Sugar Grove
By Paula Mitchell
Snow, sleet, rain, snow, and more snow. It is beautiful! Ordinary objects have been transformed into things of beauty; even the trash cans are wearing a hat! The towering trees are encrusted with the white stuff. Even ice is attached. And snow came down as snowballs. Truly amazing!
Let this coming year be better than all the rest. Free oneself of envy and malice. Make a genuine effort to stay in closer touch with friends and family. Vow to do something that one has always wanted to do but couldn’t find the time.
Call up a forgotten friend. Drop an old grudge, and replace it with some pleasant memories. Pay a debt. Give a soft answer. Be a role model.
Find time to be kind and thoughtful. Give a compliment. Apologize when one realizes a person is wrong. Don’t blow one’s own horn. If a person has done something praiseworthy, someone will notice.
Laugh the loudest when the joke is on one. Laughter is great medicine. Read something uplifting. Don’t put up with second hand smoke. Return the books one borrowed. Reschedule the missed appointment. Clean out one’s closet. Take photos and mark them before putting in albums. If a person sees litter on the road, pick it up instead of walking over it.
Walk tall and smile more. One will look 10 years younger. If a person can have love in one’s life, it can be the best year ever.
All one’s days are good, if a person uses them wisely. A gentle reminder is to give a cup of kindness to all one meets every day!
Here is a nice winter dessert that can be shared with friends:
West Virginia Apple Pie
Unbaked piecrust
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 cups chopped apples
1 stick butter, melted
Mix chopped apples, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and butter together. Pour into piecrust. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.
This is most delicious with ice cream!
Life’s little instructions include the following:
- Share a cup of kindness every day with whomever one meets.
- Pay a compliment every day.
- Respect one’s elders.
- Support a person’s community organizations.
- Stay humble.
The joys are that the area received more than half an inch of moisture. This has been so very much appreciated.
Quotes for the week are as follows:
“Snowfall rouses your inner child to dream and play once more.” — Angie Weiland-Crosby
“I’m at a place in my life when errands are starting to count as going out.” — Anonymous
“Don’t be afraid to start over again. This time you’re not starting from scratch, you’re starting from experience.” — Unknown
“Let all the failures of your past year be your best guide in the New Year.” — Mehmet Murat Ildan
“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come. Whispering, “It will be happier.” — Alfred Lord Tennyson
Sitting by the window is the best place to watch the snow and to hear about the “Talk of Sugar Grove.”
Ben, Emma and Nathan Puffenbarger spent New Year’s Eve with their grandparents, Robert and Nancy Hodges in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Evelyn Varner, Janet Judy, Terry Harper, and Rose Brackman enjoyed hearing the Jeff and Sheri Easter concert at the Valley Fellowship Church on Limestone Road in Dayton, Virginia. The New Year’s Eve performance was enjoyed by a church filled congregation.
Rose Smith of Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania, spent several days with her cousin, Phil Downs. They both enjoyed seeing the Saturday snowfall.
Evelyn Varner and Wanda Pitsenbarger motored to Staunton, Virginia, last Wednesday to visit with Cleo Simmons.
Rosalee Grogg has been enjoying her girls coming to spend several days with her. Last week, Terri Grogg and Claude Castleberry stayed with her, and this week, Marleta Wimer did. Other visitors were Wanda Pitsenbarger and Evelyn Varner.
Helen and Rhonda Nash spent an enjoyable Christmas weekend with family in Virginia, celebrating with nearly 30 loved ones at various times. They then spent a quiet New Year’s weekend at home, resting and recovering from the festivities and head colds.
This week’s clickety-clacks for the chin waggers are as follows:
- Smiley’s Ice Cream in Bridgewater, Virginia, sold 32,859 tubs of ice cream in 2023. Were one to take the 795,039 scoops of ice cream and lay them side by side, they would stretch from the ice cream store to the Sheetz at Mt. Jackson, Virginia, via I-81.
- A “jiffy” is a real unit of time.
- Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens wrote while standing up.
- Nearly one in six Alaskans is a Native American.
- Video game music boosts concentration.
Concerns for this week are many. They are as follows: Bob Adamson, Charles and “Pidge” Anderson, Roger and Joan Ashley, Mercedes Aumann, Judy Austin, Lynn Beatty, Jimmie Bennett, “Bo” Boggs, Dewayne Borror, Jane Conrad, Marie Cole, Norma Propst Cunningham, Christian Dasher, the Jeff Evick family, Bethany Eye, Isaac Eye, Marie Eye, Mary Eye, Neal Eye, Loralee Gordon, Lola Graham, Jordan Greathouse, Patsy Green, Rosalee Grogg, Marlene Harman, Marvin Hartman, Steve and Armanda Heavner, Grace Hedrick, George Hevener, Jackie Hill, Edsel and Mary Ann Hogan, Virgil Homan, Jr., Adelbert Hoover, the Olin L. Hoover family, Myrtle Hoover, Tim Hoover, Debbie and Enos Horst, Mike Jamison, Jessica Janney, Alice Johnson, Richard Judy, Marsha Keller, Danny Kimble, Dennis Kincaid, Kim Kline, Tracie Knight, Melissa Lambert, Robert Lambert, Rex Landis, the Linda Malcolm family, Roger and Skip Mallow, Yvonne Marsh, Anna Mauzy, Neil McLaughlin, Rose Miller, Bruce Minor, Tom Mitchell, the Naomi Wilfong Sheffer Mitchell family, Barbara Moats, Melvin Moats, Aaron Nelson, Ruth Nelson, Don Nilsen, Cheryl Paine, Barbara Parker, Shirley Pratt, Alda Propst, John O. Propst, Kathy Propst, Harley Propst, Sheldon Propst, the Mary Puffenbarger family, Charles Rexrode, Jason Rexrode, Pam Rexrode, Donna Ruddle, Annie Simmons, Phyllis Simmons, Erin Simmons, Eva Simmons, Kent Simmons, Robbie Sites, Donnie Smith, Connie Sulser, Rosa Tichenor, Sandra Vandevander, Evelyn Varner, Raymond Varner, Amy Vaus, Sheldon Waggy, Judy Williams, Ann Wimer, Junior Wimer and Margaret Wimer.
