30 day Blog Journal - Day 24

I already know I hate this post. Our next topic is - where I live.

So why do I hate it? Where I live is quiet depressing, even though as a family, we make it work. But I still dream of when we can FINALLY move from here... that day can not come soon enough.

So, where so I live? In a motel efficiency room.

Despite the total lack of privacy, it's actually a quite workable room. We have a huge main room, a good sized kitchenette, and then 1 full bath. That's it. We have 1 dresser, a queen sized bed, a recliner love seat, 2 desks and a tv stand in the main room. We blow up a queen sized air mattress at night, and 2 kids sleep there, and 1 on the love seat.

In the kitchen, we have a full size fridge (ours, the room came with a dorm sized one), a shelf that holds a microwave (theirs) and our toaster oven and a space for 1 other small appliance (usually, my frappe maker). We have 1 lower cupboard that holds the skillet, the griddle, electric kettle, and various pans. Another long shelf holds out dinnerware and cups. We have a storage cube set up to hold dry/canned foods, and on top of the fridge holds 2 crock pots. Yeah, we have a LOT of kitchen appliances here, but without a proper stove/oven, with all those we really make do in having more then microwaved meals all the time.

Thankfully there is a nice big grassy area for the kids to play in... and ironically, we are not the only family here. Another family of 5 shares another room, smaller then ours.

I can't complain. We are all here together, and while this is not ideal, we really make it work for us. Staying in this community has been important to us. We have actually looked to move away, and all attempts have failed. I don't know if its density or God or what, but i truly feel as we are meant to stay here.

But I still long for a bedroom that is not also the living and dinner space, and not shared with 3 children, and a proper kitchen (how I MISS really baking!).

30 day Blog Journal - Day 23

So close to the end - I can taste it!

Today's topic is a YouTube video.

Again, how vague.

I have only 1 cool video to share. My son recorded it last march in our old apartment. He was not quiet 3 at the time.



He's so funny.

Join me again tomorrow when i post about where I live.

30 day Blog Journal - Day 22

Internet connection stunk yesterday, so we'll play a little catchup here posting yesterday and today's 30 day blog posts (can you tell, i want them to be DONE!)

Today's Yesterday's topic was - a website

Well, that's vague enough, isn't it? I visit LOADS of websites! I am sure anyone who reads this, does also.

So, where does that leave me in writing this? I don't know. It would be simple enough to list my most frequented website (facebook) and call it a day. But what sense is that? I think this challenge is more then just the simple 1 word answer (or maybe it's not?). So, instead of the most well known page in my bookmarks to list - I'll go with what i think maybe be a relatively unknown know to the vast majority... Ravelry.

Now, for anyone in the know in the crochet and knitting communities, KNOWS this website. Mention it to anyone who is not (or is not married to one who is), and you get the blank stare of death.

First - this site rocks! When it first was started, there was a month plus waiting list to get approved as a user - DANG! it was the longest time in my LIFE (ok, maybe waiting for my babies to be born was, but you get my point, right?)

The website is basically a social community for those who are into fiber arts (crochet, knit, spinning, etc, etc...). You can search for patterns (there are THOUSANDS, both free, and paid), join groups and post on their forums, and even catalog your projects, yarn stash, have a queue of items you want to work on, and favorites from other users. You can friend other users, and even buy and sell among them.

Personal - I LOVE seeing my WIPs (work in progress) and cataloging my FOs (finished objects, as often what I make, I give away.I've gotten private messages left asking who I've made something (just last week, is was the beards on knit gnomes I made 2 years ago).

So - that's the website I am sharing with you. If you are into fiber arts, or know someone who is - share it! And if you join (it's free!), feel free to look me up on there. My user name is kjoslyn78

Stay tuned for our next topic, a YouTube video.

30 day Blog Journal - Day 21

Oh, how I love this day... as I do not have to go on and on with an opinion and such. Today's topic is - a recipe.

The question is - WHAT recipe? Do i share one of my favorite things to cook? or bake? something new i recently tried? or a tried and true favorite? decisions, decisions...

I'm going with a non-cook wrap recipe. a tried and true around here that my crew love. And in the hot, humid summer heat that we experience here in NY, no-cook anything is a blessing.

Taco Turkey Wraps
recipe as found on allrecipes.com

2/3 C sour cream
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
flour tortillas (about 6 - 8" tortillas)
1 C of shredded Mexican blend cheese OR cheddar cheese
1/2 pound of thinly sliced deli turkey breast
salsa

In a bowl, combine sour cream and taco seasoning. spread onto tortillas. Sprinkle with cheese, top with turkey and roll. Serve with salsa if desired.

We also add lettuce to our wraps also. You could experiment with other fillers too! My kids and husband gobble these UP! and are perfect to make ahead and pack in a picnic lunch for a day out.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and come back tomorrow where the topic is a website.

30 day Blog Journal - Day 20

Only 10 more "days" to go! YAY!

Today's topic is - a hobby if mine.

I already touched on this in my last entry - my talent of being creative. I love to knit and crochet, and often have more then 1 project going at a time.

But, I'll touch on another hobby of mine.... baking.

Oh how I LOVE to bake.

Being sans oven right now makes it a tad more difficult then usual. I hope we are able to remedy that soon, but until then, i can do little baking. Muffins , cupcakes, even small square or round cakes.

In the past i've baked all our own breads (both quick breads and yeast breads), cakes, cookies, muffins. I've done "special diet" baking, including vegan (no animal products at all) as well as tried gluten-free baking (Lisa liked those cupcakes! heck, so did I!)

But I really shine during the holidays. I bakes some wheres around 7 different kinds of cookies, as well as making candy (esp fudge... and most esp peanut butter fudge!). as well as special holiday breads... my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

I don't know if you all consider baking a hobby, but i most certainly do!

30 day Blog Journal - Day 19

After my much needed break from reality, here I am, back at finishing the 30 day blog journal entries.

Today's topic - a talent of mine.

First, what is talent? Merriam-Webster defines talent as a characteristic feature, aptitude, or disposition of a person or animal, or the natural endowments of a person. Wiki says that talent (in the sense of natural ability or giftedness) is not the same as skill, which is a learned process, and one which is enhanced or inhibited by an underlying talent.

So, a natural ability or endowment, and not a learned skill. So, what is my talent?

After posing the question on Facebook, and doing some thinking, I would have to say my strongest talent is being creativity.

In my teens, this would have been focused in music... I played the flute (but stopped after 2 years due to practice time being too early in the am, I never got back into it), sang (at school and in church, both in a choir, as well as few solos) and played hand bells at church.




As this has changed a bit as I've grown. Lacking time to hone my musical skills, I've taken up working in fiber arts. While I've known how to crochet since I was 8 or 9, I've really only done well with it, since becoming a mother (and naturally felt the need to prepare for my baby). Since I re-started working with fibers 11 years ago, I've nailed down counted cross stitch, and finally learned to knit 2 1/2 years ago. I've done a little sewing (scrub tops and skirts, doll diapers...). My hope is to learn needle felting next. I've also done some pretty creative baking, something I think I get from my father (who was a fantastic baker). And, something that I think helps keep me grounded, I started to play hand bells after years of not doing anything musically. Music really does touch my creative soul.

Without having written this post, without really thinking about it, I may have said I am talent-less. But I truly don't believe anyone is. We all have talents, it just takes recognizing, honing, and using them .

Come back tomorrow, where our topic will be... a hobby of mine.

30 day Blog Journal - Day 18

Today's topic is - my wedding.

My wedding was not a huge affair. Our original Date was selected for June 19th, 1999. After having a preemie at the end of 1998, and my husband changing jobs that would result in us getting insurance, you hastily moved the date to the Friday before, February 12, 1999.

We don't have many pictures of the event, as we did things very simply and last minute. In fact, I only told my dad about the nuptials 7 hours before we were to wed! Any young ladies reading this, I HIGHLY suggest you give your father more notice then that! (a few months, preferably!) And what photos i do have are currently in storage and needing to be scanned into the computer.

Given though what my husband and I have endured, the obstacles set before us, I don't think anyone (even ourselves) imagined that at 11 years and counting, we were still be here, together and strong. We've had ups and downs, I think ever marriage does. But, we were 20-somethings, with a child, and little else when we married. Surely accord to statistics we should be divorced by now, maybe even divorced from a 2nd marriage!

But here we are, and I like it that way.

30 day Blog Journal - Day 17

Sorry this is a day late - We have been busying ourselves for camping this upcoming weekend.

Today's topic is a piece of art. This is hard for me. I don't hate art, but music seems to be my preference as far as my artistic ability, and interest.

But, now and again a few things catch my eye, and this piece i saw online, did just that.

Escher's "Relativity" in LEGO®

And while I know "Relativity" is a piece of art of it's own accord, the scene kind of reminds me of a part near the end of the movie Labyrinth (which I LOVED as a youngster).

Our next topic is my wedding/future wedding... Guess I better get to it and catch back up!

30 day Blog Journal - Day 16

So here we are, another day, another post. Almost makes you happy that after today, i only have 13 days left, doesn't it?

So today is a song that makes you cry (or nearly). And my choosing is the Moody Blues song I Know You're Out There Somewhere.



Those who know and are close to me in real life know that my dad died in August 2003. And my dad was a HUGE Moody Blues fan... HUGE I tell you! And while I know it's a continuation of the love song "Your Wildest Dreams", the chorus really spoke to me in my grief and in missing my dearest father.

I know you're out there somewhere
Somewhere, somewhere
I know you're out there somewhere
Somewhere you can hear my voice
I know I'll find you somehow
Somehow, somehow
I know I'll find you somehow
And somehow I'll return again to you

I do think I will see my dad again, I do believe in an after life. Every day I miss him, and i do cry when i hear this song (or really, almost anything Moody Blues, because that was such a "him" thing as was calling him Buddha). I love you dad

my dad holding a newborn me - circa 1978

Dad holding my first born - Nov 30 1998

Come on back tomorrow, where the day's topic is an Art piece.

30 day Blog Journal - Day 15

Yeah! The half way point in this journey though a 30 day blog journal!

Today's topic: Your dream house.

like I haven't been thinking about a dream house for.. oh.. DECADES!

Now, when most people describe their dream home, it's huge. Ginormous even. My idea though, it a lot more down to earth. I don't believe bigger is always better, and homes are blew up since I was a child. Too large and impersonal. I want a small, cozy... home.

Anyone who has thought of a small home, may have heard of the The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.


This is a company that specializes in tiny and small homes. Many of the homes are even built right on trailers! And while I wouldn't want a house THAT tiny with a family (100 sq feet or smaller), but small home is what I have in mind.

Lucky me - they make some "bigger" houses too! And I have had my eyes on their B-53 design for as long as I can remember now.


Their biggest stationary house to date, the B-53 is a 2 bedroom house, at 743 sq ft. There is the option for a 3rd bedroom, making the total 837 sq ft. But if you look at the plans, it does not seem lacking to me! The bedrooms are plenty big, especially the 2 upstairs (the add on one is slightly smaller), and while the kitchen seems small, for some, I grew up in a tiny kitchen with not much more space then the fridge, stove/oven unit, sink, and a couple of cupboards and zilch counter space. I love the built-in kitchen booth, and you could even expand the space if you decide to build this over a full basement, rather then a simple foundation.

What isn't there to love there? I already know that I would like the exterior to be some fake log looking siding, and as much real hard wood inside as humanly possible, maybe not full walls, but 1/2 wall, have drywall maybe. I'd like to paint a little too. Solar power/heating as much as possible... and then sit this on some acreage with plenty of trees, and land to garden.

Now if i could only win the lottery :-D

Come back tomorrow for... a song that makes me cry. oh joy *insert sarcasm here*

30 day Blog Journal - Day 14

Apparently I'm playing blog catch up today.

Today (for actual today) is about a non-fiction book. And the last non-fiction book I actually finished is The Simple Rules for Christian Living by Jeanne Torrence Finley.


Three Simple Rules for Christian Living is a reflection of the three principles of Christian living as illuminated by John Wesley in the General Rules, and revisited in the book Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living by Rueben Job. Using the words of John Wesley, Ruben Job, and the Bible, the book reflects what those rules may have meant during Wesley's time, as well as what they can mean to us today. The book is presented as a six week study in which the three rules; Do No Harm, Do Good, and Stay in Love with God; are studies and presented in how to practice them in daily life. The study presents an early Wesleyan understandings of spiritual disciplines that can transform us and the world that we live in, and leas us to a more faithful way of living as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I did this as a Lenten study via facebook with the church our family attends this year. And it was a real eye opener on many levels. If you ever have the chance to partake in reading or following a study using this, I highly suggest it.

Please come back tomorrow, where I will elaborate on my dream home.

30 day Blog Journal - Day 13

Today's Yesterday's topic - a fictional book.

I'm assuming that this is suppose to be about a fiction book I've recently read, as we've already covered all the "favorites" during the first few posts for this 30 day blog journal.

So that last fictional book I read was The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom.


Here is one summary from a review, as shown on Amazon.com

Wearing a work shirt with a patch on the chest that reads "Eddie" over "Maintenance," limping around with a cane thanks to an old war injury, Eddie was the kind of guy everybody, including Eddie himself, tended to write off as one of life's minor characters, a gruff bit of background color. He spent most of his life maintaining the rides at Ruby Pier, a seaside amusement park, greasing tracks and tightening bolts and listening for strange sounds, "keeping them safe." The children who visited the pier were drawn to Eddie "like cold hands to a fire." Yet Eddie believed that he lived a "nothing" life-gone nowhere he "wasn't shipped to with a rifle," doing work that "required no more brains than washing a dish." On his 83rd birthday, however, Eddie dies trying to save a little girl. He wakes up in heaven, where a succession of five people are waiting to show him the true meaning and value of his life. One by one, these mostly unexpected characters remind him that we all live in a vast web of interconnection with other lives; that all our stories overlap; that acts of sacrifice seemingly small or fruitless do affect others; and that loyalty and love matter to a degree we can never fathom.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and finished is in only about 3 hours, so it's not a very long read.

Be sure to come back, as our next topic is on a non-fiction book!

30 day Blog Journal - Day 12

Well, this is an easy topic, considering I have OCD! Mostly I am thankfully that it doesn't rule me to the point of needing medication to control myself (think excessive hand washing till having sores and bleeding, not leave w/o checking the stove 1,000,000,000 times, etc). Most of my OCD habits are space defined and food related.

So, to pick just one, I'll pick a easy one. I have to chew food equally on both sides of my mouth. If I take a bite with the left side, I then do so on the right side. If I pop 4 green M&Ms, in my mouth (because I could never pick up M&Ms randomly), I automatically chew 2 on each side... and don't get me started with Reece's pieces! I eat 3 on each side at a time, 1 of each color, for as long as I have enough to split them up so. And so on and so forth....

Yeah... weird right? And that is just 1 OCD trait I have.

So tomorrow I'll be back with a fictional book, I'll pick something I've read recently.

30 day Blog Journal - Day 11

Ok - again I admit that 99.2% of the time I'm the one behind the camera. But today's topic, a recent picture of myself, is gonna spoil that.



I'm the fluffy one holding the extremely cute birthday boy.

Come back tomorrow for a non-photo related post! I'm overjoyed with that prospect!

30 day Blog Journal - Day 10

So, I'm trying to figure out why types of topics are lumped together.. like having 5 photo entries in a row.

So today is a pic of me, more then 10 years old.



Ok, I admit it. It's not the best looking scanned picture of me I have. I think this may have even been a picture of a picture. But hey, I was still a cute baby, no? :-D

Tomorrow I plan on torturing you all with a much more recent picture of myself (and thankfully i think that is the end of photo topics for this 30 days blog journal)

30 day Blog Journal - Day 9

Another photo this post, and it's as simple as a photo I took. Easy, since 99.1% of the time, I'm on the backside of the camera...

J and EB, summer 2004

Here we have daddy cuddling with his lil girl. She had been in the blowup pool, and was cold after getting out. Daddy's used his shirt to cover (the question of if he had it on or standby, is up in the air), and together watched bib sister splashing away in the pool. Such a beautiful, precious moment....

Come back tomorrow for a photo of me *YIKES* that is 10+ years old!

30 day Blog Journal - Day 8

Today's topic is a photo that makes you angry or sad. This picture is both to me.



This is a cropped picture of my dad, holding my 2nd born daughter at 10 days old. My dad died about 6 weeks later. This is the only picture I have of him holding her.

My daughter in the picture turns 7 years old tomorrow.
Tomorrow is also Father's Day.

*snipping - cause I was feeling vindictive at the time I wrote this*
I miss my father too much still, even nearly 7 years later.

Tomorrow, come back for a slightly more cheerful posting, where the topic is a photo I took.

30 day Blog Journal - Day 7

A Photo that makes me happy, my kids being the silly, goofy kids then (generally) are.





Tomorrow, a photo that makes me angry or sad

30 day Blog Journal - Day 6

... these are a few of my favorite things.

Today's topic is 20 of my favorite things. So, here they are! In no particular order....

1. my kids
2. my husband
3. Church & the people at my church
4. Caramel frappes
5. Chai frappes
6. My friends
7. sleeping in
8. quiet time for crafting
9. my bed
10. sunny (but not hot and muggy) summer days
11. making music
12. baking
13. pictures and taking pictures
14. T.G.I Friday's
15. snuggling up under warm blankets with the kids during winter
16. swimming
17. the library
18. the local Farmer's market
19. musicals
20. alone time

Come back tomorrow for a photo that makes me happy!

30 day Blog Journal - Day 5

Today's post is... my favorite quote.

It's actually a bit of conversation between two characters in one of my favorite books, Harold and Maude. Originally written as a screen play by Colin Higgins, Harold and Maude went on to be adapted into a film, and then into book form (which is why I didn't add it to my favorite books list, it wasn't a book first :P )

The exchange happens in front of a field of daisies (which happens to also be my favorite flower), and my most favorite part of this exchange is the last bit, said by Maude. Hopefully you get the point of she makes, and you can see why I name this as my favorite quote.


Maude: "I should like to change into a sunflower most of all. They're so tall and simple. What flower would you like to be?"

Harold: "I don't know. One of these, maybe."

Maude: "Why do you say that?"

Harold: "Because they are all alike."

Maude: "Oooh, but they're not. Look. See, some are smaller, and some are fatter, some grow left, some to the right, some even have lost some petals. All kinds of observable differences. You see, Harold, I feel that much of the world's sorrow comes from people who are this, [she points to a single daisy] yet allow themselves to be treated as that [she gestures to a field of daisies]."


Come back tomorrow as I blog journal some more, and list 20 of my favorite things!