Through Rose Colored Glasses

It was gray, dark, and somewhat depressing outside yesterday. I have a pair of night driving glasses. They change the color of oncoming headlights as well as make the surrounding area look brighter. I decided to put them on and see if they would brighten up my day. This is what it looked like.....

It almost made it look sunny out.

It even made the flowers look prettier.

I bought these glasses online, however I have since seen them at Walmart at the check-out stand. They fit over regular eyeglasses.

Terrific Tuesday Tetherball

Today Grace tossed this aside….

….in favor of this.

Thank you Freecycler for the tetherball pole.

Emily was up in the middle of the night crying. This stone stuff is getting old. Emily seemed to feel better today, maybe it is finally passing? Urologist out of town, won’t be back till Monday.

52 Week Blessing Challenge – 2

What a blessing to have the house we have. It’s not impressive, not even that pretty. But we own it (at least the part that isn’t mortgaged), and we are able to make our payments.

The year we purchased it and moved in I thought I had died and gone to heaven. You see we had been living in a suburb and were longing for more of a rural place to call home. I remember that I could not even hear the birds singing where we used to live. Now each morning as the sun comes up the birds sing their praises to the Lord.

(nature in our pasture)

We have pasture area on our property and one thing I wanted most in the world (at that time) was farm animals, sheep mostly. So through these last 13 years we’ve had chickens, sheep, a cow, more sheep, rabbits, more sheep, and horses. Can you tell I like sheep? So do dogs.

Twice our sheep were torn up by dogs. I had no idea that dogs could or would get into our pasture. We live rural and there ARE dogs running around. Of course there are also coyotes I’ve seen walking through the yard, but it is the domesticated dogs that have done the damage.

A few years ago I gave my sheep to my sister, who also likes farm animals. We are both spinners and weavers, and between her and I we have enough wool to weave (knit, crochet) a closet full of clothing.

The inside of our home is a little less glamorous. It’s a 1940’s farmhouse that someone tried to modernize in the 1980’s. When we first moved in we saw a number of things that hadn’t been finished, or had been put together in a haphazard way. We were willing to overlook those things because we were now moving to the country!

We’ve seen abused and wounded children healed in our home. We’ve seen children grow, and we’ve seen children go. I would never trade those years of being a foster parent for anything. And out of the blessing of having this house, we have seen our family grow with the addition of our two daughter’s, Emily and Grace. There’s been a whole lot of love under this roof and how blessed I am to have been here for it all!

It’s Stones

After spending the day at the ER the conclusion was that Emily has kidney stones on the right side. There isn’t a blockage, which is good, however there is still blood in her urine. An ultrasound confirmed the stones. We were sent home because there isn’t anything they could do for Emily at the hospital that I can’t do at home. So we’re here and I’m pushing fluids and pain medicine.

Emily wasn’t in very much pain at the hospital (its been very intermittent). As a matter of fact the doctor was amazed that Emily wasn’t in more pain. Emily was acting like it was a party. I had my (newly acquired) iPod and Emily was listening to her music on it. She was laughing and acting like she was anywhere but a hospital emergency room.

The day was long and we returned home just about dinnertime. Emily was thrilled to be back into her bed. As the evening approached so did the pain. She has been in pain off and on for a few days but we just thought it was one thing or another. At least now I know what is wrong with her.

Monday I am to call the urologist. I was told that she will pass the stone. I can’t believe there isn’t something to just ZAP it out of that kidney. Poor girl.

Sunday calls for a day of rest. Yes, we’ll take it.

Saturday’s News

Lord you are my help in time of trouble. My lips shall ever praise you.

There is still blood in Emily’s urine so I need to take her to ER. Oh how I hate the ER. I wish I could call and just order a specific doctor….. This is the second time an episode of blood in the urine has happened this month. Last time she had this problem there was no infection. Please pray that they can figure this out. I’ll send updates as I know what is going on.

This picture is from Monday when Emily and I flew her kite in the back yard. She laughed and laughed at me while I ran around like a crazy woman trying to get the kite higher than my head. Emily enjoyed the whole escapade.

Fabulous Friday

Kitty went to the vet to be altered.

Spent the day running errands, washing clothes, doing dishes, managing a migraine. Not necessarily in that order.

Took Emily to the doctor yesterday because she’s had a sore throat, lots of secretions and some gagging. She’s really having a difficult time swallowing all the stuff. Looks like we may need to use the suction more often right now. I’m thinking she may just have allergy problems. The doctor examined her tonsil, if that is what it is, on the right side of her throat. Her tonsils and adenoids were removed when she was about 2-years-old. Hummmm…. She will need to see an ENT. Forgot to make the appointment today. Need to do that on Monday.

4:30 Emily has blood in her urine again…. All doctors have gone for the weekend. No call back from the after hours nurse. Just cathed her a little while ago and urine is only slightly tinged with color now. She had the same problem 3 weeks ago. Not sure what is going on. I guess we’ll be back to the doctor again on Monday.

Now for the fabulous part: Bought and prepared strawberries for shortcake dessert. Mmmmm delicious!

Eye See a Miracle

Grace loves to draw and she is very good at it. She listens to every word the art teacher says and practices drawing at home. She came home from school with this yesterday.

(click on the image to enlarge it)

I had to ask her a couple of times if she traced it. She said no, she actually drew these. Then she began to tell me about the shading, how it makes the drawing look round. Wow, this is really good!

By the way, Grace, who was born 3 months early, was totally blind till she was 4 1/2 months old. She didn’t look at us but just turned her head and listened to us. She had such severe Retinopathy that the eye doctor said that if she could she could see she would need very thick glasses by the time she was a year old. She was headed for laser treatment when the scarring began to disappear. We took her to 2 different eye doctors because I didn’t believe the first one who said it was disappearing…. (but of course I was praying for her!) The second eye doctor told me that if he hadn’t had the records in his hands telling of her serious eye troubles he would have never known. She has NO scars in her eyes and no residual eye trouble.

Grace is in second grade now and she reads as good as she draws, maybe even better.

Wordless Wednesday (well almost wordless)

“Dad, Mom said we can go shopping for more teenager shirts….”

It’s Alive!

Wow, it’s such a beautiful day outside! Did you know that rhubarb makes flowers? I didn’t.

So when I saw this big huge bundle of blooms trying to sprout from my plant I had to run right back into the house and google “rhubarb flowers”. The info said that it should be cut off. If it is left to grow the plant won’t grow as heartily as it should. So I cut it off. I won’t be harvesting any this year. I’m hoping for lots of thick rhubarb next year. This in the second growing season for this plant and I’m very fortunate that it is still alive.

The story goes like this…. Grace loved to plant things. We bought this plant last summer and planted it together. But she just couldn’t leave it alone. She had to dig it up. She tore every leaf and stalk off, one by one and then just left it on the ground. I’m not really sure why she did it, except that her medication WASN’T working. I replanted it and it miraculously came back to life! And this year it grows. So I’ll leave it one more year, and pray that Grace’s medication continues to work, and that the plant continues to stay in the ground. (It’s interesting how this story turned yellow. I accidently hit a key and I’m not sure what I did, but hey, it looks good!)

Emily had a dentist appointment today. She goes up to the Children’s hospital for her dentist. They know about dental issues for children who have special needs. She has a new dentist there whom she saw once before. He is really nice and Emily didn’t cry at all. This is just amazing since she has always cried at the dentist. She just can’t handle someone touching her mouth and teeth. But she just smiles at this guy (could it be because she likes guys?) and today she even tried to talk to him!

We didn’t get a picture of the dentist as I forgot my camera. Next time….

52 Week Blessing Challenge

I’ve decided to join the 52 week Blessing Challenge. Each Monday I will write about something that is a blessing to me or our family.

I am so blessed to have a sister and brother-in-law who cook the most delicious Mexican food. A few years ago they taught me how to make salsa. Oh how we love it. Mummm! Here’s my version of the recipe (it is a little different than what my sister makes, but just as good).

Michelle’s Salsa:

12 Roma Tomatoes

1/4 Sweet Onion

1 Jalapeno (green, firm)

1 Clove fresh Garlic

3Tablespoons fresh chopped Cilantro

1 Lemon or Lime

1teaspoon salt

Always wash vegetables before cutting! Depending on where your vegetables were grown, there are some that come with germs on the outside of the vegetables that can cause bad diarrhea.

Cut Roma tomatoes into little chunks. Slice and dice the onion and add to the tomatoes. Cut open the Jalapeno. If it burns your eyes or nostrils scoop out the seeds and set aside. You can always add later if the Jalapeno turns out to be milder than you thought. Chop the garlic into tiny chunks and add to the tomatoes. Pick leaves of Cilantro and chop up about 3 Tablespoons of leaves. Add to the tomatoes. Slice the lemon/lime and squeeze the juice of both halves into the salsa. Salt to taste. I use Johnny’s Seasoning Salt (it has pepper in it). Mix thoroughly and then enjoy!

As with any recipe, you can substitute one type of pepper, onion or tomato for another.

Happy snacking!

Lazy Saturday

We saw the sun today! Emily is feeling better. She sat in her chair for quite a while and endured watching TV with us this morning. She so much more enjoys watching TV in her room. Is that a teen or what? Grace was inside and outside all day. Now that she’s older she is closing the door behind her. No bugs flying around in the house today.

Speaking of bugs, that girl can go outside and play with every bug that she sees. But get her into her bedroom and let a small bug fly in there and she freaks out. Last week there was a bug on the wall in her room. It sort of looked like an airplane. And there it sat on the wall. She cried and begged us to go kill it. Jeff and I both told her that she could do it. But she just couldn’t bring herself to get close to it. The next day when I went into her room it was still on the wall. And yes it was shaped like an airplane…. I killed it for her and she was so happy with me!

We are going to sell our horses. I really love my horse, a Quarter-cross, but I just don’t work with her like I used to. Although I’ve ridden her she is only green-broke and needs more training. She is such a great horse and will make a good trail horse I think.

(my horse)

I truly wish I could find a 4H family who would want to work with my horse. I would consider donating her. I’m afraid to give her away though as other’s have done that and their horse has gone to the auction (send to Canada to be butchered for meat).

(Jeff’s horse)

Jeff’s horse, a thoroughbred, is fully trained. She’s been a 4H horse and also a trail horse. She is totally underused! And yet Jeff hasn’t ridden her in the last year either. So, sadly we’ve decided to find a new family for each of them.

We are looking forward to purchasing another 5th wheel trailer and going camping again (something we can’t do with horses to care for). I’ve been looking online and see that there are a lot of nice offers out there.

(our last 5th wheel)

Our last 5th wheel was a bunkhouse trailer. That means that there was a second bedroom in the back that had bunk beds in it. That worked out well for us for quite a while. However now Emily is larger and I don’t think I’ll be lifting her in and out of a bunk anymore. So I’m thinking that we should be looking at trailers that have a livingroom in the rear. That way Emily can be laying on the couch/bed and we won’t be tripping over it as we walk around (many units have a couch right in the middle of the trailer).

Emily loves to go camping. She doesn’t do much more than she does here, but it’s done in a different place and that makes it good. Emily does like to go for walks with her dad. And he loves to take her for walks. With a camping trailer it’s a little more difficult to take it into the forest so we have a lifetime membership at a park out by the ocean. The spaces are separated by trees and bushes and the other campers are usually very considerate about noise. And although we’ve camped all over this state we enjoy going back to our home park.

So while I was looking for a camping picture I found this gem. Grace and Emily had been poking sticks into a puddle in our driveway. I think they were pretending that they were fishing. This was about 3 years ago. Wow, they sure have grown!

Thanks for Praying!

I hear that our little friend Annabelle is at home and doing well. You can see posts about her here (dad's blog) and here (mom's blog).

Emily has been feeling under the weather the last couple of days. She's been in a lot of female pain. I can't even imagine what it must be like for her as she has a lot of scar tissue in her abdomen from previous bowel and bladder surgeries, hip and back surgeries. The pain level was high enough yesterday that we had to give her real pain medicine. This morning she had a long seizure that was very hard. Her new seizure drug is working, she hasn't had a seizure in at least 5 days. I'm pretty sure the difficulty of the seizure was in direct correlation with the amount of pain she's been in.


This afternoon she seems to have a few more smiles than in the last couple of days. Here she is listening to music and practicing rhythmic beats.

Please keep her in your prayers.

Can anyone say SPOILED?

Ok, no one told me that kittens grow into such cute cats!  Our little guy is just so… humm what’s the word…. spoiled. 

 

He walks around my feet each morning, crying till I sit down and let him on my lap. 

He races me to the laundry room each time I walk down the hall.  He thinks I’m going to give him some food, or water, or clean his cat box.   (We have to fence in the laundry room so the dogs won’t eat his food).

He always waits outside the bathroom door while I’m inside. 

 

He likes to help with the laundry, and making the bed.

 

And when I fix my hair, he hides in his cat carrier lest I spray him with water or hairspray. 

And he acts like a toddler, I can’t go anywhere without him following me!  Oh how I love my cat. (By the way, this is supposed to be Emily’s cat)

Notes for Special Parents

I got this image from Love Notes for Special Parent’s Gallery, created by Terri Mauro. 

Praying for Annabelle

Our little friend Annabelle is having Club-Foot surgery today. Please pray for her.
The following are some of my favorite pictures of her.

Pray for Peace

Pray for Pain Control

Pray for the Skilled Surgeon

Pray for her Parents

Pray for a quick recovery!

And then there was Snow - Again

Did someone say Spring?

Doesn't look like there will be any snowmen rolling around today. Time to build a fire, snuggle up and eat
EASTER EGGS!

Easter at our House

Morning begins the same. I stop Emily’s pump, give her first medication to her. Go start the coffee and then come back and give a breathing treatment. When the breathing treatment is finished I get to grab a cup of coffee. Grace is up by then and she is running through the hall trying to catch the cat (….run kitty!). Some mornings Grace needs her medication right away. I can’t wait for it to begin to work.

Grace is excited about coloring her eggs and can’t wait. She’s begging me to start it RIGHT NOW. Nope, need to finish getting Emily dressed. Then Grace remembers that Grandma has sent an Easter gift for her and Emily. But of course by this time I’m back in Emily’s room fixing the remainder of the medications that she needs. Poor Grace, the gifts are in our room and she needs to wait till Dad gets up.

With Emily’s medications all given I usher Grace back into the kitchen to find her some breakfast. Since it’s Easter we have a fruity sweet pastry loaf to cut into. Grace is thrilled, no cereal today! Emily is watching her television so I take time to eat a slice of the sweet pastry and drink some of my coffee.

The news is on and I pray for the ship captain who is being held hostage. Easter is the day for special miracles. It is Jesus who sets the captives free. Later we hear that the sea captain has been released. How great is our God!

I head back into Emily’s room to finish getting her dressed. Jered has come home from work and gives the girls stuffed Easter bunnies. He’s such a sweet brother.

Received card from Bill and Kay. I give it to the girls. Emily loves cards.

Jeff wakes up and now I can get the gifts that Grandma gave to the girls. Stretchy hair combs for an Easter hair-do.

Grace enjoys fixing her hair in this comb.

Emily’s hair is getting long again.

Grace finished this puzzle after I got the edges together.

Emily and Grace colored more eggs, the egg spinner still a big hit. We also did some traditional colors.

The rest of the day was spent indoors, warmed by the fire. I missed going to church but know that I can always worship where ever I am.

I baked a ham and made scalloped potatoes for dinner. The meal was a hit with lots of ham left over for more meals this week.

I’m so thankful for my family, and the love of God. Without HIM we would not have survived the many challenges of this life. All my strength is in HIM. No matter who you are, or what you’ve done, God is able! He is Love. And that is what Easter is really about.

Egg Spinner

Emily and I colored her eggs yesterday. She used an egg spinner bought from a variety store.

Put drops of color inside, add an egg and put the top on. Push the button on the top and the egg spins.

Mixed colors, how pretty!

Gloves required to remove from the spinner. Don’t those look pretty?

Eggs and Cookies

Yesterday's activities included baking cookies and making hard boiled eggs. I have never used my steamer to make hard cooked eggs so I decided to try it.

Using 1 1/2 cups of water I steamed for 22 minutes and only one of 18 eggs was cracked. Of course I had to eat it… .Yummmm! Steaming worked great. Today we will try coloring the eggs. I bought a special egg coloring kit for Emily and she is extremely excited about getting to color eggs. The egg coloring kit is a little egg spinner, similar to the “salad spinner”. You drop the colors into it and put the egg in and close it up. Hit the spinner button (this is not electric) on top and the egg spins around and is covered in coloring. I’ll post pictures of egg coloring later.

I also made chocolate chip cookies yesterday.

They turned out like this:

The light cookies are chewy and the dark ones are crisp.

The flowers and little bag (which holds some of the cookies between tissue paper) are for my neighbor friend. She will be 91 in a couple of weeks.

On the home front, Emily is not feeling well today. This morning her temp was at 100 (F). She’s been congested and I just thought it was allergies, however maybe it’s something more. She was to have an appointment at the therapy center today but I’ve cancelled that for now.

For all you Animal Lovers

Grace was left alone with my camera for a few moments and unknown to me this is what she did while I was out of the room. I found it later when I downloaded my pictures.

Rainy Day Bake

Emily is feeling better this week but she came home with a funny little rash on her hands. The picture is a little blurry, but the plams of her hands were very red.

By the time I took this picture the rash had calmed down quite a bit. Can’t figure out why a rash on the palm of her hands. She was wearing mittens as her hands are cold so much of the time. I have to wonder if the mittens have latex rubber in bands. Or maybe it is the new seizure drug causing this? She also had a bit of congestion so when she got home I gave her some allergy medicine. No rash today. Hummmmm

The weather’s turned grey again and the sky is delivering spring showers. The flowers are growing but the ground has turned to mud again. Maybe I’ll do some baking today. I’ve been following the Mennonite Girls blog (their link is on my sidebar). The recipes are so easy even -–I-- can do it. And that’s a big deal in this house. The results have been delicious so far!

However, Mennonite Girls blog doesn’t have tips to keep me from burning myself….. UGG I hate burns. I use a little oven to bake almost everything from dinner to dessert, and when the project is done I have to reach inside to retrieve it.

Even when I wear mitts I often get burnt. I guess I need some sort of gauntlets. Maybe my next sewing project?

I’m thinking of trying a convection toaster oven. At least I would be able to PULL the tray out instead of reaching inside to get my baked goods. Any suggestions of brands out there? Pro’s and con’s of convection toaster ovens? I’d like one large enough to bake bread, muffins and goodies.