Ready to Welcome Riders

I believe we are in good shape for providing meals for the bike tour. I have one more shopping trip this morning for meat and bread for Monday and Tuesday. Everything else is already at the church. I’ve also taken half my kitchen over there; we have a commercial kitchen, but it’s a bit thin on the equipment that makes cooking easier and more efficient for me. I’ve got a lot of large stainless steel bowls and pans that I use for canning and they will be a big help.

I should note that this bike tour is a big fundraiser for Mennonite Central Committee, and the funds raised from this particular tour are going to benefit Ukraine. Our church has some strong connections there. Donation information is on the linked website.

I will have to do another shopping trip, probably Tuesday afternoon, but we’re waiting to see how much food we go through on Monday.

I was relating to the husband yesterday how my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and my great-aunts did all the cooking for the reception hall owned by my uncle. (Gargus Hall in Lorain, OH, for my Ohio peeps; we had our wedding reception there.) They made copious amounts of roast beef, chicken paprikas and dumplings, stuffed cabbage, parsley potatoes, kolache, kifli, ladyfingers, and other foods almost every weekend for many years.

[In the months leading up to our wedding, my two grandmothers engaged in what I referred to as the kolache wars; one of them would come to church and say that she had made a dozen kolache for the wedding and the next week, the other one would come to church and say that she had made a dozen kolache for the wedding. We had plenty of kolache at the reception. LOL.]

Today is a work day at the church. The new bathrooms are done (and look great!) but the church needs a good cleaning before guests arrive.

The husband is heading over to the new fire hall soon because he and a crew of volunteers (other firefighters) are pouring the concrete footings today. I will try to get some pictures.

Obligatory flower photo:

These are some echinaceas from a few years ago.

Don’t expect many blog posts this week. I’ll be at the church at 5 am every morning getting the coffee going.