SMAD

I think I'm struggling with my "royal duties" this weekend.

After last week's attack on my beliefs I'm finding it difficult to be loving and gracious. Yesterday I posted an article on my Facebook page which I hoped would be informational about something that is near and dear to my heart but instead it caused anger in one of our church members and I took it down to avoid further problems. I don't know if this person didn't read it and just made assumptions or what, but the comment that was left had nothing to do with what the article actually said. I know taking it down was the gracious thing to do, yet I'm so tired of stepping aside when what I have to say is important and affects so many people I care about. Instead of being heard I'm told I'm narrow minded, out of touch, selfish, etc. What I want is to find a balance but they don't hear that. It's like they have this preconceived idea of what I believe and they can't open their ears wide enough to get past it. I'm getting tired of the battle and it's affecting everything I do and how I feel. I'm so smad.

 



As a direct result of my "SMAD", I'm supposed to be practicing at the church right now but I can't bring myself to get dressed and go. I might run into someone while there that I just can't deal with today, and maybe...just maybe they've taken all the joy out of serving right now. Instead of practicing I'm making some cards, surfing Pinterest and Facebook and of course...I'm here which is nice.  I'll practice next week...I'll have to. I sure hope I don't regret my decision tomorrow morning. I'll have the Sunday School hour to prepare for church...hopefully that will be enough.

I'm quite tired even though I didn't do much today. I suppose I should clean up my studio there is paper, tools, embossing folders, my Cuttlebug and my Cricut and rubber stamps...everywhere. Then again...maybe I'll wait until after church tomorrow.

Thank you to those who have contacted me recently. I'm really excited to get to know all of you and so I hope if you read this you'll leave a comment.

Night Night

Not much to report. 

God has been good and most days I move through my day with with ease and grace. Our situation hasn't improved and the what-if's haunt me from time to time, but God is faithful and reminds me again and again that He's got this.

The house is quiet tonight. Hubby has hockey to ref and daughter is who-knows-where. I needed the quiet...needed an evening to just do what I wanted when I wanted and have no fear of being in someone else's way or being judged for what I was doing or wasn't doing. 

Before I went to practice and after I cleaned the house and prepared supper I made a couple of cards for our newly formed card club with our local crafters group. Each month each person creates a new greeting card that follows the theme for the month, uploads it to our Facebook page, shares a little about it, etc. Each month's theme is something for the upcoming month/season/holiday. Today I finished my card for March...I actually made two and can't decide which to upload. The theme for March is St. Patrick's or spring, but it needs to have some green goin' on. Since I don't send out St. Patty's Day cards I'll save the one with the ribbon and flowers for my daughter and son-in-law's anniversary in August since the ribbon on there is leftover from their wedding. The card club idea has been great so far. It's forcing me to get some cards made, pushing my creativity forward and getting our group talking and interacting again...all pluses in my book. 

I'm having some trouble lately with my hands and wrists...it's making things difficult for me when I practice. I'm not sure if it's carpel tunnel, arthritis or just what is going on but I sure hope I can make some changes that will turn it around soon.

It's cold tonight...

I don't usually take showers at night but I did tonight and I took my time to enjoy the warmth of the water and then I took time to moisturize every inch of me. It's getting to be that time of year when the gray, bleakness starts taking it's toll and one needs to spend some time once in a while just enjoying some basic take-care-of-me time. 

I'll be heading to bed soon but before I do I'll finish up my me-time ritual with some tennis ball therapy, stretches and deep breathing exercises. I'll sleep like a baby tonight. 

Good night...
                    Sleep tight...

Tuesday Tid-Bits

Today has been a bit mixed up. Last night a parent called wanting to reschedule lessons for today so she could take another one of her children to the dr. this afternoon. That meant rearranging my day, but it worked out fine. Then I had another one call and cancel due to illness, so it's been a bit odd today. 

Our dog Gilmore is losing bladder control - we woke yesterday morning to him coming to get us, but peeing all over our bedroom floor, then he walked down the hall and into the living room all the while peeing away! We of course got him outside and cleaned it up, but when I did the floors it meant running the steam mop. I'm so glad we were able to put wood floors in this house! 

Yesterday I went down the hill to practice on the pipe organ. It is so nice to be able to do that once in a while now. David and I started work on our recital program, but I still don't know what I need to be practicing for certain. I have been very stressed about the whole thing all day today, not to mention he told me he's considering moving himself and his mother to Arizona! He had such a difficult winter this year that he's thinking of moving. I'm just in shock and I don't know what I will do without him involved in my music. 

Friday I tried a new exercise DVD. I think once I get past the initial problems I'm having it will be good, but my arms and shoulders were so tight when I started that I injured my rotator cuff on my left side. I was afraid I did some real serious damage because it hurt so badly, but after doing the ice/heat treatment and going to bed with an Ibuprofen I woke up Sunday morning feeling good enough to play the organ. I'm afraid to try it again until after I get someone to work on me. 

My son is still looking for work - he has a possibility, but he needs to learn a new computer program that his current computer is too old to run and without a job he can't afford to buy a new computer. SIGH. 

Daughter #2 arrived home safely from her backpacking trip and thank God He protected them when they had a close encounter with a big black bear!

Saturday I had the blessing of talking to my oldest and dearest friend on the phone for 3 1/2 hours! We've been friends since the first day of school when we were in the first grade! We don't get to talk often and she doesn't email much, but when we do get together it's like time has stood still...like we've never been apart. It's marvelous and I know how fortunate I am to have this rare kind of friendship. 

More snow is falling - we're due to get another 4-6 inches between now and tomorrow evening and it's possible we could get freezing rain as well. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK. It's only March, but I just can't take any more. 

Lots of things and people on my heart tonight...I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm not sure how I'll spend my evening...I do wish I had someone to just sit down and talk with.

Here are a few cards I made recently. Most of you have probably already seen them on Facebook. I may work on some spring/Easter ideas tonight. 

Remember if you want to have a conversation to click the Notify Me box in the lower right hand corner of the comment area. If we can all remember to do this, it will be more like Multiply. 

Until next time my friends~

Sharing Some Snow

I don't have a lot to say tonight - I've been teaching and practicing and working on this old, tired body this week and that's about all. I have another appointment with my chiropractor tomorrow. I did make a couple of special people some special cards and they both liked them very much. Thank you from the first friend:

Your card arrived yesterday and WOW is it ever nice/neat/cool !! You did a great job on it, and it couldn't be more appropriate. Thanks

Thank you from the second friend:

I have a feeling you knew how much I needed some attention.....  Well, it worked.  Everything about that beautiful card is perfect; It will be displayed and will serve as a reminder...

Thank you.. thank you. thank you.

I love the feeling of knowing I was able to cheer someone up just with just some paper and glue.

Daughter came for a visit yesterday and the sun came out so I got outside to take a few photos of the snow.

This first one is our street; it's nearly impassable now...note the stop sign - standard height for a stop sign by the way.

 This is normal snowfall...by that I mean it hasn't been blown by a snow blower or pushed up by the plow or front end loader...it's just the natural snow accumulation in our back yard. Notice the neighbors van.

 This again is normal snow accumulation and natural blowing and drifting in our back yard. If you look hard you can barely see the top of the 6' privacy fence and that's the top portion of my clothes line pole.

 While Daughter was here she shoveled off the roof of her car. I wish I had got a picture of it before she had removed it all. There was quite a bit up there!

 I wanted to take a picture of my Daughter in front of this snow bank for a reference point, but she wouldn't hear of it so I had her take my picture. I'm 5' 4" tall.

 I'm wondering what the Little Turquoise House will look like by Saturday? Here is our forecast:

..BLIZZARD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM THURSDAY EVENING THROUGH
FRIDAY EVENING...

HAZARDOUS WEATHER...

* SNOW WILL DEVELOP LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND BECOME HEAVY
THURSDAY EVENING. THE SNOW WILL GRADUALLY DIMINISH LATE THURSDAY
NIGHT INTO FRIDAY MORNING.

* STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL OF 8 INCHES OR MORE IS POSSIBLE BY 
MIDDAY FRIDAY. 

* WEST WINDS GUSTING TO 45 MPH WILL DEVELOP LATE THURSDAY NIGHT 
AND CONTINUE THROUGH FRIDAY. THIS MAY PRODUCE BLIZZARD 
CONDITIONS WITH NEAR ZERO VISIBILITIES AND SEVERE BLOWING AND 
DRIFTING SNOW. 

IMPACTS...

* ROADS MAY BECOME SNOW COVERED AND HAZARDOUS THURSDAY EVENING.

* STRONG WEST WINDS WITH WHITEOUT CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE LATE 
THURSDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY. MANY ROADS COULD BECOME 
IMPASSABLE DUE TO THE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. 

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Somewhere I saw accumulation expected to be 8-12". UGH. 

Our son and his girlfriend are coming to visit on Saturday, hopefully the system will be gone by then and they will have safe travels. I'm looking forward to seeing him - I guess it's time to get to know her better...it's sounding serious. 

I'm supposed to be cleaning....

but I'm not. The day is just too pretty to be inside so here I am sitting on my deck, enjoying the sunshine. It's been so long without it that I just can't bear to be inside. The house work beckons  especially the bathtub scum, but I don't care. I may care tomorrow when I shower, but not now. 

My ride to Anita's today was a little more difficult than I had anticipated, but I made it alright. I got quite the stares when I went through the bank drive-through and the Burger King drive-through on my bike! Anita and I ate our sandwiches outside on their picnic table and then took a short walk. I like Ranch sauce to dip my fries in, I learned today she does not - note to self...ketchup for Anita. She was much more talkative today than she has been. Last week I had a difficult time getting her to grasp the concept of licking an envelope shut and today she was talking about how she needed to give the picnic table and good cleaning and she read part of a recipe off the ketchup bottle. I did notice she likes order. She finds things that are alike and lines them all up in a row. Today there were 5 bananas all lined up on the counter and several sets of nail clippers all lined up on the window sill. 

This picture was taken last week - my friend Anita is in the white sweater and the Anita with Alzheimer's is in the red. 

A couple more pictures related to last night: this is the Attendance ribbon I had to make since I can't find award ribbons anymore to purchase. I think I like mine better anyway ;). 

Yesterday I made strawberry-lime water for a recital beverage. It looks pretty and it's very refreshing and good for you. One of my adult students just loved it, but not many others tried it...oh well, more for me. You can use any kind of fruit you like, our pastor's wife used apples and cinnamon sticks. 

Recital Week

Recital Week

Jun 2, '12 9:01 AM for Julie's contacts

I spent all week preparing for this years spring student recital. Because of the short week, I had to cram 5 days worth of lessons into 2 days. Evenings were spent going through each students file and deciding who the recipients of awards would be this year. Thursday night was the recital and for the most part, it went well. The worst part was me having to get up in front of all those parents and talk!!!

I have probably said this before, but I have been so very blessed with excellent students...ones who want to come and really want to learn to play piano. I am very proud of each one, even though their performances weren't perfect, as a matter of fact in most cases, they played their music much better earlier in the week. Almost everyone had some sort of memory failure, but they kept their cool, picked up a book if necessary, and tried again. I've decided for next year I'm going to revamp my memory award. Currently, the award is given to any student who successfully plays all their recital pieces from memory at the recital. Because of nerves and whatever else gets in the way, I'm thinking I will set a goal of a certain amount of pieces to be played by memory by a certain date in order to earn the award. If they play them by memory for the recital, great, but if they played them before the recital by memory and yet it fell apart at the recital, the award could still be earned. Thoughts??

I have a bad habit of quickly getting attached to my students. One such young man, 8 years of age going on 15, joined my studio this year. He is very bright and asks intelligent questions. Recently, l learned he and his family will be moving this summer and so he will not be returning next fall. It has been obvious he is not pleased with the prospect and he came up to me at the reception and said: "I just wanted to thank you for being my piano teacher...without you, I would be in gymnastics right now"! I wanted to laugh, but he was so serious! I told him he was doing well and that I hoped he would continue his piano studies and let me know how he's doing. I'm going to miss him so much. I made him this card and included some music stickers for him.

These are most of my students from the studio this year. There were three that didn't feel prepared for their first recital experience and one who couldn't make it.

A dear friend of mine came to support me last night. I made a comment to her about how much I miss having my mother attend the recitals. She would love to attend just to support my efforts and because she was proud of me. She would also help set everything up with me and help with the clean up afterward. Anyway, my dear friend decided to come and she served punch at the reception so I could mingle with parents and students and then she stayed to wash dishes and pack everything up afterward. What a blessing that was!! I was out of there about an hour earlier than I normally am!

I made this treat out of Twix.

Today is my son's 28th birthday. I sent a check in a card, even though I hate doing that because it seems so impersonal, it is what he needs most right now. I miss the days of planning parties and making special cakes. I remember the year I attempted to decorate the cake like a hockey rink.

Hubby is spending today on the trails...it's National Trails Day. I'm behind on all my housework and so I hope I can muster some motivation to get caught up on some things around here.

I long to do something fun...something totally irresponsible...maybe even a little crazy. I just need something to perk me up.

Well, I'm off to chase dust bunnies...have a wonderful weekend all.

When Negative is Postitive

Jul 20, '11 11:50 AM for Julie's contacts

I can not think of a time when waiting is easy. Whether I'm waiting for something I'm looking forward to or not, waiting is hard and sometimes all consuming. Such was last week for me. Waiting to hear whether or not you will be fighting the big "C" is arduous.

My biopsy was last Tuesday and I was ever so thankful for a peace that finally settled over my soul the day or two before. It was a struggle only because the Dr. had a hard time locating it and staying on it long enough to gather the samples. I was told the pathologist was in town and I would have the results in a couple of days, but I got a call on Friday telling me they sent it out of town and that I wouldn't know anything until Monday. Every time the phone rang on Friday my heart sank into my stomach. I did finally receive that long awaited phone call on Monday...NEGATIVE! I have said many prayers of thanks and praise!! For all of you who have been praying I thank you from the bottom of heart.

I was also able to watch a bald eagle ride the air current above my backyard one day, was serenaded by a gold-finch as I hung the laundry out to dry and was awed by this sunrise which my camera could not come close to justifying.
Strange how now I find myself more often appreciating the simple pleasures of life and the precious gift of family and friends.

Monday was also Hubby's birthday - I made him a card and bought him a couple of pairs of pants.

He has been so strong and supportive the last few weeks - holding me up every time I fell apart. Daughter decided we should take him to an air-conditioned dinner at one of the local spots that give the birthday person a free meal and then go to an air-conditioned movie. He agreed.

Birthday Card

Belated birthday card I made for my son, the architect

Jun 4, '11 7:32 PM for Julie's contacts

Valentine Cards

Valentines

Feb 12, '11 6:51 PM for Julie's contacts

These are the Valentines I made for my family today.