One down...

too many left to go!!! Anyone want to organize a weed your friend's gardens day? We could all travel each day to help out someone else. Many hands make light work?!? Right?!? Our backs would be "killing"us but oh, how nice to have a clean garden for awhile! Plus, the fellowship would be welcome. This time of the year can be so wonderful and horrid at the same time. The beauty of new life and then the hard, hard work it takes to keep it up.

Yesterday, my goal was to make this garden "weed-free". I was able to accomplish it but I have to say it wasn't too much effort on my part. This area has been a garden since before we moved here and it doesn't get too bad if you can stay on top of it. I think it took less than 2 hours to work it until clean. I attempted to work up the back garden and 2 feet into the beet row I look down and think 48 feet to go and I'm already tired of this. I did give up, partly it was 9:30 p.m. and I thought the kids should be getting to bed. Today, it is raining and I thought oh, great, I'll really get moving on the basement and clear out some things. Same story as the 48 feet to go, I can do about 10 minutes and then it is too much and I gladly find other things to do like watch a Little House on the Prairie with the kids! :) That makes me happy.

I've been thinking that my prayer life and Bible time can take a back seat to regular life. After all I am just so busy and I have to do laundry and dishes, right? I have to feed my kids and spend time with them, right? I have to weed the garden because I'm providing for my family, right? When I don't find time for the Lord I find my day can go pretty good but as the days pass and I haven't found time for Him, my week can go downhill. I get impatient and things "bug" me that didn't before. How many of us are willing to turn on our favorite show or do a chore we don't really care for instead of reading the Bible or talking to the Lord? I am a work in progress just like that back garden. I may never get that one weed-free but thankfully the Lord understands that I'll never be "weed-free" either and he takes me just as I am, one day at a time. I don't have to feel guilty and dwell on my past mistakes because there He is forgiving me and giving me another day. I did say I don't have to dwell on past mistakes but let me tell you I surely do. I have to continually give them back to the Lord. Happy gardening!

Update

Hi, Isaac had a lymph treatment yesterday and is a bit tired today. Please pray he can get enough fluids and exercise to keep his lymph drained. Dr. S. says we can go every two weeks instead of every week!!!! I am so happy to save the money and the gas and have one less place to go each week. Please pray for Isaac's continued improvement with only 2 lymph treatments a month. I ask that you continue praying for his body to get rid of toxins and to keep absorbing his nutrients so that we can see him gaining weight. His color has improved greatly. Now he needs to gain some weight. Thanks for checking and praying!

My life is not my own...

It now belongs to the great outdoors. I don't have a lot of time for anything but watering, weeding, planting, mowing, picking up stuff so that I can mow. Picking up stuff to mow can be quite a task. There are bikes, shoes, the dog's bones, rakes and other garden tools kids just dropped where they were done using them, hoses (about 400 feet of them in all places), buckets, the string from the hay bales, rope for tying out goats or horses, sticks, all the downspouts, strollers (there are currently two out there for Lena). It can take almost as long to pick this all up as to mow! :) Can anyone relate? or do I just have too much stuff? I am pretty good at putting everything I use in one particular place but it is challenging to teach that to 8 other people.

We have a few more things to plant. I am hoping to make today a fun day; kickball, badminton, Uno, reading books. I tend to have tunnel vision right now so I want to spend some time with the kids doing things that don't get anything done. It actually gets things done just not anything you can visibly see. It gets you talking to your kids and laughing and not making all of life about work. I've been praying about this lately. What is most important to me? What do I spend most of my time on? How do I behave when I don't accomplish all I want to in a day? I don't like myself much of the time when you look at it this way. I have to work on priorities; time with the Lord, time with the kids and balancing the things that need to be done.

Praise that Isaac is doing excellently! He is growing and improving so much. His color is great. The doctor on Wednesday was happy as can be about Isaac's progress. He wanted Isaac to thank the Lord, his parents and his family for all they did for getting him to this point. I said for him to thank Dr. S. Dr. S. said he didn't need thanks, Isaac's getting well was all the thanks he needed.

18...

We have been married 18 years today! June 1st, 1991. It was a much warmer day than today was but otherwise was very similar. The sun was out and it was windy I remember. When isn't it around here. I was 22 and Kev was 24. I had just finished finals the week before and had finished my degree in Elementary Education. Kevin was working in Rapid City, SD in refrigeration. We had followed a cousin's idea and turned and faced the guests during the ceremony. I thought the caterer knew the head table was not going through the line. It caused a bit of a ruckus and Kevin's sister and brother-in-law were rushing to get us food so we could all stay sitting. The band was late and then when they did play it was not as I expected. The first song was "The Wanderer". Any remember this song? First line was "I'm the type of guy who likes to roam around..." Not a good beginning song in my opinion. Having a dance was tradition. If we did it over today I know we would have music playing but very different from that day. They put cheese all over the windshield and on the way to the hotel that night we tried to get it off but it smeared. We stopped along side the road and found a mud puddle and used tissues to try to get it off. One other interesting thing was when we got in Kev's car at the church it wouldn't start. How cliche! It was a beginning of a friendship that is still going on today. I shared with one of the children today that we got married today 18 years ago and how most mommies and daddies don't stay together that long and that we plan on being together forever. I am as in love with Kevin today as I was back then. I don't feel like it's been that long. When I look at him I see that 19 year old he was when we first started seeing each other. Funny how the pictures back then look so strange!:)

The kids helped make it extra special and we ate just the two of us by candlelight and just when we sat down to eat someone brought all the cards they made for us. They did a great job. It's great to have them all and to have a great husband like I do.

Praises...

Praise the Lord! We were measuring Isaac today and he has grown! We always measure the kids on their birthdays and Isaac had not grown since the previous year (Jan. 29). It is common with the things that were wrong with him to not see any growth. Isaac and I both cried on his birthday when we saw that he hadn't grown. My sister-in-law says she has had her kids not grow in a year so I guess that wasn't so bad but it is noticeable that he hasn't grown. He now has grown over an inch and we cannot be happier.

During his lymph treatment, Dayna who gives him the treatment commented on how good his color is. She noticed much change from the week before. I always like it when others see the changes too. I then, know I'm not imagining things. Some people see him once a month or less and comment on how he's not getting better. I get so frustrated because if you were to see him weekly or daily you can't help but see how far he has come in this illness.

Here is an overview of Isaac three months ago to today.
Three months ago:
Cramping 6 or more times a day, laying on the couch in pain.
Up to 8 bowel movements a day
No energy, layed on the couch mostly, watching movies or listening to books on tape, did all his school sitting on the couch or in his bed. Couldn't hear him when he talked it was so soft. Got up around 11 a.m. and wanted to go back to bed after breakfast.
Crabby, moody and didn't like people around him.
Didn't eat many foods because he wasn't digesting them. Frequent stomach aches after eating.

Today:
Rare cramping: once or twice a day he'll lay down with a "yucky" feeling that he says he couldn't say is a cramp. No pain at all!
2-3 bowel movements a day (which is what we are all supposed to have)
Lots of energy; he frequently walks a mile a day or more, he cleans his own room now, makes his own breakfast, gets up by 9 a.m., talks non-stop sometimes, does all his school work at the table, plays with toys, rarely watches TV.
Happy, talkative, plays with other kids, takes baby for a walk, plays with her, happy to have other kids around. Likes to go places now.
Eats most everything we do. He digests all his food and no stomach-aches after eating. Right now he is loading the dishwasher after lunch! Yeah!

We really see great improvement. He is more his normal self. It is an answer to prayer. Please do keep praying for a complete recovery.

My wonderful hubby...

My husband did something very unprecedented. He planned a surprise party for my birthday on Saturday. I turned 40. He called all my friends to see if it would work, bought food that we could all eat (since we are on the GAPS diet) and brought it to different places to have them cut up and prepare, had the girls clean the house as clean as they could, took the day off and had everyone meet him down the road. He took me by complete surprise. Emily says, "Mom, you've got to come see this." I tell her, "Just describe it to me." I was nursing Lena. I was visiting with a friend Naomi whom I thought was here because her husband was helping Kevin put struts on his van. Emily insists I have to see it myself. I walk to the door and there are all kinds of people driving in the drive and walking up the walk! I was a bit blown away. I didn't even care that I was wearing my old clothes as I was working in the garden. It was so much fun having everyone over to our house and to visit and watch all the kids play was grand. I was very blessed! I really needed that right now. It's been a long and kind of lonely winter. Friends have been great at calling and emailing during our struggles but when your life centers around a sick child, regular life kind of stands still. I go to doctor appointments and grocery stores. We haven't had a van to fit us all so I stay home from church, etc. It was great to take the day off and relax and enjoy. Thank you to all who came and called and loved. I love you all and thank you for caring so much about us even when I don't call you or email you, you are there calling me and checking in. God is truly good to us! I do praise Him continually for the struggles and for the joys.