Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is one of my very favorite holidays - THANKSGIVING!!! As a child, and even a college and grad. school student, and now too, I have grown up watching the big Macy's parade every year! When I lived at home, I would watch it with my dad while we peeled the potatoes for mashed goodness. Dad is the one who got me into the parade, as he is still a little wide-eyed boy inside who loves seeing parades. I have such good memories of watching the parade with Dad. And now that I have my own family, Dad and I usually touch base on the morning of Thanksgiving and he asks me if I'm watching the parade, and usually I am! Now I can get my Little Bug into the parade this year, and hopefully she'll enjoy watching the big balloons and floats and hearing the musicians just as much as I do! My dear Erik gets to watch it too, because of us, but he might think I go overboard in my excitement over it! :) Last night I happened to catch a glimpse of the Peanuts Thanksgiving special and that too brought back good memories.

Tonight I will begin my preparation for Thanksgiving. We will spend tomorrow with Erik's family and Friday with my family. On Friday I will be bringing the stuffing that my Auntie D makes, and also the cranberry cherry relish that I make every year. It is a recipe that I found one year and then it has kind of morphed into my own, with a few slight changes. I'll try to share it later if I get a chance.

May you and yours have a very blessed Thanksgiving holiday this year. And may God's richest blessings be upon you in the coming year!

More Prayers Please

Hello there! I feel like most of my blog posts lately have been in the form of prayer requests, but you know what? We SHOULD be praying! Prayer is so worthwhile and so beneficial...I know from my own life experiences. God has answered many many prayers that I have brought to Him through the years, and He hasn't always answered in the way I had hoped, but yet He has answered.

I wrote a few times ago about my Uncle Ron. He is still in the hospital and has now been sick for over a month. He has had several surgeries that have been successful, and hopefully is now on the mend...however, his condition is quite critical. Please continue to pray for him. I really truly appreciate those prayers, and I know that Uncle Ron and Auntie Dar do as well.

Sarah is another person for whom I've been praying - a former voice student of mine. She is still in a coma after about a month and a half, and has had some issues related to that. Her family is so amazing and they have stayed by her side through all of her ordeal. Please be praying for Sarah and for her family.

There is a woman from church who is in our Sunday School class named Ruth who has cancer and needs our prayers for healing. Please also pray for Ruth's husband Mark and for their two daughters. My mom was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma eight years ago and has been cancer free for almost eight years, so I know just a bit of the road that Ruth and her family are traveling now. It is a hard road. But when the body of Christ comes around families in crisis, there is such a difference...so I'm praying for that also for Ruth and for the other requests in my entry.

Thanks for your prayers.

The Musician's Prayer

My mom gave me this prayer many years ago in the form of a wall hanging, written by B.J. Hoff...I just came across it while going through some office boxes that have gone unpacked for almost a whole year since we moved into our house! I hope it blesses you today.

You've given me the words,
Lord, and the music,
a song of life that's new and unrehearsed...
You've given me the joy
that makes my heart sing,
even though at times the tears come first...
You've taken all my yesterdays of discord,
a clash of cymbals,
meaningless and vain,
transposing all the noise into a love song,
that floods my very soul with its refrain...
You've taken all the gifts
I once thought mine, Lord,
and changed the composition of their worth;
reclaiming what was Yours
from the beginning,
returning them, transfigured by rebirth...
You've given me the theme for my existence,
and I will sing Your glory all my days;
For now, Lord...and forever...
be my Music,
and make my life a symphony of praise.

Prayers for Uncle Ron

If you are reading this, please pray for my dear Uncle Ron. He has been hospitalized now for a week and a half with a really bad infection. He has already had two surgeries and will be having another tomorrow. I visited him last night, and he seemed really glad to see me. He asked me to pray with him before I left, and that was so sweet...so I did. I'm really glad that we could have a few minutes to visit. The doctor said that the infection is Gangreen, so that is very serious and life-threatening. They are keeping close tabs on him and doing a great job at his hospital.

Thanks for your prayers for Uncle Ron. I know he appreciates all the prayer he can get.

Crying it out!

Well, my Little Buzz is now four and a half months old. I can hardly believe it! He weighed in at 15 lbs. 12 oz. for his four month appointment, and I think that put him a 67% for weight. He was around 30 inches for height, so at 78% or so for that, and then his head was in the 95%, just like Mama! Maybe he'll be a singer and then he can resonate all day in his head...

So, a few days ago I decided that my child needs to learn how to take naps regularly. It has been much harder to institute that with an older child around, so he just doesn't get a nap regularly. Today I'm letting him cry, and then every five minutes I go and pick him up and comfort him and then put him back in his crib. It's awful. I hate hate hate hearing him cry like that. He's wailing right now as I type and it stinks. BUT, I know that he needs to sleep, and I have to help him figure that out. I hope that he can learn to sleep on his own soon. He just hasn't been a super good sleeper yet, and maybe he never will be. A night owl, perhaps, like me.

And Big Bug woke up with a cold this morning, so I wasn't able to go to my MOPS group. I really try to abide by the rules to not bring children with colds, although I think my kiddo must have picked up something at church this past weekend when we were there. There's just always bugs going around, and as one friend told me, "kids are like petri dishes." So, in the midst of not going to MOPS, I'm trying to accomplish other things like dishes and laundry. And that is a good thing!