Sunday Thoughts

Good Sunday morning. I woke up early with a push to post and get back to my Sunday Thoughts today. So much has been going on in my personal world, my family world and certainly in our country. I am thankful today that Jim and I are both feeling so much better. I don't like to be sick.

My word for this New Year is RESTORATION. I am continuing to work on restoring my health, several relationship, hoping to restore parts of my home that have gotten out of whack and most of all, I realized that I needed some work on my relationship with God. I seriously didn't even think of that restoration when the word came to me! God works in funny ways, heh? I wasn't even tuning into that fact that I was drifting. My friend LaVonne said something to me about my anxiety and lack of discussion about any devotional time. WOW....it takes a great friend to bring that up to you. I am thankful as she was so right. It stopped me in my tracks and made me think about where I had landed in my personal journey. I have been so cooped up this winter with our weather and sickness. I decided I needed to do something...act on something! I am asking God with a humble heart to help me get back on track and back to Him.

I love the bible teachings of Beth Moore. Our church had to end it's little morning bible study and I am missing that greatly. So, I looked online and found a great study she did called  THE BASKET CASE. It all about anxiety and I was drawn to give it a try. So, I have gotten  back to my morning devotional time, back to my thankful journal and back to this little study on anxiety.

Happy Sunday...I am praying that God will bless you in a very special way today. I am asking that of Him for myself too. 

Sick....

Well, this is my first cold and cough since they put me on BP medicine and it really sucks. I tried the one cold medicine I can take....Corosidin and it made me light headed and I am not going to take that.
I had to cancel a procedure for Friday.
Every time I think I am getting back on track and life is returning to a more normal pace and schedule, something comes along.
My poor blog...it just seems like I can't get back to blogging.
I just feel a bit weary today with all of this.

Tea Time Tuesday #130

Did you watch the PBS special on Sunday night....VICTORIA? It was wonderful and I can't wait for more! The sets are fabulous and the costumes are exquisite. I have enjoyed reading about Queen Victoria over the years.

The young Victoria....I love this crown!

The casting is well done and it will be interesting to watch the young queen develop. Prince Albert will appear next Sunday.

I had to use my one and only Queen Victoria cup and saucer this afternoon for tea. It's a very sweet teacup and I treat it tenderly. It is a rather small cup however the saucer is regular sized.

This tea cup actually commemorates her Silver Jubilee. I have shared the cup before on my blog but it is always a joy to share this one with my readers.

Look at this fine piece I received this Christmas. It's a covered porcelain jar issued on Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. My friend Mary in Virginia gifted me with this treasure. It's a fine addition to my collection. I am crazy about  British King and Queen items.

A few years, I picked up these little cigarette collectible cards. This is the coronation series and I was lucky to find several kings and queens, including Queen Victoria! They are just fun.

It looks like our winter storm that has lasted for a whole week, is on the way out tonight. We did get a bit of freezing rain, but the temperature is warming and we are hoping that most of the snow will be melting away with the rain....it is pouring right now. That's fine with me. I will take the good old Oregon rain. I look forward to just getting in my car and driving off to do errands. It's been a whole week. I always wanted to be snowed in for a week. I guess you need to be careful what you wish for! I didn't really want to be snowed in at my own house. I never thought this would happen. It will be a sloppy mess for a few days. 

Cabin Fever...Winter of 2017

Cabin Fever...yep...it has settled in big time today. After my last post, it just dumped snow Tuesday night and into Wednesday. We had an epic snow storm here which resulted in the governor declaring a state emergency. Schools and businesses have been closed and the road are still difficult for driving anywhere. There is another wind advisory posted for tonight. The temps have been kept down in the 20's so we just can't get rid of this snow and ice.

These are pictures of the snow late Tuesday night. It just piled up at about an inch per hour .

The wind was blowing so it didn't pile up as easily...but most of Portland and the suburbs ended up with about 10-12 inches in that short time!!! Unreal.

Jim's car was getting buried and you can't see our driveway.

Here we have a shot at our cottages and the backyard Wednesday morning.

Wednesday is our day to babysit Otto. That sure didn't happen. His mommy sent a couple of great photos. He just LOVES to play with his cars and trucks....even in the snow!

He looks pretty happy playing in the snow. Mommy and daddy got to stay home the rest of the week.

The snow stopped falling and Jimmy got out to dig a path down to our cottages. He was trying to work on his items for the upcoming antique show, but things just we going against him and he actually has canceled. We are to get tons of rain after this cold spell and he just can't get his things over from storage and it's going to be a mess trying to set up on Thursday. I think he is relieved to just let this one go. The next show is the first of March and that really isn't that far away.

Here he is out front shoveling away.

This is my Mary Englebreit book that LaVonne sent me for Christmas...WINTER. it is very cute and runs from Christmas through St Patrick's Day.

I had to laugh at chapter 4...Cabin Fever! Oh yes, how true.

I have had a lot of time indoors. I decided to spend some time working on healthy dinner recipes.
We have had turkey meatloaf, yogurt chicken and turkey stroganoff. All were good. I have some recipes that I used in the past in this little book when I was on Weight Watchers. Now that I am on a low sodium diet, I have to eat differently. Some of the recipes were ok to keep, but others had to go. I will use it for new recipes now.

I did make Jimmy a small batch of blueberry muffins and some chocolate chip cookies. I only ate one cookie. I had time to bake too.

A couple years ago, I bought a cutter quilt. I used it to make Christmas stockings, runners and a tree skirt. I was sorting through a few things and found the rest of the quilt that I hadn't used. I decided it was time to cut it up and be done with it.

I was able to get many large hearts and some tiny ones for dolly cards. It was fun to work with some fabric.

I am not sure what I will do with them...I have a couple ideas I am working on. It's been fun to have some time to be creative again. Plus, I am feeling so much better and have more energy now.

My miniature show was cancelled today....another day inside. I started watching the Cranford series on cable. I have never seen the entire series. I also started working on some hexies. I like English paper piecing using the glue gun system. I had ordered these precut pieces and the papers, so got them all glued and ready for a few projects. There are 52 pieces. I also cut out and glued 14 more pieces in a different grouping of fabrics for another pin keep. I really love making these. These are 3/4" pieces.

We still have lots of snow and ice after 4 days. Jimmy took a little fall yesterday on his way to the mailbox. He is taking it easy today. Luckily, nothing was broken and he didn't hit his head.
The east wind is blowing so hard again tonight and we are under another wind advisory for the night.
You can imagine how much wood we have been using. I am so thankful for all the wood our good friends the Pietzold family gave us this fall.

I just hope it all ends soon. The weather man is keeping a close watch on things as we transition out of this Monday evening now. We may get more freezing rain. I am longing for spring. 

Tea Time Tuesday #129

It's almost 9:30 PM and the snow is piling up tonight, even with the East wind blowing! The weather man didn't think we would get this much...surprise! This has really been a winter for us. I don't even know if we had a hard freeze last winter. My teacher sisters just got word that school is closed again tomorrow. This makes day 6 of their snow days used up, so they will have to make it up in June at the end of the school year. I don't think they really care. My daughter Angie works for one of the school districts and she will be home tomorrow too. No Grandma and Papa day with Otto tomorrow.

This photo is out my front door. The walk way is covered after the ice finally melted off today. There is still ice under the snow from our weekend storm. I live in East Multnomah county and we are always the last to thaw out! Jimmy had to drive me to my Dr appointment yesterday as there was so much ice. I don't like the ice!

I stopped to have a little cup of tea and a snack this afternoon after I got my Etsy orders packed up. I found this mug and little plate at a flea market last summer. It's made by Johnson Brothers. I love collecting Johnson Brothers dinnerware, but this is a pattern I have never seen.

 I love the colors and the scene is lovely. The blues are so pretty. I'm not sure where the town would be, but it does look like a European village to me.

I always love a little design inside the cup or mug.

The pattern is called Dream Town. Maybe it isn't really a town at all...just an imaginary one.

I had a great check up with my doctor and didn't gain any weight over the holiday. I did enjoy a few sweets but now it's time to get back to my healthy eating. I decided to have some yummy yogurt with my tea. I love yogurt so it's a treat for me.

I decided to enjoy one of my tea time books while I was taking my break. I have had this book for years and I really enjoy it. It is composed of 13 little visits and recipes from ladies in England. Each story is very different and it's fun to read about their lives.

On of the ladies in her home.

One of the recipes...yum yum yummy.

These next few photos are of our ice storm just last Saturday,Sunday and into Monday morning.

The street is a sheet of ice and ice was beginning to coat everything when I took this photo.

We also had very strong East winds before the ice storm. During the night, it blew our BBQ away from the house and over on it's side. Yes, it is ruined.

I have spent so many days at home this past December and so far in January. I am all decorated for Valentine's Day and have been using the time to read and rest. I hope to do a little hand work on a kit that a friend sent to me. I am longing to get back to my more creative projects...it's been a long 5 months of doctoring and labs and appointments. I have 4 more this month. I am thankful that I am doing well. My doctor said my coloring was great and I was looking so much better. That made me feel good to hear that from my doctor.

Well, I wonder how much more snow we will have in the morning? It's really pretty.