Dayna Update

It's been a while since I did an update on our friend Dayna.  My readers will remember that last February our daughter Ann took her friend on a round of hospital and doctor visits one day to find, in the end, that Dayna had a brain tumor.  A stage 4 gioblastoma.  Surgery followed the very next day to save her life and she has been undergoing treatments including chemotherapy since.  

Today Dayna had another MRI (she has them every 3 months) and the wonderful news is that the tumor has shrunk 70 to 80 percent since February.  There was a 40 percent reduction shown in the August MRI with another 40 percent reduction this time.  

Dayna continues to be upbeat and was recently named National Single Mom of the Year after a friend nominated her.  Here is a snippet of what her friend shared about the trip they took to Baton Rouge for the award.

We arrived at the airport but because Dayna had needles and prescriptions with her, she had to be detained so security could make sure she was okay to travel. Throughout this, she was incredibly kind and gracious and of course, made a new friend in the security guard. 

It is hard for Dayna to sleep without help due to the cancer treatment she is taking, so instead of sleeping she drank 5 cups of horrible airplane coffee and made friends with literally everyone in the surrounding area, and continued to do so, in all three airports and two flights. She is a LIGHT wherever she goes. She can’t help but talking about Jesus and what he has done in her life to the many people God puts around her. 

We arrived in Houston, Texas and missed our flight! God went before us though, and we were immediately able to get on another flight on a very tiny plane! This time Dayna and I weren’t sitting near each other but I could hear her happy laugh periodically as she made friends and swapped stories with someone else.

I hope by including this little story you will see something of the very special person Dayna is and feel like you know her just a little bit.  Finally, here is a recent picture of her with her little princess, Maddie.

For those of you who have prayed for her, thank you! There is no end in sight to the treatments as this type of cancer is, well, considered terminal.  But!  ♥

November!

We've been on the road this month.  After returning from Bruder Bear's, we were home for a while, working on bathrooms (will it ever end?), exercising (me!), and doing fun stuff like the laundry, etc., and then we were on the road again.  Last weekend was spent in Boise and McCall, and then Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this week we were on the road watching soccer games as our two grandsons' school competed in an end of the season soccer tournament.  They came in second and Cam was chosen one of the six top players in the league.  

As my faithful readers (thank you for sticking with me!) know, I purchased an electric pressure cooker this year. I'm part of a Facebook group for the Instant Pot (the brand I purchased) and they are a busy bunch.  All kinds of pictures pop up each day and they seem to go from topic to topic.  

There's a yogurt function on the Instant Pot and I really never intended to use it, but then pictures began to show up on FB.  Intrigued, I checked a blog site that had been featured and read through the instructions and decided I should give it a try.  Oh.My.Goodness!  Easy? Absolutely.  Delicious? Absolutely. Will I do it again? Yes!

I ended up with six pints of thick, creamy yogurt from a gallon of two percent milk.  It did take all day, but I was only actively involved for less than an hour.  

I found the very nice plastic lids (made by Ball) locally. And I have to tell you, in my current issue of Country Living, they feature a set of very similar looking lids, in a set of six, for about forty-four dollars!!  I bought my box of eight for about four dollars!!  Pretty big price difference.  

The blog site recommended draining the yogurt in something called a nut milk bag, but I just used a large mesh strainer lined with a tea towel and set it over a big stock pot.  Worked quite well.  Here's the cleaned up pieces.  I used my canning funnel to ladle the yogurt into the jars.  

I've been happily eating the yogurt for days now.  I spoon some into a dish, add a drizzle of pure maple syrup, and sprinkle on some home-made granola.  And speaking of granola, here's a link to the recipe.  This stuff is seriously easy to make and totally yummy. 

Fall has finally arrived and it feels good.  Time to cozy down, drink hot coffee and tea, and make plans for the holidays.  I stitched a few leaves to add to our seasonal decor.

Hanging on the china hutch door

Tucked under a candle with embroidered wrap

Happy November!  ♥