Two Blogs To Share

Let me tell you about YOUR LIFE SPELLED OUT.
I created this blog(Your Life Spelled Out) for those of you that want or need to journal but when a pen and paper are put in front of you your mind goes completely blank. This will be a daily starting place with words or questions that will inspire you to reach within yourself and unlock your thoughts and your creativity. For those of you that art journal, I will create weekly prompts just for you. Let the creative process begin. Come and visit at :
http://yourlifespelledout.blogspot.com/

The next blog I want to share with you is one especially for my scrapping/artist readers. It is a challenge blog. SCRAP THAT BABY is for you if you would like to scrap pictures of your baby/toddler, grandchild, niece or nephew or children of your friends. In other words it is really for everyone. I have really enjoyed being creating there and YOUR LIFE SPELLED OUT even sponsored one of their challenges this month. Go and visit at:
http://www.scrapthatbaby.blogspot.com/

Would you like to have YOUR BLOG featured? If so drop me a comment and give me the address of your blog and I will come for a visit.

Remember all that comment will be entered into a drawing for a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble or Achivers (Your Choice) at the end of this month. The other way to enter is to visit Your Life Spelled Out and leave a comment there (you must mention that you read about the give away here)!

See You Friday!
Susan

Created for Scrap That Baby Challenge Blog

http://scrapthatbaby.blogspot.com/

A favorite quote and an announcement.

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. ~ Edith Wharton

Leave a message on this blog or on the Your Life Spelled Out Blog by the end of the month and your name will go in for a drawing for a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble or to Archiver's (your choice).

I will be back in a bit with pages to share.

It all about

I love the line in the movie As Good As It Gets when the character played by Jack Nicholson expresses gratitude and amazement at the impact of a new friendship: "You make me want to be a better person."

Who is the person that makes you want to be a better person?

Hello Out There

I know it have been forever since I posted here and there is SO much to catch up on.

I have been busy with this Journaling blog (Your Life Spelled Out)that I am doing and with writing the book that accompanies it. I hope to have it finished and published in time by November.

You can take a look here http://yourlifespelledout.blogspot.com/

Skip and I have traveled to Asia on a special project twice already this year and I know we will have at least one more trip before the year is up. I have been sick for two and a half straight weeks. It started with E coli and now I have walking pneumonia I am so looking forward to feeling well again.

I am a also busy working on the 16th Annual Project Ed Bear dinner/auction. We had to change locations because we had over 500 people last year. What a blessing! I worked on that and have successfully found our new location.

Project Ed Bear is an all volunteer 501c3 tax exempt organization dedicated to providing comfort and needs to pediatric oncology patients through out Northeast Ohio.

I am super busy working on Camp Chops (Camp for children with cancer)which is coming up soon (June 4th through 6th). Project Ed Bear pays for the entire camp and on Saturday a group of us will set up fun stations all over camp for the children.

My grandchildren (light of my life) are growing up right before my eyes. Tyler will be 5 in July, Wyatt just turned 2 and Aubrey is 7 months old already.

Wyatt was just diagnosed with Autism so we have been rallying together and Matthew and Mindy are busy getting a therapy schedule together for him. He is my little love!

We will start things up again here with some interactive happenings. First to get you back here I will put everyone hat post a comment here through the end of this month into a drawing for a $10 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble or to Archivers (your choice). This will also apply to anyone that visits my other blog
http://yourlifespelledout.blogspot.com/ and leaves a message telling me that they arrived there from here!

Post and let me know how you have been. What you would like to see on the blog etc.

Hey...have a great day!

Until Tuesday...
Susan

autism-2.jpg

The Yellow Shirt

An Oldie but still a GREAT read!

T he yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large pockets trimmed in black thread and snaps up the front. It was faded from years of wear, but still in decent shape. I found it in 1963 when I was home from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom intended to give away.. 'You're not taking that old thing, are you?' Mom said when she saw me packing the yellow shirt. 'I wore that when I was pregnant with your brother in 1954!' 'It's just the thing to wear over my clothes during art class, Mom. Thanks!' I slipped it into my suitcase before she could object.. The yellow shirt be came a part of my college wardrobe. I loved it. After graduation, I wore the shirt the day I moved into my new apartment and on Saturday mornings when I cleaned. The next year, I married. When I became pregnant, I wore the yellow shirt during big-belly days. I missed Mom and the rest of my family, since we were in Colorado and they were in Illinois . But, that shirt helped. I smiled, remembering that Mother had worn it when she was pregnant, 25 years earlier. That Christmas, mindful of the warm feelings the shirt had given me, I patched one elbow, wrapped it in holiday paper and sent it to Mom. When Mom wrote to thank me for her 'real' gifts, she said the yellow shirt was lovely.. She never mentioned it again.. The next year, my husband, daughter and I stopped at Mom and Dad's to pick up some furniture. Days later, when we uncrated the kitchen table, I noticed something yellow taped to its bottom. The shirt! And so the pattern was set. On our next visit home, I secretly placed the shirt under Mom and Dad's mattress. I don't know how long it took for her to find it, but almost two years passed before I discovered it under the base of our living-room floor lamp. The yellow shirt was just what I needed now while refinishing furniture. The walnut stains added character. In 1975 my husband and I divorced. With my three children, I prepared to move back to Illinois . As I packed, a deep depression overtook me. I wondered if I could make it on my own. I wondered if I would find a job. I paged through the Bible, looking for comfort. In Ephesians, I read, 'So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will be standing up.' I tried to picture myself wearing God's armor, but all I saw was the stained yellow shirt. Slowly, it dawned on me.. Wasn't my mother's love a piece of God's armor? My courage was renewed. Unpacking in our new home, I knew I had to get the shirt back to Mother. The next time I visited her, I tucked it in her bottom dresser drawer Meanwhile, I found a good job at a radio station. A year later I discovered the yellow shirt hidden in a rag bag in my cleaning closet. Something new had been added. Embroidered in bright green across the breast pocket were the words 'I BELONG TO PAT.' Not to be outdone, I got out my own embroidery materials and added an apostrophe and seven more letters. Now the shirt proudly proclaimed, 'I BELONG TO PAT'S MOTHER.' But I didn't stop there. I zig-zagged all the frayed seams, then had a friend mail the shirt in a fancy box to Mom from Arlington , VA. We enclosed an official looking letter from 'The Institute for the Destitute,' announcing that she was the recipient of an award for good deeds.. I would have given anything to see Mom's face when she opened the box. But, of course, she never mentioned it.. Two years later, in 1978, I remarried. The day of our wedding, Harold and I put our car in a friend's garage to avoid practical jokers. After the wedding, while my husband drove us to our honeymoon suite, I reached for a pillow in the car to rest my head. It felt lumpy. I unzipped the case and found, wrapped in wedding paper, the yellow shirt. Inside a pocket was a note: 'Read John 14:27-29. I love you both, Mother..' That night I paged through the Bible in a hotel room and found the verses: 'I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives.. So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really love me, you will be very happy for me, for now I can go to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do, you will believe in me.' The shirt was Mother's final gift. She had known for three months that she had terminal Lou Gehrig's disease. Mother died the following year at age 57. I was tempted to send the yellow shirt with her to her grave. But I'm glad I didn't, because it is a vivid reminder of the love-filled game she and I played for 16 years. Besides, my older daughter is in college now, majoring in art. And every art student needs a baggy yellow shirt with big pockets.