This is the perfect time...

...to focus on GRATITUDE.






I have decided to join this community, to commit to show gratitude to the Lord for all of the wonderful blessings He has brought into my life, and to develop a habit of taking time to see the beauty in the moments that grace my life.

I know that I always have overly ambitious ideals... and I am TRYING SO HARD not to let my perfection get the better of me in this exercise. My typical mindset would be to figure out the equation (goal / # of blessings = days needed to complete) or the inverse (goal / days = # of blessings to count each day) but I'm not gonna do that! You hear me, Self?! We are gonna take this easy and simple and ENJOY the journey! That said.... Here's my first list....

1. My faith
2. My children
3. My children's messes
4. Teaching my children to clean up their messes ;-)
5. My mother
6. The knowledge that I too, was "borne of goodly parents"
7. The Gift of the Holy Ghost
8. SNOW!
9. Rock salt (a must have for my snowy steps)
10. Our home full of treasures and love
11. Charities who want to take my extra "treasures"
12. Friends who have kindly offered to open their homes to my family for Thanksgiving.
13. My nephew, who let me get weepy and tell him how much he is loved.... and who helped me put away our lawn tractors - before the snow started falling!
14. My brothers and sisters - I love them for all of their quirks, insights, humorous moments, and endearing *read:annoying* traits! :-P
15. Learning to love others as the Lord loves them
16. Learning to trust the Lord more and my selfish desires less
17. THE PROCESS
18. Cats

 

Lake Spokane Relay For Life 2010

Please come visit my personal page at The American Cancer Society - 2010 Relay For Life of Lake Spokane WA: I will be walking the Survivor lap for the 4th year in a row. I was first diagnosed with Skin Cancer in May of 2005... WOW! It's been 5 years. And I most recently was diagnosed with Melanoma in April of this month. Thankfully, I have an AMAZING Dr. who was completely responsive and aggressive about it. He removed it the very next day and now I'm healing with LOTS and LOTS of stitches!

Here are a few pics.... (WARNING: These are graphic, like, cut flesh graphic.... beware! Scroll down for the rest of post!) ;0)

This is the area of skin the Doc cut out to ensure that he "got" all of the cancerous cells.

It doesn't look too big.... but that's my Dr's thumb for reference.
(It was rather disconcerting to hear his nurse say "I got the biggest one I could find.." when talking about pathology vials....Um.... biggest WHAT?!?! LOL)

These are the pics of my outer stitches.... The Dr. thought it was too morbid to take pics during the procedure.... Wimp! :-D

So.... that was a week ago today and I still have the stitches (until Monday), BUT I got a call from my most fabulous Doc today!!!! AND THE CANCER IS GONE!!!!!! They are pleased with the results, all of the margins came back as Curative Melanoma!!!!! It is a true and blessed relief, my kids all whooped and hollered when I told them!!!!! My mother and I cried, and everyone I know said thankful prayers!!!!! Now.... the only things left to do are: biopsy/remove some smaller but concerning areas; get my kids to submit to mandatory SPF slathering, every day of their rotten precious ever-lovin' lives'; kiss, hug, pamper, and adore my sweet kids (and their unburned, SPF'd faces) as much as stinking possible; and purchase stock in said SPF companies.

Seriously though, cancer is a scary thing.... families are ripped apart by it daily. Don't let your family go through what mine has. We spend hours and hours and tons of money to give our kids "natural" lives.... natural fibers, natural foods, natural consequences? (lol).... what about NATURAL SKIN?! Sun tans are NOT stylish.... beautiful, protected, adored, loved, natural skin is so fantastically in vogue! So please, come visit my page and help me raise money for cancer awareness and research! Thank you so much!

New Friend Friday....

SO .... I'm NEW at blogging.... and NEW at the blog community... and now, New Friend Friday @ The Girl Creative!!!!

Today is the day where we all get to visit tons of great sites and learn a little about these ladies we blog-stalk and what makes them tick!!! What fun, right?!



Today's inspiration is Most Embarrassing Moment. (dun-dun-dun, as Itty-Bitty would say) So... I have to rack my brain... I really don't have any extremely mortifying moments that haunt me - honestly. But, that is quite possibly because I have done so many crazy and idiotic things in my life that I just have a bit of a "Oh-yeah...what's-new" attitude to embarrassing things! :-D

Here's one I came up with ... Picture me - a not-so-small, single mom with a VERY rambunctous 3yo son. Picture us all dressed up for Church. Picture him throwing a HUGE TANTRUM in the middle of Sacrament meeting - throwing crayons, climbing on the chairs, scrambling away from my grasp. You see where this is going, don't you? Yeah. I grab the little monster booger twerp angel and he flails on the floor.... Now, picture me - a not-so-small-mom-in-a-dress, bending down to swipe that little guy off the floor and swoop him out of the Chapel for a *ahem* talking-to. We spend SEVERAL minutes in lock-down time-out in another room and I casually walk back in and sit him down. I smile at my mother, who leans in to tell me... "When you bent down, your skirt shifted and everyone saw your undergarments." HA HA HA! I tell ya, that's priceless!

Have a great Friday!

It’s done

I started a craft blog for my plan to make Christmas fantastic by not purchasing any gifts!

I tell the story here and share some beautiful and frugal inspirations with you. I will be including photos and videos as the projects get under way.

I have decided to keep this a family/life blog. I will continue to post oddities about my home, family, and interests. This way, I can keep a journal of our lives AND enjoy the selfish desires of frugal creativity! ;-)

Here's a taste of what I'm talking about ---

These adorable Hammock pillows (using old cloth placemats) are featured @ The Red Chair Blog. Who doesn't love a little POP! of color in the backyard?

How about a stack of these 3-D cards for your Pixie family to enjoy? Check 'em out @ Skip to my Lou!

I love these tile coasters from Little Birdie Secrets. A stack of these tied with a ribbon would be a beautiful teacher gift from your child.

I hope you enjoy these great ideas, snag a couple and craft yourself a Frugal Christmas (in April)!

Undecided...

It's clear as I return to this site and re-read the most "recent" posts that my life is certainly not on the path that it was heading six months ago... I'm dealing well with the changes (I think.) but how have to face this new conundrum. Do I delete these frustratingly obsolete stories from my blog-life? Or, do I treat them as what they are - stories that make me who I am - and continue to blog the way I planned to originally? I am thoroughly undecided.

I spend a few minutes - OK, a lot of minutes - each day getting inspired by FANTASTIC mommy blogs and desperately feel the pull to join the throng. I love the creativity these women share with me and want to give back, inspire others, and give credit where credit is due. I've toyed with the idea that I could begin another blog... strictly craft-hair-food-review oriented. One that would not be linked with this "Journal" blog. I wonder though, if in time, that the new blog would become what this one lacks. *shrug* THen again, does it matter? I could change one or the other if that time comes. Right? Hmmm.

Still, I am undecided.