Spanky's Clubhouse

Here is the recipe for the apple pudding that we had the other day. I would call it apple cake. This is a very old recipe from Reatha Lake's mother-in-law. I like old simple recipes so here it is. It might be very good for Thanksgiving.

Today I received a great package in the mail. I ordered a book by Joyce Rupp, one of my favorite authors, the book is called "Walk in a Relaxed Manner : Life Lessons from the Camino." This is about Joyce Rupp's story of her pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago which is full of adventure, humor, heartbreak, and most of all, insight for each of us wherever we are on life's journey. At age 60 Joyce Rupp didn't know what she was getting into when she bagan a 37-day pilgrimage along the Camino De Santiago in Northern Spain. Joined by her walking friend Tom, a retired pastor, Joyce learned lessons that can help all of us travel on life's up-and- down journey with more grace and lightness. I am really looking forward to reading this book. First of all, I like the author and I love to walk outside so I know she will have much to teach me. Believe me I still have much to learn even though I have lived over a half of a century. The author is well known for her work as a writer, spiritual "midwife," and conference speaker. She is a member of the Servite community and has led retreats throughout the world. She lives in Iowa. Her home page is at www.joycerupp.com Walking helps to clear your mind and meditate on God's creations and see things and hear things that you are usually to busy to notice. Some of her other books that I have are "The Cup of Life" and "The Circle of Life".

Today five of my friends and I played Garbage which sounds rather strange but it is a card game. It is very simple and you can play and talk and eat and just have a good time together. We played with two decks of cards and some pennies. Everyone must ante two pennies to begin and then the dealer deals five cards to all. The first round consists of seeing who has the best poker hand and then the winner gets all the pennies from the ante. Next the round is called insies and the dealer turns over the next five cards-if you have the number the dealer turns over you must put in one penny for the first one turned over, two pennies for the second card turned up, three pennies for the third card turned over, four pennies for the fourth card , and five pennies for the fifth. The next round is outsies and the dealer turns five more cards over and each person gets to take pennies out this time as the dealer announces the card number such as four's take out one penny, Jacks take out two pennies, tens take out three pennies and so on as to what card is turned over. If there is not enough pennies to pay everyone the dealer has to pay them and if there are pennies left in the middle after the last two round the dealer keeps the pennies. The fourth round is played with the same cards- you play bingo as the dealer turns over the cards you put a penny on the cards that you have that are the same as the dealer turns over and the first one to get all the cards covered calls Bingo and gets the pennies that were used to play bingo from all the players. The last round is strictly for the dealer as they turn over thirteen cards one at a time-if the number on the card is the same as the one the dealer calls out as they count from one to thirteen they get that many pennies from each of the people playing the game. For example as the dealer counts if he is on six and turns over a six everyone must give the dealer six pennies. It was a fun afternoon and then we ended with a wonderful apple cake. A great way to spend time with those you like and good conversation besides. Try it is a great game. Usually you start out with a hundred pennies.

Since my kids both have a blog spot I decided to try this, too. I don't know what I am doing but it will be fun. I chose this name for my blog spot because Spanky has been my nickname since I was 5 years old. The name Spanky came from "The Little Rascals" TV show that we use to watch. My family was all sick with the flu and we gave everyone a name of one of the characters on the show and guess what mine stuck. They had a little gang of kids that would get themselves into all kinds of predicaments and they were funny. They had a clubhouse and that is what I use to like to do with my friends is have little clubs. Now we have a little neighbor boy who is also nick-named Spanky which is really amazing. So from our little clubhouse in Shannon this is a first. The weather here has been great here for November in Illinois. Temperatures in the 60's. We had a new tree planted last Wednesday, November 2nd outside our clubhouse. We have been raking tons of leaves and now we are planting another tree so we can have a ton more of leaves only these will be red ones to go along with all of our yellow ones. Does anyone remember "The Little Rascals"? Can you name all of the little kids? Do you remember the dog with the spot over his eye?