Its been a while....

I know it has been a while since I have posted and I doubt at this point anyone even reads this anymore so it is more like a diary now. I have been driving 600 mile round trips twice a week to care for my mother who suffered from stage 4 cancer that has spread everywhere. Looks like I will be returning to work soon and am excited to be able to focus on something else for a while, not for the reason I will be returning.
I worry about the Poo and her ability to understand all that has been going on over the last several months. She is so young but she is very smart and takes things in so personally and deeply. I know it will be good for her to get back to our normal routine. I t may be good for all of us.
Also during this time, my best friend will be moving a long way away. I know it will be a good change for her and her family but it sure will leave a big hole in our family. They will be dearly missed and in our prayers. I hope everything is as good as they want it to be and better than they thought it would be.
The Poo is growing like a weed. She will be 4 next month and i think she is going to be disappointed on her birthday. This year her grandmother will not be there to celebrate and she will not have her Amy or Marshall. It has also been a while since she has seen or heard from her Uncle so I do not know if he will be attending or not. I hope she will be happy with just us and her Tuzzy family.

I guess maybe I am just not feeling celebratory right now. Hopefully this will get better as it gets closer to her birthday. I love you all and hope all is well in your lives. Tell your friends and family how you feel. Don't wait.

I should be sleeping, but since I am not.....

I seem to have been struck with insomnia. So, I decided to relax and check out some of the features on the computer Papa got for me. I am so impressed with the web cam it has. You see I have never had a web cam before so I was unaware of the things you can do with this little gadget. Check it out.
You see, even thought this is me...it really doesn't look like me so much. And mind you I have not edited these photos in any way. My dear friend at Jaydes Little Corner is going to alter one for me and I will publish a before and after for you.She is amazing.
It is very possible that I am simply easily entertained or even dare we say sleep deprived but I still think this is so cool. I can hardly wait to get some with the Poo. She will love it! Y'all comment and tell me what you think.

So very bored and sleepy

Well guess what ya'll--- it is COLD again. I am looking forward to being off tomorrow so that the poo and I can make a cold weather sun catcher. If it works out I will post it for ya. We have a nice mix of snow and sleet but not a lot is sticking because it rained first. Poo is slowly feeling better from her cold. She pretty much ate evrything that did not try to get away today. Maybe even an item or two that did. But still it is an improvement as her appetite has been poor lately. Bundle up and try to stay warm and I will talk to you all later....After I have slept........

Well, how is everyone? We are slowly catching up with ourselves. The poo has been so sick and pitiful. She informs us regularly she needs a soft tissue because she has snot and her nose hurts. Very sad indeed!
Update on Mom is they have stopped chemo and are going to radiate her spine in an attempt to relieve some pain. They are planning on trying a different chemo treatment after radiation but she has lost so much weight she is not sure she can hold up to it. She is now below 100 pounds and still having difficulty eating.She has not given up hope but she has begun to be more realistic about her prognosis.
It has been very difficult to come to grips with this for all of us. If anyone has any suggestions on how to explain what is happening to the poo without scaring her, please let me know.
On a lighter note, my Dr.appt went well. No surgery required at this time and I now have new meds to stop the growth of the cyst. They believe it is a fibroid cyst versus the MASS term they have been using. Much relief there. I have to go back in six months to make sure it is not actively growing anymore and if all is well I get to keep my insides. Yeah!
Income tax has arrived also. We are getting to pay off some of the last of poo's surgery bills and hopefully a few more bills. The Pappa surprised me with an early valentine's present. Hint- I am blogging on it now from the bed. Good guess! It IS a laptop. My very first one and it is so lovely. The poo absolutely loves the Dora game that came pre loaded on it. In return I have paid off all his no insurance surcharges and we are now broke again:) It has been a relief to get bills out of the way so maybe we won't always be struggling to play catch up. 2 or 3 more years of this and we will have all past due bills(mostly medical) paid off.
We are hoping to get the roof worked on this spring when it warms a bit and then we can start fixing the back room and hopefully make it usable again. It would be good to have the extra room. The house is pretty small and we seem to have accumulated a lot of junk to fill it with. Well that is all I know right now. Love ya......

Dryer lint! Who knew?

Having a small child and trying to be frugal leads a person to look at things differently. That being said, here are some of the uses I have found for dryer lint. We seem to produce an enormous amount of lint in the winter time and it seems silly to throw it out when it can be used. Remember that it is very flammable and you do not want to have it near fire or electrical equipment.

Dryer Lint Clay (2 versions)
3 cups lint
2 cups water
1 cup flour
3 drops vegetable oil
scented oil if you choose
Tear 3 cups of lint into small pieces and place in a saucepan. Cover with about 2 cups of water and slowly stir in 1 cup of flour. Add a few drops of vegetable oil,and scented oil. Stir constantly, over low heat, until mixture is smooth and binds together. Pour onto sheets of newspaper, parchment or waxed paper to cool. Use to sculpt models, cover forms, or pack into small molds such as candy molds. Allow your creation to dry fully, which can take anywhere from 3 to 7 days, depending on the size. Paint and decorate to finish.

HOMEMADE Lint Clay

Ingredients::
2 cups firmly packed dryer lint
1/3 cup warm water
6 tablespoons white glue
1 tablespoon clear dish washing liquid
Food coloring

Directions:
Put lint into a mixing bowl.
Add the other ingredients.
Mix thoroughly. When you can no longer mix, knead with hands until of a uniform texture.

Shape and model, or fill molds with it.


Dryer Lint Faux Paper Mache
2 cups water
3 cups lint
2/3 cup flour
Combine 2 cups of water with 3 cups of dryer lint in a large saucepan. Stir in 2/3 cup of flour until well mixed. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until pulp holds together enough to form peaks. Pour onto newspaper, parchment or waxed paper to cool. If not using immediately, store in an airtight container; pulp will keep for about 3 days. Spread mixture over the object that you are using as the paper mache mold - a bowl, box, bottle or balloon, for instance. Allow to air dry, which may take up to a week. Sand rough edges and decorate as desired.

Dryer lint paper

Ingredients:
a blender
warm water
scraps of old paper torn into small pieces
dryer lint (add to paper mix- do not use alone)
a plain wooden picture frame (8"x10")
a piece of window screen material (12"x14" or larger)
a staple gun or waterproof glue
two large plastic dish pans or baby bathtubs
clean rags (at least 15"x15" square)
old newspapers
a rolling pin
metal shears to cut the screen
Optional: spray starch, iron

Directions:

Place torn scraps of paper , some dryer lint and warm water into a large pan to soak until
saturated and soft (the resulting paper pulp mixture is called "slurry").
Scoop out one cup of slurry, put into blender and add water to fill
blender. (If you want pure white paper, add 1/4 cup chlorine bleach at this
point.) Blend for a few seconds until it's smooth and mushy. Pour paper mush
into large tub. Repeat several times until there's about 5 inches of mushy
water in the tub.
You can also add food coloring to tint your paper or add other organic materials such as dried flowers and leaves to give your paper more texture.

Line plant pots with dryer lint, then add potting soil and plants. The lint keeps the soil in, but lets the water out.

Use dryer lint as a kind of indoor mulch to help conserve moisture for your indoor tropical plants. Just spread the dryer lint on the surface of the plant soil; water the plant as usual.

Conserve moisture in outdoor container plants, or around the base of small specimen plants, by mulching with dryer lint.

Build a better bird's nest or guinea pig's bed. Leave some lint on a wall and birds may grab it and use it for a nest. Throw some lint in with the guinea pig's shavings for good snuggling.

Hang a mesh bag like (the ones onions come in) from a tree in your yard or on your porch. Stuff lint into the bag. The birds and squirrels will love using it for bedding and nesting material.

Add it to a pet cage with shredded paper as litter. We use it in our rabbit cage and it really helps absorb smells.


Take enough lint to stuff a small pillow and add a couple of tbs. or so of catnip (depending on potency of the kitty weed). Be sure to sew up the pillow tightly, as Fluffy is going to go crazy! Stimulate the catnip by rubbing the pillow vigorously between your palms. Toss it to kitty and watch the fun.

You can use dryer lint to insulate door cracks by making a door sock and filling it with dryer lint.

If you are really crafty you can spin it into new yarn and make sweaters, socks, or a scarf if you like. It is clean fabric after all :)

You can also use it as a fire starter for your grill, fire place or campfires. You can either stuff it into empty toilet paper rolls or pack it into cardboard egg cartons and cover with a little melted wax. After it hardens you can break it apart and use it to start you fire with.

We compost and dryer lint is a great addition to the compost tumblers I made.(That is another post) Just add grass clippings, a little dirt, veggie skins, coffee grounds, fruit peels, dryer lint, shredded paper- whatever you have available. It makes great dirt!

Hope you enjoyed reading. Even if you never reuse dryer lint, it is interesting to know how many ways you can reuse it.

Happy Birthday Papa

It is a good day. The day my sweetie was born. Happy birthday to you Papa!!! We had a party already when everyone could get together so today was just us and the poo. She insisted he get ANOTHER cake for his birthday so we got him a cheesecake sampler after we took him and fed him ribs. He is a happy man today! I went to see my mom this morning also. Her chemo was postponed for a week due to shingles. She is miserable right now but in better spirits after our visit.
The poo is also very good. She has come up with a mystery bruise on her face. She says something bit her and she did not fall, but I wonder how true that is. She is as graceful as her mother- meaning she could be standing still on flat ground and fall and break a bone. Other than that all is well.
I ran into an old friend this evening while we were out and about. That was a nice trip down memory lane. Love to remember those days and so very glad I have grown out of them tehehehe.At least for the most part. Work is still work. Pretty much the same ol same ol. Love ya

This is my dear sweet niece. She is learning to drive and will be street legal in just a few short months. EVERYONE RUN!!! Just kidding, she is doing ok. I am very proud of her. It seems not to long ago she was driving her little push car all over the front yard. Where does all this time go? I miss the cute little smile she gave me when she said "Memaaaawwww" (yes that is what she use to call me) like I was pulling her chain and she new it. We use to do so many things together. Now she is almost grown. Trying to decide which college and what major takes up a good deal of her time.So many changes lately. My mom getting ill. 2 good friends have had babies in the last 3 days, my stepson turning me into a grandmother at 32. So much good and bad intermingled through life. I am still amazed everyday and continuously more thankful. As we all should be......

Just Angry

Ok, well I finally got a minute to get online so here goes. I am so sick of doctors and nurses and rude people in general. My mom had chemo on Tuesday, it is a 12 hour chemo session. She was told to be there when they open, and we were. She waited 2 and a half hours before I finally told them we were leaving. Miraculously they had room open and were able to get her in. She had to have massive pain medicine and then they bitched, I mean bitched about having to stay late because her chemo is so long. Somehow we were done at 6:30 when it should have been 10 o'clock. They did not give her the fluids. So today she was an hour late. A flat tire in the very cold wind. It took a while for her and my aunt Lillie to get it aired up to go to the doctors. They f-ing chastised her. Told her she should consider herself lucky she got in at all. Hello? Hello? Anyone home? Are you not the same people that made her wait not 2 days ago? The same people who cheated her out of some of her treatment so you could leave early? Who the hell do you think you are. So, I called to ask exactly that. You see today is the first day I was not there. I had to take care of business in this neck of the woods today. I explained that we do not give a mother f-ing damn if it is easier for them to do chemo in their office. It is easier for her at Hendrick and that is where it would be scheduled from now on. If it was to difficult to accomplish this we would simply find a doctor that was capable of doing so.
Now I realize they have a lot of patients and I am not trying to be an ass. I have only one mother, and she is dying. I simply wanted them to understand that if they treated all their patients that way, they would not have any and that this was simply unacceptable. She felt so bad about them having to stay and then they were incredibly rude to someone who already feels like a burden to to the loss of movement and massive amount of appointments. Its bullshit. Ok I feel better now. Thanks for listening.