This Little Prince Is Turning THREE

It is so fun to have my daughter and her family to visit! I LOVE when they come and spend some time with me. 

There are different things to do at her house than my house and it is so much fun to be able to do those different things at each place. 

Since I don't live near them, I wanted to celebrate Grand-Prince 2's birthday while they were here. He is going to be turning 3. I LOVE that he is starting to talk and express himself. He was able to say my name correctly on his own for the first time today. 

I LOVE hearing him say my name and he will always get my attention by saying my name before he tells me what he wants. He is so cute walking around with his binoculars all the time showing them to me and saying he can "See you" and I got him a Disney set of chunky books that has a rope handle on it and he carry's one in each hand and shows me all the time. 

Grand-Princess One made him a "play dough" cake with candles on it and came up with the idea all by self. She even had him blow out the candles after we sang. It was really cute. 

I found a really fun toy that the boys LOVED. I am going to share about it at another time. I was glad I found something that makes them happy. 

Happy Birthday Grand Prince 2! I am blessed!

Have a Blessed Day!

My Sister and Her Husband are Such a BLESSING

I haven't driven my suburban in almost 2 years. It was August 2019 when we took it to the lake. With Covid, we didn't go last year. 

With the car sitting for almost 2 years without running, the tires cracked and went flat. I have spent days calling places and looking for tires as my tires were a size 16 rim and those tires are hard to find used. 

I was going to drive a few hours away to get some and then one dealership suggested that I put larger rims on as they are move common and there were LOTS of 17 inch rims for sale and many more tires than the 16 inch so I started looking into buying new rims and tires. 

I told my sister this, and she called me later saying that her husband wanted to put a lift on his truck and get new bigger tires and rims and they got an insurance payout that would cover it as he was doing the work on the ruined car himself, so she said they wanted to give me their tires and rims. 

I was so excited to know that I didn't have to worry about driving and finding new ones. I don't have the funds right now to purchase new tires and really, to put new tires on a car that is just going to be used once or twice a year is a bit crazy. 

I need to buy tire covers to make sure these tires last and it will be nice that the car will be ready to go when we need it. 

When I tried to put the new battery in the car tonight, I couldn't get the terminal cable off and it stripped off as it was corroded and the battery is a side mount. After cutting my hand in a few places and bleeding all over, I called my brother-in-law, and he came over to help me get them off and cut part of the battery plastic off and was able to get it off without having to put a new cable on. 

I am so grateful they have been so supportive of me lately. I have been so stressed with so much going on and having a headache last night and not sleeping, that them helping me out so much today was a huge blessing! 

Have a blessed day!

I Am Exhausted After a Long Weekend of Service but There is a Light at the End

I am not going to take time to write a post other than to tell you I was up all night after a long day of service yesterday and I am truly exhausted as it is 1:40 a.m.

I have some house guests and am SO excited they are here. It was so busy that I put my phone down and left without it and kept wanting to take photos of these cute visitors but didn't get many. Hopefully, with them visiting for the week I will be able to post more photos and share about my weekend of service.  

I have done at least 20 loads of laundry and am so grateful for a working washer. I hope to get some sleep and maybe take more time to blog tomorrow. 

Have a blessed day!

Super Tired and Weird Dreams - Dragons and Horses

I just started writing my title for my blog post and am watching a show. The second I typed "dragon" in the title, the character on the show said "Dragons." 

The dream was in color and it woke me up and I believe that there were some messages in the dream for me. Now that the "dragon" thing just happened, I believe that the dream really did man something. 

I have a great "dream interpretation" book I think I have mentioned in the past by Betty Bethards called "the Dream Book" symbols for Self-Understanding. Oddly enough, it has a rainbow on the front which is meaningful for my mother.  

Here is a link to where I share about the book. 

Here is a link to my mothers rainbow post. 

In the dream book it says that Dragons purifies negative thinking and dispels illusions. There was a horse in the dream which represents "Freedom, power, and oneness with nature. 

There were other things in the dream and I think it was about the parasites I have. It would be so great if "the negative thinking and illusions" on the parasite would be changed. Also, I would love to be "Free" of the parasites and feel safe again in nature. 

I know it seems like I am reaching but with the other things that happened in the dream, it fits well. I am grateful that I have insight into things through dreams. They have guided me many times in my life. 

Have a blessed day!

I am Doing the Tired Cycle Again

I shared a few times in the last few months that I have been super tired for a few days a month. I am fairly certain now that it is the parasite life cycle as I keep getting tired for just a few days a month in a cycle. 

I always have known that there is a cycle and I must have a huge load of parasites as my lungs are getting worse. I find myself wheezing over little things. 

I am so tired tonight. I was going to organize all the stuff I have been selling. I also have been trying to clean out some of the bedrooms, but I am just so tired, I climbed into bed for two hours freezing today after I washed the bedding and put it back on the bed. I had to set an alarm for an appointment I had as I just couldn't get warm and was so tired. 

I had the same problem yesterday. I climbed into bed freezing and couldn't get warm. I am not sure why I am going through that again, but I didn't get any of the things I wanted to done today. 

Hopefully, I can feel better in another day or so. 

Have a blessed day!

Fixing and Replacing the Fabric at the Back of My Air Med Duluxe 8000 Massage Chair

I got a massage chair for $20 a few years back that wasn't working at a second hand store. It cost almost $400 to get a new transformer for it and replace it. 

It was working will for a little while, and then the fabric at the back of the chair started ripping and several times over the past year I stitched the rips and then when that didn't work, I put in patches of similar fabric in and stitched those up. 

I tried several times and each time, the rips would open back up and the fabric pieces would get stuck in the winding mechanism of the chair. 

I would have to cut the fabric out and try to figure out another way to fix the problem. 

For many months, I used the chair with the rips in it and the front fabric of the chair started to get stuck in the rollers. You would have to pull it down and make sure it was BELOW the rollers so it wouldn't get stuck and caught in the rollers. 

I finally was able to find a large piece of similar fabric at the second hand store and cut out the ripped fabric and then used a staple gun to replace the fabric so that the rollers and mechanisms wouldn't get stuck into the fabric and front fabric of the chair. 

It has worked fairly well since I got the new fabric in and only once or twice the front section has come up but I haven't had any other problems with the fabric since fixing it a few months back. 

It has been really nice having it working again. I made a video of the process in case anyone else is having this problem. 

Have a blessed day!

Jewelry Finds Its Way To Me - My Good Friend Is Moving

Since Covid happened, my bunko group that has been going non-stop for 20 years decided to take a break. 

I have really missed visiting and keeping up with my friends. A few months back, I texted my longest standing friend in this town asking how she was doing. I didn't hear back from her until today. 

She sold her home and is moving and I am really sad about that, but also very excited for her. She asked me if I would like some jewelry that her girls didn't want and she didn't want to give to "good will," so she asked if I could come over and see if I wanted it. I got 1 pair of gold earrings, several silver earrings and necklaces and some costume jewelry I think some of my girls would like. She also gave me some things she didn't want to go to good will, but if I thought my girls would like them, she would give them to me. I understand how she feels in that it is easier to give things to someone who will use and enjoy them than to just give them to good will. My girls did like the wall hangings she gave me so I am excited to see them go to someone who would enjoy them.

She had a few bags of items she was going to take to good will, but I told her I would take them for her. She has cleaned out most of her house as she didn't think it would sell as quickly as it did, so she has taken lots of loads to good will herself, and she has a few more weeks before she has to be out. 

She doesn't have a place to move so everything is going to have to go into storage until she can find a place. This has happened to several of my friends. Their homes sell really fast before they realize that they can't purchase an equivalent home in a bigger city so they are stuck. 

She wants to live closer to her daughters. Her husband passed away a few years back. He was one of my favorite people. He was so kind and down to earth. I really am sad to see her leave. It is really sad to see all my friends moving. So many have moved or passed away in the past few years. 

I know that it will be a relief to her not to have to worry about a house as she is looking for a condo. She just retired as a nurse. I talked her into going to nursing school as I was an RN that had just moved to this small town and she moved here at the same time from the west coast and we bonded as our kids became friends as they were both new move-ins to the small school. I remember her asking me about nursing and she went to school, ended up teaching at the CNA school at a near by college, and then ended up working for public health and retired recently. 

I will miss her as she was one of the original women I started the bunko group with as I started it to bring women together. We still have over half of the original members of the group 20 years later. It has been a huge blessing in my life. Here is a link to a post talking about my bunko group.  

I uploaded another jewelry sorting video and thought this would be a good post to include it. 

Have a Blessed Day!

I sold 100 Pounds of Jewelry and Am Glad It Is Out of The House

I found a few jewelry bags recently. I haven't found much in the last few bags but a little bit of silver. 

I am trying to clean out the house and had a bin and box of bagged jewelry to donate, give away, sell, or use for Halloween. I decided to try and sell it all at the same time or see if I could get some buyers to come fill up some bags. 

I had one person come and fill up a bag and give me $20 and then I had another lady come and she bought the entire two containers for $165. 

I hauled one of the them to the car for her and she was THRILLED with the purchase. She showed me what she bought the jewelry for as she has started making gourds where she weaves pine needles on them, and then does like a shoelace up the front and puts pieces of jewelry on it. 

I asked her to send me a few photos that I could show on my blog and waited for a few days hoping she would send them, but she didn't so I looked some up online. Here is a link to a Pinterest page that has lots of these gourds. 

I had never seen anything like it before and now can understand why she was so excited to get that jewelry. For the price of one or two gourd sells, she got enough jewelry for a lifetime of making them. 

I am glad to have it out of the house but as it left, I had a second of withdrawals as I love having things handy for crafts and being able to share with others. It was only a second and then I was relieved to have it gone. It has been planted at the base of one of the girls beds for over a year. I sell some, I put more in, I sell some, I put more in. 

Things have shifted at the second hand stores in town so I really don't know how many more bags I will be able to find so I may just need to finish posting the last videos I have already recorded and be done. It has been a good run. 

Have a Blessed Day! 

Lots of 111's, In God We Trust Coins and Rainbows

In the past few weeks, I have seen 111 over and over. When working at the food bank, it seems like I kept seeing 111 on nearly every box. 

Last week I was watching a show and there was a 111 on the show. Then yesterday, I was watching a show on Netflix and I saw a 111 on a phone in the show and took a photo. 

I found a coin or two at the food bank while cleaning. I found two coins at the store yesterday, and several coins while cleaning at my friends. I found a coin just outside my car while helping my other friend last week. 

I saw a rainbow last week and then today while I was shopping, there was a deck of cards with the word "Rainbow" on the back. I though I took a photo but ended up with a photo of the bottom of the shopping cart. ha ha 

If you don't know what each of those things " mean, I will post links below. 

Here is a link to the original 111 post. 

Here is a link to the original "In God We Trust" post.

Here is a link to the original "Rainbow Post."  

I have seen these more often recently which I hope is a sign that good things are coming!  

Have a Blessed Day!

Helping My Friend Clean Her Basement - Retry

I spent 10 hours plus yesterday helping my girlfriend to clean her basement for an inspection. I haven't helped her for a month or two but she really needed my help. 

I helped her straighten up her pantry which I organized a few months back. I helped her get all the VHS tapes out of the house from different areas and stack them in the garage which her daughter listed for sale with some other items I thought should be sold verse donated. 

I helped her sort all her DVD's and put them in cases from her car and reloaded the cases with new DVD's as she travels several times a month out of state with her kids. 

It was a long day of hauling boxes and cleaning and I am glad she decided she didn't want my help today as I was sore and tired. I am glad I am in a position to help others. Today I did some work for the food bank and I know if I had a full time job I wouldn't be able to do the service I am able to do. 

I am blessed. I hope you have a blessed day!

Helping Another Friend This Week - Over Ten Hours Today and Some Yesterday

I helped my friend out yesterday as she needed help with a carpool. Today, she needed her basement clean for an inspection but I am exhausted so I will share tomorrow hopefully as I just keep falling asleep.

 Have a Blessed day!

Another Long Day at The Food Bank

There have been some issues at the bank recently with things getting a bit disorganized as we have been down a few workers.

I told one of the workers I would help him clean out his office and I wanted to get the front office cleaned out as well as the two storage rooms which are the furnace room and the supply room. 

When we had the board meeting, I told one of the workers that I would help him organize his office. Here is the post about that. I spent 6 hours moving shelving, sorting, organizing, and labeling all the items into the two storage rooms. 

I was able to get three shelves into the furnace room and put all the diapers and and depends onto them and out of the front office area. I was also able to organize it that there was a spot for the tool box our worker bought with his stimulus money and donated to the food bank.

I was able to move the two smaller shelves into the cleaning / supply room and put all the cleaning and bathroom supplies onto those smaller shelves so that we can lock the larger storage rooms with the diapers and tools that often get stolen, and leave the supply closet open for those volunteers that clean and stock the bathrooms. 

The worker was very excited to have the shelves out of his office and worked on cleaning it. We worked hard and he didn't finish it, but he was going to work on it today. He was really excited to be able to see how it could be by making it just his rather than a storage room. 

I took "after" pictures since I had taken "before" pictures for the other post, so I thought I would share them. I labeled the front of the shelves so that everyone can find what they are looking for quickly rather than digging through boxes looking for sizes etc. 

I couldn't believe how much hand soap they have. There were containers on every shelf and in both storage rooms. They won't have to buy liquid soap for 5 years or more. 

I am glad I could help get it organized and that it is in a situation that they can glance quickly and know what they are running low on as to order more when needed. 

I wish I could get my house as organized. ha ha. 

Have a blessed day! 

The Cutest Mail I've Ever Gotten - Grand Princess One Wrote Her Stuffed Bunny

I went out to get the mail the other day and got the cutest letter. I got a letter from my grand-daughter Princess One, and she wrote her Stuffed Bunny!

I had a video chat with her so I could open it with her watching. It was written by her stuffed bear "Heart" that lives with her, to the stuffed Bunny "Sister M" who resides at my house. 

I posted a blog post about her bunny living at my house. Here is a link to that post. We have video chats regularly where she visits with her bunny. 

My grandson also has a stuffed friend at my house. It is a character from Monsters Inc and he asks regularly to visit "monster" as he calls him. 

The two of them are just the cutest with their little friends. I think it is fairly smart of my grand-daughter to write her own letter from her bear to her stuffed bunny! Her mother said she came out of her room with the letter written, in the envelope with a stamp on it on the wrong side. She had to help her address it but she said the whole idea and writing it from her bear was all her own idea.

She is only 7, so I thought that was really creative. She did a great job with spelling as I could read the entire letter.

It was the highlight of my week! Have a blessed day!

Another Day of Service and a Rainbow From My Mom

I got up early to a call saying that there was a truck full of boxes full of food that needed to be distributed. The local church brought in thousands of boxes of food to our town and each church unit took loads of boxes to distribute to family in need.

They did this two weeks ago and through miscommunication, there were four full pallets left and they didn't all get distributed and were put into the fridge at the food bank. They weren't able to distribute that many and some items had to be thrown away. That made everyone make sure that all the boxes got distributed this time. 

I spent the entire morning delivering boxes. When I had one box left, I said a prayer to know what family might be go to share the box with and a family I don't know very well came into my mind. I thought that maybe it would be offensive to offer them food since I didn't know them well but decided to follow that inspiration I felt. 

It started to snow during my last few deliveries and when I took up that last box to the door, I was really glad it was my last. When I got to the door, I saw a rainbow sign that was really bright and the worlds were "Over The Rainbow" and if you read this blog, you know that "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is the song that my mother sang to us each night. Here is my first post about that. Since she has passed, I get little messages from her and see rainbows in my life, usually when I have some stresses.   

I ran back to my car to get my phone so I could take a photo of the sign. I guess there is a woman who they pay to make a new sign every holiday and she comes to their home and changes out the words part. I thought that was a  creative business for a high school student. 

I felt like my mother was guiding my life from beyond and I appreciated that note on such a dark day!

I hope you have a blessed day!
                                                                                                              

Long Day At The Food Bank

I had a board meeting at the food bank today. I have been on the board or volunteering there for coming up on 20 years. 

Our food bank is going through some changes and the board has quite a few new members as we are trying to increase the members of the board and get people with different abilities on the board. We are so grateful that they are willing to serve.

We have new members that have connections with grant writing, some with policies and organization business, some in newspapers and advertising, another with the city, another is one of the most wealthy in our community so he knows almost everyone through his business, one has experience in fund raising, another well known business person, and some from interfaith councils. 

We have never had a board with such diverse people in it, or as many people on the board. I am really excited to have a strong board for the first time in those 20 years. When I first got involved, we had a good board and then we lost the director with family issues, we moved into a new building, and things started going downhill with the economy / grant issues. 

Recently, grants are up now again with COVID and we finally have more in the accounts. Things are starting to move. There is a big food drive coming up and the satellite offices we have in the outer smaller towns are all starting to get bigger. We are looking at ways to bring in more donations and inform community members about the programs and who can qualify. 

Things have gotten really cluttered as they have been storing diapers in places other than the warehouse as they get taken regularly as they are a high cost item so they give one package out as needed, but it is getting a bit crazy as they have to lock them in offices and closets so they don't disappear and / or run out. 

I spoke to several workers, and we came up with a plan on how to rearrange some of the storage rooms where we can put shelving to store those items and to stop having so much clutter in the office space. 

I am excited for things to start getting organized and more professional as it has been a bit crazy with lots of volunteer turnover and I look forward to maybe getting stable workers / volunteers in and getting it running as I know it can. 

I am grateful that there are so many people who care about the success of the food bank and who are willing to volunteer and donate. 

One of these good workers took his stimulus check and purchased a tool box and tools that can be locked as the tools keep disappearing. 

We get volunteers that have court ordered service hours, and sometimes things go missing while they are doing service. It is a hazard of the situation as we are one of the only service hour options in the area. He has limited income, and I thought that was so sweet of him to use his "widows mite" to do something for the food bank when so many others take and never pay it forward. 

He is a good example to me. I am headed back in the next few days to help organize those rooms and hopefully, having the offices cleaned and not being used for storage will help the workers feel more at peace while working. 

Have a blessed day!