Scrappy Hearts

Welcome Fall

With October arriving tomorrow, I am sure that fall weather will rapidly arrive and I am itching to record images of autumnal color at its peak. Hoping that we will get to experience some outdoor time in the next few weeks so that we can immerse ourselves in the beauty of the season. Here’s to October!

Balancing Life

Monday evening I declared a night off. I did very little school work and no business work, I took some time to get a couple of blocks ready to sew. It was fun!

I am way behind on this project after completely skipping August. I need to send two months worth of blocks to my partner by the end of this week. While the blocks are small, they are not all that easy to construct. At least this month there is no hand sewing to complete! 

In an attempt to create balance in my life I am making time to sew, clean, complete my schoolwork and do a bit of business work. Now if I could just find the time to exercise!

Sunday Breakfast

Sunday morning is for carbs. There, I said it! I think I may be a carb addict. Especially when it comes to waffles and pancakes. I love them. I could eat them not only for breakfast, but also for breakfast lunch and dinner. Maybe that’s why I have developed diabetes. This didn’t just start - Sunday breakfasts have meant carbs for as long as I can remember.

When I was young, my mom would go out to the Village Bakery on Sunday mornings to pick up donuts. She would buy enough for each person in our family to have one. She knew what each of us would prefer. For my brother Tony, a jelly donut and for my dad, a French cruller. I always got a crumb bun or an apple danish. I think Suzy liked the jelly donuts also, but I don’t remember. I do remember how much I looked forward to Sunday morning and those special sugary treats.

As I grew up, my Sunday breakfasts changed based on where I was and who I was living with. My children loved chocolate pancakes and then went through a stage of bagel and egg sandwiches. Then we got a waffle iron and, as far as I’m concerned, waffles were high on the request list.

There were the years that I babysat my nieces. It wasn’t just Sunday, both weekend days would call for waffles. I’m still hooked, although I am trying to be better. Today’s pancakes had added chia and flax and were served with turkey sausage for the protein. A quick check of my sugar afterwards indicated that I might be on the right track! I think I might just be able to do this diabetes thing!

Keeping Secrets

There are some things that I am not very good at and one of them is secrets. This week I am “vaulting” several secrets and my head is about to burst. Mind you, I do not feel that way about secrets that someone shares with me. No, it is mostly my own secrets or secret situation that I am a part of that I have a difficult time keeping, well you know, secret.

Every year a choose a word to guide me. This year, my word is BRAVE. I wasn’t sure what would be involved with living my year bravely and then I had a few medical issues that required a certain braveness to put myself in a situation that would allow me to figure it out. Since we have a couple of concrete diagnoses at this point, I continue to be called upon to be brave as we try to put all of the puzzle pieces together.

Brave is the word that I use to describe what I face when I try to make significant changes to my lifestyle. It is easy to do what I have always done. Now I find that my health and well-being depend on my decisions in a way that they never have before and I need to continue to be brave in the choices I make.

I didn’t realize until this week why my word for 2015 really needed to be BRAVE. This is the secret part. I can’t share why being Brave is so necessary to my life right now but I assure you, it’s big. So, without sharing my secrets, I am asking for support, good thoughts and prayers. In the end, what will be will be and I will be better for taking the journey. Right now, I’m doing my best to be brave; My Word, My Story, My Year.

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Making Himself at Home

Last evening I got quite a shock as I was heading to bed. Mr. Marlo was hiding, or trying to hide, under the covers. It scared the bejessuz out of me. You see, since Marlo moved in with us, way back in March, he has been a scaredy kitty. It took him several weeks to come out of hiding and even after that he has been very skittish. 

After our August trip to Seattle, he seems to be a little more trusting. After all, we did come back to New Jersey and we do continue to feed him and clean his little box. I guess we are deserving of his trust. But getting him upstairs, well that just wasn’t happening.

That is until one day last week when I saw him curled up on a chair in the family room in the loft. I didn’t expect too much. And now this! Seems as though he is claiming his rightful place as king of the house. And I really don’t mind. I believe that he is truly loving the suburban lifestyle. That is until a squirrel scares him at the patio door!

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Seriously,

Soup weather has arrived. I wasn’t expecting it. I think it snuck up on us because as we arrived home after work this evening there was a sudden damp chill in the air. That was enough to send us over to Iron Hill for their delicious mushroom soup and their fall salad. The perfect meal for this coming of autumn Monday!

Fall Like

Seems like fall is right around the corner. The air even smells like fall this evening. Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

“A fallen leaf is summer’s wave good-bye."

 

Tuesday in Second Grade, Off to a Slow Start

School is off to a very slow start. Even though we actually started back before Labor Day, we have only been in class 7 days. Tomorrow will start our 3rd week of school and again, a short week. By the time September is finished we will only have been in school a total of 16 days. 

It is hard to get routines set when there is so much time off but, I am not complaining. A beautiful 4 day weekend, the third week of school, is more than I could have hoped for. Jess and I took advantage of my day off and spent a little time perusing the Marketplace at Ikea. We both picked up a couple of organizational tools and  then we enjoyed a simple lunch before Jess had to head into work for the evening.

Tomorrow I will greet my kiddos at our classroom door hoping they remember the routine of morning greetings. Even if they don’t, I can’t complain, the past couple of days have been a true gift.

My New Norm

Just as you begin to get comfortable with a new routine, life has a way of throwing you a curve. The result, you adapt, again and try to find another “new” norm. For me it seems that since I have hit my 50’s, every six months or so, I am presented with something that cannot be explained away. I adjust my activity, I increase my sleep, I decrease the amount of work I bring home, I stop driving as far, I spend more time at home, my diet includes more protein, less sugar and the list goes on and on.

Wednesday, after several high sugar tests months apart, the doctor has decided that need to monitor my sugar levels twice a day. I am now logging everything that I decide to eat and recording all my sugar levels. I am beginning to see a pattern between my sugar level and how I feel. I am also beginning to notice how certain foods affect my sugar levels.

It is a learning process and there are times when I am just plain tired of it. My family doctor wants me to have no processed sugar and to schedule an appointment with a dietician. My GI doctor has asked me to avoid all dairy and my rheumatologist is suggesting Lyrica. Me, I just want to not feel like sleeping every other hour. Oh, I also want waffles for breakfast on Sunday! Forgive my whining, I am just a little frustrated!

Throwback Thursday - Raceway Park, 1996

While I was busy clearing out the studio, I found this photo taped to a poster board that Jason created before he graduated from 6th grade. Jason raced a dragster for a couple of years when he was in elementary school. We would travel to Atco Raceway or up to Englishtown’s Raceway Park on Sundays so that he could participate. 

There were times when we would head up to Raceway Park on week nights for their Night of Thrills. One such evening Jason and Jessica had the opportunity to meet and have their shirts autographed by Shirley Muldowney who was known as the "First Lady of Drag Racing". She was the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot rod Association. Her hot pink dragster made her a stand out in the parking lot where the drivers prepared for their races.

This was just one of the ways that we enjoyed spending our time during the 90’s. By the way, do you notice Jason’s hair. It was striped blue and white in honor of his dragster, The Viper.