St. Luke Living Center correspondent
Our bakers added peanut butter, oats, and chocolate chips to the usual ingredients Friday morning and mixed-up a recipe from Julie Garrett of Newton. We made these cookies as prescribed — no tweaking.
As is our custom, we played bingo in the afternoon with Pat Smith and Bill Schimpf. As is Pat’s custom, she takes a “time out” to share some fun facts, figures, and trivia with us. It also is customary for her to share a homemade treat and this week it was slices of quick bread.
In the spirit of a “better dining experience,” Betty suggested a good grooming of the houseplants on a ceramic ledge of our large dining room windows would make mealtime more pleasant for her. With scissors and a wastebasket nearby, she began the makeover.
We spent part of Saturday morning with Gene and his accordion as he played some of our favorite music. Of course, we ate cookies we had made the morning before.
We spent a portion of Sunday afternoon with Pastor Larry King of Goodnews Christian Fellowship Church of Marion. The group gathered in our chapel. The story he told was especially uplifting.
Marie Navrat was here after lunch Monday to play cards with our pitch players.
Later in the afternoon, we halted the card games and joined the celebration in honor of our January birthdays. Sadie Bernhardt was the only resident who dared to be born in the depths of January winters.
Her family brought cake decorated with a little pink rose on each piece and placed them on a beautifully “coiffed” table, complete with balloons and cheerful napkins. To that, we added coffee, tea, ice cream, and the singing of “Happy Birthday.” Irma Benda was also here to help wherever needed.
Several of us put our heads and fingers to work Tuesday morning, giving the final touches to a stack of invitations for the February family and friends potluck meal. The task was accomplished while keeping our eyes on the softly falling snow. Others were engaged in our small shop as beautician Bonnie put her fingers to work on heads of hair.
After lunch, we sprang into action when we realized Kansas’ birthday was only a few days away. A search of our files produced a dozen beautiful 8½ x11-inch photos of Kansas landscapes including natural structures. We printed larger descriptive captions of each picture and have the images on display. We also added vibrant colors of yellow, brown, and green to colorless sunflowers.
Some songs and conversation about Kansas with Shirley Bowers Thursday morning preceded our usual hymn singing.
At promptly 1:35 p.m., approximately 40 Kansans, Marion Elementary School third graders, filed off the big, yellow USD 408 school bus, accompanied by instructor Anita Hancock and Pam Jones. The children shared some information, such as Dodge City being the windiest city in the U.S., and sang several songs. So there, Chicago!