SNOWMAGEDON HODGEPODGE!

With all the snow coming down, Joyce came up with great questions, now for our answers.

1. When did someone last suggest you 'chill out'? Or, when did you last tell someone (or want to tell someone) to 'chill out'? Or, when did you last tell yourself to 'chill out'?
I can't remember the last time I told someone to chill out or the last time someone told me to chill out.  But when I get upset, I tell myself to chill out a lot.  I take a deep breath, count to 100 (or more) and try to chill out before I make a final decision or say something I shouldn't.  Most of the time it works, but once in a while, I should have kept counting....

2. What most recently caused your heart to melt? 
I love holding my Hubby's hand while we watch TV.  We do it a lot.  I love that but what really makes my heart melt is while we are sleeping, we reach for each other.  We are just old romantics at heart.

3.  "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered." G.K. Chesterton  

Your thoughts? When did you last experience either an adventure or an inconvenience? How did you see it at first, as an adventure or an inconvenience?  Does it feel the same in hindsight?

A few weeks ago the car broke down in traffic, I was alone.  It was an inconvenience for sure.  It was so cold and I didn't have heat in the car.  A nice police officer allowed me to sit in his cruiser while I was waiting for Hubby to get to me and then we waited for AAA.  It was an inconvenience for sure.

On the other hand, we sometimes just drive around looking at the beautiful countryside we live in.   We get lost on purpose and drive around, talking and laughing.  To me that is an adventure.  I love that.

4.  A Wendy's Frosty, root beer in a frosty mug, or a frosted chocolate cupcake...of these three, which one is your favorite 'frosty' treat?
Root Beer in a frosty mug on a hot summer day. Hands down. But since it's so cold out, I'm going with the chocolate cupcake.

5. Would you say your life so far this year has been more like a circus or a symphony? Explain why.
More of a symphony so far for sure.  Our lives are filled with joy and laughter and love and grand children.  Family, friends and I love ever minute of it.

6. Since it's a 'snow day' here, what's your favorite song containing the word 'white'?
The first one I though of was White Christmas.

7. If you had to leave the city you currently live in, what would you find the hardest to leave behind?
I love living in the country with neighbors just far away to make it so nice. I would miss the country life.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Well the state shut down. We all stayed in and waited for the snowmagedon.  And guess what?  It really didn't happen.  Yes we got lots of snow, and it blew around a lot, and it was cold.  But it was not what the snow storm of 1978 was and that was the storm this was compared to.  We didn't loose power and we are all OK.  August went out once and fell into the snow.  Since he is 10 inches tall, we knew we had at least 10 inches of show.  He jumped up and into the house in one leap and looked at me with sad scared eyes.  Me, I laughed so hard my side hurt.  

There is another snow event scheduled for the end of the week, We must be playing catch up for all the snow we didn't get in November and December.  That's OK, we're ready. 

An Anniversary of Sorts

This weekend, the 24th and 25th of Janbuary is the one year anniversary of my Stem Cell Harvesting.  It's been an odd year full of blessings and love.

We were sure that we were harvesting stem cells and getting them back in the fall of 2014.  However, the Fall of 2014 has come and gone and my stem cells are still in a freezer.

I look back and see all we have been through.  The  massive chemo that cost me my hair for the first time.  The growth hormone shots to force my body to make many more white cells and force them into my blood stream.  The port that needed to be sewed into my neck because my veins were not big or strong enough to handle the machine that would suck the stem cells out of me.  The harvesting itself which was harder than I hoped it would be and was as hard as I was told it could be.

I look back at how hard it was to gain my strenght again, to get back to work.  How hard it was to play with my grand girls or even sit at a birthday party and not cry.

It's been a year of up and downs, of illness and health.  Of good days and bad.  Of weeks of sleeping and days of energy.

It has been a year of watching my husband do it all, from cooking and cleaning to shopping and laundry.  Driving me everywhere and holding my hand while I slept.

A year of both dogs sleeping on me, near me, checking on me throughout the night.

A year of co workers helping out, doing my job, taking over at times and wishing me luck all the time.

A year of back and forth to doctors for things not really connected to cancer but still somehow connected.

A year of friends taking me out to dinner, lunch, and breakfast to talk, laugh, ask questions and just enjoy each others company.  A year of gifts, calls, emails, cards, funny stories and prayers.  Lots of prayers.

A year of leaning on God to do what I couldn't and to meet my needs.

It's been quite the year!  I have hair now, I have energy now, I have things to do and places to go. I have a job to keep up with and friends to laugh with.
I have a husband I can cook for, and clean up after and even take care when he gets sick.
And someplace up north are my stem cells, frozen. They can stay there for 30 more years.

WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE!

Joyce had a good time coming up with these questions by the look of them.  She has a funny sense of humor.  Join the fun.

1. American Idol is back for a 14th season. Are you watching? Have you ever watched? If you were to audition for the show (or were made to audition), what song would you sing?
I'm not sure I ever watched American Idol from start to finish, ever, in the 14 years they have been on.  I know that I've watched as they got to the final 4 or close to the end.  I'm not a huge fan of the show.  There was a time when the contestants were not very good and were still put on TV to show just how bad they were and for the judges to tell them that they were not very good and I didn't like that.  
If I was were ever forced to audition for the show, I would most likely sing something from Whitney Houston.  I loved her voice and her songs. 

2.  Mark Twain is quoted as saying, "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first." 

So when did you last have to 'eat a frog'? Or two? How'd that work out? 

So I'm guessing  this means to do something that you don't like to do and do it first thing in the morning.  That I do agree with.  Get it over with as fast as you can.  The last time I ate a frog?  Last Saturday, the house really needed cleaning.  I got up and got right at it instead of sleeping in.

3. If you were going on safari, what is the number one animal you'd want to see?

Giraffe. I would love to see one up close.  

4. January 21st is National Granola Bar Day. I know. Do you like granola bars? Chewy or crunchy? Your favorite flavor? How about regular granola? Let's exhaust this topic in honor of the holiday okay?
I don't eat granola bars too often but I do like the chewy ones and ones with raisins and dried fruit.  I do like regular granola on yogurt and cereal.

5. If only_Life was as simple now and it was when I was a kid.  

6. You can add one item to your bedroom. What will it be? Keep it family friendly please.

A Fireplace.  I would like a fireplace in our bedroom. It doesn't have to be big, but just having one would be so nice. 

7. What is one thing you've enjoyed about winter thus far? If it's not winter in your corner of the globe, what season is it, and what is something you've enjoyed about whatever season it happens to be?

Lack of snow!  I can handle the rain, the cold and even the icy roads but oh how I hate a ton of snow.  We have about maybe 3 inches of the stuff that has frozen to the ground by now.  I like not having a lot of snow!

8.  Insert your own random thought here.
It's been just about a year ago that I had my stem cells harvested and frozen for future use.  At that time, we were thinking we were getting them back in the fall of 2014.  Well the fall has come and gone and stem cells are still in the freezer.  I hope they stay there for 30 years.  I hope I continue to do so well, that I don't need them back.  No one fights Cancer alone.  I have Hubby who takes over and runs the house and everything that goes along with it when I can't.  I work for a Company that allows me to do whatever I need to do to allow me to continue to earn a pay check. I have friends who keep me laughing and keep me sane and on top of it all I have a God who has given me all of the others who keep me going.  I feel blessed.  

Favorite Soup

Do you have a favorite soup?  I don't have a favorite. I just like soup on the days when it's cold, freezing rain, lot's of snow, or otherwise just way too nasty to go out.   This week, it was turkey soup.

Soup is just of of those meals that whatever is in the freezer, fridge or even in a can in the cubboard, it all goes into the crockpot and it all blends perfectly into one yummy soup. It must be the crockpot, right?  It works magic!  I like that.

We still had turkey in the freezer from Thanksgiving.  So in the crockpot it went.  To that I added some veggies that were in our freezer, corn, green beans and onions.  To that I added celery, carots, and spices.  Some chicken broth rounds out the soup recipe.  It cooks all day and fills the house with yummy aromas.  Now we had some wonderful Cranberry-Orange-Walnut-Bread that was made for us by a friend and so as the rain came down, and froze to the ground, we had a nice bowl of turkey soup and bread and stayed warm and dry.

What are you making this week?

Freezing Rain Weekend!

So how was your weekend?  Here in the upper right hand corner of the Nation it was very cold but very nice on Saturday because at least the sun was out.  It was too cold to enjoy the outside but it was nice to see the sun streaming in the windows.

Sunday it was freezing rain.  The Patriot's played in the freezing rain and that is the kind of game where those of us at home watching the game are very glad that we are not AT the game in the freezing rain but rather we are home with hot cocoa and a fire going.  WAY TO GO PATS!!

Since I'm not a football fan (can I say that and still live in the North East?) I decided to craft.

I've been really admiring the place settings I've seen on Pinterest lately and really wanting napkins.  Not the paper ones that we buy for the holidays or birthdays but real cotton, cloth napkins.  But Oh My! the prices I saw on Amazon made my Scottish  blood boil over.  So into the fabric bins I went.

I think that a really good size napkin is at least 16 x 16 inches so all I needed was material that was at least that size.  I started cutting  my material and matching it up.  I cut the material 17 x 17 inches.  I figure as long as I'm making one why not back it with a matching fabric and then have have 2.

If you're using new material, make sure to wash, dry and iron it before you cut it up but I was using what I had on hand.  So it was already washed, dried and ironed.

With right sides together, sew all the way around the material, leaving  an opening in order to turn the material right side out.  

Clip corners, cut close to the edges and turn.  

 Then you can top stitch to give it a nice finished look.  Use either a matching or contrasting thread.  Once it's all sewed, fold into thirds and fold in half and you have a great napkin.

August decided to hold down the ones that were done.  He's good like that!

In all I got 8 two sided napkins which really means I have 16 napkins.  Make them to match your kitchen, match the season or holiday.  Use the material you love.  I made some Frozen ones for the grand girls.  They are never too young to learn about napkins. If you don't have material large enough for napkins, how about using Fat Quarters?  Since they come already matched up, according to color schemes, it would be easy to get several napkins out of them.  Think I have a reason to go to the fabric store now.

Did you craft this weekend, what did you do?