Another week flown by and another freebie

Since I've had a lot of health issues this month, I've had more time to read. In bed, I usually read from my Kindle. Did you know, even if you don't have a Kindle you can download a free Kindle reading app for your computer to take advantage of a lot of free or almost free books on Amazon? One of the lastest I've read was Near Death by Glen Cooper. To quote from Amazon, here is info on the author:
"Glenn Cooper has a background in archaeology from Harvard and practiced medicine as an infectious diseases specialist. He was the CEO of a biotechnology company for almost twenty years, has written numerous screenplays and has produced three independent feature films. His novels have sold over six million copies in thirty-one languages. He lives in New Hampshire."
I've read three of his other books, The Tenth Chamber, The Resurrection Maker and The Devil Will Come and all were good reads. Let me tell you a little about why Near Death was interesting. Ask yourself these questions: What if there was absolute proof that an afterlife exists? How might that effect religion and society? What if there was a way you could briefly sample the afterlife while still alive? Would you be willing to take a risk? How do you think that sample might change you? Cooper's protagonist is a neuroscientist who had a near death experience as a child and has examined numerous reports of near death experiences to determine the commonalities. He is convinced there must be something happening in the brain in those moments and becomes obsessed with understanding what happens in near death experiences and reliving it again. A bizarre series of murders brings an FBI agent in to investigate. Read to see how it all ties together.

For today we have a couple papers, an overlay, bow and frame.

Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bbr9d73oh5c548p/ws_AutumnElegance_4.zip?dl=0

Rrecommendation & freebie

Did you know that between 1854 and 1929 thousands of abandoned, homeless and orphaned children were transported by trains to find new homes in the US and Canada? I'd like to recommend a novel by Christine Baker Kline that is well researched and addresses the so-called Orphan Trains. Kline does an excellent job of weaving together the story of a present day teenager in foster care with the story of an elderly woman, an Irish immigrant, who was an orphan train rider. They meet when the girl must do community service hours to avoid going to a juvenile detention center. The results of this meeting will warm your heart.
https://www.amazon.com/Orphan-Train-Christine-Baker-Kline/dp/1594137374/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499486850&sr=1-9&keywords=orphan+train
And if you'd like to learn more about the Orphan trains go here:
http://orphantraindepot.org/history/

Yes, once again I ran into the next day before getting around to posting. Yesterday I had some chores to do for Dad and a list of calls to make. One call was to my brother. He is not doing any better and his son is trying to convince him to go to the Mayo Clinic - which ever one specializes in neurology (I forget which). It means a long trip which is difficult enough in my brother's condition but also lots of expense. However, his son and DIL have said they will pay for him to go. My nephew is in a financial position to do this with ease but of course Thom is uncomfortable with depending on their generosity. We talked about not only his health but also Dad's. I was able to tell him that Dad hasn't had another stroke recently and his mental state seems better. Yesterday I noticed that Dad's feet were badly swollen so I'm wondering how long it will be before he makes another trip to the ER for congestive heart failure. First time was March then again in May. Will this be every few months until his kidneys and/or heart just give out? I spoke with Thom about the need to go ahead with plans to sell Dad's house. I just can't see Thom ever getting to a point to come back and help me decide what to keep and what to sell so told him to send me a list of those things he knows he would like to have.

After that conversation I had the blues, as you might imagine. My brother is 8 years younger than me and it seems his health is on par with or worse than Dad's. While I have health issues of my own, right now my physial health is pretty good. My husband reminded me that there is no point getting upset about things I have no control over but I still feel disturbed. Anyway, we decided to take a brief trip out to the craft store so I could pick up another skein of yarn to finish the afghan I'm working on for Dad and get a frame for Tyler's graduation photo. From there we stopped in at Route 58 Deli for hot pastrami sandwiches, potato knish, egg cream for him and Dr. Brown's cream soda for me.

Once home time kind of got away from me, so I didn't get post in on Friday. Here is that zip of Little Sailors:

and link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zsyicr2wvy1741q/ws_LittleSailors_10.zip?dl=0
I promise I will be back later today to post zip 11.

Great prompt for Pocket Journal

I just finished reading Sing You Home by Jodi Picolt http://www.amazon.com/Novel-Picoult-Atria-Books-Hardcover/dp/B00DWYV6DG/ref=sr_sp-atf_image_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402509366&sr=1-3&keywords=sing+you+home+jodi+picoult The main character, Zoe, is a music therapist and she has a question she likes to ask prospective dates (& others) that I think makes a great journal prompt. What songs would be on a mixed tape as sound track for the story of your life?

Talk about . . .

On my laptop because I wanted to see the Olympic ice skating. Love that, as did my Mom. The rest of winter sports doesn't grab me much although I watched snow boarding with my grandson over the weekend. And there should be basketball? I prefer college (mens) basketball but . . . Just can't get it together. Some of it I'll blame on this PT schedule and I'll confess I'm not being all that commplyent at home - every two hours? really? Only 30 minutes a stretch at PC? Yikes! Yesterday I came home in snow flurries and just didn't want to do a thing. Was feeling tired and bored too. Didn't want to take a nap so sat down at PC and decided to browse Pinterest to get some ideas for the next teat I'll do for the girls. Too late to do anything Valentine's Day themed. Mostly was browsing with thoughts of creating some articulated paper dolls for the girls to put together. An activity is good for the moments I need to clear dishes or get something out of oven and so on. I've got a couploe basic art doll templates but was looking for some inspiration. Pinterest is dangerous for me! I start with one search but then there are threads to other interesting sites that I "must" check before I forget where I saw them. Next thing I know, I've been looking for hours and haven't done a thing useful. Talk about reading - finished up Stephen King's Dr. Sleep (takes over from where THe Shining left off in the sense that it tells what happened to the little boy.) It was a slow start for me but then, like good brain candy, it became addictive and soon I'd gobbled it all up. Dad brought over a paperback copy of Dan Brown's Deception Point which I'm well into now. Gee, there is a cold draft coming from somewhere here and I'm reading about the Artic? Today I used a little goodie I picked up at Food Lion the other day - a tea infuser mug from Cool Gear.

I've got a number of other tea infusers but haven't been that happy with them. With this, you can add either loose tea of a tea bag into the infuser tube, twist onto lid, add boiling water to the mug, top with infuser lid and let steep. Today I had some Kama Sutra Chai loose tea from Discover Teas http://www.discoverteas.com/ I shop at their Williamsburg store when I'm out that way, but you can shop on line. This is one yummy chai - not too spicey and has a floral note. I enjoyed two cups with the same tea I loaded for the first. Then I compounded my errors of the last few days. I took a long nap. Woke up too late to make the beef stew I'd planned so it was cowboy beans for dinner. Hubby was not impressed but didn't complain too much. Got to give it up, go make coffee for tomorrow, put dishes in dishwasher and do another set of exercises. Then back to computer room to get down some of those (too many) tabs I've got up looking at stuff, renew my cell phone and hopefully put up another freebie. PS Thanks Linnea for the lovely header. I couldn't seem to get around to making my own and your bird header hints at the kit I have in the works.