Kathleen Smith's Blog, page 19

Grooming Our Dog

About three years ago we adopted our dog, Yogi from a local animal shelter. [image error]

Our family has wanted a dog for years, but the idea of buying a dog from a pet store didn’t feel right.

We wanted to adopt a dog that needed a home and love. Yogi happened to be the one dog that came to us looking for love.

It didn’t take long for him to become a part of our family. At the same time it took awhile for us to get a bathroom schedule for him. In the mean time he had a couple of accidents that needed to be cleaned up. Which we did.

After some time of having Yogi we realized the dog needed to be cleaned. He needed a good bath with something nice smelling.

[image error]We did consider giving him a bath ourselves, but that didn’t sound like a good idea. Knowing our family it would be a disaster. So we decided to take him to PetSmart.

Yes, I know that costs money. We would rather spend the money at PetSmart knowing our dog is going to get a good cleaning, teeth brushing, nail clipping and all that good stuff.

We did try to clean our dog once. ONCE. That was enough to let us know never again! We took him to a local car wash that also has a place to wash dogs. That was an interesting experience to say the least. It ended with him getting an ear infection.

[image error]After that one time my husband and I agreed for now on we take our dog to PetSmart. This way the dog gets his grooming, we get a clean dog and everyone is happy.

 

Thankfulness Under Stress

[image error]I am the queen of stress! I’m not proud of this fact, but it’s true. I’m pretty sure I am the most stressful person I know. And if I’m not I think I’m pretty close to it.

Do I like being stressed? No! In fact I can’t stand feeling stressed. When I’m stressed I hurt in so many different places. My head. My ears. My jaw. My stomach and the list goes on. So why am I stressed so often? I have trouble when it comes to praying and letting it all go and giving it all to God.

This isn’t something I’m proud of. If I could change this one thing about me I would do it in a second. Instead it takes work. It shouldn’t but it does. I should be able to give all my worries to God and let Him deal with it all. After all the Bible does say in Matthew 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The Bible also says in 1Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

At the beginning of this week I was telling my husband how I can’t take this stress anymore. It hurt and I wanted it to stop. I asked him if there was a devotion we could do together at night that would help me get control over this.

[image error]He liked the idea of doing devotions with me so he started looking for something related to stress. My husband found something on his Bible app that we could read together and we did. Problem with that was reading it and getting something out of what I was reading was two different things.

Then he found some devotional videos we could watch. The first one we watched was Monday night. In that devotion we learned to give thanks to God in all situations. No matter what. Whatever might be stressing me I need to turn that around and find something in that to thank God for.

That night after our devotions we prayed together. My husband went first and he thanked God for so many things and as I listened I could feel something stirring in my own heart and I started to cry. Then I started to laugh and went right back to crying. It felt good to cry during my husbands prayer. It was something I needed. I was being reminded of all that we have and how good God is to us in all situations. It was my turn to pray and I have to say it wasn’t easy to pray and cry at the same time, but it was well worth it.

[image error]Tuesday night we did our video devotion again and I was reminded to give God all my burdens and leave them at his feet. I was reminded that He will take care of me. I also learned that I need to remember to let my brain tell my heart what to feel instead of my heart telling me brain what to feel.

That isn’t easy for me which is probably one of the reasons why I always feel so much stress.

Today is Wednesday and I have to say I feel more relaxed today then I have in a while. I am reminding myself to stop when I start to feel stressed about something and find at least one positive thing to thank God for.

I have to say doing that does seem to work. I don’t know why I’m so surprised.

Today I was taking down our Christmas lights from outside our house. I was feeling stress free and thinking about our devotions. I was reminded that I serve a might God who is sitting on His throne in Heaven and He is taking care of me. I need to remember to always give my burdens and stress to Him and He will take care of me.

[image error]I am praying that my husband and I will keep watching our video devotions every night. I am praying that I will get better every day at not stressing and giving it all to God. I’m sure with me being human I will have some set backs here and there, but I will be doing my best to make sure whenever I start to feel stressed about something that I will stop and find at least one thing at that moment to thank God for.

 

There’s a New Bagel Place in Town!

[image error]I absolutely love bagels! More importantly I love Brooklyn bagels. This makes sense since I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. As far as I’m concerned no other city makes bagels like Brooklyn.

I can remember when I was dating my husband. One of the weekends he came to visit me in Brooklyn he wanted to know what I was going to eat one Saturday morning. When I told him a plain bagel with cream cheese he gave me this look like “what are you talking about”? I told him to just wait until my mom got back from the bagel store and he would understand. When she got back I showed him a bagel and he couldn’t believe how big it was.

From that point on my husband agreed Brooklyn bagels are the absolute best.

[image error]I’ve been living in Upstate NY for twenty-two years now and I am always looking for a good Brooklyn bagel up here. Most places that say they have Brooklyn style bagels are usually only okay tasting for me and my husband.

About a week or so ago a friend of ours told us about this bagel place that opened up in Amsterdam, NY called  — Bread from Brooklyn. She suggested we give it a try so we did.

Last Saturday my husband and I took our girls to this place to see if they really did have Brooklyn bagels. When we first walked into Bread from Brooklyn we could smell the bagels and OH what a wonderful smell it was. This place doesn’t just have Brooklyn bagels though. They have Italian bread, muffins, donuts, Italian cookies, pretzels, black and white cookies and more.

[image error]We bought a half dozen bagels, a pretzel for my youngest daughter and two black and white cookies. My little girl who absolutely loves pretzels from the vendors in NYC and Brooklyn gave this pretzel a thumbs up and said it was very good.

I love black and white cookies, but every time I buy one from a store up here or a bakery they are never the same as the ones from Brooklyn. So when I tried the one from — Bread from Brooklyn, Oh man was that good. I mean that was so good it was definitely from Brooklyn.

When we got home that Saturday we put some cream cheese on the bagels and started eating them. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. This place definitely has Brooklyn bagels! Now as far as I am concerned the best bagels in Brooklyn come from the Bagel Boy in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, but these bagels from — Bread from Brooklyn they are very good. I will definitely be going back for more. It’s nice to know that there is finally a bagel place that isn’t far from me that truly has Brooklyn bagels.

[image error]If you noticed the pictures I posted in this blog you will see that one of the black and white cookies already had a couple of bites taken out of it. I couldn’t wait to try one so I ate some of it in our car on our way home. Also my son has some big hands. The picture with the bagel in my sons hand show how big these bagels are.

We also got to meet the owner of Bread From Brooklyn Angelo Bonsignore he is a nice man from Brooklyn.

Nice job Bread from Brooklyn!

 

 

A Dress for Afternoon Tea

Buying a dress for Afternoon Tea in England hasn’t been easy for me and my daughter. 

Let’s go back a couple of months when my husband and I started planning our vacation. We decided one thing we wanted to do in London was go to an “Afternoon tea”. He started  doing research on what to wear to Afternoon Tea. 

Afternoon tea is a tea related ritual in England, especially popular with tourists these days. It involves tea, fine china, delicately cut sandwiches, pastries, scones with clotted cream and jam and more. It can last two hours and there are different places that provide different experiences. Some more formal than others. We have reservations at The English Tea Room at Brown’s Hotel. “Trainers, t-shirts, shorts and sportswear are not permitted.”

We were planning  our outfits for all three of us, my husband, our daughter and me for Afternoon Tea. We were planning on wearing jeans and a nice shirt. Then my husband found out if you do that they may put you in a corner where no one can see you. (At some places they may not even sit you….)

We certainly didn’t want that. We want to experience the full Afternoon Tea. Part of that includes dressing up. So we were on a mission to find two nice dresses. One for me and one for our twelve year old daughter. Our daughter who is STILL growing. 

A couple of months ago we found two dresses. A Calvin Klein dress for me and a dress at Kohl’s for my daughter. We were all set for Afternoon Tea! 

Then my daughter grew AGAIN and her new dress didn’t fit her anymore. You see we have this rule in our house dresses and skirts have to be below the knees or they aren’t allowed to be worn. There are no exceptions. 

So I decided to wait until we got closer to our time in England and our first Afternoon Tea experience. 

With it being weeks away now we decided it was time to find a new dress for our daughter. I’m not sure how we did it, but we managed to not buy one but three dresses that meet our standards for our daughter and one of those dresses is perfect for High Tea. We found the dresses at Marshals and the Dress Barn for her of all places. 

Hopefully between now and then she won’t grow any and if she does it won’t be that much. 

I Confess!

I have to confess to something. I only exercised twice this week. There I said it! I wasn’t feeling good this week so I only exercised on Monday and Friday morning. And Monday morning I was so tired and not feeling good that exercising was more of a chore then being fun. The rest of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) I slept for as long as I could. I have to tell you that rest felt SO good. My body seriously needed that rest. 

Last week I was having trouble waking up early so I could exercise. It was pretty bad. Every morning last week I was getting up later and later. Yet I was still making myself get up to exercise. I told myself I could take a nap during the day to get the rest I needed. Did I take that nap? No. instead I kept pushing myself. I knew I was really tired when I wanted to go to bed at 7 O’clock at night. But I kept pushing. 

I have been getting up early to exercise Monday – Friday since September without fail. That’s five months straight! I’ve been pretty proud of myself too. I’ve been disciplined. I’ve been toning my muscles and I lost the weight I wanted to. And my stomach is starting to look the way I want it to. 

So when my body finally said NO to me that was hard to listen to. I wanted to keep going. I don’t like getting up early, never have. But I’ve also been feeling really good about myself and the way I look and feel. So to give in to that rest felt like I was sort of failing. I know that isn’t true, but it did feel like that. 

I know I needed to rest those three days and I actually woke up pretty good for my exercises this morning (Friday) pretty well. I felt a bit refreshed and was oh so glad I was able to exercise. 

I plan on getting back to my normal exercise routine on Monday Morning and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been doing the CIZE dance work out with Shaun T since the beginning of September and I absolutely love it. It’s giving me the body tone and figure that I have been wanting for years now. 

I think I also need to remember that it’s okay for me to get that rest that my body needs every once in a while. 

Mrs Butterworth: You Didn’t Speak to Me

The other day I was in my local grocery store. I needed to buy more pancake syrup for the French Toast I was planning to make for my family. While looking for Log Cabin Syrup I noticed Mrs Butterworth and that reminded me of a time that I wanted some.

This is what happened to me once upon a time….

When I was little my mom would make pancakes often. She mostly used Log Cabin syrup for the pancakes. On occasion she would buy Aunt Jemima, but for the most part she bought Log Cabin.

One day I saw a commercial for Mrs Butterworth’s Syrup. In the commercial this syrup bottle spoke with the kid at the table. There I was a little girl who thought that was so cool.

So I asked my mom if we could give that a try. She didn’t see anything wrong with it so my mom was kind to me and she bought it.

The next time we had pancakes we used Mrs Butterworth. I was so excited! I open the bottle. I poured some syrup on my pancakes, then put the cap back on and set it on the table.

I sat there looking at this bottle of syrup and I waited. It just stood there. The bottle never spoke to me and I was disappointed. My mom noticed I looked sad and asked me what was wrong.

When I told her about the commercial and the syrup talking and how I was looking forward to it talking to me, my mom gentle explaining it was just a commercial to get people to buy their products. She explained that objects can’t speak to us.

My mom never laughed at me for my being silly and thinking that this syrup bottle was going to speak to me. Instead she showed the love that only a mom can show.

I was a very disappointed little girl that morning. From then on I stayed with Log Cabin.

 

 

 

 

January 20, 2017 was a Good Friday

Friday, January 20th was a good Friday. The first thing I did was wake up. Of course being able to wake up in the morning is always a good thing.

Anyway after I got up I realized it was Inauguration Day. I was super excited to have a new President!

My husband turned the TV on in our bedroom and we started to watch it while we got dressed. After we were ready to go out we found ourselves glued to the TV. We wanted to keep watching, but we also knew we had to go.

We ended up watching President Trump get sworn in on my husbands iPhone on our way to our favorite diner for lunch. It was so cool to watch!

After lunch at Gibby’s (I had a Yummy bacon cheeseburger) we went to see The Resurrection of Gavin Stone. That was a really good movie. It made me laugh and put tears in my eyes. I would recommend this movie to anyone.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing this movie for months and I have to say it was worth the wait.

When we got home there was a package waiting for me. It was my books that I ordered to send to some local Churches. My books weren’t supposed to come till Saturday so I was happy to see them arrive a day early.

If your reading this blog and you think your Pastor would like a copy of my books for your Church please let me know. I don’t charge Churches or Missionaries for my book. I think my book on miscarriages would be especially helpful for any Church library.

Without a doubt Friday, January 20th was indeed a good Friday for me. One might even say it was a great Friday for me!

An Unexpected Blessing

Last Sunday night while sitting in bed with my husband I started a conversation with him. We have some of our best conversations in bed. Anyway, I was telling him about my book sales or should I say lack there of. I was sharing with him how I haven’t had a book sale in a while. It didn’t seem to matter how much I promoted my books I couldn’t get a sale.

After our talk I checked Facebook because I knew my friend Darlene had tagged me in something and I wanted to find out what it was.  After I started to read her status I quickly realized she was talking about miscarriages and she was sharing my miscarriages book on her business Facebook page: Time-Warp Wife . I couldn’t believe my eyes! This dear friend of mine was not only sharing my book but she was promoting it on HER page. I was so overwhelmed I had tears in my eyes. I turned to my husband and said to him “I’ve just been blessed”. He wanted to know what I was talking about so I showed it to him on my iPad.

As I looked further down I noticed all the comments  from other women who have had their own miscarriages. I started reading through them and replied as best as I could. Either letting them know how sorry I was or letting them know how much I understood their feelings. Many of these women said they wanted to buy a copy of my book. I thought that was pretty cool, but at the same time I didn’t want to expect anything. I was just so grateful that my friend shared about my book on her page.

Monday morning came around and I started promoting my weekly blog. After I was done with that I decided to check the Time-Warp Wife page to see if my book that she had shared might have been shared by other women. It had! I was completely surprised at how many “likes” and share that post on my book had.

I really wanted to check my book sales at that point but was afraid of being disappointed by seeing none. So I didn’t look just yet. Not long after that my husband sent me a message to let me know he updated my book sales spreadsheet and he told me I should really take a look.

With me trying to not get my hopes up I took a look. And OH was I surprised! I didn’t have just one book sale on that miscarriages book, I had many sales. I was in complete shock. I was thanking God for His wonderful blessing that He gave to me through Darlene and her page with all these book sales. I was freaking out all day Monday watching my book sales go up,watching my rank on amazon go up and seeing the posts my husband shared every time my books ranking went up. After that I shared a quick video of me going crazy thanking Darlene for sharing about my book and thanking God for these sales.

I have been praying since Monday that God will use my book to help all these women who have bought a copy. By the way my books full title is — Marriages & Miscarriages: One Woman’s Personal Experience. I also have a second edition titled — Miscarriages My Story. I made the second edition because I added a new chapter called “Why Me”? in hopes of answering that question.

I should also mention if you have never been to Darlene’s Time-Warp Wife page you should really go check it out. She has great blogs on women’s Bible studies and more. If you are familiar with her page then you already know it’s worth checking out and liking.

Darlene and I have been FB friends for a couple of years now. A friendship I am thankful that God put together. It’s nice to know we can go to each other and ask for advice when it comes to writing tips, publishing books, how often to share a blog, best ways to get people to read your blogs and so forth.

BOOK REVIEW of The Snow Globe

This post will be my second book review. And I hope I do a good job with it. If you read my blog book review of “The Amish Firefighter” you might remember I let my readers know I’m not good at sharing my thoughts about books I like. But I’m going to try again because that’s how much I loved reading The Snow Globe.

The Snow Globe is the second book by author Laura V. Hilton that I’ve read and I absolutely loved it. This book was hard to put down, but sometimes you need to put a book down so you can do the cleaning or driving.

I loved this book from the first page to the last page. In fact I didn’t want this story to end it was that good! I love that this author is able to write a romantic scene with just enough of everything to make the reader want more and then she starts a different conversation in her books with other characters.

I loved reading The Snow Globe and I loved reading about the two main characters Esther and Viktor. I also love the way this author is able to put God’s plan of Salvation into her books and how she lets her characters see God and love God with their hearts.

This book had me wondering from page to page how things were going to work out for Esther and Viktor. It had me loving Viktor’s grandparents and so much more.

I’ve even been picking up on words that this author used in her books from her – Glossary of Amish Terms and Phrases – and I’ve been using them myself when I talk with my husband. Words or phrases like: ain’t so ( a phrase commonly used at the end of a sentence to invite agreement ) or – wunderbaar ( wonderful ).  My husband tends to smile or chuckle at me when I do this, but that’s ok cause I know he loves me and I’m loving these Amish books.

[image error]The first “Amish of Jamesport” book from this author I read was The Amish Firefighter which was really good. Although I have to say I love the one I just finished more The Snow Globe. My next book by Laura will be The Post Card. I’m sure I will like that one just as much as these two.

Okay, so I hope what I wrote above is good enough to make you want to read The Snow Globe. I know I really enjoyed it. The romance between Esther and Viktor really wowed me. I’m not quite sure why, but it did. It’s like this author knows the exact amount of everything to give to her readers to satisfy them and yet they want more.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone and I hope after reading this blog post/book review you will get a copy and find out for yourselves how good of a book The Snow Globe is!

NEW YEARS – Why I May or May Not Have Celebrated This Year

Three years ago this was a tough week. December 28th was 4 days before my mom passed away. My family and I said our last goodbyes to my mom on New Year’s Eve. That was the hardest goodbye I ever had to say. New Year’s day 2014 at 7pm at night I got that dreaded phone call from my dad telling me he was all alone now. While he was feeling all alone I was feeling like an orphan.

Two years ago on New Year’s Eve my family went to a party like we’ve done in previous years. Before my mom passed away I loved this party. Two years ago it was a different story. I went and I did my best to smile, laugh and have a good time. I played games and put on a good show, but deep down inside my heart I was crying. All I could think about was my mom and how much I missed her. I know my husband knew I was hurting because every once in awhile he would caress my arm or hold me and kiss my forehead. The he would ask me how I was doing even though he knew. I told him I was doing ok, but we both knew I was ready to cry.

Last New Year’s Eve we went to that same party. It was a little bit easier to have fun, but I was still missing my mom. After all it was the anniversary of her death and it always will be. I did my best again to have fun and smile and laugh and all that good stuff. And again my husband held me, kissed my forehead and kept watch over me out of love.

This year is no different. We are getting ready for a New Year, 2017 and I still miss my mom. New Year’s Eve and Day are still difficult for me. In fact I prefer not to celebrate them anymore. I would rather be doing something fun or try to do something fun with my husband and our 3 kids so I can try to keep my mind and heart off the hurt.

This New Years weekend we started by going to NYC.  We went to the Freedom Tower, a Church near it and Dylan’s Candy Shop. After that we did a lot of walking. When I say a lot of walking I mean we walked 8 miles. After NYC we drove over to Brooklyn and spent some time with my dad.

We took him to 86st for a bit and then we went to Vesuvius, a pizza place for supper. It was nice to spend a little time with my dad on the third anniversary of my moms death. Hugging him goodbye wasn’t easy that night. I’m pretty sure we were both ready to cry, but held it back. On our way home we drove by Dyker Heights so we could see the Christmas Lights

Saturday, New Year’s Eve I ended up not feeling good. Getting a cold is never any fun. We went about our day as usual anyway, with the exception of starting our Saturday morning with yummy Brooklyn bagels. We went to a couple of different stores and bought what we needed. With me not feeling good my husband and I agreed it would be nice spending our New Year’s Eve sitting on the couch, watching movies and maybe drinking some hot chocolate. That may sound boring, but for me it beats going to a party where I would have to try to have fun with others.

My husband suggested we have lunch on New Year’s Day at the Melting Pot knowing that will take us a couple of hours to eat. I thought that was a great idea! We can “celebrate” or not New Year’s Day just the five of us. Hopefully it will keep my mind off of the fact that it’s the third anniversary of my mom’s death.

If you’re wondering what the first year without my mom was like for me you can read about it all my my Brooklyn/Upstate book. The last section Part 3 Good-Bye Mom tells the following : My Mommy, A Phone Call, Saying Good-Bye, All Of The Firsts, Loss, Dear Mom and Missing You.

I did a lot of crying while writing this section of my book. Don’t be surprised if it makes you cry too.