Honor your Belly Belt

I have made my own "Honor Your Belly Belt" based on a project featured in the book Crafts for the Spirit and created by Lisa Sarasohn.  The idea is to celebrate your belly as your body's sacred center—the site of your soul power, the abode of the Sacred Feminine as she dwells within you.  Decorate your belt with an ancient symbol, perhaps one that you've received in a dream or vision, that identifies your body's center with the universal center, the source of life.  I have used the eye of Horus.  To me it is a symbol of power as well as healing, renewal and a powerful protective amulet.   I will probably add a reiki symbol in the near future.

Sarasohn, a veteran Kripalu yoga teacher and writer on yoga and health, writes that the life force focused in the belly "activates your physical, emotional and spiritual vitality. It's the source of your passion and creativity, your courage and confidence, your capacity to love fully. It's the starting point of your intuition, insight, and sense of purpose." In this scenario, a bloated, uncomfortable belly is the sign of something out of balance in your life. Sarasohn sees the belly as the site of women's soul power and connection to "Source Energy."  The Honor Your Belly Belt is just one part of a program Lisa has created to reclaim this sacred center of the body.

Also, since ancient times, priests and holy men have been wearing sacred clothing to illustrate that important, soulful work is going on.  By wearing this special garment when "working", it is my hope that all the creative circuits in my soul will be operating and releasing into the ethers the best of my crativity.

This piece has an inside pocket for placing crystals, symbols, affirmations.   I sometimes have a "bloated, uncomfortable belly" since all of my radiation treatments.  A little extra loving, healing attention focused on this area can only help.

Here is a picture of the belt created by Lisa Sarasohn.  She is asking $250 for this piece.

Roses from Trader Joe's

2/21/16 - Check out these roses I received from Randy for Valentine's Day.  He got them at Trader Joe's.  Aren't they beautiful.  For the first few days I had them, I had to hide them in the back room at Randy's  because his cat, Jenny, would not leave them alone.  We were afraid they might make her sick since she just wanted to bite/eat them.  Luckily, here it is a week later and they are still beautiful. They opened so BIG!  As big as a peony!

Not much else is new here.  Approaching my last week of treatments.  I have one more brachytherapy session on Thursday.  That knocks me down for a couple days.  I guess it is the anesthesia.  Last week my regular doctor was off and the replacement guy looked like Richard Gere!   My regular doctor who is like a big, black, cuddly Teddy Bear (I really like him) will be back.  I suppose there will be scans and a few more hydrations before I hear how successful the whole course of treatment went.  Then it will be a period of rest and recuperation.  Then it will be Spring and time to get off my lazy patoot and get some work done around this place!!!

Goody Bag

2/11/16 - Thursday - I am receiving hydration with Potassium today.  Four hours of that followed by another 2 hours of chemo if I pass the blood tests they took upon arrival.  I should have brought my "adult" coloring books and pens.  Yes, I received the most wonderful goody bag on Tuesday from some old school friends.  Check out the photo.  In fact, there was so much in the goody bag - which was Vera Bradley by the way, with matching change purse - I had to take 2 photos!

Contents: Two adult coloring books, a stand with 30 Gel Pens, the Vera Bradley bag contained a nail file, fancy hair tie, hand lotions, Burts Bees lip balm, water bottle, colored bendy straws, two pair of Aloe infused footie socks from Bath & Body, Word Find book, Crossword Book, Country Garden Book, Home & Garden Book, and a Beautiful navy blue plush throw!  It was like Christmas!  Thank you, Steve and Camile!

Since I will be at the Chemo Lounge for about 6 hours, I brought my laptop with me today.  It was needing a Microsoft Securities update.  That wasn't going through on my home connection so maybe at least I will get it done here.

My Friend's Lime Chicken and Some Frozen Treats

February 8, 2016 Monday - In Indianapolis, we have Trader Joe's grocery,  with innovative, hard-to-find, great-tasting foods under the “Trader Joe’s” name. For example, this package of Linguine with Pesto and Tomatoes is something I really liked. When I opened it I found these little nests with a dab of sauce and little tomatoes. Quite tasty!  I am also looking forward to trying the 5 cheese Greek Spiral shown at right.   Trader Joe's carries an interesting line of beauty products, oils, teas, soaps, etc.   Their Oatmeal Dunkers are quite popular, too.  In case I get the urge to cook, I am adding the baked chicken dish below to my blog.  It was given to me by a friend who is a very good cook. 

Baked Lime Chicken:  person who taught me to make it used a whole cut up chicken, but I would use several similarly sized pieces. Line a 9-13 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Lay chicken pieces in the pan. Lay rings of sweet onion over chicken as well as two or three garlic cloves cut up. Depending on how many pieces of chicken, halve 2 or 3 limes and squeeze over chicken. Lay the limes in the pan among the chicken pieces. Marinate for several hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously dot chicken with butter. Bake for about two hours. I know that seems like a long time but it works. If you use legs you might shorten the time some.

 

Coming to an end - treatments and Doodler

2/3/16 - Wednesday, Here is my finished Doodler.  I don't think I need anymore scarves so my next project will be something different --- hat, baby item, something for charity.

In addition to finishing  my Doodler, I am on my (I think)  last week of external radiation with one more on Friday.  Tomorrow I go for my second internal radiation treatment and will have 3 more to follow.  My chemo doctor said one more chemo next week and that may finish that off, too.  I guess I am on the downhill of treatments!  Of  course, radiation stays with you for some time after treatments so it will be a little while before I am back to my old self.   This week started off at Community Hospital where I had stents put in the kidneys.  I had a left stent put in Christmas Eve, it was replaced and a stent put in on the right side also.  That procedure on Monday, plus tomorrow's Brachytherapy (Internal radiation therapy) will make two times this week under anesthesia.  I am beginning to feel the effects!  Here is the little prayer I say when going in for treatments:

Creator, Infinite Spirit, Mother Father God, I request the presence of the Angels and Archangels of Healing, my Reiki guides and forces, and the purest and most holy spiritual guides.  I ask that these energies gather with me at this time to allow this session to be used for the highest good and healing of __me__.  Thank you for this guidance.  Amen.

Cold and Treatments

1/14/16 - It has been frosty cold here with temperatures in the teens and snow, blowing and drifting!  Today has warmed up and the snow is melting but more zero weather will be here by Sunday.  I guess it can be expected in January (my least favorite month, with February a close second).  I didn't mind it so much as a retired person who could just stay home, but with these treatments EVERY day, it is a real challenge.  Randy has been great about taking me.
    I did my second chemo yesterday.  Again, no nausea.  I did stop and fill a prescription just in case.  I had to be given an extra bag of fluids and was told to drink more water.  I looked at my info and it suggests 3 quarts  (96 oz) of water a day to protect the kidneys.  I guess that is more than the extra 2 (12 oz) bottles I thought had me covered.  I've decided to just put a gallon of water in the refrigerator and drink that every day then I will know I've had enough.

JackPot!!!!!!

1/9/15 - I went to the casino this morning to play the last of my holiday casino money won at the Christmas Party in December.  All invited members were treated to a nice dinner and allowed to go down to the casino stage and pick a box which contained various amounts of casino cash.  I think the highest amount you could receive was $1,000 for 4 weekends.  My box contained a voucher for $250 casino cash for 4 weekends.  The last installment was today.  And, it paid off ---  I hit a Jackpot of  $2,078.28.  I got out of there a winner today.  I even stopped and bought 2 Powerball tickets hoping my luck would continue.  The Powerball is currently something like 940 million dollars!  Largest ever!


I do have something in mind for my winnings.  My electric blanket has died on one side.  I will take the control apart tonight and see if I can fix it.  If not, I believe one of these plush heated blankets available at Carson's will do the trick.   They are predicting snow and temperatures in the teens for tomorrow morning.  I wish I had the new blanket now.