About Me

What to write, what to write…

Hi, I’m Charlene Therien, and here’s some highlights about me:

I’ve been married to the same guy since 1984.  I know, it’s out of fashion these days to be married this long.  But I think it’s one fashion I’ll go on outing, just because it’s so darn much fun.  My favorite part about my husband:  he makes me laugh.  Every single day.  He’s one of the wittiest people I’ve ever met.  That goes miles, in my book.

Together we have six children. Five boys, one girl.  (Yes, you read that right; your eyes are working just fine.)  As of this update (fall 2018), we have 7 grandchildren with another due at Thanksgiving.

I love animals.  We’ve had dogs, cats, guinea pigs, chickens, snakes, iguanas, and multiple fish named Bob.  Currently as empty nesters, our nest is also devoid of pets.  I have mixed feelings about this, and I hope at some time to have another fur friend in our home, but this is not the season.

I’m an artist. Both personally and professionally.  I love to sew, cook, craft, sculpt, write, draw– So there are a number of blogs and websites to my name, and you can imagine them as an old-tyme Vaudeville act– I run about the stage with plates on sticks, going back and forth keeping them spinning without crashing.  Sortof.

If you’d like to keep up with what I’m doing most recently, I’m the most active on Facebook.  My blogs and websites are below if you prefer a specific subject.

Work: I create keepsakes from funeral flowers, wedding flowers, cremation ash, pet memorials, etc.  My online shop is  Memoraial Beads.  And here’s my Facebook page, where I show the most recent creations: Memorial Beads on Facebook.  You’ll find examples of some of my work here on Fimo Fanatic.

Low Carb Eating: I lost about 40 pounds between 2012 and 2017, and have been very happy with being able to maintain a healthy weight by being mindful of how many carbohydrates and calories I take in.  I have a place for recipes on my Facebook page, Low Carb Test Kitchens. You will also find many of my recipes here on Fimo Fanatic.

I’m a Christian. Don’t let that scare you — I’m not about to bash you over the head with my Bible.  Besides, it’s too small do do much damage, anyway.  But matters of faith are important to me, and frequently my thoughts are sprinkled with them.  I have a blog dedicated to growing in Christian faith, Moments In Spiritual Maturity.

I was born in 1965. So whatever year this is when you read my blog, do the math and you can find out how old I am.  (Frustrating, isn’t it?  I know, I know.  But it’s good for you.  Exercises your brain.  And now you know how my kids felt, when they asked me how to spell something…)

I’m a proud mother of soldiers. You’ll possibly have seen one or two things in the sidebar about that.  There are stickers on my car, too.  You see, when I married, I not only joined a man, I joined a military machine.  He was in his last semester of ROTC when we met, and marrying him meant I would spend the next 4 years going wherever the US Army told us to go.  And you know what?  For the most part, I liked it.  The Army was good to us.  And it was good to our family.  My husband’s side has generations of  military service.  He and his two brothers were in the Army, Navy, and Marines, respectively.  Three of our sons have carried on the tradition, by joining the Illinois National Guard.

I have a brown thumb.  So I’m leaving the following paragraph in here, but you’d be amazed what a little encouragement can do.  I not only no longer believe this about myself, but I have discovered that it was just a matter of being open to learning the tools I needed to grow green things.  Edible things.  And to discover I take great pleasure in being a “plant mommy”.  I even am a member of a county-wide gardening group!  So I tell you this to say to you:  don’t believe everything about yourself that you think you know.  Old dogs CAN and frequently DO learn new tricks, if they WANT to.
So here’s the old paragraph, only for the purpose of showing you how deeply embedded I believed that lie about myself.  “If you want a plant to grow, don’t give it to me.  Shoot, even if you want me to hang on to a plastic plant for you, don’t expect it to come back with all it’s leaves.  I don’t know what it is about me and green leafy-shaped things, but they die.  Whether or not they were alive in the first place.  I don’t mind too much.  There are some plants in my yard that are green, and as long as I leave them alone and don’t touch them, they actually survive.”

I play disc golf.  It’s a low-impact sport that anyone can play, whether old or young.  it works a wide variety of muscles and is a pleasant social exercise.  My hubby and my kids and grandkids all play disc golf, some of them at the competitive level. Want to know what Disc Golf is all about?  This is a great video.