Bible Verse of the Day

Thursday, May 31, 2007

God speaks in mysterious ways

Oops, my poor neglected blog. It's been two weeks since I was here . Well anyway, we've had a life-altering occurance in our family and I'm here to share my thoughts about it.

My dh is almost 30 years older than me. He's overweight and doesn't take care of himself. Well, ok, he did quit smoking 4-1/2 years ago (yay!!!) but he rarely exercises and he is clueless about good nutrition. I've been praying for a long time that he would take better care of himself. And for a few years, as he has gotten older, I've prayed that something would wake him up but that it wouldn't be something catastrophic because I didn't think I could handle catastrophic illness. Well, God knew better. He knew my dh needed a good sharp rap upside the head. My dh had a heart attack early last Friday morning. He experienced some chest pressure/pain and numbness in his arms while on patrol, so he drove to the EMS station in his town to have them check him out. The 12-lead EKG didn't show a significant change (it was actually a very small change that the doctor picked up on in ER) but a nitro did give him some relief, and they persuaded him to go get checked out. So, I got the dreaded call at 11:30 that he was going to ER, and away I went for what I can truly say was a night, or maybe a weekend, from hell. The good news was that they gave him retavase, a clot-buster drug, in the ER and stopped his heart attack in its tracks. While he had a 90% occlusion of his Right Coronary Artery, which they opened with a stent when they did his cath, he had no tissue damage or death. Thank God for that. He spent the weekend in the hospital and came home on Sunday.

So what's so good about all of that, you ask? Well, first of all, he's alive. And second of all, he answered the wake-up call and is taking seriously the fact that he needs to make changes, and make them NOW. He was absolutely terrified that he'd never see our children again. That is the motivation he needs. He's listening to me, unlike before when I got the "yes dear" response and he kept at his old ways. And he's apologized for not listening because he's discovered that I was right all along and that I really wanted to help him change his lifestyle. Before this, he'd preach lifestyle change to other people, but not apply it to himself. Now he's saying he knows he needs to do it. He's got a 3-person cheering team right there with him all of the way.

So, this week I'm thanking God for the heart attack he gave my husband. Bizarre as that may seem, HE knew all along what he was doing. It's just up to us to follow and see where HE is leading us.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Bounty from our yard

A close look reveals 3 morel mushrooms growing close together. They were actually 3 of the 29 we harvested from our yard, with more to come!
The bounty spread out to be viewed by all.
My little man was absolutely CHUFFED because he found his very first morel mushroom by himself, before anyone else spotted it! And it was the biggest one we harvested. (They grow pretty fast!)

If you don't know what a morel mushroom is...well...you just haven't lived! They grow in just about every state, in the spring. They're elusive and hard to find, but oooooh so worth the time spent searching. (I saw that they're selling for $24.95 a pound this season--our dinner last night was gold-plated, LOL!)

You can see more info about morels here.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

What's spring like in your neck of the woods?

Spring is a multi-sensory experience this year where we live. It has arrived quite quickly, because April was so chilly and damp, so it's a more compressed season this year, I think.

Sight
  • baby squirrels basking in the sun on tree limbs
  • turkey toms but no hens
  • birds pairing off and even mating activity
  • an explosion of bloom
  • brown kids already because they've been outdoors so much
  • morel mushrooms popping up in special spots in the yard

Scent
  • blossoming trees...our flowering crabapple exploded into bloom and the scent is intoxicating and can be smelled all over our yard
  • fresh-cut grass

Sound

  • Buzzing as I stand under the flowering crabapple--the tree is FULL of bees and you can hear them buzzing loudly!
  • kids playing
  • lawnmowers running
  • happy bird songs and mating calls
  • squirrels chattering at each other as they play
  • ripples in the river

Thursday, May 03, 2007

So much for having a break!

Today is BOX DAY! Or it will be when Fedex shows up with our BOX! You know what this means if you're a homeschooler ;-) The BOX will contain Sonlight's core 5 and science 5 (lang arts 5 came 2 days ago). DD9 told me yesterday that she wished she had her new books so she could get started on them because "she's tired of being on break." ROFL, she's only been ON break for 12 days! And it's not like she's been sitting around twiddling her thumbs--we've been on the go a lot. But hey, who am I to say she can't start on those new books and be an official 5th grader???