I'm posting Sara's comments about infection control...


"as for health tips (i'm the infection control nurse for our hospital so i'm chalk full of useless information!); hand wash, cover your cough and if you're already compromised do simple and smart things like spacing out your shopping. the flu virus can survive 36-48 hours on hard surfaces. and although we're hearing lots of information, H1N1 is less prevelant than the "regular" flu and it acts like all flu viruses. i'm interested in that ginger business though. what kind of ginger do you use?"

Thanks for the information Sara ... I use regular ground ginger that's found in any grocery store for the ginger baths or foot soaks. Something else I'm doing is keeping a kettle of water on the stove that has whole cloves in it. Cloves are supposed to have an antiseptic property to them and that is supposed to help clean the air. At least in the kitchen, and the plus is, your house smells really, really cookie-good.

I was also reminded today that once you're over an infection, GET A NEW TOOTHBRUSH.

Our granddaughter Stephanie was home today with her sister Erica, she too is running a fever & coughing.
David is improving, so is my sister Pat. She's well enough that her surgery is rescheduled for next Wednesday.

Myndi & Megan are hanging in there and their Mom is doing better after giving herself some down time.

May you all stay well!!!
Blessings

This is Rocky ... laying against our son's feet...

Erica holding her new puppy

Stephanie cried when she saw who her folks had brought home...


In all his newness ... Rocky Moore...8 weeks old
Rescued by our son & his wife

Rocky came to our house this morning while Jane took Erica to the Dr.

He's a snuggler, very calm and mellow. I thoroughly enjoyed having him here.

He's small enough that I cradled him in my sweat shirt & carried him around.

More prayer requests ...

Our son David has Bronchitis, sounds miserable and can't take off work.

My sister Pat was scheduled to have surgery today but she's ill and had to cancel it. She is in danger of losing her job and needs to have this done before that happens and she loses her insurance. Pray for a quick recovery and for the surgery to be successful.

Our granddaughter Erica was taken to the doctor this morning. She's had a fever and a cough. Doctors don't think it's the flu, and I'm praying it doesn't go into that.

My nieces Myndi & Megan both have H1N1. Myndi has been sick for 8 days and Megan for 3. Myndi lives alone but Megan lives at home. My sister Kay has been taking things to Myndi, caring for Megan and she wasn't feeling too well herself late this afternoon.

We need to be praying for one another and using every precaution we can during these next few months. I'm seriously considering wearing disposable gloves when I go grocery shopping, in addition to other preventative measures. My Fred & I have also decided to do our grocery shopping every two weeks, rather than once a week, just to stay out of stores.

If anyone has any tips on staying well, let's post them. One I recommended to my nieces was to take Ginger baths...they help you feel better. Myndi's fever has been running 102-104 and after she did a Ginger bath last night, it dropped to 100. I read about this home remedy years ago. You put about 3 tablespoons of Ginger in warm bath water and soak for awhile, then shower off and go to bed. If you can't do baths, then soak your feet in Ginger water. I know it may sound crazy, but if it works, it's worth a try.

Blessings to you all and good night.

More photos from our home...
This small lamp & bear sit in the corner of our Grand-girls' room
The lamp cost $10.00 years ago & Ms. Bear is a thrift-store find with plastic pearls

I think I have Bears in most every room of our house

This chair is in the corner of the Girls' room ... I bought it for twenty-five cents at a yard sale a few years ago. It's solid oak and had been painted black. The older gentleman who owned it said it had been used in one of the elementary schools. It took me a while, but I finally sanded most of the black off, painted it a cream color and then stenciled roses on it. My Fred thought I was out of my mind when he first saw it, but once it was done, he approved of the purchase. I dearly enjoy bargains!

This bed is over a 100 years old now. My Mother-in-law gave it to us over 25 years ago. It is one of the old iron bedsteads used in the south long ago; now they are treasures if you can find them. It was a rusted color and had belonged to my husband's grandmother. We sanded it and my Fred painted it and I just enjoy looking at it, knowing it's been in his family for all these years.

See the quilt hanging on the rack behind the bed? I'd like to say that was homemade, but it wasn't. It came as part of the comforter/shams/bed skirt deal I found at JC Penney's. My Fred did make the quilt ladder. Once he painted it, I stenciled tiny roses up the sides of it.

Lying on the foot of the bed is a white, hand-crocheted tablecloth. It took me two years to make it, way back in early 1980. A friend (Jean Vallis) was a woman who loved to crochet and I took on this task after seeing her work. I was making it for a specific table we had back then, but by the time it was finished, we no longer had the table! I use it as a throw, as seen here, and sometimes put it on an old, antique fold up table that we have in the dining area. It's made out of white crochet thread, not yarn, and has butterflies on four sides.

The small table under the window was given to me by my Mom...the lamp is a thrift store find and there's a small jewelry box underneath the tiny picture. The box too came from the thrift store. I refinished it, added stenciling & now my girls keep their special things in it when they spend the nite.



This old dresser also came from my Mother-in-law. My Fred thought I was looney to want to bring it all the way from Kentucky to MI long, long ago. It was painted a not-inviting blue color, with many layers of paint underneath it. Fred said "And just what are you going to do with this thing?" And I said "One day I'll have enough money to have someone strip this paint off and you'll see what's underneath." It took quite a long time before we had it re-done. Our boys used it as it was for years, they didn't mind ugly blue. A friend took it to his home and spent quite a while uncovering the beauty of oak wood that had been covered with paint all those years.

He called one day to tell me he had taken the back off the mirror and had found newspaper articles, faded and falling apart, behind the backing. He brought them to us when he finished the dresser and we caught glimpses through torn paper of what the world thought of Teddy Roosevelt way back then.

The old lamp that sits on this dresser was bought from a friend about 30 years ago. She loved antiques and sold it to me for a reasonable price. At one time it had been a gas-fired lamp, but someone had converted it to electric. It still works! See another bear sitting up there? I love them. The angel hanging on the side of the mirror came from my Mom. Our youngest son Shawn has made me promise that this dresser will be his one day. And it shall be.

Hope you've enjoyed another look at where I live and what is in our home. I so enjoy the older pieces that hold family history and I'm thankful our son wants to carry part of that on in his own home one day. It's good to take stock and remember where we've come from and what it's taken to get us to where we are. It's also good to invest in things that will last longer than we will, even if they are already old. By today's standards we've not spent much money at all on furniture. When it's well built and comfortable, why get rid of it just to keep with what the world tries to convince us we need? As I've heard for years "If it's not broke, don't fix it" and "Make do with what you have and be thankful you have it".

I find myself wanting to make some quilts and have been pulling out fabric that I've had stashed. Lo & behold I found a quilt top I made ....when? How long ago? I don't remember! But it's there. A simple, patch-work quilt top that I can now finish. I've also put together some fabric that I can piece together to make more tops. I was going to go to JoAnn & buy more fabric, but those words "Make do with what you have and be thankful you have it" stopped me from doing that. I want to use up what I have before buying any more. They won't be fancy, but they'll be made by me and I'll put my name & the date on the back and perhaps share them with my sisters, nieces and grandgirls. Heaven knows I have enough girls in this family to keep me busy a good long while.

I shall go for tonight & get ready for bed. We're going to church in the morning, Lord willing.

May your Sunday be blessed and may all be kept safe through-out this season of colds & flu.

Blessings!

Some glimpses into our home...
This is the small table in our bedroom ... some of my books & of course, Teddy Bears

sit where I can see them. A chair is on the right of this table for reading

Our living room a couple of years ago... I took down the hanging greenery .. too much to dust

My computer room ... scrapbooking room ...

The Fall Wreath on the front door ... I made this years ago & thought of re-doing it, but then said "No, it's fine, leave it alone" so it's up for another season

I'll post more photos later so you can see where I live...

My Mom called earlier this evening and asked that we pray for Norma Ramey. She's been taken to emergency with a suspected heart attack. Will update you when I hear from Mom.

Come Before Winter
by Clarence Macartney1879–1957

“Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me….
Do thy diligence to come before winter” (2 Timothy 4:9, 21)

Napoleon Bonaparte and the Apostle Paul are the most renowned prisoners of history. One was in prison because the peace of the world demanded it; the other because he sought to give to men that peace which the world cannot give and which the world cannot take away. One had the recollection of cities and homes which he had wasted and devastated; the other had the recollection of homes and cities and nations which had been blessed by his presence and cheered by his message. One had shed rivers of blood upon which to float his ambitions. The only blood the other had shed was that which had flowed from his own wounds for Christ’s sake. One could trace his path to glory by ghastly trails of the dead which stretched from the Pyrenees to Moscow and from the Pyramids to Mount Tabor. The other could trace his path to prison, death, and immortal glory by the hearts that he had loved and the souls that he had gathered into the Kingdom of God.
　
Napoleon once said,
“I love nobody, not even my own brothers.” It is not strange, therefore, that at the end of his life, on his rock prison in the South Atlantic, he said, “I wonder if there is anyone in the world who really loves me.”
　
But Paul loved all men. His heart was the heart of the world, and from his lonely prison at Rome he sent out messages which glow with love unquenchable and throb with fadeless hope.
　
When a man enters the straits of life, he is fortunate if he has a few friends upon whom he can count to the uttermost. Paul had three such friends. The first of these three, whose name needs no mention, was that One who would be the friend of every man, the friend who laid down his life for us all. The second was that man whose face is almost the first, and almost the last, we see in life — the physician. This friend Paul handed down to immortality with that imperishable encomium, “Luke, the beloved physician,” and again, “Only Luke is with me.” The third of these friends was the Lycaonian youth Timothy, half Hebrew and half Greek, whom Paul affectionately called “My son in the faith.” When Paul had been stoned by the mob at Lystra in the highlands of Asia Minor and was dragged out of the city gates and left for dead, perhaps it was Timothy who, when the night had come down, and the passions of the mob had subsided, went out of the city gates to search amid stones and rubbish until he found the wounded, bleeding body of Paul and, putting his arm about the Apostle’s neck, wiped the blood stains from his face, poured the cordial down his lips and then took him home to the house of his godly grandmother Lois and his pious mother Eunice. If you form a friendship in a shipwreck, you never forget the friend. The hammer of adversity welds human hearts into an indissoluble amalgamation. Paul and Timothy each had in the other a friend who was born for adversity.
　
Paul’s last letter is to this dearest of his friends, Timothy, whom he has left in charge of the church at far-off Ephesus. He tells Timothy that he wants him to come and be with him at Rome. He is to stop at Troas on the way and pick up his books, for Paul is a scholar even to the end. Make friends with good books. They will never leave you nor forsake you. He is to bring the cloak, too, which Paul had left at the house of Carpus in Troas. What a robe the Church would weave for Paul today if it had that opportunity! But this is the only robe that Paul possesses. It has been wet with the brine of the Mediterranean, white with the snows of Galatia, yellow with the dust of the Egnatian Way and crimson with the blood of his wounds for the sake of Christ. It is getting cold at Rome, for the summer is waning, and Paul wants his robe to keep him warm. But most of all Paul wants Timothy to bring himself. “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me,” he writes; and then, just before the close of the letter, he says, “Do thy diligence to come before winter.”
　
Why “before winter”? Because when winter set in the season for navigation closed in the Mediterranean and it was dangerous for ships to venture out to sea. How dangerous it was, the story of Paul’s last shipwreck tells us. If Timothy waits until winter, he will have to wait until spring; and Paul has a premonition that he will not last out the winter, for he says, “The time of my departure is at hand.” We like to think that Timothy did not wait a single day after that letter from Paul reached him at Ephesus, but started at once to Troas, where he picked up the books and the old cloak in the house of Carpus, then sailed past Samothrace to Neapolis, and thence traveled by the Egnatian Way across the plains of Philippi and through Macedonia to the Adriatic, where he took ship to Brundisium, and then went up the Appian Way to Rome, where he found Paul in his prison, read to him from the Old Testament, wrote his last letters, walked with him to the place of execution near the Pyramid of Cestius, and saw him receive the crown of glory.
　
Before winter or never! There are some things which will never be done unless they are done “before winter.” The winter will come and the winter will pass, and the flowers of the springtime will deck the breast of the earth, and the graves of some of our opportunities, perhaps the grave of our dearest friend. There are golden gates wide open on this autumn day, but next October they will be forever shut. There are tides of opportunity running now at the flood. Next October they will be at the ebb. There are voices speaking today which a year from today will be silent. Before winter or never!
　
I like all seasons. I like winter with its clear, cold nights and the stars like silver-headed nails driven into the vault of heaven. I like spring with its green growth, its flowing streams, its revirescent hope. I like summer with the litany of gentle winds in the tops of the trees, its long evenings and the songs of its birds. But best of all I like autumn. I like its mist and haze, its cool morning air, its field strewn with the blue aster and the goldenrod; the radiant livery of the forests — “yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red.” But how quickly the autumn passes! It is the perfect parable of all that fades. Yesterday I saw the forests in all their splendor, and Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
But tomorrow the rain will fall, the winds will blow, and the trees will be stripped and barren. Therefore, every returning autumn brings home to me the sense of the preciousness of life’s opportunities — their beauty, but also their brevity. It fills me with the desire to say not merely something about the way that leads to life eternal but, with the help of God, something which shall move men to take the way of life now, today. Taking our suggestion, then, from this message of Paul in the prison at Rome to Timothy in far-off Ephesus — “Come before winter” — let us listen to some of those voices which now are speaking so earnestly to us, and which a year from today may be forever silent.


I. The Voice Which Calls for Reformation

Your character can be amended and improved, but not at just any time. There are favorable seasons. In the town of my boyhood I delighted to watch on a winter’s night the streams of molten metal writhing and twisting like lost spirits as they poured from the furnaces of the wire mill. Before the furnace doors stood men in leathern aprons, with iron tongs in their hands, ready to seize the fiery coils and direct them to the molds. But if the iron was permitted to cool below a certain temperature, it refused the mold. There are times when life’s metal is, as it were, molten, and can be worked into any design that is desired. But if it is permitted to cool, it tends toward a state of fixation, in which it is possible neither to do nor even to plan a good work. When the angel came down to trouble the pool at Jerusalem, then was the time for the sick to step in and be healed. There are moments when the pool of life is troubled by the angel of opportunity. Then a man, if he will, can go down and be made whole; but if he waits until the waters are still, it is too late.
　
A man who had been under the bondage of an evil habit relates how one night, sitting in his room in a hotel, he was assailed by his old enemy, his besetting sin, and was about to yield to it. He was reaching out his hand to ring the bell for a waiter, when suddenly, as if an angel stood before him, a voice seemed to say, “This is your hour. If you yield to this temptation now, it will destroy you. If you conquer it now, you are its master forever.” He obeyed the angel’s voice, refused the tempter and came off victorious over his enemy.
　
That man was not unique in his experience, for to many a man there comes the hour when destiny knocks at his door and the angel waits to see whether he will obey him or reject him. These are precious and critical moments in the history of the soul. In your life there may be that which you know to be wrong and sinful. In his mercy God has awakened conscience, or has flooded your heart with a sudden wave of contrition and sorrow. This is the hour of opportunity, for now chains of evil habit can be broken, which, if not broken, will bind us forever. Now golden goals can be chosen and decisions made which shall affect our destiny forever.
　
We like to quote those fine lines from the pen of the late Senator John J. Ingalls:
Master of human destinies am I!Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait.Cities and fields I walk; I penetrateDeserts and fields remote, and, passing byHovel and mart and palace, soon or late,I knock unbidden once at every gate!If sleeping, wake; if feasting, rise beforeI turn away. It is the hour of fate,And they who follow me reach every stateMortals desire, and conquer every foeSave death; but those who doubt or hesitate,Condemned to failure, penury or woe,Seek me in vain and uselessly implore —I answer not, and I return no more.

We all recognize the truth of this in the things of this world, but in a far more solemn way it is true of the opportunities of our spiritual life. You can build a bonfire any time you please; but the fine fire of the Spirit, that is a different thing. God has his Moment!

We cannot kindle when we willThe fire that in the heart resides.The Spirit bloweth and is still;In mystery the soul abides.
　
II. The Voice of Friendship and Affection

Suppose that Timothy, when he received that letter from Paul asking him to come before winter, had said to himself: “Yes, I shall start for Rome; but first of all I must clear up some matters here at Ephesus, and then go down to Miletus to ordain elders there, and thence over to Colossae to celebrate the Communion there.” When he has attended to these matters, he starts for Troas, and there inquires when he can get a ship which will carry him across to Macedonia, and thence to Italy, or one that is sailing around Greece into the Mediterranean. He is told that the season for navigation is over and that no vessels will sail till springtime. “No ships for Italy till April!”
　
All through that anxious winter we can imagine Timothy reproaching himself that he did not go at once when he received Paul’s letter, and wondering how it fares with the Apostle. When the first vessel sails in the springtime, Timothy is a passenger on it. I can see him landing at Neapolis, or Brundisium, and hurrying up to Rome. There he seeks out Paul’s prison, only to be cursed and repulsed by the guard. Then he goes to the house of Claudia, or Pudens, or Narcissus, or Mary, or Ampliatus, and asks where he can find Paul. I can hear them say: “And are you Timothy? Don’t you know that Paul was beheaded last December? Every time the jailer put the key in the door of his cell, Paul thought you were coming. His last message was for you, ‘Give my love to Timothy, my beloved son in the faith, when he comes.’” How Timothy then must have wished that he had come before winter!
　
Before winter or never! “The poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always,” said Jesus when the disciples complained that Mary’s costly and beautiful gift of ointment might have been expended in behalf of the poor. “Me ye have not always.” That is true of all the friends we love. We cannot name them now, but next winter we shall know their names. With them, as far as our ministry is concerned, it is before winter or never.
　
In the Old Abbey Kirk at Haddington one can read over the grave of Jane Welsh the first of many pathetic and regretful tributes paid by Thomas Carlyle to his neglected wife: “For forty years she was a true and loving helpmate of her husband, and by act and word worthily forwarded him as none else could in all worthy he did or attempted. She died at London the 21st of April, 1866, suddenly snatched from him, and the light of his life as if gone out.” It has been said that the saddest sentence in English literature is that sentence written by Carlyle in his diary, “Oh, that I had you yet for five minutes by my side, that I might tell you all.” Hear, then, careless soul, who art dealing with loved ones as if thou wouldst have them always with thee, these solemn words of warning from Carlyle: “Cherish what is dearest while you have it near you, and wait not till it is far away. Blind and deaf that we are, O think, if thou yet love anybody living, wait not till death sweep down the paltry little dust clouds and dissonances of the moment, and all be made at last so mournfully clear and beautiful, when it is too late.”
　
On one of the early occasions when I preached on this text in Philadelphia, there was present at the service a student in the Jefferson Medical College (Dr. Arnot Walker, New Galilee, Pennsylvania). When the service was over he went back to his room on Arch Street, where the text kept repeating itself in his mind, “Come before winter.” “Perhaps,” he thought to himself, “I had better write a letter to my mother.” He sat down and wrote a letter such as a mother delights to receive from her son. He took the letter down the street, dropped it in a mailbox, and returned to his room. The next day in the midst of his studies a telegram was placed in his hand. Tearing it open, he read these words: “Come home at once. Your mother is dying.” He took the train that night for Pittsburgh, and then another train to the town near the farm where his home was. Arriving at the town, he was driven to the farm and, hurrying up the stairs, found his mother still living, with a smile of recognition and satisfaction on her face — the smile which, if a man has once seen, he can never forget.
　
Under her pillow was the letter he had written her after the Sunday night service, her viaticum and heartease as she went down into the River. The next time he met me in Philadelphia he said, “I am glad you preached that sermon, ‘Come Before Winter.’” Not a few have been glad because this sermon was preached. Let us pray that the preaching of it tonight shall move others to do that which shall make their hearts glad in the years to come.
　
Twice coming to the sleeping disciples whom he had asked to watch with him in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ awakened them and said with sad surprise, “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” When he came the third time and found them sleeping, he looked sadly down upon them and said, “Sleep on now, and take your rest.” One of those three, James, was the first of the twelve apostles to die for Christ and seal his faith with his heart’s blood. Another, John, was to suffer imprisonment for the sake of Christ on the isle that is called Patmos. And Peter was to be crucified for his sake. But never again could those three sleeping disciples ever watch with Jesus in his hour of agony. That opportunity was gone forever! You say, when you hear that a friend has gone, “Why, it cannot be possible! I saw him only yesterday on the corner of Smithfield and Sixth Avenue!” Yes, you saw him there yesterday, but you will never see him there again. You say you intended to do this thing, to speak this word of appreciation or amendment, or show this act of kindness; but now the vacant chair, the unlifted book, the empty place will speak to you with a reproach which your heart can hardly endure, “Sleep on now, and take your rest! Sleep! Sleep! Sleep forever!”III. The Voice of ChristMore eager, more wistful, more tender than any other voice is the voice of Christ which now I hear calling men to come to him, and to come before winter. I wish I had been there when Christ called his disciples, Andrew and Peter, and James and John, by the Sea of Galilee, or Matthew as he was sitting at the receipt of custom. There must have been a note not only of love and authority but of immediacy and urgency in his voice, for we read that they “left all and followed him.”
　
The greatest subject which can engage the mind and attention of man is eternal life. Hence the Holy Spirit, when he invites men to come to Christ, never says “Tomorrow” but always “Today.” If you can find me one place in the Bible where the Holy Spirit says, “Believe in Christ tomorrow,” or “Repent and be saved tomorrow,” I will come down out of the pulpit and stay out of it — for I would have no Gospel to preach. But the Spirit always says, “Today,” never “Tomorrow.” “Now is the accepted time.” “Now is the day of salvation.” “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” “While it is called Today.”
　
The reason for this urgency is twofold. First, the uncertainty of human life. A long time ago, David, in his last interview with Jonathan, said, “As thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.” That is true of every one of us. But a step! What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!
An old rabbi used to say to his people, “Repent the day before you die.”
“But,” they said to him, “Rabbi, we know not the day of our death.”
“Then,” he answered, “repent today.”
　
Come before winter!
The second reason why Christ, when he calls a man, always says "Today, and never Tomorrow", is that tomorrow the disposition of a man’s heart may have changed. There is a time to plant, and a time to reap. The heart, like the soil, has its favorable seasons. “Speak to my brother now! His heart is tender now!” a man once said to me concerning his brother, who was not a believer. Today a man may hear this sermon and be interested, impressed, almost persuaded, ready to take his stand for Christ and enter into eternal life. But he postpones his decision and says, “Not tonight, but tomorrow.” A week hence, a month hence, a year hence, he may come back and hear the same call to repentance and to faith. But it has absolutely no effect upon him, for his heart is as cold as marble and the preacher might as well preach to a stone or scatter seed on the marble pavement below this pulpit. Oh, if the story of this one church could be told, if the stone should cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber should answer, what a story they could tell of those who once were almost persuaded but who now are far from the Kingdom of God. Christ said, Today! They answered, Tomorrow!
　
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death.

Once again, then, I repeat these words of the Apostle, “Come before winter”; and as I pronounce them, common sense, experience, conscience, Scripture, the Holy Spirit, the souls of just men made perfect, and the Lord Jesus Christ all repeat with me, “Come before winter!” Come before the haze of Indian summer has faded from the fields! Come before the November wind strips the leaves from the trees and sends them whirling over the fields! Come before the snow lies on the uplands and the meadow brook is turned to ice! Come before the heart is cold! Come before desire has failed! Come before life is over and your probation ended, and you stand before God to give an account of the use you have made of the opportunities which in his grace he has granted to you! Come before winter!

Come to thy God in time,
Youth, manhood, old age past;
Come to thy God at last.

Thanks for visiting Mrs. Mac and a big thank you for praying for me. I deeply appreciate it. And Trish, thanks for loving my Mom...she dearly loves you!

I had to go for additional blood work today ... talked with my hemotologist and my other dr. had ordered all the bloodwork except what he needs to know about. I'll talk with him tomorrow & we'll decide what I do next ... go in to see him or go to a vascular specialist or rheumatologist.

The Prednisone is helping my lungs but affects my ability to sleep. So, last night I did a Pat thing...prayed for all of you thru the night.

I'm going to post a rather long sermon and I ask you to please take the time to read it.

I love you all,
Blessings!

The Eight Question MEME
Got this one from Trish.... who got it from Pat...

Six names you go by:
1. Louise
2. Mom
3. Gram & Grandma
4. Sis
5. ellouise
6. Weezey

Three things you are wearing right now:
1. Off white sweat shirt
2. Dark grey stretchy-baggy, comfy pants
3. White socks...I look lovely too Trish

Three things you want very badly at the moment:
1. The sick to be well
2. Salvation for family members
3. Obama to get radically saved and put his faith in Jesus Christ

Three things you did last night/yesterday:
1. Went to the doctor
2. Finished chicken-dumpling soup that Fred had made
3. Slept for almost 10 hours

Two things you ate today:
1. Plain yogurt with walnuts, raisins & apples - it's good!
2. Gingerbread ... made by Fred's Mom

Two people you last talked to on the phone:
1. Shawn
2. Sandy

Two things you are going to do today/tomorrow:
1. Grocery shop with Fred
2. Sew

Your three favorite beverages:
1. Water
2. Root beer, but not very often
3. Milk

Here's what you're supposed to do. Copy and paste the questions into your blog. Then delete my answers and type in your answers.You don't have to if you don't want to, but when you can't think of anything else to blog...this works!

An update on me...

Went to dr. yesterday for yearly physical and to tell her about some issues I'm dealing with. She wouldn't give me the flu shot because my lungs are wheezing & I'm too close to the infection of last week. I had a chest exray done and went back this morning for fasting blood work ... lots of it.

Seems there's a problem with my feet that, as she put it, "has her stumped". I'm to go see my hemotologist asap and am waiting for them to fit me in downtown. If that can't happen soon, my reg. dr. will get me in with another specialist. My feet turn a purplish/blue color when I sit or stand or walk. They are relatively normal when I'm in bed or have them propped up. (There's the answer ... stay in bed!) The pulse in said feet is good s and the oxygen levels in said feet are within normal range. They look bad ... really bad and at times they hurt quite a bit. She also put me on a prescription of Prednisone to hopefully stop the lung inflammation and wheezing. No wonder Trish calls me Weeze ... I do. I've been called that for years by those who love me.

I wanted to take my grandgirls to church tonight but decided it's best I stay home and stay away from the other little children who are there. Also best for the girls too I guess. I heard today that a suspected case of the swine flu is in one of the Southgate elementary schools.

Do any of you deal with thinking you have a lack of faith in certain areas? I do. I found myself thinking just today that if I had enough faith, I'd go to church regardless of what's going on in my body. I'd trust God to keep me safe and keep the girls safe too. Then what I call common sense seeps in and says "Use the brain God gave you Louise ... you're still dealing with asthma ... you're wheezing .. you're on Prednisone (while it works for the lungs it also makes me susceptible for secondary infections and makes me tired & hyper at the same time)...you're still doing breathing treatments 3-4 times a day, etc., etc., etc."

So today common sense has won. I am staying in and the girls are too. I can use this time to rest, read and pray for others. I can be grateful to God for insurance that pays for all this medication & dr's visits. I can be grateful too for my Fred who cooks for me and cares for me. I can realize that I cannot do it all. Not ever. And most importantly, I can face the truth that God knows about all this ... He loves me and directs my steps ... and He loves my grandgirls far more than I do. I can trust Him to care for them and for me all the time, forever and ever and ever.

Thanks for reading. I love you all very much.
Blessings!!!

Dear Friends,

Please pray for these ladies....

Vickie .... having to move to another state & dealing with panic attacks


Barb .... has severe fibromyalgia, migraine headaches & depression
(She's been under a doctor's care for these issues for a few years)


Joanie ... a lady in her 50's who's been hospitalized with swine flu...quite ill

Thank you!

Hi all. Thank you for any and all prayers. I am feeling better, thank the good Lord. On my 'good' days I tend to forget how quickly illness can hit this body of mine. I also forget how painful and frightening it is not to breathe normally. Both good things I suppose. If we lived with those issues hanging over us we wouldn't get much done. At least I wouldn't.

My Fred is in Ohio this evening. He left this morning with his Mom & his niece to go to his brother's wedding. Nothing special, a simple ceremony in a judge's chambers in city hall. But a very special something for his brother's lady friend and his Mom. JR has been with this lady for years, she's good for him and for that I'm grateful. I simply wasn't up to travelling so I stayed home for some quiet time. Just the Lord and me. I'm thinking we need to do this sort of thing more often ... all of us. Find some time, carve out some space, and get away from TV and newspapers and all that beckons and just be quiet for awhile. It's been nice.

Nothing much more to say, so I'll go for now and check on all of you before closing the blog for the night.

Blessings to you all.

Ladies if you would say a prayer for my health I would much appreciate it. I barely slept Sunday night because of pain and a fibromyalgia flare up, then I started having chills Monday evening ... I was exhausted. Then lung congestion started & I began doing breathing treatments every 4 hours and began a 10-day course of antibiotics.

This may sound weird but I don't want to go the dr. unless it's absolutely necessary because of the flu. I think maybe that's where I picked something up. I've been going weekly for blood and was there twice last week because I had to take my mother-in-law for her physical & mammogram one day, and had my blood work done the next. I should have everything in one day, huh? I simply wasn't thinking clearly. She wants me with her in the exam room otherwise my Fred could have taken her.

I think I'll call my lung dr. tomorrow to see if she can prescribe a short dose of prednisone, that's usually what it takes to end the tightness in my lungs. If I have to, I'll go in, but wear a mask.

Thank you all, you're blessings in my life.

I haven't fallen off the earth ... at least I don't think I have. Our computer sort of died last Saturday, Sept. 26. We took it in for repair on Monday & got it back this past Friday evening. The tech was able to copy & restore most of what I had on here, and I had done a full back up the week prior to its death, but I'm still adjusting to some changes on this thing.

For those who know me well and send me emails ... please send one when you can. One thing that was lost & not retrievable was all my email addresses.

Honestly, the week w/o/c (without computer) wasn't all that bad. I missed checking on all my blog / facebook friends and I missed updating our church blog, but it was a good experience. I didn't panic when I learned it was dead but could be semi-revived. And I didn't panic when I was told the cost to bring it back. Cheaper than buying new, and it is basically new anyway. Motherboards & CPU's don't last forever, but then, what does? US if we know Christ!

Just thought I'd check in ... like Kelly said in one of her posts, facebooking can replace blogging if we let it. I check in there once in a while but for me, blogging is better.

Will go & get me ready for bed. Morning comes early.

Love you all.