JOHN DAY — It is so good to be home in Oregon, where the sky is blue and the nights are cool.

On Monday, Aug. 28, I was not here, so Jeanette Julsrud greeted the diners and did the announcing. Thank you, Jeanette, you are very much appreciated.

Rachel Carpenter, Pati Davis and Kim Ausland delivered 57 fresh and 59 frozen meals to residents of our community. This is a great service of love to use your own time to share with other people a meal and a smile and use your own vehicle to volunteer this service.

Rachel Carpenter of the LDS Church was the server for this meal, and her smile and kind attitude just lighten up the room. Rachel also asked the blessing for our meal. Thank you, Rachel.

Brandon Glimpse brought in zucchini to share with anyone desiring some. Thank you, Brandon, for your kindness.

Laura K. brought in peaches to share with others. Thank you, Laura, for sharing with our seniors.

Chester’s sent breads and pastries to share with seniors desiring them. A big thank-you to Chester’s for always sharing with our senior center.

Vern Pifer won the Len’s card, and Stephen Rogers won the free meal. Congratulations to both of you.

A total of 132 meals went out of our kitchen this Monday.

Thursday, Aug. 31, Judy Thomas was at the desk greeting all 14 in-house diners and seeing that all were signed in and their names in the drawings for this day. Fourteen people came to pick up meals for this day.

Steve Moyer led the flag salute, and Elsie did the announcements. Earl Carlton asked the blessing for our meal.

Veanne, Peggy and Cindy delivered 54 fresh meals and 61 frozen meals to residents in our communities.

Thanks to all three of you for your service of love.

Monday, Sept. 4, is Labor Day, so we will be closed that day. Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone.

A total of 134 meals went out of our kitchen today. Shay and Darla sure are organized to make that many meals happen and leave the kitchen looking presentable. Good job, Shay and Darla.

Our center now has internet and phones throughout the building. Soon to come will be the opportunity to show data and pics on a screen. I forget what that is called.

Tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 7, we will dine on beef tips with noodles, veggies, rolls and birthday cake, sponsored by Driskill Memorial Chapel, and the meal will be sponsored by Walt and Agnes Hall. Thank you, Driskill’s and Walt and Agnes, for your support.

On Monday, Sept. 11, we will dine on hamburgers, potato salad, fruit and cook’s choice dessert.

John 3:16 God loved us so much before we were even born that He gave His Son to die for us so we could have forgiveness from sin and live abundantly and eternally. That is a real promise and a blessing to us.

MONUMENT — Did y’all feel the shift? All of a sudden, there seemed to be a drastic change in the weather and it smells like fall is in the air! Today, as I am writing this article, I have long leggings on, and three layers of tops on, too. I have been feeling a little cold the past few days and, don’t get me wrong, I am welcoming the cooler weather with open arms. I will not be putting away my summer tank tops and shorts just yet. I am looking forward to warm sweaters, jeans and of course snuggly, soft blankies!

Our cooks, Terry Cade and Carrie Jewell, made us a fabulous meal. It was a mystery meal until we all got to the senior center. Drum roll please … We had seasoned baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli, dinner rolls, fresh green salad, and vanilla cake with chocolate frosting on top. It was scrumptious. Without a doubt, I had to go back for another piece of chicken. I had to ask the cooks how they cooked the chicken, for I wanted to try and make it at home. Terry sounded like my mom. She said, “Oh, Johnny seasoning, onion powder, flour and your other spices is what I put on it.” Hmm, I guess I am going to have to try and figure it out with that bit of information. LOL. We thank our cooks for our wonderful lunch and appreciate all they do for us! We are blessed.

Our greeters at the table were Bob Cockrell and Sue Cavender. They checked in all the guests, collected and counted up the money. Bob led us in the flag salute and made the announcements. Yours truly prayed the blessing over the meal.

Don’t forget that there is a raffle going on for a barbecue smoker. The price of entry is $1 per ticket or $5 for six tickets. The winner will be announced at the Buckaroo Festival on Sept. 23.

The Monument Buckaroo Festival and Harvest Auction is fast approaching! Oh, my goodness, time just seems to be accelerating and I better hurry up and get rolling on all the things I gotta do to prepare for the winter. I am hyperventilating just thinking about it. Ha.

There are going to be tons and tons of different baskets of goodies that are going to be auctioned off at the Buckaroo Festival.

Thank you to all who have donated these wonderful items for this big event. Judy Harris, Judy Cavender, Ellie Asher, Kathy Woodell and many others have been tirelessly and diligently working to prepare for this fun event. We just thank everyone for their time, work and help to put this on.

Look for the flyers everywhere, for they are out. Mark your calendars for Sept. 23.

Don’t miss the wonderful meal, activities, games, food, music and auctions. Hope to see ya there!

I think I may be feeding my babies a bit much. They have the biggest roly-poly stomachs that look like they are gonna pop! Ha.

Proverbs 22:12 The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, and He overthroweth the words of the transgressor.

PRAIRIE CITY —

Aah. The corn has ripened, and it is very good! I just go out to the garden, break off a cob, husk it, bring it in and put it in the pot of boiling water for two minutes, take it out and enjoy. Mmmm, good.

Thank you, Rosalie, for the seeds. Most of the seeds you gave me did very well. The flowers are blooming with very colorful blossoms. And someone brought in some little peaches to give out at the hall today. They disappeared in a hurry!

Theresa rang the dinner bell, Colin led the flag salute and Tom asked the blessing. The winner of the $10 gift certificate donated by Huffman’s Market for the August birthday was Scott McMahan. Our volunteers were the two Theresas, Tom, Carla, Gwynne, Mary and Sharon.

We were pleased to see a bunch of people from the Prairie City Schools join us for dinner. Thanks for coming. The school also found a large supply of toilet paper that could not be used in their facility now, so we got it. A great big thank you to the school for that! We passed on the gift by giving each one in the hall a roll to take home. Imagine how much they could have sold that for two years ago!

Trivia: Birthdays included Mary Shelley, Fred McMurray, Ted Williams, Robert Crumb and Cameron Diaz. Tom had a quote from each one that you had to match up with the person to determine the order of going through the serving line. The best one was from Ted Williams. It had to do with taking a round bat and hitting a round ball squarely. Think about that for a while …

Our meal was a typical Labor Day meal — hamburgers with all the fixins, potato salad, watermelon and cantaloupe along with birthday cake donated by Driskill Memorial Chapel. Excellent meal, Pam and Pam. Thank you very much.

All the supper I’ll need is my one corn on the cob!

Our friendly neighborhood contractor and his hired man came to dinner today, too. They happen to be working in Prairie City for a few weeks.

The after-dinner discussion concerned how to figure out how many cubic yards of concrete to order for so many square inches of space. I said to ask Google, but they didn’t have that app.

So they took my notebook and drew little figures all over it with numerous dimensions. The problem of converting from square inch to cubic yard was finally solved to everyone’s satisfaction.

Had that problem one time when I wanted to order some floor covering. I had the amount of square feet, but it is only sold in square yards. Do you multiply or divide? Do the wrong computation and you’ll either have too much or too little. So how did the Egyptians and the Mayans make their pyramids without computers, hmmmmm? Nobody knows.

Side note on the Mayans: Their history was like that of any other nation — a succession of raids, wars, betrayals and revolutions. In other words, it was typically human!

2 Cor. 5: 1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.