Yesterday was the first day of Spring! This is exciting as I can get planting my garden and I like the change of seasons. Spring is a beautiful and busy time. I also finally got some craft work into my week. Mandy in The Tuesday Afternoon Club inspired me. She is a very inspiring person as she works all year on gifts for the Samaritan Purse children's Christmas shoe boxes. Along with friends they have completed 440 boxes so far this year! Mandy makes a lot of little dolls and bags for little girls. On each she has a beautiful little flower or embellishment that she has made from lace, ribbon, a button and so on. No two are the same. They are so sweet and beautiful. It shows love and care on each item. Last week this just touched my heart so much. I have been saving up bits of lace and ribbons for a long time and decided I will turn them into flowers. This is the beginning....
They make me feel like I won a ribbon. Today I unearthed some beautiful laces to use. I think I could get addicted to making these!
I had a trip to town because my car needed to be serviced. While they worked on the car I took my shopping basket and walked down the street to the post office, butcher, chemist and so on. By the time I worked through my list and my basket was full the car was ready. I went to the swap tables (with celery in bunches) and came home with two bunches of Parsley. Then I went to the nursery. I got some good potting soil, seed raising mix and blood and bone. Also my first seedlings! So having done this on the very first day of Spring I planted four cucumbers into my container gardens and twenty tomatoes. A great way to start off I thought!
My lone chick is very friendly and noisy.
My Bantam chickens and Quail are all growing like anything.
Andy and I went for a drive to a little town about half an hour away. I wanted to go because they have an op shop (thrift store) I have never been to. Well, it was fantastic! I got over ten meters of lovely fabrics for $10.
So pleased! The pinks and blues are a very fine flannelette which I thought would be good for the girls pyjamas.
I have been Spring cleaning. It is making a difference as this is my second week. Things look fresher! One job I did this week was to make out outdoor table area look nice.
I think having somewhere to sit outside is lovely. This is a great spot out the front overlooking the farm. Now it looks better!
Also each day I am working on the #everybitcountschallenge and one thing has been to dehydrate loads of greens towards a green powder jar. After thinking about it for years I finally decided to put the Stinging Nettles that grow here to good use.
I picked a basket full and dehydrated it to add to my green powder. Andy piped up that back in the day he used to make it into a tea which he liked very much. So now I have a jar just for tea.
Stinging Nettle also makes a very good liquid fertiliser for the garden. So my mission now is to harvest as much as I can and put it to good use. The rest of my #everybitcountschallenge I will report on Monday.
I have another post from Laine to post next week. This is on the subject of power prices. Laine is in California. Like many of us they have experienced many power shortages, blackouts and very high prices. Laine is very concerned about the prices and possible lack of power many of us are facing.
How did you build up your home, add to your pantry or garden this week? What do you need to do to be prepared for the new season? If the power and gas were out could you keep warm, cook and boil water? We have work to do! xxx
Sweet chick! Your crafting is lovely. Most of the U.S. is not comparable to CA - it is ridiculously expensive to live there. Our coastal states seem to have MUCH higher prices and problems with stock. Living in the mid section is much more reasonable. I am blessed. It has been a busy week. Blessings to all.
ReplyDeleteDear Cheryl, Yes I am seeing California is suffering with the prices and blackouts etc. I am not sure at the moment but in South Australia we had the most expensive electricity in the world. I think now we are no 2. I must check on that. And now Australia is going into electric shortages. It is crazy. Have a lovely weekend! With love Annabel.xxx
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ReplyDeleteThank you Lynda! I am using the patten my Nan taught me. I dont read patterns but I wrote these flowers out to share how I do them... here :
Deletehttps://thebluebirdsarenesting.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-tutorial.html they are pretty easy. I have some lovely velvet ribbons so over the weekend I am going to see what flowers I can make with those as well. I am liking this as it is truly just using bits I have! Have a lovely weekend! With love Annabel.xxx
Thank you so much, Annabel. I have a ton of ribbons and laces. These will make gorgeous toppers for gifts in the future instead of buying bows or ribbon. Love the flower pattern!!! Thank you!!!!
DeleteSorry, specific pattern!! duh
ReplyDeleteJust LOVE the flowers. Do you have a specific pattern you follow? What a great idea!!!!
ReplyDeleteHoping you saw my reply above.xx
DeleteI think you are going to have a new best friend with your lone chick! :) This week I continued to dehydrate peaches and mushrooms. I cooked from scratch every meal and took leftovers for our lunches on the three days I work at my son's school. I canned jelly and will do more this weekend along with canning some of our pears. I'm trying to not have any waste with our meals and use what I can for other meals. My 97 year old mother-in-law lives with us in an inlaw's apartment and I fix her supper every night. She does not like many of staples with eat, mainly rice, so it is hard to come up with meals for her sometimes. I had the thought yesterday to look at some assisted living/nursing home meals online to see what was fixed for the residents everyday. I ended up printing out four different monthly plans for elderly people so I think that will help give me lots of ideas, for her and us!
ReplyDeleteWow, you are a good daughter in law! Sounds like you hit on a good idea with the meal ideas.
DeleteDear MamaHen, Dehydrated peaches would be beautiful! I love peaches. Mushrooms dehydrate so well. I like having them as I will throw them into a casserole that needs some juices soaked up!
DeleteIt sounds like your weekend will be busy! Having pears on the shelf will be very good. I like your idea for your MILs meals. My Nana liked meat and veggies and never ate such things as rice and pasta! You are a good daughter in law! With love Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteSpring is a beautiful period with the excitement of new beginnings while we have the slow pace of Autumn days that begin to turn to golden the leaves on the trees, especially the wall nut trees in my garden. Also the vineyard has a purple hue with the promise of good tasty homemade wine for the cold days yet to come.
And school starts on Monday. How quick time flies!
But until then we still have work to do. I pickled cucumbers for winter and enjoyed the view in the deep cellar we have under half of the house, where we have built up a nice pantry/storage of fruits, jars of jam and pickles, the vine bottles and vegetables in the sand - it is cool and dry and ideal for keeping flower bulbs in there too.
We finally have good rain so I deep cleaned and refresh the flower garden, it shows a nice display of Autumn flowers and the wonderful roses still blooming one after another. Gathered all the seeds I could from the flowers and gifted away some, checked the tulip and narcissus bulbs that I will plant at the end of this month for next spring.
I use stinging nettles a lot when fresh in the spring, dry them for tea and fresh and green in all the meals where I can substitute with spinach. It is full of minerals and especially iron, our pediatrician recommended it for my son when he was little. And now I sundried all I can of the summer nettles (they are too old to cook them for eating) for feeding my chickens during the winter months when everything will be covered in snow.
This week I had a few shocks when going shopping because of the high prices. I usually shop once a week but keeping an eye on the good opportunities. Because we stepped in a new month, from the first of september the prices jumped up to almost double. Just shocking!
Love the crochet flowers and the idea of gifting them after beautify with ribbons and laces. This is pure Arts and Crafts movement - and it is wonderful.
Love from Laura_s_world in Romania
I
Dear Laura, Autumn is my favourite season. And I know how busy the end of summer and early Autumn can be especially produce wise. Your cellar sounds wonderful! All the work you have done on the shelves!
DeleteI love your plan re the chickens over winter. We do not get the snow coverage... but I think having greens you can give them through that time is fantastic! A great plan and free food too!
Wow on the prices. That is a shock even now when we are used to shocks! I am so happy you have your hens and garden. Laura I know zero about how to keep hens through the freezing weather but I know others who do it. As it is your first winter ahead with the chickens see what you can learn on this to keep them laying as long as possible. I hope meantime you can freeze some eggs etc. I know GardenPat keeps chickens and they go well through the snow... I might ask her for some information.
I agree... how with arts and crafts we can make beauty from what we have and that is the joy! And it does bring happiness to us and others. I love this!
Have a very good weekend! With love Annabel.xxx
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You are a great friend with a big heart and beautiful mind. Laura
DeleteI just started drinking nettle tea. A doctor suggested it and said it was good as an antihistamine (but it takes 4-6 weeks for it to start working)…I find I have developed allergies here in the Arizona desert, so I hope after a month or so of drinking tea that I notice a decrease in sneezing and runny nose ;). Not sure if you or Andy have allergies, it will be interesting to see what we find. The taste is fine for me, I was not sure what nettles would taste like! Happy spring to you. We are still over 105 degrees F here during the days. No fall temps here yet. Hilogene in Az
ReplyDeleteDear Hilogene, This is very interesting! Let me know how it works for you!
DeleteI hope it cools down for you soon that is pretty warm! We have had a few lovely Spring days! Have a very good week! With love Annabel.xxx
Your little chick is just the cutest thing! I, too, love to see what Mandy makes in the Tuesday Afternoon group on Facebook. I’m so not crafty, but I love admiring everyone’s handiwork. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteDear Mandy, I also love to see what is going into the children's gift boxes. Even if not crafty we can make and create through cooking and growing and so on! It all counts and helps. Have a good week to you! Love Annabel.xxx
DeleteAnnabel these posts are such a blessing to me! I've been reading faithfully for years. Possibly 6 or 7. I never comment mostly because my arms are usually full of baby or child. ( i am blessed with 5 and we homeschool) this week i was able to can 14 quarts of green beans and 6 pints of chicken stock. last week beans and spaghetti sauce. Today I'm working on salsa and hope to dehydrate many of my herbs. I really can't stress enough how much this little blog means to me.
ReplyDeleteBlessings on you all.
Jesse
Dear Jesse, You just blessed me so much telling me this! Thank you! My daughter is wanting to homeschool and it is so nice to hear of your five children and homeschooling! Thank you so much! With love Annabel.xxx
DeleteWe are on the east coast and have not had any power outages or price increases on our power bills. Our area is powered by a large nuclear plant which has been very reliable. The longest we have ever been without power in 28.5 years is only 36 hours after a major ice storm.
ReplyDeleteDear friends who lived in CA for 26 years have recently returned to our coast and we were blessed to see them this week. They brought us fresh eggs from their chickens. Their new home on 25 acres came with the chickens! As is with so many small farms, when they left CA their blueberry farm was plowed up and another food producer is gone.
We needed some items from Walmart this week and were surprised by how stuffed the store is with merchandise . There were many entire isles of clearance priced items so we bought Christmas toys ahead for the grandchildren.
Have a good weekend everyone!
Dear Lana, How nice to get fresh eggs! How heartbreaking hearing of a beautiful Blueberry farm plowed up! (world has gone crazy!)
DeleteIt is great you have reliable power. I think our price comes out the second highest in the world and now they are saying they are short in either very hot or very cold weather. Here we have our wood fire so we are ok.
Great idea to be ahead on the Christmas presents! That is awesome, I am trying to do the same... and really its not that far from Christmas now at all!
Have a lovely weekend! With love Annabel.xxx
Your week seems lovely! The flowers from lace and thread are just beautiful! This week I made some laundry powder, facial rosewater, perfume, and lotion. I use your recipe for face oil, but use rosehip oil as my base. It was a rose scented day! I enjoy a day of playing in essential oils! Have a wonderful weekend!
ReplyDeleteStacy 💕
Dear Stacy, Rosehip oil is just lovely and would be a great substitute. I love everything you made! It was like a smell good theme! I think rose is my favourite scent of all. It is also very uplifting and calming.
DeleteHave a lovely weekend! With love Annabel.xxx
Annabel your outdoor table is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWe have been having some beautiful spring weather in the past week and this morning is just stunning. Clear blue sky and sunshine. Very welcome after we have just experienced the wettest winter on record.
This afternoon I will be planting some new strawberry plants and digging over the vegetable garden, with the mustard I sewed back in Autumn. I have finally finished digging out all the Lillies in our side garden, along the driveway. Eight hours in total. I am going to plant it out in easy care ground cover in the meantime.
We had a meeting with our insurance company on Thursday and the loss adjuster. This is related to the February 2011 earthquake damage to our home. They are sending out the asbestos testers next week to check for this and hope to have an offer to us within 8-12 weeks. It will be sometime before work will start on the repairs as our neighbours claim also has to be processed and he is with a different insurance company. We will have to move out for about 6 months when the work begins as the whole house will be lifted off its foundations and they will be repaired. We will basically end up with a new house at the end of it all. We are in no hurry however and are happy to wait. We will take the opportunity to have some extra work done while it is all happening, such as a new kitchen and bathroom.
I don't think there is a country in the Western world that is not being affected by high inflation costs and power issues. Here in NZ the cost of living has always been high. A number of reasons, we are at the bottom of the world so transport costs are higher, small population,less competition, captive market,lower wages, high house prices and rents,a host of factors that contribute. My partner and I are fortunate. We live well and don't go without anything. It is helped by having a reasonable income and good money skills. No amount of low income can make up for the cost of the for some however.
Have a great weekend all and stay safe and well
Mandy NZ
Dear Mandy,
DeleteWe have a day like you describe today! It has been so sunny and beautiful. It is uplifting!
Oh wow .. first on it is so long since 2011 and now finally the repairs are going to happen! Given it is such a job to move out I hope this all works to give you the best home possible. And yes anything you want to change now would be the time to do it.
The two of you are very sensible and thoughtful and for sure this makes a big difference... to the present day and the future. I think here there is a shock... a shock of things that were once just taken for granted are now becoming luxuries.
Have a beautiful weekend! With love Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel, the flowers you made are so pretty as is your table center piece. I had a much better week this week. I broke all my tasks down to 5. I wrote up a daily chore list and put little jobs in between bigger jobs with 5 next to boxes so I could tick them off. Doing this I got much more done than normal, I am pleased to say this helped me sew up 80 dish cloths! (which was 20 a day which was 4 lots of 5 a day, from Tuesday to Friday). I am so happy - these I give as gifts at Christmas and to have not started at all last week was causing me panic. Now I feel good about it. I also got through a monster pile of ironing doing 5 pieces at a time and some other long put off jobs. Today we attended a neighbor's birthday party, I picked lots of little flowers and put them in a jar with ribbon around it, it was quite pretty. Your opp shop material find was amazing. I don't know why but I have been thinking about nettles for years too and haven't been brave enough to preserve them. I must do so soon, Laura's idea of feeding to chooks is something I must look into. Today I collected 10 eggs from my girls which was exciting. Love Clare
ReplyDeleteDear Clare,
DeleteI love to tick things off my list and it works for me too. You did really well!
TO have made 80 cloths is AMAZING! Your system is working great!
Last time I looked to buy cleaning cloths I was shocked at the prices. Some were $8. So I stick to my homemade and crochet ones.
If you know the nettles are not sprayed then they are good. If you dry spinach and other greens just add them in. They wont even be noticed and give a load of nutrition. And make them into a fertiliser tea for the garden I know this is very high in nutrients and free! Ten eggs is just great! You had such a productive week you must be so happy! Now I hope this week is going well too! With love Annabel.xxx
Another good week you've had, I wouldn't have been able to resist those lovely fabrics either!
ReplyDeleteYes I do have alternative ways to heat my home, cook basic foods and heat water. I have a coal fire (shoot me now) and I have no intention of getting rid of it until I absolutely have to do ( it also provides some light too), I also have a barbecue and a couple of small camping stoves. I have a plentiful supply of hot water bottles and numerous blankets and quilts, I won't freeze.
I think an outdoor eating area would be lovely, unfortunately I don't have anywhere that would be suitable.
My little apple tree produced its first decent harvest (to be fair, every tree I see is absolutely laden, the weather must just have been right this year) I have made chutney and apple butter. The apple butter was made in the slow cooker, the recipe said to cook on low for 12 hours and then prop the lid open for a further 2, well if I had done that I would have had to throw my slow cooker away because I would never have removed the burnt on mess! Mine took just 4 hours in total and the result was thick and lovely. The remaining apples are going to be crumbles and apple puree.
I am also harvesting small, daily quantities of autumn raspberries, which I am washing and freezing as I want to make a mixed fruit jam.
I have decided that at the beginning of each month I will make up my meals for work, and freeze them so that I can just grab a bag, it also means that know that I have everything in advance.
Now, if I could only find a table that I like and will fit into the space available I would be very happy! I have been looking for weeks now.
Dear Su, I am so glad knowing you can keep warm and cook no matter what. We all need to have these back up plans! I love hot water bottles, blankets and all these things.
DeleteThe apples sound beautiful. There is so much we can do with apples. The
butter and chutney sound so good. The raspberries will soon add up... I hope you get loads more! How good!
I hope you find a little table for your space. It is great you are making your meals for work ahead. It would be a big savings and a time saver too! A good week! With love Annabel.xxx
I added some canned tomatoes to my pantry and two cans of chicken. I am not able to do any home canning these days but I am pleased there are still plenty available to purchase. There has been a lot of talk here in the States about poor tomato crops and a possible shortage of canned tomato products after last year's crops are off the shelf.
ReplyDeleteI've been asking God for wisdom since the beginning of Covid for what I should prioritize in our budget. I pray about the information that I read and what is Truth as opposed to people's fears. I can understand the possible shortage of tomato products with all the drought we have had.
I love reading your blog posts but it has been wonderful to hear from Laine, too.
Dear Brenda,
DeleteIt is great to add tomatoes and chicken to the shelf... so many thing you can do with both.
I am loving Laine writing again too. It is like old times only better!
Thanks so much for your encouragement Brenda, With love Annabelxxx
Love your photos this week, such a fun snapshot of your life on the farm! I think we have a lot of stinging nettles in my flower bed but I would not have known what to do with them. Your crochet flowers are dear, they remind me of a doll my great-grandmother made. I enjoy your posts so much! I am relatively new to your blog, and wondered if you could explain who Laine is. Also, what do the swap tables look like, and how is it set up? I imagine something like our farmer's markets here in the US, but not sure if that's a correct mental image.
ReplyDeleteWe live in Tennessee which is in the south US. We have hydroelectric dams with plenty of water currently, so no power outages -- however, the cost of electricity has gone up. Cost of food has also skyrocketed. I have been trying to use leftovers in creative ways.
Dear SavingsinSeconds, Thank you so much!
DeleteOk... when I first got a computer I was maybe around thirty and my girls were at school. One of the first Christian ladies blogs I found was Laine's Letters. I loved it so much. She wrote one letter a week usually and I looked forward to it so much. I felt like she was my best friend! She encouraged me so much with my homemaking and raising my girls. This went on for a few years. Then the letters stopped. But I would go back and re read the old letters.
Later in life I found most of my friends had also read Laine's letters and missed them like I did. I decided to attempt to find Laine and find out what happened.
I used Facebook and my blog and I posted did anyone anywhere know where Laine was from? Know if she posted anywhere else etc? By then her website was also gone. My friends and I found her letters were preserved on the wayback machine which keeps past things on the internet. We decided to print the letters and my friend printed them all and bound them into books as we never wanted to lose these letters.
One day I got an email and it said Hi Im Laine... and I thought yeh sure. haha But it was her! All my efforts to find her had paid off! It tuned out she had lost her website and had no copy of her own letters. So we sent her the set of three books of all her letters and returned them to her. After that we became friends ever since. This just amazes me. Now she is writing a little again she tells me to publish them although I have encouraged her to have her own website again. I feel so lucky I cant believe it! So I hope that explains!
The cost of electricity is shocking here too. And the cost of food. We have to be very careful with both. Have a good new week! With love Annabel.xxx
Hi Annabel! I'm late to the party again. Your photos are always so perfect and lovely. I love what you did to gussy up your outdoor table, it's just so pretty. And I love the flowers you made. I may also make some. I have plenty of lace.
ReplyDeleteI'm still stuck on canning tomato juice and tomatoes. They were certainly plentiful this year. But haha they usually are if Rick leaves the pruning to me.
My granddaughter and grandson spent the night and helped pick tomatoes and my grandson was excited because he got to pick the biggest one out there it's huge! And me and Addie checked the bean patch to find her some fresh green beans. Two things she said is she does not like store bought green beans only the ones from my garden or the ones I can and she loves the smell of my linens because they smell fresh not like too much soap. Hunter likes a chenille blanket that he's used ever since he was a tot and has to have it when he comes. They are both getting so big though.
We have ways to cook and keep warm if we lose power and have plenty of extra lighting. The only thing is the hubby would drive me crazy because he doesn't deal well with power outages. Ugh!
XOXO
Vicky
Dear Vicky, Thank you! Im glad I have found some uses for a lot of my lace!
DeleteYou are doing great with the tomatoes. Im glad Rick stayed away from them! haha!
Lovely to have your Grandkids over. I know they love it at your place. I still remember the crisp linen at my Nans house!
I notice people who watch a lot of TV are bad with outages. But with outages there is no time to watch TV anyhow. Everything takes longer to do. As long as you can keep warm and cook that is the main thing! With love Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel and everyone,
ReplyDeleteAnnabel, you had such a good week and made beautiful things. I love seeing everything.
Everyone, I took a break from posting because my husband is unexpectedly, seriously ill. At first I thought it was better not to mention it, but now I realize I could really use some advice and/or prayers, and you ladies have been so helpful in the past I feel like you might have some wisdom for me. We are both in our early 40s and he was diagnosed with advanced cancer a month ago. The main tumor was removed and he has a colostomy now, which may be temporary, depending on how chemo goes. He is having a really hard time with that change. I have been praying and doing my best to keep things going - I just don't know how to cope myself, not fear the future, and help him feel positive with such a shock. If anyone has been or is going through anything like this, it would be a big help and a blessing to know what helped you and how you kept going. (I am not going to hurt myself or anything like that, my heart just hurts a lot.)
Some positivity: he was discharged to home on Friday after having the main mass removed on Monday. There are metastases that need to be treated, but we are hopeful we can get him some more good time with chemotherapy and immune therapy. Physically he has so far been healing well. The cats are thrilled to have him back. FMLA leave has been approved so that we can both take time off for his treatment without worrying about losing our jobs.
Building up the home: I've managed to pay off the co-pays on all of the imaging and pathology from the past month in cash from savings. We have decent health insurance. Even with me driving back and forth from the hospital all week, we have clean linens and laundry and plenty of food in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. The radish and greens seeds that I planted a couple of weeks ago are sending up seedlings for a possible autumn harvest. I learned how to use the electric lawnmower and took care of the lawn, and drove in our big capital city all week for the very first time. I also said yes to a promotion at work - my boss called to offer it to me on Thursday. (She knows the situation and has said I can take whatever time I need whenever I need it for his care.) It is a stressful idea, but it will allow me to make sure he can still get care if he is ever unable to work, and make sure we can pay all of our bills.
Thanks everyone for listening and for your good ideas. If you would please consider adding my husband to your prayer list, whatever your personal beliefs, it would mean so much. And if you have any words of wisdom or advice, I would really appreciate it.
I hope everyone has a good week.
<3
Kathy
Praying for you in your time of need Kathy. May the Lord richly bless you and provide all that you and your husband need.
DeleteDear Kathy, I am so sorry to hear of your husband's health issues. It sounds like you are handling it all very admirably and I'm sure it has been a real challenge for you. I am praying that your husband will experience a complete cure and return to good health and also for you to have courage and faith that God is with you and all will soon be well with both of you.
DeleteThank you so much for your prayers and kindness. It means a lot to both of us.
DeleteKathy
Dear Kathy, I am agreeing with you that it is good to talk about it. Going it alone is not a good thing at all. It is too much. Many of us here know you pretty well I feel now.
DeleteFirst of all you are in shock and things have happened so fast. You havent really had time to take it all in. And you and your husband work so close as a team. He will be in such shock himself. He probably hates having the colostomy so I would encourage him that it is probably temporary and focus on that for now as a temporary measure. Also I would focus on the immune treatments being very good which they truly are.
When we had some terrible times with Dads health and some of them were such shocks... the world seemed to have gone black. When it is like that it is truly a one day at a time job. Within that keeping things as normal as possible seemed to help. Normal routines etc keep things going and are comforting somehow.
You also need some of your own relief and time and nurturing. The pressure and worry on you is enormous. Try and find ways to take a break even if it is going to have your hair done, coffee with a friend, anything. I would say also tell your own family dr what you are going through.
You have been doing very well with keeping things going at home! And the garden as well! The bills are paid too! To be promoted is a big compliment in fact! As you say this will help even though you have good medical insurance which is wonderful.
I am praying and so are many others I know. Considering what you have been through I think you are doing well in the way of keeping things going but you might not be doing so well inside. We try and keep it together. But it is ok to cry, have a day in bed if needed. Just take one day at a time and make that the best day you can, With love Annabel.xxx
Dear Annabel,
DeleteThank you so much for your prayers, welcome advice, and words of comfort and encouragement. It helps so much and I appreciate it more than I can tell you.
<3
Kathy
I will be praying for your situation. I went thru a similar situation years ago with my sister. My advice is to cry as often as you feel the need- it helps release some of the emotions and allows you to think a little more clearly. Just take one day or even one moment at a time. Remember you are not going through this alone- God is right there with you.
DeleteThank you very much for your prayers and your thoughtful advice. I am sorry that you experienced something similar with your sister. I have actually been resisting giving in to the tears and that is maybe not the best thing to do. I appreciate your kindness so much.
DeleteKathy