It has been...

a busy day.  Groceries were delivered early this afternoon.  After putting away everything except the food I had ordered to be dehydrated, I filled 13 trays with cole slaw mix (shredded cabbage and carrots) and got those to drying.  I still have maybe a half gallon of mix left to dry.

I had ordered red seedless grapes that were on sale to experiment with dehydrating them.  Some folks dry grapes to make their own raisins, but this doesn't appeal to me.  Maybe if I grew my own grapes it might be cost effective, but using grapes bought by the pound at the grocery makes for some expensive raisins.  I had seen a video about dehydrating grapes as a kind of snack food like other dried fruit, so I filled half of a tray with grapes, cut in half to speed up the drying process, as a test.  I'll let you know how they turn out.

The rest of the afternoon I washed and chopped and diced until the tomatoes and celery were ready to be dried as soon as the slaw mix is done.  Chopped onions can smell up the fridge even if stored in freezer bags, so they will wait until I am ready to dehydrate them.  Both dehydrators will be running until all of it is dried.  I was really lucky this week in that there were so many vegetables on sale that can be dehydrated.

Yesterday was a fun day for me.  It was my birthday.  I don't do birthday parties or celebrations for myself any more.  I figure that after 70 of them, I have done enough celebrating over the years.  So I spent the day just puttering about with a little reading and a little sewing and a little napping.  All my kids checked in with birthday wishes.  Late in the morning Oldest Son and his lovely friend had run a couple of errands for me and they stopped by afterward with a pretty card and a cake, which we shared.  Later Oldest Daughter and my Grandson surprised me with a couple of house plants in a cute tin container.  She knows that I tend to kill flowering house plants, so she chose plants that have a fighting chance of survival.  I will do my level best not to murder them.

Youngest Daughter had sent me birthday greetings earlier in the day, and early evening I answered the phone to hear a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" sung by Youngest Son and his offspring.  They were on their way home from Jacob's baseball game.  His team of 2nd grade aged kids had just won their third game in a row.  Woo Hoo - Go Jacob!  They said they had a Dairy Queen treat after the game, in my honor.  (That's an inside joke.  In this family most events, large or small or even made up, are celebrated with a treat at the local Dairy Queen.)

I had a nice surprise later in the evening when my sister called.  She sang "Happy Birthday" to me as well and afterward we both decided we had inherited our singing abilities from our Dad, who couldn't carry a tune in a bucket!  We got caught up on all the family doings and it was fun talking with her.

While talking to my Grands, one of them asked me how I liked being 70.  After thinking about it for a few seconds, I told her that I liked it.  Even though my body seems to be coming apart at the seams sometimes, for the most part I don't feel any different than I did 30 years ago.  Any day I wake up in the morning is a bonus.  Although there might be those who disagree, my mind still seems to be working fairly well.  I am not able to physically do some things I might like to do, but I can still do many things that make me happy and keep me busy.  I have family close by and that makes me happiest of all.  So all things considered, 70 is a pretty good thing to be.  :)