Pieces of My Life on a Wednesday Afternoon

Resting

Yes, this sickness has not left me. It is a nasty flu. While the worst days for the men in the family were Sunday through Saturday last week, I think my worst days were Monday and Tuesday of this week. To think that I thought I had it beat by sleeping all day last Wednesday. I pushed myself too hard Thursday - Saturday. So, I had to suffer on Sunday - Tuesday. About an hour ago, the drag on my body seemed somewhat lighter. So, I think I am on the upswing. I will continue to rest, rehydrate, and read (The Three "R"s!) to make doubly sure. Lorraine tells me that some people she knows have had it up to a whole month. So glad we can all take care of each other in the family though because our worst days seemed to have been staggered with our order of sickness being Michael (Sun - Thurs), George (Mon - Fri), Paul (Thur - Sunday), and me (Sunday - Wed). As our pattern though, Michael and George always seem to get it longest and worst, and Paul next. Most of time I avoid the sicknesses altogether, but I didn't this time.

Reading

Sickness does have its advantages though. As a result of it, finished A Tale of Two Cities (a review is forthcoming), and I have made a big dent in Herodotus. I love the LANDMARK version that I stumbled across at the library. It has so many interesting maps and helpful footnotes. The pictures also make it so much more interesting. Two thumbs up from this classical history nerd.

Love it so much that I found a used LANDMARK Thucydides (History of the Pelopnnesian War) for $8.44 and ordered it from Amazon today since the library does not yet own a copy. My guess is that they haven't ordered due to the new hardback edition coming out.

Reveling

I love it when a sickness doesn't have me so flat on my back that I can't revel in God. It has been fun to just have a few days to bask in the Word and His presence. Perfect for our Bible Book Club study of the tabernacle. I think I would have liked being a priest - except all the blood. I think that constant focus on the LORD and being in His tabernacle would have been great. I am glad as a New Testament believer I can be a priest because I am part of the priesthood of believers, and guess what? NO BLOOD! YIPEEE! Already been taken care of by Jesus.

All that said, I feel like I am tracking and enjoying. Been pondering too, and just feeling blue for some people. I feel so blessed right now. I want to share that with others. Seeing my need to intercede more and more these days, and I think I will do just that right now!

P.S. I ordered an Easter Bunny from Harry and Davids, and it came today. SO CUTE! It has all sorts of fun treats like gummy bunnies, moose munch, chocolate eggs, truffle, three pears, easter cookies. Fun treat for the family!

Sunday Morning

I got up before my sick family and enjoyed time with God by candlelight on this dark morning.

The first family member to arrive in my sanctuary was Paul at 9:25 a.m. So, nice to have 2 1/2 uninterrupted hours.

I also composed a detailed post for the Passover Sedar we will have on Good Friday. I am so glad that I had an equipment and food list stored in my "Celebrate the Feasts" file from fifteen years ago. We had the same number of people then when we did it with with the "Feasts Group." That was a hodgepodge of singles and career people. Funny thing was, NO ONE HELPED in the kitchen before the meal, and I did try to ask for it. "A" freaked out about boiling noodles and walked away from the boiling pot asking me to please do it (Geo ended up taking over). "S" had a "crisis" and was praying and crying in a downstairs bedroom. Many people with many issues back then. It is funny to look back at it now.

I was feeding a toddler (the only one with a child but a very happy and content child, YEAH Michael!) and working in the kitchen while everyone visited and chatted away in the living room. It was so strange. I just could not understand it. The good part: I was in the "zone" with the LORD that day and just prayed for the people and enjoyed myself. Hoping those people have learned to be servants being that many have children of their own now.

Made me not want to be in charge of another Passover with a big group of people again though! It was so much work!

Fast forward ten years, and I did it with the Wafers, Iszlers, Kings, etc, and EVERYONE pitched in and helped. Mary Ann hosted and was phenomenal! It sure makes for a very enjoyable meal when everyone carries the load!

I have no doubts that this new group, despite having small children will also be very helpful.

I am also very excited that Phil will be leading it! They have done this so many times, I am sure they will tell me if I missed something along the way.

Feeling the Music of Out of Africa

I made Challah bread to go along with the White Chicken Chili I am making in the crock-pot. As I knead, I usually pray for my children like Jewish moms through the centuries have always done. I love this, and I had this lovely soundtrack playing in the background. It was an unexpected thing that I inherited from my mom. It has given me great pleasure to listen to it and know she is listening to even better music right now.

Now, the dough is rising, the candles are lit next to the fireplace, and I just finished listening to "Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in A" by Mozart. Now, I am listening to "Safari." It was dark and rainy while I kneaded my dough, but the sun is bursting out over my back as light rain still falls.

I love today and its peacefulness.

10K Saturday

We did a 10K Saturday. Here are some links to some pics of us doing it:

Michael and I

Paul and George

Lovely time for us as a family. We were in a "walkers only" category this time. So, I didn't feel compelled to make anybody in the family run. It was a lovely walk along the Willamette River at Champoeg Park near St. Paul. The weather was overcast but not too cold and no wind. Perfect for running or fast walking.

This was one of the beautiful sights we saw during the 10K.


We also saw some bluebirds. It was a very special time for our family.

A Good Kind of Tired

Had my first really good workout since my back spasm three weeks ago. It felt so good to do interval training on the elliptical and lift heavier weights in Group Power. I am not up to my full weight yet, but I was able to increase it, and I have a bit of soreness, and I feel that good sort of physical exhaustion that comes from expanding your lungs beyond what they have been used to doing. Feeling good today.

We taught our first digital photograhy class at 4-H today. There are more kids who will be joining next month because the movie making class overlapped with this class. So, we just took the two girls in the class out to a park and took a ton of pictures. Their assignment was to just SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT and take a mass quantity of pictures versus trying to get a perfect shot. It was a nice day for it too. Very nice girls too. I love this homeschool crowd. I wish we would have joined them a long time ago, but I didn't know we were invited.

We came back to a light school day. I realized we have 61 lessons of World History and only 51 days of school left if we want to be done by Memorial Day weekend, but this is because they started the online class later than we started. I don't see it as a problem though. While the first half of this class had at least one quiz, one online response writing project, and one discussion board answer a week, the second half of the class only has one online response and two discussion boards for the remaining 12 weeks! I also only has the weekly quiz for the next seven weeks. There is also no final exam, but there is a final paper. We will double up our days on the days there is just online reading. So, I don't see any problem catching up those two weeks and even getting ahead by a week so that they have much of May to write their final paper. Michael will be done with his classical literature class and may even be done with his math class by then too. So, he will be able to devote more time to the final paper. With Paul, I will walk him through that final paper process since he is younger. I know Michael will have no problem doing it on his own.

Speaking of Michael, I am amazed at how he has grown in the area of getting things done on his own. I was shocked when he came up on Monday night during Bible Book Club and got his classical lit books so he could do Agamemnon. He was doing that because we had gone to the beach on Monday and skipped school. He knew he needed to do it to stay on track.

I am also amazed that he seems to actually enjoy this classical literature course. He is also writing everything without complaint and just asks me to come along and proofread it until he submits it. He is also writing out all his study questions for biology. This makes it so easy to review the sections of biology with him.

So, it has been a great year. I am pleased.

I am rambling. I am a good kind of tired, but I am going to go to the club RIGHT NOW and work out again. Just a light cardio day today. I will bring A Tale of Two Cities to read. It is nice because Becky is doing Proverbs 3 for tomorrow. So, I have had five out of the last seven days off from Bible Book Club. This has given me some extra time. I am so grateful to Katrina and Becky for taking Thursdays and Mondays for me too!

Off I go. Hard to get off the couch, but I need to do it!

On Death and Dying

I haven't posted here for a while. So, I thought I would. Learned some tough things this morning: A homeschool mom died last night, another homeschool mom's liver is failing, and their family is, in their own words, "circling the wagons," my friend's dad is dying of lung cancer, our friend Bruce is dying and has weeks to live, and another friend from my old church is suffering from cancer and dying. On top of all of this, the three month anniversary of my mom's death is on Friday.

I am not one to question God's sovereignty. I don't feel any need to do so. It isn't because I am pollyanna about it. It isn't because I am super spiritual either. It is part of my genetics to look at life with a "What is, is" attitude (For your Myers-Briggs people, I am a very STRONG "S"). Suffering happens. Poo-Poo Occurs. People die. The reality is that none of us get out of here alive. I am just in a position this morning of asking God what He is teaching me through all of this when it seems like it is all coming in a big wave of a morning. I don't say this "What is, is" with any bit of coldness or callousness either. I feel these people and their pain. I want to DO something to help them! But what?

Interesting that the message I heard from the LORD this morning was to let everything that I do be done in LOVE today. This is a message for every day, but this is what I was reminded of as my life's calling and direction: a life of love.

So, how can I love today those people who are in such pain? That is what I am pondering and will continue to ponder throughout the rest of the day.