Easter Experience

God provided a unique Easter Experience for me. I wrenched my foot Saturday morning which led to an aching, painful foot by Saturday afternoon. This lead to some serious thoughts and reflections regarding the pain Jesus voluntarily submitted Himself to for my benefit and to bring Glory to God. My pain is so teeny-tiny compared to His but He uses it yet to grow my love for Him:

• Empathy for my dear friend Debby who struggles with frequent foot mishaps.
• Pain is very exhausting and clouds one's mind.
• Wrapping my foot made me reflect on the grave clothes of Jesus.
• Pain relievers were welcome; Jesus opted to not take any.
• Endurance was tested by plunging my foot in icy waters.
• Separation from others as I could not go out to church or family activities.
• Helplessness as what I used to do was now limited by my pain.
• Joy when the pain subsided and hope returned.

 Thank You, Jesus for enduring the cross and the grave.

On practical matters with foot pain:

• Follow the example of my husband  who empathized with and served me. What a blessing!
• Most work surfaces are designed for standing.
• Crawling across carpeted floors is doable but hardwood floors are not good for knees.
• An office chair on wheels is a great help (on hard floors).
• Children do not understand to be careful around hurting feet.
• Accommodate the situation. This time we changed up some celebration plans and things that demanded my attention. My parents did likewise when I was in a leg cast, at six years old. My parents placed me on a scooter board and moved the Easter Egg Hunt inside so that I could easily participate.
• Be ready to laugh at the jokes and word plays: Over breakfast the family discussed that this was an old injury that started when a woolly mammoth stepped on my foot. A church elder asked if I was "taking this injury in good stride".

Marshall Protocol: Stones of Remembrance

When I began the Marshall Protocol, I thought I would be celebrating the completion of each year but this first anniversary found me in a deep brain fog with very little energy. In fact, as it dawned on me, I had to carefully reconstruct why I am continuing on this lifestyle-changing protocol (without a specific ending point except when my body is healthy again).

So, I am setting these stones of remembrance before my eyes that I may contemplate where I was going before I started on the Marshall Protocol. My body was spiraling downwards and though I did not experience everything at one time, more of my systems were becoming involved and the symptoms indicated my body was facing increasing danger.

• Emergency room visit for irregular heart beat
• Ongoing chest pain, shortness of breath and pain in arm
• Complete cardiac workup with no indication of heart problems
• Inability to sleep; had to keep moving
• Inability to get out of bed in the morning
• Constant naps without feeling more energy
• Eyes showed defective portion at retina
• Going to bed earlier and earlier/getting up later and later
• Pain at joints and soles of feet
• Thyroid stopped functioning
• Depleted Adrenal Glands 
• Breast Lumps 
• Pancreas decreased function
• Urinary tract infections
• Unable to think clearly resulting in costly errors
• Numbness in extremities
• Exploding headaches
• Yeast infection
• Pelvic and cervical pain
• Developed early symptoms of uterine cancer (nothing there)
• Shakiness; chills; dizziness; lightheadedness
• Inability to sing due to shortness of breath
• Difficulty in talking loud enough to be heard
• Difficulty in carrying on a conversation due to limited air
• Brain Fog and lack of focus
• Increased painful sensitivity to noise and light
• Digestive issues that were painful
• Tics
• Doctors wanting to place me on anti-depressants
• Doctors saying I was blocking healing because my spiritual views were too narrow
• Friends (who were further down the road of traditional medical approaches) taking more medicines and becoming sicker.

After 18 months of the start of this symptom/medical journey a friend directed to the Marshall Protocol which takes a completely different approach to dealing with chronic illness than traditional or alternative medicines. I am grateful that the spiral has stopped. Though I still am sick, less of my body's systems are involved at any one time and never as severely. I am healing rather than just suppressing the symptoms. At times I even feel almost normal. Trevor has said that he feels he is getting his wife back.

I thank God for opening this door for us. It has not been easy and I really wanted to be further along in the program than I am but I have hope. Placing these stones of remembrance are part of reminding myself of the Red Sea (or maybe Egypt) that God has allowed me to leave by His grace and mercy. His strength is what is allowing me to walk through this wilderness of wearing dark glasses, restricting sunlight exposure, being cautious about food intake and encountering the onset of an immune response. When I look at these stones, I remember why I am on this journey. I do not want to return to Egypt.

Slow Cooker Sanity

 The elusive search for sanity takes us some unusual places. Whether you are dealing with young children, busy homeschooling, in a transitional period, or fighting a chronic illness, sanity may be found in a journey with your slow cooker.

An acquaintance nudged me in the direction of this website and I am sharing with you a recent success for our family. I enjoy Stephanie's down-to-earth approach and honest appraisals. If she says this is better to marinate the meat--do so. Her focus in on having more time as a family, hurray!

Due to my food restrictions, I have to prepare 90% of our own food. Days always go better if dinner is already on its way to completion before noon and even better if I had the energy and foresight to start the night before. So, here is one more tool for your sanity!

By the way, we like the fire aspect so we added Mongolian Fire Oil to our Orange Chicken.


http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/09/slow-cooker-orange-chicken-recipe.html

Mountains made out of Hills

I thought people understood the difference between a hill and a mountain. I was wrong.

Like other things, it is a matter of perspective. Those people who live in relatively flat areas and have not traveled much outside of those areas, see any small rise in the ground as a hill and any slightly higher rise as a mountain.

But if you grew up in the shadow of the Rockies or the Cascade Mountain Ranges, only those rises of dramatic, steep, and majestic proportion deserve the title of mountain.

I really do not care what the technical definition of a mountain is; I still think it a mountain is relative to what you are used to. We have yet to see a mountain, by our definition, in this part of the country. We have seen entire ski slopes bragged about in this area that would barely qualify as a bunny slope on our mountains.And yes, we have been to the Smoky "Mountains".

I miss mountains.

As I yearn to see my Cascades or Rockies I am thinking that our earth in some ways is a fortaste of HEAVEN. Somehow, I think the mountains I now love will be dwarfed by the mountains in the new heaven and earth. It is a matter of perspective.

Yep, coffee cups strike again

i have enjoyed some movies set in the 1940s or 1950s. Yes, it is a unique person who notes this but I saw their coffee cups. Notice, I said "cups" not mugs. These are petite (that means little and delicate) cups. Now why would I even notice except the mugs hanging under my cupboards and my pure enjoyment of ordering a latte (extra foamy) and having it served in a mug NOT a paper cup.

Being a homeschooler such an observation of course leads to experimentation. So I measured. Courtesy of my mother's housecleaning skills I have an old set of coffee cups. I filled it with tap water, so as not to waste any coffee and then measured the water: 6 ounces. That is NOT a typo. It held comfortably 6 ounces of liquid.

Now I drew out my medium-sized mug and discovered it held 12 ounces of water, twice as much as the olden days cup. Hmmmm.

My largest mug, courtesy of the USA Army, holds 16 ounces. By the way, in case you are wondering this is not just because mugs are typically made from ceramic and cups from china. At a recent bridal shower, a beautiful china coffee mug rivaled the size of my Army mug. She was not willing to swap with me.

Now it is easy for me to rationalize and say that I have no idea how many times those people in the '40s and '50s refilled their cups but I also am not going to divulge how often I refill my mug.

But it did cause me to ponder that if my view of a container of liquid is that much more in volume than previous generations, then my word picture of God filling my cup to overflowing should be that much more in abundance than those that have gone before me. Is it? Or am I increasing the capacity my heart for the things of this world? God takes my observations to an experimentation but He keeps bringing me back to the heart of the matter.