paul got a similar book from his children for his 80th birthday party.  The kids put out papers and pens for people to write out things they remembered about him.  Paul says he's looked at this at least 10 times and read it from cover to cover.  It sits by his recliner. 

My apologies to Michael, Lue's son.  Mike was here last week for a tractor pull.  He lives in Connecticut, not New Jersey.  I had been told that TWICE by my husband, but it went in one ear and out the other.  Some one of these days I'll get it right.   Paul is usually nearby so he can answer questions I have.  This time he was not.

Paul's been mowing a lot.  He was mowing the lawn today.  It  needs mowing every 5 days!

  I love July.  It means summer is still new.  When August appears, the summer flies by.  As I look out the window, the shadows from the trees, on the grass are absolutely beautiful.  I also like the July skies.

I can't get used to the school calendars of states other than NYS.  We follow the July-August summer months and throughout my teaching life, that was summer.  California goes from June-July.  Florida is similar, as is Georgia.  Those are the three states in which I have relatives.  I don't know why they do that.  Is it the heat?  Does someone know?  Pennsylvania has a longer vacation period because they don't have as many holidays during the school year.  Is that true? 

This afternoon, after we had our weekly Thursday lunch with Lue and  her sister, Sharon, we went to Corning to see something special:  Paul's grandson's handiwork.

 Each Thursday, there is a Farmers' Market  downtown Corning along a walkway in a beautiful park-like area.  He has a stall of his own showing his handmade wooden items.  We were very impressed by his obvious talent. We've always been.  (He takes after his father and his grandfather.)  Several customers came as we were there.  Some were there asking questions, seeing if he'd take orders.  He has business cards made up that he gave out.  He's quite the young business man and he has a wonderful work eth

When he's not outside mowing the lawn, Paul is downstairs in the cellar working on making that space all live-able.  He's working on the stairway right now, trying to decide what he wants to do, but he's very happy just even thinking about it and putting it in his mind and then doing something about it or not.  Does that make sense.  In other words - he's happy planning or doing it. 

I am getting such a kick out of pictures Nancy puts on Facebook of my grandchildren.  Especially Walter, the 2.5 year old.  When visiting their other grandparents in St. Louis, they went for ice cream, and took a family picture.  Nancy is sitting on the end by Walter and "quietly"  pointing at his outfit that is covered with ice cream.  It is adorable.  Can't wait to see him and the others in August.  We'll  make sure to go for ice cream when they come.

Now that Samantha is becoming more fluent in English and understands it better, she is more likely to stick around and talk, or listen, when we are skyping.  Bill said she was very interested in his father, when they skyped last Sunday because he and Bill look so much alike.  She must have been cute.  I got a birthday package out for her yesterday.  Her birthday is in August, as is Bill's, and her mother Flor's.  That makes it easy.   Samantha is the same age as Evie, within a month. Evie being older.

That's about all the news from here.  Paul is on another run to Lowe's.  He goes just about every other day for one thing or another.  One of the salespeople  knows Gracie by name.  She's there so often.