Soul Journal - Part 4

For this part, we had to look for pictures from magazines for different categories. The hard part was finding magazines. We just recycled a bunch a couple weeks ago so I had to scrounge around. We could put the pics in any grid order we wanted. I chose to put them in the order of the list Sarah gave. That's just me!

1. A smile

2. Something beautiful - what's more beautiful than a baby?!

3. A chair

4. Something red

5. Something blue

6. Something comfortable - it feels so good to come home from work and change into shorts!

7. Something exotic

8. A leaf

9. A color you love - green

10. A pattern

11. A flower - I chose a picture of a water lily. I had one bloom in my pond this year.

12. A bird - one of my favorites, the American Goldfinch. If you don't know birds, the male is the one with the bright yellow color.

13. Something you want - I've always wanted a house with a wrap around porch.

14. Something you own

15. The letter R

16. Something that smells good - a beautiful camilla

17. Something that tastes good - nothing tastes better than Jersey tomatoes and corn

18. A circle

19. The letter A

20. An eye that's the same color as yours - blue

21. A hand

22. The letter T

23. A butterfly

24. A number

Have to go look for tape for the next step.

Soul Journal - Part 3

For this part, Sarah asked us to think of strength and protection and about what we turn to when we are "under siege". She also asked us to think about what our creative spirit needs more of and how do we keep all those critical voices from crippling us in our crusade.

The first thing that came to my mind was "The Armor of God". This is what I did to represent my strength and protection when I'm "under siege" and need help in silencing the critical voices. Even having a creative spirit comes from God. He chose not to give me as much creativity as others, but that's okay!!

Busy doing nothing

Do you ever get that way? Feels like you have no time to anything because you're so busy doing nothing!

Haven't worked on my Soul Journal since the other day. I printed out a bunch of the instructions and got a little overwhelmed plus I really haven't had a chance to do anything with it. I figure it's my journal so I can take my time and do it at my pace.

Last night I went to the movies with three friends to see "Mama Mia", which I saw a couple weeks ago with DH. I like it so much I didn't mind seeing it again when they asked. Afterwards we went to a local diner and had dessert. Now we all want to go see it on Broadway! Didn't get home until 11:30 and then couldn't sleep very well all night.

I signed up last week to do a Beth Moore Bible study online, "Believing God". It's a do-at-your-own-pace study so decided tonight would be a good time to start but then MIL wanted to go to grocery store. She doesn't drive any more so someone has to take her when she has errands to do.

When we got home I finally got to do the first part of the study. My DD from TN went to the study a few years ago and really had a life-changing experience. She has decided she, too, will do the online study. I'm looking forward to really getting into the heart of it!

After I got done with the study and while I was printing out the lessons for the next week, I went out and bowled with DH and DS on our new Wii that DH brought home today. I've been telling him that we don't need it as we have all those other game-things but he succumbed to the temptation. It is fun, though. I've never played any of the others but the Wii I know I will.

So, you can see, I've been busy doing nothing all evening. Now it's about time to go to bed. I did put some laundry away so it wasn't a completely wasted night! I will try tomorrow to work on the Journal and maybe make some cards.

God bless,
Linda

Soul Journal, Day 2 - Claiming My Journal

Today we had to "claim our journals" as our own. I wrote "This book belongs to..." and then repeated my name over and over. I used stamps, sharpies and stickers.This is my book!!!!!

The Lydia Project

These are two sets of the notecards I have made so far for thelydiaproject.org/. This is a group of women from Atlanta, GA who make and send totes to other women around the world who have cancer. The bags are sent free of charge. If you know of a woman with cancer who might like to have one of their beautiful totes, check out the website.

Every month they send out "thinking of you" notecards as well. I had contacted them to ask if they would accept handmade cards and yes they will. I'm making cards for them as well as Cards for Heroes.

If you are a cardmaker and not involved with these organizations, check out their websites to see how you can help. When I was in contact with the Director of The Lydia Project, she mentioned her husband had just returned from 18 months in Afghanistan. While there, he had heard about an organization which sent cards to the troops to use for sending notes and greetings back home to family and friends. So, you can see these are two of the many worthwhile organizations to get involved with and help.

God bless,

Linda

Do you remember?

Do you remember these? I use to love Mary Janes when I was young (many moons ago!). I remember when they cost only one cent each; now they are 10 cents each! When I was out buying the supplies for my Soul Journal I came across these. There's one missing! :-) I figured I'd eat them while doing my Journal because isn't a journal about memories and feelings?

Do you remember hanging clothes on a clothesline to dry? I do. In fact, right this moment I have some clothes on the clothesline. It's such a beautiful day out I couldn't resist. I'm like most people and dry my clothes in the dryer but occasionally I do like to put things outside to dry. I just love the smell of clothes dried on the clothesline.

Speaking of laundry, do you remember washing clothes with a washboard down by the creek (or is it crick!)? Neither do I. I'm not quite that old! But, I do remember wringer washers. My grandmother had one. At home we had the regular washer so when I was at my grandparents for the summer, wash day was a novelty and I just loved helping her do the laundry. It seemed like so much fun! Of course, you had to be real careful not to get your fingers and hands caught in the wringer, which thankfully, I never did.

Watch for "Do you remember? Part II" when I get in this mood again!! Feel free to share your "Do you remember". It's amazing sometimes to look back at how far technology has come just in our own lifetime.

God bless,
Linda

My Soul Journal

As I told my DDs, this is not something I usually do but for some reason I just feel like making a Soul Journal.

My supplies. The one dictionary I have in the house I will not use as it was given to me by my grandfather, even though it is falling apart and I never use it any more! And, I don't normally throw books out or rip them up, but these were destined by someone else to be tossed so I took them. After I bought the brushes, I found some in with the paints I knew I had. It doesn't hurt to have extras!



The journal is just a cheapie from Michael's. I couldn't find any others there and at the time had to get home so just picked this one.

Here's what I did for Day 1. It's not easy writing for 5 minutes! I took part in a study for lymphedema a couple months ago and had to write my thoughts for 20 minutes on three different days. Sometimes I had lots to write and sometimes not.

Give Soul Journaling a try! If I can do it, you can! I'm looking forward to seeing what the final outcome will be!!

Notes for Today

To start out, here's a pic of my TN GC, Anthony, Elizabeth Dawn (named after a certain someone!), and Hannah. You should see how Hannah just picks E up and carries her around! I say that because H is not very big herself. I think it's really neat how both older siblings take care of the baby. They love her and she loves them.

Last night DH and I went out to dinner and to the movies. We ate at TGI Friday's. Haven't been there in a long time. The meals we had were delicious!! He had ribs; I had chicken. We even splurged and had dessert! Ymmmmm!!

We were going to see "Swing Vote" but when we got to the theater, it wouldn't have started for about an hour and we didn't want to hang around that long so decided we'd see "Mama Mia", which was only about a half hour wait. Well, it was a good choice! We both really liked it! The music was great! We don't usually buy soundtracks but this one we will and we will definitely be buying the DVD when it comes out.

Of course, all night long the songs just kept playing over and over in my head. My thought this morning before church was I hoped that we would sing something that would replace the others as I was tired of repeating "Mama Mia" and "Dancing Queen"!!! Isn't that annoying? When you get a song in your head and can't get it out no matter what!

I'm not a great fan of musicals, though I love "West Side Story" and "Fiddler on the Roof", and now I can add "Mama Mia" to my list of favorites! Go see it if you haven't already.

I made some notecards for the Lydia Project today. This is a group of women from Atlanta, Georgia who make homemade totes for women who have cancer. They send the totes free of charge, filled with goodies. There are women who work with the organization who use the notecards to write notes of encouragement and support during the month. If you know of a woman who has cancer and might like to have one of these totes, you can click on the link listed and check out the website.

DD Dawn, and I are getting together in a couple weeks to make cards. She's a funny girl.....she thinks we can whip out 100 cards in a day!!! I told her she could but I'm not sure about me!

I actually completed a scrapbook!!! I haven't done any scrapbooking in ages but I wanted to make a grandparents album for our friends whose daughter had the "miracle" baby a couple weeks ago. I had started it quite awhile ago, but figured I had plenty of time to get it done but the baby was born earlier than planned, then I went to TN for a week so it didn't get done. I finally finished it last night after we got home from our night out. I'm not creative like most scrapbookers I know, but I'm actually pleased with how it came out. I plan to stop by their house after work tomorrow and give it to them.

My TN DD and I made a scrapbook for the parents of the baby, which I gave them at the shower back in June. I still haven't seen the baby, though. I tried calling to see if I could go over today but they must have been out. So, that's one of my goals this week. I will take a pic and post it.

Nothing much going on around here. We had a thunder storm earlier which has cooled things off a bit so we don't need the A/C.

Dawn had IM'd me earlier and said I haven't blogged in awhile. Though I like doing this, I find I don't have much of anything interesting to write about compared to what I read on other blogs, including Dawn's.

That's about it for now. I think I'll go make myself a cup of coffee. I have to get busy reading our book club book. We're reading "The Faith Club". For some reason I just can't get "into" it.

God bless,

Linda

An Anniversary Worth Remembering

Two years ago today I made my first trip to HUP (Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania) in Philadelphia for an appointment with the oncologist after a diagnosis of breast cancer from a local doctor after having a rather large lump removed and then having a PET Scan.

I can remember so vividly where I was when I got the phone call telling me of my diagnosis after having the Scan. The doctor told me the cancer had metastized to my chest, left arm, neck, liver and lymph nodes. In fact, I still have the notes I took while he was talking to me. Needless to say, I was in a state of shock! The doctor told me I needed to see an onologist. What transpired was amazing!!

My first thought was that I would go to a hospital in Philadelphia because I felt I would get better treatment there. I chose HUP and made my phone call. Initially my first appointment was to be on August 14th, which was about a month away, unless an opening came up sooner.

I had decided to get a second opinion from a breast cancer doctor who is the friend of a friend of mine. He graciously took the time to check my records on his own time while visiting my friend. He suggested I should call HUP and see if I could get in sooner as it was rather serious. As soon as I got home, I called. Lo and behold, the woman I spoke with told me she was just getting ready to call me as they had just had a cancellation for an appointment 4 days later. Did I want it? Well, of course!!!

I have to preface what happened as due to lots and lots of prayers!!!!

On the day of my visit to HUP, my DH and a friend took me. My friend is a nurse which helped later in explaining some things! The first thing my new oncologist did was review my records and was not too hopeful, but scheduled me for a CT Scan. She said she didn't rely too heavily on PET Scans. When I went back the next week after the CT Scan, the doctor had great news!!! The "cancer" in my chest was actually walking pneumonia! As for the rest of the original diagnosis, the only questionable spot was the lymph nodes.

She set up a schedule to begin chemotherapy and thus began a year and a half of chemo, mastectomy, more chemo, and radiation. When I started my second round of chemo, it also included Herceptin, which was every three weeks for a year. Though all that is behind me, I still have to take Arimidex every day for five years.

I'm now just seeing both the oncologist and my radiation oncologist every six months. Everything has been fine and I pray it will continue to be so.

Some people think the original diagnosis after the PET Scan was a terrible mistake. I choose to believe I've received a miracle!! I thank God for His grace and mercy!!