Leaping!

 Happy Leap Day 2012 Friends! Did you know that there are 97 leap days every 400 years? It's true! Leap years are every four years, except in years ending in 00... UNLESS they can be divided by 40. Don't believe me? Check out this explanation. I'm just love facts about days and dates, so I just thought I'd throw this tidbid out there for you to enjoy as well! Hope you get some wonderful leaping in today!  

Songs I'm Loving

I have recently found some new Christian music that I just LOVE. You may or may not have heard these artists, but I just have to share them, because their music is TOO good and TOO uplifting not to.   First up, Lindsay Mccaul.  I bought Lindsay's cd "If It Leads Me Back" a few weeks ago and I tweeted about how excited I was then.  I had only heard a couple of her songs at that point, but since I have gotten the album, I have pretty much been listening to it non-stop. And that is saying a lot for me, because I don't often listen to music any place other than in my car.    
Here is "Say My Name" which is definitely one of my favorites:

 Next is Audrey Assad.  I don't have her new album "heart" yet, it just came out of Valentine's Day, but I have listened to many of the songs. "Sparrow" is way up at the top for me.  Listen to it: 

 And finally, I have had the newist Shane and Shane cd , "the one you need," for quite some time, but I just LOVE it too and think you might enjoy it. I have listened to it sooo many times already that it just might be my at-the-house soundtrack. The whole things pretty much rocks, but "Miracle" might be my favorite on the whole album.  

So I hope I have introduced  you to something new that will intensify your all-day worship experience of the one who made us and loves us. 
I'm here and I'm still writing,
Katie Beth

Wreath-Making: A Fall Wreath

 So one of the things I have been doing with my time lately is making wreaths.  It all started when I realized I was going to have a very beautiful, almost hunter green front door and that it would be mine, all mine, for at least the next several years.  I decided then and there that I would REALLY like to have a wreath for every season. I started brainstorming and imagining what they could be and what they could look like.  I would have a beautiful orange and brown and yellow leafy one in the fall and I would have a beautiful berry one for Christmas and I would have a heart for Valentine's day! Oh the possibilities were so endless... 
I started looking a little online, and a little at stores, and quickly realized that the offerings neither 1) fit my budget, nor 2) fit with my vision.  Some came close in either category, but none fit both categories, so I just ventured on into the blooms section of my local craft store and gathered up a bunch of lovelies and a grapevine wreath and set off towards home.
Now, I'm not one for hot glue.  I think its stringy and not so permanent and it just bugs me, so I quickly realized I needed to attach the blooms, leaves, ribbons, etc., in another fashion . I decided to wire them on and I think it worked quite well. 
I started with fall, because that was the season it was when we moved into our house with our very beautiful hunter-green-esque front door. So without further ado, here is my homemade fallish wreath!

I still love it and can't wait to put it back on my front door next year! I'm here, and I'm still writing,

  

Lately

Lately, my head is spinning with creativity.
 Lately, I've been swooning over quilting patterns and fabrics. Lately,  I've been driving my Mama and my hubby crazy with all my fabric and quilting chatter. Lately, I've been dreaming of a more creative career, but I really have no idea how to create THAT for myself.

Lately, I've been working on reshaping my body and my thoughts.
Lately, I have been trying to part with Dr. Pepper, or at least severely limit our interactions with one another.
Lately, I've been sore from working out,  but so satisfied with the soreness. Lately, I've been reading and reading and enjoying both novels and non-fiction. 

Lately, I've been paying more attention to how much things cost and flirting with the idea of trying to incorporate coupons more successfully. 
Lately, I have been sleeping with both my ceiling fan and heated mattress pad on low.  
Lately, I've been happy at home.   

Intentional Changes.

I have spent the first two weeks of the new year brainstorming ideas that I could work on or change.  Some people declared theirs "resolutions" and began at the beginning of the year.  After being inundated with  reports about how unlikely we are to actually effect long-term change if we start on January 1, I was tempted to wait or not announce anything. However,  I gave it some serious thought and came up with a few things I have been thinking about or already working on, and created a list of what I'd like to do or accomplish in the next fifty weeks.  Here is my list: 1. Finish 12 books.  I say finish because I have a few books sitting on my nightstand that I really should get through before I purchase or begin any new ones.  2. Make curtains for two bedrooms and our living room. 3. Train for and consider running 13.1 miles in June in a race.   4.  Continue to cook regularly and maybe add in a few more recipes so that Handsome doesn't get bored. 5. Post pictures of wreaths I have made recently to the blog!  6. Order our wedding album before our anniversary in August and order prints... Embarrassing I know.  7. Work on more scripture memory verses and get at least a little plugged in at a church in our new town. 8. Blog more. Even if it means I just get one post posted a month. So, that is all I have.  Some of these things have been troubling me for a great deal of time, so 2012 would be a great time to take care of them.  I have other thoughts and ideas and little to-dos but I'm thinking big picture here people and I want to set attainable goals that still might do some stretching and make room for growing. I'll try to keep you updated.  

2011 By the Numbers

So it is now the middle of January. I still want to do some form of 2011 recap, so  here is 2011 by the numbers!
1: Trip to the Emergency Room,
1: Anniversary celebrated at a very delicious steakhouse, complete with flowers and a bracelet from my man
1: Morning in my old high school
1: New addition to the family! (our 102 lb. bloodhound named Big Baby)
and 1: missed trip to Hawaii! :(
2: Moves! One across the country, one across our town.
and 2: Missed days of work (one following our 1 trip to the ER). 
3: Job applications completed!
and 3: Friends having beautiful babies! 
and 3: Weeks of eating-in, almost exclusively...the longest amount of time we have avoided restaurants during our entire marriage.
4: Months of school and months of being jobless.
5: Big finals for hubby, but 0 big tests for me!
6: ..is close to the number of times I blogged. So embarrassing. 
and 6: times I stepped out of my comfort zone to meet new people since moving to our new town.
7: Trips to Hometown throughout the year.
8: Months of work!
9ish?: Different churches we visited or tried due to trips out of town and our move!
10: (approximately) the number of new recipes we have incorporated into our regular repertoire.
11: States visited including, but not limited to, Washington, Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Texas! 
16: Church league softball games
21: times I felt embarrassed or put my foot in my mouth. (I'm guessing here people).
(approximately) 40: Known food allergies
60: Skin tests for hives
(approximately) 80: Prescriptions filled and taken! Sheesh!!
(approximately) 120: Boxes packed and unpacked.
Countless: hugs, kisses, shouts, "I love yous" and "I'm sorrys"
********
And Christmas by the numbers:
We saw: 4 parents, 3 grandparents, 2 brothers, 1 sister-in-law, 4 nieces, 3 family pets, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, 1 cousin, and countless friends and  family.  It was a busy but full time.  

Managing Life With Bumps In The Night

So, the bumps had returned. So I did the best thing I knew to do: I went online in search for answers! Well, sort of.  In all honesty, I went online to get a phone number for an allergist in my Hometown and did what any reasonable adult would do: called my mom and asked her to set up the appointment for me, even though I had looked the number up.  I got scared so I had her do it. Pathetic, I know.  But, in all fairness, the allergist's office has been my dad's family's doctor for over 50 years! So my mom, dad, and brother are all well acquainted with the office and I knew she would have more sway about getting me in on the exact and only days I would be available for several months. 

And sure enough, she came through! They scheduled me, somewhat unwillingly, for allergy tests over the exact two days that I was planning to be in Hometown.  They told my mom that there was a good chance the tests would be inconclusive, but I persevered and thought it would be worth going.  So I stopped my medicine for a few days, became quite irritable and bumpy and itchy, and then went and got a lot of scratches and a whole bunch of food injections.   The tests showed that I have food sensitivities to, oh, pretty much everything that any normal person would like to eat.  

Seriously.  I'm sensitive to wheat, coconut, garlic, blackberry, cauliflower, strawberry, pear, pea, kidney bean, grape, red and green pepper, chile powder, brewers yeast, oat, rice, banana, pecan, spinach, apple, celery, coffee, watermelon, cow milk, beef, lobster, shrimp, tuna, halibut, apricot and peach.  

If you made it through that list you will probably be thinking two different thoughts, simultaneously. Those are 1. Man, that is a lot of food; and 2. There must still be tons of other foods that you are not sensitive to and therefore, what is with all the whining?

I know, because I had these same thoughts for about a month before I got a handle on myself. For a while, I tried to eat other foods they tested that I had no reaction to. Things like chicken, corn, pinto bean, cherry, etc.  And I think I was doing okay, but the bumps kept coming and I kept cheating on things like coffee because it can be really discouraging to limit your diet. 

But eventually, I realized I needed to see a nutritionist to figure out how to truly eliminate the foods I knew I was sensitive to and how to still eat a relatively healthy diet.  The dietician taught me a number of things I never knew, introduced me to foods I hadn't heard of, and advised me of other foods that weren't tested but were in a like family to those I were so I could stay away from them too. 

I think it has been almost two months since I saw her, and since that time, I have been doing better at staying with my safe foods and not cheating by eating unsafe foods.  I did have one more pretty bad attack and have had some other slip-ups, but overall I'm doing okay with "safe" foods, many prescription drugs, and now, some digestive enzymes.

I'm not sure how long it will take to get over this bout of illness or if it will be something I live with for many years.  Right now, this combination of things seems to be working, and I'm trying many different types of cooking and recipes that I likely would have before these issues. 

We were trying to generally eat healthy for a while before the bumps started, but in all honesty, I wasn't deterred enough from things like cheese to really eliminate them.  But now that I have essentially been forced to rethink food and diet, I don't even miss most of those things we have eliminated.  It may be partly because it makes me feel better as far as hives go, but I think I generally feel better in life, too.  So I'll keep eating "safe foods" until something changes, and that makes things like preparing my own Thanksgiving a lot less worry free, since I knew exactly what was in everything I was eating.