"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Psalm 119:105
We wish we weren't so familiar ...
posted Tuesday, July 22, 2008 :: 9:06 AM
... with the inside of our local hospital. I spent the day yesterday at the emergency room with beloved family - we had a scary incident related to the emergency surgery of one month ago. Finally got home at 9 pm, after a full day of tests, scans, and more tests. Beloved family is home resting as well. We have to keep our eyes open for complications, but it seems the trouble is under control for now, for which we are very grateful. :)
We have been working on shipping all week, and are just about finished. But we are way behind on e-mailing the shipping confirmations to everyone. (If you are waiting for an e-mail, I apologize! It is coming, I promise!) So I can't do any blog posting until that is all caught up. I feel like I keep apologizing for how busy our lives are this summer, and I am. I will stop myself from apologizing for apologizing, LOL.
For example, this week is my deceased mother's husband's birthday. Instead of buying him something he doesn't need, I have spent hours upon hours in the evenings going through our family photos since my husband and I were married, scanning them, cleaning up the scans, and putting them on disk for him since he has one of those digital photo frames now. That was over 26 years of photos. And since we celebrated our first wedding anniversary with our newborn daughter, and had her siblings like clockwork after her, then started homeschooling, those 26 years of photos were in a box. Loose. Unsorted, unlabeled, LOL. There is a reason that box has remained untouched all these years, LOL.
So I would have saved myself lots of blogging time if I didn't decide to hand-make a gift. But this is my way of honoring my mother and her husband, and I think he will really like it. :)
Besides, now that the photos are sorted, I might take up scrapbooking. My daughter is into that, and it looks like fun. It would be wonderful to get our memories out of a box and into books, wouldn't it? It would be loads of fun, if I weren't already quilting, and being Grandma, LOL. Oh well. Investing in treasure which does not rust, like time with people, caring for them and making memories with them, is a wise investment and time well spent.
We had a bit of a scary emergency today with beloved family ... medical complications related to the emergency surgery of nearly two weeks ago. We may yet end up at the emergency room before morning ... but I am praying that the tide will turn and that it won't come to that. Thank you for your prayers!
... from the hospital at 5 pm this evening ... beloved family had emergency surgery last week and we have had some ups and downs, but all is well. It seems strange to be home after camping out nearly a week at the hospital ... if you have been praying, THANK YOU. God is good!!
A very close family member is in the hospital today, and that is where I am going to be today also ... if I don't get to a blog entry today, that is why.
I scanned in the map that was in our local paper, which shows the path of the main tornadoes, and all the places of confirmed touchdowns. Then I marked on the map my house, my daughter's house, and my sister's house. The 2 largest tornadoes passed right over or by all our houses, and yet we sustained no damage at all. My daughter received the worst of it, but the worst that happened to her was her front screen door was ripped off its hinges, and they lost power. My son-in-law has had the screen door examined, and it can be repaired, which the insurance will pay for; they don't even have to buy a new one! And their power is back on. They are saying the tornado that passed by my daughter's house was an F3 with 210 mph winds.
As for us, it rained hard here and the wind blew hard here, but not even a leaf is missing off our apple or walnut trees. My sister's house and yard likewise sustained no damage. She told me she could tell when the storm went over her house, though, because it was roaring like a banshee.
I do believe we have lived to see these words come to pass in our lives:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress:
My God; in Him will I trust.
Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler,
And from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with His feathers,
And under His wings shall thou trust:
His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night,
Nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side
And ten thousand at thy right hand
But it shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see
The reward of the wicked. Psalm 91:1-8
We had seven tornadoes touch down and do damage in our county yesterday. They were not near our house, but the biggest one passed within one mile of my daughter's house. Her husband just happened to be home at the time (middle of the day, which he never is) and he got everyone into the basement. They are all okay, and as far as they know, the only damage to their house is the winds tore off their front screen door. They are staying with us for the time being, as their town is still completely without power. (Yay! Grandkids in the house!) We are very grateful this morning that the Lord protected us all through those storms. (The Lord has preserved us through every storm life has thrown at us, and He will continue to do so. As Christians who love the Lord, our lives are not storm- free, and sometimes we have to "hunker down in the basement" while the storm does its damage, but how faithful is the Lord, that we emerge whole when it is all over!) The town of Windsor, Colorado was not so blessed - a local news station has set up a tornado relief fund to help those who need it whose homes were destroyed.
My husband and I are nearing our wedding anniversary, and when you have been married for 26 years, it is human nature to take each other for granted. I try to do three things every year at this time to try to combat that tendency:
1) Reread The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger;
2) Evaluate, am I doing three concrete things each day to say through deeds "I love you" to my husband?
3) Evaluate, have I thanked him each day for one thing he does which says "I love you" to me?
It is amazing how little time each of the above takes, and yet what great benefits keeping them in mind and doing them brings to our marriage!
My family and I are celebrating Passover this evening. I have my lamb marinating in my bitter herbs, and have more to do. I don't have time for a theology post today, I apologize - I most likely will tomorrow, since it is a Sabbath of rest. My Passover recipes are posted here, if any are interested. This year I am making the same bitter herb marinade (charmoula) and have it marinating a boneless leg of lamb instead of lamb chops. I have been collecting more recipes and ideas, and hope to update that how to celebrate post soon. This year, instead of putting the food on the table and then my husband reading the story, we are going to start when the food is still in the oven. With our grandchildren, ages 3 and 10 mos., it is so hard for them to stare at the food for 20 minutes with their little tummies growling while Grandpa goes on and on, LOL. So we are having the story first, then the food. I hope your Passover is blessed with grace! Love, Christine
Since we are celebrating Passover next week, followed by the week of Unleavened Bread, I am doing my spring cleaning this week. Spring cleaning got its start among the Jews, who thoroughly cleaned every last surface in their homes right before the week of Unleavened Bread, since the Scriptures state that no leaven should be found within your dwellings. They did not want there to be even one old crumb of leavened bread hiding in a corner somewhere. It is such a good feeling, anyway, to get the windows open, and everything sparkling clean; it is like clearing out winter once and for all. Goodbye winter, Hello spring!
Yesterday was the anniversary of my Mom's passing into glory; I spent the day with my sister and children and my Mom's husband (my Dad passed away years ago and my Mom remarried after that). Even though she is not here, and nothing we do affects her in any way, remembering my departed parents on these anniversary days is one little way I can show them honor.
I am working on a tying up the loose ends post, which will bring to a conclusion the Babylon connection posts, the Marked on the hand and forehead posts, and tie in other related series so that it all makes sense. It is written, and I just need to add in links, which will take some time since there are a lot of them this time; it is referencing most of the previous posts that have been made in several series. I will work on that some more after work today. So look for that soon. Be blessed today in all you do!
It is a little worrisome to me that the frontrunner for the Democratic party and the crazy dictator of Iran share the same foreign policy views on Iraq: US withdrawal. I am not sure what I think of the Iraq effort, but I can be pretty sure that whatever the mad mullahs want is bad.
And it is also worrisome that the Venezuelan dictator is a communist who is cozy with Syria and afore-mentioned Iran, and is massing troops on democratic Columbia's borders. And that he calls Columbia "the Israel of South America." Which is a derogatory slur, apparently.
The above events suggest to me a convergence of shared interests among the communists, the islamofascists, and the liberals of the West. The new tri- unity is based on hatred of the God of the Bible, hatred of Israel who is the apple of the God of the Bible's eye, and hatred of individual liberty based on individual responsibility under the rule of the law commanded by the Bible.
First of all, I apologize for the sporadic blogging. I am finishing a revised book file for All Through the Ages, and whenever I am working on a book, it is so hard for me to break my train of thought and direct it elsewhere. I am not a good multitasker when it comes to writing.
Secondly, my sister and I just cracked the lids on the boxes of old family photos and documents that we had taken from my mother's house after she passed away. They have been sitting untouched ever since. We realized, however, that there is only one sister left on my mother's side, and she is quite elderly, and only one sister left on my father's side, also elderly. If we will ever have any hope of identifying the people in the pictures, we have to sort through the family photos and papers now, so that we can get our aunts' help while they are still around to fill in details.
We are like school girls, calling each other on lunch hours and after dinner, because one of us have discovered another clue to the puzzle that is the family tree.
"I found an old Census record last night, sis, and it lists great- grandma's name as Elizabette! She was born in Germany, did you know that?"
"I found an old photo in the bottom of one of the boxes today, and it is the family picture of grandpa's mother's family as a child, and her maiden name and all her sibling's names are written on the back!"
I mean, it is more exciting than digging for buried treasure. I am not sure why the family tree bug bit just now, but perhaps it is providential, since our aunts will not live forever. Anyway, we have just about gone through every last box, and I am sure that things will get back to normal once the papers have been sorted and the excitement has worn off, LOL.
As most of you know, my oldest daughter had her second baby last summer. This is our beautiful daughter and our granddaughter, Grace. (This picture was taken on Christmas Day.) Gracie is 8 months old today! She hasn't started crawling yet and is thinking about just skipping the hands and knees stuff and going straight for walking. She can do 3 or 4 steps on her own with you holding her hands, and she is so proud of herself (as is Grandma!)
When my daughter had Gracie, I sewed a baby sling for her, and she has carried Gracie in that sling for 8 months (see pic). Gracie loves loves loves it. And so does my daughter; she can grocery shop and houseclean and lots of other things hands free while Gracie still feels secure next to Mom. This is especially important now, as Gracie started her separation anxiety a few weeks ago!
My daughter has gotten soooo many compliments and Where can I get one? comments every time she is out with Grace in the sling, that she has decided to make these stylish baby slings to sell. She is an excellent seamstress and the Lord has already given her inspiration that improves my design. She has had quite a few requests for baby shower gifts, and the new moms love them! She also has some high end baby boutiques in Florida waiting to place orders.
1) first of all, all sales help a Christian mom stay home to raise her children while still being a helpmeet to her husband!
2) they are made out of quilt shop quality 100% cotton, which means, quality cotton fibers, high thread count, permanent colorfast dyes, and those oh so beautiful designer prints that quilt shop cottons are known for!
3) quality construction - the seams are triple- reinforced! When my daughter was little in homeschool, we had posted on the wall in our kitchen this verse: "Be ... a worker who is not ashamed of his work." 2 Tim 2:15; and the character quality of excellence of workmanship was ingrained in her from an early age; and
4) they are the least expensive of the baby slings currently on the market! The other baby sling companies charge much more for their pouch slings, but she decided to keep her prices low because she knows what it is like being a young mom trying to make ends meet on a budget.
So if you have a baby shower coming up, and need a wonderful gift for an inexpensive price, or need a sling for yourself, try a Kozy Kanga baby sling, I do not think you will regret it! If you have any questions at all, my daughter would be thrilled to help you, just drop her an e-mail!
We arrived home safe and sound, this weekend. We had a wonderful time while we were in Florida! And we also spent several weeks with my husband's parents. I love them and don't like the fact that we live so far away from them and the rest of his family. My in- laws will not be with us forever, and I want to spend as much time with them as I can. If our children were not in Colorado, I would relocate to Florida so we could be near them, now that my parents are gone. As it is, we will just have to get out there as often as we can to see them. I hope to post pics of Gracie's first visit to the ocean later this week or next!
Do you remember that scene in Lady and the Tramp when they bring Lady home as a puppy, and she howls all night that first night, until the husband lets her come into their room to sleep? He says, "It's only for one night!" and then the next scene shows Lady, all grown up, still sleeping in her masters' room.
Well, my son went with my husband on his elk hunting trip. So I offered to watch his dog for him while he was gone. The dog is out on our back porch as we speak, because while I am happy to watch his dog, there is no way said dog is going to actually live inside our house while said son is gone. I mean, it's a big, hairy, smelly dog with few manners. The dog, however, does not want to be on the back porch. It wants to be in the house, with me.
So the dog has been howling, for two hours straight. It must have seen Lady and the Tramp at some point. This is why I am blogging at 10 pm when I am usually sound asleep at 9 almost every night. There is no way I am going to reward howling by actually going out there or letting the dog in. I was thinking, if the dog keeps me up all night, I could always sleep during the day tomorrow. It's the Sabbath and I have nothing going on but rest. (I am so sorry, neighbors!) But if anyone knows what to do to stop howling in dogs, please, I need help. Let me know. And boy is my son going to owe me a huge favor when he gets home, LOL.
The holidays we celebrate, and the holidays we do not celebrate ... well, I do not celebrate Christmas the way I did as a child, and I have to say, our family is divided over this issue. I do not put up a Christmas tree or decorate the house with evergreens. Sometimes my husband puts up a Christmas tree, although probably not this year, as we are planning to visit my husband's parents this year at Christmas. I do decorate the house with light -- candles, lots and lots of candles everywhere -- and this year I am planning on celebrating Hanukkah; I realized that Jesus and His disciples celebrated it also:
"At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon." John 10:22-23
The Feast of Dedication is Hanukkah, the celebration of the rededication of the Temple after it was defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes, and the celebration of the miracle of the oil for the lights of the menorah. We are the temple of the living God, and oil and light are representative of the seal of the Holy Spirit which is within us and the light of the world that Jesus called us to be. A very appropriate and worthy thing to celebrate!
About gift- giving: I do not purchase gifts to give to anyone on Christmas morning. I am appalled at how commercial and materialistic and covetous Christmas has degenerated into anyway, with merchants angling for your money by hawking Christmas even before Labor Day now, and children compiling long lists of expensive presents that they expect their parents to go into debt for. It is my little way of saying, "This greediness has nothing to do with the birth of our Savior!"
So my rule of thumb is: if someone is expecting a gift from me, and if not receiving one would communicate rejection of them or uncaring for them on my part, then this year I am giving a card on Hanukkah with a note included with an expression of my appreciation of them, and the name of a ministry or missionary to which we gave a gift in their honor.
For my children and grandchildren, I give something of myself they can unwrap, usually something I have made myself, or an heirloom which they love, or something my husband and I have salvaged and restored. Whatever it is, there are two rules for the gift: it cannot be purchased new from a retailer, and it has to have something of ourselves in it which has value for the receiver; it is usually a sacrificial gift of some kind.
For those who wish us Merry Christmas, I believe it would be rude to not respond. I mean, the person is greeting you with good will and kind intentions. I respond with something like, "God bless you!" and leave it at that. I try to remember not to compel anyone to have the same convictions I do about it, for conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit; my work is to be a witness; and to always be reminding myself that how I respond to someone at this season communicates love and acceptance to them or contempt and rejection, so always respond in such a way that communicates love and acceptance.
Visit with Christine Miller awhile and let's share our thoughts on homeschooling, education, and life.
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I am researching the holy days which were instituted by God as a celebration of the Messiah, instead of celebrating the holy days which were instituted by man to honor nature in place of nature's God.
:: Israel's Feast - Wooten
:: Annals - Ussher
As most of you know, my oldest daughter had her second baby last summer. This is our beautiful daughter and our granddaughter, Grace. (This picture was taken on Christmas Day.) Gracie is 8 months old today! She hasn't started crawling yet and is thinking about just skipping the hands and knees stuff and going straight for walking. She can do 3 or 4 steps on her own with you holding her hands, and she is so proud of herself (as is Grandma!)