Payless for Shoes - Today Only!

You can get 50% off of your entire purchase at Payless Shoes by going to Oprah.com and printing out the coupon.

Don't delay though, because the coupon is only good thru end of day today!

Happy shopping!

Thankful Thursday - Oct. 29th

I'm thankful for.... - I'm so glad that in 2 days, ready or not, we have to have my mom's apartment cleaned out and keys turned in. I'm very ready to be done with the moving process! - Karen had an ultrasound last week and found that all is well with the baby... except the baby seems to have an extra part! Although Karen, her mom, and I all thought for sure the baby was a "She", "She" is really a "HE"! How'd that happen?! - When I took Michael to get his CT scan last week, the scan showed that his shunt (for the hydrocephalus) is working and his head looked great! - So far only one of us has had the flu! - I'm happy to have lost 2 pounds this week! - So glad that my depression seems to be gone. I still have my ups and downs, but the ups are happier and the downs aren't so scary. - That I finally know what I want to be when I grow up. I'm going to be a social worker of some type. I'll never work for DCFS because I wouldn't ever want that kind of control over anyone's life, but I'm thinking more like a patient advocate of some type. It's what I've been doing for years w/o the pay. - That harmony has been restored to my home... may it last forever! I hope that you all have a wonderful fall day. Some may have falling leaves, other falling snow, but hey! It's all good, right?! ;-)

I was too late!

Thanks for all of your votes! I was just getting ready to do a post revealing which one I'd decided to go with, but when I checked on the deadline of the photo contest, thinking it would be Friday since that is the last business day of the month, I found it was last week! :-( What a bummer! I'll have to submit an entry next time for sure! Did any of you enter?

I think I found a pic that shows my abundant harvest better than any of the ones I asked you about though:



This is the garden I work on more than any other. Nurturing, tending to them, and helping root out the weeds that spring up is the most difficult yet rewarding task I've ever done in my life! May they all grow to be true to themselves and the best they can be is my deepest desire.


Saturday and yesterday I worked on packing up my mom's stuff again. We have to be done by Saturday at the latest, though Friday would be nicer. Not a lot left to do, but still probably several more hours to finish packing, taking to storage, and then cleaning the apartment.

It is a cold, snowy day here today. I'm hoping the sun will come out soon and warm me. I'm not ready for winter yet! Too bad I don't have hot chocolate! Why is it that hot chocolate can transform the coldest, most miserable day into a holiday?

So here's wishing you a day filled with sunshine or at least the brightness of hot chocolate to warm your whole soul! :-)

Place your vote!

I'm planning on entering the "Picture This Abundant Harvest" photo contest over at Gardening Gone Wild. So I need your help to figure out which of the following pictures is best. So leave your vote and tell me which one of the following photos is your favorite! (and let me know if you enter too! I want to see your pic also! :-):


1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Thanks for your help!

Thankful Thursday - in pics - Oct. 22

Words to live by

The first one my mom had hanging up the whole time I was growing up. The second I found at her house as I was packing up her things a week or so ago.

Don’t Quit
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit!

Life is queer with its twists and its turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When they might have won, had they stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victors cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit!
~ Author unknown

Don't Give Up
A bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn.
~Author unknown

Silent Sunday - Oct. 18th

(this one enlarges)












(my sweetie's & my shadows)

Finally! Wedding Pics!!

These pics were taken by Laura at Matchless Memories (www.matchlessmemories.com). All of the pics I'm about to show you were the straight out of the camera shots, except for this one:



She had to edit Josh's bio dad out of the pic so that we had a nice family pic to hang up.

But the rest are the raw shots. I'll show you some of the edited ones when I download the disk that Josh & Karen have onto my computer next week:



















Thanks, Laura, for taking such great pics for us! For the next few days I'll be adding more wedding pics, so stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday - Oct. 14th

I've found the silver lining I've been looking for!

I think I might be getting back to normal! I'm starting to think the way I usually do, which is such a nicer view of life!

This weekend I realized how thankful I am that the Lord has allowed things to happen the way that they have.

1. I'm thankful my aunt's basement flooded before my mom went into the hospital. I remember being in the basement with many of her things wet and ruined and crying and feeling like I'd failed my mom and wishing I would have moved her things out before many got ruined. When I took the mementos and her collections to her home, I told her how I felt and she reassured me that I hadn't failed her and that she was grateful for all I had done. Because of that flood, I got a storage unit set up for those belongings. We are now using the same storage unit to add in the rest of her things. I am not having to rush and find a storage unit now. I don't have to feel that she didn't get to enjoy any of her belongings from my aunt's basement, and I don't have to move that stuff at the same time as packing and moving her belongings now.

2. If sad that she got sick at all, but I'm glad that it was when we still have good weather to be moving her stuff. I can't imagine moving it out in the snow and wet.

3. I'm glad that realizations come little by little instead of all at once.

4. I'm glad that we have time to get her things in order while she is still around to help.

5. I'm glad that I still have time to spend with her.

And more thankfulness for Josh and Karen:

1. I'm glad that their wedding went well and is finished. They were supposed to be getting married at the end of September. What a crazy time *that* would have been!

2. I'm glad that they are happily living in an apartment, able to pay rent and utilities, food and clothing, and some for savings!

3. I'm so thankful that Josh has work and that he has been promoted to Assistant Manager. If Karen has to cut back hours or they decide she should stay home with the baby they will have enough money.


The Lord works in mysterious ways. Sometimes when I think he isn't watching over me at all, he is really preparing ways for things that I have no knowledge of. I need to learn to be meeker and more faithful.

I'm so thankful for the glimmer of insight this weekend. It hasn't changed a thing, but it has made everything look just a little brighter and more optimistic.

Perspective is everything!

A Little of This, A Little of That - Oct. 7th

This week has been killer. Let's just say that I have a really hard time with older teens. Still working on figuring out how to have boundaries without being controlling. And my mom's apartment was supposed to be packed out into a storage unit by now, but between my sister's and my own responsibilities and illnesses, we haven't gotten it done yet.

Yes, my mom went into a residential / long-term nursing home. It was more difficult for her than she let on, trying to put on a happy face but not quite succeeding to pull the wool over our eyes.

She and a friend from her apartment building both found themself at the same nursing home needing a roomate, so they decided to share a room (Medicaid will only allow shared rooms in long-term nursing homes. A lot to look forward to when we get old, eh?). They were together for a little over a week; her friend took a turn for the worse on Saturday and was dying of kidney failure and congestive heart while my mom was at dialysis. She died later that evening.

My mom called me on Saturday night when I was on my way home from the fabric store (I'll show you the cute prints I bought for a quilt I'm going to make for my grandbaby later on in this post.) Steve & I stopped by and tried to console her and get her situated back in her own room. It seems that since her roomie was dying, they put my mom in a different room after dialysis. --A hard situation since dialysis drains all of her energy and she was made to just sit in the room for hours. Usually she comes back and wants to immediately go to bed. Poor dear.--

So we got her back to her room and ready for bed after taking her nighttime meds and insulin. She made a comment that she felt like "a man without a country." So the next day I went to her apartment and boxed up her favorite belongings and took them to her in the nursing home. She isn't allowed many pictures and no furniture can be brought in. The one thing she really wanted - her computer - cannot be brought in because there is no room. I think I'm going to petition the nursing home that if patients can't bring their own pc's from home that the home provides a shared one for the patients' use. I hate for my mom to feel isolated. Anyway, after her room was decorated with her things she said that it felt much better and much more homey. Her spirits have seemed to brighten a bit, too.

My goal was to have her things out of hre apartment by Saturday the 10th. It isn't looking too likely, though I might ask for help to get it done more quickly. I hate asking for help, but I don't want to continue paying for an apartment that isn't and won't be in use anymore.

On the home front, Steve has picked up another webinar class to teach. Besides his class on Tuesday evening he'll be teaching on Friday now. The money is much needed, but I feel badly at how much he works to support us. My being a stay at home mom is important to both of us, but I'm starting to think that it might almost be time that I start helping out more than I do. I'll just be so happy when our debt is knocked out. If we were just paying for the here and now, his full-time job would easily support us and spoil us. I keep having to remind myself that slow and steady wins the race. We are trying hard to follow Dave Ramsey's theories for money and getting out of debt. It is very practical, but it is slow; though it is simple, it is not easy.

Oh! The material I bought for the baby is adorable! I'll make it into 4 patch blocks. And Josh and Karen better be having a girl like I think they are! If not, I'll have to buy more material and try again! I started cutting out the squares last night while watching HOUSE (we record our shows and watch them at our convenience) with the kids and Steve. Take a look at these colors and prints!:



I'm looking forward to putting it all together and seeing it finished, but I'm looking forward even more to seeing the baby snuggled in it!

And here is a doll quilt top that I made last week with the scraps from the log cabin quilt:



I love making little quilt tops. They just seem so much more do-able! I bought the material to finish it up, and I'll show you pics when I'm done. :-)

Good luck with all of *your* projects this week, too!

Emily's Birthday Pics

Finally! I charged my camera's batteries. Here are the pics I promised from Emily's birthday:






(It all turned out well even if she does look forlorn while her "H" isn't lit. My batteries died right after this pic, so I couldn't get another smiley pic to end with.)

Because of Thumper's Rule (If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all. - Life is crazy and not so fun this week.), I'm keeping this a pretty silent post. I hope that you are having a wonderful week, though!