Katrynka's Weyr

Day 14: Ten things that make me really happy

These are in no particular order, because I did not need the stress of prioritizing these!! That would NOT make me happy!!!

The beach- the sand, the waves, the seashells, the seagulls, the fresh clean air.

Flowers, especially very fragrant and/or colorful ones!

Christmas lights- I love to see houses all elegantly decked out in white lights, but for my own house I like colored lights, large or small, but not blinking!! It makes me so happy to sit by the lit tree in the dark at night.

Snow! I have always loved snow, but then I met Chris in a snowstorm, so now it means romance to me. We love to get snowed in together!

Trees! I love them all, but the more unusual the better!

My husband! And the fact that he will stop almost anywhere for me to take a photo! Like the tree above! We were in a town in rural PA, and he turned around and went back for me to take photos of that tree!

My pets. This is Garyth. He is 16 in this photo. He lived until 18.5.

Taking photos. This is in the Martin Guitar factory in Nazareth PA.

Many sorts of crafting! I dyed this yarn in a class I took in late 2007.

Shooting. This is hubby with some of our friends, out to shoot Skeet.

Day 12

Topic: What do you miss?

My introduction to the concept of MDA summer camp was almost accidental. I was a physical therapy student, and someone was coming to talk to us about volunteering for a week as MDA summer camp counselors. The presentation was given in a lecture hall during lunch. I do not recall an active decision to attend. I think it happened by default, I needed a place to eat my lunch, and that lecture hall was where I landed. By the time the presentation was over, I was filled with a burning desire to be a camp counselor. I interviewed with the person giving the presentation and then I waited.

It was finals week when we were supposed to hear back to find out if we were chosen for camp. I remember worrying more about the phone call than about my exams. And I remember the devastation that I did not get a position at the camp. I cried and cried. Then someone cancelled, and I was in!!

I know that the week was not all sunshine and roses, living in a cabin with 7 other “adults”, and 8 kids is not easy. But it was the best week ever!!! I was totally addicted. I was totally into my camper, and I loved all the kids and counselors in my cabin. I put it on my calendar for the next year.

I attended MDA summer camp every year after that for the next 20+ years. (Except my first year out of therapy school, I was low man on the totem pole at work, and someone else wanted that same week off.) Toward the end of those years I spent several years attending two weeks in a row at camp. I finally ended up not going to camp when I married my husband, and the visits with his daughter came during camp week, and I had to stay home and be step mother.

I still want to be at Camp Maria in Southern Maryland when the 3rd Sunday in June rolls around. The ache has dulled a bit over the years, but a part of my heart will always be there. To me it was the most perfect place in the world. We were all working toward the common goal of the kids having their best week of the year. All the trappings of the outside world fell away, and it was just about the people. Not the wheelchairs, not the braces, not what kind of car you drive, or what kind of job you have.

Day 11

Today’s topic: sell yourself in 10 words or less!

Wife
Animal Lover
Friendly
Compassionate
Generous
Crafty
Convivial
Creative
Photographer

Day 10

I randomly chose this story, not sure that is is the “most” mortifying, but it is one that my husband likes to remind me of!

Quite a few years ago, we started attending a meditation center here in Baltimore. The people were very friendly, and we really enjoyed the time we spent there. The center was located in an old building, and things were often askew, loose or perhaps even broken. One evening I was in the bathroom, and did not realize that the toilet seat was loose. As I shifted my weight, it slid to the side, and then due to the uneven support under it, it cracked. At least one portion was actually totally detached from the toilet.

I wanted someone to know about the problem so that it could be fixed, rather than being discovered at the beginning of the next event. The evening was winding down, so not many people were left in the center. I guess I did not really think the situation through, and walked out of the restroom carrying the broken toilet seat in my hand! I got a few strange looks, and my lovely husband started laughing at me. He then said that most other people would have left the broken toilet seat in the bathroom, and came out and just told someone, rather than carrying the “evidence” around with me!

Belated day 9 post!

The topic for today is “a moment in your day”.

Today I completed modifications on the footrests of one of my patients at work. He is a young adult who has cerebral palsy. He uses a power wheelchair for independent mobility. He will be attending college in the fall, and we are working towards full physical independence in transfers to and from his wheelchair. One of the last items on the list are his foot straps. He can unbuckle them, but parts of the straps used to fall down out of his reach, and because one of his hands does not work as well, he also had some problems snapping the straps back together. I came up with a custom system that I made and mounted on his footrests, and now he is totally independent with his foot straps! So exciting! It is great that he is independent, and great that something I visualized in my head actually worked the way I intended!!

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Day 8

I could be trite, and advise any number of things, such as “don’t eat yellow snow” or “always drink upstream from the herd.” but I’m going to take this seriously, and give some advice that I try to live by in my life (I fall short every day, but that is what a new day is for.)

As I have mentioned before, Chris and I have a foster daughter. She is a grown woman of 25 now, and we are still very close to her. While she was living with us, she went to spend a weekend with some friends, and when she came back she went right to the fridge, and said something about being starving. When I questioned her, she stated that she did not have anything to eat all weekend, as the friends did not have any money. I was upset with her for not calling and telling me about this, as I told her “part of the reason that you live with us is so that you never have to go hungry. Why didn’t you call us?”

So the story came out. The friends that she was staying with were twin sisters, one had a baby, and she had lost the baby’s birth certificate, so she could not get WIC until she got the replacement. The girls had just moved into this apartment, and although they were working, they did not have spare cash. They spent all they had on food and diapers for the baby until their next paycheck, so they had no cash for food for the adults.

I packed Gwen in the car, and we headed to the grocery store nearest to the home of her friends. I went up and down the aisles, shopping as I do for myself, building meals around things that were on sale, buying some staples such as peanut butter and eggs etc that could be used to make several meals. When we got to the register, it was over $100. As we were loading the food into the car, Gwen said to me “I hope I can be this generous some day.”

This is the advice that I gave to her: Do not hope to be generous “some day” in the future, practice generosity now, with whatever you have. If you have a few dollars, give one to someone who needs it more than you. If you have some time or a skill that will benefit someone, use that time or skill to help them. This will build in you a giving spirit, so that at times when you have more, you will already have that capacity of generosity. I have not always had over $100 to spend on groceries for someone, but even when I did not have much of anything at all, I always knew that I had more than someone else. So if I saw a need that I could meet in some way, I did that.

I truly believe that if we all do what we can do, give what we can give, wherever we are, the world will be an immeasurably better place. “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” – Mother Teresa

Day Six

The task today is to answer the question “what do you do?” without referencing your job!

My job is a big part of my life. Since I was never able to have children, I am not able to say that I’m a mom. I am a wife, which is generally something that I love! Here is a photo of hubby practicing his banjo in a hotel room!

I am an animal lover, here is my Merlin pup, he was about 6 months old in this photo!
Here is Isobel, we call her our “Pirate Kitty”, as she had to have one eye removed years ago.

I am a crafter, I love to make things with my hands. I love to make things to give to people. Here is a little Christmas garden house I made for my mom.

If I think about what I like to do in life, I love to spend time with family and friends. I love to read, cook, take photos and make things with my hands. I enjoy taking care of my husband, and other people as well. When I’m at a party, I am happy to help out the hostess. I want to have my house in a better state of neatness so I can have people over spontaneously! I’d like to travel to many places around the world, and take lots of lovely photos.

That’s a little about me.

Day Five

Today the topic is blog friends that we love. First up is Christina of The Murrayed Life It is a bit funny, I babysat her and her brother. Many years later we found each other on Facebook, and I started following her blog. I think that she writes very well, and when I read I always have the picture in my mind of the little girl that she was back then. She was sweet, but stubborn, and marched to the beat of her own drummer, even all those years ago!

I cannot really call anyone else a “blog friend”, as I do not personally know anyone else out of all the blogs I read, but here are couple that I love to follow! I read a tone of card making blogs, and one of my favorites is by Dawn McVey. She is talented, seems so nice, and has a great dog! Her blog is My Favorite Things The knitting blog I love to read is Knitspot Anne is a great knitter and designer, and is an amazing gardener.

My blog reader is FULL of blogs that I read, but again in the interests of time and limited attention spans,. I will end this here!

Belated day number 4:

The topic for today is my favorite quote. That is hard to narrow down, as there are so many, and some fall in and out of favor!

Two that I can recall from memory are :

Do not walk in front of me,
I may not follow.
Do not walk behind me,
I may not lead.
Just walk beside me,
And be my friend.
–Albert Camus

“It does not matter who we love, or why we love, but that we love.” – Can’t find a source for this one, perhaps is just something from a book I read long ago.

This is my current signature on my gmail:

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. – Buddha

I’m sure I could go on and on, but I’ll end here, as I am still a day behind, and I want to get started on some future topics as well.