A large family. A mobile home. A house under construction. No loans. Meet the do-it-yourself family, The Building Brows. Parenting six kids in 832 square feet?
It's nuts, it's cramped. It's taking forever to build our DIY home. But it's DEBT-FREE.
One of my biggest blessings is my network of support from friends and family, but by far, my most treasured is my best friend.
Perhaps some people have numerous best friends, but I've had only a handful in my lifetime. After I gave my life to Jesus fifteen years ago, I found myself sort of friendless; oh, I had lots of friendly people in my life, but no one close. Changing your entire way of life tends to do that. Jesus was my everything, but I still yearned for a flesh and blood friend I could be me with, so I asked God for one.
It took fourteen years, but I finally met that friend because her son and my son had become friends at school and they wanted to have a sleepover. Let me tell you, this woman was entirely worth the wait. She's everything I ever hoped for and more. God knew just who I needed and sent her at the right time.
If you have a close friend you can confide in who loves you through thick and thin, thank God and treasure the gift. You're fortunate. Not everyone has one. Take a moment today to call your friend and tell him/her just how much you appreciate your friendship.
If you don't have a close friend and long for one, don't give up. Ask God, keep asking God, and wait expectantly with gratitude for the one that's coming. Mine finally did. I believe yours will too. Let me ask God for you, too:
God, to all who read my blog and long for a close friend, please grant their desires and give them the close friends they long for who will love them through thick and thin and continue with them, for you know we need support to keep us strong and going in the right direction. Thank You, God. Amen.
I've been reading a lot lately about how people nationwide are struggling financially as gas and food prices rise. The stimulus payments that will start to flow to Americans tomorrow will, by necessity, go to help fill the gap these higher prices are causing. I realize steep inflation is forewarned in the Bible, but living through it doesn't make it easier.
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "Two pounds of wheat for a day's wages, and six pounds of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"Revelation 6:5-6 TNIV
Complaining (again) yesterday about our tiny home and how hard it is to keep clean when it seems gremlins follow me to mess up what I fix, my understanding opened. Many people right now carry vehicle loans and mortgages, and as prices skyrocket, it becomes harder to pay for them.
I may never like this sardine can of a house, but it's time for me to once again count my blessings that we fully own our vehicles, land, mobile home, and house under construction. And because we followed what God showed us and did not get a loan or charge credit for building supplies to get in our house sooner, we don't have debt making it even tougher to pay the essentials.
Living in 800 square feet with eight people and a Great Dane may challenge us and make me want to scream at times, but at least the added stress of losing the little we have does not exist like it has for us before and does now for others.
Thank You, God, for this. It is a blessing indeed.
But what if you have that mortgage, loans, or car payments choking you? Is there blessing you can find when you're feeling strangled by gas and food prices?
I believe there is, but like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so are blessings. These you must search out and find yourself. (Try asking God, first.) In the mean time, take heart. Spring is upon us and there's no finer time to learn to plant a garden or manage indoor vegetable-bearing plants to help ease the cost of food. And to look into hydrogen powered cars fueled by water... (Jim's new hobby)
Bought a new car with payments lately? Then maybe you're familiar with one of those little boxes affixed under your dash that ensure your lender payment as spoken of at USA Today. You know, the one that beeps incessantly if you default on a payment and then shuts off your car entirely if you don't punch in a code given only by your lender once you make that payment.
Lenders are getting tough about getting their money, and customers are getting cranky about it. Next thing we could see is these little black boxes on our homes locking us out, or worse. But let's face it. Lenders have a right to their money, and on time.
If we don't like it, we shouldn't borrow. Or we should be patient and long suffering to save our money enough to buy outright; a difficult feat, for sure, but if we don't want little black boxes controlling our lives, worth the second look.
Realistically, this is a warning of tougher standards ahead, and rightly so. Spending is way out of control and debt loads soar. Now is the time to make changes before consequences for payment defaults become so severe people land in prison.
Don't laugh. It could happen. Thankfully today, we still have time to change. And that's the biggest blessing.
When I finally got to the biopsy appointment I was sporting a mild fever and felt crummy. I snoozed forty-five minutes as best I could with shivers before I finally was called to the procedure room. The doctor came in and recounted what I already knew about the thyroid mass.
"Not all tumors are cancerous," he said.
Wait. I had a tumor? I thought I had a goiter. But then I understood they were the same. Hearing the word tumor suddenly made things very clear. I had a serious condition, and according to the doctor, a tumor is not caused by iodine deficiency. That blew all my hope of a peaceful resolution, especially when he said they begin to look at biopsying when tumors reach 1-2 cm. At over 4 cm, mine needed biopsy, no question. And it was large enough to biopsy in the office without the assistance of ultra sound.
The doc laid out my chair, put a towel under my neck, and had me lay my head back. Jim says the lump in my neck really looked huge then. My doc injected lidocaine into my thyroid, once shallow, which burned some, and once deeper which hurt more. Then he took a needle that would section out small cylinders of my thyroid, went in from the center of my thyroid and moved it in and out toward my left ear sucking out cells like a liposuction surgeon at work. I felt movement, but not much pain. He repeated the procedure, going deeper. I winced. When done, my left ear ached from displaced pain.
Then I had to wait three weeks for a follow up appointment. Three weeks for biopsy results. By this time, it was January.
Maybe other people would have been banging down the door for biopsy results, but I was like I had been when nine months pregnant with my first child--content to remain in waiting because it didn't require more effort.
I finally made it back to the doctor the forth week in January. I expected that if the result was negative for thyroid cancer he would give me a list of options including watching it to see if it shrunk, which I had been praying for and expected, giving me thyroid medicine to shrink it, or a last resort of surgery.
"There are four types of thyroid cancer," he began when he came in. He listed one and said, "You don't have that." Another. "You don't have that." Another. "You don't have that." And then he said, "the cells in the tumor are follicular," and explained that the thyroid consists of follicular cells like what hair grows out of, only in the center of the follicle is pools of thyroid hormone. My tumor was a mass of the material that makes the holes, but missing the pools.
There was 15-20% chance it was cancer, maybe 25% chance because of its size. But the biopsy alone could not tell. The only way to know for sure what it was, was to remove and dissect it.
He urged me to have the removal surgery. The tumor was simply too big for him to feel comfortable watching, and with the vocal nerve behind it, waiting could only make later removal more difficult or cause me to lose my voice. Surgery would entail removing the entire left lobe since the tumor was so big it filled the whole lobe.
Tears came to my eyes but I tried not to heed them. What happened to several options and trying synthetic hormone? Jim questioned the kind of cells it was and confirmed that if cancerous, it was the kind that could spread through my blood stream to other parts of my body.
The doctor left to give Jim and I a few moments to discuss things. I knew as he walked out what Jim was already thinking. And I agreed. There was only one way to go.
I walked out of the appointment with a surgery date for the following week (this past Tuesday). On my way to the hospital for blood work I prayed if it was the right decision. I felt immediate assurance that it was. Peace settled in my soul alongside the grief I felt for having to go through surgery I didn't want. As long as I was in God's will, I could go forward with confidence.
My blessing this Blog Your Blessing Sunday is that the thyroid tumor is now out and the preliminary results of it taken during surgery came back benign. Stitches and the final pathology report comes this Tuesday afternoon, February 5. In the mean time, I'm enduring recovering with deep gratitude for God's loving care and letting my enlarged thyroid be found before it got bigger.
And I really mean welcome this week! I'm doing SOOOOOOOOOOO much better than last week. But I'm very sad by my sin.
Poor CyberCelt. He's the one who started Blog Your Blessings Sunday (no he wasn't--Blue Panther did and I mistook them as being the same person) and innocently stopped by last Sunday to leave a comment. He had no idea it would land like a bomb and explode in his face. Truly, I was in such a horrible frame of mind that I needed to hear most what he suggested--that I count my blessings--but it was the last thing I wanted to hear.
Publicly I say to CyberCelt,
THANK YOU, and I apologize for getting angry at you when you did only right.
Thank you for participating in Blog Your Blessings Sunday. What happened last week was exactly the reason I joined, for I knew that when people land in a bad place, what they need most to do is count their blessings. With your help I did, and last Sunday was the beginning of my turn-around.
Thank you for being faithful with BYB Sunday and leaving comments for those on the blogroll. I appreciate you more than you probably realize.
Folks, this week CyberCelt is my blessing. Please visit CyberCelt's blog and consider joining BYB Sunday. But if you're having a bad week, spare those who comment on your blog and lift your frustrations instead to God.
CORRECTION: CyberCelt does not sponsor BYB Sunday and is not Blue Panther as I thought. I'm not sure how I got that idea, so I've corrected the link above. I'm sorry for the confusion. I guess if you're going to humiliate yourself, you might as well do a good job at it, right? Oy vey.
I am soooo not in the mood for Blog Your Blessings Sunday which is a huge sign I had better do it. This might take me a while--much longer than it will take you to read, so I'm going for only five today. Here goes:
All of my kids are alive. (45 seconds)
I have a warm house to live in. (45 seconds)
Even though my computer hard drive is corrupt and won't run, I have a back up computer thanks to listening to God to buy an inexpensive iMac at a tag sale this summer. (30 seconds)
Both of my parents are still alive, and so is my Grandma. (90 seconds)
On my last dismal post CyberCelt suggested I blog my blessings, and even though it peeved me so much I wanted to delete his comment (I didn't), he was right. (1 minute)
I'm still in a piss-hole attitude, which is probably the worst thing I've ever said on this blog.
What? Christians can't say piss-hole? Bah! Go read about Peter in Matthew 26, verses 31-35 and 69-75. He cursed in his piss-hole attitude when he flat out denied the One he loved most. But he got through it. God restored Him (John 21:15-22) and God will me too. At least I'm real like Peter was. God can work with that. He can't work with fake, and fake I won't be.
So there, CyberCelt. You got your blogged blessings. And blessings they are indeed, but you pissed me off suggesting it!
Maybe I'd better torture myself some more and blog them every day to force this foul mood out of me. Along with reading Psalm 119:9
"How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word."
And lovely. I have a faith article to write this week due Friday. Figures. Guess it's going to be about being genuine and cleaning up when we've made ourselves a disgusting mess.
1. IJ, now almost 13 years old, went hunting with his dad yesterday morning for youth weekend and he saw a buck. Jim said it was about 140 pounds, old and gray. Not many get to see or shoot one of those. IJ said he didn't shoot it because he didn't have a good shot and he thought he wasn't allowed to shoot a doe. But he regrets it.
Jim and IJ are out again early today for another round and hope to see that deer. IJ says that this time if he sees the gray doe, he's going to shoot it. He has a good chance because the deer are bedding down on the bank just beyond our playground (the old llama pen extension).
2. Apparently, deer isn't all IJ saw yesterday morning. Later that day, he came to us with a tick on his neck and another crawling up the front of his shirt. He freaked a little seeing how earlier in the week we had to dig one that had sunk itself deep into his hip.
Then CJ found a tick crawling up her leg, so it looks like they carried the buggers home. Yuck. There aren't many things I hate, but ticks are one of them.
3. Lastly, I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. That's where you write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days in the month of November. (Don't be alarmed if the website is slow. There is a ton of traffic hitting the site this week.) It's my birthday present to myself.) I'm working on a middle grade novel for girls and doing terrific. I'm very pleased. I have 4,031 words.
Now if you break down 50,000 words per day, that's 1,667 words and I'm technically about 1,000 words behind, but that's easy to catch up. I'm most happy, though, because I have a nearly complete story line including three acts (no middle slump!) and I know where I'm going.
The last time I participated, in 2004, I had to restart a week in after a bad first run that wasn't worth salvaging. (Trust me on this one.) But after that, I went on to catch up and complete my 50,000 words. That was the year I learned I could pound out 5,000 words per day, a few days on end. It was the largest body of work I've completed to date, and I aim to do it again. Only this time, better quality. I'm aiming for publishable on this one. :)
So, there you go. My three blessings for this Sunday. What are yours?
I woke up this morning to Jim taking the fan out of the window which required removing the window. How glad I was. We're in that time of year where it's freezing in the morning and we spend all day trying to warm up--all to avoid turning on the furnace until absolutely necessary. And that means vacuuming out all the ducts, replacing filters in the vents, and praying I either get out of the house for a few hours while Jim runs it initially or that my asthma attacks aren't severe.
Jim was so cold this morning that he turned on the oven for a few minutes to get some heat in the core of the house. Winter is coming.
So, this Blog Your Blessing Sunday I'm blessed with the ability to have heat and clothes we can layer when we're cold. Countless homeless people aren't so fortunate.
We're completing year three in this mobile home and even though it is still small and things have broken down and fallen apart during this time, I'm tremendously grateful for the roof over our head and that the mobile home continues to stand up under the continual beating of six boisterous kids while we pray lots for money and building supplies and do what we can to begin building again.
(Boy, was that ever a long sentence!) This is answer to prayer that we walk in daily--literally.
I've been sick of Windows operating system because of computer crashes, security vulnerabilities, bloated programs that bog down my system, and so many updates that if it were anything else I would have long thrown it away. The Mac ads on TV have enticed me tremendously, and I was thinking Macs are the way to go, and that if they really are as great as many people say, I'd want to replace my current PC and transfer all my writing, graphics work, and e-mail to a Mac.
Well, financially, I couldn't touch a Mac, so it was all theory. And then last weekend, the Holy Spirit put this notion in me to go to a tag sale. Only I didn't know where or when, or even what I was looking for.
I thought I'd go in the morning, but the Holy Spirit instead prompted me to clean my house and feed my kids lunch. Mid afternoon rolled around and it was finally time to go. I drove down the road knowing I had to go to the bread store. I went to turn down the short cut road, but the Spirit prompted me to go straight--the long way. So I did.
At the lights, I turned left to drive about half a mile to the store. Suddenly I see a tag sale sign 100 feet from the stop light--a dead end road I never would have driven down had I gone any other way. I went to the tag sale and found an iMac for sale.
I ended up walking away $300 short with an iMac flat panel computer system including a gigabit switch to connect my PC and Mac to our DSL. And it turns out it has Adobe Photoshop on it--the program I've been wanting. (I'm still waiting to hear if the guy found the installation/backup disks. Lets hope.) I never did get to the bread store. And I could afford the Mac because of a state refund that had just arrived.
Cool, huh? The best thing?
I was right about Macs. Plug and play, baby. It doesn't get much better than this. (Well, maybe a NEW Mac with backup disks...)
This past month I've grown to appreciate my family members since my grandmother ended up in the hospital with respiratory failure and nearly died. Another loved one is very sick, though he doesn't look it. One day I will wake up and they won't be here. Or they might wake up to find me gone.
To some, it's no big deal. Family and friends die, and though they are sad, they don't realize the treasure they miss.
Standing by my gram's hospital bed in intensive care I began to see that treasure: when I had to explain intubation, when I listened to her share fear over ending up like her friend who died after being placed on a respirator, when I held her hand through agonizing needle sticks, when I helped eat her food so she would eat, when I calmed her fears of death.
In all these things and more I grew closer to Gram by being available and sharing her pain. I could have let her struggle through them with someone else at her side, but we both would have missed out.
People are treasures, even the difficult ones like my gram used to be, but if we take them for granted or don't search for the treasure within them, we'll leave this world much poorer than God intended.
Life is shorter than we imagine. Do a little treasure hunting today.
IJ's baseball team lost the championship to the only team who beat them this year. Taking the title of division champs, their final record was 11-2. They had loads of fun with a great coach and terrific morale. It was great baseball season.
One thing that really impressed me was in the last inning when the teams were tied. (The game required an extra inning to complete.) IJ's teammate hit the ball and the other team fumbled it so he made his way around the bases. He came to base three and the coach told him to stop. The ball was still in the outfield, and he could have run home and won the game. Jim thought he should have blown by his coach to win the game anyway--that's what he would have done, he said--but the kid didn't. He saw he could have won the game. Instead he stopped to submit to his coach's authority.
Jim said he was stupid. I said he was wise.
Our team may have lost the championship yesterday, but something greater was won. Respect for authority, trust in a coach, and honoring it with obedience. Respect for authority is lost in today's world, for when people see they can reach their goal by disobeying authority, they do it, thinking the goal is more important than the obedience.
They are off the mark. The obedience is more important. Winning their goal is secondary. What a blessing it is to see the greater victory won yesterday.
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