time with mom and dad

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Shanda

I’m sitting on the porch watching a butterfly sip from a big pink zinnia. It’s hard to type because the middle finger on my left hand has a bulky fingertip bandaid on it after I cut through the fingernail with a kitchen knife. I was slicing cucumbers to make pickles.

There is no fresh air. The smell of smoke is everywhere because David and his friend Emily K are melting soda cans over a bonfire. I regret putting the fire pit so close to the house because every time they make a fire, the smell of smoke permeates everything. Some children go for walks and collect cans in order to cash in on the five cent refund…other children play “melt the medal” with them.

I see a hummingbird enjoying the zinnias. I wish I had my camera…hold on….

Okay, I’m back.

Today I am writing about the next day of our weekend back home. Saturday was the family reunion at Colleen and Roger’s house. Afterwards, Grace and Sarah went to spend the night at my parent’s house and Caleb went to spend the night at my brother and sister in law’s house. Rich and I felt so strange with only three boys with us. (Jacob had stayed home in CT because he had to work). We went to our favorite pizza place and then to the hotel to sleep.

Around lunchtime the next day we went to Dave’s to pick up Caleb. He had had a wonderful time with his Uncle and was full from a big breakfast at the Crackerbarrel.

Dave and Maria don’t have kids so Dave didn’t sleep well in worrying about Caleb. Isn’t that the sweetest thing?

After we reunited with Caleb we drove on to my parent’s house “up on the hill”. It was raining outside so Mom made the burgers inside on the stovetop, with her grill pans. She and Grace fried two pans of sliced onions in the drippings to eat with the burgers. We had homemade potato salad, homemade pickles, and chips.

a corner of mom’s kitchen….I love her decorating style so much.

garden tomatoes, cut paper on the window. two mixers for cookies, cakes, and breads.

Well, we only had one afternoon together so despite the rain Mom and I went out to the garden so she could show me everything. My son Jacob made the “Mr. Gregory’s Garden” sign. My dad’s name is Gregory, and it’s a pun on the wonderful Beatrix Potter story, The Tale of Peter Rabbit.

‘Now my dears,’ said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, ‘you may go into
the fields or down the lane, but don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden:
your Father had an accident there;
he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.’

Mom and Dad keep the garden all fenced in rustically so as to keep out the critters.

Dave and Maria work in the garden whenever possible, too. Maria planted these really fascinating watermelons; “Moon and Stars”….see the little yellow stars on the leaves and the melon?

Mom wore boots, I went barefoot. First we went in the shed where I took some of her onions, garlic, and a potato. She showed me her gourds which are almost ready to turn into birdhouses.

She offered me boots several times but I needed to feel the mud and grass and dirt under my bare feet.

Heirloom tomato ready to pick.

Her sister is growing potatoes in old tires, and she is growing tomatoes in them. I have decided that my garden totally needs some old tires. 🙂

Reflected in a silver bulb

Perseverance corn…..

“I planted corn three times and the chipmunks ate the seed. I bought fresh seed at agway and planted it the end of June, way late in the season. I call it perseverance because Dad kept telling me it would never grow and I told him I was not going to give up.” ~Mom

That’s the kind of mom I have.

Grandpa’s old barns in the distance.

Mom set to work finding cucumbers.

She also had me get inside the bean teepee which was pretty fun because I felt just like a kid again. She looked in at me though the drippy green vines and said, “Isn’t it neat?”

I ate a crunchy green bean.

I was standing in front of the bean teepee.

Mom and I got completely soaked and it was very refreshing. And cold.

I was given all kinds of cucumbers and had quality time with my mama.

(Today I cut my finger making pickles with them.)

“I’ve never seen you get hurt before!” ~Sarah
“Grandma has cuts on her fingers, too.” ~Grace

Back inside the house, Rich took a photo of us and mom gave me a dry shirt to wear.

Sarah felt like such a big girl after spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. She’s still bragging about it to people. She loved the puppy, too, except when he gets too close to her. (he loves children and chews on them).

She feels important when Grandpa lets her hold the leash.

Dad and Ethan played music together. It was wonderful.

From the other end of the house, Caleb joined in, too.

We had to leave their house around 4:00 so that we could get home at a reasonable hour.

It was still raining when we left and I enjoyed that old drive down the hill.

Soaked it in, so to speak.

Aunt Betty’s house.

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Mom when she was a baby.

portrait

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Shanda

DSC_1792_zpsuuud26bt

I took this photo of Sarah (6), Caleb (11), and Seth (7) today during a walk in the woods.

Motherhood has taught me the meaning of living in the moment and being at peace. Children don’t think about yesterday, and they don’t think about tomorrow. They just exist in the moment.
~J.Gilsig

we saw an Indigo Bunting today!!!!

Posted on July 10, 2016 by Shanda

Better than any argument is to rise at dawn
and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.
~Wendell Berry

I gathered a little lunch snack for Sarah and she ate every single thing but the lettuce. And then she wanted more peas so she went outside herself and picked them. She started a project of opening them up to only get the peas out (these are sugar snaps and we generally eat them whole) and she worked until she had about 1/8 of a cup. Then she ate them. Parker the dog ate the cases.

I stayed home from church with her while Rich went with everyone else. I cleaned the kitchen and living room and vacuumed while she rested and kept herself hydrated. I’m very pleased with how she is doing today.

At one point she said, “I’m so sad because I got that beautiful necklace at the hospital and I never got to wear it. It’s lost.” And I said, “No it’s not lost, it’s around here someplace.” “Yes it is! Lost is when you don’t know where something is so… it’s lost.” Then I agreed she was right. Five minutes later she found it.

As soon as they came home from church Ethan took a nap.

Rest on a Sunday. It’s only natural.

I went on the porch to read but I didn’t read for very long because it is a very moth and butterfly sort of day. Quite distracting. I went in the house to get my camera and Dave walked around with me to see what we could see.

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me. ~Thomas Jefferson

The most exciting thing David found was a monarch caterpillar. We look for them yearly but have not seen any for several years!!

It was rewarding, in a way, because I never ever weed out milkweed in the hopes that we will once again get caterpillars. The milkweed this one was on grew right through the middle of my lilac bush by the kitchen window. Can you see the caterpillar? David spotted it right away. We couldn’t believe how fat it was.

We put it, along with plenty of milkweed, in an old empty aquarium. We will observe it while it forms into a beautiful butterfly….stay tuned!

Naturally, I wanted to go up to the field to try to find more but none of the children would go with me. I went out to the garage, where my husband was waxing his car, and asked him to go along. He agreed to go as soon as he was done with the left fender.

I waited for him by the stream.

We picked some wild blueberries (1/4 of a cup) and I put them in my pocket.

We talked.

We were attacked by mosquitoes.

We saw birds and butterflies.

MOST EXCITINGLY!!!!!!!!!!!

An Indigo Bunting!

what a heavenly blue

It’s mate was there, too, and they were making all kinds of noise to threaten us so we believe their nest was nearby.

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. ~Author unknown, commonly attributed to Martin Luther

yellow cake with creamy butter frosting

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Shanda

homemade cake

The other day I was in Goodwill and I found & purchased a 1982 hardback copy of Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book . Since I was hungering for a cake I set to work that very day, using both a cake and a frosting recipe from the new-to-me cookbook. When the cake was complete and I tried a piece, I had to admit that it was amazing. Not to mention the frosting recipe calls for an egg instead of milk. This was a huge revelation to me (remember, I am determined to use eggs in every way I can because I have a flock of pampered, well cared for hens which give me almost 2 dozen a day). If you’re local and want to buy eggs from me, they are 3 dollars a dozen. I have NO QUALMS whatsoever about using a raw egg in frosting because the eggs I use couldn’t be any fresher……..

This is a plain and simple yellow cake and I can’t even tell you how much better a homemade cake is over a mix. I am not a professional pastry chef like my dear cousin but I have eaten her cakes and have 20 years of baking experience as a susie-homemaker in the kitchen so trust me. A homemade cake is the way to go. (using a mix is not an unforgivable offense, however) If you do use a mix, at least make homemade icing for the top.

Yellow Cake

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter (If you only have salted, then omit salt in recipe)
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk

Grease a 9 by 13 cake pan. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter about 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla; beat till well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 1 minute after each. Add dry ingredients and milk alternately to beaten mixture, beating after each addition. Pour and scrape into prepared cake pan. Bake in a 375 oven for 30-35 minutes or till done. Cool before frosting.

NOTE: if you want a layer cake, bake in two greased and floured 8 or 9 inch round pans. I usually keep the cake in the pan to frost and serve.

Creamy Butter Frosting

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
4 1/2 to 4 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

In a small mixer bowl beat butter till light and fluffy. Gradually add about half of the powdered sugar, beating well. Beat in the egg and the vanilla. Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar, then additional milk if needed to make frosting of spreading consistency (I like mine as a soft-spread).

NOTE: this cake must be stored in the fridge because of the raw egg.

ANOTHER NOTE: Thank Goodness my mom taught me a trick if I ever ran out of powdered sugar (which I did for this recipe!) She told me I could make my own powdered sugar by pouring a couple cups of regular granulated sugar into my vitamix mixer and blending! It was fun and kind of like magic. Thanks, Mom!

We have been eating this cake for a week and it still tastes as good, if not better, than the day I made it.

NOTE: I’ve been running on the treadmill as a result.

A party without cake is just a meeting. ~Julia Child

I want to read allllll the books

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Shanda

I would be most content

I dropped of David at school after an appointment and went to the library to return books.

I wandered the aisles and realized…..I wanted to read all the books. I imagined being stranded and locked up, in a library and I didn’t mind the image. So many books. It’s amazing how many have been written, how many are contained at the library, free for the borrowing.

if my children

a stack of my own books by the bathtub

grew up

what we listen to in the car

to be the kind of people

reading in a coffeeshop

who think decorating consists mostly of

currently reading:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

and

The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hamelin This book is the published diary of a German Jewish woman who began writing it at the age of 44 in the year 1690. She was compelled to write because her beloved husband had died and it gave her something to do during the long lonesome nights. She had 14 children and she wrote the diaries for them. In it, “She tells how she guided the financial and personal destinies of her children, how she engaged in trade, ran her own factory, and promoted the welfare of her large family. Her memoir, a rare account of an ordinary woman, enlightens not just her children, for whom she wrote it, but all posterity about her life and community. Gluckel speaks to us with determination and humor from the seventeenth century. She tells of war, plague, pirates, soldiers, the hysteria of the false messiah Sabbtai Zevi, murder, bankruptcy, wedding feasts, births, deaths, in fact, all of the human events that befell her during her lifetime.”

building enough bookshelves.

~Anne Quindlen

another sarah story

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Shanda

I woke from a deep sleep and opened my eyes in a pitch dark room.

“That was NOT knocking on my door I just heard,” I reassured my very sleepy self and turned over to drift….away…..

The door opened slowly.

“Yes?” I said, politely. (I’ve trained myself through the years not to shriek)

“My stomach hurts!” said Sarah’s small voice.

“Are you hungry?”

“I….think so!” she said, uncertainly.

I didn’t realize at the time that she was looking for a different answer and simply wanted to sleep on the couch. But yesterday was another procedure day and she had to miss meals for it and I automatically thought that a stomach ache would make logical sense from lack of food.

It was 5:15 in the morning and soon she was munching on cereal but offered up this piece of information, “Usually when my stomach hurts you say go and sleep on the couch…..”

Ah.

When the cereal was gone she said, “It still hurts.”

I knew just what to say this time. “Let’s go get you on the couch.”

She smiled.

I asked Rich why she didn’t just get on the couch in the first place rather than wake me up.

“She’s not that type of girl. She needed to get your okay first.”

This is a photo she asked me to take of the Lego man at the hospital. We were there on Wednesday to get her stent removed. Unfortunately, she was very anxious about it and when it came time she started passionately crying. The doctor asked us to come back the next day so she could be sedated. At a children’s hospital every member of the staff knows the very best way to treat their small and vulnerable patients. They explained that because Sarah was so young, it was important for us to avoid any procedure that would cause any lasting fears or trauma. Even something as simple/quick as a stent removal needs to be done thoughtfully and with Sarah’s anxiety reduced as much as possible.

She liked the lego man because he was holding a picture of someone she learned about in school. “It’s a ferret? I mean, a fairy? And if you catch him he will take you to the end of a rainbow for a pot of gold.” This is what she was in the process of explaining when I took the picture.

It was 73 degrees that afternoon and we went to the woods and she played with her animals while I leaned against a solid, friendly pine tree and read a book.

A flock of chickens came walking out of the woods.

“Who’s chickens are those?” she asked, confused because they seemed to have journeyed from far away.

“Ours!” I answered.

She sat next to me and ate an orange and made me shoo away the hens if they came too near. Which they did, because they wanted oranges, too. We threw little bits of peel and laughed when a hen ran to pick it up and then drop it back down again, only to have another hen do the same thing because chickens don’t eat the peels either.

We were directed to not give her food after midnight and to only give her jello, ice pops, gatorade, apple juice, or water up until 11:30. To take our mind off food we went shopping. I don’t take her shopping too often because she absolutely LOVES it. She carefully looks at everything in the store and makes honest, careful decisions about what to buy. I had to remind her yesterday that there are limits and she, after all, has no job.

She picked out the pink sneakers that have lights from Target, and the sparkly pink braid from Justice.

We went back to the hospital at 2:30. The sedation entailed two syringes of clear fluid inserted into each nostril at the same time, with four of us holding her in position. She sat in my lap as she cried and sniffled and fidgeted with disgust, holding a towel over her nose and mouth to catch any drips. A VERY DREADFUL way to take medicine. But soon it did the trick and she was relaxed and smiling. The stent was removed in less than five seconds and the two of us were absolutely exhausted by the whole ordeal. A whole lot of fuss for a 4 second stent removal. UGH.

After we observed her and gave her a slushy I left her with the nurse and went on my way to the parking garage-6th floor-to get the vehicle and drive it to the hospital entrance where Sarah arrived in a wheelchair. She was confused as to why we wouldn’t let her walk, “Don’t my legs work? Can’t I walk?” “Yes, you’re just a little wobbly right now.” “No, I’m not!”

They said the medicine would make her forget the procedure but I keep waiting for her to forget and she hasn’t. The main purpose of the sedation was to make it less traumatic and it certainly did do that, she was calm and cheerful for the whole rest of the day. We drove through rush hour traffic to the nearest Wendy’s (she always craves a #9 after a doctor’s appointment–which is a grilled chicken sandwich *no fries*) and I got a big waffle cone with strawberry topping from across the road at Sonic. It did it’s part to soothe my nerves.

After we came home she was full of adrenaline and we had to make her stay somewhat quiet. However, this morning she’s all tuckered out. The excitement finally caught up to her. We look forward to a nice day together. (Right now she’s watching Gordimer Gibbons).

how can I keep from bragging?

Posted on February 3, 2016 by Shanda

So I have this really talented feline who has a passion for ice skating. She’s out there practicing constantly and so I thought I would take a few photos of her when I was letting the chickens out the other day. She is completely self-taught!

The pictures just do not do her credit. She was doing a layback spin JUST before I took this one. Lately, she spends most of her time working on her toughest skill, which is a triple axel followed immediately by a double toe loop. I would have taken a video but I didn’t know how to do it. Plus I was standing stock stiff in shock.

When she saw I was taking pictures she ran off the ice and up a tree.

She is very shy.

sarah’s adventure

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Shanda

We took Sarah to the hospital on Wednesday morning. She had to be there at 6:10. They took us in the pre-op room and I changed her into a hospital gown. We were so nervous. The nurse and doctors came and talked to us and then it was time for her to go to the operating room. Rich went with her until she fell into her magical sleep. They let her chose a flavored chap stick to rub on the mask so that it smelled nice as she breathed. She chose watermelon.

Her surgery ended up taking 8 hours. Rich and I went to a waiting room. I walked in with my mind numb and my eyes hot with tears. I wanted to hide away from the other parents. Rich and I hugged, he was crying, too. He had a hard time leaving Sarah behind and went back to kiss her one more time before he left here there so small and dear.

How did we wait 8 long hours? The time went by so slowly but as I think back on it, it is unclear in my mind how we passed the time. We sat right next to the waiting room phone and I answered it on the first ring every time the nurses called to update the parents. So we heard from the O.R. on a regular basis.

I also walked and walked, through the halls and up and down flights of stairs.

I went to the bathroom over and over…being nervous always makes my heart beat faster and my bladder want to empty more frequently.

Each time I washed my hands, I looked myself in the eyes and spoke words of affirmation to myself. “You are strong, you are so strong.” “Jesus is with you and Sarah is going to be fine.” “Everything is okay.” “Be positive.” It felt good to purposefully replace negative thinking with positive words.

I went into the Meditation room where there was a book to write your words of prayer, and Bibles to read (a Torah, 4 books of Mormon, and a Hebrew Old Testament). I prayed in there with my face in my hands. I wrote in the book the words to “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”

I sat by my husband who was working on his laptop, and colored. There was one other mom in the waiting room who also colored. It helped to keep me calm.

I watched other people.

There was hot chocolate, coffee, and graham crackers in the waiting room. I had no appetite but I forced myself to eat and drink. Rich and I ate lunch in the cafeteria. I don’t remember what I ate…….

And finally she was out of the OR. As we left to speak to the doctor one of the dads said “But who is going to answer the phone for us now?” And we laughed.

Sarah didn’t have three large kidney stones, she had about 10 smaller ones. It took the doctor several hours to remove them. They were so soft that they broke into pieces as she tried to get them out.

They did another test to see if her kidney had any abnormal areas but it was a perfectly normal kidney. We are all mystified about how she ended up with so much stone burden.

Then it was time to see Sarah and I could not wait. The nurse had me get right in bed with her. She was white and groggy, and a little weepy.

We put a cool washcloth on her forehead and helped her eat a bite of slushy which she promptly threw back up. She played a little bit on an iPad with shaky hands. After a while, the entire bed with both of us on it was wheeled down the hall, up the elevator, and into her room where she would end up spending three nights in.

I was so happy that night, the burden of anxiety of several months in anticipating this surgery was gone. I took this picture at 1 in the morning, when Sarah was wide awake watching The Poler Express.

She spent most of the day on Thursday in bed. She was in pain and had a lot of trouble getting to the bathroom. She didn’t want to move and she had no appetite. She was on an IV for fluids, antibiotics, and pain medication. That night she ran a temperature of 103. She was coughing. The euphoria of having the surgery over began to wear off a little.

By the next morning, Friday, we were both emotional messes. Rich had gone home the night before and went to work that day. I was so worried about the fever and just the whole experience in general and plus no sleep……it was so hard to stay cheerful. It broke my heart when Sarah was crying and she said, “Mama, why are you crying?” I felt like my emotions were making her feel worse.

The nurse was so wonderful. She talked to me and said that Sarah needed to get out of bed and that we would both feel better if we got out of the four walls of that room and away from bed and the idea of “sickness”. I hadn’t even thought of that because with Sarah’s pain I didn’t want her to do anything but rest…..which is not what the doctor and nurses wanted their patient doing….I stepped away for a few minutes to clear my head and compose myself. I went down to the cafeteria and ate breakfast (it was after 1o) and I sat and quietly cried as I ate. I made some coffee and took it back upstairs and found a young lady with Sarah, talking to her cheerfully. She was going to wheel Sarah down to Radiology so she could have an X-ray on her abdomen to make sure the stent was in place.

(As she was spiking a fever, she had to have several extra tests to see if she had infection; a urine test, blood test, chest X-ray, and abdomen X-ray)

She pushed Sarah in a wheelchair as I walked along not able to talk because I was still holding back tears and felt so worn out.

After the X-ray, the young lady (I cannot remember her name) took us to see the Family Resource room and that is where Sarah and I both began to cheer up and believe once again that life was worth living. 🙂

There was so much to do in the room, it was clean and bright and very kid-friendly. There was an iPod table, books, computers, and a big beautiful fish tank. Sarah got out of the wheelchair and walked around (slowly, and sort of bent over because her tummy was sore).

She perked up and began chattering just like the Sarah we know and love.

We went back to the room so she could get her next dose of medicine and Rich surprised us by walking into the room….he spent the whole rest of the day with us.

The two of us took Sarah to the cafeteria to eat lunch. She ate a whole taco and it was an absolute joy to watch her eat and say yum over her food again.

And then she did more playing!

That afternoon she also went to an art time on a different floor–her Dad took her while I went for a little walk and then colored in the 6th floor waiting room as an older lady slept in a chair next to me.

And then! Oh joy, I was able to go home to sleep that night and Rich stayed with Sarah.

I went back early on Saturday morning….I was there by 6:30. Rich had to leave to coach wrestling. Sarah had spiked another fever and at first there was talk of having her stay another night.

In the meantime, we had to leave the room again to keep our spirits up. Sarah didn’t go in a wheelchair this time, she walked on her own two feet. The nurse disconnected her from the IV and it was nice to go along without having to push around an iv pole. She insisted on pushing all the buttons for me.

Her poor hair was a rat’s nest. I hadn’t combed it because she was so grumpy in the days after surgery that I knew that she wouldn’t tolerate me messing around with her hair. But as soon as we got back to the family resource room and she was playing on the computer, I sat behind her and oh so very gently combed her hair until it was finally smooth again. It took a long time.

She strung a few beads and then got too tired.

She played with puzzles.

And the giant iPad. We were the only ones in the room.

We went back to our room to rest and the nurse came to take out her “tubes”. She asked if we were ready to leave and go home and we both smiled and said yes, we were. So discharge was underway and as soon as he could, Rich drove back to the hospital to get us.

Goodbye, fish

We left with the knowledge that she would probably spike another fever that night, but we had prescriptions to fill and a phone number to call with any questions. The tests they had done to double check on infection all came back clear…urine, blood, lungs, tummy. The doctor ended up deciding that the fevers were probably from surgery itself, and bacteria going into her system from the stones being disturbed.

The sisters were reunited, we ate ice cream on the way home.

The brothers were happy to have Sarah home again. Caleb had spent some of his own Christmas money on a few little gifts for Sarah and before I knew it, she had gone all the way up the stairs to play in her room with her devoted brother.

She slept in our room that night and although she did wake up upset and confused, she didn’t spike a fever after all.

She had a sponge bath on Sunday morning and it was so good for her to get the hospital smell off and her hair washed good and clean again.

I braided her hair and when I left the room to get something, she turned to her dad and said, “I look pretty…don’t I?” Yes, you do, Sarah.

I took this picture last night when Rich and I were reading in bed.

Today has been good…she’s still moving slow but the pain is getting easier for her to deal with. I left her for an hour with Grace as I went to the store to get milk. I’ve been busy making muffins, cleaning, making tacos for lunch, more cleaning, catching up on so much laundry, all with a peace in my heart that Sarah is okay and getting better again.

She has an appointment tomorrow with urology and the surgeon as a follow up. I know she’s healing nicely but of course I want to know what the urologist says about what we can do for her to hopefully prevent her from getting kidney stones like this again.

Thank you for your prayers!

one week from today

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Shanda

I’ve been avoiding this topic but I write today to ask for your prayers because in one week from today Sarah will have surgery to remove kidney stones from her right kidney.

We found out she had them because she began having a urinary tract infection that came back after antibiotics. Our pediatrician sent us to a specialist and she had an ultrasound and a cat scan done which showed three stones. One is 2 cm, one is 1.5 cm and the other one is –I can’t remember–but smaller. The doctors are intrigued by her because these stones are larger than they typically see for a child her age (5 and a half).

Children can get kidney stones for a variety of reasons, including a poor diet (too much processed food, high in salt, and a lack of adequate water intake). Generally speaking, stones are quite common, which I didn’t know or care about until my own daughter made some. (sigh)

Like most people, I get nervous about medical situations. I was very upset when we learned that she needed surgery and that the doctors couldn’t tell us right away why she made the stones or what we can do to prevent this from happening again.

However, as I force myself to look on the bright side there are many many things to be thankful for:

She has had no pain. no pain!
modern medicine and specialist doctors means they can be removed and everything will be done in an up-to-date and professional way.
Although there is a chance she will need to have open surgery to remove the stones, at this point the plan is that it will be done robotically which means 4 tiny incisions and probably no stitches. They say she can probably go home the same day as the procedure.
Ultrasound and blood work was normal, and the infection at the time of the diagnosis was very minimal. She takes a preventative dose of antibiotics every day to keep the UTI away.
although she does have a slight amount of “grit” in her urine, her 24 hour urine test was also unremarkable (according to the doctor).
all the doctors have been calm and unconcerned about this, which settles my emotions because THEY are the experts….and I am the over-reacting mother.
in the grand scheme of things…..kidney stones?? not a big deal. She appears perfectly healthy, in fact, she’s brighter and happier than she’s ever been (she loves going to school) and she’s so smart!
She enjoyed her experience at the hospital and looks forward to going back. (so weird) LOL She especially loved the button that you could push to get a nurse to come and do things for you.

I don’t really want to talk about this, but I did want to let my friends know what was going on because it’s on my mind, and usually the fears that I put out into the light tend to lessen in the sharing.

Psalm 136:26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.

thank-full heart

Posted on November 26, 2015 by Shanda

“The way to find God’s treasure-house of blessing is to climb the ladder of His divine promises. Those promises are the key that opens the door to the riches of God’s grace and favor.”

“He knows the way I take” Job 23:10

Jacob, Emily, Sarah, and Mitch are sitting on one side of the couch with me, Grace, Rich, and Caleb are on the other side. Ethan is on the loveseat with his legs stretched out, with bare feet. Seth is wearing his Halloween costume, on the floor with a football. The late afternoon football game is on TV.

We were supposed to have my entire family here for the Thanksgiving meal but I had to cancel a few days ago. I haven’t been feeling well (depression) and with my brother Dave’s help, we decided to try for a quieter weekend….the love and understanding of my family did so much to humble and soften my anxious heart.

The thing about low points is that the spirit is more desperate and eager to SEE God, feel Him, know Him, want Him. And he pops up everywhere, like even in the movie Sister Act 2 and Grace’s chorus performance at school, it’s a thrill. He is everything, the only Rock-solid truth and the giver of so many good things.

Like family, doctors, medicine, warmth, a friend when you need one, animals, fresh air, etc……

“The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the give of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.”