Mikayla's Voice on PEAK TV

If you have followed my blog, you know that I have been involved with Mikayla's Voice non-profit since its inception. Recently The PEAK TV did a short piece on our organization.







Spread the word....

Do very litte things with great love!

Summer Specials

Here are a few of the recipes I have tried this summer. All of them were enjoyed by my husband and I have been told can be repeated.

Top row:  Sirloin Steak with Sauce Robert, Grilled Chicken and Pear Salad, and Hot Honey Salmon
Center row:  Salmon with Brown Butter Tomato Relish, Chicken with Sauce Soubise, and Coffee Rubbed Pork Tenderloin
Bottom row:  Mediterranean Fish Cakes, Barbecued Steak Sandwich, and French Onion Chicken

 Tonight I will be repeating the coffee rubbed pork tenderloin, Yummy!

Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters. 1 Timothy 5:1-2 

My 95 year old aunt is dying. It has been a rough two years for her since my uncle passed away. I have tried to make sure that my mother has been able to visit her sister-in-law often, but there have been more bad days than goods days lately for my 99 year old mother, so time between visits has gotten longer and longer. However, last Wednesday was a good day, and we were able to visit my aunt. With my mom in her wheelchair and my aunt laying in her bed the two were able to share what will probably be their last visit. 

Long ago my aunt shared the story of how my uncle told her she just had to love my mom because she was like a mother to him growing up. That seemed odd in a sense because my mom and uncle were not that far apart in age, but my mom was the one who was always there while my widowed grandmother worked as the sole supporter, raising her five children. So, to him my mom was like a mother. My aunt took his words to heart, because she has always loved my mom, and my mom has always loved her.  It was a struggle for my mom to stand and kiss my aunt good-bye but she did, and I heard them both whisper, "I love you!"


Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters. 1 Timothy 5:1-2 

Heart and Soul in the Kitchen

I adore Jacques Pepin, and was thrilled when his new cookbook arrived in my mailbox last week.  Years ago it was so much fun to watch him and Julia Child in the kitchen.  Occasionally, I am lucky enough to catch a snippet of the two of them on PBS. Although I enjoy watching "Chopped" and other  such shows on the Food Network, there is nothing that compares to Julia and Jacque in the kitchen.

Jacques makes everything he does in the kitchen look so easy and his recipes are delicious. His next cookbook will come out in September: A Grandfather's Lessons: In the Kitchen with Shorey My copy is on order!

Bon Appetit!

A Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Playing cards has never been my thing. Growing up my brother and sister always would spend time playing cards at the kitchen table while I'd have my nose stuck in a book. Words have always been my game. Let me read, write, play scrabble or just talk, but playing cards?! Only if I must.  Apparently, my brother and sister got their card playing gene from our mother. She can play cards for hours! So every once and awhile, I will take pity on my 99 year old mother, who seems quiet and bored reading her book, and says, "Mom, do you want to play cards?" She never hesitates, and always I enjoy the time and the game.

Who knows how many more card games she has in her, so every now and then I will again ask, 

"Mom, do you want to play cards?"

August Birthdays Celebrate Christmas

It has certainly been awhile since I've posted anything. How is it that life becomes so busy, that we don't find time for the fun things in life? Blogging is a fun thing to me.

I have been knitting and cooking up a storm this summer, but you would not think so by the looks of my posts, or the lack there of! I cannot show you all the new recipes I have cooked, but I will tell you that I have made, on average,  two new recipes a week this summer.  Perhaps what I will do in a future post is copy the recipe photo, post those pictures and if there's a dish that looks tempting to you, you can message me and I will share the recipe. However, for this post let me share the August birthday, which for me was a Christmas celebration.

Steele and Stella celebrated their first birthday!

Their birthday present from me were Yankee Christmas stockings.

Although the stockings are "twins" they are not identical
just like the babies ; flip them over and you can see,
 which stocking belongs to which baby.

The stockings took weeks to knit which curtails all other knitting. Presently I do have a stole on my needles and hope to share pictures of that piece in the near future.

Knitting for Twins

I haven't posted in awhile, mainly because I haven't been very crafty of late. However, I do want to share what I knit for my niece's twin babies awhile ago. She had their pictures taken a few weeks back and shared a photo with me today, which I am sharing with you now!

Meet Emma and Logan.

In the Hand of God

Dana Gretzinger: A woman of great faith

February 15, 1974 - January 19, 2017


Dana went home to Jesus at 1:30 AM this morning.  She recorded this song with her siblings on December 28, 2016, the one year anniversary of her diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. They recorded three other songs, which you can also find on YouTube: Anchor, Undivided Heart (Dana wrote Undivided Heart), and Hope Will Rise

In addition to her parents, brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins and many friends, Dana leaves behind her loving husband, Jimmy, and three children: Jamie 15, Charlie 13, and Scout 10.

Dana was married to my husband's cousin, Jimmy.

Below are the final words Dana shared with her friends via her Care Page ten days ago:

It's January 9. Today was the first day back to school for our kids here in Grand Haven. I am feeling a bit of sadness today over the ending of the holidays, the dullness of January and February that hits pretty hard around here, and to top it off I haven't been feeling good for a few days now. I believe it was a bug i caught (that left me throwing up, etc) but you never know on this journey if it's chemo related or something else.

All that to say, I needed to hear from God today. He is so timely and I am so running late in my time. I often realize my need when it's already been lingering for awhile where He is always ready with a word of encouragement or challenge before I knew I needed it. That was today. I was just saying I was tired and discouraged and needed something for this next part of the journey. I've been dehydrated for real a bit lately and often realize that when you take a drink BECAUSE you are so thirsty, you are already late to the solution. We need to be drinking our Living Water before we are thirsty and not waiting until we are in need.

So this morning, I decided to listen in to one of the Passion Talks from their conference last week in Atlanta. Passion is geared at college students, but they bring in some of my favorite authors, pastors, and speakers so I love to listen to what God is leading them to say to that age group and what I can learn as I "eavesdrop in." I listened to Pastor Levi Lusko as God used him to talk to ME. He talked about needing to know where to go to get our second wind. I have another Scan on Thursday and I want to enter this scan FILLED UP and ready and not depleted and on empty. So where do I get my second wind? From time in God's presence, allowing His Spirit to invigorate me once again. I've experienced the "second wind" in my running when I used to be a runner. What an amazing feeling that is! Just when you think you can't go on, something kicks in and you are given the energy you need to keep going.

Are you in need on a second wind today? Feeling like you are out of your own energy? We were never meant to carry all of this on our own. The second wind is a gift from God and the reminder that I can do NOTHING on my own and was never being expected to or asked to do it all on my own. I'm praying once again that this kindness from the Lord would lead me to repentance for trying to manage all of this. I can't manage it. The weakness, the throwing up, the lack of energy, the amount of brain power that this disease is taking from me- I can't manage it. Thanks to the One who knew that about me and gave me the reminder this morning of letting Him give me my second wind. Then, I can face a scan Thursday, news about tumor growth/stability, and all that I need to 'handle" in the next few weeks. Only with Him.

Another gift from that talk this morning was the reminder that I am not chained to my circumstances (or chained to the chemo). My circumstance is chained to ME. That way of thinking about it gives me the ability to see that I bring God and the mindset that I want to have into my situation; not the other way around. Chemo and cancer don't define me- they are just along for the ride. I think that the last week has allowed for some false thinking in me about this and it was time to remember who is leading who. God is leading me, with circumstances straggling behind. Not God leading my circumstances with me straggling behind. I don't know if that distinction makes sense to you, but it was another perspective shift for me on who I am following. I am directly following God with nothing in between, not being led by sickness trying to see God around the sickness. Don't make that same mistake. Your view of God gets blocked by the situation. And when you try to see God around a situation you think is in charge, sometimes you lose sight and start to take the situation as bigger than it really is. Thanks Lord, for all of this today.

A quick update: we did find a potential match for the gene mutation therapy idea. Depending on what the scan shows Thursday, we will come up with a plan and I will have more info. I have done 6 rounds of this last chemo and it was harder on me than I was expecting! Please keep praying for wisdom to know what to do next, depending on what the scan shows.

Thanks family and friends! Your support continues to encourage me! I love reading each comment even though I can't comment back to each one.

Find your second wind today in Him!

Dance, Dana, Dance!

Fond Memories

1977      -       2017

My dear friend, Eileen (age 26 on the left, 1977) asked me to make her a pair of skin tight, black satin slacks. I am pretty sure I used taffeta, not satin, but I did sew up a pair for her to wear to a party. We had so many laughs while making these slacks because Eileen kept asking me to make the legs tighter and tighter; she wanted them pencil thin!

Fast forward 40 years! Eileen called me last week and asked if I thought she could wear those SAME slacks to a wedding. She always told me that she'd never get rid of them, and she never did. Of course, I told her they would work since all the younger girls seem to be wearing leggings everywhere. She pull them out from the back of her closet; matched them up with a top, and there you have her (on the right, soon to be 66, 2017) wearing the very same slacks 40 years later!

Way to go, Eileen, even more beautiful today.

Highlighting Talent

Today I am highlighting my sister-in-law's most recent piece of artwork.....

Look at those gorgeous faces.  LLE, you did an amazing job on this piece.

Around Our Neighborhood

There is such beauty all around us, but sometimes we hardly notice!

The sky this morning from our back deck.
So gorgeous!

All of the above pictures were taking while walking along a path about a half mile from our house.

Look What I Grew

It's time to harvest my sweet potatoes!

I never grew potatoes of any sort before. Unlike white potatoes, which I understand you start by cutting up old potatoes with 'eyes'  these sweet potatoes I grew from plants.

I have several plants to dig up; these two potatoes I discovered by pulling back surface dirt. I need to get out there with my shovel and dig to discover how many potatoes I will actually harvest.

Anyway, yay me!

Godfather is 90!

After returning home from the women's conference on Saturday, my mother and I went to celebrate my Godfather's 90th birthday!

First cousins: my mom, a young 98 and my Godfather, trailing behind at 90!

How blessed am I?!

Happy birthday, Dear Iggy!

Woman...God's Masterpiece

On Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a women's conference in Breinigsville, where two very dynamic but very different women spoke.

Johnnette Benkovic spoke first on "The Gift of Womanhood."

Johnnette has a very evangelical personality and made all 450 woman present at the conference stop, think and reflect on our uniqueness. We, the feminine gender, are physically the most complicated of God's creations....we whom can create and give life! She had so much to say that I can't even begin to share it here. 

 After Johnnette spoke; we heard from Helen Alvare'. 

Helen is very intellectual and presented her talk "Called to Serve: One Woman, May Roles" from a more cerebral context. She spoke on matters of marriage, parenting, and the First Amendment religion clauses.  She has an amazing background and I could have listened to her speak all day long!

You can learn more about both of these women by visiting their websites: Johnnette and Helen

Back home in Alaska....

Alaska today!

Just minutes ago my daughter sent these pictures, which is the view from her living room!

So beautiful!

Birthday Sweaters

 It was so great to spend time with our daughter and 

her husband while they were visiting from Alaska.

 We celebrated her birthday ....

She liked the sweater I knit for her.....

The pattern is "Siri" by Linnea Ohman

We also celebrated our son-in-law's birthday......

...and he too seemed to like the sweater I knit for him!

It is Hannah Fettig's "Zip up Cardigan" pattern.

I kept teasing him that he looks Amish with the beard he grew, so I bought him a handmade Amish work hat straight from Landcaster!

Mr and Mrs....

Yesterday, my great niece got married. Although I took well over a hundred photos, I will only share a few here today. One in particular is that of her wedding dress...

She wore the dress her mother wore thirty years ago.  Her mother (left) redesigned the dress herself, at her daughter's request (right). 

Her mother managed this task while undergoing chemo treatment....

Doesn't she look radiant!?

It was a thrilling day for my mother...

to be with her granddaughter (above picture) and watch her great-granddaughter marry and....

...enjoy time with her great-great granddaughter too!

(double click to make photo larger)

Congratulations, Mr and Mrs!

Early Morning Walk

I so enjoy when I spot deer on my walk in the morning. This little family took notice of me too.

Then, I walked a few more blocks and saw this lovely couple! It seems as though they were greeting me too.

Day at the Beach

Friday my hubby and I were able to steal a day and take off for the Jersey shore. It had been five years since we had been to the Jersey shore and three years since we've had sand in between our toes. It was most enjoyable!

Although I took many pictures of the surf and scenery, I am sharing here my most favorite picture of the day......

We were walking along the beach and from a distance I could see this woman sitting at the ocean's edge. I said to my husband, "there is a gorgeous picture." I zoomed in and captured what I think is a "beauty!"  When we finally walked up to where this woman was seated, I bend down, took her hand and said, "You are beautiful!" She gave us the warmest smile and begin to converse with us. She told us that she was 90 years old, and was at the beach with five generations of her family. She told us that she has been in the hospital a lot lately, and that she prays every night she will die at home, because she doesn't want to die in a hospital. Her husband of 63 years died at home after having his leg amputated and she hoped the same for herself. We talked about how sitting and listening to the ocean, and  being with her family is the best possible medicine in the world. We wished each other a good day, and we continued on our walk.  I don't know her name, but I certainly wish her the best and will pray that she be granted her wish to die at home.

Pizza Making Day at "Non" Camp

Although I can't share the true faces of these sweet girls, know that they had fun today making pizza from start to finish!

Making the dough...

making the mozzarella...

the sauce...

putting the pizza together...

and finally, cooking it on the grill and enjoying every bite!

It was amazing that these two young girls could stay focused for three full hours to do all this work.

And help with the clean-up.