My prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Easypeasy Fruit Cobbler Recipe

1 extra large can of peaches or 2 regular size (Do not drain)

2 sticks of melted margarine or butter (This is not diet food folks!)

1 butter flavor dry cake mix ( Yellow and white will work also, but we prefer the butter flavor.)

Dump the peaches, juice and all into a 9 x 13-inch cake pan. Sprinkle the DRY cake mix over the top evenly. Pour melted margarine evenly over the dry mix. Using a butter knife or spoon, gently poke the cake mix throughout the peaches. Make sure the peaches are not showing on the top. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Check to see if it has lightly browned. If needed, bake 5 more minutes. The cobbler will settle as it cools. It is sooo yummy with vanilla bean ice cream. I also made this with crushed pineapple, adding 1/2 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup water into the bottom. Both of these are on our Easter dinner menu. 

It is a rainy and more rainy here. The grass will be needing to be cut before Easter if this keeps up. Or maybe we should keep it tall for the little girls to have more fun hunting their eggies. Just hoping we can do it outside. Much more fun than hunting in the house, which we have done before. We are having our dinner on the Saturday before Easter. Will give us more time to play and me not be as tired. 

Hope your day is sweet and your hands are busy.

Monday photos to make us smile

My mini daffodils at the door. They are the first bright lights of spring for me.

If you play hard, then you gotta take alot of rests. These two are hilarious together when they are not horrible together. :o) Timmy truly thinks he is a puppy. He is sitting up and begging for his good boy treats now. Besides chewing on rawhide bonies with Toby. 

Toby believes in "the family bed". He snuggled in like this himself. Not a photo op shot. 

Sweet Jaidyn (our greatniece) hiding. If she cannot see us...then we cannot see her. She is a funny lil' two year old. And as the shirts says, a cutie!

Happy thoughts and prayers are appreciated. I start a 4 week round (hopefully) of treatments tomorrow. Get'r done is the motto of the week!

Happy spring to you. It is cold and rainy here in Indiana. But that can change on a dime as the saying goes. It is the midwest you know. :o)

New crochet book

from Gooseberry Patch, "Fun-to-Crochet gifts. I got this today. Yay me! And it was only $9.95!

It has several projects I want to make. I will try to get some pics up of my latest projects. Just forget to take them until it is dark. I have a note written now. So sad. I live by my notes. Had a good day. Was feeling good and Mark took me to Greenwood, 1 hr drive, to the bigger Joann's and Chil's. Had the best dessert there! CHOCOLATE CHIP PARADISE PIE® It was the best thing I have had in forever!!!! I have only eaten there twice and we really enjoyed it. They played contemporary Christian music which we enjoyed. And was surprised about. Just nice to get out for a bit. 

Hope everyone is doing well and getting to do something you enjoy. Just makes the day so much sweeter.

Prayer of St. Patrick

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, and in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

Happy day to each of you.

A bit of dvd watching

The Bells of St. Mary was a great oldie (Thank you Miss Penny). Bing Crosby and a very very young Ingrid Bergman. Such a sweet movie.

A cute modern one, Nanny McPhee. Great cast with Emma Thompson, Colin Firth and Angela Lansbury.

I do not watch many movies, but really enjoyed these and thought I would pass along my ****star review :o)

Some days you're the cat

And some days you're the yarn. :o)

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one."

C. S. Lewis

My headaches are doing much better. Had a hard go of them last week, but this week is starting much improved. So praise the Lord! They have been so intense, I cannot explain it. The past month has seemed to be a bit of a blur. I know I am going through the motions, but cannot remember too much of it all. Maybe a good thing? :o)

Getting ready for our annual retreat in May. I am the hostess and love to see my online friends. The ladies are so much fun. We just enjoy being together. Working on the final details now. Last Minute Nellie here as usual. But it just all comes together in the end each year.

I am looking for my first robin. Then I will know spring is coming!

Hope everyone is well.

Current reads

And the winner is....

Drum roll please....sarcoidosis. That is what they honestly thought they would find in the lymph node they removed from the start and they were correct. And he told me it was a big one, approximately 2-inches. The possibilities were lupus or some form of lymphoma. I never expected more cancer. Anyways, so now they will be able to figure out a course of medicine hopefully. I have 2 more nodes they will be watching to see if they respond to aforementioned meds, if not, out they will go. The headaches are being ugly still. Thanks God for drugs.

Mark tested negative for the blood clots, although the doppler showed 2 places that were questionable. Possibly pockets of infection. He is taking antibiotics and baby aspirin, wearing compression stockings and praying this will do the trick. He has agreed, it is stinky to get old. But the alternative is stinkier! :o)) 

I am dreaming of spring tulips, pansies and my quilt retreat in May. For now, I will try to watch the Olympic figure skating.
Thank you for all the sweet emails. I have been on the pc VERY VERY little. 

Home, headaches and healing

 

In and out of the hospital. Had a reaction to the go-nite-nite medicine. And having huge constant headaches. The hospital called me today to do a little over the phone checkup. When I told her my head was killing me, she ticked off a list of reasons...the reaction to the meds, where I had the surgery, tumor in my nogin, the swelling from the surgery AND the tumor....yep you probably do have a headache. Here is a pic of my neck.

You can tell how swollen I am all around, especially in the back. Looks like I have a goiter back there. Sis took this photo yesterday. No stitches on the outside, they used skin super glue. Nifty stuff I think. Thank you for all the good wishes and prayers. I go to the surgeon on Thursday hopefully he will have the biopsy results then. If not, I have another appt the next Thursday with another dr and she will surely know what is what.

Hate to wear you out with this...

but I would appreciate your prayers tomorrow. Having surgery to remove lymph nodes from my neck. Outpatient deal, but will be there most of the day. The catch is, we have a big ole snow storm coming in for the next 24+ hours. We will be going about 30 miles from home driving in a mess both way probably. Just really wanting it to be tomorrow night and home in my bed with the family all warm and safe in their's.

Mark has an appointment on Monday, to have a peripheral vein study (ultrasound) done on both his legs. They think he has blood clots. Yep, it rocks to be us right now!  He had a major clot in 2000 and was hospitalized for 7 days. So he is not too keen on another round of it.

Thanks so much. Hope you are warm wherever you are. And healthy.

~Angela

Just taking it easy

Laying around on unmade beds. Yep that is how we are rollin' these days. sigh More rain and gloom on the forecast through Sunday. I need sunshine. This keeping the blinds/drapes closed and pretending it is nite nite time ALL the time has got to be unhealthy for my addled brain. Maybe that is why we are taking all these rests? That is my story. And if you see Mr. Sun....would ya please ask him to come visit Indiana. We miss him. Alot.

And the winner is...........

Thank you everyone for the sweet birthday wishes. It was a lovely day. The winner in my little drawing is Claire from Canada. This is your doily Claire. It measures 13-inches across. Hope you like it. Please send me your addy. From one Cellar to another...thank you! :o)

My Birthday Give-A-Way

I didn't forget my promise of a give-a-way. I just saved it for my birthday week. Yep! Celebrating 47 next Wednesday on the 13th. So....everyone who comments on this post will be entered into the drawing. Seems I spend much of my time crocheting. Requires little thinking and slight movement. Works for me these days/daze. So...the winner will receive a special doily from me. It will be in red and white to celebrate St. Valentine's Day. And you can also use it for Christmas. Here are a few pics of my recent endeavors. Mindless work. I actually had a stack of 14 in various sizes, colors and patterns. Gave several away and now have several new ones not pictured.

 

My lighting was really bad that day. Your winning doily will be a medium red and white.The ones in the second picture are ecru and dark red on the left and the medium red on the right. If you prefer to grunge it a bit, you can darken it with your favorite antiquing method (tea, coffee, RIT dye).

We have gotten snow today. And more in the forecast for tomorrow. It is pretty but a bit of a trickymicky to tool around in. I had to drive out in it, but the highway was in good shape. I go back to the surgeon on Monday to get his (hopefully) final decision on what is going with me. When I went this past Monday, he found several more enlarged lymph nodes and a couple of places in my breasts. Surprise! And I was not a happy camper that day. So...this week has been about tests and more bloodwork. It is amazing what they do now with technology. Not like in years past where everything had to be poked with a needle to find out what was what. Now they give you some dye and take a lookyloo with "magic eyes". And girls, GO GET THOSE MAMOGRAMS DONE! Just cannot stress that enough. Get your girls squeezed and checked out yearly if you are over 30.Many insurance company's will pay 100% also.  It isn't fun. But the alternative sure isn't either! I just had one 6 months ago and it was clear. So see what I mean, things just happen.

Hope your home is warm and you are all snuggled in for the night.

~Angela