Little Lord Dustybutt

Life is so interesting with 4 pets and 2 people living in a small house. The kitten is now about 8 mos old and doing fine. He started out a little black ball of fluffy fur but as he has grown his true colors have appeared. Officially, he is named Midnight Smoke. But affectionately, he is called Little Lord Dustybutt. You can see why in the picture.

He reminds me of the poem about the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead - when she was good, she was very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid!

He probably has spring fever and needs to get out of the house or work up his courage and go down the basement steps and explore more indoors. So far he has only sat at the top and looked down the steps at his people and his mother when we have tried to encourage him to descend. Mamma cat has no problem with the basement. We leave lights on most of the time (energy efficient compact fluorescent) to encourage exploration and she explores there often (no more spiders, I wonder why?) but he has not taken us up on the offer yet. Instead, he waits untill we go to bed and then makes numerous noisy expeditions through the bedroom and across the bed and attempts to reach the top of every piece of furniture and door frame. Sister Beth says he reminds her of a dear 5-year-old relative we have.

The shingles have faded and are almost just a bad memory. I still have some nerve pain at times but nothing that even requires pain pills now. The rash is still visible on my arm and chest but I can no longer feel it. I read online that most people do not get a recurrence. Once is enough!

I am planning VBS crafts for this coming summer session. We are doing Jerusalem Marketplace from Group. This will be our 3rd one in this series and I expect it to be just as much fun as the other two. Crafts this year will probably include weaving, clay, scents and spices, and jewelry (of course) but nothing is final yet. I am thinking of having the children make a version of situpons to use on the hard floor during VBS and then take home with them as a reminder. One version I have read about uses old vinyl tableclothes for the outside and recycles grocery store plastic bags as the stuffing. I like recycle crafts. I am also thinking of using potholder looms or cardboard looms for the weaving craft and maybe setting up a larger weaving project everyone can work on to make a floor rug to be left with the VBS materials to be used in following years. Not sure about time constraints on this yet but I like the idea.

We are having a winter storm here today. So far there has been a layer of ice covering most surfaces, a wet slush that froze on contact, a little bit of rain, some snow, more freezing rain ...

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I hope you get lots of chocolate or whatever thrills you the most!

Things have been quiet here as I am still recovering from the sinus infection and shingles. Still having some pain and sensitivity in the places the rash was the worst. I haven't really felt like doing much with my head aching and trying to get caught up at work has left me exhausted in the evenings. The weather has been a mixed bag again. Up in the 50's and down in the teens in the same week. Rain, snow, ice all in the same day. Envying Linda down in Australia where it is summer now. The cats and dogs are beginning to live together in peace and there have even been attempts to play together. Smoke is growing and will soon be as big as his mamma. I will have to get pictures of him to post. He is not completely black. He has grey on his belly and butt. It looks like he sat in something when he walks. So cute! Of course, he doesn't like it when we laugh at him. He is a loving and annoying little fellow. He curls up and sleeps on my lap in the evening so he can be wide awake when we go to bed. Then we lay in bed listening to him romp through the house and back and forth over the bed and the dogs until he finally settles down again. Mamma cat loves to sit on the back of our chairs in the evening but she has a fascination with our hair. When she first goes up on the back of the chair we have to put our hands over our hair and tell her NO to get her not to try to chew on our hair. She needs to get to the vet soon to be fixed but we are still not sure how she is going to react to crates and cars.

Vacation Bible School planning has begun. We are doing another Holyland Adventure - Jerusalem Marketplace. The VBS will be in June but I am working on the crafts now. So far just on the computer looking for affordable alternatives to the expensive or otherwise not suitable crafts in the kits. Thinking of trying rolled beeswax candles with the kids. I have been reading up on it and think we can handle this. We have dreidels left from two years ago that we can use for another craft. Basket weaving is another possibility but I need something that all ages can do. Jewelry making is a must. Plenty of shells left from last year and the kids loved those. Lots to think about and time is flying for this.

Back Again

Ever had shingles? I have just had two very bad weeks. It started with a sensation of extreme tenderness on my chest and right arm. The sensation progressed to a feeling similar to a scalding burn. Then red areas appeared. Then the rash. At first, I thought I picked up something off the dogs' coats from them being outside. Then reality. Shingles! The rash was worst on my chest and shoulder then ran down my right arm and even onto the palm of my hand. I thought it was just a rash that would itch for a while and then I'd be fine. But two weeks later I am still recovering slowly. Part of the problem for me was a bad reaction to the anti-viral medication. I was supposed to take it for 10 days. I managed 5 before stopping. The side effect headache it gave me was worse than any headache I have ever had. The image I have of the headache is like an earthquake seismograph that is recording very strong very fast tremors. Dense and jagged. Horrible! Then my lowered resistance resulted in a bad sinus infection and pressure headaches and dizziness. Back to the doctor for more medication. Side effects include -- headache and dizziness! How do I tell which is which now?

But I am improving and plan on returning to work today. I was off work at first because of the extreme sensitivity of the rash (I could not bear anything touching it) then the side effect headache then the new sinus infection and dizziness.

Seems like all I have done lately is report on illness. Things will get better.

I Got A Cold for Christmas

The photo ornaments and magnets were a big hit with the family. In fact, they were such a hit that when my sister and her daughter have been shopping since Christmas they have bought me more glass balls at sale prices to use for more ornaments.

We had a lovely Christmas starting with Dad's birthday and Christmas Eve services and gift opening. There were kids everywhere and someone must have gifted many of us with a cold. That did not hit until later in the week thankfully. Christmas day was spent first at home, then at cousin Chuck's house for the extended family celebration then at Jen's and John's for Christmas dinner. It was all wonderful.

Then the cold came. A few years ago I made up songbooks and cd's for Christmas and one of the songs I found was The Three Stooges singing "I Got A Cold for Christmas" and that is what has been running thru my mind this whole time. Both my husband and myself and Mom and Dad came down with the cold as well as other family members in other homes. We spent a quiet New Year's Eve in our own homes as a result and enjoyed it. Most New Year's are spent at Mom and Dad's with hilarity and food and dominoes and food and kids and ... you get the idea. This year it was hubby and the cats and dogs and me. We got to eat the whole meat and cheese tray (still working on it) ourselves and I cut up some of the fudge the churchmen make each year (still working on that, too). But all in all, I enjoyed? the family illness more this year than last when we gave each other the Norovirus for New Year's.

Happy belated New Year!

Dad's Birthday Star

December 24th is my father's birthday. We always have a birthday party for him before we start celebrating Christmas. My gift to him this year was a little too cumbersome to travel to my sister's house where we will celebrate tonight so I gave it to him this morning.

These are used or "free" cd's (AOL, etc) that I have been using in various ways over the years but this is the best use yet. I was smart enough to take pictures during the assembly so I can remember how I did it for next year. It takes 25 cd's and a C7 string of 25 lights and lots of hot glue.

The star is already hanging from his front porch although he still has to install a new outdoor electric outlet to plug porch lights into after installing a new porch light this year that does not have an outlet in it.

So, family members, save me your used and "free" cd's and you may get a star, too.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Photo Crafts

I am finishing the photo ornaments and magnets for this Christmas and remembered to take pictures before I packaged them.

They were a lot of work and I have bleach burns on the first two fingers of my right hand (healing now). Even the disposable gloves didn't prevent the bleach burns as the rims of the glass balls made tiny holes in every glove. But I am rather pleased with them. When I am finished I will have between 60 to 100 of each craft for the family grab bag exchange. I made extras of the photos in case anyone just has to have something that has already been taken.

Christmas Crafts and all the rest

I am doing photo ornaments this year with pictures I or other family members have taken in the past year. I needed a large supply of clear glass ornaments and my usual source for these is not carrying them this year. Hallelujah for the internet. Did you know you can take colored glass ball ornaments - new or used - and soak them in bleach, sometimes scrub gently to get the last color off, and swirl salt water inside to clean the interior? Sister Beth gave me a large container of old ornaments she picked up this past summer and after I went thru it I had over 50 colored glass balls in very used condition that are now gleamly nicely awaiting their transformation into photo ornaments. I will try to post pictures of the finished ornaments but I am not sure how well that will turn out. I also plan on making glass marble photo magnets but have discovered I need to go to WalMart and get the tiny pictures printed as my inkjet pictures blur and run when the glue goes on.

I have today thru Tuesday off. Lots of time and so little time to get it all done.