THE TASTY RECIPES!

Since I told you what we served at our younger daughters wedding, I thought you might want the recipes. These recipes she got from the Heartland Cookbook. Of course, this was multiplied to the amount of people that were coming. When you multiply a recipe, be careful to reduce seasonings as they tend to not multiply in the same portions.

MINIATURE GLAZED HAM LOAVES

3/4 # GROUND HAM

3/4 # GROUND PORK

3/4 CUP QUICK OR OLD FASHIONED OATS, UNCOOKED

2 EGGS

1/2 CUP MILK

2/3 CUP PACKED BROWN SUGAR

2 TBS. FLOUR

1 TEASPOON DRY MUSTARD

1/8 TEASPOON GROUND CLOVES

2/3 CUP APRICOT NECTAR

1 TBS. VINEGAR

1 TBS. LEMON JUICE

Combine meat, oats, eggs and milk; mix lightly until thoroughly blended. Shape into 8 small round loaves, Bake at 325 degree, 1 hour. Drain off excess fat. Blend sugar, flour, mustard,cloves in saucepan. Gradually add remaining ingredients; cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Pour over meat loaves; continue baking 20 minutes. Serves 8.

COUNTRY GARDEN POTATO SALAD

1 CUP MAYONNAISE

1/2 CUP DAIRY SOUR CREAM

1/4 CUP SLICED GREEN ONION

2 TEASPOONS SALT

1/2 TEASPOON DILL WEED

DASH OF PEPPER

6 CUPS CUBED COOKED POTATOES

1 MEDIUM CUCUMBER, SLICED

1 CUP SHREDDED CARROTS

2 TBS. CHOPPED PARSLEY

Combine mayonnaise, sour cream, onion and seasonings; mix until blended. Add potatoes, cucumber and carrots; mix well. Chill. Just before serving, sprinkle with parsley. 8-10 servings

The fruit cup was mainly stawberries, bananas, pineapple and other berries.

Thought--Have a great day today and may God shine His blessing on you once again is my prayer for you.

NO TIME TO DALLY!

Three months doesn't give a mother much time to get her act together with wedding preparations and especially when that mother has a full time job outside of the home.

There were certain things that our younger daughter wanted. She wanted a buffet, but it didn't require a lot of variety, but she wanted what we had to be tasty. She went through the recipe books and came upon Apricot Glazed Ham loaf, country style potato salad, fruit cup, home made bread and the usual cake, for dessert. This seemed simple enough. The cake could be baked and frozen until I was ready to decorate it. Mints could be frozen. My husband was home from surgery during that time, so I put him to work getting the bread out of the oven at just the right time. I would make it in the morning, then it would rise, and at around lunchtime, I would pop it in the oven and he was to oversee the final stage. This was cut into and cream cheese, chives, etc. was placed in the center and cut into wedges.

I didn't have time to make her dress, so she purchased her dress. The bridesmaids, flower girl, ring bearer outfits were totally done by each girl. This was a great help, since that was what took me a lot of hours in our older daughters wedding. Of course the material, patterns, etc had to be purchased and given to the perspective girls.

The flowers were something that I wanted to do this time around. My daughter was hesitant on her bouquet, so we purchased that. All the other flowers, boutonnieres, corsages was my responsibility. I was going to take a week of my vacation just prior to the wedding and I thought this part, I could handle. Some circular tablecloths had to be made, so this was another job on the list.

Our older daughter was working in close proximity to the kitchen (she oversaw the kitchen and time sheets, etc.) at one of the dorms in the college. They were still at the college as he was doing his graduate work. She was able to get permission to use their walk-in refrigerator and large industrial equipment to carry out all the work that had to be done.This was a real plus!!!

I still had to depend on my very good friends, or the last minute details would have not gotten done. Thanks for all those good friends to pitch in at the last days and hours.

Even though I couldn't do as much as I had done for our older daughter's wedding, I did other things that compensated for it.

Brian and Mary seemed to be quite pleased with the result. Mary told me later, that she had wished that I had done her wedding bouquet, as she liked the flower arrangements that the bridesmaids carried so much better. There was big dose of LOVE put in each of those. Brian was in horticulture and was able to get plants and flowers to the alter, so we were good to go!!

Thought--Things went quite smoothly this time around. Mary had picked up the candelabra that went on the end of the pews and left them in her car (a hot day) and they didn't stay lit for very long. That was about the only catastrophe we had. We didn't lose a daughter, but acquired a son that day!

ROCKY ROMANCE!

There is a saying that true love never runs smoothly or some phrase like that! Well, this probably was true when it came to our younger daughter and her future husband while they were dating.

Our daughter was on a youth mission trip to Alabama and Brian decided to visit. She was gone all summer with a group from the church. They were setting up bible studies, etc. When Brian came down for a weekend, all her friends REALLY liked him. I think this is what got her to take a closer look at her friend.

Another summer she was working in a town close to Brian's parents. We had gone down to visit her. She asked if we wanted to go over and visit Brian's parents. Since we needed something to do, we did just that. All went well----but in the middle of the night, I got to thinking! Well, when moms starts to think, they usually come up with the right answer! I told my husband "I don't think Mary and Brian are dating". He said to me, "What makes you think THAT?" I said to him
"She was asking questions that had they been dating, she certainly would have known first hand, and would have known them already without asking the parents." The next morning I asked her bluntly, "Are you and Brian dating?" She said, "NO." I was right, they had broken up. He was working elsewhere that summer.

This scene played out quite a few times during their courtship. One day though, he gave her a ring. Mary had graduated from college and she had been teaching for two years. They announced they were going to get married at the close of her teaching that spring. What! I had less than 3 months to prepare for a wedding!! Oh my, and it took me a year to prepare for our older daughter's wedding! What is a mother going to do?

Stay tuned. I will tell you!

Thought--We love Brian like a son, and are so glad that they decided to get married. I will tell you more later.

HOW I MET OUR YOUNGER DAUGHTER'S FUTURE HUSBAND!

There were 2 dozen red beautiful roses in a watering can in my daughter's room while I was visiting during mom's weekend. I inquired who was the proud owner of these. My daughter said that Brian had given them to her. I hadn't heard of this name before, but was asking more questions about him, since he obviously took a liking to our daughter.

She freely told me about him. I must have been impressed and her reply was. "Oh mom, he is just a friend!" What a friend he turned out to be!

I was privileged to meet him briefly still that weekend, but didn't really get to know him.

The following spring we were invited to a wedding of a close friend of our daughters. Our daughter was a bridesmaid and we proceeded to drive to this location and arrived early so we could find the church, etc.

We had time to kill before the wedding so my husband and I stopped to get some ice cream at dairy queen. A Corvette sports car pulled up beside us and a young man was driving this car.

Since I had met Brian very briefly earlier, I didn't quite remember details, but thought Brian possibly looked a little like this guy. I really didn't think it was Brian.

My husband was bringing the cones back to the car and the young man in the sports car came over and asked us "Aren't you Mary's parents?" Then I knew who he was. He sat with us during the wedding since Mary was in the wedding party.

Stay tuned as I will tell you more about this NEW young man in her life.

Thought--We did not know then that he would be an important member of our family. He has been a rock in her life and ours! We love you very much!

MOM'S WEEKEND!!

It was always nice to visit our daughter while she was living in the 4-H house, but Mom's weekend was really "special".

The girls planned the weekend and took us to flower shows, etc. They would have tea time and even made their own crackers for this & cheese balls. They had well balanced meals for us that they cooked. They were learning to be good hostesses.

The 4-H house had three floors, each floor had many rooms. These rooms were to study and each room had enough desks & closets for 3 girls to store their belongings and study in. They had on each floor a huge room solely for sleeping. One could go in there and sleep and not be disturbed. The state law said that this room had be unheated and the window open even in the dead of winter. I'm sure it was just cracked open a tiny bit when it got cold, however.

This is where they would have the mothers sleep on mom's weekend. Our daughter's bunk was on top and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't manage to get up on that top bunk. The girls were behind me trying to hoist me up. The more they pushed, the more I laughed, and the more I laughed, the weaker I got. I finally made it to the top of the bed, however. In the mornings I always get up early. There I was way up high and how was I going to get down from this perch? I started laughing again, everyone was sound asleep. I managed somehow. It is easier to come down than to go up!

On one mom's weekend, I thought those girls didn't know it was way past bedtime. I know it must have been one in the morning, and I was getting tired. My daughter said to me, "Mom you can go to bed but I have to go over and make cookies for the next day". Remember these girls did all their own cooking and each had a specific job that had to be done. I told her, "No way am I going to bed, we both will go over and make cookies and then we both can go to bed". This particular year she was living in the 4-H annex. Only the girls in the Junior/Senior year of college was privileged to live here. A widow lived downstairs and rented out her rooms upstairs to the 4-H house girls.

The 4-H had a house mother that lived in the house and she had separate quarters. She was quite the queen, as she didn't have much to do, but I'm sure she had an ear to listen, when any girl needed to talk about a problem they were having.

Thought--Good friends and memories were created during those years for our daughter and all the mothers that visited.

YOU ARE DOING WHAT?

The 4-H house (at the University) was built to accommodate those who wanted a higher education, but still wanted to keep the cost at a minimum while attending. There were about 56 girls staying at the house when our younger daughter was getting her degree.

They achieved this by doing their own cooking, cleaning, baking and quarterly jobs around the premises. Lawn raking in the fall, window washing, to name a few.

One Saturday I had phoned our daughter and asked what she was doing? I wasn't expecting this from our "little 18 year old". She said, "We are having fall clean up day today, and we drew slips out of the jar and I drew the slip to clean the GREASE TRAP." This grease trap was located in their industrial sized kitchen and one had to take a really long handle pan and reach in there and dip all the goop out and clean it. I thought to myself, we have someone come and do ours and here our "baby" was doing this on a much larger scale. I was feeling her dislike for this chore, also.

She proceeded to tell me that she couldn't stand the smell and ran clear to the third floor and still she could smell the stench. I don't know what kind of a job she did that day, as she has quite a weak stomach for such things. Oh well, she lived to tell about it.

Wisdom--The 4-H house was really a great place to live. If these girls hadn't learned TEAMWORK prior to going to college, they certainly learned it while staying at the 4-H house.
A lot of the girls came from the farm and was used to some distasteful chores, but our daughter hadn't done something this gross before.The girls had to have had an excellent grade point average before they considered them to live at the house. Also, they had to maintain there grades while living there. Stay tuned, I have a few tales to tell about visiting there.

THE LOST BILLFOLD!!

Since I was on the subject of lost items, I will tell you about the lost billfold. It was Dad's day at the University where our younger daughter was going to school. After leaving him off at the 4-H house, I proceeded to go shopping at a well known shopping area. I had the whole day to "goof off", so wasn't in a hurry.

I decided to stop for a snack at this open snack bar in the mall. I looked down and a black billfold
laid on the floor under my feet. I picked it up and noticed it was a man from Chicago that had lost his billfold. I proceeded to eat what I had bought and thought what I was going to do with this billfold. The first thing I thought about, I did. I turned it in at the cashier checkout. I figured that he would trace back to the spot that he used the billfold last and check there first. Whether it was the best way our not. I never did know whether he received his billfold back or not.

If I was to think this out, I probably would have mailed it or try to phone him that I had it. That way, I would have been certain that he received it back. However, he might have still needed it yet that morning or day.

Wisdom--People in general are honest and if given the chance, they will do the right thing. I was so grateful for an honest person that turned our daughter's purse in that day with the registration papers she needed. I never knew who did this and neither did this gentleman know who turned in his billfold. I trusted the cashier to do the right thing, also. I'm sure he was as thankful as we were to get our lost item back.