A Little Bit Of Quilting

I recently returned from a ten day visit with my parents. My mom loves to quilt, she will be eighty-one next month, and she discovered the joys of quilting about six years ago and is so creative and such a perfectionist everything she makes is beautifully done. Mom's sewing room is a quilters paradise, and she has a STASH of fabric that is amazing. 

Me with my precious, precious Mom (Mumpy)

Whenever I visit I always come home with something from the sewing room as I share my mom's love of quilting and knitting. This visit I came home with seven 6.5" crazy quilt blocks each with a lion, panther, or tiger as a centerpiece. 

I laid the blocks out on the table in my sewing room and played around with the placement. I then went through my rather pathetic stash of fabric to see what would work with the blocks, I had a few colors that I thought would work well. Throughout the week I looked at the blocks and played around with ideas. Yesterday I felt inspired and took a trip to Joann Fabrics, I selected fabrics for a quilt I have always wanted to make, and found some fat quarters in complimentary colors for the big cat crazy quilt blocks.

I still only had a vague idea of what I was going to do with the blocks, first I had to make two more crazy blocks. Once the two additional blocks were made I played around with colors to decide how to border them, I really liked the dark turquoise blue but only had a little of it left, it was just enough to sash the blocks together, but not enough to do the outer border. I put the dark turquoise on the blocks and joined them together. I then could not decide what color to border them with, and then in a moment of inspiration decided to use all of the left over colors to make a "postage stamp" border. I am so pleased with how bright and cheerful this little quilt project turned out.

And no post would be complete without a grandchild update: Grandson Masen was five years old on July 11, here he is waiting patiently for his mom to light the candles on his cake so the singing of Happy Birthday can commence. 

Birthday Fun

This past Sunday was our daughter Emily's 27th birthday, she is our youngest child, and it is hard to believe she turned 27! 

Happy Birthday Emily

When Emily turned 16 she asked for a chocolate chip cheesecake for her birthday cake, picture here. On and off over the years she has made the same request and this year was no different. On Saturday afternoon I made the chocolate chip cheesecake from a recipe given to me eleven years ago by a former neighbor. Emily asked that I make a kid friendly cake for the grandchildren, so I asked the kids if they wanted birthday cup cakes or dirt pudding. They all wanted dirt pudding, no surprise there, LOL.


















I asked Emily what she would like to eat for her birthday dinner, she opted for grilled salmon with blue cheese. For sides I made boiled red potatoes served with butter and parsley, and fresh green beans cooked with mushrooms, garlic, and vidalia onion in a little olive oil. There were hamburgers and Nathan's hot dogs (a favorite of the grandchildren) for those who did not want salmon. 

Earlier in the day everyone went to the zoo. This past Sunday was the first day the zoo was open for 2020 due to the pandemic, you had to be a member and you had to sign up for a time slot to go so that proper social distancing could be observed. The weather was amazing, super sunny and temperatures in the low 70's. Because of the social distancing rules a number of exhibits were put away but nothing that really deterred from the zoo experience. I went to the zoo with our daughter Amber and her boys at noon, our other children all had different time slots. Everyone enjoyed the zoo and then a nice birthday celebration dinner in the evening. It was all in all a perfectly wonderful day.

Garden Bounty - Sure Wish We Had Planted More Veggies - and Thoughts on Self-Sufficiency

Enjoying the bounty of our garden and it is wonderful. The tomatoes are ripening nicely, each day I pick more, I may well end up canning some as the plants are loaded with fruit. The cucumber and zucchini plants, one of each, are keeping me well supplied. And the pepper plants just give and give and give, I love peppers, so the bounty is appreciated.
















I have a crock of cucumbers on the kitchen counter, they are well on their way to being dill pickles. I made a brine, then added a few garlic cloves and some fresh dill, popped in the cucumbers and covered the crock with a piece of cheese cloth and now they are left to ferment for one week. On Saturday I will move the pickles into a couple of jars along with some brine and then store in the refrigerator. Refrigeration halts the fermentation process. Fingers crossed they turn out nicely and have remained crisp. My next batch of pickles will be sweet, but I will probably use zucchini instead of cucumber, a nice sweet pickle is a fabulous addition to any sandwich, or so my taste buds think.

My only regret, I wish we had planted more. We haven't really done a garden properly for several years, this year we did it right but on a very small scale. I have kept up on the weeding, watered when needed, and generally tended my plants. It was much less daunting having only a small garden, but I know next year I will add kale, onions, rutabaga, radishes, and do more than one each of cucumber and zucchini.   But, I still want to keep it small scale. Gone are the days of planting fifty tomato plants, lots of potatoes, a large patch of corn, rows and rows of green beans and peas, and anything else I could fit in. I can't believe I used to keep up all the weeding on three huge gardens, and canned, froze, or stored all of the garden bounty. I would have a hundred plus pints of green beans canned, eighty plus quarts of tomatoes canned, corn, some canned, some frozen, peas always frozen. Potatoes and onions and other root veggies stored in mesh sacks in the basement. And with our four children home it all got eaten. Then I would can jars of grape jelly and make strawberry jam using our grapes and strawberries. And lots of applesauce from the fruit of our apple trees. One year I made some fabulous brandied pears. It was a satisfying way to live, but a lot of work.

I feel pulled back to my old ways, I am back to baking all of our bread, and although vegan, I miss having laying hens, and sometimes feel tempted to have another flock. But the cruelty of the hatcheries is beyond belief, and the poor little chicks are a day old and sent out in the mail, it is all rather horrendous. My motives are different now, I am trying to create less waste, so baking our own bread avoids bringing plastic bread packaging into the house. Baking cookies and other goodies for the grand children and family also avoids bringing packaging into the house. I was able to purchase thirty pounds of blueberries at a very good price, and they came in cardboard packaging, win win for me. I froze half of them for eating, and the other half Dave is going to use to make blueberry wine.  I like doing things myself, so does my husband, so a certain level of self-sufficiency is satisfying.

But in regards to self-sufficiency, it is a nice dream, but it is not really doable. Sure I can bake my own bread, but I don't grow and mill the grain for the flour, I don't know how to make yeast, I have to buy sugar and other dry goods. I can't make my own canning jars and lids for them, there are always things that we use that we cannot supply for ourselves, and I am okay with that, it is the way the world works. I think the main goal of those who desire self-sufficiency is to do for one's self as much as possible and to be good stewards of the earth and the resources provided to us. Some want isolation and separation from society as a primary reason. I would say my husband and I are quiet people, we keep ourselves to ourselves and the friends we hang with are our adult children and their partners and our fabulous grandchildren, that is our circle, and we love it.

The other benefits we reap from our way of living are enjoyment, feeling in touch with the seasons,  with nature and with the cycle of life. We find it brings great satisfaction to our mind, body, and spirit.

On another topic, today is a Triple Birthday in our family, my husband is 61, our son Ben is 28, and our grandson Peter is 5 - how cool that three generations in our family share a birthday. Tonight Dave and I will celebrate alone, and on Saturday we are having a family party, as on the 10th our daughter-in-law Taylor is 26, she is Ben's wife, and our son-in-law Brad, Amber's husband, is 34 on the 14th.  August is a crazy birthday month, our oldest grandson Henry will be 11 on the 26th, and my mom will be 80 on the 27th.  Our newest grandson, is due to arrive on September 7, but if he comes early he too could add to the August craziness!

Easy Going Saturday

Finally some warmer weather, still below normal, but much improved from single digits. Heavy rain and strong winds moved in this afternoon, glad we are home.

I woke up very early this morning, so finished reading White Teeth by Zadie Smith, I really enjoyed this book, although the ending was a bit silly, but overall a a good read. I feel back to sleep after finishing the book and didn't wake up until eight am! I was quite shocked that I slept so late.
 I started reading Word On Fire, Proclaiming the Power of Christ by Bishop Robert Barron, there are 30 chapters, so one a day will take me a good way through lent. I went to Stations of the Cross yesterday evening, I was rather flustered and feeling stressed out before going, and thought I should stay home, and then realized it was just exactly what I needed. I was glad I went, there is a lot of comfort in the prayers and tradition of The Stations and the Litany said at the end is so reassuring and so calming. 

After breakfast, yoga practice and a little housework Dave and I headed into Fort Wayne to run a few errands. I returned a couple of things to the library and then we drove by the BMV as it is time to renew my drivers license, the parking lot was filled to maximum capacity, we decided to run our other errands first. Off to Wal-Mart, we picked up a few groceries and other bits and pieces, then headed over to Half Price Books. I purchased a few paperbacks and a clip on reading light, this will be nice for reading in bed and not disturbing Dave with too much light. Next stop Target for some new jeans, a birthday gift :) I found two pairs of Levi's and not only did they have my size they were longs!

My light colored Levi's, the other pair are the same just a dark denim.

We then headed back to the BMV, the parking lot had emptied out so I popped in and was headed back to the van ten minutes later, the task taken care of, I didn't get a chance to read my book while I waited!.

My official BMV Indiana drivers license picture, LOL.

Time to go home, boy isn't life exciting? We got home and I had a lovely birthday card in the mailbox from my mom and dad. After we put everything away and made lunch we realized we had forgotten coffee, brussel sprouts and eggs, isn't that always the way of things. No matter, we popped down to Meijer a little later to pick up the missed items, and found a few other things we didn't know we needed, including a beautiful pink hyacinth, it smells wonderful and looks so cheering on the kitchen counter.










I have so many books to read, I am not sure what I want to read next. I am sure I will read The Copper Beech by Maeve Binchy, each chapter is it's own story, yet all the chapters loosely fit in with each other, I will read a chapter every day or so and I am going to read a Roald Dahl book, Innocence, a collection of short stories. I have a Barbara Pym autobiography I found last week and think I may start to read that too. I think that will be more than enough books on the go. So far no television during Lent is working well, and I very much enjoy reading, so is it really a sacrifice?? Hmmm deep thoughts to ponder, LOL.

A little later we plan to make dinner, Dave is having a steak, I will have a vegan bowl, we are going to have a glass of wine and play a little scrabble, I lost last time we played! 

Tomorrow all of our kids and grandkids will be over to celebrate my birthday with us, they are bringing all the food, they plan on a huge stir-fry, and they are bringing cake, it will be a fun, chaotic, crazy birthday, and exactly the way I like them to be! 

Well that is all for now,

Peace be with you,

Bean

March Madness

I can't believe it is already March. This Sunday I will be fifty-five years old, the old double nickel. I think age is all a state of mind, I don't feel how I once imagined a fifty something old person would feel.

This past week we found out that our 10th grandchild is on it's way, due on September 7, this news really put a smile on my face, life goes on, always exciting to welcome a new little one into our family. This baby will be the third child for our eldest child Matt and his wife Traci, big sisters Alivia (6) and Aubrey (4) are super, super excited. I hope the baby is ready to have three mothers, LOL.

On a sad note we had our dog, Sir Digby Chicken Caesar, know as Digby to family and close friends put to sleep. Digby was a rescue dog, he came to live with us on January 18, 2014 and was estimated to be around 8 years old. He was a very docile dog, great around the kids, and very well behaved. Over the past year Digby really started to feel the effects of old age, mainly in his hips. Steps were becoming a great difficulty for him, and he struggled to lay down and struggled to get back up, his eyes were bad and I don't think he could hear very well. About four months ago we had to restrict him to the kitchen area of the house as he was quite prone to "accidents". So yesterday was the day we said farewell to Digby, I stayed with him, petting him as he quietly slipped away. Thank you Digby for being a good dog.

Reading, boy oh boy, I am on a tear, probably because the weather is so cold and I am so very tired of television.  I finished The Lilac Bus by Maeve Binchy, enjoyable so I ordered a used copy of another of her books, The Copper Beech. I read this book many years ago, it was the first Maeve Binchy I ever read, it should arrive today. I finished God Bless You Dr. Kervorkian, to be fair this book only took about an hour to read, it was a bit strange, but most Kurt Vonnegut is. Not my favorite KV, that would by Breakfast Of Champions. Then I moved onto White Teeth by Zadie Smith, WOW, I am loving this book, it is a long read but I am progressing quickly as I simply can't put it down.

This past weekend I went to my most very favorite used book store, Hyde Brothers. The store is located in a historic neighborhood in a very old building. The ceilings are very high, twelve plus feet, and the books shelves are stuffed full from floor to ceiling. There are ladders on rails to climb up to reach books on upper shelves. The aisles are a maybe a yard wide, and at least two cats pad around keeping an eye on the customers. In the basement, the ceilings are low, but again books shelves are filled to the brim from floor to ceiling. It is a bibliophiles dream! Anyway, I was excited to find another Zadie Smith book, Beauty, and I had to climb way up a ladder to retrieve it. I then found an auto-biography by Barbara Pym, one of my most favorite authors, and then found a copy of a yoga book I was looking for. It was a very rewarding bookstore visit.

On Sunday Dave made beer-can chicken for everyone, I made steamed broccoli and healthy oven chips as sides. I had my usual vegan bowl of goodness.  Seven of our grandchildren were over, we had fun after lunch showing them playground games we used to play. I made a big loop of elastic and taught them how to play "elastics", sometimes known as Chinese Jump Rope. Then we showed them how to play some of the sort of pat a cake, rhyming games, we always sang:

Under the brambles,

Under the trees,

Boom, Boom Boom,

True love to you my darling,

True love to me.

And when we're married,

We'll raise a fam-i-leee

Of little children all in a row, row, row,

Then we took out a deck of cards and did "magic tricks", and built houses of cards. It was a lot of fun for young and old alike.

Lent begins this week, today is Shrove Tuesday, or as we knew it as children, Pancake Day! Tomorrow I will go to Mass and receive ashes, and we will be in the journey of Lent. I feel called to give up TV for Lent, so will do this. I have done it in the past and find it to be very beneficial. I will  look for some Lenten reading material, perhaps daily reflections, and attend the Stations of the Cross, hopefully each Friday. And, I will look forward to Easter.

Well not too much else going on, we are desperate for Spring to arrive, it is still so cold, too cold for March as we should not be having lows in the single digits. But the geese are back, and lawn mower commercials are running on the TV, so spring must be in our future.

January Life

Well here we are almost halfway through January. So far a busy month. The weather started out very mild for this time of year, we had a few days of almost fifty degree weather, it was very enjoyable. Winter arrived this weekend with five inches of snow on Saturday, and this morning when I left for work it was eleven degrees outside, brrr.

New Years day we celebrated with our children and grandchildren, Dave prepared pork shoulder and sauerkraut for everyone, and for sides I made roast potatoes and cabbage au-gratin. I had a delish bowl of vegan goodness :) In our family pork and cabbage is a New Years tradition, supposedly bringing good luck for the new year. I had red cabbage in my vegan bowl of goodness!

Last week we celebrated our youngest daughter and her fiance Joe's wedding, it was a simple affair with a fun reception afterwards at our home. Everyone had a good time and we wish Joe and Emily a long and happy life together.

This coming Friday our eldest, Matt, will turn thirty-five, I don't feel old enough to have a child that old, time really zooms along. One minute you are busy with babies and toddlers and school age children and the next they are all grown, married and have children of their own.

I am keeping a reading list for 2019, so far I have read just one book, Beartown by Fredrik Backman, initially I liked it, but liked it less and less as I progressed through the story. I have the sequel out from the library but have decided I don't want to read it. I am now on my second book of 2019, The Aloe by Katherine Mansfield, it was written in 1916 I believe, so far so good. I am not sure what will be next up, I think I am going to have a good peruse of my bookshelf and find something there.

I didn't make any resolutions for the new year, last year I did, for the most part I stuck with them, but struggled with the not buying things as the year progressed. I do feel an urge to talk less and listen more, to be slower to anger, to be more patient, it is a struggle. And I feel a strong urge to limit television viewing. In the past I have entirely stopped watching television for months and months at a time, but I don't feel that extreme. Sometimes watching a good movie is just the ticket, and there are several YouTube vloggers I subscribe to, they post short videos perhaps once a week, occasionally more, and I enjoy the content so will continue to view.

YouTube channels I enjoy:

Happy Healthy Vegan - a fifty something married couple based in Long Beach, CA, Ryan and Anji are long time vegans, who post a lot of informative, interesting, entertaining vlogs. They camp on Catalina Island each year and have uploaded some beautifully filmed travel vlogs, their trip to Hawaii for Anji's fiftieth birthday is so relaxing to watch, like you own personal mini vacation.

Hench Herbivore - another Vegan, a body builder from Norwich, England, he is a vegan nutritionist, body builder, personal trainer, vlogger. Paul is larger than life, entertaining to watch, provides a lot of good information, and his partner Jemma is an excellent cook.

Jane Esseltyn - another Vegan, based I believe, in Cleveland, OH - she is the daughter of Dr. Caldwell Esseltyn who is a huge proponent of whole food, plant based eating. Jane and her mother Ann demonstrate recipes from their cookbooks, they are short videos, fun, light-hearted, and I really enjoy the rapport between mother and daughter.

All of the above Vegans are huge proponents of whole food, plant based vegan eating. I find their channels supportive, when you are vegan you can feel a bit isolated as most times you are the only vegan in the room, their vlogs provide encouragement and support, I know I am not a crazy lady and I am not the only person who is into of whole food plant based living with exercise for optimum health.

Not too much going on for the rest of the month, more snow is tentatively predicted for Saturday, and the colder temperatures are to remain for a while, but the sun is shining and the snow looks beautiful and life is good.

Peace be with you,

Bean

Thanksgiving 2018

Boy Thanksgiving seems a long time ago, but really only a few weeks have passed since our celebration. What a fun day we had together. Good company, good food, good fun. I organized party games for the younger grandchildren, oh don't you remember the fun you had as a child playing musical chairs, musical statues and best of all, pass the parcel. It was high entertainment indeed.
The older grandchildren played Monopoly with the Dad's.

Our oldest son Matt plays Sorry with his oldest, Alivia. I love, just love this picture.

After Sorry the younger grandkids were all in for a rousing game of Memory.

Of course I had to prepare a lot of food to fuel the troops, and they obediently chomped their way through the goodies and dinner.

The childrens table, set for ten

The grownup's table, set for ten

A Spledoinkel Day

Today is granddaughter Alivia's 6th birthday, yesterday evening I took her birthday shopping, we had a really nice time out and ended our evening at her favorite restaurant, McDonalds! Alivia selected her birthday meal, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, and fruit cocktail. My son Matt, Alivia's daddy, is making a giant meatloaf to bring over, and of course there will be birthday cake and ice cream. I made up a vegan loaf for the vegetarians and vegans in the family.  I just love that a six year old enjoys such a nice comfort food kind of meal, she picked the same birthday dinner for her 5th birthday, and grandson Patrick picked the same meal for his 8th birthday this year. Grandson Henry always picks spaghetti and garlic bread, and grandson Charlie always wants pancakes and sausage. I wonder what meals the five younger grandchildren will want as they get older.

Alivia and Ralphie enjoy their Happy Meals at Mickey D's

Vegan loaf all mixed up and ready to pop in the oven a little later today

This morning I went out for a run, it was a little below freezing, no wind, and the air was clear and sharp, really the most perfect running weather. My times were excellent, I only ran three miles, but did each one in under ten minutes. When I finished my run I took a few pictures, it was simply beautiful out and the crisp fall air very invigorating.

Pretty fall foliage

A picture of the tree line

Me feeling invigorated after my run.

My "big bird" running pants, ha ha!

A view of the back of our house with a frost covered roof.

The day went from a cold and frosty morning to a brilliant fall day. Grandsons Henry and Patrick came over for the afternoon and have kept grandson Masen entertained. They built a leaf nest and then sat in it eating Kit Kat bars. 

The boys in their nest

 Dave has taken advantage of the mild weather to  trim some branches in the areas that we park out front, a necessary chore and one that I think he rather enjoys.

I just finished reading The Lido by Libby Page, I enjoyed it for the most part although felt it dragged a bit towards the end. It is a nice story, I cared about the characters, but felt that the ending was really rather unlikely. I much preferred the book I read before it, The Keeper of Lost Things. I am now reading A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, although only a little way into the story I am really enjoying it.

I picked a few books up at our local library branch, it is a small branch and the selection of books is a bit scant. I like the MC Beaton Agatha Raisin stories, but am not a fan of his Hamish MacBeth stories. They are both sort of silly mystery story series with the "cozy" factor so many mystery have.

I have never heard of Becky Clark, but I think it is going to fall into the silly mystery story with the cozy factor genre. The third book, The Farm by Tom Rob Smith sure sounds good, but the reviews are rather so so, I will give it start and see how it goes.

I refilled the bird feeders today, I cannot tell you how much pleasure the grandchildren and Dave and I get from watching all of the birds who visit our feeders. We have many woodpeckers, lots and lots of sparrows, blue jays, red wings, and cardinals. In the summer, gold finches, blacked capped chickadees, humming birds, join the throng, and we saw a Baltimore oriole and an indigo bunting this year. We get cat birds and cow birds, and mourning doves. And occasionally our neighbors chickens go on a wander and always manage to show up to peck at all of the dropped seed around the feeders. Nature, there is always something interesting to see and enjoy so it is very important that we all help take care of the environment.

The all you can eat buffet for the avian wildlife

And last, but not least, I bought a new tea towel for the kitchen, it is hanging on the front of the stove, don't you just love Mr. Fox. When we purchased this stove I made sure it had a handle on the front of the oven that would allow me to hang a towel from it, our last stove did not and I always wished it did.

Splendid Mr. Fox

Happy Birthday

This past weekend my family celebrated my birthday with me, it was a totally awesome day, a day of crazy, chaotic fun with my favorite peoples!

Winter - I am ready for Spring

Boy has it been a cold winter, we had a very brief reprieve from the arctic blast and then it returned for another week. It is supposed to warm up a bit over the next few days and I can't wait.

New Year resolutions are going really well, all kept so far!

Our youngest daughter, Emily, became a certified EMT this month when she passed her state exam. Next Monday she starts work as an EMT, she is really excited about her new job, and we are really proud of her. Next step is to get certified as an advanced EMT, while she continues to go to college to train as a paramedic.

Trying on her EMT jacket for her new job

Tomorrow our oldest son, Matt, turns 34. It is really strange to think about 34 years passing since we had our first child, the memories are so fresh in my mind, yet 34 years have passed. Time is a strange thing, it can really drag when you are stuck at a red light, but it seems to just slip through my fingers and it is hard to comprehend a 34 year span of time where so much as happened but all my memories are so vivid it seems as if they couldn't have happened so long ago.

Matt

This week I am working on cleaning out the freezers, It is surprising how many things just kind of accumulate. So for the next few weeks I am basing all family meals on what is in the freezer, tonight I am making everyone ham and potato soup with cornbread. Me, I will have my usual bowl of vegan goodness, or as my mom calls it my bowl of weeds :)

Vegan bowl of goodness!

WOWSERS 85 Years!

Yesterday we celebrated my father-in-laws 85th birthday. Ralph was born in 1930 when America was in the depression, he is the oldest of seven children born from 1930 - 1938. Can you imagine 7 babies in 8 years!  Life was hard for his family, his father worked in the WPA, a program that was part of the New Deal to get Americans back to work.
Ralph's mother, Nellie was one of many children, she had an older brother Bob, known to Ralph as Uncle Bob, who was a lawyer and worked in Hollywood, CA for RKO Studios. Uncle Bob was well off, never married, a strong Christian and made sure his family back home were taken care of. He purchased a home for his sister Nellie and her family. Ralph remembers well the day they moved to their very own home, he said it looked a bit like a small barn, but was roomy enough for a family of nine.
Times were hard, life was a struggle, but the memories are all good. Ralph remembers his father coming home in the winter, his clothes that had become damp during the day and slowly frozen, were hung over the wood stove to thaw and dry overnight ready for the next day of hard work. His mother's hand so raw and chapped from hand washing the family's clothes that she would smear them with grease and bandage them each evening to bring some relief. Ralph and his brother Don would hang out by the railroad tracks and men would toss chunks of coal down for the children to collect and take home. Memories of Christmas morning, all of the children sneaking downstairs to see what Santa had left beneath the tree and their Dad yelling that they all needed to get back upstairs, and little sister Delores, who had polio, hadn't yet made it down the stairs as all the children charged back past her on their way back to bed.
Ralph graduated high school, for a short time he worked a wealthy man called Clarence Schust, who owned a farm and raised champion cattle. Ralph helped take care of the animals and enjoyed his time working for Clarence, he left to join the Marines. He went to Korea, he came back and married Sharon. Ralph and Sharon had eight children, Christopher, their fifth child, and second son, died in a fire when he was two, and their last baby and fifth son, Philip was still born.
Ralph and Sharon worked hard to support their large family, all six grew up, married and started their own families, grand children, eighteen in all started arriving in 1973 and continued to arrive for the next twenty years. Those grand children grew up, married, started families and to date there are around thirty-four great grand children, the oldest is fourteen, the youngest is one month, and three more are on the way.  Sadly Sharon died in 2002 after a courageous battle with leukemia, we all know if she were alive today she would be amazed with all of her great grand children and she would be loving on all of the babies.
Eighty-five years is a long time to live, and Ralph lived an ordinary life, no different to the lives lived by many others, and yet it is an extraordinary life too, because it is his own story. Because he and Sharon fell in love so many years ago there are a whole bunch more people in this beautiful world and it was wonderful that yesterday so many of them were able to come together to celebrate with him on his birthday.

A good handful of the many, many great grandchildren

Twelve of the eighteen grandchildren

Three of the six children, Angie, Mike and Cindy are missing.