Month of Love

February. Ah...the month of love. The much-anticipated month for those freshly dating...planning Valentine picnics and surprise flowers...giving chocolates and kisses to those for whom our hearts go pitter-patter. The month during which stores hang pink, red, purple hearts and offer plush wonders that must mean romance. February.
This February was definitely about love for our family. On January 7th, I had a hysterectomy. It was the old-fashioned kind ending with 14 staples in my abdomen and a 6 to 8 week recovery (and for those of you doing the math, I'm on week 7 today). The love shown to me during this time was overwhelming...it was the love of Christ. My church family made sure we had a warm (and often home cooked) meal on our doorstep every single night...sometimes we had two meals show up simply because, although someone hadn't signed up to bring us something, they'd been thinking of us that day and wanted to show they cared. In addition to this, my mother came to stay with us for a few weeks. She was amazing. She is the kind of person who can serve you in every way you need without having to be asked and without you even knowing she's done it!
Mom planned to stay with me the full six weeks to help out with our children and the housework...but Dad got sick. Dad just hadn't been feeling well and finally went to the doctor. They thought he had a pinched nerve in his back (sciatic nerve - ouch!) so he had an MRI. The MRI showed cancer. Mom went right home. The love she showed me was a totally different kind of love than what she has for my father. She married him at the age of 17 and feels just as bound to him today as she did then.
The cancer turned out to be small cell lung cancer...the very scary kind that travels fast and is not easy to fight. It is in his lungs, of course, but also his liver, his bones, and in his brain. The love I feel for my father...for my mother...for my brothers and sister has come crashing into reality for me this month. And the example of love between my parents is beyond anything that could come wrapped in a heart-shaped package.
Love is patient. It waits for God's will instead of medical test results. Love is kind. It soothes where there is hurt and pays no attention to awkwardness during illness. Love does not envy. It doesn't look around at all the healthy people and think that life is unfair. Love does not boast. Even though it knows the best way and has eternal peace, there is no boasting. Love is not proud. For what happens to us could happen to anyone and the wisdom given to us is also shared amongst others. Love is not rude. Even when exhausted and at the end of one's rope, there is no rudeness. Love is not self-seeking. When one close to us lays hurting, it is not for us that we pray, but for their peace. Love is not easily angered. There are too many things to count pure joy to let anger enter love's being. Love keeps no record of wrongs. At the end of the day, wrongs are not what matters. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth...and what other truth is there than God!? Love ALWAYS protects, ALWAYS trusts, ALWAYS hopes, ALWAYS perseveres. It matters not what Satan throws in our way. Love NEVER fails!
My mother loves my father. This is the best Valentine's I've ever experienced.
I pray that all of you know such love.

Books for this Quarter

Books! Here's what I recommend -- "Aunt Jane of Kentucky" (can't remember the author); "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" by Alexander McCall Smith; "Beautiful in God's Eyes" by Elizabeth George (primarily for women). Generally speaking, anything by Martha Grimes and Carol O'Connell will feed your need for modern mystery. For classic mystery, try Dorothy Sayer.
Well, there's your list for this quarter...let me know what you think!!

Have a Holly Vomit Christmas

Christmas in Texas...Ho Ho Howdy!! Mark and I got to spend time here with my family...and his parents made the drive from Iowa to spend Christmas here too! We had all the ingredients for a terrific holiday: homemade food, too many gifts, air mattresses and made out couches, lit tree, and the stomach flu. Yep, almost every member of the family was puking their guts up Christmas Eve or a few days after. Nothing like a high fever to make your eyes bright on Christmas morning.
Maggie couldn't stand up by herself to open her gifts, so she lay in my lap while I opened them for her. Then, after she almost fainted, we got her relaxed and down for a nap. When she woke up, we had Christmas all over again because she had no memory of the first round.
We feel great now and the kids are all ecstatic over their new toys and books. I love that the kids like to get books as gifts. :) Excellent!
Well, I'd better go to Target and see if there's anything left on the sale racks. Please tell me about your Christmas!!

Back in Full Swing

Hello!
I am so sorry for being absent from blogging for so long...what a wild ride it's been these past few months! I miss blogging and hope this begins my second-wind for posting.
I started back to school but realized after a few weeks that I was short-changing my kids...so I quit. Yep, I quit college...again. :) I LOVE being available for all of Maggie's activities and for playing with my boys. I just can't sacrifice time with my family. You know? So...that's the latest. I guess the latest-latest is today's doctor's appt revealing my endometriosis is most likely back in full swing. Ah, those are the days...sitting in my pajamas, wrapped up in a heating-pad, drinking hot tea, hopped up on fioricet or lortab. Gotta love that. I'll be having surgery again soon...please pray for Mark and the kids during my recovery. A family can only survive so long on ramen noodles and hot dogs. :)

The Dog-Days of Summer

Saraphina got out of the yard and has not come back to us. We are very upset over losing her and I can't stop thinking of her out there hurt somewhere and wanting to come home. Losing Saraphina is the worst thing that's happened to our family in a long time.
Has anyone else ever lost a pet??

Put a Fork in 'Er, She's Done!

I finished my final exam less than an hour ago. Bye-Bye, British Romantic Poetry! Hello, three more hours on my transcript!! Woo-Hoo!! And, I MADE AN "A"!!! Yeah, Baby!!!!!!

Only thirty-something more hours to go. *sigh*

Crazy

I was getting ready for school this morning, putting on a dash of make-up, brushing my teeth, that sort of thing so I was all the way back in my bathroom. Mark was already at work and the kids were just playing throughout the house. I'd been back there longer than five minutes when Phoenix came in and said, "Mama, ahna mahn here." I freaked out. There's a man here? Where? Obviously there was a man at the door, but he hadn't rung the door bell. What kind of man stands at the door without ringing the doorbell? And why couldn't I hear Maggie talking? She's a talker. If there was a man at the door, she'd be talking his ear off and I'd certainly be able to hear her...unless he'd taken her! GOOD GRIEF AMIGHTY...all this passed through my mind in a split second and I yelled, "THERE'S A MAN HERE?????"
Phoenix looked at me like I'd lost and said, "No, Mama. I. Ahna. Tuhm. In. Here."
"Oh," I said. "You wanna come in here...with me? Okay, Phoenix. Come on in. Mama has to sit down a minute and remember how to breathe."
I'm so crazy sometimes.