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St. Luke Living Center

By SUE GUTSCH

St. Luke Living Center correspondent

Our baking experiment Friday morning was peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that used no flour. We also didn't have the butter flavoring or the "super chunky" peanut butter the recipe called for. But they were delicious and made several dozen so we're toying with the idea of using the recipe again with a slight variation.

We sincerely thank the Rev. Carl and Mrs. Helm of Marion Christian Church who invited Donna Hayen and Lou Roberts to join them as they brought the Sunday afternoon service.

It's certainly fortunate we prettied-up Monday morning because we had a visit from some VIPs after lunch and we mean very important. Jim Johnson said Ike, Alf, Lynette Woodard, and Laura Ingalls Wilder stopped to visit with them. Bob Dole, Amelia Earhart, Wyatt Ear, Kirstie Alley, Walter Chrysler, Carrie Nation, William Allen White, Barry Sanders, and Nancy Kassebaum also were among the 20 famous visiting Kansans.

Of course the visitors arrived on a school bus from USD 397 and were all fourth graders at Centre Elementary School at Lost Springs. The children were dressed as the person they represented, talked with residents as that person, and gave us "trading cards" with a picture and information about the VIP.

To add to the Kansas Day activity we were invited to sing along to "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain," "Home on the Range," "Don't Fence Me In," and "Happy Trails."

The students brought large, attractive school-made sunflowers for each resident to display on their room doors. Accompanying the "dignitaries" were music instructor Lynley Remy, classroom teacher Gail Larson, and interrelated studies educator Kim Smith. Khrista had put the big red machine into action and we sent sacks of popped corn home with each VIP and their sponsors. Their delightful visit was a source of conversation for several days.

During book club Tuesday morning we sorrowed with the Ingalls family as millions of grasshoppers with "bulging eyes" arrived in a huge cloud, "whirring, nipping, and chewing." They wiped out the wonderful wheat crop and all the other vegetation within miles and miles of Plum Creek. (It would have been great if Mrs. Ingalls Wilder could have stayed over a day and joined us.)

Our January craft project was inspired by white carnations in red woven baskets, provided by Doris Kuchar of Hillsboro. We cut red, white, and pink hearts of different sizes from foam sheets, decorated them, positioned them in florist forks, and added them to the baskets of flowers. They're quite striking but we'll keep them in-waiting until the first of February.

Dick Pracht, our faithful prayer group leader, was here Wednesday morning sharing words of faith and leading hymns accompanied by our own pianist, Lydia Batt.

Members of the community now will be able to recognize our new van when they see it, if some may not have been sure. The side of the large white vehicle now sports the blue St. Luke logo and lettering that reads "St. Luke Living Center." The auxiliary and Hadsell trust also are given the credit they richly deserve.

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