Friday, January 29, 2016

Good morning, I can't believe February is almost here! I said that I would try to catch everyone( for those interested anyway ). We've had lots of changes, so small and not worth mentioning and some much larger. First change is that our son, Jon and his fiance, April, were married in Nov. 2014. They had a small church wedding and our gift to them was we decorated, and helped with part of the reception meal, got their cake and help with other things needed. Here are a few pictures of the wedding. The only sad thing was that Jon's daughter, Jayla could not be in the wedding, because her Mom decided she didn't want them to have her there( another long story, because they were in legal battle over custody and until it was settled she had 100% of the custody and..... you can read between the lines) So Jayla didn't get to be in the wedding or at the reception, even though she was supposed to be a flower girl and her outfit was bought and hair appointment set. Okay here are the pictures.

In July 2015 we had a family reunion/ celebration of my Grandmother's life( she passed away in Dec. 2014 at 99 yrs old.) and we were enjoying seeing all of our family and met my step sister and her family. At this reunion Cortney spent time with her cousins at the swimming pool and Mike and I went into a celebration dinner and noticed Cortney didn't look like she felt good, so we asked her and she said she had a headache and upset stomach. After a couple days of her being ill, I started to worry about it being something else. So on the Wenesday after the reunion on Sunday I took her to the ER. After some confusion an MRI was done and she had another brain tumor on the right side, rear of her brain. She underwent treatment at two yrs old for an inoperable brain tumor. This new tumor was creating an extreme amount of pain. She was transfered to the ICU immediately and surgery was done to remove a portion of the golf ball sized tumor, the rest was to close to the brain stem and vessels. The neurosurgeon said he'd done as much as he felt he was skilled to do and we'd have to seek a second opinion from a specialist about what the plan would be for the remaining portion. She recovered well and at her two week appointment asked the doctor when she could return to work. He said she you feel like it but take it slow. Well two days after that appointment she was back to work, working 2-3 hours a day 3 times a week. When she returned for her 1 month follow up he asked how she was doing and if she'd gotten back to work yet. She told him she'd gone back just two days after her two week appointment and he was shocked and said this; " your boss does realize that you had major brain surgery, right?" Then he told her she was one amazing young lady and he wished all his patients had such a good attitude. Here are a few pictures of her head three days after surgery and we were home
Now to present time, we just returned from UT and seeing the specialist and we will be returning next week, where Cortney will undergo another major surgery to have all but a 1 cm. piece removed and when she is recovered from that then a one time high dose radiation will be done on the 1 cm portion. That small portion is just to close to the main blood vessels to risk it. The doctor is the Chief Neurosurgeon over all the NW US and is very sure they can get it all so she will have no further problems. She has a strong spirit and a positive outlook on life, plus thousands of people all over the world are praying for her. Here is a picture of her in Dec. and I think it shows just what a wonderful, fun filled young woman she is
Blessings for your homestead and families, we will keep everyone posted( again for this interested)

Thursday, January 21, 2016

I'm not entirely sure where to begin. I, obviously took a leave from blogging and I will share the many reasons why. When I last posted(I believe in 2012) our son, who had been out of contact with us for a little over 2 yrs. came back into our lives through many blessings straight from God. We had met our granddaughter only twice before seeing her again when she was 3 yrs. old. She is the joy and light in all of our lives and now she is going to be 6yrs old in March, my how time flies.

Other reasons for my stop in blogging was time. I'm not as young as I once was and I was having issues with not being able to multi task like I once did. This was causing stress in my family life, our homesteading life, my marriage and my spiritual life as well. So I can honestly say, I don't like change and had to work through all of these changes in my own way, which ment more time focusing at the tasks at hand and less time on the computer. I have now learned the ins and outs of what I can and can not do and have moved forward in a positive manner with the strength and guidance of God.  I now know my limits and will work to include some of my time blogging as a way to share, learn and grow with others who seek the same in their lives. I am of the belief that we should never stop learning until we die. So...... in the years away I've learned and challenged myself to learn many new things. I've learned to be a Grandmother, a mother to two young adult children, was blessed with a beautiful daughter in law and two, instant and beautiful granddaughters,


I am now an EMT on our volunteer ambulance service( coming on 3 yrs.), learning to knit, finished my first large quilting project and a few small and fun ones too, learning to sew on my treadle sewing machine, getting back into doing things I enjoyed but put on hold to raise our children and homeschool and my newest skill is from the sheep to yarn. I've always wanted to learn to spin and our daughter has the sheep and we have bags of fleeces that we've been shuffling around and around, so I bit the fleece( so to speak) and decided we needed to learn how to do something with them or sell the sheep. I started out in Sept. 2015 with a drop spindle and some washed and dyed wool. First I had to borrow a set of carders and learn how to card the wool, then I worked hard to learn how to spin the wool roving on the drop spindle I was loaned as well. At the next spinners guild meeting everyone was so positive of how well I'd spun the wool, they said I needed a spinning wheel to get going into some major production. So my husband and daughter got in touch with a friend in the guild and she told them of a wheel for sale and they made arrangements to buy it. Of course I had now idea, so I set out to find a deal on a beginner's wheel and that is when husband and daughter had to spill the beans about my Christmas gift. I ended up getting this gift early so I could take some classes. It's a beautiful wheel; a Kromski Sonata and it is designed for easy traveling. I am truly enjoying spinning and soon will learn to ply. Husband built me a lazy kate, so all I need to do is fill another bobbin.
 
Now there are many other things that have happened and happening in my life and the life of my family and farm and I hope to share those with you at some point in time.  I'm just glad to be at a point in life when I can spare some time to include blogging once again. For all those who are still hanging in there and all the new people who've stopped in over the last few years, I'd like to say Thank you and looking forward I pray we can all become friends.
I will work to post at least once a week, some may just be picture blogs of our farm, family and animals just to catch you all up to speed. Until we meet again have a blessed and productive weekend.
 
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