Happy Birthday

When your youngest child reaches 45 and you have 5 great-grandchildren, there is now way around it, you are getting old. I feel old sometimes. Then I feel not so old at other times. If I don't try to keep up with statistics (calendars that remind me of passing time) I usually do OK. That aside, today is a celebreation. Some 45 years ago I gave birth to a wonderful son. After 3 daughters, we had wondered if we would ever have a namesake for Richard. The Lord granted us Rick.

Rick is patient, kind, helpful, and talented. He is a great dad to his kids and a thoughtful son to his parents (us). We talk to him at least 4-5 times a week. He shares his ambitions, dreams, and frustrations. If you can't already tell, we are proud of him. Is he perfect? By no means, but he really does try. Happy Birthday son. God bless you today and throughout the year to come.

Stand Up and Shout

Yes, yes, praise God. I could stand up and shout for joy. The Lord is so very good. For almost 2 years, Richard's A1c has been creeping up. Despite increasing his Metformen and even adding Glipiside, just after Thanksgiving his A1c (the blood sugar that bonds to red blood cells) had reached 8.5 and the doctor told us that if he couldn't get it down below 7.0 he would need to go on insulin (injections). That was 6 weeks ago and on Friday, Richard had new blood work. The results were far greater than I could have hoped for. Praise God. Despite the time frame being over the holidays, his A1c is 6.9. I would have been grateful had it even been down to 8.0.

Our family can attest to the lack of sugar and a limited number of "goodies" this Christmas season. They are used to platters of cookies and other special treats baked special for the season. Instead, the only cookies were sugarless. Fruit cake was made from dried fruit (no sweetner or preservatives added), honey substituted for molasses, Slenda for brown sugar. No candied yams or sweet pickles adorned the table. The only candy in the place was sugar-free (aside from that sent on Christmas eve from Germany and enjoyed by all). We are watching carbs, not calories, but there is a lot of corrilation. Consequently, serving sizes are small. It worked. Now to keep it that way. This is not a fad diet, it is of necessity, a life style change. Please pray for me that I can continue in this effort. Richard's life may very well depend on it.

hair

Today is the day of hair. Today I will cut Richard's hair as I have @ least once every 5 weeks for almost 40 years. It actually gets pretty long before I cut it. Today I will vacuum hair and other forms of small debris from carpet, furniture and etc. Today I will wash bedding that got feathers (another form of hair) all over it when a pillow sprang a leak -ooh. Hair is a persistent and yet yearned for part of God's creation. The bible refers to it as a woman's glory/pride (I Cor. 11:15). Men who are balding spend money on either "rugs" to hide it, medicine to re-grow it, or implants to replace it. Let me be quick to say that we have no balding problems in this house. Richard has a full, very thick though grey head of hair. It grows almost faster than I can keep up with it, kind of like a well fertilized and watered lawn in summer.

I fixed a ham yesterday for dinner. It is pretty good size and considering that there are only two of us, I will most likely cut it up and put at least half in the freezer for later use. That is the only way I can get to the bone quickly. I am talking split pea soup. We have been eating beef and barley soup (2 batches of it) made with left-over roast this past week. There is nothing like a hardy home made soup on a cold January day, but we need a change, split pea it will be. Nothing could be simpler. Just add onions, a little salt, some sliced carrots, a ham bone, peas and water to the crockpot and a few hours later, wha-la, soup. Maybe corn bread or biscuits and you have dinner. I am hungry already.

Spring is comming

It has been exceptionally nice the last few days in Oregon. Cold, but not freezing in the morning and mild in the afternoons. I even did some work in the vegetable garden yesterday. My green onions and garlic are doing well and there are even a few starts of leaf lettice that survived the snow under a covering of plastic sheeting. I transplanted some perenial flowers (thinned them) and pulled up dead stems and foliage from planting beds, putting the debris in the compost pile. February is almost here and that means spinach and peas will need to be planted. I will be ready.

Today I took Richard in to the clinic for followup blood work. I pray that his A1C has started to come down. I really do not want to deal with insulin if I can help it. I may meet another lady and walk through a local wetland this afternoon. She needs to get out of the house, as her husband has been ill for over a year. The fresh air and execise will do us both good.

Wednesday, today I teach a class on Crisis Care. Today's lesson focuses on regular depression/deep sadness vs. clinical depression, symptoms of each and how to tell the difference. This is only one small part of what these 13 sessions offer. Sometimes I wonder who needs this class more, the students or the teacher. Even though I have gone through the class material now for the fourth time, it still is relevant to all I am living through on a daily basis. I pray that my students are getting at least as much help as I seem to be by teaching it.

Life

Where do I start. If one day can represent life, it is today. First there was hope for things to come, then unexpected blessings, followed by disaster. What am I talking about?

I have already blogged about the potential for adding a dressing room/closet and remodeling our bath. That represents things hoped for. The introduction to the Beth Moore series on Esther, sub titled "It's Tough Being a Woman" was also this morning. It has the promise of deep understanding and fellowship with other ladies both friends and strangers. Then after the bible study I was approached by an older man from the congregation who had repaired a light switch for me about a month ago. He informed me that the men at church had decided to renovate my sewing room as a helps project. They came this afternoon to take measurements. Praise God for these two blessings, the second one was most unexpected. Full of joy, Satan just couldn't stand it, so he threw us a curve ball.

Richard's medication for neuropathy was shorted by a month again. We called the VA twice with no responce to our message, so our primary physician called in a one month Rx to Walmart. They are supposed to have "cheap" medicine. Whow! I went to Lebanon (17 miles each way) to pick it up, got out my check book, and nearly keeled over. One month's worth of meds that we co-pay the VA $8 for was $264.88. It will take us several months to make that amount up from our limited budget. Oh yes, this represents the disaster part. Lord, are you putting us through the fire of purification (again) or am I just in need of yet more patience?

This Old House

Our

Our 1920s bungalow has seen many changes over the past 37 years we have owned it. When we moved in in 1972 it had been used for student housing and reflected the rebelious decoration of youth. The single bathroom had been painted a hot tropical pink and one of the bedrooms looked almost tie-dyed with yellow and navy blue. The yard had been used for a parking area and there were blackberries growing wild in the back. The basement was unfinished and wide open with no barriers around the sump pump.

Since that time we have put in addition and two more bathrooms, enclosed the front porch to create a formal entry, finished the basement by compartmenting it for use as a family room (including a soda fountain), furnace room, laundry, sewing room, and sump pump closet. A deck has also been added that can be accessed from both the living room and the master bedroom. Our garden is extensive and reflects Richard's love of plants.

But our old house is in need of renovations. This morning (7:30) a man from church stopped by to get some measurments for adding a dressing room/walk in closet and handicap access to our master bath. Our bath also needs to be remodeled. We will see. Money is definately an issue.