Some cook, I sew and write: creativity brings joy

Today I mused on mirrors. My mind reverted to a time when I went around the house looking for a mirror that showed me more of a full length view, and I found nothing.  I realized both my husband and I had put on weight but couldn't see it.  My children had to scramble onto the bathroom counter to see themselves, and that felt all wrong. After packing my children into our minivan, we set off for a very important errand at Walmart. To buy a full length mirror. Upon our arrival home, we paraded around the house looking for the perfect place to see ourselves. We settled on a small entry hall full of doors from all 3 bedrooms, bathroom, front and laundry rooms and hung our noble (and very inexpensive) full-length mirror on the linen closet door.  My children promptly posed in front of it, pulled faces at themselves and each other in it, and finally sat down to play in front of it. At one point, our dog Sassy passed by stopped in astonishment at the other dog staring at her in ...

  I want to share a story about how I receive answers to prayer. To provide a "spoiler": I have never had an angelic visitation or a lightning-bolt response to life's big questions. However, I have received answers. Many years ago, I began to struggle with Isaac’s role in scripture. Is he merely a placeholder in the Abrahamic lineage? A passive figure? I found no answers. In the story of the near-sacrifice, I realized Isaac was not a small boy; he was surely strong enough to resist his aging father. He must have voluntarily succumbed. Because no servant was present, Isaac had to be willing—meaning he had to have his own testimony of God's will. I suspect Sarah also knew; Abraham likely wouldn't have dared return home had she not received her own divine reassurance. Abraham was tested to the absolute limits of his faith, perhaps drawing hope from the memory of his own rescue from an altar in his youth. I had heard many comparisons between Isaac and Christ, and Abra...

 Yesterday things finally clicked in my mind. Red, yellow, and orange peppers are against AIP protocol. I never liked green peppers so I never ate them.  They look so pretty sautéed in butter with onions! I've learned to sauté them in olive oil and often leave out the onions. But guess what? I've been eating them lately and I am waking in the 2 o'clock hour and can't get back to sleep. My skin itches. My Gamin watch tells me that my body battery is climbing slowly. Very slowly. I'm exhausted. Oddly, the skin on my left hip itches so badly I'll leave red scratches if I mindlessly itch. My lips are dry and chapped. I've learned that my skin doesn't naturally itch or get dry and chapped except when I'm eating foods I can't process well. That's an allergic reaction. I finally got curious enough about lectins to start researching them. I checked out The Plant Paradox Cookbook by Dr. Stephen Grundy from the local library. I don't like books wit...

This week I've been working to bring my blood sugar under control so I've been implementing more self care protocols. I have five main things I've been bringing into my daily regimen this past week. The Carol Tuttle morning energy routine shortly after getting up. Whatever plan I'm working in from the Carol Tuttle Healing Center. Right now, I'm participating with the group in the Chakra healing plan. Scriptures. I'm reading The Book of Mormon between a week ago and New Year's.  I've shifted my focus to understand how to quickly shift my focus when I start overthinking negative things. As I build my relationship to Jesus Christ, I can better turn my focus back to Him in those truly awful moments of despair that I'm still dealing with such a limited diet! And when I don't stick with it and eat things that break down too quickly and send my blood sugar soaring. Yoga. I've been doing chair yoga for several months, more off than on. I've found...

 I was scared. Could I change this? It had been over 10 years since I’d first started looking for a cause, longer since I’d easily slept. Facebook posts attest to poor sleeping. Migraines worsened every year. I went from a couple of headaches a year to a couple a week. Sleep habits weren’t changing even with my dietary changes.  To make it worse, I had a Samsung smart watch that tracked my sleep quality.  Lovely. Now I knew how bad it was. DRUMWELL, please. Enter Dr. Lindsey with NAET. It took weeks and quite a few treatments of various things, but my sleep quality started improving. Unless I ate something I was still allergic to, of course. Now I know headache is a sign of allergy. Or of a clearing that didn’t take. I hate those. NAET not only clears physical allergies but emotional origins as well so they can really wipe a girl out!!! Most of emotional stuff that came up as needing clearings immediately brought stories up. Connections, sometimes to ancestors and sometim...

 So I have learned that there is often a marker in our genes for Hashimoto’s. Where was mine? Because I’ve been living with my parents for the past two years, I’ve learned a few things from my sister that I never knew before. Like my dad commenting to her once when he saw her sprouting wheat that his mother used to sprout wheat and she tried many other different, holistic ways to improve her health through nutrition. His mother went blind after his birth because of hypertension. Her nurse sister-in-law came to visit once and saw how sick she was and told my grandfather to rush her to the hospital. She had to have the baby (my dad) that day! My dad was born at 7 months. In 1931. He’s a survivor because the technology did not exist to save him at such an early gestational age! But Grandma went blind for three years due to cataracts. They finally were blue to correct them enough for her to see through coke bottle thick glasses, and she was grateful although embarrassed because they di...

 Between April 2021 and today, I was diagnosed with several autoimmune disorders including Hashimoto’s Disease, high-ish blood sugar levels (under pressure-diabetes but probably always at the higher level so a risk of diabetes), high cholesterol, low blood pressure, and osteoporosis and osteopenia. The Hashimoto’s can explain all of the above. My family nurse practitioner prescribed a low carb, no grains, nuts, seeds, sugar, dairy, nightshades, and high levels of organic beef and meat diet. I think I caught all of that!  After some research, I started the AIP protocol, or Autoimmune Paleo diet, a couple of weeks before Christmas. Yup, I skipped the sugared goodies (mostly).  I’ve actually loved it although it’s expensive. The organic part of the meat stopped because my budget bloomed with the increase in meats. You do the best you can and pray that it will be enough.  Oh, and tons of supplements, adding in methylated B12 and folate, B6, B2, biotin, lysosomal vitamin ...

So I've made it to Day 22. I just got a haircut, and it has been a hard day.  I've had a hard time staying upbeat. Several upsets. BUT One funny story. I went for a drive this evening, and ended up retracing the drive to my high school and returned home by way of the high road, which is no longer the highest road on the mountain. Coming home, I detoured to go past my grandpa’s house, except I couldn’t find it. I went past several more times and couldn’t spot the jungle that marked his house. (When we sold the house, the new owners re-landscaped it and put far, far too many trees, bushes, and other plants in, and then let it overgrow the entire yard.)  Finally, as I approached one last time, I spotted the west side of the house, a side that has been all but invisible for years!  Excitement growing, I searched for less overgrowth and saw it! The front porch!!!  I squealed with excitement! Last summer, I desperately wanted to see the house again so I walked up the drive...

 Reporting in on the journey with the Isagenix Collagen Elixir at 17 days! I’m 17 days into this Collagen Elixir trial, recovering from not much sleep, and hating that I didn’t smile at least a little bit in my first picture! I don’t like documenting my non-smiling self.  Smiles bring joy! So Day 000 with no collagen elixir in my system.  Zip, zero, nada. And today.  I know the backgrounds are different. I’m traveling. There’s not a lot I can do about that. I’m sorry.  I still have dark bags, but I think the puffiness under my eye is lessening. The skin is soft and doesn’t feel dry anymore. That’s a BIG deal. The dark? Umm, heredity so a bit harder to eliminate. I’m not saying impossible, just to be clear! The lines around my mouth are a little less chiseled. I’ll take it! I much prefer smiling pictures.  Much more personality! I remember watching my dad and his smile lines and realizing that if I was going to have lines, I wanted more smiling lines than fr...

 I received my Collagen Elixir yesterday and immediately drank my first bottle. Tasty! Here's Day 1 picture: This morning, I drank a bottle as soon as I got up because it's just the right amount of sweet.  Not too much and not too little! Day 2: It's windy outside, and I took my puppy for a walk.  He's sacked out now.  Learning to walk with me instead of racing after leaves scuttling across the sidewalk taxed him (and me) pretty hard!   Puppy: He's 16 weeks old.  We've had him for 7 weeks now. He and my son Steven have good times playing!

Experiments .  When is the last time you experimented with something?   Cooking? Sewing ? Quilting? New project management technique? Today I decided I was going to try an experiment with a collagen product that Isagenix offers.  I have found I'm cautious about posting pictures of myself, and none without smiling, because I am very aware of smile lines.  A few years ago a fellow at a mall kiosk put a product on my face that was supposed to last for 5 days.  It worked, but I thought the cost was prohibitive.  I decided to try a daily product from another source but my husband suggested I take a look at what Isagenix offered.  I have learned more and more about Isagenix products as he has continued to use their products in his pursuit of weight loss and pain management. So here's my experiment.  I ordered the Beauty Afterglow Bundle.  I'm going to take pictures every day although I won't bore you with daily pictures--maybe weekly.  Let's s...

When my kids were young and money was super tight, Christmas was stressful.  And then a friend introduced me to dollar stores.  Oh, what a find!!! I could take my kids Christmas shopping for their siblings without breaking the bank. Fast forward to my youngest child in high school and beyond.  She loves exploring the inner nooks of dollar stores more than most people.  She LOVES to decorate for every holiday imaginable but she's careful with money.   Enter dollar stores.  To be specific, Dollar Tree. It's a beautiful thing because everything is exactly $1.  So if you have $5 and change, you can buy 5 items.  (Don't forget some change or you can only buy 4 items and still pay tax. The addiction is real.  I dropped in for posterboard today.  A big sheet of white posterboard is only 50 cents.  That's right.  50 pennies!  If that's what you've got, they'll take the pennies.  (Be kind to the cashier though and don't b...

Today it's a balmy 77 degrees outside with 70 percent humidity, and I took my dog for a walk.  I had grand designs of going and walking the Rocky Ridge Reservation later today, but THAT's not going to happen now!  It's far too muggy.  I'm beat! Last night I put the finishing touches on the quilt I started 7 months ago.  It's a throw quilt designed by Angela Walters for a virtual quilt along, Help! How Do I Quilt It?   that she did late 2019.  The border is not part of Angela's panel.  I started this in January.  After quilting ferociously for a few months, my hands started yelling at me with arthritis pain so I backed off.  Life intervened, COVID19 happened, and I went to help my parents in another state.   Coming home, I didn't even want to touch my sewing machine, let along free motion quilt! After several weeks, I decided I needed to finish the project.  After all, I was almost finished already.  That said, I didn't wa...

Last Saturday, my husband, son, and I went for a drive to see some covered bridges, specifically the two longest and shortest (18 feet) in the United States within about 1 1/2 hours of our home.  I hope you enjoy some of these pictures. The shortest!  Travelers had to pay a toll to use it! Why do you keep taking pictures of me, Mom? Go see Aerial Blend on Instagram for some of my husband's photography!

Once again, I've been so much better at posting on Instagram but I resolve to do better!  In fact, I'm resolving to study better and write more in the coming months mostly because I think we all have a need to pay much more attention to the blessings of God during this time of the COVID19 pandemic.  Personally, I think this is only a beginning of more challenges but I believe there are many, many blessings to reap during challenges.  I've also known it is important to pay attention to blessings and to learn when things are good, but the hard times define us by what we decide to focus on. As a result, I am tweaking this blog a bit to help me and hopefully you find the good and great things in our lives. Another reason for my change is because I've found the strain on my wrists and thumbs has been too great for me to continue quilting.  After thinking through my options, I decided to pivot to sewing and joyful creation. So I took up bagmaking to use up some of m...

Wow!  My Instagram followers have a better idea of what I've been doing this year!  I've really slacked off writing!  My journal and personal history has suffered too. On the sewing front, did I show the clothing I made?  I don't think so. This turned into a skirt but no picture?! Comfy dress! My son bought an SUV.   My daughter chatting with us. Emergency surgery on this dinosaur's arm. Love this picture of my husband! Daughter with a missionary companion. Love this shot of the Kirtland Ohio Temple! I bought this kit in May.  My house was going on the real estate market.  What was I thinking?!  I'm hoping to start it sometime this year.  Maybe next. Farewell gift from dear friends in my quilt group! My quilting buddies. A few of the helpers loading our moving van. That guy behind and to the side?  A miracle worker! Driving north in rain.  That's our moving v...