excited: Three people are very excited. One is my dear friend Suze who got a job today. I am very excited because of this marvelous path which has been placed before her. Our daughter is excited because I helped her start her own blog today. It's just a start but that doesn't matter. I'm excited, because she's excited.

Later note - I was looking for a photo from flickr to portray the excitement but got majorly side - tracked, once again. I decided best to leave without for now. I might never get down to what I could be doing today!

A HAPPY, PROUD meme: Enough of this "weird" meme already. Here's something new, I think. Regardless -
Five things that make me feel proud:
1. I was able to keep calm yesterday even though Cat was having teenage moments with almost every breath she took. I was able to think of a consequence. It worked. But the biggest piece was trying to stay calm after I almost lost it. YES! Yes! and did I say YES!
2. I look younger than my age.
3. I feel so healthy even though I've had diabetes for almost 46 years.
4. I have NO complications of diabetes even though I've had diabetes almost 46 years.
5. I overcame my fear of group learning and started taking a knitting class.
6. I drove to Saskatoon by myself yesterday even though the wind chill was severe and the streets in the City are so full of ice ruts and I was in a motor vehicle accident a few years ago on the icy streets of Saskatoon when I was by myself.
7. I did not buy for myself a new cloth paper scissors magazine or quilting arts magazine when I went to buy the book for Suze for the book swap. I REALLY wanted to buy one or both of those magazines.
8. Our daughter was able to give me a hug and say the spoken word "sorry" with tears after she realized the consequence for her rude behaviour yesterday morning. Even though she is a teenager, with other issues, she can sometimes get past the teen struggles and be her very kind, happy self. I think we've raised her well.
9. UMMM - sometimes I do not procrastinate, that time is obviously not NOW.

If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged to list five, or more, things about yourself that you feel PROUD about.
Hugs and angels be with you.
Wendy

Will YOU be MY Valentine?
I completed about one-third of the valentines on Thursday night. They needed to be finished so they could be handed out by Cat (daughter) at school on Friday. Lucky duck does not have school next week. That's VERY good. Saskatchewan winters can be very HARD on everyone - students, parents, teachers. MANY people choose this time of year to escape for a winter holiday. They go south. This winter is especially bad with wind chill temperatures around - 40 degrees Celsius at times. And when the temperatures warm even a tiny bit it wants to snow. Roads are then difficult to travel on. Winds continue to create greater grief mixed with the snow. WE are going south too. We are going to Moose Jaw for appointments with our naturopathic Dr. It's about a three hour drive from here. They do tend to have a bit warmer temperatures than here, but the small city is still in Saskatchewan. Oh well. I'm hoping to stop at the Antique Mall in Regina on our way back to the farm, also south of here, where we'll be spending a couple of days - at the farm that is, not the antique mall. I'm hoping to find some old books at the Mall, maybe photos, maybe lace, maybe cards. I haven't been there for many years so I'm not certain if they have these kinds of things.
The valentines: I made eight with the image from Carla Sonheim. She was very gracious to provide the image with an offer on flickr. Thanks Carla. I love Carla's "little girls" which I first discovered on Terri's blog. I did not have much time so made them quite simple.
The other two postcards are partially Cat's design. She helped with them a bit. Her ideas still tend to more formal, more simple. She likes pretty things, a lot, tends to be a stasher, I mean collector. Some day she'll maybe learn more artful skills, placement, what's pleasing to the eye.
I've also shown what the backs of the postcards look like so someone not familiar with these fabric postcards can see that they can really be used as a postcard. I notice there are iron marks on it - reflections of "Orange"? I think I'll put these postcards in envelopes. It will cost more but I would just hate for some of the texture to be forfeited. I can see in some cases it would add to have the card go through the rigours of the post, but, not this time.
Till later - keep warm, especially for my Sask. friends.
Angels be with you.

Time Management: I'm trying to make better use of my time. I've decided to try to do some simple tasks while Greg drives us to our destinations and back. This morning on our way to Church, half hour away, I was cutting apart images from a little book I'd gotten at Michael's. Unfortunately my scissors were not very sharp. The other day, I think Friday, I was trying to sew some beads onto this piece of felt. On our way back it was starting to get dark. Greg kept asking about the light. I didn't need it yet.

I'd seen the idea, done with real felt. I didn't have such a thing so got cheap felt. The buttons are from my Mom's old collection. I'm not sure how old they'd be. The scan does not do them justice. They are cracked and darkened around the edges. I might sew some more beads on if I can find the right ones. then it gets blanket stitched with another and stuffed. I guess it's supposed to be a Christmas decoration. Oh well. It can just be for anytime too. I need the practice mostly.

I got a little bit of sewing done on my journal quilt but will wait until more done before I show that. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to accomplish as our daughter is having continuing problems - no seizures, but social, behavioural. This time of year and next few months tend to be her difficult time. Hopefully we can make it through. We'll get as much help as able from school.She admitted to major self-esteem problems, in her own way, on Friday. I'm trying not to agonize. I'll communicate as best I can with the people I need to. Otherwise I try very much to just place it in God's hands.

Forgot to mention, Fran has a wonderful gift for someone chosen from comments left on her blog all this coming week. Good luck.

Advent Concert -St. Peter's Chorus:
This photo shows a number of things. It shows tired me in concert black after the Advent Concert of St. Peter's Chorus. This is the 40th year of the chorus. I've sung with them for many of my last 27 years. I've taken some time off but it's difficult not being a part of this amazing group. We had a large choir this term, about 50 people. I always feel somewhat deflated after participating in a concert with the Chorus, because I have to say good bye to the wonderful songs we prepared, but I am pleased to be singing in a couple of other settings yet before Christmas. I am singing in a coffee shop on Thursday. That is much smaller, less formal. I'm not certain yet of exactly what's happening there. I'm also singing a solo and with a smaller choir of about ten people next Sunday. I'm not really ceratin of that performance either. But I love to sing and I love Christmas. I think it won't be difficult planning and preparing something.

This picture also shows our beautiful daughter who is back to her normal self. That is a wonderful feeling even though she will not be on medication for seizures until after we see a specialist. One pharmicist friend said it seemed Cat's body was revolting against the medication. She was so ill with side effects and possibly a bit of stomach flu also going around. It was frightening and energy draining for me. There were a couple of days I could barely leave her side because she was in such discomfort and so scared. It's great to have her back to normal even though that normal is sometimes a grouchy teen. Sigh.

AND, the picture also shows that I actually was able to get our living room cleaned so that we could set up our Christmas tree and I can do the other Christmas decorating which I love to do. The tree is not decorated and I have no idea when it will get decked. Regardless, I love the its scent. I can decorate as I find a moment here and there.

Until next time - my very best wishes for a relaxing season of advent as you prepare for the coming of Jesus. Huge hugs to all.

HOPE:The last few days have been difficult as we struggle with our daughter having side effects of the medication she was started with for seizures. For four days she has been hardly able to keep any food down, has had very little appetite, and has been very drowsy. Today she has been more alert but she became very frustrated this evening with the discomfort in her stomach and the whole idea that it is caused by the medication. This is apparently very common when individuals are started on this medication.

Cat has been trying to think happy thoughts. She was having difficulty finding them tonight. She is finally resting.

Hope is what has carried us through. See "HOPE" at windyangelsandyou.

"Believe and you may see miracles happening all about you." I want to say initially that our daughter, Cat, has been doing fine since she had the seizure last Sunday. I want to thank you for all of your prayers and also ask you to please keep praying. You'll learn why a bit later.

About "Believe..." - I want to talk about "seeing magic, creating magic and throwing lightening bolts". I posted that only a few hours after Cat had her seizure. For some reason it seemed to be the right thing to do. I realize now that I posted it more for me than for you. Today's story is for you as much as it is healing for me (as the tears are falling and probably will continue as I share this story).

Believing is probably the hugest part of being able to "throw lightening bolts"... (continued at windyangelsandyou)

Our daughter, Cat, on watercolour - collaged, incomplete. This is the piece I had started on Saturday. I took a photograph and because it was leaning against a background I decided to digitally add black and charcoal around outside.

Yesterday Cat had a tiny seizure. She is fine. About 8 - 9 years ago she had been on medication for epilepsy. Then she had been seizure free and was able to go off the medication.

I believe this seizure was totally stress related. The transition to the huge high school has been very difficult. The program Cat had been in at the public school was very specialized for her. One could say she was spoiled. One said she deserves to be spoiled. I agree. At the high school they do not know how intricate her complexities are. They need to learn.

If you want to see the pictures of Cat in more detail, or more of them, go to either "Cat - now" or "our daughter - then".

Your prayers would be greatly appreciated at this time.

I love you Beautiful Angel.
Mommy

Going bananas? Not much accomplished again. I guess I need some tickles today. Not certain how they'd go with my headache and jaw problems. Ah, I'll just think about tickles. There, that's better.

The pieces of fabric are only two of the fabulous pieces I got on Thursday at Haus of Stitches. I also showed the folks there some of what I've been doing. I've only ever had questions for them before. I've never actually shown them what I've done - because I've never actually had anything done before.

The other pieces are just beginnings. I don't have much energy and motivation to actually complete anything. The photo of our daughter (scan is not good) is printed onto a 7 1/2 x 11 piece of watercolour prepared with gesso. I then applied some acrylic paint. I was mostly thinking of "sometimes", the hurtful part when I did it. I need lighter colours on it. I'm not certain about how I'll put the poem on and what else I'll do with it yet. Her eyes may need some work with something. If you don't see anything about it in next few days you can know I wrecked it with experimentation. The others are art journal pages I've started and the cover. The piece that's pink in background is thin paper, not sure if I'll go anywhere with that. Till tomorrow...