Monday, February 29, 2016

Monday: grilled burgers and sausages, pasta salad and cowboy beans
Tuesday: spaghetti and garlic bread
Wednesday: leftovers or sandwiches because I have a late doctors appointment
Thusday: slow cooker pulled pork sandwiches with roasted corn on the cob
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: out - we'll be at a Bible quizzing tournament
Sunday: roasted whole chicken in the slow cooker, rice, and green beans

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Sarting the New Year off right...A Month Late. (January Recap)

But who is counting, anyway?
 
January was very busy for us. I kind of want to just lay down and take a nap thinking about it.

We made a big decision and chose to homeschool our girls this year!


We're using the ACE curriculum (which I used in my school years...
...way too many moons ago!) and so far we are loving it. Homeschooling is everything I ever thought it would be, but at the same time it's like nothing I ever imagined.



This man is my rock.
My rock serves in the USAF.
The USAF has given us orders to relocate to another base.
We will be beach babies soon!
(But very sad to leave half our family and our friends behind - but thrilled to be closer to the other half of our family!)



I think I mentioned before that my mom quit work and moved in with us to help out.
It's been an adjustment for everyone, but we're really happy with her here.
The girls especially love it! June loves to spend afternoons putting puzzles together, "letting" MawMaw "help". :)

Something rather emotional and exceptional happened last Sunday.
We got up, got dressed, and headed to church like any other Sunday morning.


 
But something was different last Sunday morning.
I'd been praying a lot. A whole lot.
If you've been following me, you know I have lost my leg strength due to repeated chemo in the spinal fluid. It's caused Cauda Equina, which in turn has put me in a wheelchair.
I've been going to physical therapy and as of last week I was able to pull up from the wheelchair to the parallel bars. Then I was able to pull up from the wheelchair to the washing machine at home. (You mamas out there know just how amazing that is!) but I couldn't manage to get from my chair to the walker, so that I could stand up during prayer and Bible reading in church.
But last Sunday morning was different.
I debated internally the whole morning. Should I take my walker and try? Would I look silly if I couldn't do it? What if I fell trying? What if I caused a commotion in trying?
But then....what if I succeeded? How much would that encourage me - or better yet, someone else?
So I told Mike to throw it in the trunk.
The time came to open with prayer.
I waited until everyone else was standing so that I didn't make a scene.
Then I gripped the walker and pushing with my arms and legs with everything I had, which is not much these days!!
I couldn't quite get it, so I laid my forearm down on one side and pushed/pilled that way..
AND UP I WENT!
I stood, shaking in my legs and arms, for about a minute. I had to sit down before the prayer was through. I stood up twice more tat service, for about a minute each time. I had been doing 30 seconds at PT!
Not only was I proud of myself and encouraged by my new accomplishment, I was so incredibly thankful to God for helping me. I told my husband before we left for church - I'd rather fail 100 times than to never try at all.
We don't get anywhere without a little hard work!
 
 

 
All it takes is faith the size of a grain of mustard seed!