Summer Reads

Friends, one of my favorite parts of summer is more time to read.  This season has been busier than most with the new business really cutting into my down time.  Nevertheless, I still have squeezed in time for my two favorite summer authors.

I love Mary Kay Andrews, and I don't care if all her books have similar settings and story lines.  Her characters are colorful and her dialogue is so very real....perfect for an entertaining beach read.  She delivers once again this season.

I want to meet Dorothea Benton Frank, move in next door to her and be her new best friend.  Even though I did not love this book as much as some of her others, it is still a great escape and worth lugging back and forth to the beach.

With so much to do this summer, I am grateful the sun  sets so late in Northern Michigan.  Enjoy your weekend!

Hope

I have a friend who is a young lung cancer (non-smoker)  patient living with a reoccurrence for 9 years.  She has received some miraculous news from MD Anderson:  with a lung resection they can cure her.  Thank God for the many health care providers out there developing new treatments.  Thank God for the many cancer patients that have gone before us and participated in clinical trials.  We are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Step By Step

 B and I dragged our sorry selves out of bed Saturday morning to walk the Fishtown 5K.  Friends, every time I am able to do something like walk a 5K, I am so grateful for how my body has healed.

 Lots of Lelanders came out to run this race in support of our beloved Fishtown Historical Society on a beautiful Northern Michigan morning.  It was so fun to be a part of it.

In the interest of full disclosure:  every night before I do something like this, I panic.  I tell myself that it could be disastrous.  I girl without a rectum can have a lot of self doubt.  But I had friends  meeting me in the morning to walk, and so I tried to quiet those negative voices in my head.  

B and I met our friends at the coffee shop....and hit the road.  Once we all started chatting, I forgot all about the fact that I am different from all of them since I am missing an important body part.  

Before I knew it, we were finished and heading to breakfast (read: cinnamon twist).

We did not win, but we had a blast while supporting a great cause.  If you are going through treatment or in the early stages of healing from colorectal cancer, remember: it gets better.  You will have a beautiful, healthy life again with your "new-normal" body. I know it is hard, and I know it takes a long time...but hang in there.  Step by step, you can do this.

Ch 51 Needlepoint North LLC

Friends, I have decided to look at my life like a book with many chapters.  My cancer chapter is over.  My empty nest chapter has begun.  Over the last year I have been busy soul searching as I write  this next chapter.

How to spend my time?  Different ideas tugged at my heart and mind:  How to be productive?  How to make the world a better place?  What do I love to do?  I prayed.  I talked to people I trusted.  God showed me the way.

My dear friend, Kt, and I both love to needlepoint, we both love the peninsula (where there is NO needlepoint shops!) and we both are starting new chapters of our lives.  We are now partners and having a delightful time.

We have designed and stitched up a few different kits to sell on the peninsula this summer....like this Leland Diamond, that could be a pillow, an ornament...

..a coaster or just frame it!

We have a group stitching our beloved Firemark at the LCC on Thursday mornings.

But our big debut was at the Artist Market in early July.  We sold out of almost everything and had a total  exciting, exhausting, exhilarating blast.

We have already started designing and planning for next season and are thrilled that the peninsula is needlepointing!  

Showing Up

Friends, it takes a lot to get me off the Peninsula in the summer....but this last week there was a birthday in Colorado that I could not miss.

I college buddy of ours turned fifty on Tuesday and we were there for the golf, the fly fishing and the toasts.  

Hugh is the kind of friend that is there when times are rough...like when we were fighting the Big C.

  He and his wife are the kind of friends that show up... in so many different ways....and 90% of life is simply showing up.

And they sure know how to put on a great party! Mirabelle at Beaver Creek was delightful (even if Big T's toast was a little too... colorful.)

It was a long way to go....and so worth it! 

Bucket List Bridge

Some of my Leland friends and I have decided to take bridge lessons this summer.  Friends, learning to play bridge has been on my bucket list for quite awhile.  Everyone who has had chemo knows what it does to your brain...especially your memory.  I am banking on bridge helping.

This game is requiring every bit of my brain power.  Our teacher suggested that we practice outside of class (something about being behind the rest of the class?)....so we asked Kt's mom to help us at her cottage, Twin Oaks.  

She graciously agreed.  She told us that some bridge players just have fun....and some will call you in the middle of the night to ask why you played that card.  We, of course, fall into the first category, thank God.

After we were finished, we spent some time recovering on her beautiful porch.  Our brains were drained.

I am so blessed to have these beautiful ladies in my life.

Ladies that don't care if I bid wrong or played that card.  

Ladies that are willing to slow their lives down to sit and relax on the porch...

 ...and just enjoy the company and the view.

Real Strawberry Shortcake

We have enjoyed the very last strawberries of the season up here in Northern Michigan.  Friends, these are the real thing.  They are not those big Driscoll berries that have no taste...these are small and juicy and sweet.  

My family's favorite is strawberry shortcake.  Since I would rather be here, than in the kitchen, I have a really fast and easy recipe...and when you use real Michigan berries...it is amazing.  Trust me .

Start with this...follow the instructions on the box but add a couple tablespoons of white sugar.

These are super fast and seriously good... and I am a biscuit snob.

 Ah... the star of the show.  Clean and hull your berries.  Smash them.  (That is a technical term.)    White sugar is optional because these babies are super sweet naturally.

I know real whipped cream is better...but this is faster and my kids love it.

Who wants to be stuck in the kitchen when the kids are home?  This is a bowl of absolute deliciousness.   Enjoy!!

The Fourth Up North

Friends, I made it up to Leland just in time to celebrate Independence Day.  We do the same things every year...because for our family, the elements of a great fourth up North never change.

1.  Family

2.  Beach

3.  Golf (who needs shoes?)

4.  Ice Cream

5.  Fireworks

6.  Bonfire