Whenever I whine

about my life I am reminded of how truly blessed my life is and how incredibly lucky I am.  I kind of had a lousy weekend...well, that's not entirely true.  I had a feeling lousy weekend.  Parts of it were nice, parts not so nice.  Basically I felt crummy and just didn't know how long it was going to last.
Last night my fever broke and I started feeling better which was a huge relief. 
But here's the thing, I get to work this morning and my boss' wife has been in the hospital all weekend.  She went in friday with an infection in her leg, it turned into her needing her gallbladder out and then by this afternoon she was having surgery on her leg b/c she was turning septic.  She is my age and has 4 children.  They don't really know what is causing the infection. 
My bout with shingles was never life threatening no matter how miserable I was. 
I am asking for prayer for my boss' wife, her name is Kim. 
And if you have a prayer request for this week, please put it in the comments or prayer requests page.
And a big thank you to all my friends who prayed for me.  It was greatly appreciated and I know it helped.  My pain wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been nor did the rash spread as far as it could have and for that I am truly grateful.

Thanks for listening...

to me whine yesterday.  Boy I was feeling sorry for myself.  But my pity party is over.  There are so many people worse off than me and I am very grateful for my overall health.
Thank you to everyone who has prayed for me and this shingles thing.  I am optimistic today that I have passed the worst of it.  My head is still hurting but not like yesterday and I think the medication has helped a ton already.
Having my husband home today for Veteran's Day was a big help.  We got to have family time and he was so great taking over the kids and cleaning up the kitchen and generally just helping me out without making me feel guilty for it.
Plus the kids are in bed early and I get to have a relaxing evening ahead of me.
Life is good.

A funny feeling

It started on one side of my head.  When I brushed my hair, it felt like I had a sunburn. By nighttime, I had a small rash developing on my forehead and I knew.  I just knew I had shingles.  I had to work today so couldn't go to the doctor but as the day progressed and I started having pain on the side of my head and a headache and weird burning/tingling/sensitivity I knew I had to go tonight.  The doctor may have been skeptical when I said I thought I had shingles but it took him about a second of looking at the rash to agree.
Maybe the fact that I am younger than most people will mean I will get over it quickly but I am sort of dreading the next few days as I am feeling it will get worse.  I think it would be better had I not seen and worked with people over the years who have had shingles.  They always say how painful it is, how long it can last and how it can come back at any time. 
Plus, I have the added benefit of it being on my head.  On my head! How crazy is that.  The MA said she has only seen it 2x before on the head.  Oh and if it goes into my eye, I can become blind.  But the doctor seemed to think that was only a remote possibility. 
Thanks for indulging me in my moping session.
I think I will take some Advil and go to bed.
(all prayers are appreciated)

Sunday School

I have been helping out in Sunday School once a month for the past couple of months.  Yesterday, the lady I normally help with was sick so our pastor's wife filled in for her.  She sort of had to throw things together (I am just the helper, just show up and try to corral kids which is not always easy!).  Yesterday she hadn't had time to prepare a Bible verse for the kids to learn.  My princess has been learning verses at school, they do it by the alphabet.  I asked her if there was a verse she knew that we could memorize as a class (she remembers them better than I).  We came up with B, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" was fitting for the lesson and easy for the kids to memorize.  I think she was so proud of herself for being able to contribute and to actually say it in front of the class.  She is my shy one so whenever I see her reaching out past her comfortable boundaries, it makes me feel happy.
Just thought I would share.  It is fun to watch my kids grow up and see the people they are becoming in this world.  Oh and listening to her sing the worship songs as she cuddled next to me brought tears to my eyes.  I love the fact that they are singing praise songs and putting the Bible into their hearts!
And please, feel free to add your prayer requests to the comments section.  I really do love praying for my friends!

Just a Reminder

If you have anything you would like prayer for, please enter it into the comments section of the prayer request page.  I do check it and I would love to pray for my friends.  I do already actually but sometimes there is a need for specific prayers.
This has not been a good day for me but I was reminded yesterday of how incredibly blessed I am.  Incredibly blessed to live in this country, to have a home, plenty of food, 3 beautiful healthy children.  Sometimes all you need is some perspective.  I see patients come to me in pain.  Sometimes it is physical pain but sometimes it is emotional pain.  I have a patient who I started seeing a couple of months ago for a fractured shoulder/joint replacement, and at the time whose husband was just diagnosed with a tumor in his leg.  I have watched this very stoic woman go from being optimistic, encouraged, supportive to being distraught and burdened by her husbands' pain.  He had radiation for 5 weeks every day then had to stop to get it out of his system before surgery next week.  She says she can see the tumor grow almost daily and her husband is really in agony while being on the strongest dose of morphine he can have.  Last week, her PCP told her he would probably have his leg amputated.  What a burden for this woman who couldn't even comb her own hair a few weeks ago. 
Why am I saying all this?  I just need to be reminded sometimes that my life is good.  And that there are people out there whose life is not so good.  And even if my life is not as good or perfect as I would like, I know God is by my side every step of the way. 
Thankfully this woman is a believer.  If you have a moment, please pray for her and her husband and the doctors who will be doing the surgery.

Honor..

thy father and  mother.  That is the 4th commandment and something we talked about at our sunday night church get together.  The pastor also talked about the 3rd Commandment: keeping the Sabbath and it was interesting because he had a lot to say about that one but the 4th was short.  It seems pretty simple right?  Especially if you are a kid (I still think of our assistant pastor as a kid, I guess I am at that age) who had amazing parents who were worth honoring and obeying.  Not that it is always easy as a young child to honor and obey but you learn when you  have good role models. 
But what happens when you don't?  When you don't really look at one or both of your parents as honorable?  Our wise mishmashmaggie had some good things to say about this.  I won't be able to say it as eloquently as she did but basically she told how her mom became a Christian because Lainie was able to honor her parents in the way God wants us to.  That's pretty amazing.  Coming from a family where I struggle to honor especially my father because of the choices he has made in his life, this was a good lesson for me.  But he is my father and I am really the only believer he is around.  I don't know if he has felt my dishonor of him but it is there, in my heart and clearly something I need to work on.  And if it is in my heart, then it might be coming out more than I realize.  Definitely something to pray about.

Sweet Surrender

     I was going to write this post last week...but last week was not a great week and actually, I am so glad I waited until after this past weekend.
     2 weekends ago, I was burnt out.  I had been taking care of my mom who had knee surgery, dealing with a bad case of vertigo, not getting enough sleep and just had too much on my place.   So when Sunday came, I was done.  You know that feeling.  Where you just want to curl up and have "me" time. 
     I should know better.  There is a difference between selfishly wanting "me" time and doing things that calm the spirit and give me the true rest that I need.
     Our church has started a study on the Ten Commandments.  It was going to be Sunday night and I did not want to go.  But I prayed that if we were to go, my husband would want to go.  (We are good at balancing out each other that way).  But I completely sabotaged it by telling him I really didn't want to go but would go if he wanted.  What exactly was he supposed to say to that?  Especially with the tone I used.  So we didn't go.  And I was miserable.  Even though he was incredibly supportive and told me we could have a relaxing evening at home.  My evening was no where near relaxing.  I could have gone and had a potluck dinner, dove more deeply into the Word, and spent time with a great bunch of people.  Instead, I rushed to cook dinner, get the kids in baths and bed and then whatever other projects I felt I had to do.  And this mood carried over into monday.  Not a good day.  Because I knew.  I knew I had disobeyed God and it is not a good feeling.
     So come Tuesday,when we had Women's Prayer group and I sort of didn't want to go (wanted some down time), I went and was completely blessed and felt blessed for the rest of my day.  Saturday came a Women's All Day Retreat.  I waivered back and forth, go all day, go part of the day, go all day, go part of the day.  But in my heart I knew, I should go all day.  So I did.  And it was amazing.  And I didn't feel harried or overwhelmed at the end of the day even though I had been gone all day.  And my kids did amazing at soccer and my husband took good care of them.
     Sunday comes and church and we are getting out of church late b/c hubby is helping break things down.  Which is great but it gets us home late and then he had to help a friend take care of a chicken who was hurt.  So we got home late and the evening thing was coming in just a few short hours.  And I didn't totally want to go, because, well, I was tired and wanted down time.  But we went.  And we ate amazing food and the kids played awesome with other kids and actually I feel made new friends.  And I learned some good lessons about the Ten Commandments.  And I felt rested.  Yes, my weekend was crazy and I got absolutely nothing done around my house and I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked but...I obeyed God, I was nourished by Him, nourished by our church body and I felt really good.  I am super tired today but I still feel like I am carrying around that peace that only comes from Him.
     Obeying God is hard sometimes but He knows so much more than us.  When we surrender to His will for our lives, it is so much easier.  Life isn't always better, but it is easier to deal with the bad stuff when you feel the peace of God.  You know you can get through it with Him at your side.