We Newk'd it Today! :D

Down another lb. this morning!  That makes 8.8 total!  Loosing always motivates me to go to the treadmill!  I got in my 3 miles, but it was a struggle today!  12 miles so far this week, which is twice what I did last week!  I may skip the treadmill tomorrow!  I have lots of food preparation for the weekend to get done before our guests arrive around 3:30.

Even though I had work to do, I still went thrifting with Tim today for a little while.  Then we went to Newk's Eatery for lunch.  We tried their cup of soup and half sandwich combo.  I got Tomato Basil with my regular Newk's Q sandwich.  Tim got a rice soup with a club sandwich. 

You can see the tumor under Tim's left eye.  It is almost twice the size it was before it went away with treatment #3.  He is getting more lumps and the ones he already has are growing rapidly!  I am praying the doctor gets him on a new, effective treatment SOON!!

Last week when we ate at Pizza Hut for lunch, the guy who waited on us asked me if I had given Tim his "shiner."  It aggravated me that he had the nerve to even ask such a question!  I said, No, he has cancer, hoping it would make him feel bad for being so inconsiderate!  He said, Oh!  Then he tried to redeem himself by saying, But you're gonna beat it, right?  Tim feels self conscious enough about it without someone pointing it out.  Today, one of the ladies we always talk to at Goodwill asked him about it, too!  Really, people?!  Come on!  Give a guy a little respect!  He would love for it to be hidden like the rest of the tumors.  Maybe I'm being to sensitive about it.  Am I being too sensitive about it?

Any way.....change the subject!  :D

After we ate lunch, we went back home and I made out my menu plan for the weekend and then went to Aldi and Walmart to buy the food.

So, my cleaning project for today was my bathroom.  After that I wiped down some of the walls and doorways of finger prints.

I worked til 3:30 when we left to drive up to Pilot Mountain, NC to try out a restaurant that some of our church members had tried when they went up there for a funeral.  The name of the place is "Soppers."  They are in an old hardware store.  There wasn't anyone else there eating the whole time we were there, but there were several carry out orders picked up.  The food was good and we brought home leftovers.

After we got home I went over to Lowes to buy some spring flowers to hang in baskets on the car port.  I also got a basket for my shepherds hook under the tree by the house.  Came back home and took everything to the basement to make the hanging baskets to be ready to hang outside tomorrow.  It is going to be so cool tonight that the weather gal suggested bringing in plants, so they are hanging in the basement for tonight and will be safe from the weather.

Tim helped me by filling the pots with potting mix and fixing broken "arms" on the baskets.

I have a total of 8 of these.  I bought French Marigolds (dwarf), the yellow ones, and the white and pink are Vinca.

This is Verbena that I got to hang on the shepherds hook.  I'm still hoping for hummingbirds to be attracted!

So, now I'll show you the piled up stuff that I have taken out of the other parts of the house during this cleaning spree.

Quilt rack, reading pillow, frames, shelves, decorations, pictures.  This mess is in the laundry room.

These were in the laundry room til I put the cubby holder in the laundry room.  And the top box is jewelry from the yard sale at Liz's last weekend.

This mess is my desk!  I have not sat at the desk much at all this week since I've been busy cleaning.

Well, I did tackle the desk after I finished the flowers in the basement.  I caught up the checkbook entries, put things back where they belonged and piled the books in a neater pile. 

Tomorrow, Tim will move his toiletries into my bathroom and I will clean his bathroom for our guests.  I will put on the 6-hour stew to cook.  I'll cook the sausage that will go into the breakfast casserole that I will finish making before I go to bed tomorrow.  I'll cook the sausage and ground turkey that will go into my chili for Sunday's church dinner.  Actually, I'll probably go ahead and fix the chili so I can just put it in a crockpot to keep warm on Sunday.  It's gonna be cool here this weekend, so I thought chili would be a welcome change.  And I'll probably go ahead and bake the cookies for the Sunday dinner, too.  I also have an apple pie to cook.

OK, I'm gonna finish up this post with one last, totally adorable picture................

Araya in her newest head adornment.  How precious!

It is hard to believe that she will be 6 months old on Monday the 27th!  They grow up way toooooooo fast!  :(

Nite!

Progress

So, I walked another 3 miles today.  That makes 9 miles for the week so far.  That's pretty good!  I will do 3 more tomorrow and 3 more on Friday and I'll take a break for the rest of the weekend.  Unfortunately, for me, that means I will probably gain some weight back.  Last weekend, I gained 2 lbs back.  Sunday came and my body wanted to eat all day long!  So, I did OK basically with the meals, but I ate more than I had the rest of the week.  Plus, I wanted salt, so I ended up eating a couple handfulls of Cheetos.  I just decided to go ahead and do it and get it out of my system!  So, it worked!  I've had no desire for any this week!  :D

This week has made my total weight loss equal 8 lbs.  I'm satisfied with that!  One of the things that has helped tremendously is that I have been busy cleaning and getting ready for our house guests that will arrive on Friday.  Today after I walked on the treadmill, I went to Walmart to get curtains for the man cave.  I ironed and hung those, cleaned up the dishes by emptying the dish washer and then loading it back up again.  Then I tackled the kitchen floor!  After I got started, I was sorry I had!  I have tried lots of things to clean the floor with no results.  Besides the ground in dirt in the little grooves in the pattern, there were black scuff marks from Tim's shoes to deal with.

Well, I got the bright idea to use Comet and a scrub brush, which I hadn't tried before.  Well, as you can see from this picture, it worked great!

My "test" area for the comet.

 There was only one problem, being down on all fours was killing me!  My wrists, in particular, leaning on one and scrubbing with the other!  I knew I could not do this for very long!  So, I decided to try using the wet mop.  It did a fair job, but the heavily traveled places didn't get as clean as I wanted.....BUT, at least I was standing and mopping instead of down on the floor!

About 3/4 of the way through the process, I realized that if I let the mopped area "soak" for a bit that I could mop again with better results as some of the dirt soaked up the wet and released itself onto the mop better!  The painful part came when I had to get all of the comet back up off the floor!  It took FOREVER mopping, rinsing, mopping again, rinsing again in the same spot over and over!  I'm sure it still has some comet residue, but at least the scuff marks are gone and most of the floor looks like it is brand new!

Joy, at church, told me she had the same floor and she only mopped it with white vinegar and did so every day!  I need to buy the vinegar, but I think I will try to mop every day and see if that helps!  Plus, an added bonus to using the vinegar is that it will keep the ants away!  :D

I've only been on facebook during the day this week when I would take a potty break!  :D  So, I took my phone to church to check in before everyone started arriving before church.  When I walked across the parking lot, I caught this beautiful cloud/sun sky!  LOVE taking pictures of the sky when the clouds make it look so beautiful!

Tim and I will do our regular thrifting tomorrow.  We will eat lunch at Newk's.  He said that way I can get a great salad!  But I said, No way!  I'm gonna have my favorite chicken barbque sandwich!  The sauce is a white sauce and tastes like it might be made with horseradish.  I didn't like horseradish as a kid, but it sure is delish mixed with other things!  :D

Not sure what cleaning I will tackle tomorrow!  I know one thing for sure that I need to do is work on my menus for the weekend!  AND do the grocery shopping for that!  We shall see what strikes my fancy!  :D

Nite!

Spring Cleaning

I've been Spring cleaning this week.  My motivation.......the revival evangelist and his wife will be spending a couple of days with us!  :D

Yesterday, I worked on the dining room/formal living room area all day long.

Today, I worked on the guest bedroom and the "man cave."  I switched some of the furniture around in the guest room, bought new sheets for that bed.  I had been using the King size that I had in Buffalo when I put 2 air mattresses together for Michael and Jessica to sleep on when they came for a visit.  However, since the guest bed is a queen size, I was always having to tuck lots of the fitted sheet under the mattress and the flat sheet hung WAAAAAY down the side of the bed.  Plus, the king size pillow cases had to be tucked in!  I was tired of having to do all of that, so I bought a new set!  I also bought some artificial tulips for a vase to add a nice touch of spring to the room!  I also replaced the half length mirror for a full length one.

That room being done, I moved on to the "man cave."  WHAT a mess I discovered behind the hide-a-bed couch!  Spider webs, bugs and dirt and dust GALORE!!!  I can safely say that I have not pulled that couch out since we moved here in August 2008!  I moved all of the other furniture out to sweep around and under everything.  Wiped down the FILTHY blinds, dusted and swept.  The rag was so dirty that I just threw it away!

Then I did a few things in the kitchen, put the king size sheets in the wash and sat down!

Tomorrow, I need to call Mrs. Grigsby to find out if they have any food allergies or restrictions so I can begin planning my menus.  I also need to buy new curtains for the "man cave."  I will do that after I go to the treadmill.  I'm not sure what room I'm going to tackle tomorrow!  I need to tackle the laundry room and/or my craft room as things I take out of the other rooms are landing in these 2 rooms!  YIKES!  I need to have a yard sale SOONER than later, for sure!  :D

OK, that's it for me!

Nite!

Stuff

Just gonna catch up a bit for ya.......

Thursday, April 16
Tim had a dermatologist appt. today, so I went to the gym while he was gone and then we went to the thrifts after he came back.

We ate at Pizza Hut so he could do pizza and I could do the salad bar.  For dinner, we went to Macaroni Grill.  YUM!

This is my Bible page for the day.

Friday, April 17.......

I went to help Elisabeth in her yard sale.  It was a cold and cloudy day.  Not too many customers.

When I got back, Tim and I went to Chili's.

Saturday, April 18.......

Visitation and then back to Liz's.  She had been busy all day!  It was a beautiful day, weather-wise!  She made about $300 and I made $18.85!

Brad was home all week so he could build the deck around the pool.  That didn't happen because of the rain, but he was able to work on it today.  The kids had their bathing suits on and were ready to get in the water, even though it was only 65 degrees!  They did get in later after I left, but they didn't stay in very long!  :D

Doesn't it look inviting?!  :D

Sunday, April 19.......
Church, as usual.  In the afternoon, I did some scrapbooking for some challenges at The DigiChick:

The challenge:  Use an alpha for the title.

The challenge:  Recap the month of March.

The challenge:  Scraplift a page with the subject being about something/someone you love.

This was the page I based my scraplift around.

The challenge:  Use this template.

The challenge:  Use every piece in this digital kit.

The challenge:  Use the template.

That brings me to today.......
We are getting ready for Revival at the end of the week, so I made this sign.....

I did the sign after I got back from walking 3 miles on the treadmill and then going to Walmart for a few items.  The rest of the day I spent cleaning and getting ready for our guests later this week.  The evangelist and his wife will be staying in the spare bedroom during revival.

Nite!

Treatments and Thoughts of Mom

Tim had (probably) his last injection treatment today.  The treatments are doing no good on any lumps (tumors) except the ones being injected.  He has gained 5 new lumps since the last treatment 2 weeks ago and all of the other lumps are getting bigger, some doubling in size.  That is scary!  LOTS of the old lumps have returned.  And if that many have returned that we can see, how many are there that we cannot see?

Tim asked the doctor of his concern and he said he is concerned and will check results in two weeks and then begin the process of a new treatment.  The injections "should" be ground work for the next treatment, so he says.  However, the treatment he is thinking of  is like the second treatment, which did no good.  We are concerned about the cancer growing and spreading to other organs the longer they grow and multiply!

We know the LORD is in control of the situation, but it doesn't keep discouragement from creeping in when new tumors are growing all the time.  Thank you, Lord, that Tim is not sickly! 

Well, I DID begin a "diet" this week.  Really, just cutting back on the calories and I've been going to Planet Fitness every day and walking on the treadmill for half an hour and getting in 1 1/2 miles each time, so that is walking at a pace of 3 mph.  I want to keep this up for the first week.  Then I will gradually add more time to the walk.  I don't intend (right now, at least) to change the pace, only the time.  We will see what the future holds.  So far I have lost 5.4 lbs.  Thank you, Lord!  And help me to continue on this path!

Today, for some reason, I've been thinking about mom.  Maybe because I saw an ad for Mother's Day cards.  Mom went home to be with the Lord in 2005. Proverbs 31:31 "Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised." Mom was a godly woman, but I didn't appreciate that much as a teenager. I'm glad she stood her ground for Christ in raising us in the fear and admonition of the LORD!

Here's my Bible art journaling page for this scripture.

Clip art of woman from internet. I colored with watercolor pencils then used a product called, Gamsol, to "blend" the color.  I need more practice with this technique, for sure!  But, I like how it turned out!

Nite!

Abigail, the Birthday Girl

Went to a little birthday party for Abby, who turned 4 yesterday, April 13th.  Time is just flying by!  Brad grilled hot dogs and burgers.  We had chips and dip.  Then Abby opened her presents.  But she seemed to be more interested in the cake than the presents!  :D

Abby took each item out of the gift wrap, laid it to the side and went on to the next present.  She wanted to get finished because she wanted cake!  :D

Climbing into the huge bag to get to her new pillows.

More presents!

Meanwhile, Ryan and Hannah make up a picture for Abby.

Posing.  Don't know why she put her leg up each time!  :D

Making goofy faced with the cake icing.

Hannah and Ryan love spending time in the tree out in the front of the house.

It really is a great tree for climbing!

Ryan says this is the way he like to relax in the tree!

Hannah balancing without hands.

Abby had to do it, too!  :D

I bought some canvas containers for the cubby shelves I bought.  Had to take one of them back because it was ripped.

 Here's some Bible pages.

I don't like this one.  It is too busy.  And I don't like the puffy stickers.

This picture doesn't show the greens and blues behind the brown.

Tomorrow is another injection day for Tim, if the doctor decides to continue this treatment.  The appointment is a little later, so we will probably be there all day!  :(

That's it for today! Nite!

Storage Solutions

I'm always looking for bigger and better ways to store things.  So, I keep my eyes open while we are thrifting.  This past Thursday, I saw an 8-hole cubby shelf at Goodwill for $26.  It was in really good shape and very sturdy.  I felt like that was a good price to pay for it.  Tim's comment was, "you can probably get it cheaper at Lowes."  I was pretty sure that I could not.  But, I didn't take it.  They also had a 12-hole cubby marked at $46.  I really thought that was too much to charge for it.

Long story short, I looked up cubby storage units at Lowes and they wanted $39.98 for a 6-hole cubby!  So, on Saturday I went back to Goodwill for the 8-hole cubby, figuring it would probably already be gone.  Sure enough, it was gone!  However, I looked at the 12-hole cubby again.  LO and BEHOLD!  They had reduced the price to $35.  It was mine!  And, they were even able to get it in the trunk of my small chevy trunk, even though it stuck out the back some.  They ran a bungy strap from the trunk lid to the bumper and I made my way home, one happy camper!  For now, I have it in the laundry/toy room.  I will be on the look out for fabric "baskets" to fit the cubbies for toy storage.

For now, I have the drawers from a plastic 3-drawer storage unit in the bottom cubbies with dolls and doll clothes, etc in them.  I like the fact that I can also rotate the unit 90 degrees for a shorter, wider unit.

Well, I'm dreading it but tomorrow I intend to start dieting and exercising (walking on the treadmill at Planet Fitness).  I have got to do something!  I am just WAY too fat!  I don't even like myself anymore!  Prayers would be appreciated, please!  It is going to take every bit of will power I can muster up AND God's help!

Here's a couple of Bible journalings I have done since my last post.

After Jesus' resurrection, He just appeared in the midst of the disciples and it scared the holy crap out of them!  But, he told them to touch him to feel flesh and bones, which ghosts do not have.

This is where Jesus gave the disciples the Great Commission to go out into the world and preach the gospel.  I had to add some yellow washi tape to section off the part I had done previously on the right.

This one is a little too cramped for me.  "His mercies are always NEW!"

That's it for today!  Hope you have a great week!
Nite!

It's NOT Over!

She Reads Truth devotion for today, Luke 24:13-35, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
How often does Jesus walk with me, and because of the "weight of the world" that I have allowed to pile up on my shoulders, I don't even know He is there? More often than not, I am afraid! :(

The 2 disciples that were walking on the road to Emmaus when Jesus approached them were, I picture, totally down in the mouth, shoulders stooped, feeling totally forlorn and not knowing which way to turn now that their Leader had been crucified and buried! They had forgotten about Jesus predicting and talking about His demise AND that He would RISE again!

I can just imagine the look on their faces when "the light came on" and they realized the stranger they had been talking to was actually the resurrected Jesus! I picture them running as fast as they could to tell the other disciples that Jesus was, INDEED, Risen from the dead! HE'S ALIVE!!! They, no doubt leaped, cheered and jumped for joy the whole way down the road!

I decided to add this to the back of the "tip in" from yesterday because the words to the song, I can imagine, is what they sang all the way down the road! :)  How excited they must have been! I know I'm EXCITED!!!   HE'S ALIVE!!!  ALIVE, INDEED!!!

Well, today is National Sibling Day, so thought I would share this one from around 1964.  Please notice the EXTRA short bangs on me and the CROOKED ones on Kim!  It's a mom thing!  And my girls can attest to that fact!  :D

We had our 2nd ladies meeting at church tonight!  WONDERFUL turn out!  10 other ladies besides me came out!  Thank You, Lord!  We had some time around God's Word, learning some of the background of the book of Ruth (I had WAAAAY too much information for one night!), shared snacks, laughs and prayer!

Tomorrow we begin our Spring visitation at 10:30.

NITE!

Bible and Devotion

These two, Bible and Devotion, go hand in hand.  You MUST be devoted to reading your Bible on a regular basis to grow spiritually.  If you feel like you are at a stand still in your Christian life, ask yourself if you are REALLY as devoted to reading His Word as you should be.

Since I found the Bible art journaling community, I have spent lots more time in God's Word on a daily basis!  It causes me to hunger for "just a little bit more."  :D  It helps me focus more on what I am reading.  I LOOK for the tidbits that God has for me to remember from the passage.

Your Bible should be your main focus in reading and studying.  But, I also like to read a devotional.  Sometimes, the Devotional goes right along with the passage I am reading!  That is pretty neat!

Here's some pages I have done since my last post:

I decided to add some art to the "Jesus Calling" devotional, if the inspiration stuck me to do so. 

Jesus Calling devotional

 I kinda messed up on the left hand, but this brought back to my remembrance the time I went with Kara to a pottery class.

Jesus Calling devotional.

 So glad God is on my side!

Jesus Calling devotional

 She Reads Truth is focusing on the time after Jesus' resurrection to when he ascends back up to heaven.  The art is from the internet.  I printed it, outlined it with a micron pen, colored it and then taped it in place on one side so it could be lifted for journaling underneath.

She Reads Truth

 This is the chorus to the song, "He's Alive."

Song to go along with the She Reads Truth devotion.

 I loved how that Jesus called Mary by name.  It wasn't until he did that she realized who He was.

She Reads Truth

 I was able to tie Jesus Calling's reading into the She Reads Truth scripture reading.

She Reads Truth

Jesus Calling devotional

In other news, we had some rain tonight.  It got very dark while we were eating at Chili's and looked like it would cut loose any minute!  It didn't rain until we were in the car and headed for home.  Streaks of lightning cross the sky with thunder and BIG drops!  But, it basically circled around the house.  We got a bit of rain, but nothing from the thunder clouds we were in on the way home!

Storm clouds from Silas Creek

Clouds breaking up out towards the mall.

Got to the house and all was dry with some visitors in the yard

Stretching

Love taking cloud pictures with the sun shining through

The lilies we bought for the Easter Service last Sunday.

I was able to smell them a bit, but not much.  Tim said he could really smell them while he was preaching.

We went thrifting today and the only thing we found was a storage container and ink for the church printer.  We went to Gullions to pick up the VBS materials and I found this used, but practically new Bible.  Lots of notes, profiles and devotional comments.

That's it for today!  Nite!