A SCARY SITUATION.

I really did mean to have a post ready for yesterday, but my weekend didn't exactly turn out the way I planned and so I just never got the chance to write my Monday post.

My dog Molly is 11 and a half years old.  She is a healthy, active dog, very rarely is she ill, she never ever is cross or temperamental.
Molly went blind very suddenly this fall, which really shook us all to our bones - but in true Molly fashion she seems to have taken it in her stride, and she is dealing with it, sometimes better than us humans.

About 3 weeks ago she started drinking a lot of water, and having little peeing accidents on carpets and on her beds.  She hated this and was pretty crushed every time it happened.  It was getting to be such a problem that I had to remove all the area rugs on the main floor of the house.  We didn't think much of it except that perhaps she was reacting to the blindness, or maybe it was just age creeping up on her.

Then last Thursday she started vomiting, and then diarrhea, she stopped eating, and she stopped drinking and well it appeared as if we might lose our best friend.

She absolutely would not touch her dog food, so I made her a bland diet of boiled hamburger and rice.  She devoured it immediately, so for the past few days I have been feeding her small amounts of this and she seems to be feeling a bit better.  The diarrhea has stopped, she is drinking normal amounts of water again, and the piddling has stopped.

Yesterday my husband went on some forums to research food.  The first one he went to was the food she has been eating ( and loving) for the past few years.  What he read was shocking.  The food we were feeding our dog has made hundreds of dogs ill with exactly the same symptoms as Molly.  Some have died, some have been left with permanent liver and kidney damage.

I think we might have been lucky, but what of the millions of other people who are feeding this food to their beloved pet, unaware of the danger to their family member.

It makes me sick to think we were inadvertently harming our beautiful Molly.  I could cry - and I did!

I am seriously going to research making her food from now on.  I need to do a lot of reading to make sure this is what is best for her.  In the meantime, pet owners please go on the sites of the foods you feed your animals - read the forums, the responses, the complaints.  This food was recommended to us from a pet food store owner we have known and trusted for years...

And you can bet that I am going to be looking into this pet food company as well.

In the meantime, Molly is getting lost of special treatment.  I hope she is going to be okay, I am cautiously optimistic.  I just can't and don't want to imagine life without my Molly girl in it.

MAYBE -

I can't tell you how happy I am to be writing my blog again.  I have not written much, if anything in so long, that I forgot what pleasure it brings me to just sit and write.

Writing is a solitary activity, and for me it does not always happen when I am sitting in front of the computer.  In fact usually long before that happens, I have already written whatever I am going to type in my head - or the majority of it anyway.

That part is the real curse.  Having stories and ideas chasing each other around in your head all the time when you are supposed to be concentrating on something else entirely can be so frustrating.  Rarely do really great ideas for a story happen at a convenient time.  I loose track of time, I loose whole parts of conversations because I am thinking about something that I want to write.  I have composed whole poems on a short walk from one hospital to another at my work... well not lately - but definitely in the past.

I have only been back to writing on here for a little over a week, and already I am thinking about my future.  I have four novels written, one was published a few years ago but the publishing contract is now over.  These novels sit on a shelf in my craft room in big brown envelopes, and I completely forget about them until I am cleaning in that room.  The most I have done on any of those stories in the past ten years is move them from one pile to another.  I have several others started and in various stages of completion - I am not even sure where these ones are at the moment.

I had a long conversation with my eldest brother a few weeks ago, and I was  whining to him about how much I really want to retire, but how I actually feared not going out to work every morning.  Strange isn't it - I don't want to go out to work every morning, but I am fearful of not going out to work every morning.  Am I alone in this?  For 40 years this has been my norm - I don't know anything else, so I guess it is understandable.

My brother is seldom warm and fuzzy - he tells it like he sees it, and he pretty much told me to get over myself and take a plunge.  He softened it somewhat by saying how much talent I possessed, and what a great opportunity I could make for myself if I used my talents and abilities and did something for myself for a change, instead of working so hard and futilely for someone else.

That was nice -

I have been thinking.  I have been asking for a sign, I have been praying, and maybe the answer is right in front of me.... Maybe it starts right here somehow.  Maybe the answer is linked to my decision to start back writing my daily blog after being dormant for so long.

Sounds like a lot of maybes to me, but two weeks ago those maybes were nowhere in my thoughts.  Maybe that is progress...

Talk to you next week....

Pray for Peace - People Everywhere!

Is Peace Possible?

Peace On Earth - Goodwill To Men.  Let There Be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with me....  We hear songs like this so often at this time of year...  on the radio, TV, The Internet - in Churches, schools, workplaces... but is Peace really in our hearts?

You have to really wonder about that when you read news about terror such as what happened in Sydney, and other such happenings around the world.

Have you ever felt Peace?  I don't mean contentment, I mean true Peace. 

I have, but only once, and at a time in my life where it should have been impossible to feel it.

It was several years ago, and I was lying outside an operating theater waiting to have my breast cancer surgery.  I was scared beyond scared.  I lay there imagining every wrong thing that could happen to me in that operating room and wondering if I would ever open my eyes and be normal again.

Then my surgeon stopped at my side, and spoke quietly to me as he started to wheel my stretcher into the operating room.  I remember feeling like I was suffocating.  My heart was pounding, and I felt more than a little sick to my stomach.

The operating room staff lifted me from the stretcher to the narrow table that I was to lay on for the next 4 hours or so.  All I saw was kind eyes regarding me above green face masks... little words were spoken.

One nurse placed a leather strap across my legs, while another covered me with several heated blankets.  They were positioning my arms for the surgery - one was to be over my head and the other close by my side.  There was activity all around me, and I remember thinking that really - I wasn't ready for this at all.

And then it came.  I was lying there thinking negative thoughts, and then all of a sudden I felt Peace.  I can't explain it... it just happened.  I felt like everyone in the room had stopped moving, all was calm, warm, soft... I had no fear, no thoughts really, and I was happy.  I felt Peace... perfect Peace!  I didn't expect it -  and I have never forgotten it.

I believe in Peace, but I also believe there will never be Peace on Earth - at least not on the Earth as we know it now.  Things have to change, major things have to happen, people have to change... we all have to Believe that Peace IS possible.

Pray for Peace - People Everywhere.... Let There be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with ME!

To Bake or Not to Bake - IS THIS THE QUESTION?

I whipped up 2 dozen of those Cranberry-Orange muffins last night - OMG  they are so good!

I haven't done any Christmas baking yet.  I keep thinking I should  - because I always have... but really - do we need all that lying in the freezer tempting us to indulge, when we know we shouldn't?

In years past my Christmas baking much resembled my Mother's Christmas baking.  I guess this is pretty normal of Mother's and Daughters.  I would make Anise cookies - which was the Swiss tradition of my Paternal grandmother and my Mom would always bake these on the eve prior to Christmas Eve... so I did too.

Mince-meat tarts... a favourite of mine and my Dad.  Mom's were the large ones, made in a large muffin tin - and so are mine!

Refrigerator Cookies - the ones with the tiny pieces of candied fruit in them.  These were the cookies that always were left over long after Christmas - I guess because they were the least appreciated.  Funny - same thing happens at my house - although I do love them.

Mom always made two kinds of fruit cake - dark and light.  Personally I love the dark one.  The white one, which also was Grandma Fischer's recipe was made mostly for my Dad.  I made the dark fruit cake for several years, but no one in my family likes it, so that left me to eat the whole thing myself... not good.  And with the price of the ingredients for fruit cake being as rich as the cake - well, it has been taken off my list altogether!

Mom never made Shortbread - but I usually do - everyone in my family loves it.  Same with Sugar cookies and ginger cookies  - they are favourites in my house.

I have tried various other cookies - date pinwheels - yeah - these weren't well received.  Anything with Coconut - not so much!  My son doesn't like nuts - so where does that leave me?

No wonder I don't have the urge to bake.

So - I have made a decision as I have been typing this - I am not going to do any Christmas baking... nope - for sure, I am not!

But I do have an idea I want to try for Dessert Christmas Day.

RED VELVET TRIFLE!

I saw one in a magazine recently and it looks so beautiful, simple and festive that I decided right then and there, it would be my Christmas Yum!

What could be better after a heavy meal than crumbled Red Velvet Cake layered with fresh strawberries, Raspberries, red currant jam, frozen whipped topping, maybe a few crushed candy canes for extra special holiday flavour?

Pinterest has dozens of recipes for this  - some even with chocolate added, blueberries..

What I like about this dessert is the way it can be served.  Individual servings in wine classes or crystal water goblets would be so pretty and festive.

So there you have it - my baking dilemma has been solved.  Too bad I already bought a 10 lb bag of flour, and 3 lbs of butter.

Maybe I will make some home made bread - I have Mom's recipe for that too - and it is awesome!

Happy Baking!

Tune In Why Don't You!

I am the firm believer in the power of music to calm, soothe, sometimes stimulate, but always always always bring a certain kind of joy that nothing else can even come close to.

As a small child of 4, all I wanted was a piano.  My parents didn't have a lot of money, so they bought me a cord organ and as the story is often told by my family, I was pretty much permanently attached to the bench day in and day out, playing and singing and swinging my feet.

I did get that piano when I was about 10.  I had been taking piano and voice lessons from the man across the street who was a choir director at a large church in the city.  I practiced on another neighbour's piano every day after school... until I finally got my own piano.

I kept taking my voice training from the man across the street but because I was such an avid student he suggested to my parents that I take my piano lessons from a teacher registered with the Royal Conservatory of Music - and so the following year I began doing that.  I took piano and theory and reached Grade IX in the Royal Conservatory of Music by the time I was a teenager.

Things changed, but not my love of music.  I learned the Cello and played with an orchestra for 6 yrs.  I also learned the guitar, accordion and the organ.  I would have loved to learn the harp - that was to be my next conquest but alas I ran out of years.  By then I was working as a Registered Nurse, then married with a family, and mastering new instruments was forgotten.

Music is still so much a part of my life.  My husband is an organist and plays his pipe organ in the basement every evening after dinner.  I have my old 1929 Irish Piano, that I wouldn't  trade for anything.  I have my Dad's accordion, which I play as well.  I have always wanted a Cello of my own, but I just can't justify the cost of purchasing one at my age.

Every evening I spend one hour before bedtime with the music I love.  Until this spring it was listening to selections of my own CD collections that I would load on my ipod.  My son bought me super expensive headphones, and so for the last hour of every day I zone out in my own enjoyable way.

But then my son introduced me to TUNE IN radio.  If you haven't already discovered this wonderful piece of technology, and you love music - any music - you must pay attention.

If you have a ipod, ipad or iphone you can download the free app to Tunein Radio.  If you want to use your computer you can get it by going to Tunein.com.  You do  need an Internet connection to use this app, however you choose to use it.

I get the station I want to listen to on my ipod and then I doc my ipod on my stereo and so I can listen wherever I am in the house.

When you go in to Tunein, you will be able to search for whatever you want to listen too.  Select "Music" and then have fun searching the stations.   There are thousands of music stations of every genre available for you to listen too.

You can save favourite stations as Favourites and then you don't have to re-search every time.

I have some terrific Christmas stations saved.  Here are a few you might enjoy:

KING FM Classical Christmas - beautiful classical and traditional music of Christmas.  Really good instrumentals and choral pieces.

181. FM Christmas Standards - Christmas music from such performers as Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, and all the soft jazz-type performers of that era... really good stuff.

Christmas Carols Radio  - this is my favourite because it is Traditional Carols sung by some of the best Choirs in the UK.... Kings College, lots of John Rutter, John Scott's choir, and arrangements that I have sung in our own choir at St. Luke's Anglican here in Winnipeg.  I find myself singing along with the Contralto line almost every song that is played.

There are stations from every country in the world and for every type of music you want to hear.

So Tunein, and enjoy the music of the season...

Chrismtas Marx Tin Litho tour - the rest!

Are you ready to tour the rest of the Marx house?  Hope you have your coffee and Orange-Cranberry muffin close at hand.

The first room I will show you today is the kitchen.  I actually have done the least here of all the rooms.  I would eventually like to add some accent pieces here like shelves or maybe even cupboards.  A really nice cluttered kitchen is what I aim to do, but for now it is simply a plain little room.  There is a sheet of cookies fresh out of the oven sitting on the top of the stove, but don't think that is visible in this picture.  The light hanging down from the ceiling is actually a LED light that really works... I bought it at Toad Hall( a great independent toy store) here in Winnipeg.  Oh and that's a little kitten lying on the rug...

Next is the master bedroom.  This room was missing a wall like I said in my other post.  I made the bed from cardboard, foam and material.   It actually is much larger than a bed from the era of this home would have been - but I decided that  King sized bed would be in order for this room, mainly because I had very little furniture to fill the room.  The lady of the house is a quilter, so her  machine is ready for use, and she has decorated her mantle with boughs of holly just as you will see in the living room below.
The little red easy chair is actually the only original "Marx Furniture" piece I have.  I bought it for a couple of dollars at the Miniature show and sale here in October.  I find this bedroom, restive, and peaceful... a good place to have a nap!

I have saved the last room for the end of the tour, because it is the best.  I wanted a lighted tree for this room - this was always my focus.   Years ago I had decorated a tiny tree with decorations that would have fit perfectly in this room, but when I began searching my inventory for it, all I found were the decorations that at one time were glued on the tree.  So the search for the right tree began.  Every little tree I saw was either too large or not the shape or colour I wanted.  Until one morning a co-worker brought in a dollar store ornament to work.  It was an oval base with three glittery threes attached to it.  On top of each tree was a star.  I knew the moment I saw it that the smallest tree would be perfect for my house, so to the dollar store I went.  In the end I went to many dollar stores and all they had left of this particular ornament were red, silver and gold versions of the green one I really wanted.
In the meantime I had been to Michael's and found the tiniest set of LED tree lights that really worked.  I had the word out to everyone I knew to keep an eye out for the green trees decoration, and just last week it was delivered to my desk by the same co-worker who had pretty much spent her entire weekend hunting down my little green trees.
I was in business!  I decorated the tree and lit it up - and wow - I even managed to impress myself!
I got busy and made the sofa, and afghan, wrapped some presents for under the tree, decorated the mantle and hung the stockings.  I added a little roll-top desk for writing those Christmas Cards and another LED floor lamp that will be much more functional once the tree is no longer in the room.  Next year I think I will decorate the stair case as well!

My future ideas for this room include a coffee table, end tables and perhaps a couple of wing chairs.  Maybe even a shelf of books, or a television... All of which I hope to make myself over the winter months.

The only area left to show you is the roof-top patio.  I imagine this area will look very different in the summer - perhaps a picnic table, an outdoor swing, some loungers, some potted plants a BBQ, but at the moment it is where the children go to have some fun in the snow. The little reindeer I bought at Target, he was in the ornaments just sitting there looking so cute.  I made the snowman from some of the snow that is all over the house... remember this house is in Winnipeg - and at the moment it has more snow than we have on the ground!

Oh - and not to be forgotten.... Santa has just arrived!

You might wonder where the family is?  I wonder that as well - perhaps they went to Aunt Bessie's in Florida for the Christmas Vacation... Yeah, that's it - definitely!

Have a great weekend, see you on Monday!

A Bloggers Perception!

I wish I knew the time of day my readers read my blog.  I often imagine the scenerio.  In my imagination it goes something like this....

You turn your computer or tablet on, then head to the kitchen to start the coffee.  There are some dishes lying around the counter and sink from someone's late night visit to the kitchen so you rinse those and put them in the dishwasher.  You wipe the counter and  - well the coffee is done.

You pour yourself a cup in your favorite mug, grab a freshly made muffin from a plate on the table ( you were up at 4: 30am  baking) and head back to the cozy little nook where your computer is waiting.

It is a beautiful bright morning, the sun is just coming over the trees, there is a cardinal sitting on the fir tree right out your window, and the air is filled with sparkly ice crystals.

But you are warm.  You have your sweats, heavy wool socks, and a blazing fire near-by.

You check your emails first - please always do that.  You never know who might have contacted you... a family member who is hurting - a friend you haven't communicated with in a long time, but really really have been missing in your life... Your Mom, Your Dad - brother or sister - neighbor!

You hit Facebook next - that's okay - I do it too.... and then you come here.

Okay - too romantic... how about this?

You turn your laptop or tablet on, only to realize the battery is dead, so you tear the house upside down for the charging cord.  You finally find it, under the dog's bed in the hallway.  You plug your device in and head for the kitchen.

You really want coffee - but you are out of filters.  Hummm somewhere on the internet you saw some genious make one out of a paper towel... must have been Pinterest or one of those places.  How hard could it be?  You rip off a piece of towel from the roll, cut an almost round circle about the right size and stuff it in the drip cup.

Your favourite cup with the chip on the top is in the dishwasher so you pull the first clean one out of the cupboard that your hand touches.  You smile... it is the cup you had made of your Son's visit with Santa in 1992.  What a sweet child he was - sigh - he looks so cute on this picture - sigh - where has the time gone?

You wipe a tear from your eye as the memories flood your heart.  So much has happened in your life since this cup came to be...
The coffee is ready - the home made filter worked just fine - good to know...  Surely by now there must be enough battery to boot up, so you unplug your laptop and with coffee in one hand and the laptop under your arm you head for your lazyboy rocker-recliner!

You get halfway there and you run into the dog.  She wants out.  You set the laptop on the piano, and the coffee on the pony- wall and head to the back door - dog in tow.

Geeze it's cold out there, you think as you scrape the frost off the window on the outside door.  What is taking her so long out there anyway?  You open the door look down the yard and yes -there she is in position - you close the door so not to let too much cold air in and wrap your arms around your body clad only in your summer pjammas.

That done you walk through the kitchen and think you really should clean up the dishes in the sink first, but the laptop is waiting, the coffee is getting cold, and you really want to see if there has been any response to your FB post the night before.

You log on - and head to FB first.... not much happening - same posts as last night before you went to bed.  You check Pinterest - not much new there either, although if you took the time to type something in the search box, you know you would be lost for hours.  You check your emails - nothing there either, except a newsletter from Annie's Attic.  You open it, and see a couple of cute projects that perhaps you might be interested in trying.

You head to erndalesnmore to read Dale's blog.... there she goes blabbing on an on about dolls again... Gee I wish she would get some new material...

How is that for accuracy?

However you make your way here, I just want you to know that I am so very thankful you do.  Please stop by whenever you can.  Become a follower of my blog, leave a comment, let me know you are here... I'd really love to hear from you.

Oh and there is a really good Cranberry Orange muffin recipie in my list to the left of this page - Make a batch to go along with tomorrow morning's coffee and blog...  we are going to be going on a tour of the rest of the Christmas Marx tin Litho House...

Have a wonderful day, everyone!