I'm Still Here

I am still around. I have just been very busy. We went through the whole house and gave away a bunch of stuff to our new spanish ministry at our church. They were having a free flea market. We filled up our van (without the seats in). It was awesome to get rid of that stuff. My dad has also not been doing well. The latest developement is that his kidneys started to fail. The chemo requires him to have a lot of extra fluid. He could go into heart failure so they give him some medicine. That medicine caused his kidneys to fail. It is a delicate balancing act of finding medicine that works well together. They completely stopped chemo this week to let his kidneys start functioning well. They are going to start again next week but if his kidneys start failing again they will have to stop the chemo altogether. My mom is tired and my dad is too. The hospital where he is now (VA) has a hiring freeze on so they are very short staffed. They have never had someone who had all the problems my dad has in their oncology department. He is test case. All the complaining the staff does is getting to my mom and dad. He is home this weekend but goes back in next week. If the chemo goes well he has 160 more doses over the next year and half. Wow! One blessing is that my dad is a disabled veteran so all of this is covered by insurance. Praise the LORD! This has been on the forefront of my mind so much lately that I have just fallen into bed each night. My prayer life has gotten so much better because I have had to go the Lord almost every moment of everyday. I will try to get some pictures uploaded soon. Our one camera broke and the other one is missing in action. I love you all and pray for you all every day.

Sunshine Without Rain is a Desert

My mom and I were talking on the phone today and she sounded so tired. She said Dad is so discouraged right now. He has been in the hospital almost six weeks and he is so bored. The kids and I went to see him on Monday and luckily he was having a good day. Today though was a different story. They now have him on morphine and anti-nausea medicine and it makes him so sleepy. He just told my mom to go home because he was not in the mood to see anyone. My mom heard the phrase the other day that sunshine without rain is a desert and it is such a profound statement. Think about all the trials in our lives as rainy days. Without them no fruit will grow and everything dies. We will literally dry up. My mom says that right now it is downpour with my dad. I just keep telling her that we will al be stronger from all of this. We are all trying to encourage my dad and my sister, Jen, even camw down to visit. I am going to try to visit again this week but Sam has pink eye, again (more rain). I am going to write this phrase out and tape it where I can see it everyday. It is going to be my new motto.

Another ER Trip

The wonderful joy of having boys. I was in fixing dinner tonight (spaghetti) and talking to my neighbor who had stopped by when we heard that hurt kind of cry coming from a child. You know the kind of cry where you know that someting is wrong. William comes in and he is hysterical. Apparently Alex had thrown a scooter at him and hit his finger. It looked okay for a few minutes and then it started to swell and the tip turned blue. Well, I knew that was not a good sign. He would not let me come near it. I called my sister who is an athletic trainer and she said it was probably broken. Off to ER for the second time in a week. The x-ray confirmed a small chip in the tip of the finger on his left hand. William got to see the x-ray. Leave it to a homeschooler to ask the doctor if her child can examine the x-ray. William now wants to study anatomy. We stopped at Cold Stone Creamery for a snack. They are one of the few places open at 10:30 at night. It was yummy and William got to spend some one on one time with me (and Sam.) We need to follow up with the orthopedic doctor in a week. All in all the first experience with a broken bone (I don't count Sam's collar bone) went rather well. I don't mean that I want the other kids to go and break something. Carl said it was a wimpy bone to break. Leave to a man to say something like that. William's only complaint is that the metal splint makes it harder to ride a bike and play video games. Just like a boy!

Pneumonia

I can never remember how to spell that word, so if it is wrong I apologize. Sam had a high fever on thursday so I ended up taking him to ER. His fever was 102 and his breathing was shallow and very fast. We were there till 3:30 in the morning. He was diagnosed with very early pneumonia and put on antibiotics. Friday he was very sick but Saturday he started to perk up. He is still very tired and is not eating well. That is uncomfortable for me. He is on albuterol to keep his lungs open. One of the side effects of albuterol is decrease in appetite. He has just been snacking for four days. He still has a bad cough so be praying that he gets better. He has a follow up appointment tomorrow to see if the medicine is working.

Unnamed

We live in a society where we want our name remembered. We aim at making our name known. Some people even want their name remembered so bad that they go through extraordinary lengths to do so. They become infamous. People do crazy things to get in record books all to be remembered. Their focus is all wrong. The only place out name needs to be remembered is in the Lambs Book of Life. Our name needs to be there or we will spend eternity in hell. I think of the man on the cross to the side of Jesus. He is known to generations of Bible readers and non Bible readers alike. He is simple known as a thief, yet his name is recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life. He is in heaven as we speak. His name is not known except to Jesus. It does not matter if our name is known to many. Fame is fleeting and comes with many problems. As long as Jesus knows our name all else fades away. Generations from now people will probably not know my name. But I will be in heaven with Jesus and He will call me by name. I will also be able to find out the name of the unnamed thief on the cross. Being known as mom, wife, and child of God is enough for me here in this life I have on earth.

A Little Experiment this Week

Did anyone see Supernanny this week? I don't normally watch it but the family this week had seven kids so I was curious. I ended up crying. Their son Daniel has ADHD. It was like I was watching Alex and Nathan. I could not believe. Carl was watching with me and he just kept saying "That is Alex." Their daughter is our William. HE is my helper, the one I always ask to do things. So I have been convicted of some things. First of all I need to give William a break. Second, our schooling. It breaks my heart to have to fight with Alex everyday. He yells "I hate school." It is pure torture for him to sit still or read. He loves to move and take things apart and draw. Oh, how that kid loves to draw. So I have decided to give up on my idea of school. I guess having a teaching background I have been trying to do homeschooling like a school. It is not a fit for Alex. I love the My Father's World curriulum but it is designed for kids like William and like, well, me. It is not designed for kids like Nathan and Alex who HAVE to move. I am tired of having Nathan and Alex on top of the table all the time. So I am giving up and trying something new. I have been coming back to this curriculum many times but everyone has told me that it is too much work. I found a cheap copy of Volume 1 of the KONOS curriculum at our homeschool store. I figured I would try it for a week and see how it goes. I only paid $20 for it so it is not much of a loss if it does not work. I also bought the tapes of Jessica and Carol explaining the curriculum. Listening to the tapes and looking at the curriculum I could kick myself. This is exactly what Alex and Nathan need. A good character curriculum that allows them to learn by moving and doing. Planning this week has gotten me excited about schooling for the first time in a while and the kids are excited. The first character quality is attentiveness. One of the games they suggest playing is called "In grandma's trunk." You go through each letter of the alphabet and name something that is in grandmas trunk. When it is your turn you have to name everything that the people ahead of you put in the trunk and then add the next letter. We were at a restaruant waiting for our food and the kids were getting impatient. I started this game and it was a riot. We had the whole place laughing as we had elephants, zebras, jingle bells and lots of silly stuff in the trunk. The kids had fun and did not want to stop even when their food came. We ended up on z at the car when we were leaving. Each kid remembered everything we listed. I then explained to them the idea of attentiveness and told them that we had just done a school activity. You should have seen Alex's eyes light up. He just looked at me and said "COOL." I could have cried. I will have to let you all know how it goes this week. I am excited and nervous as it is a lot more planning as I can't just sit and let them do a worksheet. It is good for me though as this is going to be good for my movers in the bunch. Math and English are not a problem as the kids love the Saxon Matha and the First Language lessons. Even Alex has memorized every poem in the book so far and that is really saying something. I'll keep everyone posted on my little experiment.

Humor in the Storm

My dad is doing okay. He had some trouble breathing yesterday so he had to go get a ct scan. I think my mother is purposfully not telling us everything. She doesn't want to worry anyone.I have yet to see my dad or talk to him yet as the kids have been sick. They don't want him around anyone who is sick and my mom is afraid of picking up something from the kids. Maybe sometime next week I will finally be able to see him. My sister in VA has threatened to come down but my mom says it is pretty boring in the hospital. The chemo is making him very sick. He is supposed to start another medication on Monday. They can't do the normal medication with him because of his heart condition. They are putting him on arsenic. I know that sounds silly. My mom and I just laugh everytime we talk about it. I mean gosh, we could have taken care of that at home with some rat poison. HE HE. We are trying to find humor wherever we can find it. Be in prayer as he has to come off of his heart medication in order to take the arsenic. This heart medication is what has kept him alive for the past eight years. He has not misssed a dose in those eight years so the doctors are nervous as are all us girls. I can't till the retreat next weekend. I am going to need some time just to relax and not think about this all. Pray for my mom as ahe has been to the hospital every day. She has lupus and stress causes it to flare up. She would not tell us if it was though. She is such a strong woman. I do appreciate all your prayers. I cannot imagine going through this without all the support from the churches and people who have prayed for us all. It makes me appreciate even more the Chrisitan faith that my parents have and how they raised us girls. We know that whatever happens we will see our dad in heaven some day. We have hope in this storm.