Recent Recipes

I've recently added Pecan Tassies and Creamy Ginger Chicken Soup to my Love You Can Eat Blog. Let me know if you like them!

Blog Reading Tools

This morning, the Nester posed the question How Do You Read Blogs? I found it interesting that by the time I got around to commenting (#30-something), no one had mentioned my favorite blog-reading tool. So I did my best to explain it in my comment. Then I realized I should also share this niftiness with you!

I love Google Reader and have used it for a long while now. It saves me much time by letting me know when one of the blogs that I read has a new post, so I don't have to go clicking through bookmarks to check blogs that may or may not have updates. Plus, if one of my bloggy friends disappears for a few months, I automatically know when they come back!

My one frustration with it was that if I wanted to see the actual blog, or if someone didn't have their whole post go to the feed, I would have to open the link in a new tab.

But google has added a new wonderful feature that solves this frustration! Shawna told me about it and I'll try to explain ... the NEXT button!

The "Next" button is a link that you can drag to your favorites bar. When you click it, whatever tab you are in will automatically go to the page of the next post in your reader. It's the handiness of google reader without having to miss out on the beauty of the actual blogs - nifty!

Here's how you can get it: Go to your Google Reader and hit the Settings link. There will be several tabs across the top... go to Goodies. Under "Put Reader in a Bookmark," there is a link that you can simply drag to your favorites bar to add the Next button.

One other note: those of you who have been with me for a while know that screen "real estate" is valuable to this claustrophic woman. I hadn't had a favorites bar at the top of my browser since I found out I could make it go away! But I put it back to give the Next button a trial run, and yes, this tool is handy enough that I'm willing to give up that precious piece of screen real estate to have it.

Give the Next button a try and let me know if you like it!

Thankful!

This afternoon I had a wonderful visit with my lovely midwife. As I went to update my Facebook status, I was struck by just how rewarding & fantastic it is to be planning a home birth in Missouri with a legal midwife, instead of planning to leave my kiddos & travel 8 hours away in order to work with one legally??

THANK YOU so very much to all of you who spent countless hours making this possible. Tears of joy overwhelm me...

Thoughts

I mentioned to a friend the other day that I have so many things floating around in my head about which to post, that I end up not posting because I don't have time for everything. Silliness!

So here are some miscellaneous thoughts, mostly Advent focused (thanks, Tracy, for prompting me to get some of these thoughts down... there'll be some familiarity for you here):

I've gotten almost no Christmas decorating done yet, which is unusual for me by this time. But, my Christmas boxes are in the attic (where I don't venture) and my man has been very busy with work (thankfully!). I'm hoping he'll bring them down tonight. I've been working on getting the house cleaner. Some people are motivated to clean by Spring... I'm motivated by Christmas! Can't stand the thought of decorating dirt and clutter. :-) I have a spot all cleared out for the tree and hope we can get one this weekend.

Being still in anticipation... something I think He's working on teaching me. The calm and overflowing joy instead of the frantic doing. I want my heart and mind to be more aware of Him and less focused on the going, the glitter, and the getting.

The Christmas season brings so many memories to me, not only of family (precious!), but also of dear friends that, in my school years, I would often only see during school breaks. Sweet memories.

I'm hoping to start our Jesse tree tomorrow; that's something I can start without the Christmas boxes, so I've no excuse. :-) And I'm so looking forward to our quiet times of worship aided by the reminder of the advent wreath.

We had a neat time over Thanksgiving with the families with which we usually celebrated Thanksgiving when Eric and I were growing up. Our "fake family," as Beka lovingly refers to them, are dear to us, and we enjoyed celebrating with them again (with many more than there used to be!).

I have lots of Gifts for which I've noted my Gratitude mentally that I need to get written down or posted.

Sometimes when I've been away from blogging, I need a misc. post like this to get me back in the saddle without feeling like I have to catch up chronologically. Thanks for bearing with me. :-)

A "Wish List"

I'd never done this before, but I've added several things to my Amazon Wish List, and besides posting it here, I'm adding a link to it on the side of my blog.

I'm usually the person that, when asked what she wants for Christmas/birthday/etc, doesn't have any ideas. But right now, there are quite a few things that I could rattle off to someone interested in my interests, and I thought I'd make it easy for them. You're welcome, Mama! There might be others who would like to know about such a list, so I'm doing something out of the ordinary and a bit uncomfortable for me and posting it.

/deep breath

Thank you, and have a lovely day.

Update - almost 14 wks, ultrasound

Warning to my few male readers: This post covers reproductive-parts topics, so proceed at your own choice. The short of it is that baby and I are both fine and doing well.

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In seven pregnancies, the only ultrasound I had performed was a brief one to confirm that Katie's tranverse/frank breech position in labor. The lack of ultrasounds was not by accident or laziness, but due to a decision to skip procedures that were not truly medically indicated. Ultrasound technology can be a great tool, but it is a tool that is greatly over-used in U.S. obstetrics without good evidence to back up its nearly ubiquitous employment. So we chose early on to only use it if there was a good medical reason.

Well, I've had a new and strange pain this pregnancy in my lower right abdomen. It has at times brought me to tears with its intensity. I could feel a swolleness that seemed to be in the area of my right ovary.

At my 13 week prenatal (last Monday), B. was able to feel the swollenness in the tender area. This is why we decided to go ahead and listen for hearttones with the doppler, because though it's rare for an ectopic pregnancy to make it that far, it is possible. Finding hearttones (at last!) confirmed that there was indeed a growing baby in my uterus, though it didn't explain the pain.

Over the weekend, my pain "pattern" changed, and on Monday I called my primary midwife, Mary. Jonathan and I agreed with her that it would be good to get an ultrasound to see if we could find out what was going on. We had several possibilities I was going to look into for where to get the ultrasound. I procrastinated through Monday, though, and Monday night was in quite a bit of pain.

Tuesday morning I called the number Mary had given me for a wonderful OB that she's gotten to know recently. I talked with her late Tuesday afternoon, and by the end of our phone call, she said she would call the hospital closest to me Wednesday morning and see if they could get me in for an ultrasound on Wednesday. On the list of possibilities were ovarian cysts of various types(that might be causing torsion, a twisting of the ovary on its "stem" that could lead to the death of the ovary), ovarian cancer, and an ectopic pregnancy (in addition to the growing little one).

Wednesday afternoon found us at the hospital. At the welcome desk was a huge bowl of apples. I asked Jonathan if he thought they were to there to keep the doctors away.

The ultrasound tech who worked with us was extremely nice and she really helped put me at ease. She did both a trans-abdominal and a trans-vaginal ultrasound. I had a lot of mixed emotions about the whole thing... wishing that we didn't need to do it at all, delight in seeing the tiny person growing inside me, and concern about what they might find. Alex, the tech, asked if we minded if she printed us a picture of our baby. Of course not! Though I would have preferred to not need the ultrasound, I figured I might as well get a baby pic out of it!

The long and short of the ultrasound results are that the radiologist didn't see anything out of the ordinary. When Mary told me this over the phone last night, I wailed, "Well, then what's wrong with me??!??" But I have to admit it's much better than finding out that I need to have surgery, etc.

I don't know if the Lord has chosen to heal whatever has been causing me pain (I haven't had any significant pain since Monday night and can barely feel the swollen spot), or if there is some other cause than my ovary for the pain. For now, we're moving forward in faith and trusting that if there is anything that needs to be dealt with, it will be made clear.

In the meantime, I keep coming back to this precious souvenir, which has greatly relieved my sense of surrealness about this pregnancy. There really truly is a baby in there and I'm so thankful!

Gratitude Challenges

I've been thinking lately about gratitude. Mostly because it seems the Lord keeps bringing it before me. Repeatedly. He's good at things like that.

Several years ago, Ann Voskamp made a choice that would change her life. She chose to focus on gratitude, and began her list of One Thousand Gifts. In the years since, it's become the endless list, because she didn't stop at one thousand.

In this post, Sarah challenges us to give thanks when it's inconvenient, for the hard things. A clip: And I should be grateful that He thinks enough of me to carefully craft difficulty to edge me toward beauty, kindness, and grace with pressure. I don’t want to just be thankful for the easy. I want to be grateful for the hard. And that involves a choice...one I'm making today.

I'm going to make the choice. I'm not sure yet what form my list will take, but I'm going to become more deliberate in choosing to be thankful. At least some of my list will be shared here, but I don't yet know how much. We shall see...

For starters, I give thanks for:

1) The pain God uses to draw me to Himself, to teach and mold me. I do not understand why the answer to my prayers cannot yet be "Yes," but I thank Him in the pain, for I know that He is good.

2) His love endures forever

3) that two year old little man, perched on his stool in the kitchen, patting out biscuit dough and cutting biscuits with me

4) the hard work my man puts in to support our family

5) parents who are two of my best friends

6) naps to the sound of rain outside my window

7) midwives

8) the myriad of colors in our sweet gum trees this fall

9) the comfort of my husband's touch in the night

10) pie pumpkins lining my hearth

Some Fall Blog Color at Last!

I finally got around to finding a fall/Thanksgiving background. That light blue was just a little to spring-y for the season.
In other bloggy news, I did get pictures uploaded to Yesterday this afternoon.

Without Wavering

This post from Heather blessed me this morning.

Baby Update - 13 weeks+

Monday morning, I had a prenatal. I've been a little uneasy about this pregnancy, which has seemed almost surreal to me at times for some reason. Though we don't generally opt for the use of a doppler during prenatals, preferring to wait for hearttones until a fetascope can detect them, I was more than ready to hear this little one's heartbeat on Monday.

After some discussion (because I hadn't talked to Jonathan about my perceived need to hear the heartbeat), B got the doppler ready and started looking. And looking... and looking. Since I was already concerned, it seemed like an eternity. After a couple minutes, B suggested that she try her other doppler (that's more sensitive, but has some battery issues). One she got it powered up, she went back to looking for a heartbeat. It was obvious it had a better signal, but still... looking and looking. I just closed my eyes, waiting and praying. I could feel the tears pricking at my eyelids. I never thought the beat of my own heart would be a sound I wouldn't want to hear. And then, the most beautiful song in the word - the beat of my little one's heart. My eyes flew open and met B's, both sets full of joy and relief. Sweet little heart, pumping along in the 140's or 150's. Bliss.

A friend of mine was a couple weeks further along in her pregnancy than me. It was kind of neat to have a buddy at almost the same stage as myself. Until last Friday, when they found out that their little one had died. She birthed him at home early last Saturday morning. My sorrow for my friends has been a thread running through my emotions all this week, and they are in my thoughts and prayers regularly. Even in my joy, they are in my thoughts. What a complex mix our emotions can be.

I'm starting to gain more energy and am hopeful that I'll get back to blogging more regularly soon. I have lots to tell you!

The 8th of November

have you thanked a veteran lately?

Compassionate and Gracious

This morning, when a friend mentioned on Facebook that she was praying for "strength to get through this day with grace and kindness," I was reminded of Psalm 103.8, "The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness." It's one of my most and least favorite verses, especially when it comes to parenting!

When I went to find the reference at biblegateway.com, I was reminded of how that expression is repeated in Scripture. Here are the four uses I found:

The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished...
Exodus 34.5-7

"But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly; They became stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments. They refused to listen, And did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them; So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt
But You are a God of forgiveness,
Gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness;
And You did not forsake them.
Even when they made for themselves A calf of molten metal And said, 'This is your God Who brought you up from Egypt,'..."
Nehemiah 9:16-18

He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the sons of Israel.
The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
Psalm 103:7-9

"Yet even now," declares the LORD,
"Return to Me with all your heart,
And with fasting, weeping and mourning;
And rend your heart and not your garments "
Now return to the LORD your God,
For He is gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness
And relenting of evil.
Joel 2.12,13

"...for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity."
Jonah 4.2

May I be a woman/wife/mother/daughter/friend/sister/etc who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness!!

I Have a Shelter

Shawna recently shared a wonderful song with me. Here are the lyrics:

I Have a Shelter
I have a shelter in the storm
When troubles pour upon me
Though fears are rising like a flood
My soul can rest securely
O Jesus, I will hide in You
My place of peace and solace
No trial is deeper than Your love
That comforts all my sorrows

I have a shelter in the storm
When all my sins accuse me
Though justice charges me with guilt
Your grace will not refuse me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
Who bore my condemnation
I find my refuge in Your wounds
For there I find salvation

I have a shelter in the storm
When constant winds would break me
For in my weakness, I have learned
Your strength will not forsake me
O Jesus, I will hide in You
The One who bears my burdens
With faithful hands that cannot fail
You’ll bring me home to heaven


Isn't that beautiful? Sovereign Grace Music has made a free download of the song available here.

What a fabulous post!

from my friend Kathy: A picture compliation so well fitted with words from Oh! The Places You'll Go.

October - In pictures

Here they are!

Everything Sad is Coming Untrue - Review

I've been listening to Jason Gray's new album for so long that the folks at Centricity Music probably think that I've forgotten I promised I'd write a review if only they'd let me have a copy. There's a lot to this project, and it has taken me a while to absorb it enough to write a review. I'm not a professional reviewer, for that matter, which I'm sure makes it more difficult. :-)

The short version:
Jason Gray's "Everthing Sad is Coming Untrue" (ESICU) is a purposely "pop" album that loses no depth to its playability. I find myself singing the songs repeatedly; the music is catchy and singable. And the lyrics are worth many a listen; the depth reflected there is rare in a pop Christian album. Like a thread running through the album, the work of God to make all things new shines as a hopeful theme. In short, ESICU is a musical investment that will challenge and encourage you - and leave you with some great tunes running through your head.

The extended play version:
From the first song, More Like Falling in Love, Jason challenged my thinking. Lyrics like, "It's gotta be more like falling in love than something to believe in, more like losing my heart than giving my allegiance" caught me off guard and made me uncomfortable. I mean, aren't we supposed to be belieiving and surrendered? I'm someone who doesn't like the whole "falling in love" idea to begin with, because I think it's reflection of a culture that takes too lightly the commitment that is love. It took me a while to get past my prejudice to hear the heart of Jason's song, at which these additional lyrics give a peek: "I need a truth that lives, moves and breathes to sweep me off my feet. ... It was love that made me a believer. More than a name, a faith, a creed, falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me." The love of the Lord Jesus has swept me off my feet more times than I can count, and for that I am deeply thankful.

Jason's music also challenged my actions. Fade with our Voices asks if our worship has hands and feet. "Does it stand up in the face of injustice? ... Is it more than a song that fades with our voices?" As you can see in the video I've embedded at the bottom of this post, the idea of our actions being part of our worship has become an important part of Jason's life and ministry. In Holding the Key, he addresses one of my hot buttons - the need for us to be both real and approachable with each other: "We were made with these hearts, meant to be open, and we lock them away, afraid of being broken. But we're given each other to set it free - and you're the one holding the key. ... your listening ear is the grace of God." Another challenging song, Better Way to Live, talks about "when we step aside from the center of our lives, and learn to love mercy more than being right." Some of Jason's lyrics hug (perhaps even cross!) the "meddlin'" line ... and I've been blessed by his boldness.

Then there are songs whose lyrics reflect the cry of my heart. Lyrics like "Jesus I come, come to You again, like it was the first time I came to you for new life... believing, help my unbelief... I need You now as much as I did then, I need a new beginning... take me back so I can move ahead" from For the First Time Again. For someone who is a "runner," and who longs to learn to run in the right direction, Hold Me Back resonates strongly: "Father please hold me back, be the strength I lack, 'cause it's just like me to run from the One that I need. You hold me back... it's just like You to run to the one who needs You... with the love that won't let me go before it makes me new."

Some of my favorite pick-me-up songs from "Everthing Sad is Coming Untrue" are Help Me, Thank You ("the two best prayers I know"); Jesus Use Me, I'm Yours ("my dreams, my plans, my heart, my hands"); and I Am New ("I'm chosen and holy and I'm dearly loved, I am new... the One who is making everything new doesn't see me the way that I do"). Everything Sad is Coming Untrue (Part 1) holds the promising lyrics, "life is coming alive, death is destined to die... when we learn to live again and let forgiveness win, there's no wound that Love won't mend and finally redeem."

The last song on ESICU, like the first, challenges my thinking. Everything Sad is Coming Untrue (Part 2) takes a deeper look at some of the heartbreaking realities of our world and dares to ask "how could it be that everything sad is coming untrue?" Yet deeper still, we have the assurance the He will make all things new. "Broken hearts are being unbroken, bitter words are being unspoken, the curse undone, the veil is parted, the garden gate will be left unguarded. ... Oh I believe that everything sad is coming untrue in the hands of the One who makes all things new." Though we may not see everything sad coming untrue at present, we do have an eternal hope, based on the victory of our Lord Jesus, the One who makes all things new!