TV Talk: Downton Abbey, Season 4: Episode 5 (Ep 6 in the UK)

By bobbi
February 4, 2014
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Source: pbs.org

It seemed like a slower news day at the Abbey without any major catastrophes, well, unless you count Edith but we’ve come to expect a dark cloud to follow her around. (Maybe she and Eeyore/Moseley should spend more time together.)

Thomas & Baxter – Thomas is still skulking around trying to get info and twisting Baxter’s arm into getting him some dirt from upstairs. She seems like she is getting more and more reluctant to do his bidding and that look she gave him when she said, “Have it your own way,” makes me wonder if she is going to put up a fight in the near future.

Mary & Blake – Mary is back to form with her sharp tongue and verbal jabs at Mr. Blake, although he seems more than capable to give it right back to her. I would not be surprised if their angry remarks end in a passionate embrace. (Or so I predict.)

Rose – I knew Rose’s idea of having Jack Ross play at Robert’s birthday was going to raise a few eyebrows but I was actually surprised that they took it so well and enjoyed themselves. I was even more surprised that Edith was acting the snob (she is supposed to be more “enlightened” with her feminist ways, is she not?) and it was Granny who basically told her to lighten up. Meanwhile, things between Rose and Jack are heating up. I don’t think Papa will be as open minded about this arrangement.

Edith – Speaking of Edith, it was confirmed that she was pregnant. (I had to press pause to read the entire telegram.) And now Michael is AWOL. (I heard a spoiler.) There’s a troubling road ahead.

Mrs. Crawley – I could not stop laughing when Isobel channeled her inner Miss Marple and pretended to be ill only to enter Granny’s house and search for the letter knife. (I was also laughing because I totally would have secretly searched the room too.) Of course, Granny gets the final word when she already apologized and hired the gardener back, to the chagrin of Violet. However, I wanted to hug Isobel when she danced with Tom and tried to talk him out of moving to America.

Dowstairs youth – Alfred has never been a favorite but I wish him well on his new venture. I am glad Daisy was able to control her emotions and say a proper goodbye to him. Although, Daisy does let loose on Ivy. As for Jimmy, I knew he was annoying and self-centered but I wasn’t expecting him to treat Ivy in such an underhanded way.

Fave Quote – Granny had so many zingers tonight but my favorite line came from downstairs –
Mrs. Patmore: I like that Rudolph Valentino. He makes me shiver all over.
Carson: What a very disturbing thought.

Fave Scene – I am sure everyone was touched by the scene in the nursery where Isobel, Tom and Mary shared about their loves. I had happy tears reminiscing over the proposal scene between Mary and Matthew. I remember blogging about Mary and her being out in the snow. Now I know how she stayed warm in her strappy dress. 😉

Okay, the clock has struck midnight so time for me to call it a night! In the meantime, share your thoughts. 🙂

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉

14 Days of Love Notes (& Free Love Note Printable)

By bobbi
February 1, 2014
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Happy February! Now that Brian is home from the hospital, I am relishing my time with him. I want to remind him how much he means to me and how there are so many little things I love about him. (Why does it take a crisis to make us realize just how blessed we are??) Anyway, I decided to write him little love notes… 14 to be exact, in honor of Valentine’s Day. (Of course this can, and should, be done any time of the year but it is especially appropriate this month. 🙂

First I sat down and made a list of 14 things I love about Brian.

Then I created a Word Doc with small love notes that I can cut out.

Then I filled out each note with one of the reasons on my master list.

I liked the idea so much that I decided I’m going to do the same thing for each of the kids, although since I have 4 people in that category, I think I’ll do 7 days of love notes instead of 14. I changed the graphic to a mama and baby owl. 🙂

On Valentine’s day I’ll give each person their master list in my Valentine’s Day card to them.

If you’d like to make a copy of the Love Notes Printable, you can get it from my Google Drive folder here. (Note: When I printed it, it came out a little blurry compared to my regular Word Doc. Maybe it’ll be better if I learn how to put it in a PDF format next time. :-)) Either way, enjoy and share the love. 🙂

7 Quick Takes (1/30/14): Brian Comes Home, Mr. Knightly Inspires & Twue Wuv Lives

By bobbi
January 30, 2014
6 Comments

I’m linking up with beloved Jen for this week’s 7 Quick Takes.

~ 1 ~

It’s been a loooong week. Brian went in for surgery last Friday and it has been a roller coaster ride of good moments and bad moments. However, all I can think about now is that I get to take this handsome man home tomorrow! (It’s Thurs night now so he comes home Friday.) We are ecstatic! I told the kids they could stay home from school and we are having a welcome home party instead. 🙂 Woohoo!

Brian will still need to go through chemo but he can’t do anything until his body is completely healed from the surgery. (He is still in some pain and barely getting used to food again.) The doc talked to him today and said the “good news” is that his panel of 16 nodes showed cancer in only one node. It is hard to think of that as good news. But then we found out that another patient down the hall had a panel of 22 nodes examined and he had cancer in all 22 nodes. Yeah, I guess when you look at it from his perspective, Brian is lucky. The doc said Brian is strong and (comparatively) young so once he gets his strength back, he can fight and beat this. We are praying that he does!

~ 2 ~

My mom and my sisters are back home now so I’ll be managing the house, the kids and Brian’s recovery solo. It’s a little daunting but I know God is using this opportunity to help me grow in the virtues I struggle with the most like patience and selflessness and fortitude. Yeah, this is going to be really interesting. 😉

~ 3 ~

This week was the 201st anniversary of Pride and Prejudice. In honor of the day, I ordered the Jane Austen bookmarks I mentioned in last week’s Five Favorites. Okay, truth be told, I had no idea it was the 201st anniversary when I ordered them. It was just a coincidence. However, I danced a little jig when happy mail arrived from the UK. 😉

~ 4~

Speaking of Pride and Prejudice, as much as I love the book, it is not my favorite Austen novel. Persuasion is actually my favorite. I also love Emma but that is more because I fell in love with Mr. Knightly at a time when I was choosing all the wrong kind of men. Mr. Knightly was my inspiration that lead me to dating Brian. In fact, I think I have a post about Mr. Knightly in my draft folder. I should find it and finish it. In the meantime, what’s your favorite Austen novel?

~ 5 ~

Speaking of posts in my Drafts folder, I forgot I had to finish the post about my planner. I am big on making check lists because if I don’t, all that info just pours out of my brain like a sieve. My planner is a collection of my to do lists and other info. I’ll finish it up and post it, hopefully, on Tuesday. 🙂

~ 6 ~

There is still time to join this week’s Pinterest Party and Link-up. My sister linked up a recipe she found on Pinterest for grain free chocolate donuts. For being a healthy treat, they look delicious! I definitely want to try them. 🙂

~ 7 ~

And since I am mentioning family, congrats to my little brother Jake who recently got engaged. I am so excited to welcome Amanda into our big, crazy family. 🙂

Okay, time for bed. Have a great night/day!

Dear Diary: Brian’s Recovery & Dealing with Cancer (1/29/14)

By bobbi
January 29, 2014
1 Comment

Previous Post – Dear Diary: Chronicling the Last Few Days & An Update on Brian (1/26/14)

* * * * *

Monday, January 27, 2014 – 2:05 PM

That’s My Boy – I just came back from visiting Brian in the hospital and today has been a great day so far. He was finally able to get out of bed and sit in a chair without getting sick. Minor, I know, but after being cooped up in bed for so long it was a big first step. However, what I loved the most is that I saw “my Brian” again…not the worried, sick Brian with a forced smile that has been there lately, but the happy, joking, twinkle in his eye Brian that I have been missing. It warmed my heart to be with that guy again. 🙂

We still haven’t gotten any results back from the biopsy but we’re praying for the best.

* * * * *

Tuesday, January 28, 2014 – 10:46 PM

I wish I could say that today was another great day but it wasn’t…………… Ugh. I’m staring at the screen and I am so exhausted physically and emotionally that I can’t get any words out. I’m calling it a night and coming back tomorrow. Night.

* * * * *

Wednesday, January 29, 2014 – 8:28 AM

Good news – Good morning. I got a decent sleep last night so I am feeling better. As I was saying before, yesterday was not a great day, although there were some good points too. Okay, first the good news, they unplugged some of the machines Brian was hooked up to and he was able to get out of bed and walk a couple times up and down the corridor with his IV pole. Yay!

He has also graduated from ice chips only to beef broth and jello, which is good. Now we just have to make sure all his bodily functions are working properly. When I came for my afternoon visit, I was excited to see him sitting up and eating. He chatted about some crazy reality TV show he saw the night before and tried not to laugh too hard because it hurt to laugh. There was my ol’ sweet guy again, not to mention he was looking cute in that beard he is growing out. 😉

Bad News – But then we heard from his cancer doc. Although we don’t have the final results to his biopsy yet, his panels showed that there was a bit on cancer in his lymph nodes. We discussed our options and for now, Brian will be having chemo every two weeks for the next six months. The doses are lower and he (hopefully) won’t lose his hair but we were still trying to avoid this all together. Sigh.

Well, it is what it is and we just have to deal with it. Right now I have to focus on Brian getting stronger so he can leave the hospital and come back home.

Teach Me Your Paths – A friend was asking me how I was doing with all of this…I’m okay. I think having my sisters here earlier and now mom here has been a huge emotional support. Not to mention that my mom has been cleaning everything so I have a clean house on top of it all. But she leaves tomorrow and I’ve got to learn to do it solo.

I’ve been trying to put my trust in God and not worry about it but that is always easier said than done. Sometimes I don’t have any words left to pray or I think why bother praying, what’s going to happen is going to happen anyway. That is more my tiredness talking than me because I don’t really believe that. In those moments I just say, “Lord, I can’t get the words out but you know my heart completely so no words are necessary. I just want to rest my head on You.”

Through all this God is stretching me and teaching me. I can’t help but think of Psalm 25:4, “Make me know your ways, O, Lord; Teach me your paths.” There are many more lessons to come.

* * * * *

Thank you, thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement. I’ll keep you posted. Love you guys.

UPDATE: 7 Quick Takes (1/30/14): Brian Comes Home

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 17): Catholic Valentine’s Day Cards

By bobbi
January 28, 2014
No Comments

Good morning! I didn’t get Monday’s Downton post up until midnight and this morning I am off to visit Brian so I don’t have time for a new Pinterest Party project. Instead I will repost a craft I did last year. Enjoy! 🙂

Welcome to the RoL Pinterest Party. Join me every 2nd and 4th Tuesday as we link up and share how we made, cooked, baked, crafted, planned, organized, followed or created one of the pins on our Pinterest boards OR share something original that others can pin onto their boards.

Pinterest Pin – Catholic Valentine’s Day Cards

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For the last few days I’ve been looking at Pinterest for Valentine’s Day ideas. Some of the local Catholic moms are getting their kids together for a St. Valentine’s Day party so I was looking for some Catholic valentine inspiration. I didn’t want to give the usual candy with our cards so instead we bought bubbles, Play-Doh and fishy cracker packets. Here are the results.

John-Paul is giving small containers of Play-Doh to his friends so I paired it with Jennifer’s adorable St. Valentine download from CatholicInspired.com.

Instead of gluing St. Valentine to the heart, I taped him to the container of Play Dough. I can either use the blank part of the heart to write each child’s name or just shrink down the heart. (It could also be used as a name tag/table setting for each child.)

* * * * *

Matthew is giving small bottles of bubbles so I went online and found a photo of Snoopy (a favorite of the kids) and added the words “God’s love blows me away. Happy St. Valentine’s Day!”

* * * * *

Lastly, Andrew is giving small packs of fishy crackers so I downloaded an image of a little boy fishing and made this valentine. (Note: I purchased the image for $1.25.)

We were pleased with the way they came out. 🙂

* * * * *

Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

2. In your post, link back the original blogger/idea, rather than your Pinterest pin. That way credit goes to the proper person. 🙂 (But feel free to add your Pinterest profile link so we can follow you!)

3. Add a link back here so others can play along.

4. If you want to use it, here is the html code for the logo:

5. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

The link up will be active for 10 days. Have fun!

Lastly, you can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/rol_bobbi/. 🙂

An InLinkz Link-up