This week, Eden turned 5 years old. How I love this little girl. This week makes me remember Eden's birth story. She is an amazing child and I love her with a great deal of my heart. I almost lost my own beautiful baby girl when she had Eden. I still cannot think about it too much, or even talk about it, because it still makes me misty-eyed to re-tell the story. Bethany was so close to death that they let us come and go whenever we wanted while she was in intensive care -- it wasn't until they started enforcing the time restraints in intensive care that I realized that she was going to live through it after all.
I am not going to go into any details here, just suffice to say, God is good and he let me keep both of those girls. What I did get out of the experience was an awesome knowledge that God is with us whenever and whatever we do. Even when we don't think He is anywhere around. God was with me during that time -- he gave me a patience that I did not have to allow me to wait on Him to do His work. I had to totally rely on God to get me through the days and nights of not knowing what was going to happen to my child. I drove many a mile to take care of her, to be with her, to do whatever she needed for me to do, but only God could save her life -- I was powerless. I would have given my life for hers. I did learn a bit about how God felt to lay down his only son for us. It is an awesome thing He did. I could barely fathom losing my child, but God let his child be born for that purpose -- to die for us. Anyone who has children that they love knows how much you love your child -- what you would do to protect them. God let Jesus be born knowing that he was going to die a gruesome death. While I thank God for that, I do understand the sacrifice He made for us and am proud to have Jesus be the Lord of my life. Without him, I would never have made it through that ordeal. Glory be to God for my daughter and her daughter.
Happy Birthday Eden -- I couldn't love you more.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Reunion
We had another family reunion. This time it was my husband's mother's side of the family. We party hard at this one. It starts with a sleepover in tents on Friday night (for those who want) and continues through until Sunday breakfast over a campfire. I, for one, and happy that I have no young children to sleep out in a tent and I live close enough to be able to go home and sleep in my own bed. Sleeping in a tent is not my favorite activity. I feel that camping is the only vacation where you have to work your butt off just to eat and sleep. I am a hotel girl -- gotta love hot water and a shower. Anyway, we had a blast. We always have great food that everyone likes -- they cook many many chickens on the fire and my husband make the best barbecue ever. We ladies all bring side dishes and desserts.
We did have a couple of mishaps this time, however. One was hot oil knocked off the campfire that spilled into one of the younger men's boot. It was scary and potentially horrible, but it managed to be manageable because we have two terrific Physician Assistant's in our family and they saved the guy a trip to the Med Express. He kept cold towels on his leg and foot and they called in a prescription for burn ointment. When we saw him on Sunday, his leg was pretty red, but only a couple of tiny blisters. He was very lucky. Praise the Lord for that.
The other thing was I fell down as I was leaving to go to church from the breakfast site. I was walking along and someone on the porch asked me a question, and instead of stopping to talk, I kept walking -- right into a hole and fell down. Apparently I cannot walk and talk at the same time. Quite a pride breaker. I am not light, as everyone can see, and I fell hard. My foot seems slightly twisted, but no swelling, so I think it is just the trauma. My arm feels like I have been doing push ups all day (which anyone who knows me can attest that couldn't have been the case). Other than that, I am fine. It was terribly embarrassing, but thankfully, no one was around with a camera or I would be in the slide show next year. Not a pretty sight.
Everything I wore all weekend smells like a campfire and the little kids were dirty and smelly also. They ran around so much that they were all exhausted. They get to stay up late and play outside in the dark with flashlights -- what could be more fun than that? A weekend without video games or television and if you played your cards right, you could have cupcakes and brownies for dinner. Just good old fashioned fun running with sticks and being left to play however they want. We had a great time and the kids enjoy this reunion very much. We all look forward to it every year.
A side note about the slide show disaster. I did corrupt my presentation, but managed, after many more hours of work, to put it back together. It was a job, but it was so worth it. I got some feedback about the length and some of the pictures, but it was two years' worth of cookouts, so it was bound to be long and probably seemed repetitive. I will take all comments under consideration for next year's slide show, and adjust it accordingly. All in all, it was well received. I loved it, of course.
A very satisfying family get together. I love my family. They are fun people.
We did have a couple of mishaps this time, however. One was hot oil knocked off the campfire that spilled into one of the younger men's boot. It was scary and potentially horrible, but it managed to be manageable because we have two terrific Physician Assistant's in our family and they saved the guy a trip to the Med Express. He kept cold towels on his leg and foot and they called in a prescription for burn ointment. When we saw him on Sunday, his leg was pretty red, but only a couple of tiny blisters. He was very lucky. Praise the Lord for that.
The other thing was I fell down as I was leaving to go to church from the breakfast site. I was walking along and someone on the porch asked me a question, and instead of stopping to talk, I kept walking -- right into a hole and fell down. Apparently I cannot walk and talk at the same time. Quite a pride breaker. I am not light, as everyone can see, and I fell hard. My foot seems slightly twisted, but no swelling, so I think it is just the trauma. My arm feels like I have been doing push ups all day (which anyone who knows me can attest that couldn't have been the case). Other than that, I am fine. It was terribly embarrassing, but thankfully, no one was around with a camera or I would be in the slide show next year. Not a pretty sight.
Everything I wore all weekend smells like a campfire and the little kids were dirty and smelly also. They ran around so much that they were all exhausted. They get to stay up late and play outside in the dark with flashlights -- what could be more fun than that? A weekend without video games or television and if you played your cards right, you could have cupcakes and brownies for dinner. Just good old fashioned fun running with sticks and being left to play however they want. We had a great time and the kids enjoy this reunion very much. We all look forward to it every year.
A side note about the slide show disaster. I did corrupt my presentation, but managed, after many more hours of work, to put it back together. It was a job, but it was so worth it. I got some feedback about the length and some of the pictures, but it was two years' worth of cookouts, so it was bound to be long and probably seemed repetitive. I will take all comments under consideration for next year's slide show, and adjust it accordingly. All in all, it was well received. I loved it, of course.
A very satisfying family get together. I love my family. They are fun people.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Disaster
Well, it happened. Months of work. Thousands of photographs (not literally, but a lot). My PowerPoint presentation has been corrupted. I am sad and mad at myself about it. EVERYONE knows you don't keep only one copy of something that important. I know you don't keep only one copy of something that important. My OCD tendencies say don't keep only one copy of something that important. Why did I decide to use constraint in this instance? Who knows? I only know that it has been corrupted and there is nothing that can change that. Now, my only recourse is to try to do it over. I only have 3 days. I have looked at and worked on this for so long, I am getting weary of looking at it and working on it. I need some prayers to get it done and retain my sanity. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Collections
I was watching a You Tube video yesterday about a man that has a record collection of millions of vinyl records. He needs to sell these records because of health problems. He is astonished that no one wants them. He has had no serious offers for his millions of records. I wonder why he is astonished. Who has a record player to play them on? Not everything that one collects becomes a treasure, or not every collection becomes profitable once one decides to sell it. I should talk. Seriously.
I have a few collections. Ask my kids. Thank the Lord, I do not own millions of anything. My girls would be horrified. I have a slight OCD tendency towards owning things. Sometimes just owning these things is satisfaction enough. They don't have to be used. I can hardly rest until I have the complete collection of whatever it is that I fancy. I become obsessed with the need to have the complete set. Then, of course, I would rather have two or three sets of something so just in case something happens to the complete set, then I have a backup set. You see how this works? You see how easily it gets complicated?
Here is the problem with my collection of stuff. I can barely use the collection of things -- whatever they may be -- yarn, embroidery thread, patterns, material, etc. I once bought a box of handmade cards from a wholesale warehouse store and could barely bring myself to use them. I had to give them to my daughter in order for them to be used. I don't know why I couldn't use the cards, but in my convoluted mind, I guess if I used them up, I wouldn't have them anymore, and the collection of cards wouldn't be a collection anymore, the set would be broken up, etc. It is hard living inside my head. So much is going on.
I do have a hard time parting with things. I don't mind giving something away if a person intends to use it, but I don't like to just get rid of something because I don't "need" it anymore. What has need got to do with anything?
I have many little bowls. I don't know why, but I have to have them. I have tried to purge my cabinets and have actually come away with a few small items of no consequence, but rarely do I actually get rid of much in the way of dishes. I just bought a new set of dishes and had to get rid of my old mismatched plates that I really liked. It was hard to do. I managed to get rid of most of them (I say most because I did keep two of them on the pretext that I could use them to put a cake on and not have to use the new ones for that purpose) by donating them to a good cause garage sale, but it was difficult for me not to go through that box one more time to make sure I didn't get rid of anything "good."
I have a couple of dozen grape candles (they smell wonderful) and I have a hard time using them because they are the last of their kind. How weird is that? What good is a candle if you don't burn it? I should be enjoying the smell, not storing the candles. Again, a symptom of a serious hoarding problem. I burned one once and almost had to be sedated because now I don't have two dozen of them anymore. I can't even use them as a gift because they smell too good and I need to have them.
I must be a crazy person. I can't wait until I am really old and my kids start going through my closets or drawers and see the random stuff that I have kept for no good reason. I have stuff in drawers that has no purpose at all, but I can't throw it away. Someone should help me. If they would only say, "I need this...may I have it?" That would take away some of my angst -- I could possibly give it to them with a clean conscience if I could part with it -- and then they could throw it away at their house. No harm done. It sounds simple enough to me.
I have a few collections. Ask my kids. Thank the Lord, I do not own millions of anything. My girls would be horrified. I have a slight OCD tendency towards owning things. Sometimes just owning these things is satisfaction enough. They don't have to be used. I can hardly rest until I have the complete collection of whatever it is that I fancy. I become obsessed with the need to have the complete set. Then, of course, I would rather have two or three sets of something so just in case something happens to the complete set, then I have a backup set. You see how this works? You see how easily it gets complicated?
Here is the problem with my collection of stuff. I can barely use the collection of things -- whatever they may be -- yarn, embroidery thread, patterns, material, etc. I once bought a box of handmade cards from a wholesale warehouse store and could barely bring myself to use them. I had to give them to my daughter in order for them to be used. I don't know why I couldn't use the cards, but in my convoluted mind, I guess if I used them up, I wouldn't have them anymore, and the collection of cards wouldn't be a collection anymore, the set would be broken up, etc. It is hard living inside my head. So much is going on.
I do have a hard time parting with things. I don't mind giving something away if a person intends to use it, but I don't like to just get rid of something because I don't "need" it anymore. What has need got to do with anything?
I have many little bowls. I don't know why, but I have to have them. I have tried to purge my cabinets and have actually come away with a few small items of no consequence, but rarely do I actually get rid of much in the way of dishes. I just bought a new set of dishes and had to get rid of my old mismatched plates that I really liked. It was hard to do. I managed to get rid of most of them (I say most because I did keep two of them on the pretext that I could use them to put a cake on and not have to use the new ones for that purpose) by donating them to a good cause garage sale, but it was difficult for me not to go through that box one more time to make sure I didn't get rid of anything "good."
I have a couple of dozen grape candles (they smell wonderful) and I have a hard time using them because they are the last of their kind. How weird is that? What good is a candle if you don't burn it? I should be enjoying the smell, not storing the candles. Again, a symptom of a serious hoarding problem. I burned one once and almost had to be sedated because now I don't have two dozen of them anymore. I can't even use them as a gift because they smell too good and I need to have them.
I must be a crazy person. I can't wait until I am really old and my kids start going through my closets or drawers and see the random stuff that I have kept for no good reason. I have stuff in drawers that has no purpose at all, but I can't throw it away. Someone should help me. If they would only say, "I need this...may I have it?" That would take away some of my angst -- I could possibly give it to them with a clean conscience if I could part with it -- and then they could throw it away at their house. No harm done. It sounds simple enough to me.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Happy Birthday, Chris
Today is Chris' birthday. She was born 36 years ago today. I love that girl. She is my first-born, my beloved child. She is a strong woman of God, and I am proud of who she is. I hope that this birthday is her best ever. Happy Birthday, daughter.
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