I Deeed Eat!

My brother, Jim, had Down's Syndrome.  Communication was sometimes difficult for him but he had one phrase that he could say with such clarity and it was this "I Did It."  When Jim said those words it came out more like "I deeeeed eat!"  There was a lot of emphasis on the "E" sound!  Jim left this earth to be with Jesus 13 years ago on this coming Saturday.  He is still missed but his famous phrases live on in our family. 

Like this past week.  Take a look at this picture.  We've talked about this in a blog earlier in the month.  Does anything look different?

A week ago did you hear someone shout

"I DEED EAT!!!"

Kidlet Three gave himself his first insulin shot!  Four years after his diagnosis he had the courage, strength, and lots of incentives to poke that needle in his own skin.  And he has continued on all this week having to face another giant when he had to go into a restaurant bathroom to give himself the shot.  But guess what...

He DID IT!!

 The smile on his face spread from ear to ear after that first shot.  The first words out of his mouth were "I did it" and then "that wasn't so bad."  I cried happy tears.  We did a dance.  We called family and friends.  And boy did we hug. 

The gameboard that Kidlet One made was pivotal for Kidlet Three to get moving toward this goal.  Each day Kidlet Three had an option to earn a dollar per the gameboard spaces instructions, or to give us a dollar back if he chose to skip a space (set of instructions).  Never did he pay us any money.  He charged along that gameboard in his true competitve way.  The day we were to share poking the needle in he was a little apprehensive.  So we literally talked through what was going to happen and then we prayed.  Well, I prayed as he was jittery.  Specifically I asked God to give Kidlet Three extreme courage and peace.  And then we started and I took my hand off the syringe in a surprise move but he continued on and poked that needle in his tummy chub.  And the party started!

The very last space on the gameboard, one of the grand prizes, was a trip to House of Bounce.  This is a building of inflatable slides, climbing walls, jousting, tug-of-war, etc. plus a room for laser tag.  Today we celebrated.  Kidlet One and her husband were able to join us along with three of Kidlet Three's friend.  We were so sad that Kidlet Two had a college class which kept him from joining us.  And believe it or not...I participated in the Bounce and the laser tag.  I'm hooked on laser tag!  Here are a few snaps...

 

Kidlet Three's journey to this day is not unlike this inflatable obstacle course.  As I crawled through here, God did a little nudge with me and allowed me to see the analogy. 

The beginning through the course started like this.  I could stand and push my way through.  Kidlet Three has been able to push his way through four years of Dad and Mom giving the insulin shots.

What started out as a standing/walking through the beginning of the maze quickly ended with me crawling on my hands and knees.  Quite humbling, I must say.  Rounding a corner I saw this:

Until I stood up and saw a different perspective

The view was a whole lot different when standing.  Four years Kidlet Three has been staring at this view.  The thought of giving himself his shots was too ovewhelming.  Like he couldn't get through.  And he would sit down and not face the obstacles and allow Husband and I to give the shot.  Today, I stood and plowed my way through those obtacles and boy did that feel good.

That one last obstacle was the steepest.  With very little grips and a steep incline.  Already a little out of breath, I stood looking at this ladder of sorts wondering how I had talked myself into this! 

Kidlet Three started on his gameboard knowing full well the winning space of the game was the day he would do the poke.  Yet he was willing to play the game.  He moved ahead a space each day collecting his $1 and small incentive prizes selectively placed along the board.  Never did he talk about giving up and not playing.  Even when he faced the last big step.  Like me trying to climb this tiny ladder (secretly hoping the kids were not around to watch me struggle at this).  I huffed and puffed my way up these steps (this wasn't the steepest inflatable by the way...I had already done that one but that didn't make this any easier)!  What a sense of accomplishment when I got to the top. 

I sat down on the slide with my newly pedicured toes (too bad you have to wear socks here)!  This was the final step to conquoring the obstacle course.  This was the poke-the-needle-in-yourself step to win.  It was so fun to slide down and catch my breath!  And guess what I said at the bottom?

I deed eat!

Kidlet Three, we are so proud of you!  You beat that obstacle course of fear and apprehension.  When things looked overwhelming and hopeless, you didn't quit.  You pushed through.  Courage was with you.  His name is Jesus.  He is proud of you too.  In fact, I bet God and Jim were shouting from heaven last week as we were celebrating here on earth.  They were shouting as loud as they could in happiness and joy...

He did it!

Las Vegas and an Attitude

On very short notice, I was gone for four days recently on a work trip.  Went to Las Vegas for a convention.  Personally, I've never wanted to visit Las Vegas but that was where I headed.

My plane from Hometown to Nearest-Big-City was cancelled.  All of the passengers were loaded on a bus and transported to the Nearest-Big-City.  You know what?  Life is short.  The bus wasn't packed.  We all had our own seats.  It was dry, warm and there was a bathroom.  The only thing we missed out on was the beverage service had we been on the plane.  There were passengers complaining about the inconvenience but sometimes I think we should weigh out when to complain and when to zip our lips.  Some of "them" had an attitude.
The bus got me to the Nearest-Big-City airport in plenty of time for the next flight.  There was just one big thing I had to face.  Airport scanning.  The only thing that freaks me out about airport scanning is that I have to take my shoes off.  Personal confession time....I have stinky feet.

Side Story:  I had a favorite pair of dress shoes that I wore almost every day at work.  They were comfortable and dressy.  They did cause my feet to sweat but the comfort was worth it.  One particular day I put those shoes on about 6 a.m. to head off to work and I wore them until I was tucking Kidlet Three into bed around 8:30 p.m.  As I lay down in bed with Kidlet to talk about the day and say prayers, I kicked my shoes off and they fell to the floor.  Within minutes our Dog was growling.  Dog very rarely growls...he barks.  This was definitely a growl.  I hopped out of bed and turned the bedroom light on to see Dog crouched and posed to jump on my shoes and he was growling at them.  I'm pretty sure he thought something had died when he smelled my shoes...and he was growling at them.

I was able to get through airport scanning without anyone around me passing out...from my shoe smell....

The flight from Nearest-Big-City was uneventful and even finding the shuttle to the hotel went fine.  I was shuttled to the Bellagio Hotel, where I would be staying and attending the work conference.  Nothing had prepared me for the beauty of this hotel.  I was totally and thoroughly surprised and overwhelmed when I walked in.  In fact, I cried.  

All of my life Las Vegas had been touted as the gambling capital, home of the boozers with prostitutes on every corner.  Part of this was confirmed when I stepped off the plane and the first thing I saw in the airport was gambling machines! 

Yet beauty had never been been used in conjunction with the name Las Vegas.  Before I left on this trip I had an atittude.  The opportunity to attend the conference was one I was grateful for; but, I was very disappointed that I had to go to Las Vegas.  Several times I found myself complaining about that city and wishing I was going anywhere but Las Vegas.

I had an attitude and had made a judgment about something I had no personal experience with. 

Standing in the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel with tears streaming down my face, I was overtaken with the beauty.  And I found myself saying, "I don't deserve to stay in such a nice place."  Immediately, and I mean immediately, God spoke to me in the way He speaks me and He said "you most certainly do deserve to stay here."

The physical beauty of my accommodations was echoed in the beauty of the people that worked there.  Every single person I enountered during those four days was gracious, personable and so willing to help.  My keycard didn't work in the hotel room door.  I was on the 15th floor and it had taken me 15 minutes to walk from the lobby to my room and then my door wouldn't open!  But there was bellman in the hallway and he saw what was going on.  He picked up a hallway phone and reported my dilemma and less than 10 minutes later I had working keycards with extreme apologies for my inconvenience.

I am so sorry for the attitude I had about Las Vegas.   The small slice of the city that I experienced in those four days certainly didn't support my pre-trip judgments.

How many other circumstances or areas in my life have I pre-judged or had an atittude about?  Way too many, I'm afraid.   I'm asking God to change me in that area.  To challenge my attitudes. 

Anyone want to go to Las Vegas with me next time?  I really want to go back now.  Serious!

Ker ij

Mental or moral strength to venture, perservere or withstand danger, fear or difficulty (Merriam Webster)

Courage.

Isn't that a big word?  Somewhere along in February or March of this year, everytime I would sit quietly with God, that big word, courage, came flitting through my head.  Or started stirring in my heart.  That word started appearing in newspaper articles, seriously.  I would open a magazine and see that word.  Seriously!  Why did that word keep appearing?  Because sometimes I just don't "get it" that God wants to review something with me.  Remind me to tell you about my baptism sometime.  That is a really funny story how He used people and circumstances to invite me to be baptised again.

Courage.

After about the ka-jillioneth time of running into that word I decided to give in.  Did you know God will never force you to do something?  He is all about loving me (us) so very much that He would give me (us)options, options, options to explore His best for me (us...you get the picture here with the me/us).  So He will throw that word at me in many different ways and in different situations to get my attention because sometimes I just don't see it the first time!  When I say I "gave in" it means that after years and years of having Him show me His love for me, after years and years of trusting Him and years and years of following Him, He knows best and I want to give in to His ways. 

Courage.

What I've learned when God wants my attention, is to 1) spend time with Him asking Him to teach me and make it clear what I am to learn, 2) get into the Bible to read in His word about the subject.

In the back of my Bible is a concordance and I found the word courage listed.  I started looking up every verse that had the word courage in it.  In fact, I wrote the verses out in my journal. 

Spending time with God.  Did you know God is into communication!  Communication is made up of two action words:  speaking and listening.  I can speak to God and I can listen to Him.  He loves to communicate with me.  This may stretch your mind a little, but the way God communicates to me may not be the same way He communicates to you!  For many years God would give me visions or pictures "in my head" to teach me.  I am a visual learner so I appreciated the pictures!  Now those early pictures were always about food, too.  He would tie a teaching point to some food-related vision!  Yes, my heavenly Father knows me...He knows my love of food so He used that to teach me.  Thankfully we've moved out of the food-themed visions but He still uses pictures to communicate with me. 

During my communication times with God (which happens during my devotion time with Him, when I'm driving, standing in front of a class teaching, sometime when I'm talking to someone else I'm checking in with God, too, asking Him to bless the person I'm talking too) I just asked Him to give me courage.  If He felt this was important for me, I wanted it.

Courage.

"Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites."  Joshua 5:1

"Now when Ishosheth, Saul's son, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage and all Israel was distrubed."  II Samuel 4:1

These were a couple of the first verses I looked up.  Sure wasn't a great way to learn about courage except for the fact that there have been times I have lost courage and so did people in the Bible.  Hey, they were like me!!  There were times they lost courage, too!

The next 10 or so verses were like this one:

"For thou, O my God, has revealed to thy servant that Thou wilt build for him a house; therefore thy servant has found courage to pray before thee."  I Chronicles 17:25

To me that verse means that the person praying saw (understood) something that God wanted him to know so he had courage to continue praying.

I kept reading.  Starting from the front of the Bible (Old Testament to the back of the Bible (New Testament) I looked up and wrote out those verses.  I saw the word become a choice and an action.  Here is a smattering of examples:

Act with courage
Do not lose courage
Take courage and do it
Found courage
Saw the courage
Take courage
Take courage
Take courage

Courage.

It is there for our taking!  So I've been asking my Lord to give me courage.  To be honest, I don't know why He felt I needed this lesson/review at this time.  But I trust Him and I know He is preparing me for something.  He is giving me what I need.  He is like that in all things...He gives me what I need and is always faithful to me. 

Courage.

Do you need any?  I don't have any to give you but I know someone Who does. 

Courage.

Make the choice to stop right now and ask God to communicate with you.  Ask Him to talk to you so you can learn His voice.  He probably won't talk to you about courage, but what He has to say to you will blow your socks off.  Take the courage to talk to Him but also, to listen.  Be patient...He may show you pictures, He may stir something inside of you, He may sing over you, you may feel something physical.  He is God.  He can communicate in any language or form!

Courage.

"Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or terrified.  For the Lord your God goes with you.  He will never leave you nor forsake you."  Deuteronomy 31:6

A Little Bit of Lunch

Vacation days are so good.  Last Friday I had the day off and it turned out a friend called wondering if I could meet for lunch.  Instead of eating "out" I invited her to stop by the house for a Little Bit of Lunch.

Are you catching a theme on the web site?  I like food and I like cooking?  I hope that doesn't bore you!

Opening the cupboards to see what was available for this Little Bit of Lunch affair revealed...not much in the cupboards!  Someone has not gone grocery shopping for awhile....ME!  I was up the challange, though.  A neighbor recently gave us a 50-pound bag of potatoes.  That was a start!  The weather was cool so soup was definitely a possibilty....

I ended up making Potato Chowder.  This is a staple soup in our house during the winter.

This is a picture of the potatoes cooking in chicken bouillion, onion, parsley, salt and pepper.  Cook the potatoes until they are almost tender.  Because I was going to keep the soup warm in the crockpot for several hours and I didn't want mushy potatoes, I only cooked them until they were almost done.  They continued cooking in the crock pot.

To the boiling potatoes I added shredded carrots.  Because I am a meat lover, I also cooked up three chicken breasts with a bunch of herbs, cubed it and added it to the potatoes.  Thus, we had Chicken Potato Chowder!  The soup is even better with shredded cheddar cheese on it so cheese was shredded for each of us to spoon on our soup.

Digging in the freezer, I pulled out some raspberries.  I stirred up Sour Cream Raspberry Muffins!  Yum...yum!

And then a fresh fruit salad.  Bananas, oranges, and raspberries sprinkled on the top with a little orange juice to keep the bananas from turning brown...kept chilled in the refrigerator until it was time to eat.  If you look closely, the raspberries have frost on them from the freezer!

A Little Bit of Lunch with a friend should be special so I set a fun table.  Tablecloth, candles, worship music and a pretty display of food.

It was fun to hear my friend exclaim, "oh look at this table and the food...!" 

This friend is a prayer partner.  Once a week we find time to pray together.  After we enjoyed our soup, muffins and fruit, we prayed.  Did you notice I didn't have a dessert on my menu?

Prayer was the dessert for this Little Bit of Lunch! 

What a great menu!  Email me if you'd like recipes!

Keep it Up!!

Keep up the prayers!  Diabetes Clinic went really well last week.  We were told repeatedly what a great job we've been doing managing Kidlet Three's diabetes.  His 3-month average blood sugar results were great and the one test they really watch is the A1c blood test.  Our goal is 7.5 but he has been at an 8 the past year and a half.  Believe it or not...an 8 is great!  Apparently many kids are closer to 9.  The doctor's words were "I'm very, very happy with this and wouldn't change anything!"  What a blessing!  Thank you, God!

In my last post I asked you to pray for Kidlet Three.  That he would have the courage to start giving himself his shots.  We did talk at Diabetes Clinic about this...a lot.  We made a plan to achieve this goal.  A part of the plan included Kidlet One....

Kidlet One is a child life specialist.  She works at a clinic and hospital with kids sitting with them through tests and procedures, educating kids and parents, providing distraction, basically using the gifts that God gave her.  She came home this past weekend and worked with Kidlet Three on his diabetes goals.  Around the kitchen table, with their heads together, glue sticks uncapped with scissers and markers nearby, they created a visual of goals.

Here is the finished board game...Kidlet Three is very competitive so this is a perfect way for him to work toward achieving his goals.  The game is taped on the refrigerator and the game piece, magnetic, can be moved along the "squares".  Would you believe that Kidlet Three has jumped ahead squares and is so motivated by this game it is absolutely AMAZING!  Hang onto your seat...he is going to be giving himself these shots before you know it...but...KEEP IT UP!  I truly believe your prayers are part of the "game board of Kidlet Three's life."

Diabetes Clinic

Today is Diabetes Clinic Day.  Two times a year we have appointments scheduled in the Diabetes Clinic.   Kidlet Three has Type 1 diabetes and was diagnosed four years ago. 

Speaking from the mother's perspective, it is an extremely emotional day.  Already this morning we've been to the Clinic for fasting bloodwork.  At 7 a.m. the other five children sitting in the lobby with us all have diabetes and they are all waiting for their bloodwork.  A little bit of sadness settles in on me when I look at those kids and families and know that we share a common diagnosis.  A diagnosis that affects the child and the entire family with no chance of remission or "healing"...yet. 

After bloodwork we always take Kidlet Three out for breakfast.  It is our Diabetes Day tradition.  He usuallys gets lunch with us today, too.  A real treat, ha! ha!  At 9:30 we meet with a diabetes nurse.  During that visit the record book that we record the five fingerprick blood test results in will be reviewed like under a microscope.  The nurse is looking for patterns of blood sugar readings that are too high or too low.  There are a ton of questions asked of Kidlet Three and us as parents.  There will be weight and height checks.  Verification that we have his eyes checked every year since diabetes likes to affect eyesight.  Then the social worker comes in.  Then the psychologist or pyschiatrist comes in.  How is Kidlet Three handling diabetes.  Has he been able to give himself his shots yet (still a no on that one and if any of you are the praying type...he needs prayer in this area).  Today I know there will be a lot of talk about giving himself his shots.  There will be more freedom for him when he can start doing this but oh the thought of sticking a needle in his skin is just oh so overwhelming.  There is a lot of fear on his part and I have to admit, I don't blame him. 

We'll also meet with the diabetes doctor and the dietitian.  It is definitely a day of teamwork.  A well-designed day of covering all the bases of life with diabetes for a kid and the family.  I am so very appreciative of this day.  We leave this day with many answers to our questions, always new information and a new set of goals for Kidlet Three.  This team of Diabetes care providers are like cheerleaders that bring encouragement but also are life coaches asking us to work even harder at getting normal blood sugars all the time. 

So as I get ready to leave the house again for the poo-pah appointments, I was contemplating the pros and cons of life with diabetes. 

Pros:  None except if it causes you to make good food choices (which we do)
Cons:  Insulin shots; expenses for all the supplies needed; eating at specific times; measuring food; managing blood sugars for an active 11-year-old that is involved in baseball and hockey; emotions affect blood sugars; this week hockey tryouts and surges of adrenaline affect blood sugars; every night The Husband or I check Kidlet Three's blood sugar at 2 a.m. because of the insulin regimen he is on can cause a blood sugar drop at 2 a.m.; blah blah blah.  There just isn't a whole lot to like about this diagnosis. 

Yet, our family has changed because of this.  We pay attention to what each other is doing; we evaluate our commitments; we are commited to giving Kidlet Three the best care we can while he still lives at home so he can be healthier in his adult life.  God has given us such grace to deal with this diagnosis.  This lifestyle. 

We have quite a team:  God and the wisdom and knowledge from the Diabetes Clinic care team.  Cheering us on!  I'm thankful.  And I'm late so off we go.....

It Is Fall

**UPDATE**  Suzi's doing amazing post-op from her surgery.  THANK YOU for praying for her.  The cancer was contained just to her kidney, not in any lymph nodes nor her bladder.  No chemo necessary for her!  Check out Free Peace link below for the original posting.  Praise God!

It is fall!  The weather cools down, colors change outside, and believe it or not, there is a sense of anticipation.  For some it is dreaded anticipation of the cold, ice, and wind.  For others, it is a welcome anticipation of the beauty and transformation that winter brings. 

It is fall!  In my childhood years fall meant a couple of things:  visiting Grandma's garden of glorious mum plants in oh so many colors; pheasant hunting with my Dad and I even have a faint memory of duck hunting in the rain with my Dad; freezing corn, canning tomatoes and making dill pickles with Mom. 

It is fall!  Why did God decide to make color for us?  Why did He decide that the leaves should change colors in the fall?  I just love that about Him.  In fact, I celebrate leave colors in my house.  Would you believe I bought window cling-ons (okay, so they are really called window clings but I like to say cling-ons) of fall leaves!    This week it rained almost every day but what fun to glance out the deck doors and see some color coming from my "cling-ons"!

It is fall!  My backyard is full of fall change.  My flowers have, for the most part, turned brown.  The pansies love the cool weather so they are beautiful!  The apple tree branches are drooping in bounty.  Here is a snapshot of a branch taken in the rain this week.  The apples are Honeycrisp and are really good.  Oh, and the truth...I have MORE THAN A LUG of apples to deal with!  Can you hear the freezer calling:  apple pies, apple muffins, applesauce...come..come..come fill me up!  The raspberry patch has been picked and the berries frozen for jam.  Our tomatoes have been harvested and made into spaghetti sauce for the winter months.  How I will miss a bacon-lettuce-and real tomato sandwich in the coming months!

It is fall!  A time of routines and reflection.  The routine of school has been once again established and with it homework, school projects and play dates.  A time of reflection around the great summer we've had and even reflecting on what is ahead. 

It is fall!  Life totally resolves around football for many people.  This year I joined two fantasy football leagues.  Oh what fun it was to watch the face of my next door neighbor as he really, really tried not to smirk as I said I'd be on his wife's GIRLS ONLY FF team.  And then when I asked him if I could have Fran Trankenton on my team to watch him really, really, really try not to say, oh forget it...you really don't want to be on this team.  It was a great moment when I admitted that I knew Fran Tarkenton didn't play football anymore and that I'd have to settle for Brad Johnson (just kidding). 

It is fall!  A time of Anticipation.  What anticipation group did you put yourself into as you read my first paragraph?   Dread or welcoming?  Seriously...where are you at?  We've certainly seen our share of gloomy, rainy days this week and that can have an affect on anticipation.  If winter is all about getting busy and caught up in the preparations for Thanksgiving and Christmas, all about ice, snow and being cold, then, I'd have to admit that dread could be a word that I would choose for fall.  There is more, however.  Thank God there is more!  Can you close your eyes right now and picture that first snowfall where everything is blanketed in purity?  Can you picture a quiet winter's night with the moon gleaming on tranquility?  And yes, can you imagine that first step outside where it is so cold you can hardly catch your breath!  What an awesome, incredible God to create four seasons for us!  I welcome fall.  I anticipate winter.  I love my boots, coat, gloves and Cuddle Duds, too.  I anticipate a glorious next few months as we transition into winter.  I anticipate preparing for the opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I anticipate preparing for weeks of celebrating the Birth of My Savior.  I anticipate school Christmas programs, needing to put on my boots, taking a bath to try to warm up, sitting in cold hockey rinks cheering Kidlet Three on in his games, baking my pear pies, looking through the seed catalogs, meeting for hot Chai tea with friends, and oh so much more. 

It is fall.  Welcome it!  Embrace it!  Enjoy it! 

An Amazing God made fall for us!