Restoring Faith

A few emails to a few trusted bloggers and friends and the most amazing thing happens.

An amazing display of support, generosity, and compassion came flooding in. 

I was so touched by all of this kindness and support shown for my friend, someone whom none of them know personally, that I cried as I read their posts.

First was Susan from Food Allergy Chronicles. My neighbor and just all around kind and sweet and giving person. She made mention of Jen and linked to my post in her own blog post today. (A post that contains a recipe for some really really yummy looking muffins!!!)

Then Carla from My Half Dozen Daily (who I met thanks to Susan!), this amazing lady, not only blogged about it but offered up one of her tote bag in a giveaway to help encourage people to donate and sponsor my run!  And not JUST one of her gorgeous tote bags, but filled with stuff as well?! I was floored by her generosity.   Her only rules to entering is a minimum $10.00 donation to the Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada on my sponsor page to help me reach my goal. If you made the donation, leave a comment on her post you'll be entered for a chance to win.

*UPDATE: Sneak peek at the front panel of the tote bag! http://halfdozendaily.typepad.com/my-half-dozen-daily/2013/04/thank-you-a-sneak-peek.html 


One last little lady who hasn't posted yet but confirmed with me that she would. (She's at work right now teaching kids!) Sew Tara, who I mentioned was having a giveaway right now (separate from this thing), said she'd gladly help spread the word.  She's a sweetheart. Go give her a hug!

These 3 ladies are shining example of what it means to be human. To care, to love, to give to a complete stranger without anything in return. Thank you all so much and thank you to all who have donated. I may just reach my goal yet!

And now a word from our sponsor....

How about a handmade giveaway by a really awesome lady?

To balance out the last post I thought I would let you know about a giveaway the lovely Sew Tara is having this week.  She's cleaning up her craft room and, upon discovering a growing collection of random finished projects taking up more space than she has room, she decided to give them a new home!  So for one lucky entry she's going to fill a box and surprise handmade stuff!   It ends tomorrow so better hurry over there if you want to enter!

Sewtara's Surprise Stuff Giveaway!

It's not a tumah . . . Oh wait, it is.

Sure it's a classic movie line that everybody knows. But when it happens to someone you know, it really loses its comedic value.

A few months ago I got news that a friend of mine had a brain tumor.

Large enough that operation might be the best course of action. A surgery that she could come out of blind. . . or. . . not come out of at all. 

She has a very sweet daughter who is 10 that has autism and sensory processing disorder. 

And a baby boy who will be turning 1 next month.

 

There is a good chance she will miss his birthday as the tumor is growing fast enough to worry the doctors. Fast enough that they may not honor her requests to hold off until after his birthday. And since most of the first months of recovery are spent in a hazy stupor. . .

And there is also the not being able to lift her child for almost a year. . .

She is scared.  She is struggling.

And I felt helpless in being able to do anything for her. So when I found out that the Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada had a 5k coming up I jumped on the chance. I register as running in her honor. My very first full 5k since I started running back January.  So at least I feel like I'm doing something. I'm hoping that running for her will help bring her a little moral support. To show her she's not alone. And any donations I can raise as sponsors to my running will go to help out others down the road with research and support.
 
And it turns out they are more common than most realize. As a friend of mine knew two other people who's lives had been changed by a brain tumor, she decided to join me and we created the team "Running for Love".  A friend of her's joined us as well.

So, if you have ever known anyone, friend or family or even yourself, who has had their lives turned upside down by a brain tumor and would like to sponsor our run you can donate on my page here:   Joanna Running for Jen

or to the whole team here: Team Running For Love

The 5k takes place in Toronto on April 27th. 


If you feel up to it feel free to share your story in the comments. Or any prayers or thoughts that I can share with Jen to let her know she's not alone.

Awesome Secret Sister . . .

Bad receiving sister etiquette.  That would be me. 

Yes, I joined another one of Carla's Secret Sister Swaps. I adore doing them and I got s much joy from putting together my "sisters" package and I really do hope she likes it. Not sure how long it will take to get to her as she's stationed out in Afghanistan right now but it will get there eventually.

I received my secret sister's package from the lovely Sam of http://www.anostrichnamedsam.blogspot.ca/ two weeks ago now and I have failed at posting about it.   I did at least email her and let her know I got it safe and sound and loved it.   Now I am finally going to share it with all of you.

Behold! A lovely array of thing that I love!  I really need to make a trip to Chapters now. I know just the book I've been wanting to get for myself for a while now.  Though, knowing me I'll get distracted there and get something else or another few things that I didn't mean to get but fell in love with anyways *lol* I'm so not allowed to go there more than a couple times a year.  We love books.

Above the gift card, my most favoritest chocolates in the WORLD. (Even tops the Seroogies Melt Away bars I grew up on back in Green Bay Wisconsin that USED to be my favorite. )  Some great little travel sized lotions for my super dry hands. I really like the Jasmine one but they all have great scents.  And one of them even sparkles! 

Add to that 4 packets of seed for our crazy garden which I'm so excited to get back into now that the weather is warming up. 

A cute little Easter puppy for Little Badger.

A darling pair of amethyst purple earrings. 

And then this little gem.  A cookbook, which she hit the nail right on the head when she said in her note she thought it might be something I'd like, that has a lot of rustic and classic recipes.  Including some great edible wild plant recipes (goose foot, purslane, cat tail!)  It's an older book that was passed through to her from a friend and now she's passed it to me.  I love it!  

I'm especially excited about the bread section.  Reading though it was so much easier for me than my "Bread Bible" book and a lot more things make a lot more sense now. Also it has a good solid wheat loaf which my book didn't have and I can't wait to try it out!  Though I do have to hold off till I finish this second dietbet as I am just far too weak when it comes to bread and I don't know if I could resist eating a whole loaf. 

Yes. . .  I said it.  *hangs head in shame* I'm THAT bad.  My biggest weakness, buttered toast and fresh squish warm buttered bread.

So thank you Sam. You did an amazing job and I loved it all!

Oh! Right! That Weight thing!

I kinda forgot to update the last 2 weeks of weight loss. Well,  I did it. I did make the dietbet goal! I weighed out at 187.4  After a week of holiday eating I decided I wanted to do one more game. So this time around I'm betting $50 that I can lose another 4%.  So I here I am, starting again.

My new weigh-in. . .

188.6 

One pound up from my weigh-out of the last game but still 12 lbs down since Christmas!  I'm so excited and proud of myself I hope I can keep going.   It will be hard with all the Easter chocolate still scattered about but I will do my best!   

The game JUST started on Monday so if you want to join me there is still time!   Just go here and sign up and get your photos in! (You will need a credit card or paypal as you have to pay the bet amount to enter.)

Things and Stuff

So, you know,  I'm a terrible blogger.

You may have noticed.   I'm terrible at consistency.

I really admire bloggers like Susan at Food Allergy Chronicles who find  make time to blog multiple times a week.  And then there are the superheros of blogging like  Carla at My Half Dozen Daily who blog multiple times every day!!!  Meanwhile I struggle to find a time to sit down and do one measly post every other week.

I find myself often having to choose between clean, craft, or rest when I find my little moments of, hey he's quiet and playing by himself and I can get something done!"  But more often than not, cleaning gets the vote.  And when craft finally does happen, I never find the time to talk about it.  (Or at least organize my photos to show you what I did! )

I really appreciate those of you who stick around even though my updates are few and far between.

*****

So,  I finally found an hour to myself this morning and got my photos half way there.   Little Badger has starter sleeping through the night again and . . .  ah crud. . . speak of the devil. . .  back in a few. . .

*****

*cough*  Ok, so,  now that he's napping, where was I?   Right, so he's been sleeping better at night so I'm hoping things will be able to pick up again.  If I can get a quiet hour to . . .  *sigh*  Badger is waking. . .  back in a bit. . .

 *****

Right, and hour to myself first thing every morning maybe I can put that to good blogging use.  

But for today I would like to share with you something that was meant to be shared BEFORE Easter. Ah well. 

A few weeks before Easter my Hubby went to a local butcher shop and apparently they were selling some hand made wooden eggs that were beautifully painted and lacquered. 

One for each of us!   The purple is for me.  The blue is for Badger and the Black is my hubby's.   It was so sweet and excitedly I told him I would make something pretty to display them in!

So I raided my "random craft supplies" baskets and. . .  oh god. . . that. . . that's terrible. . .  be right back (diaper duty) . . .

*****

Ok,  back.  *shudders*  So, eggs, random stuff, grabbed me a pile and. . .

Thought to myself ok, what can I do with this?  

See that lace? 

That beautiful lace on my lovely lace organizing card was hand made by my hubby's great grandmother.  So not only are the eggs a part of the family now, so the nest I made will have a touch of history to it.

So,  aaaand he's hungry. . . . . 

*****

Ok.  So, eggs, stuff, lace, nest. . .  NEST! 

Yes, I made a nest for the lovely eggs. 

 I started with a pile of moss glue gunned down to a cardboard round I cut out to the size of the vine wreath I'll be using.  

Theeeeeen. . . I missed a few steps in pictures as I got carried away in the project.  But a few feathers here and there, some fake flowers tucked in.

Some small glass pearls and bits of copper wire. . .

And there we have it.

One lovely lacy, feather nest.   Not too shabby for a first I think.   Wonder if I should make more of these.   Though if you want to see some absolutely lovely delicate lacy creations head over and say hi to Karen at Todolwen.   Her little bits of lace, tarnish, and sparkle are just amazing!

Aside from that, Easter came and went.  We had a lovely time with family eating good food and enjoying good company.   And we even had a visit from the Easter bunny! 

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Yes, I decided to give you a look into a part of my "day in the life of attempting to blog".   Maybe next time will go smoother? ;) Linked up:






 FEATURED!!!