Welcome to the Grow Your Blog Party

Welcome to the Grow OUR Blogs Party.  Here is our precious Host "Ms. Vicki" and Me (Jan).  That handsome dude between us joined a Tea Party on board the last cruise.  Notice the Pearls.  They were from our trip to Hawaii.  (One must wear pearls to a Tea Party, Right :)

Yes, I love to travel and especially with friends and family. Here are the 'girls' in our lives.  We (My husband Bob and I) took everyone to sail along the Rhine river starting and stopping in Paris,France.  Fabulous river cruise and trip for us all.  

Me, Daughter Amy and granddaughter Sophia in Honfleur France.
Yes, I did ride a lovely horse and so did Sophia.

Beloved Husband Bob, sitting in the park across from the Eiffel Tower

Daughter Cathy and granddaughter Sydney on a farm in France.

Knitting, Cooking and Reading are all my passions.  I have an Esty shop please visit me.  Special orders are welcome.  My shop  link.  This is my latest gift.  Praying as I knit.  That's what I do.

This is my Italian Chicken made in the Crock Pot. The recipe is in a      post in November.  Check it out here, delicious.

The Widow File by Sheila Redling is my latest read.  Mystery novel written by one of our local young women in our church.  It is a best seller on Amazon.  Good for her.  I really like to support local artists.

As a professional educator, my focus has a wide range from prenatal to the young at heart.  Right now I'm working with Child Nutrition in the state of West Virginia even though we live in Ohio.  Our latest book was written for School Parties to center around games and activities rather than foods.  There are recipes, all good and standardized and delicious.

Enough about me.  Here is my 'give away' for the party.    It will keep your head warm no matter where you are in our world or you can give it away to someone in the battle against cancer.  Please leave me a comment so I can reach you when the winner is chosen.
Blessings and Peace to you all,
Jan

Join the Fun : )  

Baby Boy Sweater Finished

The precious little boy is still nestled in his Mama's body, but his beautiful sweater is finished and waiting.  
Knitting for little ones is a blessing for me.  I can pray for the family and new baby as the garment comes to life.  

Here is the beginning collar and body. This sweater is knitted                                                                          from the top down.

My Husband says this is the 'cutest one ever'.

My picture taking leaves a 'little' to be learned.  The top picture shows a more true color.

The yarn is so very soft and totally washable.  It is made in Italy.

I hope your winter days are healthy and happy.  Let me hear from you and share what you are doing through the long winter dark evenings.  Jan

Ms. Janet, I want that!!!

This little girl loves my knitting.  She thinks the yarn is soft and BEAUTIFUL.  Of course, I agree.  She came over one day this summer and I was packing up a dress about three sizes too large for her.  Well, after trying it on and it dragging the floor, she still "Wanted It".  So to settle her down it was decided I would make her a skirt out of the same yarn.  Tall promise since I really did not know if I had enough yarn left.  As you can see, it was perfect.  She and her cousin can wear this jewel.

Christmas Scarf Project

Our Church began a Christmas Scarf Project after the storm Katrina. There were 100 people transported from New Orleans to West Virginia.  They needed scarves and hats.  Our generous knitters and crocheters answered the call.  We had more than a 100 items in a VERY short time, so we kept the extra to give away at Christmas.   No one thought this would become a yearly project.  Well it did:)  Since that time wonderful people in our church and friends have given hand knitted scarves, hats, purses and sweaters to the project.

Here are just a few samples of the beautiful gifts.

Each year our items help keep people of our area warm from the winter chill.

This year we were given 172 items along with donated yarn and money to buy yarn. One lady makes the cards to put with each item. 

I'll share some of the scarves in a day or so.

Blessings to my blogger friends.

Jan

WHAT???I AM THE PERSON BEING CARED FOR!!!

Being a caregiver is what I have always done.  Family and Foster Children have touched our hearts  as I directed care for others.

Now I am the one being cared for and believe me it is not easy.  Cards bring me much joy and the food wonderful friends bring me is amazing.

So after three weeks of crying and feeling sorry for myself, A friend send me a book, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.  It helped change my attitude and gave me scriptures from God's word to inspire me.
After many Months, I welcome anyone who will follow me to help me along this most unfamiliar journey of dependence upon others.

Today a friend, many you know as "2 bags full" encouraged me to blog about my churches Christmas Scarf Project.

Remember Katrina storm and the devastation it spread.  Over 100 survivors were bused to West Virginia and housed for a while. Some of the women of my church family decided we would knit or crochet scarve and hats to help them stay warm.  The response was overwhelming and one of my office friends hand delivered the scarves.

We had some late scarves come in so I decided our church ladies could gives those out close to Christmas to some of our local charities.  So all these years later, our ladies are still crafting items to give to many community charities.

Here are donations from many dedicated individuals.  Total as of today 172 and counting.

These are what we call "Ready".  Each bag tells who the scarf would fit and has a card inside with a prayer and our address.  Next post, I'll share the card one of our ladies designs, prints and cuts for this project each year.

Hope this sharing motivates someone else to start a scarf project.  Amazing how we are willing to give of our time and talent to those less fortunate.  

Blessings, Jan

Jan's Standing HAPPY NEW YEAR:)

Progress after 14 weeks of riding a GoGoScooter, I am now allowed to learn to walk using a walker.  Yea.  Very exciting.  Those of you praying for me...Thank You.

Learning to Cook Again

Welcome back friends.  Have any of you had a hip replacement?  One thing learned:  "If you have a sense of humor, you can survive:)"  Second thing learned:  "You have to be blessed with a friend who not only listens but also tells you things WILL GET BETTER:)"  Thank God for both lessons.

I have been immobile for 14 weeks and am now learning to walk and cook again.
Decided I would share with those of you out their some of the things I have done the past non-weight bearing weeks.  Not allowed in the kitchen...Really.
Here is my first attempt at cooking a meal in all those days:  Italian Chicken, Crock Pot Style.  Since it only took me 1 hr and 40 minutes,(I hope you are laughing) and that was just to get the items in the Crock Pot.  Here is the end result:

Now for the "how to get to the end result???"

First clean the carrots and onion and garlic, then chop, slice and press.  Wow, I was standing with a walker and them realized, Hey, this thing has a seat.  So yes I sat down at the counter on the walker seat.

From the seat I could add all the seasonings to the tomatoes, which were suppose to be fresh, but a can of diced won out.  My honey husband opened the can of tomatoes and tomato paste.  He is a jewel tired of cooking every meal.  At least now I can get to the kitchen to eat.  

I just do not like those veins in the chicken breast pieces, so I sat down put on my rubber glove and got out the chicken cutting scissors, yes I really do have special scissors just for chicken.  See the crock pot to the right top of the picture.  It is getting hot with 1/2 cup water and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. (From Italy)

OK, so the vegetables go in the hot water and oil, then the tomatoes and seasonings

 and then the raw chicken.  I stirred it around with a wooden spoon.  Looks gross,  but WAIT!!!

Remember the serving shown at the beginning?  1 cup whole wheat angle hair pasta topped with delicious Italian Crock Pot Chicken.  

My Hip is now healing.  Thank God.  The two fractures in the femur are healed enough for me to put weight on my left leg and foot.  Thank You for joining me in my journey to good health and walking again.If you want the recipe, just e-mail me.  jan.yost@yahoo.com  I will learn to add the recipe, but not today.

Enjoy the day, Jan

Valentine's Day Scarf

Reading posts of bloggers who are participating in Grow Your Blog (thankful to Ms. Vicki) is such fun.  I am so glad Vicki is leaving the links up for us.

Wanted to share a story that happened this week.  A friend needed yarn to make a scarf for Vicki's Scarf Project and I knew it would help her if someone had the yarn. 
Do any of you just happen to have yarn in the trunk of your car????:)
I told her to help me to the car and she could pick out yarn for the scarf.  She was delighted and so excited.  I'll post a picture when she is finished.

So that was on Thursday.  On Friday one of my neighbors came to visit and brought me (you quessed it) red yarn so she could teach me this new trend in scarf making.  I know some of you are already proficient in the technique, but I was not.  After less than 24 hours, here is the finished product.  I am amazed and I cooked dinner and did a few other chores as well as knitted on a little dress I am making for a newborn weighing in at 4 pounds.  One blessing turned into two which will end up being four blessings because each scarf made will be given away.   

Hope each of you have a blessed day.

Thank you all for stopping by and leaving jme a coment.

 

And The WINNER Is:

Thank each and everyone of you who visited Dreamchallenge so far during the Grow Your Blog Party.  The notes you are writing lifts my heart and gives me reinforcement in the knowledge that there are so many wonderful people out in our world, if we but give them the opportunity to share our life's journey with us.
I am a private person by nature and sharing with all of you has given me such unexpected joy. Knowing that many of my new followers actually read what is going on in my life was a revealition to me.  I am visiting each of my new followers and it is great fun.

Part of Grow your Blog was a gift, if you wanted to participate.  Of course, Ms. Vicki, makes everything so very fun.  Thank you Vicki.  Here is the WINNER of my lovely knitted scarf:

Derrith, from Ridgefield, WA.  Congratulations new friend. Here is Derrith's blog:
http://tiedupinribbon.blogspot.com/  Derrith, please e-mail your address to me at riverview@zoominternet.net 

If you made the decision to follow along with me, please give me time to come visit you.
Blessings to each of you. 
Jan

Grow My Blog

GROW YOUR BLOG PARTY

WELCOME

 

The love of my Life, dedicated Christian, cancer survivor (10 years and counting), bed partner (most nights), gardner, shopper, geologist, hiker and dry sense of humor husband, Bob.  He and I both love to read and be outdoors.  We live in Ohio on a family owned piece of property that used to be our "camp" and summer retreat. 

This is what we call the Front Entrance.  Bob has collected all those stones from our river bank.

Here I am enjoying two of my favorite activities:  knitting and sitting near the Ohio river in the sunshine with my Vera Bradley bag of knitting accessories.  Our host, Ms. Vicki, gave me the Vera Bradley bag years ago and it has literally accompanied us all around the world holding my project of the day.  

I Appreciate all my followers and will be happy to follow you as we

'Grow our Blogs' together.   

Most of us really enjoy owning items that others make with their 'labor of love", so here is mine.  Its a lovely soft washable neck scarf.  If you want to loop it, I have knitted a button hole on one side so you may loop one side through and keep the scarf in place.  The ladies (girls) may want to add the flower.  It simply ties onto the scarf. 

Now for you guys out their in blog land, you may want to untie the flower and wear the scarf without the flower.  (Then where you get tired of it -because it will not wear out for many years - you may retie the flower and give it away.)

We have a glass factor near our home, Blenko, in Milton WV.  The little orange Blenko vase is holding my treasure of pheseant feathers from North Dakota.  One of our neighbors brings me one feather each year.  They are so soft and comforting.

Another neighbor has an active little two year old.  Another love of my life.  She will be picking the winner for this lovely scarf.  Just leave me a note and you will be entered. 

So how did I get into knitting???? Well, my bed partner was diagonised with lymphonia in 2002.  What????he is a runner.  I cook healthy because nutrition is my professional life work.  Not possible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Of course, the biopsy and test don't lie and we began the battle to overcome this dreadful cancer. 

A friend came to the hospital as I sat by Bob's bedside, she sat with me and taught me to knit.  Yes it took a couple of days, so she came back.  This hat and the previous scarf were both for those in the battle.

Items I love include my life long baby dolls.  This little girl has the most beautiful eyes and she is wearing her original dress.  What??????????? That's right.  OH yes, she and I spent many hours together, but she had lots of home made clothes (Thanks Mom) and this little dress was her "Sunday Outfit".  The hat goes with the sweater below.  One of my favorite sweater patterns.  Our host also gave me the pattern.  I love that woman and her gardner and you will too if you do not already.

Bob was enjoying the sunshine and newspaper on Mom's patio.  See "her kitty" (its really the neighbors, but don't tell.  Mom feeds her).  Bob is holding a pull- over sweater I made for our nephews first birthday.  Love the yarn.

I made this little creation for our neiighbor's granddaughter.  The same one who will be drawing one of your names for the lovely scarf.  The ruffle on the bottom is the only difference between this one and the gray sweater.  We are LONG STANDING MARSHALL UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL FANS.  Thus the green and white color.

Red, one of my favorite colors and about half of my closet is filled with red items.  The sweater was made for a friend who waited years for her boy to arrive.  This is the most difficult sweat I have ever made, but worth the hours.  I prayed so much for this child.  He is now a healthy young 'get into everything' two year old.

Our girls!  Love them.  Intelligent, happy and they love us.  Daughter both educated with Master's degrees (yes, as an educator, thats impt. to me).  Granddaughters are such fun.  This picture was taken at the Biltmore in Ashville, NC.  They met Bob and I their for my birthday lunch.

Bob and I both love gardens.  He plants and I cook.  These peas were delicious.  The little girls like to eat them right from the pods.

Going home from the hospital.  Yes, little Sophia was a healthy big baby.  Honoring me in this way was such a blessing.  As you can see, she will be able to wear the sweater as she grows.  The sleeves are rolled up.

Here she is:  Mom.  The woman in my life who taught me that life is not always easy, but sure worth the effort.  She loves life.  Knows more news that I do on an everyday basis.  She loved to garden, cook, can, sew, crochet and play BINGO.  She is wearing a scarf I made from yarn I purchased in Russia.  Our host and I found yarn in Russia.  Are you surprised???  My nephew gave this beautiiful creation to his girlfriend.

Making baby cacoons was a phase.  That's over, but I still have one left in my Etsy shop.  Stop by if you have time or need a lovely hand made item: 

 http://www.etsy.com/shop/DreamChallenge

 

Thank you for traveling with me through my pictures.  I wish for you happy blogging.

 

 

New Knit Item for Man or Woman

WOW!!! This blog is actually working for me.  Thanks to my daughter.  YEA.
Here is a lovely scarf that was designed and knitted by me.  It has a loop on the back side incase the person wearing it wants to loop it.  There is also a flower that may be attached for a lady wearing the scarf or removed for a man who thinks flowers are only for the ladies.

 

Frustration

Testing the ability to post.  Would love to show some of my knitting.  Not able to do so.  Thinking a new blog may be the only answer.

Fighting Cancer with Prayers

Here is my friend's new neck warmer.  My husband and I knew the biopsy was cancer when we did not get a call two minutes after she left the doctor's office.  Instead her daughter called us about three hours later.  We knew not to call because my beloved partner has been in my friend's shoes many times.  It is always better to wait a few hours before running into someones life.  Actually as I write this, maybe just knowing the person is best.  We wanted to run over and cry and hug her, but we knew better.  When I called several hours later in the day to "see if I could bring dinner AND NOT STAY", the answer was "no", "can I have a rain check".  Of course, rain checks are always good, but I really just wanted to hug her.  You see, often our wants have to take a back seat to the person in the battle.  She needed time to digest what had happened that day.  She needed her husband, her kitties and her "old" robe.  Good lesson for us all, remember, it is NOT ALL ABOUT WHAT WE WANT,  it is about the person we love.  Love, listen and respond. 

Mini-Stroke

Here they are cooking.  Everything looks normal right.  Right. 

Yesterday Mom (94 years young) was fine until after nap.  She got up unable to walk or move her feet.  Boy was she MAD.  Her mind was great.  Her speech was right on target.  The only indication of a MINI-STROKE was the fact that she could not stand up and move her feet. 

Of course, those of you who know me, know that healthy food is the answer to much of our problems according to me.  Well after my beloved husband and I got her seated by the Greenbrier Golf Classic on TV, I boiled eggs and made stuffed deviled eggs.  Protein for the body gone funky.  Bob was the look out incase Mom needed anything.  She watched the golf and talked.  Then it was time to get up and go to the table.  NO.  Her body was struggling.  We made a plate of deviled egg and blueberries.  She ate every bite but no improvement. 

We both knew what had happened, but neither of us would say the words, then I texted my nurse friend.  She knew instantly what had happened.  We decided to stay and watch Mom for a few hours.  Each little bit was better than the last.  By the time a couple of hours passed and the golf tournment was over for the day Mom was able to move her feet with help. 

Each person responds differently to body happenings.  Mom responded to nutrients and tender care and lots of prayers.  If she had not we would have been off to the ER.  If her face had dropped or her speech had been slired, we would have gone the minute we discovered the happenings.  That was not her case and today she is once again walking on her own and enjoying the last day of the Greenbrier Golf Tournment.

We thank God for the blessing of life.  Keep us all in your prayers.