Getting Sewing Projects Done - Bed Pillows and Baby Blankets

I have been having a bit more energy taking the iron this past week or so and I am VERY grateful as I can at least do things while sitting but still haven't had a ton of energy to get bigger projects off the list.

Princess Five came home for a friends mission farewell so I got details on the bed pillows she wanted me to make to match her bed spread and I thought about one sideways and one square but she wanted both to be square so I went ahead and made matching pillows for her.

I also started the Broadway quilt bed pillow a month or so ago and finally got it finished and stuffed this week as well! I think it came out super cute and Princess Five was really excited about it.

I then was able to hem a dress she wanted shortened this week as well as finishing a couch pillow and the new grandsons baby blanket today!!! I was going to post pictures of it finished but figured I would ruin the surprise for Princess One so I will not be posting about that today.

Yea for getting more off my sewing list. I am just about ready to work on my dad's life quilt that I started cutting in OCTOBER! It got put on the "list" and other things took over. I will be getting to that soon I hope as well! It feels so good to take things that have been sitting for months and make them functional and scratch them off the list!

I was also able to give Princess Five a manicure which she was excited about. I have her quilt on my to do list as well and am super excited to see how it comes out.

I am so grateful getting to things on my list again. I hope I can continue to have more energy and feel good enough to finish it all!

Have a Blessed Day! 

My Snow Princess In Japan - Elsa or Anna - Princess Four

My adorable Princess Four took a Disney Princess look alike picture. She took most of her hour working on other emails that needed doing so she only had a few minutes to send a group email and posted it to me as "just for you mom" and "group email next week" but I loved the picture she sent so I am posting it without the email portion as I know she will work on the other next week. 

Doesn't she look adorable in this cute pictures?! I wish they had a flash on in the pictures but then the windows wouldn't show up as much but she does look adorable. 

I thought I would get stuff off my list today and spent hours working on a baby blanket for the new grandson coming only to realize on my second attempt, I pinned and sewed the entire thing wrong. I can't believe I did it wrong twice! 

I shared that I have been super tired and not thinking well as I am so tired but it was so frustrating doing it wrong again. It took hours to unpick the entire thing. I won't be making that mistake again but I was so tired I figured I didn't want to spend the time to pin and sew it again today so hopefully I will have a better and more energetic day and be able to get that one off my "list" finally! It makes me so happy when I get one more thing off my list! 

Have a Blessed Day!

Haters Hate But I am Poppin - Comments From Viewers and Parasite Update Video

I have been on youtube since April 2010! I wish I had started putting up more videos back then but with my slow internet, it wouldn't have worked so I am grateful I was able to make short videos and upload them back then as I do think people like shorter videos anyway so it has worked for me. 

Since that time almost 8 years ago, I have learned so many things. I know there is still so much I could learn but this was never about making money or becoming a youtube star so I haven't really put much effort into promoting my blog or videos. 

Since getting diagnosed with this parasite, I have LOTS of people looking at the parasite videos and I have many videos on other subjects that people have liked and shared and hopefully enjoy.

Since I have been gaining more views, I really have learned some things. I shared a little about that on a post I wrote a few months back after Taylor Swift released her new song about "Look What You Made Me Do" and I thought I needed to write a bit more on that subject today. 

I have no fan base, I have not many followers, I actually have no desire to even have any of my parasite information online and if I didn't feel it was something I felt God wanted me to do for many years, I wouldn't have EVER posted any of it online. 

I would gladly remove all the parasite posts if I didn't feel it was a "calling" or "Mission" of sorts for me to get this parasite out there and hopefully through my be willing to expose intimate details of my world, others may be saved. 

I believe that they will find that this parasite is linked to many, many health problems and to the high suicide rate. I also believe that this parasite will be linked to autism. I have people telling me I am "crazy" on my youtube videos dealing with this parasite because it isn't supposed to be a human parasite. Horsehair nematomorpha has over 2000 species. 

I don't understand why people can't fathom that even one of those 2000 sub-species could transfer to humans while drinking contaminated water, foods, soil etc. However, some people seem to think they know more than the Dr. and Labs that diagnosed me. They feel that they know more than the person who has had to live with this horrible nightmare for five years or more. 

I have haters sending their friends to view the video they seem to think makes me crazy where I talk about praying for help finding a way to get some relief from the heavy weight and burning in my chest when the parasites burrow from the heart to the lungs. I talk about dreams that I have had the have come true. I wouldn't have pushed so hard for a diagnosis to begin with if I hadn't had several dreams about parasites, cats spreading it, and getting it diagnosed. 

I can't see what it matters where the inspiration came from. I could say a serial killer told me about it and people would accept that, but mention God in any form and I am crazy. 

I learned that the type of person who writes those comments is looking for your negative energy and it is better to delete and ignore than to try and explain myself. If I have a piece of gold and I know it is gold, I don't have to defend It, but if it is fake gold, I will try and sell it and oversell it to others because I don't believe it myself. 

I know I don't have to defend myself to those haters and frankly, I believe that it is many times the same person with many different user names posting negative comments and clicking thumbs down. 

Interesting thing about it all, when I get lots of views from the "Look at the crazy chick in this video" posts on haters websites, I end up getting more views, more followers and more income! So, the haters can hate but in the end, I am better all around. 

I was at a church meeting today for a friend of mine whose daughter is headed out as a missionary for our church next week. In her talk today, she quoted a scripture that made me think of the haters that have written the past few weeks, it is Acts 5:41 and 42. 
^"41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
⁴² And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ"

This scripture is talking about Christ's apostles being beaten for his sake. This young missionary said, that she realized that if people were cruel to her on her mission or spoke unkind words, that she was uplifted that she "would count herself worthy to suffer for His name" and then she shared the scripture she wanted on her picture that will hang in the wall of the chapel until her return and it is Alma 17:11 "... yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that you may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls." 

So, I am grateful for the sweet missionary sharing her testimony today reminding me to continue to "walk away with a sparkler" as I posted in the linked post about Taylor Swift. 

I don't want you to think all the comments are "haters" as I have some super sweet people commenting and wanted to share three of them with you today. 

Betty wrote today saying: "I just today found your story. I, for one believe you and I believe in you. I hope you find a solution to your ordeal. Good luck in all you do."

Lindsay wrote yesterday: "Thank you for sharing your story. I hope you’re getting better. Don’t understand why people are so hateful. Remember, If you ain’t got haters, you ain’t poppin. 😉"

I replied to Lindsay thanking her for her kind words of support and she wrote me back today saying: "thesecretisgratitude ...and you just made my day. Thank you. Hopefully people reading the comments will see how being kind to one another lifts one spirits. Hope you’re having a better day. Sending prayers your way."

Kira just posted, "I'm so sorry you are suffering with this. I believe I have this unfortunately and thru trial and error I've been having to self medicate due to the fact that every doctor says there isn't anything wrong. Thanks for sharing your story with us...much love🤗god bless🙇‍♂️"

 

I am SO grateful for people who take the time to give gratitude for a video I have posted that helped them or to just give a thumbs up as it is feedback to how I am doing and I appreciate when KIND people take the time to share. So, THANK you to all those of you who are understanding of my parasites, exhaustion, faults, and can see through that to see someone who is doing her best to share what she knows with others and loves her friends and family! 

Thanks again for taking the time to read and comment! Have a BLESSED DAY!

My Mending Pile - It Only Took A Year

I have been so tired lately and I have been avoiding drinking Coke as I know it isn't healthy but I am SO tired. I drag all day and don't have any energy to get stuff done.

I have been trying to do stuff  that I can do while sitting. I have been good at getting stuff off my to do list that I can do while sitting. Today was super bad and I could hardly stand much and spent the day doing things and resting in between so I don't know how much longer I can do this but I am hoping I can take more iron and have a bit more energy. 

I have had a mending pile that I have been collecting for at least a year. I have some princess dresses I bought and washed and didn't realize that they were hand wash only. 

There were just things needing to be mended and I have been so busy I couldn't get to it. Today I finished most of the pile but need Princess Five home to help me size a few things. I also shouldn't have sewn while tired as I pinned a baby blanket I am working on wrong but at least when I started to sew it, I only got a few inches before I realized I had it pinned wrong. I was so tired I stopped working on it. 

I am hoping to finish the baby blanket tomorrow and talk to Princess Five to get the bed pillows I wanted to make for her finished as well. 

I also sewed one of her Broadway T-Shirt quilt pillows but need to stuff it tomorrow and finish sewing it up. 

It feels good to get this stuff off my list but I am hoping I will feel better soon. It would be nice to get some of the bigger "to do" stuff off my list.

I hope you have a Blessed Day! 

Working on my Third Blessing Frame - I am so Blessed

I've had a collection of stuff for my gratitude frame for over a year now. I worked on my other frame a few years back and then I added a few things to the second frame a few times and today, I opened the back and added a few more small items to the edges.  

I have been so busy doing other projects and family stuff that this pile of wonderful things I am grateful for, has been collecting dust while waiting to be placed in a frame so that I can constantly be reminded of all that I am grateful for!

For the smaller items, I was just stuffing them onto the front of my second and larger gratitude frame but it was getting rather full. I had this picture of Princess Five after her bad car rollover stuck to the front as well and one of the girls mentioned the "Big" picture I had of her there. 

I told them I wanted a big picture of it because it is the biggest BLESSING of my life having her survive that accident. You can see a post about that here. I am SO grateful she is alive! Getting that phone call that she was in an accident made everything else in life seem so small and petty. Family really is the best thing in life! 

She was grateful to be alive but she was also very grateful that her guitar was "ok" after being thrown from the car and the carrying case being ripped etc. Truly a huge blessing for her! 

I spent a few hours cutting out the items from programs, tickets, receipts, note cards, letters, bills,and programs. I hope to have five blessing frames some day. That way, if my girls all want one, they can all have a blessing reminder of wonderful things in our lives. There is something on each of them pertaining to each girl and I am so blessed to have so many blessing that I can hardly fit them into the frames. 

I love that I walk past these frames many times daily and smile at different things that catch my eye reminding me of how blessed I am and how blessed we are as a family! 

I hope we can always recognize our blessings and share them with others. Have a BLESSED Day! 

Pomegranate Peel Tea or Powder - Good For Lots Of Things

I shared a few days ago how I felt like I should keep the pomegranate peels over the holidays. I didn't know why and what to do with them but felt like I should dehydrate them for some purpose. I have thrown out hundreds of pomegranate peels in my life and never gave it a second thought so it was weird of me to keep them this season.

I posted here on the easiest way to peel pomegranates.

This is a link to where I posted about what I found after I saved the pomegranate peels.

Here is a link to the best way to freeze pomegranate. 

In order to use the peels, they need to be dehydrated. Once you have peeled, seeded and rinsed the peels, make sure to cut out any bad spots or rotten places and place the remaining peels on a dehydrator.

I dehydrated my peels for about 24 hours on 130 degrees. I made sure they were super dry as I needed the powder to be dry enough to last for awhile. Once dry, I took the pomegranate peels, ground them into a powder form using the Vitamix blender or my coffee grinder. You need any grinder that can powder dry ingredients. 

Once the peel is in a powder form, I use boiling water and put a teaspoon of powder into the boiling water and let is sit for a few minutes and then I drink it. It tastes a bit like pomegranate but a bit more sour. 

You can use a tea strainer if it is chunky but I like getting the benefits of as much as I can so I just drink the small chunks. 

Before ever using the peeling, I did some research on the benefits of pomegranate peels and found that it has lots of benefits. Some of them are different than any I have heard of before. The peel has UV protection for the skin which is something I have not heard of any fruit doing so that is cool.

It always amazes me that each region produces fruit and vegetables that are needed for the people living in the region. Pomegranates only grow in warm sunny places and have a thick human type skin. It is high in vitamin C and anti-oxidants. 

The more interesting thing to me was that it has liver detoxifying properties and with my yellow eyes, you can see why I would be interested in cleaning out my liver.

There are many sites on the internet that have information on the benefits of pomegranate peels and the one I found most helpful was one I sent my girls to. Here is a link to that site. 

I am so grateful to my angels watching over me that they would guide me to something that would help my liver. 

Have a Blessed Day! 

If You Are Happy And You Know It - Princess Four in Japan

Good afternoon to all of you beautiful souls! Did you know that one of our mission's mottos is saving souls? Because that's a new thing!

We had Zone Conference this week! It was probably good.... but I spent most of it worrying about my workshop that the assistants asked me to prepare with less than 24 hours of preparation.....................

BUT, I think it worked out. I just kind of talked about following the spirit, and had them put together puzzles resembling how we might not know why we do things when the spirit tells us, but, eventually we can see the big picture. And then on the back, I wrote a secret message! And how sometimes we might not even be able to see what becomes of our following the spirit! Luckily the assigns topic was about following the spirit, because I love the spirit! DAIJI DESU NE! Good learning experience! 

This weeks miracles! 

Splits! Sister Wat and I! I learned so much! God is so good! My bean, sister Brinker, and her companion were able to find a FAMILY! All because my bean followed the spirit! I AM SO PROUD OF HER! 

We met with YUKA! Oh it was awesome! I messed up the time. I thought she said 10, but turns out it was for 12... and then I felt really bad and embarrassed, but through the help of prayer, and Christ, and my beautiful companion, we were able to get rid of those feelings and turn the day around! Yuka san accepted a Book of Mormon, promised to pray, and then prayed at the end of our very first lesson! She is just like Sister Brinker and I! We really can see her being baptized! Pray for Yuka! 

Noa, our only baptismal date, self dropped last Monday... But she wasn't ready, and wasn't even in our area, so we know it is for the best! One day when she is older, I think she'll try again. At least I pray she does! And we will see her at church activities so it works out! 

This week I have made so many mistakes. And I'm not meaning sins, just like honest mistakes. Like putting too much money in the fare thing on the bus, or forgetting the key on splits, or messing up the place and time of our appointment. They were not very bad things, but I felt sad and embarrassed by them still. But when I turned to the Lord for comfort, he was there! All of my mistakes worked out in the end.

Last transfer Suda shimai didn't have enough money on the bus, so she underplayed so I just made up for that. And 3 angel members brought me our key from another area on their way to eikaiwa, and my comp and I were able to teach Yuka, and go streeting, and have comp study due to the fact that I messed up our appointment time. God is just so good. He is in all the smallest details of our lives! We are all not perfect, but thankfully God is! I love God! And know He knows each one of us by name. If you ever feel like you can't pray........ Pray until you do feel like you can pray! Put your pride aside. That's the way to find happiness! 

Well. There's lots more good stuff, but those are just some highlights of the week! Love you ALL! And so do Jesus Christ, and our Heavenly Father! 

Pictures 

Oh I almost forgot. I have lived in Japan for a year! So we celebrated with some good ole American dogs! 

Bistare Bistare on splits! 

Wako chan! Who came to church this week! Love her! 

My Baby's bean shower! So much LOVE! She is the only bean in our zone which means lots of presents!!!

If you look closely, there is a man shoveling snow off of his roof. A daily occurrence here in Hokkaido! Namely Asahikawa! 

My Christmas Angel - Pipe Cleaner Crafts

 I have lots of colored pipe cleaners and over the years, we have used them to keep the kids entertained.

When driving in the car to Disney, I took packages and would have the kids doing contests such as "Who can make the best zoo animal?" or, "Who can make the best car?" or piece of food.

I would have little treats for the winner and smaller treats for everyone. I wondered when I went to visit the grandchildren if they were too small to appreciate them but Grand-Princess One and I got them out and made  a few things. She would tell me what to make and I would make it.

She loved this little bee and flower I made for her.  She looks so cute in this picture and I think that the tree almost looks like wings coming out the sides of her in the picture. She is so beautiful!

The other thing I wanted to post is this cute video of her "whistling." She saw someone whistling using their fingers and they made the noise so she stuck her fingers in her mouth and mimics the whistling noise. I think it is so adorable I had to share it with you! 

I was cleaning off the sd cards and I wanted to post these as they are so cute and if I didn't do it now, you would miss it.

Have a Blessed Day!

Freezing Pomegranates - Super Easy and Quick

I have been sharing the past few days about pomegranates and have a few more things to share as I have learned some things over the years that have made it easier for me dealing with pomegranates. 

I shared yesterday how to peel the pomegranates quickly without mess and get out all the pithy little white skins etc. I have a video on youtube about this as well as my post yesterday. I HIGHLY recommend that you watch that and use that method as it makes it so much easier and keeps your fingers from getting stained pink and makes things go so much more quickly. 

Once you have the pomegranate peeled and seeded, basically you can just wash the seeds and then strain them. The dryer the seeds, the better it works. If they are really wet, they can freeze into a seed ball and it is hard to get the seeds individually if you want to use them for a parfait or over crepes or waffles etc. 

If you are going to use them in a smoothie, then it really doesn't matter that you drain them. I suggest straining them for a few minutes and if you really want them individually frozen, you can dry them on paper towels for a few minutes so the water evaporates off and then they will dry very separate and be wonderful for the situations I mentioned. 

I like them in smaller baggies as that way if they do freeze onto each other, I can just put the smaller baggie into a larger baggie and whack it on the counter and they will break apart and if you put a smaller amount into a larger baggie and freeze it laid out on a cookie sheet, they will freeze individually but already in the baggie. Once you have them frozen this way, you can then put all the baggies into a larger container to protect them in the freezer and this will help them last longer but still be individual seeds.

I wish I had learned about freezing them many years ago. I didn't learn that until I got a large amount from our local food bank a few years ago. They were wonderful frozen and now that I know, I can get them in season and enjoy them for months afterwards! 

Have a Blessed Day! 

Fastest, Cleanest, and Easiest Way To Peel Pomegranates

Growing up, we peeled many pomegranates as my grandparents lived in the south and had pecan orchards and Pomegranate trees.

Every Thanksgiving through January, many of us kids would have pink stained fingers as we loved the royal, juicy fruit.

We would cut and peel them as snacks, or for our favorite treat over the holidays, "Dixie Salad" which has been a tradition for holidays my entire life. With such a large family, we would be peeling pomegranates and cracking pecans for hours as we have well over 75 people attending in cousins, aunts, uncles etc on both sides of the family as my mother and father both have lots of siblings, who all had lots of children.

Another favorite treat using pomegranates is a cranberry Jello salad with peppermint in it. Sometimes I would add pomegranate, and other times, not. I stopped making it for our meals as the kids never really liked the texture of the cranberries but I made it this year as I have been craving raw cranberries and had half a bag left from that, so I made the salad and ate most of it myself as the kids just never loved it. I had no problem eating the entire thing. I wonder if I left out the cranberries and just put the peppermint and pomegranates in it, if they would enjoy it more. Maybe I will try that next year.

When I learned this really fast and easy way to peel and seed a pomegranate a few years back, I LOVED it and have never gone back. My fingers don't end up stained and it goes so much quicker as the little white peel / skin floats to the top so it makes pulling them out a job that takes seconds and you don't even have to touch the fruit. 

Also, some of the dead or rotten seeds float to the top making it super easy to get the good fruit sorted. 

Basically, you slice the fruit into fourths or sixths and fill a bowl with cold water. Put the sections in the water and turn them away from you and just push the back center of the slice inside out and all the seeds just fall into the water and you can just run your fingers over the inside of the fruit and it takes seconds to pit or seed them. 

Then, pull out the little white floating pieces, strain and you have the fruit ready to use! It really can be done in about a minute or two and no stained fingers either! Also, no juice dripping or staining the counter or cutting board. It really is just wonderful. I am so glad I learned this method and wish that I had learned it years before! Hopefully the video makes it clear if this post isn't! 

Have a Blessed Day! 

The Weirdness That is My Life - Pomegranate For the Liver

If you follow my blog, you will know that sometimes I have super weird things happen in my life and they seem unbelievable. I myself probably wouldn't believe some of the crazy things if they weren't happening to me.


Over the Christmas holiday, we were making our usual holiday foods and one of those foods is a salad called "Dixie Salad" (see that post here) with pomegranate and pecans. Princess Three had her boyfriend over for the first time to our home so we could meet him. She told me he liked pomegranates so I figured when he asked what he could do to help (loved that about him by the way) I thought peeling the pomegranate would be a good thing for him to do.

While he was peeling the pomegranate, I had the strongest feeling that I needed to save the peels. I have never heard of anyone ever using the peels, eating the peels, anything with the peels so I was a bit uncomfortable telling her boyfriend that I wanted to save the peels as I wasn't sure what I would be doing with them but I just told him I wanted to try drying them and see how it worked or something. I still felt a bit weird about it but I just took them all and put them into a glass bowl and stuck them into the fridge until the holiday was over and I was alone and had time to put them onto the dehydrator after returning home. 

I still didn't know what I was going to do with them once I got them dried but dehydrated them, and once dried, ground them into powder and put it in a jar and labeled it. It sat on the counter like that for over a week. 

Last week, I shared that I worked on organizing all our backup drive pictures and it took me a good week of long hours to get it all sorted and organized. When I am doing a binge work like that, I usually have something playing in the background to keep my mind busy but not something that is so interesting that I get distracted and stop what I am doing to watch it so I usually find a "B" movie or show I can listen to while I work just to have something keeping me awake while I work but not so distracting. 

I picked some weird apocalypse show that showed up as a suggestion on Netflix. I have never heard of the show "The Messengers" but it wasn't a "Netflix" show which often has vulgar language and nudity along with most of them having graphic lesbian love scenes as I think men will tolerate watching that but not gay men love scenes so nearly every Netflix show I try to watch ends up with me turning it off after an episode or two either for massive use of the "f bomb" or graphic nude love scenes. And, it seems, I can't find a show that isn't graphic made by Netflix so I try not to watch anything produced by them.

With that, I picked this show about "end times" as at least they had the bible in it. I could tell right away that the acting wasn't great and I think some of their interpretations of the bible are different than what I believe but at least it wasn't graphic so I tolerated the acting and just listened as I worked on my pictures.


Imagine my surprise when in the middle of episode 8 of 13, that out of nowhere, one of the characters is in a store getting some groceries and he picks up a bottle of pomegranate juice and a stranger comes up to the man and tells him "pomegranate clears the liver and detoxifies!"  

I thought that was so weird that in a tv show, someone would throw that in, it seemed so out of place.... I thought, "hey, that is maybe why I needed to keep the pomegranate peels." 

So, I am still binge watching while I am sorting the pictures, I get through all 13 episodes of "The Messengers" and think I needed another "B" show to watch while I kept working. So, "Wynonna Earp" is suggested in one of the rows of suggestions and my mother knew the original actor that played Wyatt Earp so I thought I would give that show a try.... Basically, it is a bad copycat of "Supernatural" with limited actors and a "Texas Ranger" theme however the special effects are really good.

Like I said, I wasn't really into watching something that was interesting to me so I kept it on as I worked. My mouth dropped open when in show 7 of 13, she said, "Say pomegranate if someone's got a gun on you!" 

I figured something was up as I don't know that I have ever heard that word in a show before and not in two consecutive shows that I would NEVER have watched normally, even shut off if I had started watching them in any normal situation! What surprised me even more, was that they told me in the show it was for the liver! 

I then did some research on it and will share that in another post, but I have to say, I have been making and drinking pomegranate peel tea! I also bought the rest of the pomegranates they had in town and dried those peels and froze the fruit which I will post on later as well. 

I do believe that God loves me and shows me in any way he can, the best way to take care of me and you all know I have yellow eyes and liver issues with all the medications I have been taking for the parasites. Here is a link to the original post. Here is one to a later more current post. Even now, both my eyes are more yellow. It is scary to me but I really don't know what more I can do. Thus, I believe God in His own way was letting me know that I needed pomegranate and pomegranate peel.   


 I also checked at the store to see if they had 100% pomegranate juice at our local stores and was surprised that in our small town, they had lots of juice. They had these larger bottles and quite a few smaller bottles so I think even if I can't get fresh fruit, I can at least get the juice. 

I'll be sharing a bit more about all this the next few days but I had to share why I was sharing about pomegranate. 

Have a Blessed Day!