Cookbooks and Catching Up

It's been so long since I've blogged.  I have no one to blame but myself.  There has been so much going on lately that I just haven't really had the energy or time to do it.  I don't like not posting to my blog.  I want to do it on a regular basis.  I guess sometimes I think I have nothing to say, but I need to post anyway.  I'm thinking about doing a 365 day Photo Challenge which is not really a challenge, but it's just a commitment to take at least one photo a day of something interesting and post to my photography blog.  I have seen what other bloggers have posted and I love the photos.  Some of them just take pictures with their cell phone, iphones since they have them with them all the time.  I want to do that too, but I'm not sure if my data plan will allow me to post a picture every day without going over my allotted time.  I'll have to check on that.

One thing I have not blogged about and is another reason I haven't blogged much lately, is that my mother passed away on May 16.  She did not have a long illness.  In fact, only 2 weeks before she died, we found out that she had a baseball size cancerous tumor on her colon.  She didn't even know it was there until she went to the ER one night in extreme stomach pain.  It was a shock to both of us and everything just happened so fast.  The surgeon told us that he thought it was cancer and that it had been there for quite some time.  He was wondering if it was something she knew about and just ignored doing anything about it.  We told him that no we had no idea.  One thing he said that could have been a preventative measure would be if she had agreed to have a colonoscopy when her doctors told her to.  I remember awhile back her doctors wanting her to have one and she refused.  So, who knows if that would have prevented this, but possibly if she had had one, they might have been able to find it when it was a lot smaller and remove it.  Anyway, the surgeon said that without surgery to remove it she would surely die.  She said that she had been praying about it and that it was in the Lord's hands, so she made the decision to have the surgery to remove it.  The first couple of days after the surgery seemed to be going well, but she started retaining a lot of fluid.  The surgeon seemed to think it was normal and that she was doing remarkably well for her age, so he sent her to rehabilitation against my wishes because I just didn't think she was ready.  She went to rehab on the Friday before Mother's Day.  I could tell that she wasn't getting better and I think she knew it too.  This once vibrant, independent woman was suddenly withdrawn and weak.  I think she knew this was the one thing she wasn't going to get over.  She was taken back to the ER the following Monday.  The ER doctor told us that her organs were beginning to shut down and that she would likely die.  I wasn't really surprised, but I was really sad.  I prayed about it and prayed that the Lord would just go ahead and take her rather than have her stay here and suffer for a long period of time.  It was a blessing when He took her the following Thursday.  I really miss her a lot, but it is a great comfort to me to know that now she is with her mother, father, brothers and sisters in Heaven.

Anyway, I am excited about some new things I have found recently.  One thing that has renewed my interest in dolls is a friend of mine who is really into American Girl dolls.  She only has two of them, Samantha and Nellie.  She said she only needs two and that's really all anyone needs.  She has made the cutest little doll room in one end of her small sunroom.  She has a bed and a kitchen set up and a little sitting room for them.  She also has various clothes, and accessories for them too.  About 2 months ago she and I went to the American Girl store near Atlanta and we had a blast that day.  I bought Kit and Ruthie and several different clothes and accessories for them.  Then later on I found a Samantha doll on Ebay and I bought her too.  But, that's it.  I'm not buying any more.  Three dolls is all I need and they look so cute together.

Samantha, Kit and Ruthie

 

Right now I only have one dress for Samantha, but I will either make some more or look for a couple of others ones on Ebay, maybe.

  

One day a couple of weeks ago I was in a local used bookstore and found a couple of cookbooks.  One of them is Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer, and the other one is Helen Exum's Cookbook, which is a cookbook published by a local author in my city.  These are both really old cookbooks, but I love them and some of the illustrations are really beautiful and unique.
 

 

 

Another really unique cookbook that I found while shopping in a different discount store was Just a Matter of Thyme by Roxy Kelly and Friends and illustrated by Shelley Reeves Smith.  This cookbook just caught my eye and really spoke to me.  I love journals and journaling and this cookbook was just like an illustrated journal.  It's a work of art!  Everything is handwritten in a beautiful script and the illustrations are just beautiful.