St. Luke Living Center
By SUE GUTSCH
St. Luke Living Center reporter
Our chapel filled with residents and guests Friday morning to celebrate Mass with Father Hien of Holy Family Parish.
Others of us mixed up peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies using a recipe from a newspaper holiday cookbook of Mary Ellen Nelson's of Salina. We were a little skeptical because this recipe didn't call for any flour, only oats.
Our project Saturday morning was to complete a "rural winter wonderland" using our handmade snowflakes to compliment an assortment of beautiful snowy pictures. This display occupies the double doors leading into our front dining room.
The Rev. Josh Wesner of Emmanuel Baptist Church and his guitar provided our Sunday afternoon worship service this week.
After lunch Monday, Marie Navrat and the living center pitch enthusiasts played five-handed — which actually translates into 10 hands.
We also observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day Jan. 17 by reading portions of "The Peaceful Warrior," by Ed Clayton, relating to Dr. King's youth, helping us to recognize his potential. In honor of his dream, dedication, and sacrifice, we also sang a couple choruses of "We Shall Overcome."
Many of us happily accepted an invitation to a baby shower held Tuesday morning in our large dining room in honor of two-week-old Sydney Smith and her mother, Ashton. The party was hosted by the St. Luke housekeeping department. Guests included many grandmas, one of them being Sydney's very proud great-grandmother, Agnes Bina.
That afternoon, book club spent the first week with Laura as she lived in the Brewster family's unfriendly home and began teaching the five students at Brewster School. Three of the children's names were Brewster, one of them taller and older than his teacher.
The Rev. Don Mashburn and Strassburg Baptist children of all ages provided Sunday afternoon's church services Jan. 27.
We had scheduled an outing Thursday afternoon, but a lifeless van battery altered our plan. With the help of Amelia and Phyllis, kolache dough, a recipe of Wanda Lowe's was mixed up and placed in the refrigerator for Friday's baking. Other living center bakers stirred up a batch of cherry chip cookies which they baked, frosted, and having a sufficient number of volunteers, ate.
According to schedule, we shaped and baked the kolaches on the morning of the 25th and "played another double-header" because we also made a double-batch of Swedish butter tart cookies. It's always our hope to make enough to have some to share with Gene Vinduska during polka hour Saturday morning.
After lunch, we were pleased to see Elsie Reiswig, who had kindly agreed to call bingo for us. She recently lost her brother and we appreciated her coming during this time of sadness.
In the afternoon we took our postponed outing, traveling around the town of Marion and Marion County Lake. The strong south wind had blown ice into the northern coves, creating a delightful tinkling wind-chime sound, as frozen pieces were blown against each other.
Our Kansas Day observance began Tuesday morning when we used some mental muscle scanning a publication made possible by KDOT, Tallgrass Prairie Parkway Wildlife and Natural Heritage Trail. It highlights 48 sites beginning at the Hollenberg Pony Express Station near Hanover and ending at the official historic site of the Little House on the Prairie, southwest of Independence.
Residents told of visiting many of the sites included in this large, informative, colorful, visual document we picked up at Marion City Library.
We had just finished lunch when Mrs. Hancock and her second graders from Marion Elementary School arrived. The 48 students reviewed Kansas symbols, famous Kansans, and facts of interest, besides singing familiar songs of Kansas for us.
