Project

While the husband has been home sick and able to help the kids with school a bit, I've had time to do a little creative project. I came upon a couple of sayings and a bible verse that all have "dance" or "dancing" in them. I bought the frames at Ikea, tea stained the included mats and used Microsoft Publisher to arrange the text. I'm quite pleased with the result!

A Word of Advice

You should never tell your sick husband that he's being a big baby until you're sure that he doesn't have pneumonia.

Meditations

I've started choosing a bible verse every morning to journal about and meditate upon throughout the day. I chose one a few days ago that I'm still chewing over. I thought I would share what I wrote to myself with the hope that someone else would find it useful. Perhaps as more things hit me, I'll share more about this journey in my little corner of the world.

Job 1:21b
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

There is a praise song written by Matt Redman based on this verse called Blessed be the Lord. Here's how he puts it:

You give and take away.
You give and take away.
My heart will choose to say,
Lord blessed be your name.

If you haven't heard the song and are interested, this link will take you to a Newsboys version of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4abgC-fIxOw

I've spent enough time wallowing in self pity, which is not getting me anywhere. I'm sure I'm not alone in jumping immediately to the "why me" question when something goes wrong. What I need to do is turn my thinking around. Why not me? If I was once an enemy of God (Rom 5:10)then why do I deserve any good thing? I don't. Every gift is from God(James 1:17)and only because of his grace. So I should rejoice in the fact that my body functioned pretty well for 37 years. I can be grateful that God gave me 2 eyes so that one of them can still see. I can be thankful that TODAY I'm still able to function normally. Those are gifts. I can choose, along with Job, to say "Blessed be your name".

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

I know this is out of order chronologically, but I came across these pictures and thought I'd share.


In just under a week I made about 1,200 fussy little cookies for the Christmas Banquet at our church. I had piles of ingredients sitting all over the kitchen and it looked like a cookie factory had exploded. By the way, the empty platters were for some pumpkin bars that needed refrigeration until the last minute.


Every time I do something like this people ask me why I don't cater for a living. When? Why? It's fun about once a year. After that, I think I might go nutty! A person can only handle so much rolling, dipping and glazing.

2009 in Review

So I've had a couple of days to think it over, and the one thing that keeps coming to mind about 2009 is: Good Riddance! I have hope that 2010 will be better because, honestly, how could it possibly be as bad as 2009?

To review:
1. J-Man was diagnosed with a variety of disorders. We started spending a good percentage of our time, energy and money on his therapy and related stuff.
2. After bouncing from one doctor to the next for several months and enduring some rather unpleasant testing, it appears that I have MS.
3. GM ran out of money, went bankrupt, layed off workers, etc. We spent most of the year wondering if the husband would continue to have a job.

Looking ahead:
1. We are progressing with J-Man's treatment, and his medication is getting closer to correctly balanced. We have a better understanding of the challenges facing us. We're still in pursuit of some pieces to the puzzle, including screening for fetal alcohol effect and some testing for short term memory problems. Our medical insurance has changed with the coming of the new year, and we think that some of J-Man's treatment will be covered.
2. I have a couple of leads for doctors I'd like to see, also possibly partially covered with the new insurance.
3. GM appears to be recovering, and the husband came through it all with his job still intact.

I'm guessing that you're a smart bird, and the fact that we're still dealing with some rather hefty issues didn't slip past you. So why am I hopeful? Herein lies my hope:

And he said unto me, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 (KJV)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 (ESV)