the friday feed: peanut butter and jelly

Nothing fancy...just a classic. I like mine with smooth Jif peanut butter and seedless blackberry jam.

Back in the days of fixing school lunches, PBJs were a favorite for the kids. I'd lay 8 slices of bread out on the counter, put peanut butter on 4 slices, then here came the preferences: Patrick...peanut butter, grape jelly, no crust, cut in rectangular halves. Sara...peanut butter, strawberry jam, cut in triangular quarters. Lauren...peanut butter, grape jelly, cut in triangular halves. Andrew...peanut butter, whole sandwich. Ahhh, the good ole days.

One day when I was hurrying out the door to get to school, my arms loaded with books and papers, coffee in one hand, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the other hand, my chocolate Lab honed in on that PBJ and in one quick, graceful move, that big, lovable hunk of a dog snagged it out of my hand and it was gone in two gulps. So much for breakfast that morning.

I still like my PBJs in its classic form - peanut butter, jelly, and bread. No bananas, no marshmallow fluff, and definitely no pickles! In the photo above, we were leaving the house for a weekend wedding and once again, while rushing around, feeling my stomach growl, this classic sandwich came to the rescue.

random acts of kindness

Random acts of kindness...little things that make a big difference. Give someone a reason to smile and perhaps he or she will pass that good feeling along to someone else.

 

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

Why is it…

… that people freak out when I say that I don’t Snapchat or TikTok or use chatgpt, but no one cares that I can write in cursive, do math without a calculator and tell time on a clock with hands?

…that Twitter’s new name is X, but whenever it’s mentioned in a piece of reading, it is is always referred to as "X, formerly known as Twitter"? Is that its full legal name?

…when you run a quick errand in your grubbiest clothes - out in the world at your least presentable - you’re sure to run into someone you know? Never fails for me.

…when you’re in a rush you hit every red light on the route to where you’re going but when you leave in plenty of time it’s smooth sailing to your destination?

memorial day

After touring some Normandy battle sites, we attended the lowering of the flag, the Retreat Ceremony, at the end of the day. After seeing all those battle sites, learning the magnitude of lives lost, the cloudy sky, the breeze blowing, Taps floating through the air, and not a single sound coming from any of those attending, brought a reverence and solemnity to this sacred spot and tears to my eyes which flowed freely down my cheeks.
 

The grounds of military cemeteries honor those who have served our nation and provide a sense of beauty and peace for those who visit.

The above photos came from at trip in 2019 to The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in located in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. The U.S.First Army established this on June 8, 1944 as the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. The cemetery site contains the graves of 9,388 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing, in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial, are inscribed 1,557 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

my head in the clouds

"

"How sweet to be a cloud. Floating in the blue!"  ~ A. A. Milne

Todd and I were in New York City last week. The flight takes no longer than 1 1/2 hours, not enough time to purchase the in-flight wifi. My seat of choice is the window seat and I love to take photos of the always changing clouds along the way.

The sunset photos were fun. As we left NYC, the sun was almost down but as we flew west the sunset was bigger for a while. About 15 minutes before we landed, the sun finally set and we landed in darkness. 

perspective

Do you see weeds or wishes?

No wrong answer 💚

oppenheimer, the manhattan project, and dayton, ohio - part 5

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, triggered by devices made in Dayton, Ohio, ended World War II but Dayton’s scientific work continued after the war. In 1948 the work being done in the rented facilities in Dayton and Oakwood transferred to newly constructed buildings in Miamisburg set on 300 acres. This was the first site designed and operated to manufacture atomic weapons components. The Mound Laboratory in Miamisburg, Ohio, was an Atomic Energy Commission (later Department of Energy) facility for nuclear weapon research during the Cold War. It was named after the nearby Miamisburg Indian Mound.

The building that was used for polonium purification was built underground, with 16-foot thick walls and roof. At the Mound, they made atomic weapons in buildings built to withstand atomic weapons.

  

Later on, the people at Mound Laboratories used their skills in nuclear science to make products not tied to weapons. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon they left behind two instruments to record seismic moonquakes. Each of those instruments had a small radioisotopic heater designed and built at the Mound. The heaters kept the instruments warm enough to operate during the extreme cold of the lunar nights. 

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, the decision was made to move atomic research to locations away from population centers. Nearby Wright-Patterson AFB was considered at target for an attack. All Mound operations were moved to a facility in Idaho.

Photo and research: Dayton at Work and Play

oppenheimer, the manhattan project, and dayton, ohio - part 4

A Hidden History of Dayton, Ohio tells the story of George Koval who lived on this block in the Dayton View Historic District. Koval was born in Iowa but moved to Russia for several years. In the 1930s the Russian Military Intelligence Agency (the GRU) trained Koval to be a spy for Russia.   

Koval moved back to the U.S. in 1940, was drafted into the U.S. Army, and was assigned to live on this block and to work at the Runnymeade Playhouse in Oakwood. Scientists and engineers in Dayton thought they were helping the U.S. win the war. But thanks to Koval they were also helping the Russians build their own atom bomb.  

This is the place that connects Dayton's role in the Manhattan Project with its role in the start of the Cold War.

Koval was never caught spying. After the war he told friends he was leaving on a European vacation.  He never returned to America and died in Russia in 2006. His Dayton spy work only became public knowledge in 2007 when Putin awarded him a posthumous title of Hero of the Russian Federation.

The U.S. thought that being the only nation with the technology to build atom bombs would give us a long period of security. Russia surprised the world with its atom bomb test in 1949. World War II was over, but the Cold War and the nuclear arms race had just begun.

Photo and research: Dayton at Work and Play

 

oppenheimer, the manhattan project, and dayton, ohio - part 3

In November 1943 Monsanto leased these buildings at 1601 W. First Street in the Wolf Creek neighborhood. At first the buildings were used as laboratories to investigate methods for producing and purifying polonium.  

Once the process was designed, Monsanto leased the building on Runnymeade Road in Oakwood to use for producing polonium. These buildings became the place where they learned how to manufacture triggers for the atomic bombs using the polonium made in Oakwood. 

The trigger of the first atomic bombs was developed only a half mile from Orville Wright's home. In 1903 The Wright Brothers took the first flight in their airplane and the airplane was the technology needed to deliver the bomb.  

When Monsanto took over these buildings they were in sad shape. They needed a lot of work before they could be used for laboratories. But these buildings and the Runnymeade Playhouse had an important advantage. They were far away from most of the area's industrial activity. Who would guess that one of the most important activities in the country was happening in the quiet residential neighborhoods of Oakwood and Wolf Creek?

Photo and research: Dayton at Work and Play

oppenheimer, the manhattan project, and dayton, ohio - part 2

A little history and scene setting...In the beautiful suburb of Oakwood, just south of the Dayton city line, Orville Wright moved into his new home named Hawthorn Hill in 1914.

Ten years later in 1924 and three blocks away from Hawthorn Hill, the Talbott family built the Runnymeade Playhouse which is no longer standing. Orville would have attended community events in this building. In 1944 Orville Wright would notice changes in the Runnymeade Playhouse. Barbed wire and floodlights were put up. Trucks delivered and picked up materials at all hours. Guards stopped people from entering except for the 90 employees who worked there on some secret activity.  

Wright died in 1948 and never did learn about what happened at Runnymeade Playhouse. This was the site where all of the polonium used for triggering the first atomic bombs was made and purified.  The Trinity Test was an important part of the Oppenheimer movie. Trinity didn't test the bomb. It tested the trigger of the bomb, which used polonium produced on Runnymeade Road in Oakwood.

Hawthorn Hill, home of Orville Wright

A contemporary home now stands on the former site of the Runnymede Playhouse, a building that played a unique part in the City of Oakwood's history. Originally part of the Talbott family estate, Runnymede Playhouse was first a social and entertainment center for the Oakwood community. During World War II, the playhouse was used as a facility for research and refinement of polonium bomb triggers.

In the 1940s, Dr. Charles Allen Thomas, an engineer who had married into the Talbott family, assisted the Monsanto Chemical Company in procuring a lease on Runnymede Playhouse. He promised his mother-in-law, Katherine Talbott, that he'd return the playhouse in the same condition. The playhouse was used to conduct research into polonium, an element used in the production of atomic weapons. Polonium forms part of atomic bomb triggers and is still a part of weapon construction. The Runnymede Playhouse (also known as Unit IV), was one of five facilities around Dayton involved in nuclear bomb research. Nearly 90 people worked at Unit IV. Oral histories state that big trucks rolled in and out, and floodlights and heavy duty power lines were strung around the property. In 1949, operations moved to Miamisburg, and the following year the Runnymede Playhouse was demolished. The structure and ground were transported to Tennessee for safe burial. In 1998, The Ohio EPA working with the Ohio Department of Health determined that no immediate health risks are posed by the site. (From the Oakwood Historical Society).

Research: Dayton at Work and Play

oppenheimer, the manhattan project, and dayton, ohio - part 1

Oppenheimer is a 2023 epic (3 hours long) biographical thriller drama film that tells the story of American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. It follows Oppenheimer’s life who, along with a team of scientists, helped develop the first nuclear weapons during World War II. The movie is based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, which chronicles Oppenheimer's studies, his direction of the Los Alamos Laboratory and his 1954 security hearing. 

Dayton, Ohio had a part in the Manhattan Project. The chemical company Monsanto developed a process for making polonium to be used as the detonator of the bomb.  

Researchers and workers exposed to the polonium knew there was a health risk, and after the war Monsanto worked to understand that risk. Monsanto leased the top three floors of a warehouse being used by General Electric at 601 East Third Street. There they made a laboratory to study the effect of polonium radiation on humans.  

Woodard Development is the current owner of the building. It has been refurbished and renamed the Manhattan Building.

Photo and research: Dayton at Work and Play

flowers

I love flowers. Flowers in the house, flowers growing in the woods and meadows, flower shops, flower catalogs, planned flower gardens and unplanned flower gardens. My gardens go toward unplanned. Here's one reason why...

Last week I took a walk to buy some birdseed and while walking through the neighborhood, passed a man at the end of his sidewalk with a wheelbarrow full of daylilies.

"Looks like you've been busy!"

"Yep and you can't walk by without taking some of these. You have two hands so you have to take at least two."

A little bit of chitchat ended with me promising to return with my car and a bin to take some of those lilies off his hands."

I returned with my car and bin, chose a bunch of daylilies, and then he said, "Come dig up  some ferns!" My garden is random but full of stories.

Another story about an unfamiliar plant...

Angus, the storyteller in An absolutely wonderful Scots Adventure talked about sea holly and how the bees love it. I am working on a new pollinator garden so off to the computer, point and click, and four sea holly plants were on their way. Silly me...I didn't put two and two together and realize that sea holly needs sandy soil so a trip to the garden store to buy some sand to mix into my Ohio soil. I planted them last fall and three of the four plants are now growing. Can't wait to see them in full bloom!

Last fall. the Groovy Plants Ranch advertised Allium Gladiator bulbs. The bulbs grow into giant globes of purple flowers and they're deer resistant and also pollinator attractors. I bought a bunch and planted them in a couple gardens. Again, I had forgotten about them and when we arrived home from being away for two weeks, the flowers had bloomed. What a fun "welcome home" as we pulled into the driveway.

Right now I am blessed to have two vases of flowers in the house. One of them is my Mother's Day bouquet from my thoughtful husband. The other is from my neighbor - a bouquet of peonies from her beautiful garden. Besides being beautiful, the peonies smell divine.

“A flower’s appeal is in its contradictions — so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect.”– Terri Guillemets

the northern lights

"The universe has a way of bringing people together, no matter the distance between them." ~ Haruki Murakami 

This past weekend we all sat under the same sky and shared a once in a lifetime experience of witnessing an intense geomagnetic storm crossing over into parts of the country that have never seen the aurora before. What a beautiful sight and coming togetherness of sheer awe.

On April 8, Ohio was in the path of the total solar eclipse. May 10, the northern lights lit up the nighttime sky. (If you look closely at the photos, you can see the twinkling stars that form the Big Dipper). Two big sky events in a little over a month...heavenly!

the friday feed: blueberry muffins

Freshly baked blueberry muffins. The blueberries' tartness contrasts nicely with the fat and sugar in the muffin. Bites of sweet and tangy. They're so easy to make and people think you've done something wonderful.

We are going to New York City for a few days and I needed to use a few items in my produce bin, blueberries being one of them. I made muffins for the guys who are working on the kitchen and other house renovations. I forgot take a photo of them right out of the oven so here they are, three out of nine sitting on a cooler in the garage. A real life, in-the-moment photo.

Tomorrow I'm using the last of the items in the veggie drawer, mini cucumbers and a couple jalapeño peppers. Pickles here we come! They'll be tasty by the time we get back.

 

listen more, speak less

"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak."

This quote is attributed to Epictetus, a Greek philosopher who was a slave in ancient Rome until he gained his freedom after the death of Nero.This is a reminder to listen more and speak less. It emphasizes the importance of active listening and understanding others before expressing our own thoughts and opinions. 

T has the TV on a lot to watch and listen to his financial news programs. There are times when I shut his office door because people interrupt one another all the time and they are LOUD. They don't wait for the speaker to complete his or her thought. Drives me nuts. This happens with groups of friends, too. Again, people don't or can't wait to share his or her opinion or thoughts. They interject right then and there, stealing the spotlight from the speaker.

"Ears open, mouth shut."

This quote goes to my dad. He was a quiet and orderly man. Four kids at the dinner table could get a little raucous at times and he wanted everyone to get his or her time to speak without interruption. It was hard to take turns at times but we were taught to pay attention and be respectful to what others had to say. It's a good life skill to have.

wednesday's words, wonderings, and wanderings

One woman has answered he age old question of "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"

Aka Pereyma, whose art was recently displayed at the Dayton Art Institute, showed all who visited her exhibit her answer in a painting she called "The Egg Was First."

Pereyma is Ukrainian and an egg frequently appears in her work. She was often asked if the chicken or the egg came first. There was no question in her mind that it was the egg. She said:

                                     Automatically, people will ask me, “What do you

                                     mean, where did the egg come from? And I say,

                                     “The egg came from God.” And that ends that.

The egg relates directly to Pereyma's early experiences learning to decorate pysanky, the Ukrainian Easter eggs. She began at at six, an age when children begin to write. She noted, "It is not just a painted egg, it is a written egg. And I think that is because of all the symbols that you can read into what they mean."

            

the michigan avenue tulips

Chicago's Michigan Avenue is home to the Magnificent Mile and every year Michigan Avenue transforms into a vibrant floral spectacle with tens of thousands of tulips bursting into color. The tulips on Michigan Avenue are designed to be vivid swaths of color that herald spring with a ‘bang.’ No pastels – the city needs something bold after its winters!  After the bulbs are done blooming, the Chicago Park District sponsors a mega bulb giveaway at the Garfield Park Conservatory for residents to beautify their yards. We caught the tail end of the tulip bloom but were awed and amazed at the number of tulips that lined both sides and the medians of Michigan Avenue with color, color, color!

Northwestern's campus is a few blocks off Michigan Avenue. They welcome spring with purple and white tulips, the school colors.

Tulip art among the pansies

monday's mulling: full heart for mother's day

Mother's Day. Many look at it as a Hallmark holiday, and yes, I went out and spent a lot of time looking for cards for my daughter for her first Mother's Day and for my daughter-in-law who celebrated her second. 

My morning started out with T saying he was going to the store to get bagels. A little while later there was a knock-knock-knock at the front door with T delivering a beautiful bouquet of flowers. My sister, sister-in-law, and I sent text messages. My sister was looking after two of her grandsons and my sister-in-law was hiking in Acadia National Park. And then the friends' Mother's Day texts kept the phone jingling all day long. I love to see the cards that the mothers with young children post on their social media showing their children's artwork and sweet words. A teacher friend whose daughter is in 8th grade (ohmygosh...I substituted for her maternity leave when her daughter was born), posted an acrostic Mother's Day poem that her daughter wrote for her. It was beautifully written and brought tears to my eyes. And then the calls from my kids came in. The first call was from my first daughter who was baking some cookies for her sister's first Mother's Day. She and her husband of six months are leaving for their Italian honeymoon on Tuesday. My new mom daughter called and we mostly talked about her son, my little grandson who turned three months old on Mother's Day. He is recovering so well from his heart surgery which was was just two weeks ago. I went to the grocery store and when I parked, the phone rang. It was my son and daughter-in-law and we had a fun 30 minute chat while I sat with the window down on a glorious spring day the parking lot. They were getting ready to take their 2-year old son to the Cleveland Zoo on the Moms-Get-In-Free promotion for Mother's Day. My firstborn called and reminded me that he was skydiving so I drove 30 minutes to Greene County Skydive to watch him and his buddy jump out of an airplane. His buddy's mom was there, too, and we looked at each other and said, "Why not?" She and I didn't take the jump yesterday but we're looking at sometime in June! A Mother's Day dinner at my son's home...steaks on the grill, a tray of roasted veggies, and a fruit salad. My dad always grilled steaks on Sunday, Mom fixed all the sides, and we reminisced about Sunday meals at my parents' dinner table. Memories from the past, the joys of today, and the hopes of the future filled my mom heart. 

heart in my throat!

These two young men gave their mamas a heart-in-our-throats moment when they went skydiving on Mother's Day! Michael (on the right) wanted to celebrate his 40th birthday with a big moment and he asked my son Patrick to go with him. It was a heart thumping moment for the moms to watch our sons float from 11,000 feet back to terra firma. Seeing them back on the ground, high-fiving with the biggest smiles on their faces, made our hearts burst with joy!

young at heart

To me young at heart can be summed up in one word:

Wonder.

As we age, we get the sense that we’ve been there, done that which makes life dreary and dull as we only see the same thing over and over.

Children don't have this problem. Everything is new, every experience an adventure. Being young at heart refers to having a youthful and energetic outlook on life, regardless of one's chronological age. It's about maintaining a sense of curiosity, optimism, and playfulness, as well as a willingness to embrace new experiences and maintain a positive attitude. People who are young at heart often approach life with a sense of wonder, enthusiasm, and openness to new ideas. This mindset may contribute to a more fulfilling and enjoyable life, allowing individuals to maintain a sense of joy and vitality as they age.

Jumping for joy in Dubuque, Iowa, by the Mighty Mississippi River

the friday feed: heart healthy food

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and eating a diet filled with fruits and vegies, whole grains, healthy proteins, and non-fat and low fat dairy, are the foundation of a heart-healthy diet. 

I love to recreate foods that I get from restaurants. This salad is inspired from the Elote Bowl from  Sweetgreen in Chicago. Roasted corn, fajita vegetables, shredded cabbage, tomatoes, cilantro, goat cheese, brown rice and quinoa, and Romaine lettuce, with a lime cilantro jalapeno dressing accompanied grilled chicken thighs for dinner. 

The farmers' markets will be opening soon and all the fresh produce will inspire  summer-in-a-bowl salad meals. This is my favorite season of the year to cook.

 

heart chakra

One of my routines that I missed while we were on the 2 Grandsons in 2 Weeks Tour was going to yoga. It's a practice that helps with balance, flexibility, strength, and keeping me grounded. I took my mat with me with the intention of signing in to the livestream classes but there's that quote, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

In yoga, there are seven chakras or centers of energy in the body, one of them being the heart. The heart serves as our center of love for oneself and others, compassion, empathy and forgiveness, compassion, and joy. An open heart chakra allows us to see all of the beauty and love around us, and truly connect to ourselves, our loved ones, and the natural world.

There are yoga poses that are called heart openers and usually involve different kinds of back bends or poses that pull your shoulders back. There are simple and subtle backbends that are just as effective as the more intense poses. As we age, our shoulders tend curve forward, we have tightness in the back and neck, and exercises specific to this area strengthen those muscles, may alleviate the pain that comes from bad posture, and help maintain that balance-a-book-on-your-head posture. The goal is to keep your shoulders from slouching and to let your heart shine. 

My grandma was a tall, slender woman who carried herself with grace and was a big believer in good posture. She was always fussing at my grandpa, "Willard, straighten up. You're crunching your heart." That Illinois country girl knew nothing about yoga but she had an idea that keeping your heart open instead of crunched was good for one's heart and appearance.

ohio, the heart of it all

Ohio’s tourism slogan, Ohio, The Heart of it All, speaks to Ohio's central geographic location. But just as importantly, it conveys that Ohio is the heart of the heartland. The heart-shaped state. The home of heartwarming stories and heartfelt joy. 

Growing up, my dad's job took the family to Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and three different cities in Ohio. I have lived in four Ohio cities and this state for most of my life. 

This sign is always a welcome sight when returning from a trip. When driving in from the west, it means about 45 minutes to our driveway. It's where my home is. It's where my heart is.