An Emily Post

As I was browsing thru my recent photos for some blog fodder, I noticed the sole subject of my photos seems to be my youngest daughter.  Wonder how that happened?

In a nutshell, here's a special post on Emily.

Emily is a very easily influenced child.  When big sister had what was possibly a contagious stomach bug a couple of weeks ago, the power of suggestion was too much for this one.  Her complaint of a tummy ache resulted in her missing her piano lessons. :(  Next time she won't be so quick to imagine herself ill!

Friends from church had a hayride and potluck dinner last weekend.  Emily loved their miniature horses and thinks we need one!  As well as a goat, a donkey, a cow, and some chickens... Ah, I am blessed to live in a townhome.

One of the fun things about getting together with families who have lots of little kids is that a seven-year-old discovers she is one of the "big kids".

A while ago I received a nice gift bag full of lovely things from the sweet ladies at one of our supporting churches.  Down in the bottom of it were these two battery-operated, lighted zipper pulls.  I had to laugh at that, wondering what the targeted market is for lighted zipper pulls.  I discovered the answer this evening.  The market is seven year old little girls! 

I love this little kid.  This evening we took a short hand-in-hand walk.  She was full of love and affection for me.  :) 

It's so nice to be a mom. 

~ ♥ ~

Sickhouse Update

Thank you, all you dear people who commented and gave advice about my poor Amy's illness the past week.  She is better.  So much better, in fact, that I can't afford to keep her.  She is eating me out of house and home, quickly putting those ten pounds back on.  It must have been a virus of some sort, and really, I should have gotten a clue when Wal*Mart was totally out of Imodium.   

I am very thankful to have her back to health, and I'm thanking the Lord.  

Now if we can just get her over being sick of chemistry we'll be doing real good...

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

Sorry, those lyrics that were pounded into my brain a zillion times during my youth have a permanent place in there. All I remember is that line, and I don't even know what the song was about.  Probably fornication.  Most of those rock tunes are.  Either that, or a drug high.  But I digress.  

What I am actually thinking about is whether to stay, or go to the doctor.

This has always almost always been a problem for us, and it would have been a lot worse up until now except for the fact that God has given us an exceptionally healthy family.  How do you decide when to go?  I think I can recognize an emergency.  It's the non-emergency, but becoming urgent, medical situations that get me.  

Amy has had diarrhea for over a week, and although she feels starved she doesn't eat, because everything immediately goes through her.  She has lost 10 lbs that she didn't need to lose.  She had a fever early on, but only for a few hours.  She is beginning to look pale and skinny (er).  And she doesn't feel tops.  Here is my line of thinking:

Could it be food poisoning?  Probably not.  We have all eaten the same things and the rest of us are fine. A virus?  Maybe.  But weird one.  Could it be Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis or Celiac disease?  Probably not.  But what if it is?   

Maybe I should take her in. 

But if I do, that will be $125+ to see a doctor... and $???? for diagnostic tests that we can't afford, and what if they don't show anything wrong with her, in which case we will wish we had not wasted the money...

Lord Jesus, my daughter needs your healing touch, and I need your peace of mind...

I just hate it that the cost of diagnosis and treatment is a part of my decision-making.   Amy is worth way more than all the money we have.  Which isn't much.  The money, I mean, lol.

But thinking like this has kept us in the black.  I could have had kids in for tests for diabetes, Celiac, obesity, allergies, ear infections, etc, and we'd be broke just from the diagnostic testing. But patience has always proved that we didn't need it.  I think the medical industry is wacko on spending other people's money, whether that is insurance money or private funds.  I don't want money stress on top of health stress.  And I hate having to admit that I even hesitate to help my daughter because of it.  

Amy is sick... 

Have I been patient long enough?  Too patient?  Am I heartless?  Prudent?  Foolish? 

Sigh...

I am really good at casting my cares upon Jesus with a big rubber band attached.  They always come flying back at me. 

Stand Still and Consider

I meant to take the camera to church today, to post a photo of our new location.  But, as one of our church ladies says, my memory is something I forget with. I've been meaning to do this for several weeks.  If I had remembered  to take my camera two weeks ago, we would have seen a gorgeous green countryside in the background.  Today we'd have had a more fallish looking scene. We're meeting in an old township hall building with a wood floor and great acoustics, out in the middle of a corn field (or is it a bean field?  yes, I know the difference, I just can't remember!), with horses and chickens nearby.  Big oaks in the yard drop their acorns on the parked cars, adding big metallic thunks to the country sounds every few seconds.  And I'm pretty sure that if we keep the door open our singing can be heard a ways down the road.  The church nursery is a comfortable tree stump out back, where the one noisy child has been rocked, hummed to, and tricked into falling asleep.

Fall is definitely upon us.  Early last Thursday morning my hubby drove the car right out of the nice warm garage and dropped it off at the tire store.  I left a few minutes later in the van to pick him up, after turning the defroster up full blast, running the washer/wipers, and using my kitchen scraper to chisel a hard frost off the windshield.  I grinned at the cloud of vapor coming out of my mouth and nose.  I jumped into the van and shivered, and I couldn't help smiling. Truth!  It has been a long time since I have been that cold, long enough that I have forgotten how awful it is.  Fall is invigorating!  I love it.  And I have determined to love it all the way 'til.... maybe Thanksgiving?  Then the snow will be upon us for good.  God will give me grace to love the snow, too.  My chances of that might be better if I just observe it from my living room window, but with God nothing is left to chance.  :)  

In the short time we have been back in Minnesota I have really enjoyed watching God's handiwork.  What has been even more fun is watching my desert kids' reactions to the wonders I have taken for granted: worms in the driveway after a rain, apple trees full of ripe fruit, the look-at-me-blue sky of September, soft grass to run in with bare feet, frost on said grass, sand cranes feeling in a field, sumac turning bright red, and the appearance and disappearance again of all the leaves that alternately hide and reveal landscapes.  

Thanks for the photos, Amy.

Honest, I did finally learn to love (Can I say "love"? I think I can say "love"...okay) like the desert a lot, and there are desert things (and people!) that I miss tremendously.  But I am very happy to be back in a land where things are alive, and you can tell.  lol.  Okay, if I had been more observant back there in Bullhead Land, I would have appreciated much more of God's handiwork there, too.

Okay, now for the snow.  Stay tuned.  It's coming.  

Thank you, Lord, for letting me be blessed with all this beauty that you made for your own pleasure.

God thundereth marvellously with his voice; 

great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.
For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; 

likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.
He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work.
Then the beasts go into dens, and remain in their places.
Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.
By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened.
Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
And it is turned round about by his counsels:

that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth.
He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
Hearken unto this, O Job: 

stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

Job 37:5-14

Science for Sickies

Did you know you can still have science class with a sick child?

If the kid lies low enough and you have a straw, he/she can learn about siphoning. 

Hopefully he will not turn to a life of crime with that knowledge.  (Don't tell him that's how you can steal gasoline from a car's gas tank.)

Thou shalt not steal.

Exodus 20:15

Church As You Like It

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, 
so are my ways higher than your ways, 
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8,9

Emily's Gregorian Science Fun

Today's science-without-school project:

When I survey the wondrous cross 
on which the Prince of Glory died; 
my richest gain I count but loss, 
and pour contempt on all my pride. 

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, 
save in the death of Christ, my God; 
all the vain things that charm me most, 
I sacrifice them to his blood. 

See, from his head, his hands, his feet, 
sorrow and love flow mingled down. 
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, 
or thorns compose so rich a crown. 

Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
that were an offering far too small; 
love so amazing, so divine, 
demands my soul, my life, my all. 

In Which I Survive Another Craft

Emily was doing a Google search for kid-friendly crafts the other day.  (Let me interrupt myself here and say that a MOM-FRIENDLY craft would be one which does not involve the Mom. Ahem You know crafts make me want to run away!) 

We always have the same problem when we look for something to do or make, and that is that we never have the required equipment on hand.

"Mommy, do we have an empty toilet paper roll?"

"Nnno."

"How about... pipe cleaners?"

"No, sorry."

"Straws!"

"No, no straws, either."

... "How about an empty egg carton?"

"I could empty one... No..."

"Do we have any card stock?"

"No, sorry, you wasted it all used it all up on yesterday's crafting adventure."

"Tempera paint? Nails? Colored tissue paper? Bottle caps?

"No, no, no, and no."

And on the exchange goes.

Since I am trying to keep the family grocery bill to $50 $100 a week without doing super-extreme couponing (hahahahaha), I usually avoid adding things like balloons or felt or beads to my grocery list.  But this time I relented and bought some lentils (they're edible) and balloons (cheap) to this week's list, and here is the result:

Look at that happy face!  The project was these fun balls that Emily found on the Family Fun website.  They double as stress balls or bean bags (sort of -- they make a rather hard bean bag) or, as #2 daughter Amy suggests, a school-time educational supplement for active kiddos like herself.  (Just what we need.)  And they roll well.  But they don't bounce.  Alison suggests covering them with fabric and ModPodge, to hide the strong latex smell, which Amy thinks is one of the best things about these balls.  (These two girls couldn't be more different!)

It was not a 10 on the mom-friendly craft scale, especially since Emily wanted to do it RIGHT NOW, while I was making lunch. But it wasn't bad, since the process did not involve glue or paint.  And her crafting was contagious.  Pretty soon two or three sisters wanted to make their own.  I give it an 8.

If you're game for this, you'll need three 11" balloons and maybe 2/3 C lentils for each ball, plus a funnel.

Blow it up the balloon that is going to be the inside layer of your ball, then let the air out.  This is to stretch the latex a bit.  Stick the end of the funnel into the balloon neck and pour some lentils in. 

Now you are going to have to be creative and find a way to get more lentils in there.  Kind of squish the base of your balloon, then stretch the neck.  Gradually you will be able to get quite a few more in.

Cut the thick rubber part off the neck of the first balloon. Now cut the neck off a second balloon.  This color will show through when you are finished.

Pull the neck of the first balloon flat around the ball of lentils, and stretch the second balloon over and around the ball.  Obviously you want to cover the opening of the first ball.

Now do the same with the third balloon, only cut a bit farther down the neck than we did the one in the previous photo.  It will be the outside color.  Again, cover the opening of the balloon on the previous layer.

Ta da!

Forgive the horrid photo quality.  I did not hire the resident photo editor to fix these.  She charges me a spoonful of Nutella for editing, and that is just too high a price to pay for such frivolity!  More on that later...

And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. 

And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, 

where was a piece of ground full of lentiles: 

and the people fled from the Philistines.

But he stood in the midst of the ground, 

and defended it, 

and slew the Philistines: 

and the LORD wrought a great victory.

2 Samuel 23:11, 12

PS.  I'm  sure this is about the only thing lentils are good for.  I have tried to make them palatable several times and we still think they taste like dirt.  Too bad.  I hear they are good for you!