Cancer Sucks - So Go Row A Boat!

The big fundraiser for Reel Recovery Retreats has launched ... Yeah! Hubby Darling has worked so very hard on this for the past year. His friend Kevin Calhoun stepped up and volunteered to row the Buffalo River with Ken over the next 132 miles. All for a good cause - helping men with life-threatening cancer.

Cancer sucks. So when Ken finally survived his Stage 4 Tongue and Throat cancer, a stroke AND emergency surgery for a detached retina, he needed to find something to make his life more 'normal'. He took it upon himself to bring Reel Recovery Retreats to our area - and he is making it happen. This is just the beginning of his trip - I'll keep you posted on his progress.

Row, row, row you boat ....

Until next time ... Blessings to you all ~

Sweet, Soft Rainy Saturday

I awoke this morning to sound of soft, sweet rain. I love the sound of rain in the morning. My puppies snuggeled up and allowed me to sleep in this morning - a rarity. Lovely, lovely morning.

I have decided to make a Yo-Yo quilt for baby Laurelye Claire (due to arrive in late May). I have managed to make a blanket of some type for each of the grand children. I am the sappy, sentimental one of the family. Perhaps one of the grandchildren will inherit my sappiness and appreciate the effort.

Speaking of Yo-Yo quilts, there is an Etsy seller that specializes in yo-yo's (the quilting kind - not the toy). I continue to be amazed at the imagination of the etsy-community. I would never have thought to make fabric yo-yo's and sell them. What a great idea!

Hubby Darling just called and he will be home tomorrow - yeah! He did a good job of promoting Reel Recovery Retreat to the Sow Bug Round-Up attendees. He was able to share good information with an Oral Cancer Caregiver. Speaking of Reel Recovery Retreats brings me back full circle to the Sweet, Soft Rain ... I hope the Buffalo River is getting a good soaking. To complete his fund-raising float trip, Hubby Darling needs the Buffalo River to get some good water. Keep your fingers crossed!

Well, Max and Daisy are snoring on the coach and I've got a ton of marketing to get done for Creat Joy Studios before I snuggle up!

Until next time ... Blessings ~ Carol

Paying it Forward: Reel Recovery

I am thrilled to have made contact with a travel writer that covers the area around the National Buffalo River. Jennifer has been such a great source of information for tweaking my PR pieces supporting the Reel Recovery Retreat.

Getting the media behind the fund-raising events for this retreat has been a challenge. I would think the news organizations would be thrilled to cover something that is positive for a change. It seems that they have been sucked into the vortex of negative news cycle.

Ken is getting ready for the big float down the ENTIRE Buffalo River. That's 132 nautical miles! He is so pumped. I have not seen him this excited since before he was diagnosed with cancer. My heart is so full!

Until next time: Blessings to you all ~
Carol

Cancer Survivor Retreat

The push to bring a Reel Recovery Retreat to Arkansas has been steady for nearly a year now. The owners of Cedarwoods Lodge on the White River have stepped up to provide an amazing location for our first retreat! Yea!

Now we have to raise the money. To keep the retreat free for the participants we need to raise about $850 per person -- that's about $8,500 for 10 to 12 men surviving life-threatening cancer. Daunting in today's wicked economy. But then again, I believe in miracles!


More info to come ... Blessings to you all ~ Create Joy!

A Simple White Envelope

I clearly stated up front that I am a fool for Christmas. I love everything about Christmas ~ the anticipation, thinking of others, giving, the songs, the sappy TV specials ("A Charlie Brown Christmas" still makes me cry!) The "economic crisis" is not new at our house, but it has gotten deeper and has put a damper on my usual Christmas plans. In fact, this is the first year that I will not put gifts under the tree for my two children. They are grown and children of their own, so we are only purchasing gifts for the grandchildren. Logically, I know that both Stacy & Josh understand and have no hurt feelings - but I am still their Mom and want so much to give them something special. Anyway ...
My sweet sis-in-law sent me this story. It hit home for me and I just wanted to share it with you.

The Simple White Envelope

It's just a small white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas --oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it -- the overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma -- the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties, and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike . The inspiration came in an unusual way. Our son Kevin , who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended.

Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford.

Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat.
Mike , seated beside me, shook his head sadly, 'I wish just one of them could have won,' he said. 'They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.' Mike loved kids -- all kids -- and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball, and lacrosse.

That's when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition --one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toy s gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn't end there.

You see, we lost Mike last year due to cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike 's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.

May we all remember Christ , who is the reason for the season, and the true Christmas spirit this year and always.

Blessings to you ~ Create Joy!