Relationships have always fascinated me.
One of my goals for last year was so really ponder and study friends and why am I friends with some folks and not with others. Here are a few of my thoughts on that subject.
Our small group at church is studying Gospel in Life by Tim Keller. Our last lesson was on community and I sure learned lots. Tim Keller gives 9 'community-building practices'
1-affirming one another's strengths, abilities, and gifts
2- affirming one another's equal importance in Christ
3-affirming one another through visible affection
4- sharing one another's space goods, and time
5- sharing one another's needs and problems
6- sharing one another's beliefs, thinking and spirituality
7-serving one another through accountability
8-serving one another through forgiveness and reconciliation
9-serving one another's interests rather than our own
I thought that was a great list of things to strive for but more than that a list to see who do I have community with and how can I strengthen it.
I like having lots of people in my community. Some folks don't.
Another thought I had was that some people don't want to have community with me. When that thought first tumbled around in my brain my feelings were hurt because I can list several folks but then it became a freeing thought. Not that I plan to make a list of folks that I won't have anything to do with but to realize that my time may be best spent working with those that do want community with me.
I am blest with a church that sees the need for lots of opportunity for community. We have table for 4- four women meet for 4 months for fellowship, table for 8- dinner fellowship for all ages once a month for 3 months, Bible Studies, serving with other another on service projects and out-reach projects plus Sunday School and church.
Look for your community! How can you build it up?
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Just a normal New Year's Eve! NOT
It all started with a really bad cold. Kaitlin just didn't feel good. It was New Year's Eve day. So I went with her to the doctor. She told the nurse all her symptoms, the last one being and 'my lower back hurts on the left side'. The doctor wrote her a script for antibiotic because her right ear red, lymph nodes were swollen etc and then he said there is blood in your urine which is a sign for a kidney stone. His recommendation was the ER.
Carl met us at the doctors office and we headed to the ER.
One of the hardest parts of being a mother is seeing your child in pain. She couldn't keep still, the pain was so bad.
To keep her mind on other things we named things we were thankful for- that it wasn't snowing or icy, that Papa was home, that we had gas in the car, that we lived near an ER...
Shortly after we checked into a very full ER room and found our seats we were called to triage. Kaitlin was wearing her new AUBURN hoodie. The nurse in triage greeted us with a War Eagle. He had graduated from AUBURN. What a cool gift that was! I am sure he is nice to everyone but he treated Kaitlin with such kindness.
When it was Kaitlin's turn to be taken back to a bed the real 'fun' began. Her bed was in the corner, in a tiny corner between to other beds that were separated by curtains. Carl stood at the end of her bed and half of him was in next patients space! I sat in the one chair. When a nurse or doctor came in we all did our cirque de soli moves to accommodate each other. We were thankful for the chair and that Kaitlin was in a bed.
When the nurse came in to put in the IV, poor ole Kaitlin was white as a sheet. About half way through the procedure, she fainted. When she woke up she knew she was going to throw up. Get this picture in your mind- nurse is putting in the IV as Kaitlin melts back into the bed, Carl is helping keep her arm straight for the IV, I am trying to wake her up. When she says she is going to throw up, I grab the trash can. This all happens in maybe a minute. After my success catch of the throw up and Carl's help with the IV, the nurse turns to me and says Thank you for catching that and for taking a shower today and to Carl she thanked for his help. Let me just give a shout out to ER personnel - ours were wonderful! Another gift!
Then we waited for the CT scan and listened to our neighbors- We couldn't help it. I felt sorry for them with all of Kaitlin's excitement. One man kept pulling out his catheter and screaming. Kaitlin said that that really helped take her mind off of her pain!!!! Our other neighbor needed to get home to give his mother her nightly meds and when he realized that he might not make it home in time he called someone else. Then he found out that that someone else had been 'drinking like a fish' all day long. That also kept our mind off our situation as we heard about various family members and we were thankful for our boring family!. We heard one family that was released to go home and had to find someone to come and get them- we were thankful for our car and that we could drive. Times like these make me realize that not everyone is like me and has been able to make the choices like I have and I am very grateful!
The CT scan showed a 3 mm stone just about to passed. The doctor said that at 5 mm they have to remove them surgically or break them up with lithotripsy. We were thankful for the size of this one.
They sent us home with several scripts. Our total visit was 4 hours.
We drove right to our pharmacy and got there 10 minutes before they closed for New Year's Eve! What a gift!
Kaitlin passed the stone and captured it within a few hours of being home. She was a able to get comfortable on the sofa in the den with a heated lap blanket. She used it as a giant heating pad on her back and side- what a gift that we had this already here!
Ps 92 says It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by the night,
We truly saw this in action.
Carl met us at the doctors office and we headed to the ER.
One of the hardest parts of being a mother is seeing your child in pain. She couldn't keep still, the pain was so bad.
To keep her mind on other things we named things we were thankful for- that it wasn't snowing or icy, that Papa was home, that we had gas in the car, that we lived near an ER...
Shortly after we checked into a very full ER room and found our seats we were called to triage. Kaitlin was wearing her new AUBURN hoodie. The nurse in triage greeted us with a War Eagle. He had graduated from AUBURN. What a cool gift that was! I am sure he is nice to everyone but he treated Kaitlin with such kindness.
When it was Kaitlin's turn to be taken back to a bed the real 'fun' began. Her bed was in the corner, in a tiny corner between to other beds that were separated by curtains. Carl stood at the end of her bed and half of him was in next patients space! I sat in the one chair. When a nurse or doctor came in we all did our cirque de soli moves to accommodate each other. We were thankful for the chair and that Kaitlin was in a bed.
When the nurse came in to put in the IV, poor ole Kaitlin was white as a sheet. About half way through the procedure, she fainted. When she woke up she knew she was going to throw up. Get this picture in your mind- nurse is putting in the IV as Kaitlin melts back into the bed, Carl is helping keep her arm straight for the IV, I am trying to wake her up. When she says she is going to throw up, I grab the trash can. This all happens in maybe a minute. After my success catch of the throw up and Carl's help with the IV, the nurse turns to me and says Thank you for catching that and for taking a shower today and to Carl she thanked for his help. Let me just give a shout out to ER personnel - ours were wonderful! Another gift!
Then we waited for the CT scan and listened to our neighbors- We couldn't help it. I felt sorry for them with all of Kaitlin's excitement. One man kept pulling out his catheter and screaming. Kaitlin said that that really helped take her mind off of her pain!!!! Our other neighbor needed to get home to give his mother her nightly meds and when he realized that he might not make it home in time he called someone else. Then he found out that that someone else had been 'drinking like a fish' all day long. That also kept our mind off our situation as we heard about various family members and we were thankful for our boring family!. We heard one family that was released to go home and had to find someone to come and get them- we were thankful for our car and that we could drive. Times like these make me realize that not everyone is like me and has been able to make the choices like I have and I am very grateful!
The CT scan showed a 3 mm stone just about to passed. The doctor said that at 5 mm they have to remove them surgically or break them up with lithotripsy. We were thankful for the size of this one.
They sent us home with several scripts. Our total visit was 4 hours.
We drove right to our pharmacy and got there 10 minutes before they closed for New Year's Eve! What a gift!
Kaitlin passed the stone and captured it within a few hours of being home. She was a able to get comfortable on the sofa in the den with a heated lap blanket. She used it as a giant heating pad on her back and side- what a gift that we had this already here!
Ps 92 says It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by the night,
We truly saw this in action.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
2014 goals
One memory I have of my mother is that every December she made new goals for the next year. I can't remember any of her goals but just the fact that she made them.
I like making lists so making goals for the New Year fits right in there!
I have read from several places on social media about picking a word for the year. That was a new thought for me. I went on a search for 'my' word for 2014. I shared my thoughts with Kaitlin. When she saw my list of potential words she recommended that I google them and look of synonyms too. My word kept coming up.
My word is ........POWER
The verse that kept coming to mind was II Timothy 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
I wrote out my word several times.
I realized that many of my goals fit into the letters of my 2014 word!
P- pray for those that I love and that I will love them well,
Project Life- my scrapbooking system,
post more blogs
O- organize two rooms especially in my house- the wreck room and the snake room ( wreck room-because my cleaning style is to put everything in a bag and run it down to the wreck room so that we have the appearance of neatness but that room is always a wreck. Snake room is a storage room that is off of the wreck room, I saw a snake skin in that room shortly after we moved in and henceforth it is the snake room. I only go in there during really chilly times in hopes that all the snakes are sleeping. You should see the looks we get when a workman comes over and we refer to the room where the heater is as the snake room!)
W- write ( my mother was a prolific letter writer! She would be 88 this year. To honor her I plan to write 88 letters this year)
handWork (I have a few projects that I have almost finished with)
E- exercise
eat more vegetables
encourage others
R- read ( last year my goal was to read 80 books, someone told me that I couldn't do that so I changed my goal to 70. I met that goal in October! 80 it was for 2013. I am going for 85 in 2014 and I plan to read more deliberately. I am still working on that part but I am thinking about reading 20 books I own now, and have some breakdown for nonfiction, classics, about an area that I know nothing about, etc)
My other goal is to memorize more Scripture and I haven't yet figured out how to fit it into the letters above but I do realize that I will realize more of HIS power when I know HIS word more.
What are your goals?
If you figure out how to fit my goals to memorize scripture into my word let me know!
What is your word for 2014?
I like making lists so making goals for the New Year fits right in there!
I have read from several places on social media about picking a word for the year. That was a new thought for me. I went on a search for 'my' word for 2014. I shared my thoughts with Kaitlin. When she saw my list of potential words she recommended that I google them and look of synonyms too. My word kept coming up.
My word is ........POWER
The verse that kept coming to mind was II Timothy 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
I wrote out my word several times.
I realized that many of my goals fit into the letters of my 2014 word!
P- pray for those that I love and that I will love them well,
Project Life- my scrapbooking system,
post more blogs
O- organize two rooms especially in my house- the wreck room and the snake room ( wreck room-because my cleaning style is to put everything in a bag and run it down to the wreck room so that we have the appearance of neatness but that room is always a wreck. Snake room is a storage room that is off of the wreck room, I saw a snake skin in that room shortly after we moved in and henceforth it is the snake room. I only go in there during really chilly times in hopes that all the snakes are sleeping. You should see the looks we get when a workman comes over and we refer to the room where the heater is as the snake room!)
W- write ( my mother was a prolific letter writer! She would be 88 this year. To honor her I plan to write 88 letters this year)
handWork (I have a few projects that I have almost finished with)
E- exercise
eat more vegetables
encourage others
R- read ( last year my goal was to read 80 books, someone told me that I couldn't do that so I changed my goal to 70. I met that goal in October! 80 it was for 2013. I am going for 85 in 2014 and I plan to read more deliberately. I am still working on that part but I am thinking about reading 20 books I own now, and have some breakdown for nonfiction, classics, about an area that I know nothing about, etc)
My other goal is to memorize more Scripture and I haven't yet figured out how to fit it into the letters above but I do realize that I will realize more of HIS power when I know HIS word more.
What are your goals?
If you figure out how to fit my goals to memorize scripture into my word let me know!
What is your word for 2014?
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