Rocky Mountain Blue

Good News!

2011-04-27T16:46:00.007-06:00

Today was the day! A 2-month follow-up on my diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus in February.

The very nice and competent medical assistant weighed me first, and I was more than a little pleased to see that the doctor's scale (and you know those scales are never wrong like the little cheapie ones we have at home) says I have lost 18 pounds!

He then checked my temperature, took my blood pressure, poked my finger, did a monofilament testing on my feet, and filled everything in on the computer. Then I was off to the restroom to get a sample for the microalbumin test. Back in the room about 2 minutes, and in comes my doctor!

She exclaimed over how well I am doing. Just as I thought, she asked if I was having any side effects to the metformin! So I explained that I am not taking it, and how my chiropractor has helped me to have a plan. She looked at all the info and lab work, and then she said what I am doing is exactly right. Keep it up! Yes, 30 more pounds is a very good and realistic goal. Tap, tap, tap on her little electronic device. "That will put your BMI at 24.9 bringing you just under 25 which is the recommended goal." (What? I must have been WAY skinny with a very low BMI when I was younger!)

So both doc and I were very happy campers today! And I grinned all the way home!

(Oh, and as I was leaving, she asked me my chiropractor's name!!)

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Diabetes update...

2011-04-26T23:19:00.006-06:00

It has been 2 months now, believe it or not, since I found out I have type 2 diabetes. (See previous posts for the details, please.) Just as a reminder, when I had my blood work in mid-February, my fasting blood sugar was 308, and my hemoglobin A1c was 10.4. Terrible numbers...

So for the past 2 months I have been doing (with a very few exceptions) just exactly what my chiropractor told me to do. Meat, fish, fowl, and eggs with as much as I want of vegetables. A little olive oil and butter. Lots of fresh salads. In fact, I think my ears grew a bit, as I am feeling more like a rabbit than ever before in my whole life! No carbs except from vegetables. Plus the 4 supplements he gave me, without fail. As much exercise as I could manage.

Even though it has been absolutely killing my wallet, I have been checking my blood sugars usually 3 times a day. (Are those little chem strips made of gold??) Most of my blood sugars have been between 110 and 130. I've lost somewhere between 10 and 15 pounds. (If I count all the things I have NOT eaten, I feel like I should have lost at least 50 pounds!)

Tomorrow is my first follow-up with my medical doctor, so this past Friday, with a bit of nervousness, I took myself over to her office first thing in the morning for a blood draw so that she could have the results in front of her for my appointment. I had no idea what the A1c would be, and I could just feel my blood sugar shooting up with the stress of it! "Are you fasting?" asked the nurse as she watched the blood squirting into the little bottle. "Yes, I am," I told her.

On Saturday morning I was sitting at my computer when the phone rang. The caller ID told me it was the doctor's office. What? On the weekend? Jeff, the medical assistant, said he had the results of my blood tests. "I have good news," he said. I was still a little unsure. "Is there any bad news?" I asked him. He laughed. "No!" Then I laughed, too! "Okay, then!"

Jeff told me that I have had DRAMATIC improvement in my diabetes control. My A1c is now down to 6.5! I could not believe it! I had been hoping for maybe 8, so this was indeed good news. And the best part is, I haven't had to take any metformin!

So now I am actually looking forward to seeing the doctor tomorrow...after which I will update you again!

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Unless We See...

2011-04-23T22:06:00.007-06:00

"Unless I see the nail marks in his hands...I will not believe it." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands..." Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" --John 20:25-28

Unless we see in his hand the print of the nail that marred it
Unless we see in his side the mark of the spear that scarred it
We are right to refuse to believe, to challenge his claims and doubt them
For the wounds are the sign of the Christ, and He will not come without them.

Vain are the saviors of men who can show no wounds for a token
False are the christs of the world whose hearts have never been broken
We are right to reject their claim, since only the One may dare it
We are right to deny their name, since only the One may bear it.

Can they spread the nail-pierced palm that the finger of doubt may feel it?
Uncover the riven side and to doubting eyes reveal it?
The wounds are the sign of the Christ, and only the One can show it
And only those who have touched His wounds will prove Him Lord and know it.

For it is not enough for our faith that others have seen and known Him
But each for himself must see, and each for himself must own Him
And each must touch the print of the nails, the proof of His claim receiving
And each must cry, "My Lord, my God," and fall at His feet, believing.

--Annie Johnson Flint

That Terrible Wonderful Day

2011-04-22T20:47:00.002-06:00

The cross...

wicked

cruel

evil beyond my understanding

a blessing beyond my imagination

... that terrible wonderful cross.

And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.
--Hebrews 13:12

What I am doing about diabetes...

2011-03-31T20:34:00.016-06:00

If I could design a medical practice that would be perfect for me, it would combine traditional medicine and alternative medicine. I believe we need both viewpoints and areas of knowledge to have the best healthcare. I had been to my medical doctor and had blood work done and a diagnosis made. Now it was time to talk to my chiropractor.

Dr. Kloor had two sheets of information ready for me, and he assured me that he has been using this system for years and that it works very well if it is followed (as he eyed me questioningly!) This would be a one-month program to start with. One sheet had my allowable foods: basically as much as I wanted of vegetables and meat, fish, fowl, and eggs. I also could have a few other things like pickles, olive oil, butter, all nuts except peanuts. No processed grains, white flour, sugar or sugar substitutes. No rice, no bread, no potatoes, no sugar, no fruit. Just for one month. The vegetables were arranged in three columns according to carb content. All my carbs had to come from vegetables. And there was this important instruction: Each of your meals must include some protein.

The second sheet outlined the four supplements he wanted me to take at very specific times of day - Diaplex, Cataplex GTF, Inosotol, and Pancreatrophin PMG.

"And exercise," he said to me sternly. "I can't do that for you. You have to do it yourself." Oh, dear, I thought to myself shrinkingly...

So home I came with my two sheets of paper and my bottles of supplements...and I began. My blood sugars that day were:

192, 222, and 157.

Only vegetables and meats. Almonds for snacks. Homemade olive oil and apple cider vinegar dressing. Most days I have had 2 scrambled eggs for breakfast with a sliced tomato. Delicious leafy salads for lunches -- mixed dark greens, mushrooms, cucumbers, bell peppers, radishes, and chicken or beef with my dressing. (I have really developed a liking for that tangy vinegar.) Supper has been chicken, beef, or pork with a vegetable or two, and I have left the potatoes or rice or macaroni or whatever for the others. The cookies I baked for the church potluck beckoned me from the Ziploc bag on the counter, but I ate nary a one!

I have been pretty slow in adding in the exercise. The weather has worked against me some of the time, but I have just had a struggle to get all of the pieces of the puzzle to fit, especially when at the beginning I was so draggy and tired. But for the past two weeks now I have been walking briskly for 20 to 30 minutes several times a week.

My friend Cheryl has a good handheld laser unit which she has been using for various health issues, and she offered to lend that to me. Her doctor's office told her the proper settings to use to assist with pancreas function, and so I was able to add two of those treatments to the diet and supplements. (I was very interested to see that using the laser gave me a permanent drop of about 25 points in my blood sugars.)

Today I went back to see Dr. Kloor. After catching up on my progress, he cut my supplements in half. Since we have encouraged the pancreas to work better by reducing its stress (less sugar and bad stuff to deal with) and by supporting it nutritionally (better food choices and supplements), it is now time to see if we can taper off the supplements and still maintain these better blood sugar numbers. The diet continues the same for 10 more days, and then I will do a phone consult with him. If my blood sugars are doing fine, we will start adding in a little fruit. Oh, that will be wonderful!

So...where am I now?? I've lost over 10 pounds (still more improvement to come on that). My energy is much, much better! And here are my blood sugar numbers for today:

124, 116, 118.

Still some work to be done, but

a drastic change in 5 weeks!

Unrestricted Diet

2011-03-25T22:24:00.004-06:00

Unrestricted = unlimited, free of restrictions

Diet = what I eat

I've typed "unrestricted diet" more times than I care to remember, as in "He is eating a totally unrestricted diet, I'm afraid!" (What the doctor says about patients who aren't listening to his warnings!) And up until about a month ago, that would have described me, too!

After all these years of typing medical reports, I know the good blood sugar numbers and the bad, what the HDL and LDL cholesterol should be, hundreds of meds and dosages. I know the serious symptoms and the ones the doctors call "of no concern."

Tuesday, February 15 -- I went to my doctor's office to get blood drawn for routine tests.
Thursday, February 17 -- I went in for a little checkup, years and years overdue, glad to know that all the blood work results would be waiting for us to discuss.

After a comfortable chat with the nurse who checked my blood pressure (perfect numbers) and took a little history, I sat on the cold table in my flimsy paper robe and even flimsier paper sheet with my legs dangling over the edge like a preschooler.

In bustled my no-nonsense doctor (whom I like very much) with a few pages in her hand. "Well," she said, "I have all your lab tests here with me. Let's take a look. Hmmm... your cholesterol numbers are great, thyroid function is normal, renal function is right where we want it... In fact, your numbers look pretty good, except for one thing. It looks like you have diabetes!" Wait! Numbers! I want exact numbers! But as soon as I heard what they were, I knew I had to get very serious about this. "Your blood sugar was 308. You were fasting that day, right?" Yes, I had been. "Your A1c is like an average of your blood sugars over the last 3 months, and that is quite high at 10.4." Wow! (I knew the doctors I type for want that to be below 6 if at all possible.) This was not borderline anything. This was full-blown diabetes.

Finally, an explanation for how terribly fatigued I had been feeling, the REAL reason (not snoring!) why I had been waking up with a very dry mouth. This also explained my recent tendency toward yeast infections and the little spots on my skin that responded to antifungal cream...

I left the office clutching a glucometer and chem strips, a sheaf of papers with info about diabetes, and a prescription for metformin. And a return appointment for the end of April. I asked about trying diet and exercise first before starting a medication, but my doc said she wanted me to take the med, and then later if I don't need it any more, I can stop it... "Our goal," she told me, "is to have fasting blood sugars in the morning of less than 120, and 2 hours after a meal they should be below 140." And she told me to check my blood sugars fasting in the morning and 2 hours after both lunch and supper.

On the way home, I decided to give myself one week. No metformin for a week. One week of a total change. No more unrestricted diet. Check blood sugars, keep a log of them, and see what a week could do.

I went into the kitchen and was afraid to eat anything! But slowly I was able to get my feet on the ground, and my one-week test began. I started checking blood sugars that Sunday. The first one, taken fasting first thing in the morning, was 260. 140 points above the goal. (Blah! I'm not sure what I had been hoping for.) One week went by, and on the last day, my 3 blood sugars were 144, 147, and 140. That last one was at the doctor's goal! Woo hoo! So my one week test was over, and I decided NOT to fill the metformin prescription.

Now it is the end of the 5th week. I have been brutal with my "unrestricted diet." It is gone. I have been walking briskly several days a week as a start in the exercise department. I am almost 10 pounds lighter.

Today my blood sugars were 118 and 113 and 117 -- without any medication! The doc would consider this success. But I am harder to please!

And there are definitely some things I would like to avoid!

(Next post: I will tell more about my current "restricted diet" and the other helpful things I have been doing.)

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Birthdays and Memories

2011-03-18T23:20:00.009-06:00

February is a good month for our family. My brother and I were both born in it. Three years apart. So you know that both of us had a birthday last month, and as usual we gave each other funny cards about getting older and creakier, the you'll-always-be-older-than-me kind of card!

It doesn't take much to transport me back in time, back to where we were born and where we grew up. It can be the little jar of stones that I have sitting on my Memories Shelf, little pebbles scooped up from outside our home near Charlibli, Liberia. Mixed in with them is a dried palm nut. Its shape and the little holes in the end are like childhood friends. Sometimes it is the kerosene lamp sitting on that same shelf, a certain haze in the sky, the sudden sight of a snake in the grass. Once in a while, I open my little bottle of 4711 perfume and take a good whiff, and I am once again a little girl with the German ladies who smelled like that! Every now and then I cook collard greens and rice, just because I love them, and the house is filled with an aroma from long ago. No, it doesn't take much...

So when I came home one day around my birthday and found this from Gord on my dining room table, no words were needed. He knew it would take me back.

Hibiscus

It is blooming, day after day,
and each time, I am a little girl again.
The blooms last a day, close up, and fall onto the table.
I pick them up carefully
because even those closed up flowers
are so familiar...
so much a part of me.

A Christmas Miracle!

2011-03-13T17:56:00.012-06:00

You're probably thinking "Christmas miracle" as in the star and the angels and especially Baby Jesus. Well, you would be right, of course! But today I am talking about another lesser miracle, one that happened to our family just before Christmas.

Our friend Curt called one evening in early December 2010 and said, "I've just been looking in one of the fliers I get about farm auctions." I was not too surprised, since I know he keeps up on all that and over the years has gotten some wonderful bargains. But he went on to say, "I don't know why I noticed this item, and I can't remember ever seeing one at a farm auction before, but...they are selling a van with a wheelchair lift already in it." Now I was definitely surprised! "Are you interested in taking a look at it?" he asked. I don't believe these things happen by chance, and I said we should most certainly check it out. Cautiously optimistic. Sort of afraid to hope too much, but really hoping in spite of myself!

We had looked into the price of a new(er) van and realized that without a miracle we could not afford it. Goodness! The price of a van customized with a wheelchair lift is pretty close to -- well, a fortune, let's just say, at least to us. Even the good secondhand ones we saw were priced like new. So we said we would try to squeak every last creaky mile out of the one we have.

And then Curt called...

So a few days before the auction, Barry, Curt, and two mechanic friends went to check it out.

The Red Van

A 2000 Dodge van, raised roof, only 43,000 miles. Good outside, nice and clean inside, MUCH better lift than the old van, everything in order under the hood. It took a few tries to start it, but it had been sitting a long time in a farm shed.

The lift, fully automatic

See how it folds up on itself so you can use the door when the lift is not in use?
(This picture was taken from the driver's seat looking out the middle side door.)

So Barry and I talked and prayed about it and decided what we thought our spending limit should be, and the plan was made. To be honest, we are auction illiterates! But we would bid on the van and see what happened! The auction day was very cold, so Coral and I stayed home, and Barry, Trent, and Curt went to do their best. At the auction, they met Gary, a friend of Curt's, and what a wonderful friend he turned out to be! He knows all about auctions, knew the auctioneers, and was right at home.

My phone rang, and it was Barry. "Gary looked at the van, too, and he thinks it might go for more than what we decided we should spend. What do you think?" Well, I thought Gary was right; it really could go for way more than that and still be cheaper than other vans we had seen. So I said, "I really hate to change the amount that seemed right... but do what you think is best."

Waiting, waiting...then Trent sent me a text: The van is coming up for bid. Unknown to me, Gary had offered to do the bidding for us, and I can just imagine what a relief that was for Barry! Meanwhile back home, I was praying... Lord, you know how much we need a van and how limited we are on how much we can pay. We have asked You to supply for us, so if you want us to have the van, please make everyone else stop bidding!

Another text from Trent: WE GOT THE VAN!! I admit it. I burst into tears, right in my office! Thank you, God! Then I texted Trent: How much did we have to pay? And he said: $7500! Wow! Under our limit! It was such a miracle! When I was sure the van was ours and that they were almost home, I told Coral, "Guess what? Dad and Trent went today and they got us a new van!" Understanding grew slowly in her face, and then she nearly popped her wheelchair seatbelt with excitement. Up they drove in the dark, and Coral and I rushed out to take our first look!

When we could settle down, Barry told me about how amazing it had been to have Gary's help and expertise on the bidding, and I believe God used him to bless us! Just like He used Curt to start the blessing going and to help us all the way along.

The next day, Barry called the lift company that had installed it in the van in 2006 and asked what it would be worth. Guess what they said! "If we were to install that same lift in your van today, it would cost $7600." So, if you boil it all down, we bought the lift and got paid $100 to take the van along with it!

And this is our Christmas miracle!

One year later...

2011-03-10T22:26:00.001-07:00

I decided that, in honor of Barry's surgery, I should post a one-year follow-up. So here goes...

The Workers Comp doctor (bless him!) had had surgery himself with excellent results, and so he referred Barry to that very same orthopedic surgeon (bless him, too!)
"You are getting the surgery for all the right reasons." (What the doc said when he found out that Barry wanted to have his shoulder fixed so he would be able to help me again with Coral's care.)
One of our friends spent a year rehabbing his shoulder, so we were dreading this. But the surgeon told Barry that if he fixed the shoulder and Barry was not back to normal in less than 6 months, he would retire.
Bright and early one morning, off we went to the beautiful surgery center across the street from the hospital (good location, just in case!)

It is hard to settle your thoughts down while your husband is in surgery.
What you don't want to hear after you have spent hours in the waiting room: "Your husband is not coming out of the anesthetic as quickly as we had expected."
Thank God for the wonderful recovery room nurse who knew everything would be okay!

And then:

Home again. Hubby is a very good patient. The minute he could do things for himself, he did them. He even quickly figured out how to get out of the recliner (which normally needs his right hand to operate the lever) so that he would not need to get me to do it.
It is a strange sensation to pull and pull and pull on the long tube inside the surgery site in order to remove the empty pain pump. It feels like you are pulling out a long worm...
The most amazing thing! After the pain pump ran out of juice, no pain! The surgery nurse, who had lots of experience behind her, had told us, "This will be 10 out of 10 pain!" Never had to use the narcotic prescription or any over-the counters, either!
Weeks of therapy -- very successful because Barry did everything his therapists told him to do and worked hard.

SO...
If you go over to that surgeon's office today, you will see that he is still in business! His office walls are covered with pictures and letters from very grateful patients. And we know why! In less than 6 months, Barry's shoulder was truly back to normal, and he was back at work with no limitations.

I had to laugh one day after Barry's right shoulder was all healed up. I saw him moving his left arm all around with a very dissatisfied look on his face. I was a little worried until he said, "Now this other shoulder doesn't feel right! Something in there is popping when I move it!" Nothing like comparing the good with the better to make the good feel bad!

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Afraid...

2010-03-12T12:50:00.014-07:00

It is so easy to be afraid.

The story in a nutshell...
January 6 -- Barry falls on the ice at work and hurts his shoulder.
January and February -- The doctor sends him to physical therapy to see if it will mend on its own. He makes progress, but not enough. Doctor schedules an MRI.
March 8 -- Doctor says MRI confirms a full-thickness tear of the distal supraspinatus tendon. He will need surgery and is referred to an orthopedic surgeon.
March 9 -- Barry picks up the MRI films from the radiologist to give to the orthopedic surgeon, since that doc prefers to get the films and not a CD. Enclosed with them is the printed copy of the radiology report. Snoopy me, I dig it out and read it. I discover that there is also a partial tear of another tendon the doc said nothing about. I am also chagrined to see that the insurance doc also did not mention that the radiologist saw a "heterogeneous marrow lesion" in the upper arm bone that he thought needed to be checked out further with x-rays. He even said that a "marrow infiltrative neoplasm" could not be ruled out by what he could see on the MRI...
March 10 -- Barry gets a set of x-rays of his upper arm (at the radiology office recommended by our chiropractor), and he leaves the MRI films so the radiology doc there can compare the two and assess the problem. He brings the x-rays home on CD which my computer obligingly opens up for me... Yes, we can see what they are talking about--a wispy whiter area inside the upper bone just below the shoulder joint.
March 11 -- No news.

So today I was waiting.

Barry left for a very early meeting this morning. Coral stays home on Fridays, so she was still in bed. I was whisking around the house, full of anxious energy, wishing we would hear something before the weekend. The phone rang. The radiology office. They had sent the report to our chiropractor...

For some reason, the kitchen sink is one of my thinking places, and as I worked on the dishes, a familiar verse kept surfacing. I often repeat this verse, so the fact that I thought of it today was no surprise. "When I am afraid, I will trust in you." (Ps 56:3) A sort of statement. An act of the will. A decision today.

But then my conversation with God continued. Me talking, Him listening. I think He is used to that. I tend to talk more than I listen, not often a good thing! I told him how many things in my world scare me. I am afraid of pain, afraid of losing my loved ones, afraid for Coral's future, afraid of suffering... afraid of things that happen and things that might happen...

Quick as a flash, I stopped talking and listened, because He answered me! Not an answer I was searching for or thinking up. One that came and interrupted me. "Don't be afraid! I have overcome the world!" (I looked it up--Jn 16:33)

Worship is not just for Sunday mornings!

I called the chiropractor's office and wanted to make an appointment. He said he could talk to Barry over the phone. Over the PHONE?? So when Barry came home, he called. It is a benign tumor, not attached to anything, just there. And it appears to have been there for some time. We just have not had a reason to know about it.

"In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart!
I have overcome the world."
--John 16:33

5 months off is long enough...

2010-02-27T23:50:00.006-07:00

For the last month or so, I've heard a little voice calling me, a little blogging voice. I've taken a very long break from blogging, and here's my confession: I have been spending a lot of time over on {whisper}... Facebook. I love the way it connects me with my family far away and with friends whom I have not seen in more years than any of us would like to remember. We can even play Lexulous together on Facebook (like Scrabble) even though we are thousands of miles apart and can't sit around a board game.

But somehow I am not totally happy with little snippets of this and that. A thought here and a thought there. A tiny peek when I really want a long visit. One sip of coffee when I long for a whole cup. My blog lets me write so much more, not just a little paragraph that goes zipping down and out of sight in the news feed. I can drift off into memories of long ago, tell a funny story, post a song I love, appreciate my family, cry a little, or feel thankful.

So back to my blog I have come. There is a new header picture, another one of Trent's. And I'm hoping to be back often.

See you soon...

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"I Would"

2009-09-29T00:01:00.002-06:00

The Singing News Fan Awards are over for another year, and I'm not surprised at the results. The Booth Brothers (Ronnie Booth, Michael Booth, and Jim Brady) have done wonderfully well. Look at the awards they got!

Favorite Baritone Singer -- Jim Brady
Favorite Lead Singer -- Ronnie Booth
Favorite Tenor Singer -- Michael Booth
Favorite Male Singer -- Ronnie Booth
Album of the Year -- Room For More
Trio of the Year -- Booth Brothers
Song of the Year -- What Salvation's Done For Me
Favorite Artists of the Year -- Booth Brothers

For quite a while now, I've been watching YouTube hoping to find a good rendition of "I Would." It is one of my favorites, and I'm pretty sure you will agree!

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The miracle at our house...

2009-09-27T00:01:00.005-06:00

Yesterday I was looking through stacks of CDs in our basement trying to find one that Barry needed to play at a memorial service.

Isn't it funny how just looking at the sleeves on our favorite music from the past can make lots of memories come flooding back? I never did find the one I was looking for, but out of the piles, I pulled several CDs that I wanted to hear again, and this song is on one of them.

Coral
(Our blessing, no longer in disguise...)

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Saturday mornings...

2009-09-26T10:42:00.013-06:00

Sometimes I wish I were the Saturday-morning-bright-and-early-hit-the-road-running kind of person. How much I could get done! My closets would be in order, bags would be taken to the Goodwill, the laundry would all be done, the back porch would be clean and inviting, all the weeds would be pulled, all the vegetables harvested, and all my transcription work would be done!

But that doesn't seem to be me. On Saturday mornings I snooze a little later than I can on the weekdays, and then I putter around quietly in the kitchen, trying to keep the clatter down so that I won't wake Coral up.

Usually this is our morning together with no real pressing agenda. Barry comes out and starts making coffee. While it perks, we make toast and eggs and sometimes bacon or pork chops, too. We sit across from each other at the dining room table. The newspaper is right side up to Barry, upside down to me. And that is the way I like it. I figure out the upside-down headlines and ask him about the ones that interest me. He reads what I want to hear and gleans other little nuggets of interest to share with me. He figures he is a little old-fashioned because holding the paper and ink right in his hand still seems so much better than reading the news on a computer screen! We chat about this and that and whatever comes to mind as we sip our coffee and take all the time we want.

And yes, my house could be gratifyingly organized and sparkling and always ready for company... but I'm pretty sure that someday when we are holding hands in a nursing home, this memory will be the one that lasts!

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Our world stopped turning...

2009-09-11T07:52:00.005-06:00

This morning I awoke to the sounds of our favorite local radio station, just as I always do, and slowly into my consciousness came the memories of that day 8 years ago. On the radio there was a moment of silence -- dead silence -- as if someone had flipped the world's switch off. And then came Alan Jackson's song...

It might be that there are hundreds of posts like mine today. I haven't even checked. I remember exactly where I was on 9-11 -- what I was doing, why I turned the TV on, and then why I could not turn it off again.

Here is the song, just like I heard it this morning.

(For an excellent video with the song, click here.)

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Never to be forgotten...

2009-08-07T23:33:00.006-06:00

This evening I drove to Wal-Mart. Nothing new or strange about that.

But it was new and strange all the same. I couldn't help it. I drove carefully, a mile or two under the speed limit. People behind me probably thought I was Grandma Putt-Putt. My eyes were keenly alert, scanning the sides of the road for pedestrians. Just a few days ago, I had driven the same way, admiring the mountains in the distance and thinking far-away thoughts, automatically stopping and starting at the right places without concentrating on what I was doing.

What a difference an instant can make...

Yesterday morning, we were sitting in the Perkins Restaurant near our home, our booth overlooking a stoplight on the busy street. Suddenly, the man in the next booth gasped, and immediately we looked out the window. A woman lay on the asphalt in the far lanes of traffic, thrown a good distance in front of the vehicle that had hit her as she was crossing the road.

The scene is frozen in my mind. Her motionless body except for the hand reaching to her head. The slim middle-aged man jumping from his SUV and running to her, kneeling down and stretching his arms towards her desperately.

One police car and then another and another... it almost seemed as if they had been waiting around the corner for just such a moment. A man knelt on the ground beside her and seemed to be quietly talking during the eternity before the ambulance and fire truck came. And I...the one who looks the other way when we drive by the site of an accident...I could hardly bear to look.

Through the big window, I could see the officers and the firemen and the rescue personnel calmly and carefully doing what they are trained to do, and I thanked God for them. What kind of amazing person does it take to be a first responder?

I'm not sure if driving will ever feel quite the same again...

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Zzzzzzzz...

2009-07-26T23:41:00.005-06:00

I'm planning now what to do in my spare moments for the next 2 weeks...

So if you call and I don't answer...
If you email and get no response...

That's right! I'll be at my desk...and I just might be snoozing!

In June, Barry and I spent 2 weeks away from home. First, we spent a week in New Jersey where we helped to provide special music for our church's annual convention, and then we drove up to Toronto, Canada, to visit my mother and sister and her family. (We had a great time, by the way!)

I wanted to work while I was gone, but as the time got closer, reality set in, and I knew I wouldn't be able to do it all. So... I kept up with the dictation from the internal med doctor who is my client close to home, and I took 2 weeks off from the work I do as an independent contractor for a transcription company in Missouri.

Other transcriptionists covered my work while I was gone, and now it is time for me to return the favor! So I have promised to put my fingers into overdrive and take my turn. (Thank goodness I don't have to type on a clunker like this!)

I'm in for a difficult and busy 2 weeks, but I'm thankful for my job, a job I really love (well, MOST of the time!)

Snow on the Mountain!

2009-07-17T11:30:00.008-06:00

I was driving to an appointment yesterday morning - driving west on the street next to ours, straight toward the Rocky Mountains. A little jump over the houses down below, and I could be right there! Usually by this time of year, all the snow is gone from the front range, melting quickly in the hot weather, running down the ditches, and spreading out on the plains below. But not this year! It is the middle of July, and there is still snow on the mountains.
When I was a little girl growing up in Africa, I could not remember seeing snow. I remember one time we somehow got an apple. I wasn't used to apples, and I didn't much like them. But I remember my dad wished he could figure out how to grow an apple tree, and thinking to help him along on that, we carefully dug out the seeds from the core of the apple and planted them in a little can. After a while, a little green shoot came up, and we carefully watched and tended it until one morning, to our great dismay, we discovered that one of the cats had snacked on it overnight! This was a huge disappointment to us, but Daddy did not seem too upset. He said it would not have made apples anyway, because apples need frost.

I puzzled about "frost." Even though I had seen lots of pictures of snow and people wearing coats, I could not imagine it. The coldest thing I knew was the little tray of ice cubes in the little freezer compartment of our kerosene refrigerator. This is the same refrigerator that struggled and groaned and smoked its little kerosene wick trying to freeze one little tray of sweetened powdered milk into ice cream! I thought surely one little exposure to those ice cubes, and an apple tree should definitely be as cold as any apple tree needed to be! So I made the helpful suggestion to my dad that if we grew an apple tree and wanted apples, then we could take the tray of ice out and spread it around the bottom of the tree so that the tree could make some apples. I still remember the grin he gave me, just like it was yesterday!

If you had asked me what "snow on the mountain" was, I would have told you it was the hedge outside the bathroom door! Most of the little round leaves were a mottled green and white, but all the tiny young leaves on the top were delicate pink. Remembering it now, it was one of the most beautiful hedges I have ever seen.No apple trees for me. But if I had the seeds and a can full of dirt, you know what I would be trying to grow! A "snow on the mountain" hedge of my own!

(I look at this picture of me, and I can't recognize myself in that face. I don't remember that red dress except for seeing this picture of it. But I know it is me because of the hair! Check out those waves carefully coaxed into shape with a comb dipped in water! But the real giveaway is the end of my braid. My mother never let loose ends hang down. She always wrapped the end of the braid around and clipped a barrette on it to hold it! And that is how I know this is me!)
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Making ends meet...

2009-07-14T09:13:00.009-06:00

I know you must be wondering. Has Jeanette disappeared from blog world? Is everything okay?

No, I haven't quite disappeared...not quite! Yes, everything is okay, but it would be my longest post ever if I were to explain why I feel like this rope! So I will give you the bare bones.

New Grace, the quartet Barry and I sing with, traveled to New Jersey in June to provide the special music at our church's annual convention. This required significant practice time prior to going, as we have not really been singing together for the last year, so for quite a while before we left, my stress level was high as I tried to cover work, Coral's normal care, extra practice, working out the details of Coral's supervision and care during our absence, and then actually packing and remembering everything to take with us. Aunt Paula took charge of all Coral's care for the 10 days we were gone, and Andrea arrived from California and was able to help for the last week or so.

The convention went well, and besides that, we were able to see Barry's mother and actually stayed at her house the whole time we were in New Jersey. This was great, as I have not seen her for quite a long time, and it was wonderful to catch up a little bit with extended family and friends. After the convention was over, we (Barry, my brother Gord, and I) drove north from New Jersey to Toronto, Canada, where we spent two days visiting my mother and Carol-Ann and her family (which, as you know, is one of my VERY FAVORITE things to do!)

All in all, the time away was a blessing and refresher for me. But, as with most of my little jaunts away from home, there is a price to pay when I get back, and this time was a doozey. We jumped right into work catch-up, arrangements and funeral services for our friend Warren who passed away just before we left home, and helping with Gord and Paula's departure for a 5-week trip to Liberia.

It seems like each day I get up at the usual time and hope I can get a good start on my work. But then the time gets eaten up by other very important things, and I arrive at the evening with most of my work still to be done. I have been working until 2 or 3 a.m. and getting up again at the usual time each morning with less and less "oomph" for what has to be done.

So I have been a little shadow in blogland, but I hope -- oh, how I hope! -- that things will soon be back to normal! I may never totally catch up, but as soon as I can, I will visit you!
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I Can't Even Imagine It....Part 4

2009-06-04T09:56:00.002-06:00

Memorial Day is now in the past, but my thoughts about it continue on and are the reason for the title of this series. This year I was thinking about the moms of the young men and women who serve in the military, and I just can't even imagine what they go through.

While Trent was gone on this hike, I found that my mind was quite divided, and I could not really concentrate on the things I should have been doing. I admit that this was mostly because he was not well when he left, and I guess there is no way to turn off the mom-instinct! (Exhibit A -- me, worrywart!)

But compared to the moms of the young people in the military, I was skimming down Easy Street. I knew his plans, I knew his companions, and I knew where he was, for goodness sake! He was carrying a SPOT! And I knew he was not in any particular danger. And yet I still had my subconscious worrywart machine messing up my mind.

Then Memorial Day came, and I realized the enormity of the gift given to us by the moms (and dads) of the young people who serve in our military.

I cannot even imagine it...

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I Can't Even Imagine It....Part 3

2009-06-03T10:35:00.011-06:00

I'm sorry to be so long in getting the next installment done. Work has been heavier than usual, and time has been hard to find. But to continue...

Barry came home, and the hike was on! I watched the SPOT signals and could see the slow progress, and the terrain map showed me the steep climbing they were doing. It was rainy, gray, and cold at our house, and I knew it had to be colder and maybe even snowing up at 10,000 feet where they were.

On Memorial Day, I watched those little orange bubbles on the satellite map. Would Trent come home with the other two, or would those little signals continue past the coordinates for the end of the trail where the truck had been left?? Barry was watching, too, because he still was not sure the truck was in the right place. And if they got to the end of the trail and did not find it, what would they do? They would have no idea where the truck was! And they would be in the middle of nowhere with miles and miles to even get to phone service. To make matters worse, we discovered in the trail book that there are two different trail heads at the end of Segment 4/beginning of Segment 5. Now we were pretty sure the truck was at the wrong one! The orange bubbles came to an end in a small clearing in the forest that we could see vaguely on the satellite map. We waited. No more signals.

Several hours later, Mike's truck went by my office window. All three hikers were home safe and sound. And this is the story they had to tell us!

About 5 miles before our hikers reached the empty parking lot (yes, the dads had left the truck in the wrong place), they met four other hikers on the trail. They were actually two separate groups of hikers who had already met each other.

One was a man and his wife who were experienced hikers and in great shape but had somehow gotten off their original trail and did not know exactly where they were. The other group was two men who were totally lost because their compass was reading 180 degrees off. North looked like South! They had started out on an easy hike and had gone to much higher elevations than planned because they were lost. This was actually serious for them because they were very cold, and one of the men was visiting for the weekend from Ohio. Even though he was in excellent shape for hiking, his lungs were very unhappy with the elevation he had taken them to, and they were not working well at all.

The night before, the two men had taken stock and prayed for five specific things. God answered all five of their requests, but I only know two of them -- that they would stay dry that night, and that they would find someone who could help them. That night, it did not rain and they were dry. And the next day they met the other couple and then our hikers.

The seven of them continued down the trail and got to the cleared "parking" area where our hikers thought the truck would be, but it was not there! So there were three groups of hikers -- our group who had no idea where the truck was, the man and his wife who did not know quite where they were, and the two men who were lost and cold and having some altitude problems.

When all of them reached the empty parking lot, the couple realized that it was Mike's truck that they had passed earlier about 5 miles further down the road. So Mike and the man set off at a pretty fast pace to get it and bring it back for the others. Trent looked around to see if he could build a fire because he could see how very cold the two men were, but there was no dry wood to be found, so there was nothing to do but wait. The two got back with the truck sooner than expected because another vehicle happened along the road they were on and gave them a lift. Mike's truck has an extended cab, so they were able to fit all seven people in, and Mike drove them to the town where they had parked their vehicles which was actually on the way home anyway.

And so our hikers arrived back home safely. And Trent said, "Because of genetics, I knew that two nights out on the trail, cold and wet, were all I should do until I get over this respiratory thing." And he is making a nice recovery and planning for a later hike instead.

What an amazing God we have, and how He showed his loving care on Memorial Day weekend! Two men, lost and in trouble, prayed and asked Him for what they needed. He gave them a dry night, brought across their path two others who had seen the truck earlier in the day, and then joined them up with the owners of the truck who did not know where it was. "It was a God thing," Mike told us, and he is right!

(To be continued... with one more installment to explain why I can't even imagine it!)

I Can't Even Imagine it....Part 2

2009-05-30T10:13:00.014-06:00

The three hikers set off in two trucks with two of the dads (Brad and Barry) along to make this happen. The hike was to start at the beginning of Segment 3 and finish at the end of Segment 4, so the plan was for both trucks to go to the start and drop off the hikers. Barry and Brad would then take the two trucks to the end of Segment 4 and leave Mike's truck there for the hikers to use to come home in, and then Brad would come home with Barry. Trent had carefully printed out computer instructions for them so they would know where to leave Mike's truck.

Great plan! So off they went, and just before he drove off, Trent said, "I'm keeping it open to come back on Monday with them if I need to. (coff-coff-hack)" And I was thankful to have a son who could make a wise decision like that even though he had been planning this extended hike for so long.

Trent was carrying Mike's SPOT Satellite Messenger which has GPS tracking. This nifty little gadget sends out automatic messages to the satellite which in turn show up on a map I can see on my computer, so I can follow their progress. It is able to send out 4 different messages. Besides the autosignals, it can send out 1 preprogrammed message which Mike has set up to say, "God is Great, Life is Good, and I'm OK!" When this message is sent out, it comes to the email of everyone on Mike's list, along with the latitude and longitude coordinates of the SPOT, and they usually send that one out at the beginning and end of each hiking day. I've never seen the other 2 messages (which is a good thing), but one is for nonemergency help and one is for 911 help. This last one goes to the emails of everyone on the list and also to the emergency rescue people in the area closest to the SPOT.

All this is very reassuring, but it can also be a mixed blessing, I've discovered!

In the case of aforementioned worrywarts like me, when the unit doesn't make satellite contact for an extended period of time, or if there is operator error and the unit doesn't send out any signals for a whole day, visions of bears swallowing both SPOT and son have been known to flit through my head!!

Barry and Brad followed the printed instructions and finally found the little cleared area in the middle of wilderness-nowhere that seemed to be the right place to leave the truck. However, they really were not sure, because the directions and the road and the turns did not match up properly. Still, there was an old weathered sign that read, "Colorado Trail, Segment 5"... So with some misgivings, they parked Mike's big white truck, climbed into Barry's little one, and bumpety-bump-bumped their way back to the main road and home.

There will have to be another installment!

Before I go...I've been thinking about this. We make wonderful plans and put all the pieces in place, and that is a very necessary part of counting the cost of what we want to do and of being responsible. But when we have done our part and yet things seem to be going wrong, God sees the whole picture, including the needs of the other people around us. He knows how to work it all out!

(To be continued.... again!)

I Can't Even Imagine It...

2009-05-29T10:47:00.012-06:00

I'm a sort of a worrywart! It is one of those things that got faithfully passed down to me from my Mom, and I suppose she got it from hers! Not that I am different from most other moms. I probably fit somewhere in the middle on the worry scale. I worry more than some and not nearly as much as others!

Memorial Day weekend was different this year at our house. Usually we think of our soldiers far away and thank God for them and the enormous sacrifices they make for us every day. In church, members of the military stand and are honored by the congregation. This year, some people from our church took part in a marathon race and wore special T-shirts in honor of a local soldier who recently died. And we think of Barry's Dad who, long before I knew him, served his country overseas.

This year, I thought of the moms of our soldiers. And here's why...

Last Saturday, Trent and two friends left to hike on The Colorado Trail. They planned to do segments 3 and 4, about 30 miles, over the long weekend. Then the two friends were coming home, and Trent was going to hike on for the next two weeks. And lest the word "trail" mislead you, this is not necessarily easy walking. They carry heavy packs, and sometimes the trail goes up and up and up and up. (I'm sure Trent will report on this trip soon.)

Several days before they left, Trent caught from Barry a real nasty respiratory infection that included a bad cough and laryngitis and, as the doc would say, "generalized malaise and fatigue!" He coughed and hacked by the truck at our driveway, took his inhaler with him, and went anyway.

(To be continued...)

Our visit with Renae!

2009-05-15T22:40:00.005-06:00

I have a blind spot. It is more of a failing, actually. One of those "I-can-only-do-one-thing-at-a time" kind of shortcomings. I CANNOT REMEMBER MY CAMERA! And yesterday is a perfect example of it.

My blog-friend, Renae, is in Colorado! She is attending the annual Christian writer's conference in Estes Park. This is a mere 1 and 1/2 hour's drive for us as opposed to going all the way to Texas, and I knew I could not pass up this opportunity to meet her in person! So yesterday Barry, Coral, and I buckled down in our van and drove up into the mountains to eat dinner with Renae who had a little free time between conference sessions. I had forgotten how breathtakingly beautiful that drive is! There is no creator like God!

There were lots of things to prepare for that little trip. Coral, for one thing, as she was so excited to meet Renae! Her food, all blended and ready to go, heated to perfection and wrapped in a towel. Her ice cream, the container carefully frozen first and then filled with ice cream and frozen some more so it would last until supper time. I had already finished my medical transcription and sent it off to the doctor so that I wouldn't have that hanging over my head. Success! I even had time for a shower. And into my purse went the camera. I was so excited to take pictures of Renae, maybe even with Coral, to post on here. So off we went!

Big Elmo sat in the seat by Coral so that she would be okay with me sitting in the front with Barry. After the rush of getting off, it was so peaceful to sit in the quiet companionableness of our little family alone in our van. We talked a little bit, and Coral could hardly contain her joyful excitedness over the little gift bag she had to give to Renae!

As we pulled in at the conference center and up to the main building, there was Renae watching for us and waving! And we had such a great time getting to know each other in person and chatting, meeting some of her writer and speaker friends, eating dinner, laughing... It hardly seemed any time at all before we had to start home again.

And not once did I ever remember the camera in my purse! The one I told myself not to forget, the one I carefully put in there to make sure I had it with me, the one that should have had on it lots of great photos to share with you! A mile down the mountain, I suddenly thought of it! Oh, no! Not again! What is my problem? !

But what a blessing yesterday was to me! Such a beautiful and talented lady, with a truly rare gift from God for writing about MY feelings and MY experiences with humor and godly insight, and buried inside these everyday thoughts are faith and hope and lessons from God that I need to learn. I think what amazes me the most is her ability to write new fresh things every day!

Please visit Renae at Morning Coffee! Her first devotional book, Morning Coffee with James, is available for preorder now and will be in the stores later this year.
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Moms!

2009-05-08T07:43:00.003-06:00

Happy Mother's Day!

The biggest job on the face of the earth...

Catch up time!

2009-05-03T23:22:00.006-06:00

It's hard to believe that it is over a month now since I went to visit Carol-Ann and her family and my mother. I was in Canada for the last week of March, and it went by so quickly. I don't know why time has to act like that... skipping along when we are having fun, dragging its feet when we're not! It's high time I gave a little report!

Carol-Ann fixed up my bed in her large office area in the basement. This was perfect, as I took my laptop with me, and so down there I could keep up with my medical transcription whenever I wanted to. We settled into a homey routine, and most days I worked in the mornings. Then Bruce came home from work at noon time and shuttled me over to Mum's where I enjoyed the best lunches with her and her friend, Ruth. Then up to Mum's room where we would talk and laugh and catch up. One day I was so tired, I just curled up in her bed and took a nap. When I woke up, she was a bit disappointed that I had not gotten the full two hours of sleep she had hoped I would get! That's my Mum!

At supper time, Bruce would come and pick the two of us up to go back to their house for supper and the evening. I got to watch some of Kinza's favorite shows, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I just had the best time sharing in their everyday life. I even got to help with homework!!

Here's a picture I took on the day I was leaving. Mum was sitting in the big chair in her room.

My Mum

March 31, 2009
She will be 92 in July.

I showed her this picture on my little camera display, and she exclaimed,
"Oh, there's Daddy's picture in the background!"
And so it is.

Brrrr!

2009-04-18T09:36:00.006-06:00

According to our thermometer, the temperature yesterday seemed to be stuck right around freezing. The wind was whipping the snow across the yard, though, so it felt colder than that.

Two little robins were out playing in the spring snowstorm, hopping around in the front yard, chasing each other, skittering across the top of the snow banks, and leaving little tracks on the sidewalk. I tried to sneak out the front door to capture their antics, but they were too shy. In fact, if you zoom in on this picture, you can see where this little guy made a quick U-turn on the sidewalk to get to a safe distance when he heard the door opening!

So we gawked at each other through the big front window instead!

It DID snow!

2009-04-17T16:17:00.008-06:00

It was just as I thought...
I got up twice in the middle of the night to check for snow.
Just rain. Oh, phooey!
But then very, very early just as it was starting to get light, the snow began to fall, huge chunks of snowflakes all clinging together as if they were afraid to hit the ground.
It has kept up all day with a few clear times here and there.

Here's one of those clear times, taken from our front porch, on this very gray day.

Now the snow is falling steadily again, making everything all fuzzy and white.

A lot of snow is collecting on the bushes by our front porch. Pretty soon, we will take pity on those bushes and get the broom out to brush off all that weight!

Here we go again!

2009-04-16T23:39:00.004-06:00

"Parts of the Denver metro could pick up 10 to 15 inches of snow, with as much as 2 feet or more in the foothills just west and south of Denver." --The Weather Channel, 04/16/2009

That's tonight!

This was the view from our front porch on April 10, 2008.
That is almost exactly a year ago... and here we go again!

I'm looking out my office window, and I can see the sparkling lights of the city down below us--crystal clear, and not a flake in sight. It's kind of hard to believe the forecast. But in the mountains, the snow is already thickly falling. I'm sure I will wake up in the night and look out the window hopefully.

How I love being snowed in!

Today I went to the store and stocked up on yogurt. The "yogurt shelf" in the fridge was almost empty, and Little Miss Muffin (Coral herself) thinks it is yogurt or nothing for breakfast. Being snowed in without enough of that would be too much to bear! (You'll have to take my word for it!)

a gray dawn
white sheets of snow blocking out the world
the thwipp-thwipp-thwipp of the coffee perking
warm jammies
my family
How blessed I am!

(And if we really do get this snow, I'll take a picture for you!)

Easter!

2009-04-12T00:01:00.001-06:00

Jesus is alive!

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death,
because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
--Acts 2:24

Good Friday

2009-04-10T10:47:00.011-06:00

The cross...

wicked

cruel

evil beyond my understanding

a blessing beyond my imagination

... that terrible wonderful cross.

And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.
--Hebrews 13:12

Picture of the Day -- 03/21/2009

2009-03-21T00:45:00.007-06:00

LC with his head on the cat pillow!

A couple of Christmases ago, a friend gave us this little pillow which has a cat on it with the words "Never go to bed alone!"
Somehow it got down on the living room floor, and when I came out from my office, there LC was with his head on it, relaxing, which is one of his best talents!
I just had to take a picture!

(And by the way, our cats never let us go to bed alone, either. Put your legs under the blanket, and they just have to be right there sitting on top of your feet and weighting the covers down!)

Picture of the Day -- 03/18/2009

2009-03-18T22:58:00.005-06:00

Canada geese eating up all the tender shoots of winter wheat

I took this picture from the end of our driveway, looking west across the field toward the mountains.
At certain times of the year, we do wish these big birds would go back to Canada where they belong!
Some people say that they seem to have paths in the sky and always fly in the same places, so if you happen to live under that path... well, you might always have droppings on your roof! (I'm thankful to say this has not happened to us yet!)

Visit Trent's Blog!

2009-03-06T23:38:00.008-07:00

If you have been following my blog, you know that I have posted lots of pictures by Trent. Most of them are gorgeous mountain scenes taken while he has been hiking, and I love having new ones to use as my header. I'm always telling him, "Take something with lots of blue in it to match my Rocky Mountain Blue blog!"

Well, he has finally started his own blog about his hiking experiences with info and tips on hiking gear and all kinds of other things. He is just getting started, but I'm sure he will be posting lots of pictures there. I sure hope he will still let me use some of them, as well!

Trent's blog...
Rocky Mountain Hiker

Here he is taking one of those pictures at the top of Humboldt Peak!

(Thanks to Mike for his pictures of Trent)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 02/20/2009

2009-02-20T23:28:00.004-07:00

Trent, Mike, and Nathan
Ready to hike!

Barry took this picture on Mike's camera on January 17 as the three guys were leaving the parking lot and setting off to hike the first segment of the Colorado Trail. It was a 2-day hike with an overnight campout in the snow.

I'd be doing good just to get the pack on my back!
And check out the firewood strapped on the back of Mike's backpack!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 02/19/2009

2009-02-19T16:21:00.003-07:00

Guess who this is!

Check this out!

2009-02-13T08:20:00.011-07:00

Here I sit, hands poised over the keyboard -- and my mind is a blank! I can't seem to find anything to write about these days, and so I haven't been writing. Is this called writer's block? Maybe, but at least my livelihood is not depending on it. If it did, we would be starving! It is so much easier right now to stick on my headphones and type what someone else says rather than to come up with my own words.

So maybe I should do the "picture of the day" thing again for awhile until my mind comes back to me... Yes, I think that might be a really good idea.

Bruce and Carol-Ann in 1986
For today, I am sending you over to Carol-Ann's blog. If you have not been reading her "Be Mine, Valentine" series, you have been missing the Valentine's story of the year!

Click on the link below to get to her blog, and then scroll down on the page until you find "Part 1." She already has 15 installments there, and we are waiting with bated breath for the next one!

Carol-Ann's Blog

Under the covers...

2009-01-26T20:42:00.006-07:00

Yesterday was pretty cold -- in the single digits F -- and last night the weatherman said we might get some snow. So this morning I got up with one decision to be made right away. Should Coral go to her day program or not? First I checked the outdoor thermometer... Brrrr... 4 degrees F. (minus 15 C.) I took a squint out the kitchen window and saw that quite a brisk wind was moving the evergreens. Nope. This is the whole reason why I work from home. No more sending Coral out in terrible weather. No more worrying about how to call work and say I can't come. No more stress about doing the right thing. (And, of course, wearing flannel jammies and sipping hot tea while I type!) Then it began to snow, and I could not even see the house across the field. Confirmation of my good judgment, I told myself! And Coral snoozed until late in the morning, nice and warm under the covers!

Someone else had the right idea this morning about where to stay warm...Trent took this picture and sent it to me.
He got out of bed, and when he came back, there was Tux who had made himself all cozy!

I'm still here...

2009-01-14T06:55:00.007-07:00

I woke up early this morning and just could not get back to sleep, so I got up to take care of a few little loose ends that needed attention. Now in a few minutes I will get Coral up for the day, and then it will be time for work.

So before I jump into the day with both feet, here is a quick post to say I hope to soon be back to having time to blog again. Thanks for your comments and for missing me! I have not been able to visit your blogs much or leave comments. This past month has been really difficult for Coral which just automatically means difficult for me. Now I have this sinus/bronchial thing going on...

But I shall be back soon, I hope! In the meantime, I'm wishing for each of you peace in the New Year.

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Holy and happy and peaceful...

2008-12-25T02:29:00.007-07:00

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS

I question if Christmas can ever be "merry"
Except to the heart of an innocent child.
For when time has taught us the meaning of sorrow
And sobered the spirits that once were so wild,
When all the green graves that lie scattered behind us
Like milestones are marking the length of the way,
And echoes of voices that no more shall greet us
Have saddened the chimes of the bright Christmas Day,
We may not be merry, the long years forbid it,
The years that have brought us such manifold smarts,
But we may be happy, if only we carry
The Spirit of Christmas deep down in our hearts...

...Hence I shall not wish you the old "Merry Christmas,"
Since that is of shadowless childhood a part,
But one that is holy and happy and peaceful,
The Spirit of Christmas deep down in your heart.

--Annie Johnson Flint

I wish for you, my dear friends, a Christmas that is holy and happy and peaceful!

My Dad -- Part 4

2008-12-23T00:19:00.006-07:00

My father first met my mother, Margaret, at the beginning of 1935 when he was 27 and she was 17. About a year earlier, she had accepted an invitation from her friend Iris to attend a service at the People's Church in Toronto, and she trusted Jesus as her Savior that night. A few months later, she and another friend decided to go and check out the nearby Sunday school they had heard about. They were warmly welcomed, and my mother was assigned to the teenage girls' class where Cecil Hodgson was the teacher. There were some mischief-makers in that class who loved to give the teacher a hard time, and one Sunday a girl named Florence asked him very deliberately, "Mr. Hodgson, don't you think Miss English is pretty?" (I wish I had been a little fly on the wall!)

Here she is around that time!

I remember once my father told us about his first impressions of my mother. She had been attending his Sunday school class, and one day she went to him and asked him when the church prayer meeting was held. And he said to himself, "That's the kind of question a girl should be asking!"

But lots of changes were going on. My mother began teaching a Sunday school class herself, my father was away at times in the city, and so they saw each other only infrequently at church. Then one day my mother and her friend Gladys met my father and his friend Fred on the street and stopped to chat awhile. My father invited the girls to go with him and Fred to the next meeting of the mission organization he was considering joining, and so they agreed and went in Fred's car -- the men in the front, and the girls in the back. Not really a date!

Time passed, and my father did indeed join that mission organization, planning to leave for Africa. In the book she made for her grandchildren, my mother wrote: "By this time, I knew he had an interest in me that I didn't feel I could return, and although I had thoughts of the mission field, they were at that time vague, not concrete. I was far from ready, and any thoughts I did have didn't include Grandpa!"

Here's a little story I love, because it tells so much about each of my parents! Soon after this, my father invited my mother to have supper with him at the Stoodleigh Restaurant downtown. This was a special event, because eating out was not an everyday thing then. She met him there, but after the usual greetings, he told her he was sorry but he could not take her to supper because he had nothing in his pocket! She knew she had enough money to pay for supper, but after a few quick thoughts decided it would not be the thing to do, so she did not offer. They walked round and round in the ample space in the nearby Union Station and finally went home! And it was just as she expected! Everyone wanted to know what she had for supper! But somehow, the incident made her think more highly of my father, not less. It was not until much later that she found out that he had money when he invited her, but a sudden need had come up at the Mission headquarters, and he felt the Lord wanted him to give what he had.

In her little book for the grandchildren, my mother wrote: "Later, one rainy evening, Grandpa walked home with me. We stopped by the lamppost in front of my house, and under a dripping umbrella, Grandpa asked me to marry him. And Grandma said, 'No.'"

(Oh, how I loved to hear my mother tell us these stories when we were sitting around the supper table so many years ago!)

(To be continued...)

Another Update...

2008-12-19T23:39:00.006-07:00

Elmo giving Coral a good morning hug
(He sleeps all night in Coral's wheelchair parked by her bed)

Tonight I have been catching up on blogland happenings that I have been missing out on for a couple of weeks now, and how encouraging it has been for me! Thank you to all of you!

This is just to update you on us, and I'm glad to report that we may actually have turned the corner. For the last 2 weeks, I have kept Coral home because she was having so much discomfort in sitting. She would lean this way and that in her chair trying to get comfortable, and it was much better for her to lie in bed longer each morning than to sit in her wheelchair for such long hours every day.

Yesterday was the Christmas party for her day program, so I called up the transportation lady and asked to have a pickup for Coral, and off she went, all bundled up against the 14-degree weather. When she balked, I promised that it was only for one day, and then she would be staying home again until after Christmas. She came home happy and animated with a note that said that there had been no problems.

At bedtime, she told me her foot (her weight-bearing foot) was hurting, and it looked all funny and cramped up again to me. I think that might have been due to having to use her abdominal muscles in the evening. Something happens in her back or hip that goes all the way down her leg. I was worried about her and checked several times during the night, but all seemed to be okay.

But then this morning as soon as I saw her face, I knew she was having tummy trouble. We began several hours of some nasty heaving from an empty stomach. What was that about? I thought maybe she did not get enough to eat yesterday, and it seems I was right, as just a few sips of weak Jello water put an end to that. As it turned out, she had a very fun day watching her TV programs with Mom sitting beside her doing fun stuff on her laptop. Lots of kissing and talking about how cute Elmo is!!

I have been feeling so thankful today. Coral is feeling better every day. The heave-ho episode was over so quickly. Even more wonderful, it did not happen overnight when she might have choked and aspirated fluid. And a little (actually, not so little) glitch in someone else's day made it so that I could just sit and have fun with Coral. Last night, much to my surprise, there were no dictation files from the doctor. He usually uploads them to me at the end of his workday.

So I called his office this morning... "Did the doctor work yesterday? ... He did?? ... Yes, I'll wait to talk to him." Oh, no! This could not be good! He told me that when he tried to send me the work, he got a nasty error message on his computer -- a message that included words like "corrupted" and "reformat"... Arghh! He had worried over it all night. I don't know how he will handle the redoing of the records for those 26 patients he saw, but I do know that today I was free to do what was good for both Coral and me. And for that I am so thankful!

Right now, we are all sitting companionably in the office, Barry at his computer and me at mine. Barry has records (yes, the old vinyl discs) going on the player by his computer. Coral is happy in her wheelchair with her headphones plugged into the amp. Elmo is overjoyed to be sitting on the trashcan looking at Coral! Every now and then she leans toward me for a kiss. She tells us to look at Elmo so we can see how cute he is! She sees Najee lying on the floor and says, "Mom!" in that voice that I know means "Look at Najee!" I tell her what a good job of looking at things she is doing! And she beams at me!

Yes, today I am very, very thankful!

UPDATE: Saturday afternoon -- Well, it was a short reprieve, but it came just when I needed it! Last night the doc uploaded Friday's dictation (19 patients) and this morning he has sent me Thursday's which he had to do all over again (26 patients). Guess what I am spending my weekend doing! But Coral is giggling and happy in her room watching all of her favorite stuff, so we are getting back to normal just in time for Christmas!

It is SO cold...

2008-12-16T00:37:00.004-07:00

Trent took this picture the other night as it was beginning to snow.
This is a building very close to our house.

For several days now, our temperatures have been in the single digits. The thermometer outside our dining room window says -0.9 degrees. Last night it was down to about -8. I think that might be about -20 Celsius. Everything is covered with snow, and it is definitely not melting! More snow is predicted later this week, so maybe we will be having a white Christmas this year!

This is just a quick post on my way to bed. I just finished the work that had to be back to the doctor in the morning, but I am still not caught up with other things. Maybe soon...

To explain...

2008-12-11T19:50:00.003-07:00

This will be just a short note to explain why I have not been able to post Part 4 about my Dad today.

Things have been a bit hectic here, what with all the normal stuff plus Warren's problems to work on. Then on Monday Coral somehow got hurt and is having quite a bit of discomfort sitting, which is something she has to do all the time. She also had symptoms in her left foot with it being all cramped up and trembly. That is her weightbearing foot, and I began to be concerned that she might not be able to help me by bearing weight, which would mean I might not be physically able to do what I have to do, which would mean...

So I took her to the chiropractor on Tuesday who found a sacroiliac joint that was pretty compacted and unmoving on the left side. It looked to her as if Coral maybe had been "bounced" too hard on that side. She worked with that and got it pretty mobile by the time we left which was a help, as Coral seems to be able to bear her weight again. But she continued to have a lot of soft-tissue pain when sitting on the padded part we are supposed to sit on. (She is not very well padded there to begin with!) Since nothing amiss can be seen on the outside, I began to worry about possible internal soft-tissue damage from chronic constipation, so we took her to her general practitioner yesterday. The internal exam did not give her any discomfort, and the doc could not feel anything wrong, so I guess we are just going to have to wait it out. I do think she is doing better than she was.

All this long story to say that I am a big chicken when it comes to enduring the pain of my loved ones. Anything wrong with Coral is doubly bad for my innards because she can't tell me what is wrong, and so I am constantly trying to guess and wondering what I should be doing. I do try not to cross any rickety bridges before I have to, but there is a fine line between foolish worry and realistic concern sometimes!

I have kept her home every day and will continue to do that until she is better, so my work is getting done into the wee hours of the morning. I have a pile waiting for me. I haven't been able to visit your blogs or make comments or make a new post about my Dad. I will continue as soon as I can, and maybe I will stretch this series out over a little more time. Thanks so much for coming over here to visit and for leaving such wonderful comments!

My Dad -- Part 3

2008-12-10T10:18:00.005-07:00

As far back as I can remember, my father had to be careful about his health. Any little cold quickly became a deep bronchitis, and I remember that he often had what he called "hard indigestion." These problems were not new, and even as a young man, his health was fragile. Now that my Dad was planning to be a missionary, his family and friends were greatly concerned about how terrible this would be for his health. He had a promising career as an architect, and many of them just could not see any human wisdom at all in leaving North America to go far away to die young of a terrible disease in a foreign country! I'm sure there were many attempts to talk him out of it! (Believe it or not, in his late 20s he was considered to be a little too old to be going as a foreign missionary!)

And my Dad, being the kind of man he was, expected God to give him a verse in his normal everyday Bible reading that would answer that concern and give him clear guidance, and he was not disappointed! This is what he wrote:

"After study and preparation, I considered the advisability of seeking, at my age, a field of service which might be easier on the health than West Africa. I was reading at the time in Jeremiah where the children of Israel were commanded by the Lord to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, but they sought a way of escape into Egypt. The Lord spoke to them, saying that the sword that they feared in Babylon would take them in Egypt. I said, "Yes, Lord," and set my face steadfastly toward Liberia."

Early in 1941, my Dad was ready to set sail for Liberia. It had been 10 years since Meryl had been born, and she was being cared for by her grandparents, Madeleine's mother and father. It must have been very, very hard to leave her and go so far away, all alone, with very little ability to communicate -- no telephones, no email, none of the immediacy we expect now. I remember meeting Meryl's grandmother when I was a little girl, and I don't remember much about her except that she was elderly and very busy whenever I saw her. But I think about how terribly hard it must have been for her to lose her daughter so young, and I hope that having Meryl was a comfort to her. Meryl's grandparents will forever have my respect for the way they raised their little granddaughter to love and adore her father who had gone so far away.

What had my father been doing in the 10 years between Madeleine's death and the day he got on that ship?

For one thing, he was working. He had completed his 4-year course in architectural drafting and was immediately employed as a draftsman, work he loved. He also began studying at Toronto Baptist Seminary in preparation for going to Africa as a missionary.

I have just one picture to show you today, and that is of my father and his bicycle with the specially made sidecar container on the back. He wanted to win others in his profession to Christ, and so he cycled through Ontario visiting architects' offices, witnessing and leaving "tracts" that he had made. They were emery sticks for sharpening drafting pencils, and he had carefully printed a Scripture verse on one side.My father became a Christian when he was a teenager. He listened as his cousin, Ted, talked to his brothers about the Lord. Then one day he stopped to listen to some men who were preaching on the street corner. After the sermon, one of them asked if he had trusted Jesus as his Savior. My father knew that he believed in Jesus, but he was not sure he was saved, so that man showed him God's promise in the Bible that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but has everlasting life. From then on, he was sure of his salvation.

A few years ago, my mother wrote a special book for her grandchildren in which she tells so many interesting things about her life and my father's, so I am depending heavily on that for writing about my Dad today. Here's something she added to this part of the story:
"Someone has said that opportunities do not come with their ultimate value stamped upon them. That servant of the Lord, whoever he was, didn't know that the teenage boy to whom he was speaking that day would one day be a missionary to Africa."

My father also didn't know the end result of those little emery boards that he rode so many, many miles on his special bicycle to personally deliver...

Then in 1935, he met my mother!

(To be continued...)

My Dad -- Part 2

2008-12-09T00:01:00.019-07:00

(When he was in his 80s, my father wrote a short biography of his life -- 5 pages, double-spaced, typed on the typewriter by my mother. I will include some quotes from that so you will have it straight from him.)

Now, to continue...

My father and Madeleine had been married for about a year and a half, and they were expecting a baby. On January 27th, Meryl was born! She was beautiful and healthy, but Madeleine became very, very ill. I cannot begin to imagine what this must have been like for my father who was still such a very young man. All those many years later, he wrote just two short sentences, "[The] pastor was called and together we stood at the bedside as that dear one was committed to the keeping of Him Who sits upon the throne. She gave me a little daughter, but she herself went to be with the Lord."

There are four generations in this picture...William (my father's grandfather), Meryl (my sister), Cecil (my father), and Clarence (my father's father)

My father was an architectural draftsman; in fact, an office building for which he drew the plans stood for years in downtown Toronto and might still be there. He did beautiful printing and drawing.
Madeleine was buried early in February, and when Valentine's Day came, my Dad made this card for his little daughter...
Here he is with Meryl quite a few years later...

When I was growing up, I rarely heard my father speak about Madeleine. I do remember one time, though. When he first thought about being a foreign missionary, it seems that it was either marriage or missionary, not both. Many missionary societies at that time were not sending women to foreign countries because of the serious health risks from malaria and other illnesses. He told us about hearing a missionary speaker at a meeting he attended with Madeleine before they were married. After it was over, she said, "My, your heart was beating loudly tonight!" Deep down, he knew that God wanted him to be a missionary, but he told us, "I allowed my heart to beat in another direction." And so he married Madeleine.

He added this to his little biography:
"Standing in a bitter February blizzard, I saw the casket lowered into the grave - finally convinced that God had called me to be a missionary."

One little sentence sums up how my father chose to live --
"We stood at the bedside as that dear one was committed to the keeping of Him Who sits upon the throne."
...to the keeping of Him Who sits upon the throne.
My father committed everything to His keeping.

It is amazing to see how God weaves our lives together faithfully to make the sad and the happy into something that brings honor and glory to His name!
How thankful I am that His weaving brought me my sister Meryl and all her family!

(To be continued tomorrow...)

My Dad -- Part 1

2008-12-08T00:01:00.003-07:00

Today would have been my father's 101st birthday, so this week I am remembering him, and while I'm doing that, I am going to share a little bit of his life with you, too.

The older I get, the more clearly I see what an unusual and amazing man he was!

These are my grandparents who died before I was born...

Charlotte and Clarence Hodgson

Their third son was my father, Cecil, who was born on December 8, 1907.
Clare and Frank were older, and Norman and Arthur were younger, so my Dad was right in the middle. However, Norman died before he was a year old.

I don't know much about my father's growing up years, and I don't have any pictures of when he was a boy. I wonder about that sometimes. What was his home like? I'm sure there were some very lively times with so many boys in the house! And from what I saw when they all were older, they must have been a very intelligent and opinionated bunch of teenagers!

My father accepted Jesus as His Savior as a young man. He never did anything by halves. It was all or nothing, and this decision meant his all. He wrote, "Shortly after the Lord saved me, I dedicated myself, as I thought, to the ministry, but I did not think that God had called me to be a missionary." He heard many stirring speakers who urged him to take the good news about Jesus to another part of the world, but he needed more than to be told by others what to do. He did not believe that God had called him to be a missionary.

Soon after that, in 1929 when my Dad was 21 years old, he married a lovely Christian girl...Cecil and Madeleine Hodgson
He looks so happy!

(To be continued tomorrow...)

One More In Heaven...

2008-12-07T01:23:00.007-07:00

Yesterday we got the sad/glad news that my brother-in-law, Nori, went home to heaven early in the morning. He is the husband of my older sister, Meryl. Here he is in 1949 before he married my sister...

And here is a more recent picture of him.

Nori has not been very well for quite a while now, but this last illness was unexpected, and so this is a shock for everyone.

For most of my life, I have lived far away from Meryl and her family, but the times we have visited each other briefly have always been happy ones. I remember Nori as a quiet faithful man with a wonderful sense of humor. I loved to hear him tell a story, because his whole face sparkled with fun! He loved his family, and he loved the Lord.

December 8 would be my father's 101st birthday if he were still with us. He was the first of my immediate family circle to get to heaven, and now Nori has joined him. I'm so thankful that God blessed both of them with a very short trip from here to there.

My posts this coming week are going to be about my Dad in honor of his birthday,
so you will hear more about Meryl very soon!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 12/05/2008

2008-12-04T18:54:00.008-07:00

Winter has come again to the Rockies...

Our back yard is blanketed in white...

The bushes by the front porch are bending under the beautiful mounds of snow...

And LC knows where he would rather be!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 12/02/2008

2008-12-02T10:21:00.005-07:00

Snowed under, that's me... so here is a quick post just so you know I'm still here!

When Barry went to visit his mom last month, he called us every night. Of course, Coral talked to him, too, and that first evening her face was so alive and lit up with excitement that I told myself to have the camera ready the next time.

Wouldn't you know it, I had battery issues, so it was actually the third call before I was ready --
one hand holding the phone... the other one taking a picture... knowing she was not going to like the flash...
This is just a little reflection of what I saw the first night!
Total excitement and thrill in talking to her beloved Daddy!

(I wish I had counted how many times Coral said, "I miss my Daddy. I need him.")

WHIPPING CREAM...

2008-11-26T15:11:00.011-07:00

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving where I live. Like almost everyone else we know, we celebrate Thanksgiving with a big meal that we share with our family and friends as we talk about the things we are thankful for and the blessings of the past year. With a little football thrown in for good measure! (But who is measuring?!)

Our elderly friend, Warren, always joins us for Thanksgiving. He lives alone and has never been married. He is an only child, and his cousins live far away, so he joins our family for holiday meals. He sits at the dining room table where he can watch the goings-on in the kitchen and chat with Barry about this or that. And Warren always brings the whipping cream -- real fresh whipping cream in a glass bottle from the local dairy!

Sometimes I am just in awe when I think of his courage. As a very young man, he went to fight for our country in World War II. He was a point man, a very dangerous thing for a soldier to be, and he was shot through the jaw. I look inside myself and I don't see that kind of courage. I remember the day I saw his green dress uniform hanging in his closet... with the Purple Heart...

In June, Warren fell and broke his leg, and even after surgery and physical therapy and lots of meds, his leg still got worse and worse. The doctors finally told him it was an aggressive sarcoma, and today -- the day before Thanksgiving -- they took off that whole leg along with some of the pelvis in an effort to stop the cancer. All these weeks, even with severe pain and fuzzy brain, he has not lost his will to fight. Or his appreciation for good food, something it seems he has been getting very little of!

I've been a bit weepy today. Barry has called me often from the hospital with updates. Warren is out of surgery and awake, the doctor said. As far as he can tell, he was able to remove all the cancerous tissue.

I can't believe tomorrow is really Thanksgiving Day! But thanksgiving is not just a day. It is a lifetime of choices made new every day. Choosing to be thankful.

I gave in and bought a little waxed box of whipping cream... Thanksgiving Day just won't be the same this year!

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. --I Thessalonians 5:16-18

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 11/21/2008

2008-11-20T17:39:00.006-07:00

I looked at Elmo the other day, and he was entirely too dirty. His eyes were all brown-shot, and he smelled of too many kisses...

So I said, "Out of those clothes, you grubby boy! You are going to have a bath! In fact, you and all your little look-alikes are going to have a bath! Now quick, before Coral gets home!"

So off came Elmo's clothes, and here's what the table looked like...

I gathered up my armful of little boys, and downstairs we went...

I couldn't believe how fluffy and sweet-smelling they got!
So I lined them all up on the couch for a picture!
And Coral was thrilled to see them all when she got home!

SATURDAY'S MUSIC!

2008-11-15T00:01:00.005-07:00

I have saved the best for last! Carol-Ann herself!

Ever since she was a teenager, Carol-Ann has been writing wonderful songs. I have always loved to hear them, and so I was delighted to find that she has put a couple of them on the internet. Here is one of them for you to enjoy -- "No Miracle."

Here are two links...

The story behind the song

The song

(No, she does not play her guitar backwards! She told me that she inadvertently recorded this in "mirror image!" Of course, since I know her so well, she just doesn't look right backwards, but you might not have known that if I hadn't spilled the beans ...unless, of course, you noticed that guitar pointing the wrong way!)

SURPRISE!

2008-11-14T12:10:00.011-07:00

Okay, this is a first for me! I'm just as surprised as you are that it seems to have turned out okay! Ha ha!

So here's the story...
Carol-Ann has been writing songs since she was a kid, and I have lost track of how many there even are, but some time ago I recorded one of them as part of a CD made by our prison ministry group. If I am remembering correctly, this song -- I Am Tempted Too -- was written way back when we were still living in Liberia, so Carol-Ann must have been a teenager.

The brain wave hit me that maybe -- just maybe -- I could actually put together some pictures of Carol-Ann with the song as background. So I went digging on my computer and, by trial and error, came up with this! Oh, how I love learning how to do new things!

Two things to note --
First, the music doesn't start until you get to the first photo, so don't be worried that the sound is not working.
Second, the song is not meant to be a commentary on the pictures! The words don't match the photos at all!

I hope you enjoy it! And I hope your birthday week has been great, C-A!

Thursday's Music!

2008-11-13T10:59:00.010-07:00

In 1999, Barry and I went on a cruise -- our one and only cruise thus far and maybe our first and last! It was Mom and Dad's (Barry's parents) 50th anniversary, and they wanted to go on Charles Stanley's Alaska cruise. They had a big 50th anniversary party on their 49th anniversary, and then the plans were made to be on the cruise for the actual 50th. But in the intervening year, Dad had a stroke. He and Mom still very much wanted to go on that cruise, but they did not feel like they could manage alone because Dad was dependent on his wheelchair. So they invited Barry and me to go along and share their cabin! I had never dreamed of being able to do something like that! But Paula took care of Coral for us, and off we went! There were morning and afternoon Bible-teaching sessions which Dad thoroughly enjoyed, and then in the evenings there were Southern Gospel concerts. With all this -- and don't forget the FOOD! -- we had such a wonderful time! One of the groups on that cruise was Greater Vision.

The members are Gerald Wolfe, Rodney Griffin, and Jacob Kitson who recently took Jason Waldroup's place. I first saw Gerald when he was pianist and baritone with The Cathedrals. Rodney's ability to write wonderful songs is one thing that makes this group really outstanding. And I also like how down to earth these guys are. This picture looks like something I might have taken when we were on that cruise! Click on the link below to hear them singing one of Rodney's songs; in fact, he sings most of it himself, giving it the expression only he can give it...

A Pile of Crowns -- by Greater Vision
(This was filmed when Jason was still with the group.)

(Left to right: Jacob, Gerald, and Rodney)
This was taken on Jacob's first Alaska cruise with Greater Vision!

A glimpse of the future as described in Revelation 4, on which this song is based:
Rev. 4:10-11 The twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
"You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being."

Wednesday's Music!

2008-11-12T14:44:00.006-07:00

Sometimes a song comes along that makes you cry. I can think of a lot of people who fit into this song very well, so here's a link especially for you!

This group is one of the most musically talented families, The Isaacs. Lily is the mom and was born in Germany to parents who survived the Holocaust. Ben, Sonya, and Becky are her three children, and they sing and play a variety of musical instruments (very, very well, too!). This particular song was written by Sonya and Becky.

Heroes -- by The Isaacs
(The song actually ends at about 4:38 on the timer)

(Left to right: Lily, Ben, Sonya, and Becky)

Tuesday's Music!

2008-11-11T00:01:00.002-07:00

I would have to say that this group is my current favorite. Not too long ago, Barry, Coral, Gord, and I drove to a concert in eastern Colorado, and it was worth every bit of the effort we put into getting there. They have the most beautiful harmony, great songs with life-changing lyrics, and a lot of humor, too! They are the only group I have ever heard say, "If you would like some of our music and are not able to pay tonight, pull one of us aside and let us know. You can send the money later when you are able."

The song I really wanted to link to is "I Would," which tells the story of a little boy in a candy store, but I could find only one online link to that, and it is not the best quality. So instead here is one that was recorded here in our Colorado Red Rocks amphitheater. In fact, you won't see us, but we were sitting there on that hillside during this concert! We saw lots of our favorite singers, including this group, The Booth Brothers.

Castles in the Sand -- by The Booth Brothers

(Left to right: Michael Booth, Ronnie Booth, Jim Brady)

PS: This link can in no way convey the beauty and clarity of their sound. Their website has sample mp3s that will show you what I mean!

Monday's Music!

2008-11-10T00:01:00.002-07:00

One of my very favorite singers... Lynda Randle...

God on the Mountain -- by Lynda Randle

A week of music!

2008-11-09T00:30:00.004-07:00

This week will be different... and here's why...

Today is Carol-Ann's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, C-A!

If you know much about her, you know that she is one musical gal! She sings, plays quite a few different instruments, and has written a lot of songs over the years. When Gord and Carol-Ann and I were growing up, we played our instruments and sang together, and in the years since then, music has been a big part of our lives. It has the power to lift us up, especially when the words are ones that turn our thoughts and our hearts to God.

So this week (every day if I can manage it!), I will post a link to a favorite song. Maybe these will be new to you, but I hope you will love them as much as I do!

Today's song is by the Hoppers, a family group made up of Claude and Connie (mom and dad), Dean and Mike (their sons), and Kim (Dean's wife). Dean sings, and Mike plays the drums. They have been to our city several times, and we have traveled to other places to hear them, too. They know Coral by name (which thrills her, let me tell you!)

Every time I hear this song, tears roll down my face as I long for heaven, the New Jerusalem!

JERUSALEM -- by The Hoppers

(Left to right: Mike, Kim, Dean, Connie, Claude)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 11/07/2008

2008-11-06T17:02:00.007-07:00

My Button Box

When I was little, my mother had a button box. She depended on it. Where we lived, there were no nearby stores that sold cards of buttons in every shape and color. If we lost a button, we had nowhere to go but to the button box. We would not have thought of throwing out an old piece of clothing without first cutting off all the buttons to put back in that precious box.

I can remember playing with those buttons -- big ones and little ones, round and oval and square, plain plastic and wood and mother of pearl. Some even had a fancy little diamond inset on the top, and others were covered with fabric to match the long-discarded dress. Oh, what a treasure trove of imaginations was in that old button box!

I haven't been able to find a box just like my mothers' yet, but I've started my own button box. Just like we did many years ago, I always carefully cut the buttons off any clothes that are ready for the rag bag or the cat bed or the trash can. Whenever I find old buttons anywhere, I gather them up and add them to my box, and it is beginning to be just as interesting as the one in my memory!

We are sort of like the buttons in my box--all different shapes and sizes and colors, some of us fancy and others casual, some of us dressed up and showy, others of us plain and quiet. Put us all together, and we are so interesting! I love our button box! Let's enjoy it!

(Do you recognize the doily? It is the one I made for my mother years ago!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 11/03/2008

2008-11-03T18:41:00.006-07:00

Western Meadowlark
(Picture by Gord)

Ooph, what a day this has been! I hope tomorrow is better...
Remember to sing, no matter what!

By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.
--Psalms 42:8

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 10/31/2008

2008-10-31T23:54:00.007-06:00

This is the season of costumes and dressup, so check this out...

Coral goes to her day program Monday through Thursday, so yesterday she dressed up for the Halloween party they had. Guess who she went as....Right! Elmo! (Just like last year!!)

After much stretching and tugging, we managed to get those Elmo slippers over her shoes (the night before, after we took them off her for the night and she could not see what we were doing). She is a stickler about things always being the same, and she just can't stand anything but the feel of sturdy shoes. Plus, she needed to bear weight for transfers, and those slippers all by themselves just don't give enough support.
(Coral is real suspicious of the flash on the camera. It is just too much like lightning for her liking! She is not at all happy about me taking her picture!)

Coral cannot bear wearing a mask or even anything that feels like a hat. Trying to do so brings on a huge gag reflex, and that leads to ... well, you get the idea. So I took an old Elmo Halloween basket and cut Elmo's face off it and made a hair ornament.There is a hair elastic stitched on behind his eyes that went around the top of her ponytail, and then a little red hair clip on each side kept it anchored.

Since Coral puts her head back a lot, we weren't always sure if Elmo was coming or going!Big Elmo and his little talking Elmo friend are shocked to see Coral looking like them!
(Check out those matching fingernails!)

I think Coral forgave me for taking her pictures, because tonight she saw these pictures on my computer and was quite thrilled about it!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 10/27/2008

2008-10-27T11:03:00.004-06:00

My Silhouette Pictures

Someday I hope to find silhouette pictures that are just like the ones my mother had when I was little, but for now these are pretty close!

The silhouettes are painted on curved glass with a plain peachy-beige paper behind to make the figures show up well. There is a thin brass frame around the edge.

I don't know why I loved my mother's pictures so much. And what is more, I don't understand how she could have carefully packed those glass pictures and taken them half way around the world with her without some special reason... How can she not remember now that she ever had them? We are talking about a lady who remembers every detail of everything that ever happened to all of us, past and present, and who can put my memory to shame!
Maybe those pictures were just meant for my enjoyment!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 10/25/2008

2008-10-25T17:38:00.005-06:00

The Dining Room

Here is another picture from long ago... the dining room in our home in Liberia.
You can see the splotchy floor I mentioned once before.

Look at the mat ceiling! Even in this old picture, you can see the beautiful woven pattern. I would love to have one of those mats on my ceiling now...

Do you see those two little pictures on the wall? Those are the ones I have searched in the antique stores to find and which my mother does not remember that she had! But I remember them clearly, and here is the proof that they were not in my imagination! I have found some that are sort of like these, and I will show them to you next time.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 10/22/2008

2008-10-21T19:00:00.003-06:00

Barry and me on a walk in Eldorado Canyon
(Trent was with us, of course, and took the picture.)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 10/20/2008

2008-10-20T08:29:00.003-06:00

Coral watching TV with Elmo

We are starting to have much colder weather, and some days Coral's feet are so cold. I hate it when my feet are too cold, so I know this does not feel good to her. So Coral gets out of her wheelchair and into her recliner to get her feet up a little. Under all those blankets is a rice bag warmed up in the microwave. Even so, it takes a long time for those feet to warm up.
Elmo is always looking for a chance to jump into Coral's chair, and of course Coral loves it!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 10/17/2008

2008-10-16T20:42:00.011-06:00

More garden stuff...
This is how I make one of our favorite foods!

A box of collard greens sitting on my counter waiting for attention.

The center spines have been cut out, and several leaves are stacked ready to be rolled up for slicing.

Making thin slices...

Stir-frying the leaves with some seasoned hamburger...

Simmering with tomato sauce! Shall we have some with rice for supper?

And here's what I do with the leftovers...Now I am ready for some winter day when I just don't want to cook!

(I only showed you one pot, but I made two of them at the same time. That's why there are so many leftovers!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY - 10/12/2008

2008-10-12T16:54:00.003-06:00

Coral with "The Boys"

Here she is, sitting next to me in my office. She was having so much fun that I had to take her picture! But she looks like this so much of the time that this is not a rare moment to show you but more of a glimpse of her personality and how you would probably find her if you dropped in for a visit.

Coral has with her "The Boys" who I have mentioned before...Kirk the long-legged fox, the bells, and Elmo. She is not entirely happy until she has them properly positioned and has her Big Elmo sitting somewhere nearby. Once everything is as it should be, she can think about other things!

She has more pure enjoyment of life bottled up in her than most people ever get to experience, and maybe it is because even the very little things get her attention!

PICTURE OF THE DAY - 10/09/2008

2008-10-08T23:40:00.017-06:00

HUMBOLDT PEAK
Trent and Mike make it to the top!

Before sunrise and after sunset, the mountains can be a beautiful red color like this. It is called "Alpenglow." This is what they saw when they got up and started their climb....and this is the same mountain a little later after sunrise.
Starting the climb up...
There is light snow on the ground.
Mike is climbing up ahead...
...and here comes Trent.
Some of the climbing is more difficult...
Almost there...
"I MADE IT!"
I was so surprised when my phone rang shortly after noon on the day of the climb. I could see that it was Trent, and right away I was worried that something had happened. He was supposed to be up on the mountain! And he was! "My phone battery is almost dead," he told me. "I'm tired, but I made it!"

Looking out at other peaks...What an amazing view!
O God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas,
who formed the mountains by your power...
Psalm 65:5-6

(Thanks to Mike for the pictures of Trent!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY - 10/06/2008

2008-10-07T20:03:00.005-06:00

I am waiting to see if I can get a picture of Trent at the top of Humboldt Peak to include in the last set of pictures about that adventure,
so in the meantime I thought you would like to see this...
...(or would you??)

This past Saturday, Trent and Brad (Mike's Dad) went to do a little mountain hiking. Guess where they were when this little fellow crossed their path? Bet you can't guess!
Yep! They were in "Rattlesnake Gulch!" I guess it is called that for a very good reason!
It was a bit chilly up there, and this rattlesnake never rattled to warn them. In fact, Trent said he nearly stepped on him. It's a good thing he was wearing hiking boots, if you ask me!

If you can get past all the snakiness of him, he has awfully pretty markings, don't you think?
(I used to help my brother Gord skin snakes in Liberia, so my opinion probably doesn't count!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 10/04/2008

2008-10-03T23:54:00.010-06:00

THE TRIP TO THE CAMPSITE...

Mike parked his truck, and they began the hike to where they would spend the night before climbing Humboldt Peak.

Look at the size of what Mike is carrying!

Sights along the way...
Here's the tent, complete with front porch......and the fire Trent got going so they could cook.And then it was lights out. (I heard that the tent kept the light snow away, Trent's sleeping bag was nice and warm, the air pillow was a great idea, but the ground was VERY hard!)

And here is where they are headed in the morning!

PICTURE OF THE DAY - 10/03/2008

2008-10-03T00:24:00.011-06:00

Trent has been doing some mountain hiking which has turned into backpacking now, and he is really enjoying it. The next few days will be pictures Trent took when he and his friend Mike were climbing Humboldt Peak in the Sangro de Cristo Range in Southern Colorado last weekend. Humboldt Peak is a "14er," over 14,000 feet above sea level.

This is something I am simply not brave enough to do, but I am so proud of Trent for taking up such a wonderful activity and for the way he appreciates the outdoors and the scenic beauty. He takes gobs of pictures, so that means that I can enjoy a bit of what these places look like, although I know there is nothing like actually being there.

Trent and Mike had a rather long drive in Mike's truck just to get to the Sangro de Cristo Range (about 5 hours, if I have it right). Here are some things they saw as they were driving to the spot where they would camp overnight...

Next time: GETTING TO THE CAMPSITE...

Morning Coffee

2008-10-02T08:00:00.007-06:00

My friend Renae has a wonderful devotional blog that I have been enjoying for quite awhile. A few weeks ago, she invited me to be one of several guest writers on her blog, and my first devotional is there today. I would love to have you visit her and read it! Click below to visit her (and me!)

Morning Coffee

.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/29/2008

2008-09-29T00:09:00.008-06:00

Here are a few pictures taken from the train...

In many places, the track follows the Colorado River.

What a beautiful place to live!

Lovely though these pictures are, they cannot even begin to capture the beauty we saw!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/28/2008

2008-09-27T19:39:00.007-06:00

Barry and I are safely home, and we had a wonderful trip!

Going by train is very relaxing, because no one has to stress about who is keeping his eyes on the road. (Translation --Barry could look out the window all he wanted without me stressing about whether or not he was looking at the road!) There is lots of room for each passenger, probably three times the space you get on an airplane, and you can go down to the restrooms or get sandwiches, snacks, and cold or hot drinks in the snack car. There are booths where you can sit and look out the big windows while you sip a steaming coffee and snuggle up against your hubby!

If time is not a limiting factor, I would highly recommend a train trip. There is no better way to see our beautiful country.

Union Station in Denver

We started out by parking our truck for two days outside Union Station, which is a beautiful old building that has been preserved very well.
You almost feel like you have gone way back in time when you sit in the huge waiting area on the long high-backed wooden benches with lights all along the top. Barry was pointing out to me the beautiful workmanship in those benches. Someone took a great deal of time to match the grain in the wood so that it creates a very even pattern on the back of each bench.

Here is the train we rode on, the California Zephyr. We only rode a very short piece of its total route, Denver to Glenwood Springs and back again. The trip takes about 5 hours going, 6 hours coming back.
The car we rode in looked like this. The passenger seats are in the upper section, and below there are washrooms, the snack area, baggage, etc. The observation and dining areas are also on the upper level.

The scenery was beautiful with mountains, the Colorado River, evergreens, and the changing colors of fall. I will show you a few of those pictures next time. I was a little disappointed in them, though. I had to take them through the train windows which adds a different quality somehow and creates reflection problems and so forth. (I also wanted to ask the conductor if we could stop the train so that I could get a ladder and wash the outside of the windows!)

More next time!

I'm off again!

2008-09-23T23:59:00.001-06:00

Hi friends!

Just a quick note to say I'll be away for a couple of days. Tomorrow Barry and I are going to ride the Amtrak train to Glenwood Springs, stay overnight there, and ride it back on Thursday. I'm sticking my camera in. Who knows? I might get a good shot to share with you!

See you in a couple of days!

.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/23/2008

2008-09-23T00:02:00.005-06:00

Trent, Barry, Jeanette, and Coral
(Long, long ago!)

I hope you don't mind...
I am so short of time these days that I am posting random pictures I already have on my computer. I hope you like them!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/20/2008

2008-09-20T00:05:00.008-06:00

This morning I was working at my computer when a low, steady hum pulled me out of the patient records and into the real world! I grabbed my camera and hurried out the front door... Just as I thought! There is the top of the tractor just coming up out of the valley in the middle of the field...

Hmmm...I wonder who is in the tractor?

Look at that freshly-turned earth? Isn't it the most beautiful thing?

There! He has turned around and is going back the other way! How I love the sound of a tractor going up and down the field! It is a steady constant reassuring presence, humming up and down outside our house...

Look how the driver has to sit facing forward but has to keep his head turned back to watch where the implement is going? That would turn me into an absolute corkscrew!

Who can that driver be??It's my Trent!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/19/2008

2008-09-19T00:07:00.004-06:00

Since we were talking about Coral's hair the other day, I took a couple of pictures of her braid for you to see...

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/16/2008

2008-09-16T14:29:00.005-06:00

Barry & me
Another trip into the past!

This was taken a few months after we were married.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/15/2008

2008-09-15T00:57:00.005-06:00

Ptarmigan
It does not take too much trouble to hide if you are a ptarmigan!

On Saturday, Trent went with a group to hike on Quandry, one of Colorado's "fourteeners," which is a mountain with a peak that exceeds 14,000 feet above sea level. He came back with lots of pictures, and I plan to post some of them from time to time, maybe even change my header picture again!

Several of the hikers nearly stepped on these birds because they looked so much like the rocks and did not move until the last minute! When Trent was describing the birds, Gord knew without even seeing the picture exactly what they were.

(I had to ask Gord how to spell "ptarmigan" and was all set ready to type a "T" as the first letter! That 'P" is silent!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/12/2008

2008-09-11T21:50:00.002-06:00

Coral and L.C.

Here's what I saw last evening when I went to the living room. Coral was sitting in her wheelchair, and L.C. jumped up on the back of the recliner to be close to her.

When it is bedtime, Coral starts calling, "L-Seeee! L-Seee!" He comes running and jumps up on her knee for the ride to the bathroom where he gets a good session of petting and ear-rubbing before he has to get down.
He hardly fits on Coral's petite lap, but they both love this little ritual!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/10/2008

2008-09-09T21:22:00.003-06:00

Coral and me sitting on the couch

On her next birthday, she will be pretty close to the age I was when this picture was taken!
Just what I needed tonight, a good dose of the unbelievable!
But believe it I must!

That sweet little spirit of hers still shines out, just like it did way back then...

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/08/2008

2008-09-08T00:20:00.004-06:00

Our Liberian necklaces

Like girls everywhere, we loved to dress up, and these were the necklaces we wore. We used to wear them in several strands, or in one long strand tied in a knot. They are made from gray, brown, and white seeds threaded on a strong slender thread, sometimes using wooden spacers made from the hollow stem of a plant.

The necklaces are glossy and smooth, and I still love to hold them!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/07/2008

2008-09-06T23:56:00.005-06:00

I'm certainly missing some days on these daily pictures, and it is not because I am reading my favorite books, either! Oh, how I would love to go back in time to the days when I could fill every spare moment with reading and rereading all my favorite books! As has been mentioned on this blog before, I learned to read when I was very little and read everything in sight, even using a flashlight under the covers at night to read that last chapter after I was supposed to be asleep!

Like these...And these...I was totally lost in these stories, completely gone into other fascinating worlds.
And, even now, when I am reading I cannot hear what others say to me. It is just as if they never even said anything at all!
(How frustrating that must be for everyone who has to live with me!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/04/2008

2008-09-04T08:26:00.004-06:00

Trent and I were standing by the side of the road on Saturday, and I heard a rustling in the dry weeds. They were moving, so I went over to get a closer look and saw only...dry weeds.

Then they rustled again, and I saw him...

Sneaky little fella!

(Picture by Trent)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/01/2008

2008-09-01T18:35:00.008-06:00

In Eldorado Canyon

On Saturday Trent, Barry, and I went for another hike in the mountains. We did a fairly easy trail (that I felt up to!), and then Barry and Trent went on to do a much more difficult one. I had brought an easy-reading book for just such a time, and so they left me happily sitting on a bench looking across the canyon at this cliff. How peaceful it was sitting there in the gentle breeze! And how amazing what people aspire to do...

Look more closely...

Get out those binoculars...
I kept hearing shouts of "Wooo-hooo!" that came ringing across the valley as one of the climbers rejoiced in another few feet gained!

How small I am in the middle of God's glorious and amazing creation! And what I can see is a minuscule reflection of what He can do...

(Pictures by Trent)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/29/2008

2008-08-29T00:08:00.015-06:00

I've missed a few days of posting because of the fact that I actually need a little sleep now and then! My day job is medical transcription... Did I say "day job?" Pardon me! What I really meant is my all-times-of-the-day-and-night job! The last two weeks have been my busiest ever with that, and then into that scenario we mix the fact that the vegetables in the garden are ready to be processed and frozen for the winter, Coral had a neurology appointment and ongoing med experimentation, and our elderly friend Warren has many problems to overcome as he rehabs from a broken leg.

Before I get some of the above-mentioned sleep, I am going to open a window on my day today and imagine you peeking in! I buzzed through the work from two doctors, and then went out to the garden to pick some corn.Here is L.C. (Lap Cat) checking out the remains after I shucked the corn.

In the sink, ready to be washed...

Bubbling on the stove, with the timer set for 4 minutes....

Dunking the cobs in cold water to stop the cooking process and cool them quickly for handling...

Letting the cobs dry so that there will be no water mixed with the kernels when I cut them off...

Cutting ALL that corn off of ALL those cobs...

Ready for the freezer!

I froze 10 bags in all today, and each bag had the kernels from 6 to 8 cobs in it.
(Some of the cobs were really young, so they made an extra-special tender bag!)

Like I said, I actually need a little sleep now and then... and I think it better be now!

To keep in touch...

2008-08-26T08:06:00.002-06:00

If there could be snow in August, you would see a pile of it with me underneath... I have been so "snowed under" that I have not been able to post, and today is another day just like that. More transcription work than I can do + the garden + trying to help with an elderly friend + the usual care for Coral and other home stuff. I'm hoping things calm down in the next day or two. In the meantime, this is just a note to keep in touch until I can post properly again...

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/23/2008

2008-08-23T01:20:00.006-06:00

My pot of ratatouille!
(not to be confused with Ratatouille, the movie!)

This was on my stove this afternoon, simmering and filling the house with delightful fresh garden scents! I know that ratatouille is usually just vegetables, but I also know that my husband loves his meat, so I started some ground beef browning with my favorite seasonings. Then I chopped up zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and onions to add, freshly picked from the garden. Our tomatoes are not ripe yet, so I settled for canned ones and let it bubble a bit longer until it looked like this.... Mmmmm, absolutely the best served over rice!

So now I have ratatouille in the freezer, and on some snowy day in winter I will start the rice cooker going and pull out one or two of those containers, and we will have us a scrumptious meal!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/22/2008

2008-08-21T22:17:00.004-06:00

Cute Kitten!

One day a couple of years ago, this coat was on the floor, and the kitten found out how warm and cozy it was and just enjoyed a blissful sleep!

It used to be that every year -- sometimes more than once a year -- we had a bunch of kittens romping around in our house. What great fun it is to watch kittens scamper about, tussling with each other and swatting at imaginary playthings! The kitten thing lost a bit of its glow, though, when they clawed their way to the top of the drapes and shredded the edges of books on the shelf. And the whole scenario got real clouded and tarnished when I had to walk in the kitchen by scraping my feet along the floor so that I would not step on one of the furballs! Too much of a good thing, that's what it was.

So now all the cats have had their shave-shave, cut-cut, snip-snip, and stitch-stitch procedures and are settling into old age peacefully without any pesky kittens to keep them young.

But sometimes I miss those kittens, especially when I come across pictures like this one!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/21/2008

2008-08-21T00:06:00.006-06:00

On my Memories Shelf sits this beautiful wooden container.It was specially made by my father on his lathe. I'm not sure if that lathe could also be used with metal, but I think so, because from somewhere in the back of my mind comes the memory that he also was able to make parts on that lathe for the engines when they broke.

I love this container because it shows off the beautiful hard red wood found in Liberia and also because my father spent so much time making it perfect.
It is not just a solid piece of wood...
It has two separate parts to the lid so that I can drop things in it through the little opening, or I can open up the whole top... if I could think of something worthy of storing in it! Right now, it is beautiful all by itself!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/20/2008

2008-08-19T20:58:00.006-06:00

Trent, Barry, and I were hiking in Eldorado Canyon on July 4th when I noticed this little cactus flower by the side of the road, a little bright spot of yellow almost hidden by the dry brown around it.

I'm sure you know by now how much I love to be surprised by beauty in unexpected places!

Let's look a bit closer...Breathtaking beauty surrounded by thorns and prickles!

That is life, too...

(Pictures by Trent)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/19/2008

2008-08-19T07:13:00.003-06:00

Last week we had the strangest weather. In fact, we set some records. It was so cold here that we had to turn on our furnace one night! In the middle of August! The high for the day was below 50 degrees.

On Saturday, even though it was still rainy and overcast, Trent went hiking with his friend Mike and took this picture.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/18/2008

2008-08-17T11:15:00.010-06:00

Uncle Wiggily Game

Look what I found! While Barry and I were browsing in an antique store a few days ago, I spotted this game and pounced on it with delight! Did the box for our old game look just like this? I can't really remember what it looked like. Maybe it was so beat up that it does not stay in my mind! The copyright on the box is 1949, so it has to be real close.

Here are the rules...

the cards and playing pieces....

...and here is the game board!

I'm just going to have to play this for old times' sake!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/17/2008

2008-08-16T23:04:00.007-06:00

Castor Oil & Toilet Paper

My childhood illnesses were not normal flu and ear infections and sniffles like those I helped my children through. We had things like jigger bites and mosquito bites, malaria, and dysentery. We took a very bitter little pill every night to help us keep from getting malaria, but occasionally we got it anyway. We knew people with huge tropical ulcers and tuberculosis. One of the ladies who lived nearby had lost most of her fingers and toes because of leprosy. When I was about 7, I caught hepatitis A (we called it "infectious hepatitis") from someone else who had it, and I was very very sick for about a month. Thinking back on it now from a mom's perspective, I can imagine how difficult that must have been for my mother, because at times she was not sure I would ever get better.

We did not know anything about Tylenol or decongestants or any of the other drugs we can get so easily now, but there was one thing we knew ALL about, and that was Castor Oil! My father was absolutely positive that, no matter what invisible bug was attacking his body, it could be flushed out once and for all with a good dose of Castor Oil!

And we children also learned first hand of its germ-flushing capabilities! How we hated the taste of that stuff, but Daddy had come up with a solution for how to get it down in one big gulp. He took a clear glass custard dish and filled it about 1/4 full with water in which he dissolved some baking soda (already sounds yummy, doesn't it!) Then he opened the Castor Oil and poured in a big dollop, right in the middle of that soda water. You could see the oily patch floating on the surface. ("That baking soda will cut the oil," he would assure us as we tried to put off that awful moment!) We knew just what to do, because we had watched him do it so many times. He would stand with the custard dish in one hand, poised for swallowing, and his left hand on his hip. Then back his head would go and he would gulp it down. No matter how much that soda water "cut the oil," there was no disguising that awful horrible taste! Then he would stand looking at us, and the first burp would come, and the taste with it....AGGGHHH! I can almost taste it now! "U-buh-buh-buh-buh!" he would shiver with that burp!
At the first sign of illness, we all took Castor Oil!

This wonderful treatment did not end with actually getting that oil down (and keeping it down)! About an hour later, we did not dare leave the house because of the extreme....ahem!...VERY extreme laxative effects of this wonder drug! It would be impossible to describe how very, very flushed those germs were...along with every other blessed thing that could possibly have been retained in our little intestines! We were clean as a whistle when this whole procedure was over!
Thus, you now know why the bottle of Castor Oil would indeed be only half the picture if "the roll" were not beside it!

(Now if you click on that picture and read the label on the bottle carefully, you will see that the manufacturers make the preposterous claim that this product is "Tasteless & Odorless!" The very fact that they felt it necessary to put that on the label tells you something! How many things do we buy that assure us, right on the label, that they are "tasteless and odorless?" 'Nuff said!)
.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/15/2008

2008-08-14T21:57:00.004-06:00

The iron

When I was a kid, this was the kind of iron we used. The bottom part is solid iron, so it is very heavy, and for that reason this one does not sit on my Memory Shelf but is on the floor beside it. Pull up on that little round knob, and the handle comes off. This is a very important feature of the iron.
A big round metal plate sat over the wood fire, and on it were 3 or 4 of these heavy metal irons (without the handle). They got blistering hot; in fact, they were downright dangerous, now that I consider it! When it was time to iron, the handle was pushed down onto the top of one of the irons to fasten it on, and that iron was used until it was too cold to do the job. Back to the wood fire we went and traded the cold iron for a fresh hot one while the first one heated back up. It was a good system that worked very well, but there was no such thing as a quick press or touch up to a wrinkly dress. Clothes had to be ironed on "ironing day" when the fire was lit and the irons had time to heat up.

By the time I was in my mid to late teens, we had a small generator that provided a bit of light for a few hours in the evenings. We also had a small electric travel iron that did not draw too much current. Even so, we could see the lights dip each time the iron came on. I'm afraid we were getting quite spoiled by then, because I remember times when we would run to our father and ask him to turn the generator on so we could use the iron for a few minutes! And he did it!

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I'm back!

2008-08-14T21:44:00.002-06:00

Thanks for all the good wishes for my away time. We lazed around in the mornings and ate a very late breakfast, then went out to browse in secondhand stores and an antique store or two whenever we felt like it. By evening, we were hungry and ate out before coming back to the little cottage nestled at the foot of Pike's Peak in the Colorado Rockies. What a gorgeous place! We were quiet and undisturbed, and the few days passed far too quickly.

Now I'm beating up my computer keyboard again trying to catch up...it seems to be the story of my life!

TAKING A BREAK!

2008-08-10T13:23:00.002-06:00

I'm taking a break. Barry and I are off on our second honeymoon... or maybe it's our third...or fourth...or fifth... I've lost track! See you on Thursday!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 08/10/2008

2008-08-09T23:14:00.007-06:00

Aluminum Juicer

What I wouldn't give now for an orange or grapefruit or lime, totally ripe, picked off the tree outside the back door! We didn't know how good we had it when we were kids!
This juice squeezer is just like the one we had. Ours was used to make orange and lime juice. We hardly ever made grapefruit juice, and I think it must have been because the grapefruits were so huge they would never have fit in this squeezer! We cut the fruit in half and put one half into the open squeezer......lowered the handle and pressed until all the juice was squeezed out of the fruit and drained down into the bottom through those little slits. Then we poured the juice out the spout into a glass and went on squeezing fruit until we had as much as we wanted. And it was SO sweet!

The whole thing came apart for easy cleaning!

We drank the orange juice or limeade out of aluminum glasses like these...(That sounds like more than enough aluminum than we should have been having, if you ask me!)