St. Luke Living Center
By SUE GUTSCH
St. Luke Living Center correspondent
June 1-6
A full house of bakers, some only there for sampling, whipped up a batch of variety cookies Friday morning. The recipe from Marjorie Becker of Centralia called for either mashed bananas, applesauce, or pumpkin — hence the "variety." We used bananas and nuts, adding raisins to half the dough and chocolate chips to the other half. Both varieties were quite god.
Great-grandmother and great-granddaughter, Magdalen Dvorak and Kara Druse were volunteer bingo croupiers Friday afternoon. You can bet your money kolaches were served by this duo. The game isn't the main draw when Magdalen comes.
We listened to Gene and his accordion Saturday morning during polka hour. In the afternoon, balloons and more balloons were used to help Jane Williams celebrate her birthday. There were balloons, real and candy ones on the huge cake, tablecloths, and napkins. A large group of relatives and friends plus many residents enjoyed refreshments provided by her family, sang "Happy Birthday," and offered Jane their best wishes.
The Rev. Mike Eurit and wife Joyce of Eastmoor United Methodist Church brought the Sunday afternoon message in word and songs of praise. Your efforts certainly enhance the Sabbath.
Someone must have said "fill'er up" Monday because it certainly was full. We took our walks and prettied up before lunch. The pitch players — Irma, Amelia, Olinda, Ruby, and volunteer Marie Navrat — took up residence in our front dining room as quickly as the noon meal was finished.
We were invited for ice cream, dished up by the St. Luke Chingawassa gang at 2 p.m. in our large dining room. And finally, there was the inimitable piano style of Ellen Darrow. She played selections of songs from years ago we remembered and enjoyed hearing once again.
We found ways to use some mental muscle Tuesday and enjoyed doing it. There was a variety of challenges including crossword puzzles, word search, mazes, dot-to-dot, color-by-numbers, and other word games which occupied most of the morning.
In the afternoon "book clubbers" celebrated Independence Day with the Wilder family including the firing of the big shiny brass cannons in the town of Malone.
Wednesday morning prayer group met in the chapel with Lydia Batt and a hymn book at the piano and Sue standing in for Dick Pracht.
Mary Ann Wiens and Frankie Turner were here in the afternoon to visit with friends from Eastmoor UMC and brought still-warm homemade cookies to go with some coffee.
Many others were at current events and we were amazed and rejoiced as we read the article about little Wyatt Helmer and his family.
Last week's news
We owe Carlsons' Grocery and the weekly happiness magazine our thanks for the peanut butter cookie recipe bakers made Friday morning. Possibly we shouldn't take all the credit, but Deanna gave our culinary efforts an A+ for the second week.
Chairs and tables the length of our large dining room were filled with bingo players that afternoon. Lois Winter was the caller and she provided as many opportunities to win as possible.
Potpourri should have been the title of Saturday afternoon's activity. We completed our personally-designed potted plant pictures and secured them on doors throughout the facility. Then we combined our artistic talents to finish adding color to a second group of large professional illustrations begun several months ago.
Then as we read, we also reminisced with "The Hired Girl," Margaret Mitchell, who took her first summer job as a 13-year-old in 1935, for $3 per week. The good ol' days!
The Rev. and Mrs. Carl Helm of Marion Christian Church were here to bring the Sunday afternoon worship service. Lydia Batt played the piano for the group.
We prettied up first thing Monday morning and the remainder of the day was spent observing Memorial Day. Beginning at 11:15 Khrista cooked hot dogs on the grill in the courtyard. As we became hungry we added baked beans, potato salad, and all the watermelon we could hold. A seed-spitting contest was not on the agenda, but was discussed and put on hold.
Resting briefly before boarding our large van to capacity, we took a trip to the Marion and Florence cemeteries, returning home via Sunflower Road. A second full load left when the pitch players "played out." Marie Navrat and Joyce Ford accompanied this group to Marion, Pilsen, and Lincolnville cemeteries.
Mental muscle was used Tuesday morning to play categories which included words or small phrases beginning with "May" such as pole, West, and tag. The "graduation" category tested our stellar spellers with baccalaureate, valedictorian, salutatorian, commencement, and circumstance.
In the afternoon, we sheared sheep with Farmer Boy Almanzo, his brother Royal, their father, and "Lazy" John. It's amazing how this series of books stimulates remembrance and recall of knowledge and experience. The hour seems to fly by.
Wednesday afternoon was quite special when Dennis and Nila Burch of Lincolnville entertained and inspired us with a wonderful program of gospel music. The "buzz" could still be heard on Friday.
Even though some May birthdays had been celebrated earlier, Thursday afternoon we honored all the May people at our monthly shindig. Irma Reznicek's date of birth is May 31 and several of her family members were here. Mary Loewen and Betty Stroda brought angel food cakes and strawberries and John Reznicek, Carol Makovec, and Bob Reznicek also came to help their mom and sister celebrate. Ruby Holub ate lunch with Irma but couldn't stay for the party.
