Scrappy Hearts

An Afternoon At Home

 Today I took advantage of a rare opportunity to photograph the melting snow on a Friday afternoon. I really  love the light at this time of the day and the way it peaks around the back of my house into the gardens. I was thinking it won’t be long now, but there’s snow on the way for Sunday. Glad I had the opportunity to enjoy this glimpse of my yard on a Friday afternoon.

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Snowmen in Summer

Or, how to explore matter in 2nd grade. 

That’s right. I took a perfectly good, cold, solid snowman and placed him in an electric wok to explore matter with my little cherubs.Here he is in my freezer completely unaware of what the future holds. He had no eyes, probably a good thing.

We placed him in Mark’s electric wok and turned the temperature up to 400 degrees. Needless to say, he did not last very long. I was able to carry the wok around so that all of the students from our three classes could watch his demise. I chose the wok only because I wanted to be sure that he got hot enough for the students to observe the process of evaporation. It was a great experiment and the students really enjoyed writing about the life cycle of a snowman. 

 

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Medical Organization

The truth is, I hate being disorganized. Really, it stresses me out! So, I took a tip from Bunkey. She stores all of her and Eddie’s medical information in binders. Now, because both Bunkey and Eddie have been diagnosed with cancer on more than one occasion, their binders are immense. I believe that they are also necessary. In any given week they are off to one doctor or another and it is important to have the most recent information with them. Each of their binders is in a bag that gets put in the car whenever they have a doctor’s appointment.

Several years ago, before I knew Bunkey, I did something similar. It was when I first found a lump/growth in my right breast. I saw several surgeons and had multiple tests all over the course of a month. I kept everything in a totebag. Everytime I left for an appointment all I had to do was grab that one bag and I had everything I needed. Once that scare was over, I stopped being so organized. 

Three weeks ago Office Depot had a sale on their binders. So I searched Pinterest for some help. I found this great binder system at Thirty Handmade Days. I am in the process of creating medical binders for Mark and myself. As we get older, it becomes more apparent, that there are things that we really need to keep a close check on. We don’t want anymore surprise trips to the hospital so we’re doing something about it. 

I will let you know my progress and how it all works out. Wish me luck, organizing is not one of my strong suits.

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Next, On the Red Carpet

Bunkey! Well, and me. Bunkey always gets dressed up for the Academy Awards and this year was no different. I had no idea that she planned on doing this during my time at her house, so I arrived in my most comfortable get up that isn’t pajamas! 

I love the “red” carpet this year, Cars fabric in fleece! Watching awards shows is one of Bunkey’s guilty pleasures. Me, I couldn’t be bothered, especially last night. 

As it turned out, Bunkey was jealous that I was so comfortable so she quickly changed into her pajamas so that we could tackle our job for the day, organizing her next quilt projects. I only gave her two hours of my time, afterall, it was Sunday. But it was just long enough to accomplish our task.

Bunkey is preparing to start chemo this week. She began a hormone shot that she will get once a month, last Thursday. This coming Thursday, she starts chemo. An oral application that she will take daily. Not sure what that will look like in terms of pills or affects on her body. She is a little concerned because she currently weighs less than she has in nearly 20 years. She has been through this before and we are hopeful that the cancer will respond to treatment. 

After all the red carpet excitement of the day, I thought that Bunkey would fade early. Afterall, she is just a couple of weeks out of surgery. But, she did watch all of the Academy Awards, from the comfort of her bed, with Onyx by her side.

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A Little Bit of This

and a little bit of that. That was the way today went. Easy, no stress, fun kind of Sunday. 

Of course there was laundry and my regular Sunday chores, but there was also a little time to get creative. I have had a few 8x10 photos, that I have wanted to scrap, for quite a while. Today I decided to get one on paper. So happy I spent a little bit of time playing with paper and pearls.

Happy to have this memory saved and in the books! I need to remind myself how happy I am when I get a chance to be creative!

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Busy Saturday Here at Home

There is nothing I like more than the opportunity to hang out, inside the house, during a snowstorm. Today we had that beautiful flaky stuff that made the outside world look like a snowglobe. I loved it, especially since I had no where to be. 

What to do on a snowy day, lots of little jobs that just haven’t gotten done. The first thing I did was make a huge pot of Hamburger Soup with lots and lots of veggies.

Then, we put away the last Christmas tree. I cannot do that one on my own anymore and it was finally “warm” enough to spend some time in the garage making room for the tree and organizing the Christmas stuff so that it doesn’t get in our way the rest of the year. I even took down the lace drapery and washed that. Today was a very thorough cleaning!

Next I worked on destashing my scrapbooking supplies. I have joined a facebook group, Scrapbook Bargain Basement, and I have been working diligently to purge myself of unnecessary scrapbooking items. Today I took another 18 photos and added them to my online album. It feels so good to start clearing out items that I don’t use and probably won’t use. 

After taking pictures of more items and adding them to my online album, I spent a little bit of time making little thank-you cards and little gifties to include when I send out a purchase.

   One of my favorite things to do is to make my packages look nice when I send them out. I have been selling items so quickly that I ran out of gifties and cards. I was stressed everytime a sale came through because I needed to make something up on the fly. Now I have a little bit of a stash so I think I am good for a week.

I organize everything I want to purge in our spare bedroom. I have a 31 bag with my Etsy items and now I have a 31 bag filled with my stuff for the facebook page. I put my little gifties and cards in a little 31 bag. The bags make it very easy to organize because when we have someone come to visit, I just grab the bags and move them!

Today has been a very full, enjoyable day. Just what a Saturday should be!

Beer Dinner

Spending time with my children is my favorite thing to do - always. Last night was no exception. Jason invited Mark and I to join him for a beer dinner sponsored by Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company at The Crow and The Pitcher on 19th in Philadelphia. The meal was exquisite and the pairings were unbelievably spot on. 

The first course was a French Lentil soup followed by roast chicken breast with root vegetables. The third course, flank steak, one of the best I have ever tasted.

Dessert was a sampling of cheeses served with apple chutney and candied pecans. Simple and satisfying. I love any opportunity to hang out with Jason. I do love beer dinners because I always learn something whether it be about beer, the brewing process or food. I am not much of a beer drinker but I enjoyed each of the beers we were served last evening even though I did not finish all of them! 

Last night, because of the intimacy of the event, we shared engaging conversation and truly enjoyed ourselves. A special thank you to The Crow and The Pitcher, please give them a try, Steve and Jason.

We Really Had Snow

Most of us were hoping for a snow day. Especially me! Unfortunately, the powers that be deemed it safe enough to venture into work. We did have a 2 hour delayed opening, and the main roads were pretty clear by then, but the local roads were a bit much to navigate!

It really was an odd day at school. The students showed up at 11. They had lunch at 12 and recess until 12:50. Then there was art from 1:10 until 1:50. Not much time in my classroom but we still managed to accomplish quite a bit! 

If I had been given the choice, I would have opted for a snow day. But, all in all, not a bad day!

A ‘Love’ly Day

This weekend was just chock full of love. First I had a lovely Saturday at home with my hubby. Then on Sunday, a trip into Philly for brunch with my two favorite twenty-somethings. Jason, Jess and I had such a lovely time at Rex 1516 for brunch. 

Heather arranged the flowers and they were the perfect touch on the tables. So simple and elegant at the same time. Brunch itself was also spectacular. I ordered the bananas foster french toast while Jess and Jay stayed with the more traditional southern options of biscuits and gravy and chicken with waffles. It was really lovely to have the time together.

The weather was downright cold. We decided not to head to the art museum and just linger over our meal with good conversation and great company. The museum will be there next time we are all together, this Sunday was a blessing.

Did I Mention,

it’s snowing? Really, it is snowing for real this time. This is the kind of snow I love. Fluffy, soft and glistening in the flash of the camera. We won’t get that much and it will probably be gone by tomorrow evening, but now I am happy.

We actually had a little snow earlier today. It was pretty while it was falling, but there really wasn’t too much of it.

I tried to take a photo of the snow through the kitchen window, but it just isn’t as pretty as reality!

The really pretty snow started at about 8. We are supposed to have squalls through 11 or so, but so far, not so much! I can hear that the wind has picked up and I can feel the temperature dropping when I head out to the garage. So happy that I don’t have to go anywhere this evening.

Let’s face it, today was a good day to hang out inside, with my Valentine!