My first award! Thanks to a very thoughtful and creative blogger, Dr. Julie-Ann McFann, who publishes several blogs that I enjoy, including Grandma's Sewing Cabinet and the Modern Retro Woman, I've been given the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thank you, Julie-Ann! What a lovely surprise to come home to on Sunday night!

We spent the weekend with my father, and it was a very productive weekend in terms of work. I cleared off all of his kitchen counters and washed all of the jars and containers that were just sitting there collecting cooking grease and splatters and dust. I put them into a box and then arranged only what we actually use to line the backs of the countertops, things like the blender, the food processor, the mixer, etc. But before I put anything back on the counters, I scrubbed them with Ajax and water. I had been trying in past visits to clean them with dishsoap and water, but that just seamed to push the grease around...My father uses a George Foreman grill to cook most of his meals, and the grease that drips from his hamburgers and sausages seems to get everywhere.

Then I tackled some of the shelves in the cupboards, sorting and tossing food that was more than 10 years old. And I finally took up the job of cleaning up a dried-up mess that must have happened when an old can of something exploded on one of the bottom shelves. I don't know what it was, but it really required some elbow grease to clean that mess and get that shelf as clean as the rest. Then I organized his canned and dried goods by category so that he could see at a glance what he has on hand. He was surprised when I showed him how many cans of green beans he had. He hadn't been able to see them before because they had been pushed to the back.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon, my sweet husband helped me to shake down the apples left hanging on Dad's apple tree so that we could rake them up and get rid of them in the yard waste container that will be hauled away this week. My mother and I planted two apple trees in the backyard several years ago, and I'm trying my best now to reclaim the fruit of those trees, which in recent years have been ruined by apple maggots. I read that if you can get rid of the old apples before the ground thaws, that helps to decrease the population for the next season. So I did my best to get what I could last fall, and now we've shaken down and removed the rest.

So that was our weekend, in addition to visiting with my Dad. It was good to see him, as it always is. And I enjoyed cooking him nice meals while I was there, and hearing some of his stories from the past. What a gift to have him still. I miss my mother so much. She's been gone now for 5-1/2 years.

Again, thank you, Julie-Ann, for this sweet award for creativity, and thank you for your wonderful blogs and podcasts. You celebrate the feminine arts in a way that would have made my mother very glad.