Held

The Song "Held" by Natalie Grant is on repeat in my head right now. A friend from my MOPS group buried her three day old daughter today.



The song begins:

Two months is too little.

They let him go.

They had no sudden healing.

To think that providence would

Take a child from his mother while she prays

Is appalling.



Who told us we’d be rescued?

What has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares?

We’re asking why this happens

To us who have died to live?

It’s unfair.



Chorus:

This is what it means to be held.

How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life

And you survive.

This is what it is to be loved.

And to know that the promise was

When everything fell we’d be held.



The poignant song asks the question, "Why do terrible things happen, even to God fearing people?" That question was answered at the funeral today by the child's father...to teach us. My heart hurt for the family. I have uttered countless prayers of comfort for these friends. Their sweet daughter was born normal, coded, came back, coded again, came back, and then left this world for heaven. They are of course extremely saddened, but their faith emerged even stronger through this ordeal. They are truly "held" in the Father's hand as we all can be. There is no place I would rather be than held in His hand. A sweet bright spot in their life is their two year old daughter who is blissfully unaware of the tragedy in her family. She continues to laugh, play, and just be 2. This family will be on my mind in the weeks to come as they recover from this tragedy.



I hugged my children a little tighter this week, was a little more thankful for them, and praised God for them more. Life is precious and not be taken for granted. I plan to soak in my daughter's presence before she starts Kindergarten in the Fall.

Violin Recital

My daughter gave her first violin recital a week ago Friday. She played two Suzuki Twinkle Variations, A and B and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She was ready to go and forgot to let the accompanist give her an introduction. She launched into playing. The accompanist jumped right in and started where she was playing. She concentrated so hard. She didn't let her eyes wander, but focused on playing. She did really well, I was very proud. She had a blast.

From 20090530

I also played. I played a song called Lightly Row. It it is the first song in the Suzuki book one following the Twinkle Variations. I was pretty nervous. I didn't make a mistake, but I shorted my bow strokes due to my nervousness. Can we tell who the seasoned performer in our household...not me!

The Dirty Dozen

I have been reading and gathering information on organic foods. Even before organic was in, I wished I could have some control over what my family consumed. I wished that we didn't have to eat all the chemicals that went into our food. While I would love feed my family a completely organic diet, I cannot afford it. I have chosen a few biggies to put my money into. First on the list is organic milk. My daughter drinks the most cow milk in our family. I have switched to buying her organic milk. My son's soy milk has always been organic. I am also focusing on the dirty dozen list of produce. The list is formulated by measuring the amount of chemicals absorbed by the fruit and vegetable and ranking them. Then it is curved. Peaches take in the most pesticides. They are given a score of 100. They do not take in 100% of pesticides, but they do take in the most if any fruit or vegetable, which is why they are given that score. The rest are ranked on the curve started by giving the peach a score of 100.
The dirty dozen are as follows:
1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Kale
9. Lettuce
10. Grapes (from outside the USA)
11. Carrots
12. Pears
There is a complete listing found here: http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nutrition/a/pesticides.htm



I am hoping that my garden yields some good veggies this summer. I love that I grew it and I know what went into the soil and onto the plants. The plants are huge thanks to late spring rains. I have about 12 green tomatoes and 4-5 cucumbers. I am watching the zucchini squash, acorn squash and green beans. They all have flowers. Last year my squash did not pollinate. I've seen lots of bees buzzing through the garden, so I'm hopeful. My okra plants are not doing well this summer. I have planted twice. I have about 5 plants after planting about three dozen seeds.

Ouch, the Slide Bites!

As my children played in our backyard last night, my husband and I heard an ear piercing scream from our son. My kitchen window faces the backyard. Everything was fine when I peeked out to check the kids the second before. My husband was outside watching the kids, but stepped inside for a moment. He hurried outside and met my son in the yard. My son was holding his hand and saying, "my hand got hurt, I put my hand under the slide and it got hurt." His hand was red and swelling quickly. After I took my screaming child from my husband, he peeked under the slide and discovered a small yellow jacket nest. He killed the nest by dousing it in wasp killer while I tended to my son.

I wanted to put some ice on his rapidly swelling hand. We have a cute ice pack that the kids love, but my daughter had used it earlier in the day, so it was not frozen. I started to grab a bag of frozen corn, when my husband discovered something far better. Earlier in the day, my husband mistakenly froze a coke. I poured the thawed part into a glass for myself just minutes before our drama unfolded. My husband took the can with the remaining frozen slush and handed it to my son and let him drink it. Holding the partially frozen can served two purposes, it was ice to his hand and sweet goodness to his mouth. The sweet goodness distracted him from the pain. Drinking a cherry coke is an extreme treat at our house considering the sweetest stuff he ever gets to drink is watered down apple juice. After a few minutes, he reported to us that his hand was all better. I gave him Benadryl right after he came in screaming. I followed up with Tylenol following his declaration of "all better." After examining his hand we discovered 3 possibly 4 strings.
We proceeded with dinner. During dinner my son started getting very groggy. By this time, he was feeling the full effects of the Benadryl. At one point, he kept trying to tell me something. It sounded like, "I want to take the mmm...to bed". He repeated it over and over. I responded to him, "Son, I don't know what you are trying to say." To which he replied, "I don't know what I'm trying to say either." He finished dinner, crawled into my arms and fell asleep.

I checked on him several times during the night. The swelling did not get any worse. By this morning, the swelling was significantly reduced. We asked him several times today if his hand hurt and he continued to tell us it was fine. We are very thankful he was not severely allergic to bee strings. We also thankful that his pain seemed to be short lived. Lastly, we are thankful for a partially frozen can of cherry coke on the counter that makes everything "all better."