What a day!    Oh my!    Oh Me!

I think that today has been truly one of the best days of my life so far.  God is a God of wonders.  To start off the morning Grace had to come alive with her new outfit.  Dressing is by Sally the Seamstress.  On my way to town I stopped at the Pak-A-Sak to get a couple of bags of chips for the folks to eat for lunch at church.  You know it is so much fun to see the reaction to folks when they see us dressed up.  The cashier did not even seem to bat an eye.  I have a sneaky idea that she might have seen me before at one thing or another. 

Dropped off the chips at the free oil change outreach for widows and single mothers.  I think folks are getting a kick out of knowing a clown or two

Down to the plant sale on Main Street.   We did really well this year.  So much so that we are going to have to go out and purchase some more plants for the flower beds.  Artsy Art came up with an idea to create a V W in the flower bed on Ervin Road.  During our conversations all sorts of new ideas for designs came into focus.  So watch out folks there are some new ideas coming to town.  See if you can find them!!!     Marigold Marcia was busy helping youngsters learn how to plant sunflowers and pumpkins.  She explained how you could use a nail file to nick a small hole in the end of the seed to help them germinate.  Our contest is open to youngsters and we have them gather at our show and tell meeting in September for some prizes and awards.  It is really a wonderful educational program. 

The clown addition created a lot of interest among the young and old alike.  I met a young man who just recently moved to our city.
He was just trying very hard to learn about where everything is located.  Really a cool bike.  I asked him to show me how it worked.
I will have to keep Merci from trying one of these.  Another of the people at the sale turned out to be my mentor from my American Business Woman days.   I told her that I will bet that she never would have imagined that I would turn into a clown and roam the streets of Van Wert when she was mentoring me to become a future leader in this community.  But you know what?  I don't really think she was too surprised.  Perhaps I have had a lot more clowning in me than I originally thought.  You know that until about six weeks ago I really did not think I was all that funny.  So I think I must have help from the man up stairs.

Loveable Larry and Quiet Carl sent me on a mission to go and search out more people for our plant sale.  So Grace went for a stroll down Main Street.  This is the first I have been uptown on a Saturday morning for a long time.  You know what?  There happens to be a lot of folks roaming the streets of Van Wert on Saturday.
Some of those really beautiful motorcycle groups were out for a ride.  I was more than happy to pose for pictures with all that asked.  You know I think a lot of folks were surprised to see a clown visiting stores uptown.  I think that I might start doing a walking visit quite often on the weekends.  I got as much pleasure out of it as the people I visited with on this adventure.  

I had never been in the bicycle shop before.  You know it is really a very cool place to visit.  I had no idea there were so many different types of bikes.  I can see why people come from all over to just see what they have to offer.  Good job guys.

I continued on down the street to my favorite coffee shop.  Perks is where the great philosphers of the community come to gather.  Today though they happened to have several families having some lunch.  I love to visit with the children.  I always explain to parents that our web site is a safe place for children.  The folks that help us with this are mostly Master Gardeners, church leaders or teachers who have had to undergo background checks. 

The next stop was the Brumback Library to check on the summer reading program.  When I started mentioning that I was going to read a lot of my friends decided to join Grace for this adventure.
Some of the characters from the Land of Petals and Feathers along with several other interesting characters will help take turns with the reading program.  I was concerned with just how much noise we could make in a library.  Sometimes the clown things can get a little noisey.  Kelly told me that this program was such a blessing to the reading program.  We will be having a big lego castle which will be the home of some new characters who will interact with the children.  I am excited.  I think we may have some young people try to video the readings so that we can learn from our performance.  Then if any parents want to purchase some of the programs they will have a permanent record of something their children did one fun summer.

After the plant sale was finished a couple of my cousins were helping to put things away.  The Skipper Emmitt with his crew mate Cheryl and I decided to go toThe Main Street Ice Cream Parlor.
They have my new favorite ice cream.  Check out Muddy Sneakers.
It is mmmm mmmmm good!!!   I was telling the owners Marvin and Mary Jude Vetter that I had a boyfriend.  Merci has a favorite food that they might want to add to their menu since we will be downtown so much.  Hot diggity dogs with grape jelly.  Honestly I have not tried it but I have it on good authority that it is marvelous!!!

  Well this is enough for today.  I have enough new ideas I could write several chapters in another book someday.  This clown thing is more rewarding for me to watch how other people are getting a kick out of it.  At least it is giving a lot of folks a big smile.  And all of us need to smile more often.  Don't you agree?

Plant Sale day is one of my favorite days of the year.

Each year our Gardeners of Van Wert County hold their annual plant sale the weekend of Mother's Day.  For the first time in a very long time we had the perfect day.  People were so excited to be able to help do something for our community.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  I can not remember when we have had such a wonderful turn out.  The money we raise from this project helps to provide flowers for many of our local community flower beds in the city and one area on the outskirts of town.  Most of the folks in the community really and truly do love Van Wert.  There are some, like all other communities who will find faults with wherever they live.  We all have ideas of how things should progress for the betterment of where we live.  Just sometimes the views are not always thought about in the same manner.  Oh well, this is just some silliness.  I have been having dreams all night long about a particular situation which happened in my world recently and it seems to keep pointing to the idea that this problem is what mercy and grace are really about for each of us.  A really good friend of this community, Rev. Paul Miller, jokingly kidded me one time by saying, "You know that where Mercy and Grace goes Goodness will follow."  I thought that was really a funny way of looking at what we were doing.  But now I am not sure that maybe in jest he might have come to a solution to this particular problem..  Perhaps GOD has been telling me thru my dreams all night long that the answer may be as simple as just that.  Asking for mercy from somebody and that person in turn granting grace could possibly bring goodness back to this community.  Just a thought.  Maybe at least I can go back to sleep and get some rest now.  

I have so many wonderful tales to share about folks that I have met today.  It was great to renew many old acquaintances and to catch up on their lives.  Tonight we got to go have dinner and spend a night at theatre with some really great friends.  Puppet making Lisa, (Lisa Eichler) and her husband, Accountable Ed, (Ed Eichler) are so much fun. They were really into a joking type mood.  I hope we can remember some of the jokes to share with the kids. You will be hearing stories about our adventures I know in future stories.  I keep telling all my family and friends that all of our lives have events which we can share to help others see that we all are really the same and different.  Good night my friends.  

Busy,busy,busy!   That is the word for the day.  We started out early this morning with a board meeting for the garden club.  Denny is the current President of the Gardeners of Van Wert County and I am the immediate Past President.  Today is the beginning of our annual plant sale.  The flowers arrive in the afternoon. 

We had so much to do today.  Denny had a physical at the doctor.  The two of us really should have driven separately.
I had a lot of errands to do and I sometimes lose track of time when I am visiting places.

I had been at one of the investment places that I use the other day and tried to get them to help me think up some fun way to teach children about handling finances.  Only our slant will be about building up investment in GOD's kingdom.  They had given me a new tool that their company is going to use to teach children some value lessons with money.  He is really a cute little piggy type bank.  There are four ways of using it.
I am going to write a story to go along with this idea.  But for today I had found four finger puppets which I gave them to come up with characters and names.  I think they are actually having fun with this idea.  So thank you my friends at Edward Jones for helping me with some ideas.

Aunt Sally was home and we had a really great conversation.  She had gotten my new frame for the painting I had bought from her.  She told me that she had shown the Land of Petals and Feathers book to some of the neighbor children and that they had loved it.  I think they might even help me some time in the future with a project or two.  We will just have to see where that one will lead us.  You know eventually we are going to need lots of children to help when we get ready to do some videos for kids.  Hopefully in a couple of weeks I would like to go to the Starr Commonwealth to talk to them about their new performing arts programs they are starting.  I am thinking we might be able to help each other out with some type of dance and musical themed idea.  I really do like to find ways to involve children in fun activities that they can just enjoy being a kid.

Our first load of flowers came to town about 2 in the afternoon.  We really do have some great help to unload these things.  We had a little time to spare so off to the Root Beer stand to get a drink.  We have one of those old-fashioned root beer places where they bring the food to your car for you with a car hop.  On Friday nights they have a lot of dollar menus.  I just love to see the folks bring their cruising cars and enjoy the evening.

A friend of our has been having some health issues so we stopped by her house to see her.  Charlie lives alone with her two dogs.  She was not at home but for some reason had left the door unlocked this time.  That is not the normal for her.
I was a little worried because of what she had been through so even though you should not go into another persons house without being asked, I did go in to make sure she had not fallen or passed out.  Since she is alone that was a concern. 
After looking around I found she was not there so I just put her Root Beer in the fridge with a note on it.  When we did return later we found out that her sister had taken her to the doctor for a visit.  Folks try to remember those who live alone.  Especially be mindful when you know they have had some health issue and might not be able to get to a phone.  

Since we had a little more time, it was off to see if anything else was going on at the Childrens Garden.  The maze looks wonderful.  Altha is going to finish killing the grass in the pathways and then we will see about getting mulch from the city to put down throughout the maze.  The kids are going to love it.  The tiles on the inside wall of the gazebo are in place.  Andy, Louise and Altha gave us the up-dates.  I think this garden is going to be so wonderful for all of the folks who visit here.  They have so many interesting and unusual things started.  It is just exciting to watch it progress.

At lunch time we visited our favorite food place.  I just love to eat at the Peking Chinese place.  Those folks make us feel like we are all family.  Just as I was about to leave a group of pastors had finished their meals.  We spoke for a short time and I gave them some of our web site cards.  Who knows what other folks may be reading about the goings on in Van Wert now.  I just love my life.  

On the way home from town we stopped at my sisters house.
They have a barn full of interesting things.  Jim and Kris are donating a special wagon for Merci and Grace to use in parades this summer.  It was made by Jim and his Dad when he was younger.  So I guess we will be taking a little of the life of those two with us on our travels.  I am looking forward to having my sister around a little more.  She just recently has quit her job to be more free to help take care of the needs of our family.  You know life changes and our priorities change too.  

When we got home Denny and I finally had some time to actually sit down and do a little on this web site.  Check out Grandma Smith's page.  I think it turned out fairly well.  Now for all of those in the media who wanted to know where they could find us at different events we put up things on the calendar until July 5.  There are more but that keeps changing all the time.  I think we will try to only go six weeks or so at a time.  I do promise that I will get with you one of these days to tell you more of our story for your particular media.  You got to love these guys.  I have friends in a lot of different places and I just can't keep up.  I really am still toying with the idea of a fun mock press conference.  I think we will have to wait a little until some of the dust settles from recent events.

Take care.  Pam

Oh my, Oh me!   I guess from all of the calls I have gotten today I had better list some of the places we will be visiting in the next few days.  We don't have the time to fiddle with the new calendar site yet so here goes!  Hope this is of help to those who want to know!


Saturday May 12    from 10-12 Grace and friends will be handing out pumpkin and sunflower seeds at the Gardeners of Van Wert County plant sale.  This should be in front of the courthouse unless the weather doesn't cooperate.  If not then across the street around the Hotel Marsh.  This is a really fun project and you get some really cool stuff in September when we have show and tell at the garden club.

From 12:30-the finish down at the Vineyard Church Grace will be helping where ever needed with the free oil changing for widows and single women who need help.  There is child care at this event.  So who knows what Grace might get talked into there.  For those who want to use this service you need to contact the Vineyard church office to let them know the make and year of your car.  They are planning on doing around 30 cars.  This is the church that Grace and Merci attend.
Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Van Wert
120 N. Cherry St.
Van Wert
419-232-3400
worship Services Sunday 10 a,m,  youth 7th-12th Sunday 6 p.m.  Hopefully we will get younger children in there some day.

Tuesday May 25     Grace, Merci,Lady Evelyn the Finch Woman and possibily Harriet Hollyhock are going to be reading to the Thomas Edison Head Start Pre-school children at 10:30 a.m.

At 5 p.m. that same day there is going to be a balloon launch
in front of the courthouse where rumor has it Merci and Grace may be in the crowd

As soon as Lady Evelyn.Grace and whoever else from the Land of Petals and Feathers characters can get together they will be planning a book signing at The Bridge for the new Petals and Feathers books.  We just have to put some finishing touches on that idea.  So we will probably know more in a few days. 

In June we will be starting a new and exciting summer reading program idea with the Brumback Library so keep watching for more on this idea.  I have some interesting thoughts to work out with this area.  You kids are really going to like helping us come up with some new and exciting things to do!

June 14 at 10:30   Merci and Grace are going to put on their gardening hats to help the seniors at Vancrest plant some flowers in some pots.  Grace even bought a new gardening bag for the occassion.

June 25th   Grace and possibly a couple of friends are going to go to tea with the Red Hat ladies at The  Manor.  Grace loves to go to tea and visit. I have a special new hat for the occassion. Tea is at 2 p.m.

Hope this will help all who are calling.  We will get these things on a special calendar page as soon as we get a day alone with the computer.  Poor Denny,  this ministry is growing so quickly we can hardly keep up.  Sure could use some help. 

When Denny gets the time I think a lot of this stuff will be put on the pages the kids like to look at.  This area seems to be more for finding out the ideas behind what is going on.  I hope you like being part of this journey with Merci and Grace
in the BLESSED CITY!

Wow!!!  It is another Election Day.  These are very busy days for me.   Up really early in the morning to make sure everything goes smoothly.  As a part of the election team I am sometimes called to go out to precincts to answer questions and to see how our pollworkers are getting along.  This primary was a rather slow day.
I did get the chance to visit several locations and visit for some time.
On one of my stops in Delphos I was even able to go and get some coffee for the ladies.  I really like all of these people.  They give so much back to our community by giving up a couple of days of the year to help us make important decisions which affect our lives.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

One of my stops was at St. Johns annex in Delphos.  Since Merci and Grace are Christian clowns we can not go directly into schools to pass out information about this new web site.  But a Christian school of some type can do that.  So these kind folks are spreading the word to children all over Delphos to check out this new site.  We are just starting and I only get to do the blogs.  My husband will be doing the actual input for the rest of the site.  I can write on my laptop and he can download what I want to say.  It takes time to do all of this though. Unfortunately  I am techincally challenged or else it is just easier for me to let him edit and post to the web so I don't mess things up.    Eventually we will be having a page for the 3-8 year old group.  Then a section for 9-12 year olds and a part for teens to voice their ideas.  It all takes time.  Since we are doing this as a hobby and volunteering we do not have enough hours in the day to do everything.  So please be patient.  If we could ever find a way to make enough money to help with bills we would just do this full time.  Any ideas out there?


This election was a light one so I asked the group if we could do the work that we need to do on election day a little earlier in the day.  There was no porblem with this so I had time to run out to Smiley Park and help plant the new Garden Maze.  We had such a hard rain a couple of weeks ago that the ground was like shoveling rocks.  It took a lot of people to work on this major project.  We had to put a lot of peat and top soil in the holes to make the ground good enought to accept the shrubs.  I believe that Wheezey Lousiee  (also known as Lousie Hartwig) told me there were something like 99 of these shrubs to plant. The guys who dug all of those holes really deserve a bid hand.  Sometimes I do not think that the general public realizes how much work these folks do as volunteers for this community.  This garden is going to be like an English garden maze.  The kids will love it. 

The new tiles were brought out to start assembling on the walls of the seats in the gazebo.  Jane Houghe is an art teacher who coordinated this project which involves all of the schools in the area.  Each school had their children make ceramic tiles which are being glued on the walls like a mosaic. Some of the walls have objects which will be used as teaching tools when we begin our children educational programs for the park.  It looks fantastic.  I find it amusing that I have not been around Jane (Bertling as knew her way back when) Hough for a long time.  When Louise introduced us we told her that we went to Bowling Green University together  She had been in my first husbands graduating class from St. Johns.  Isn't it amazing how some of the same people we meet keep coming back into our lives at later times in life.  Anyways it is a great project.  I will have photos to share pretty soon.

Speaking of coming back into our lives, our town now has a new mayor.  I have been privileged to have known and worked with at least four of the past mayors on various projects.  In my books I am going to lump them into an Advisory  Council of Mayors.  Our new mayor was in the Van Wert Lions Club with my family for many many years.  I have always considered their family as friends.  So you see I have a win win situation for me.  I have been friends with all of these guys and have respect for each of them.  You know maybe Grace is going to have to ask the city council to join in the make-belive Blessed City and give is a make-believe city charter.   Hum, I'll have to think about that for a while.  I have known the majority of these guys for a long time.   Speaking of thinking about things,  it seems that a lot of people are really getting a kick out of this whole Grace and Merci story idea.   Now I am being asked to send stories to all of the local media telling what all we are doing.  I told them last night that I needed a short break for a week or so.  So I am mulling over the idea of a mock press conference.  We could all  just act silly and throw out ideas to help others.  Maybe we could  make Van Wert feel like everybody's hometown.  I like being able to write all types of things into these stories.  As long as we keep learning positive things I think GOD  will be pleased and honored.  In the Blessed City Journeys all of the other communities are going to end up coming here for an event in the BLESSED CITY.  Who knows what that is going to turn out to be.  All I know is that it will probably knock your socks off.  I love planning big surprises.  I am thinking it might be after the childrens garden is finished.  We will see now won't we?


Now back to a more serious side.  I was telling you about our daughter and the opportunity that she is facing.  We all know that sometimes we can get in over our heads.  She is trying to find some solutions to this situation.  I applaud her efforts.  Being a little older and perhaps a little more aware of some things she has not been exposed to, I have asked for some help from some pastors in Fort Wayne.  My own Pastor Applachia Paul is at a conference so I was not sure where to turn in this situation.  I have contacted the pastor team of Black Hawk ministries to ask for guidance.  The situation we have is exactly the reason for  the type of thing that I want to get for our community.  A starting over place for men to be made in Van Wert.  We just simply do not have that capability right now.  Yes we could find housing and maybe even some type of employment.  But we all know it takes a lot more that food and shelter to get a hand up.  Most people really do not down deep want just a hand out.  Self-esteem is a very big issue.  It takes a whole lot of others to be on our side.  I am hoping to hear back from them within the next 48 hours.  Please pray for us and pray that with GOD on our side these two young guys may find their own paths.  This event may be also helping another of the young men in my life to find a path, which I am sure he will be very surprised to learn, that GOD may be leading him down.  I am beginning to wonder if GOD is letting all of this happen for some purpose that we do not understand right now.  What is it that the bible says:  All things come in GOD's timing and HIS ways are not our own.  Even though it is difficult we all need to have help at various points in our lives.  We keep preaching that we are never down too far that if we are willing to work at something we can not help to make our lives  better.  Okay if we do the talk then we must also do the walk.  If that walk means that we have to turn something over to another for the betterment of all, then that is what we must do.  I believe that is what Jesus was trying to teach us through his parables.  This situation seems to be one of those times to turn it over to more experienced people so that we can learn by watching and being available to help if needed.  It reminds me of the gardening saying.  First you have roots, then you have shoots and finally you grow.  Merci and Grace are getting their roots right now.  In time we will have shoots.   Eventually as GOD reveals HIS plan we will grow.

Now honestly folks, I do have to get some other things done.  Writing these blogs has been a good thing for me.  At least I am being more faithful to keeping some type of daily diary.  This is good.  I am finding that I can clear my mind more as I journal.  Try it sometime you might like it too!

Boy you never know what each day will bring.  This was a beauty.  I started off having to drive to Paulding to do an errand.  I do not get that way very often so I thougt I would take advantage of the visit.  Now in the Blessed City everybody seems to think that the ladies who work at an election board know just about everybody in town.  So I decided to stop in at Paulding Election Board to visit.  Actually I have met these folks before at some different conferences for the SOS.  Since I am writing stories about other towns eventually I will be getting to the Paulding area.  So I went in and made a plea for help!!!   After showing the folks our Petals and Feathers booklet and explaining that we are continuing the search, they came up with some names of people who might be of help.  I asked if they knew any clowns who might like to go to Toledo with us.  As it turns out the lady in their auditiors office is a clown.  So they are going to talk to her and maybe we will get some clowning ideas.  We can always use more help.  Next week we are taking a couple of days to go investigating the clown arena.  Any suggestions of where to find a clown school?

On the way home I had to stop off and get some more flowers.  I have a thing for pretty flowers.  After I got those planted I went into the house for a drink.  Sure enough the answering machine was blinking.  First it was Denny who wanted me to come to town and get a new toy.  The second call was from one of the grandsons father.  It seems that things are not the way the guys think they should be right now.  Yes we all have things going on in our families.  Not everybody is the way the make-believe city would like to have us believe.   All I know is that our daughter has really been trying very hard lately to clean up her life.  I truly believe that what she is involved with right now may be the beginning of a ministry for her.  I am sure that she is not aware of that thought right now.  I have hope because she just recently gave me a bag to match hers from Vera Bradley.  She wanted us to have mother and daughter matching bags.  Now even though you folks do not know her that was a very major step for her to take.  I truly believe that the holy spirit is working with her.  Please help us in praying that she is shown discernment in this situation.  Above the door to our family room hangs a sign which reads "Love all, Trust a Few, and Do no harm to anyone."  I believe that is from Shakespeare.  These words are true for today as they were in the days of old.
My husband stopped by her home last night to make sure that all was well.  She said that she was fine and introduced her new friend.  The boys seemed okay.  Since they were not prepard for a visit we  were comfortable with the situation and will leave things up to God and her.  I have only known her for about four years.  
I really believe that she is beginning to learn just who she is and I like the woman she is becoming.  I had written a little song for our grandchildren which they love to hear.  It really does sound like it would fit into this particular situation. 

There once was a little boat
That kept four angels afloat
Ava, Landon, Austin, Issac
Jump right into that boat!
Splash

We just have to have faith that our kids learn from the examples that the see from all of the people in their worlds.  The thing about it taking a village to raise a child is just too true. 

Monday, Monday,


Today I have to start to get organized.  You know a friend of mine is reading a book written by some woman called THE FLY LADY.  I guess she goes fly fishing or something like that.  Anyways it is about organizing our lives.  Brenda has talked me into throwing away 27 things, giving away 27 things and keeping 27 things.  So far I have thrown away about 18 things and I am working on the giving away stuff now.  I have a sign in my kitchen that reads,  My house may be a mess but you should see my garden.  Right now both are messes.  I did work in the yard for some time this a.m.

When I checked my e-mails today I received a reply from the artist who painted the supper at Emmaus painting.  It is amazing how GOD puts people into or lives at just the right time.  Herb is also working with his own childrens ministry.  He is a character named Pierre Money (like Monet).  He said he got the idea from a Sunday school thing they do for ghetto kids in the summer.  He kidded me that we do not have ghetto people in our Blessed City.  He may be wrong.  All towns have people who are struggling for one reason or another.  It is just on a different level.  So I told him how one of my long range plans is to put aside a portion of the sales of these Blessed City Adventures to help make a starting over house for men in our county.  This has been on my heart for a very long time.  After my first husband died from cancer I met a very wonderful friend who had the same desire.  I had never been exposed to that side of life before.  Doug introduced me to all sorts of folks.  My heart went out to the hurting and those who had not had the advantages that I had experienced.  Doug and I did all kinds of research about starting one of these places but the timing was not right.  We were just Christian friends.  When I met Denny and decided to get married I know that he was disappointed and thought I would never get to finish this idea.  Little did he know that it was just GOD saying NOT YET!!  Today we have been in contact with Doug and the possibility does not seem so far fetched as it once did.  

Now back to Herb.  He draws or paints characters for the kids at his church for "Extreem Saturday" which  is on the 1st Sat. of the month @ 6 P. M.@ Cornerstone Harvest Church.  I am assuming that is in the Lima area.  He dresses up as a French painter and has an accent.  He said that he paints for about 5 minutes and then gives it away.  I know we would love to hear about other children ministry ideas. Hopefully we will meet sometime and perhaps teem up for a special kids event.  I need help going to Toledo on August 4 to take socks to the hannassocks.org picnic.  We have been asked to perform a short skit to entertain the crowds.  We actually have one which requires at least 11 clowns.  I keep asking for help and maybe someday we will get it if that is GOD's will.  Any takers out there?  At least we will be having fun and serving GOD at the same time.

Our church is discussing the possibility of changing some things in our worship service.  This is really exciting to me.  I know that GOD will direct the service in whichever way HE sees fit.  Since I know that he really likes kids I hope that I can be of help if they go that way.  Grace is really on the move lately but if I am called I would help.  When we get stretched it can cause a lot of anxiety because of the unknown.  Believe me I do understand that concept.  If somebody had told me ten years ago that I would dress up like a clown and be doing the things I do now I would thought that they were crazy.  When we truly give ourselves to GOD we never know what type of things we may be called upon to do.  But you know that stretching can be a good thing some times as long as we don't stretch so must that we get a charlie horse.  HaHa!  Get it a Charlie Horse!

Well the beautiful weather is calling me again.  So till later .

I just love Sunday.  It is always good to see our church family.  Today I broke the news to our pastor that I am making him a regular character in some of our stories.  I think he got a chuckle out of the idea.  Today we discussed how we need to look around in our own lives to see where others are hurting and need a shoulder to cry on.  Really being able to listen closely to what folks are actually telling you is a lot different from just half listening.  Our body language and facial expressions explain so much more.

We had a special plea for help today.  One of the young folks from our church was brave enough to get up in front of the congregation to tell his story of wanting to collect money to help with the relay for life cancer walk.  Denny has asked him to write out the specifics of his idea and we will be posting his concerns and asking for help under our special friends section.  Hopefully we will get the info sometime next weekend.  This is what the purpose of part of this youth ministry is all about.  Actually listening closely to what the youth of today have concerns about helping.  They are our future.  When they show responsibility and concern it is up to us to help.  It is sorta like the story from the Bible that says when I say hungry you gave me something to eat.  When I was naked you gave me your coat.  And whenever we do these things it is like Jesus is the one we are serving.  When we each look around everyday we can see parts of what God is all about.  Folks he really is right in front of us each and every day.  Perhaps it is in the smile of a baby or the sigh of a senior walking down the street.  We are all part of His kingdom.

I promised to tell you more about my blessed day on Saturday.  Aunt Sally and I had some time to visit the Artspace/Lima show.  I had never been there before.  If you
are ever in the Lima area I would suggest that you stop by for a visit.  It is located downtown at 65-67 Town Square
Lima Ohio.  The have a web site where you can see what is on exhibition.  artspacelima@woh.rr.com    I must admit that I do like all types of art.  One of the most interesting areas for me was the Bath High School Art Exhibit.  If you get a chance check it out.  It will run through May 10th.  These young people are amazing.  Some of their projects depicted all types of messages for the viewer.  A couple of them really impressed.  Some of the linoleum exhibits were very thought provoking.  I liked Adam Walters "Help", Ashley Mowery did two titled "Child Soldiers", A colored Pencil by Austin Snoke "Through Me Eyes" and one by Brittany Singer a linoleum "Worth Living." were just of few of the examples of the wonderful art that todays youth are producing.  My hats off to all of the students who participated in this juried Art Exhibit for the Bath High School.

During our conversations with the gentleman at the front desk I was privilleged to learn of some of the wonderful contributions that various artitsts have made to the Lima area.  I was given the name of a contact person for the Lima Visitors Bureau.  When I am ready to work on the stories for the Lima area I will be contacting that office.

Back to Van Wert and a lovely evening visiting with family who were home from the Maryland area.  I have a cousin that I am turning into Musical Mary from Maryland in one of the future books.    Mary Ann and some of her family had come home to help celebrate the window restoration in the church that she grew up attending.  The Welsh community of Venedocia had a lot of work done to their stain glassed windows.  They are just wonderful.  When they asked former families and members of their church to donate to these windows they were just amazed.  They raised well over $200,000 and actually had an extra $10,000 left over to help with a new sound system.  I was so happy to know that the folks who did the restoration were actually part of my church family.  Reggie Buehrer and his wife Penny are also outreach ministers for our congregation.  They have been to several countries throughout our world.  Really great folks and always willing to help.  If any body is ever in need of stain glass of some type I would like to recommend contacting Reggie and seeing what he might have to say.  bstudios@bright.net   Just a thought.

When we got home from our family visit I had a phone call from my friend Kim.  It was really a very blessed call.  Kim should be the one to share this news with the world.  So I have asked her to write about it and when she gets it done we will post it under the Grandma Smith's friends section.  This will knock your socks off. 

Well it is almost time to go to our cell group meeting.  Denny and I belong to a group called "On the Edge".  That sounds probably more impressive than we really might be.  We meet at a home  which is on the edge of town.  Sally the Seamstress and her husband, Remodeling Max, are our hosts.  We will hear more about them later. I keep telling my family and friends that nobody is exempt from these stories unless they absolutely tell me no.  And I must admit that has happened to me already.  Most people stop and ask if they can just be mentioned.  It is so much fun doing something that excites people.  I can't wait to start working with kids to do music and possibly videos.  Hopefully I might be able to talk some of the kids at church into helping me come up with skits and get their slant on how things should be run.  We have a lot a really talented young folks in our congreation.  They just need a little encouragement.  A couple of the young folks are starting to learn how to work our sound board and equipment now.  They are very proud of themselves and deserve a little recognition for trying something new.  I'll bet that they will get rather excited to be the ones coming up with ideas for other kids Sunday School classes.  Take care.

Today was a truly blessed day!  My friend, Aunt Sally, and I spent the day together.  This really was quite a God thing.  You see both of us are usually very tied up on a Saturday.

I recently bought a painting from Aunt Sally but I wanted a simplier frame for it.  So we decided to go shopping together for it. ( As a note, she is really Sally Geething, friend, fellow church family, garden club  member and she is trying to help me find my place as an oil painter.) 
Silly Sally, as she likes to call herself, really is a very accomplished painter and teacher.  She has done a lot of shows in several places all over this area.  In August she will be having an exhibit and sale at THE MEETING PLACE on Market.  This is a really cute coffee shop at 220 W. Market in downtown Lima Ohio.  I'll tell you about our adventure there in a little bit.   

Silly Sally, has allowed me to turn her into a big yellow bunny named Aunt Sally of the Hippity Dippity Dop family.  She is featured in a new book I am writing.  So this morning we went to Delphos Ohio to take photos of the places in this new story.  A couple other of my new friends, Diane Sterling from the Delphos Chamber of Commerce, Vicki Gossman from their visitors bureau and the other lady is the  editor of the Delphos Herald, have all talked me into including their community into the BLESSED CITY  JOURNEY.  So Anut Sally and her family of bunnies are going to search Delphos for a neice.  We took photos all over town with the bunnies.  The last place we stopped was the Delphos Library.  We asked permission to take some photos in their childrens department for our story.  During our conversations we were asked to come and do a reading for their summer reading program.  So on July 5, at 6:30 p.m. Merci and Grace will be reading at the Delphos Library
and doing some other treasure hunt ideas.  This is part of what I want to accomplish with these stories.  Helping children to use their own imagainations to come up with stories which we can share on Grandma Smith's page.  All of these silly stories are starting to come together to being able to connect all of these communities together.  Hopefully it can help libraries and tourism.  Some of the money we raise from the sale of this new book when it is finished will be given to the Delphos library to use for projects for their childrens department.  Each of the books that I am working on are going to have a portion given to some type of outreach things for different groups.  When the HippityDippity Dop family finally gets to Lima a portion of that book will go to the OSU Master Gardener Endowment fund for the Lima Childrens Garden.  So you see when people let me turn them into characters for stories I in turn will give back to their cause of choice.  It is a win win situation for all.

God really blessed me at lunch.  A couple of weeks ago my mother and I spent a day together just goofing around in Lima.  We had eaten at THE MEETING PLACE on MARKET. 
They have artists display works of art for sale there.  I saw a painting that had been on my mind ever since that day.  So today when Sally suggested we eat at this place I got very excited.  You see the painting I bought was very significant to our lives.  It is called supper at Emmaus.    Merci and Grace are a direct product of my husband's having gone on an Emmaus Walk last Fall.  When he came home from that journey he was all excited about doing some type of clown ministry.  I am somewhat a clown at heart and we wanted to have something that we both enjoyed to do.  So Merci and Grace were born.  So when I saw the painting about Supper at Emmaus I knew that I would have to buy it.  We are going to take a photo of this amazing piece of art and show it to you on the photo page one of these days.  The artist who painted this beautiful piece of art is H.A. Herb Vonderau.
You can read about his at www.kaffeescape.com 

This day is going on and on.  So I will tell you more about this day of adventures tomorrow.  So stayed tuned for some really good stuff!!

I just love it when life is full of surprises.  Today was one of those days.  My morning started out just fine.  I went to the election board to check in and see if they needed any help.  As usual things were very much under control.  You know that Voter woman Linda is one of the most organized people I know.  I talked the girls into letting me take some photos of them so you would all know just who these friends of mine are.  As soon as we get some time we will add some of their photos to that page of the web site.  

One of the characters from the Land of Petals and Feathers
wanted to pick up some copies of the book so they could sell them.  Harriet was to come to the election board around 11 a.m. so I thought I would just run a couple of errands so I could visit with her when she got there.  

So off I went to visit with my friend Kim.  Now you will probably hear a lot of stories about Kim as time goes by.  She is a really neat friend who has only been living here in THE BLESSED CITY for a couple of years.  I had some pictures to share with her.  We had a really nice visit and shared some of our lives with each other.  God has plans for her.  I can just feel it.  Kim is just now beginning to find out who she really is.  Do you folks ever take the time to actually sit down and listen to that small voice inside you that tells you just who you really are.  I believe that comes when we each take the time to just be still and listen.  That is what is taught in the Bible.  I know from personal experience when I just turn off that TV and take a few minutes to just block out some of the distractions, that is when I learn a lot about myself and where I am going in life.  

After the visit with Kim I journeyed over to the court house.
I have a couple of cousins who work in that building.  I thouhgt I would give them a heads up that I was getting ready to write about some of our adventures as kids.  So they had better be prepared to turn into characters in these little stories.  After I had written to Cousin Ed from Out East, I got to thinking that perhaps I would just use my entire family for reference characters in these stories.  My grandpa would really get a kick out of hearing about this if he were alive.  I remember about a week before he died I was visiting with him.  I asked him what I was susposed to do with my life.  It always seemed like my life was going in so many different directions.  He told me this, "Pammy Sue, what is it you really like to do."  I told him that I liked to garden and I liked people.  So he suggested that I combine those things together and do something to make a lot of folks happy.  After thinking about it that was where the idea of restarting the old Peony Festival came up.  Our community was at one time known as the Peony Capital of the World.  They used to have large commercial fields of flowers all around here.  Today those gardens are gone.  But we have a wonderful museum here which has all types of information about the old festivals.  A friend of mine, Mary Ann Adams, has really taken an interest in the old versions of the festival and I would consider her somewhat of an expert.  So the current festival is now about just remembering our heritage and enjoying the things of today.  They still have a pagent and crown a queen.  But with a more modern approach.  It is more about giving away scholarships to thes talented young ladies.  There is still a flower show held the first weekend of June.  (I love flower shows and have gone to school to become a certified flower judge.)  Garden tours, craft , car shows and now the art festival has joined together for the same weekend.  I can hardly wait.  

Back to the court house story.  As things would happen I got to share with three cousins there.  A couple other friends from the title department are going to join Grace and Merci in their search.  So watch out guys I am on the loose looking for stories.

Later in the day my sister, brother-in-law, mother,Denny and myself took a ride over to Lake Saint Marys.  There is a little place on the south side of the lake that has some of the best fish around this part of the country.  So off to Behms Landing for fish.  It was just wonderful and so reasonably priced.   I just love to look at the water while dining.

All in all a very good day with friends and family! 

Today was our fourth anniversary.  Hooray!!!  That time seemed to pass quickly.  We both were free today so we just spent the day playing.  A nice visit to Ft. Wayne.  Breakfast at our favorite restaurant and a look around the gift shop.  It is amazing all the things that clowns can find when you start to think outside of the box as they say. 

We had such fun exploring all types of new props to use for our clown ministry.  After a discussion we came to the conclusion that Merci and Grace should go on the road.  We are decorating an old red pickup truck as the Mulch Mobile.
The folks at Office Depot were so kind in helping us come up with a banner with our website on it.  I can't wait to see it when it is finished.  We were starting to get a little low on some make-up supplies so off to our favorite place to buy clown stuff.  We could spend hours in this place.

Since the days are getting warmer and Spring is in the air, we went shopping for some new accessories for our garden.  We got the new pot stacker put together.  We will show you a picture in a couple of days.  I think we are going to like them.  We did learn that if you live in the country in Northwest Ohio you need to keep these pot stacking devices in a protected place.  We have just too much really strong wind here in the Spring.  I think we are anchored better now.

On the way home we went to one of those old-fashioned meat markets in New Haven.  I think we got some of the best steaks I have ever eaten at this place.  So a nice grilled steak was on our menu for the evening's celebration.  All in all a marvelous day!!!.

It is hard to believe that I have been going to vote folks at senior places for so long that I am actually beginning to know most of the people who are voting now.  That is a lot of folks I am telling you.


Tonight was our first performance as speaking clowns.  Denny wrote a skit about how GOD even loves Merci.  We really prayed a lot before we started and asked GOD to watch over us.  It all seemed to go fairly well.  Just one hitch.  I was supposed to pull a string out of Merci ear since he couldn't hear very well.  Unfortunately the device we had come up with did not work.  Oh well we still had a lot of fun.  The children from the First United Brethren Church seemed to have a good time.  We had them take a photo of the group.  It is pretty far away but we will share it with you as soon as the film is developed. 

After the performance was finished we were hungry.  So we parked the car up on Main Street and took a little stroll to our favorite Peking Chinese Resturant.  These folks are almost like part of our family since we go there so often.  Jay gets such a kick out of us so we all had our pictures taken together.  You will have to check us out when the film come back.   They have the best Chinese food in town!!!

Oh my, Oh me!  We really had a big rain storm here last night.  I had to go to a meeting to watch Voting woman Linda teach folks about our new election set-up for this primary.  The clouds looked really bad.  On the way home my new outfit was just about done.  So my friend, who I call Sewing Sally, is putting the finishing touches on this new look.  Wednesday night we are going to be performing at another church and Grace is going to show off her new look.  It will be a lot of fun getting the kids comments on my girlish figure!  Ha! Ha!    

Today while I was working on another project I got a feeling that I needed to start planting some seeds into others lives.
So, I have been asking some of the people I know to help write a story or two for the BLESSED CITY series.  After they do that then perhaps they will start writing a story or two of their own.  We will put their ideas on our new page, books for sale, sometime in the future.  One of these folks is a very special cousin of mine who has been going through a really rough period of his life.  He is my Cousin Ed.  So I hope he will take to the idea and share some of the adventures of Cousin Ed with all of us.  This guy is really funny.  I am always telling him that he should go on the speaking circuit as a dinner speaker and share his comedy stories.  He just keeps me in stitches.  When I turned 50 he came and did a whole stand-up act for my birthday party.  But my friends, he does have a very serious side to him when it comes to his faith in GOD.  He really does have a gift for being able to share what has happened to his own life with others.  They are very inspirational stories.  You just have to love this guy and his wife Nancy.

I liked this idea so much that I think that Grace may start contacting all of her cousins who live across the USA and see if they will be part of the Blessed City family reunion.  My grandpa always said that we had quite a group of characters.  So this may be a way to show that he was so right.  Besides I want them all to check out my new friend Merci and see what they think?  I think he is pretty cute myself.   

Good morning,

The sun is shinning and the birds are singing.  What a marvelous day!  Well, I think we are starting to get the new clown skit that Merci wrote under control.  Practice, practice, practice!!!  We ended up changing some of the lines for it last night so I need to go over those changes today.  Merci found out that he is now a poet.  We have been talking and I think we may share  some of the skit ideas we have with the children.  They might think that is a hoot.  Who knows maybe these ideas will inspire children to write their own stories to act out.  This one is entitled GOD EVEN MADE MERCI!   I am not sure when it will get on the site.  Right now I am working on a made-up biography for my character Grace.  You know she lives in THE BLESSED CITY.  That is the name of the children's series that I am working on right now.  One of the members of our master gardener group would also like to start writing now.  So MaMa Jill aka Jill Starbuck will be helping me out with the next adventure.   Merci and Grace will leave the Land of Petals and Feathers and continue with the journey through the rest of the children garden.  We are hoping to raise some money from this idea to help keep the whole garden project running for a long time.  (As soon as I get some pictures back we will start posting the progression of this special garden so you can be part of building process also. )    When Jill finishes the rest of the garden story, I think she is toying with the idea of writing a MaMa Jill series for her little baby girl.   She became a new mother for the first time this winter.  Jill teaches some writing courses at Fort Wayne IPFW.  We will eventually be offering several of our friends children books on our book page.   Helping friends find passion in their lives is just so rewarding to me.  I am loving this whole idea of trying to find out what makes others happy and gives them a little lift to their lives.  We may never make any money at this project but at least we are all having a wonderful time.  This whole experience has been putting people together with folks they might have never come into contact with before.  Many new friendships are being formed.  After all isn't that what life is really about.  Learning to trust and share ourselves with others.  As our Pastor Appalachia Paul tells us,  "We need to share what GOD has done for us whenever the time feels right to share with others.  We are not to force our beliefs on others.  Just try to live a life that makes others wonder just what is it about that person that makes them be able to handle all of the trails and the good times of life. "  God gives all of us talents.  It is up to us to use them.  So many people just sit back and expect life to come to them.  I love the story from the bible about the three people who were given talents to be in charge of while the master was away.   They were given to each according to his ability.   I want to be like the servant that increased what he was given five times over and try my best to make the most of what I have been given to serve our MASTER.    check out Matthew 25 verses 14-28    Have a blessed day!