New hard drive

Out with the old, in with the new--except, boy, do I miss the old! My old hard drive had all sorts of stuff I loved on it! The old hard drive is still at the shop, although the new one is here and functional. The fellow at Computers 4 Less who installed the new hard drive after the BSoD appeared said he thought he might be able to recover some stuff from the old drive, but it was a sloooooooow process. He is going to give me a call after a few days with an update.

What do I miss off the old hard drive? Well, I miss the mail program I had. I still have access to my gmail account by going through Google, so I am not without email. However, I've lost the mail folders I had in the old program, in particular the one that chronicled Cora's and Cohen's births and growth through emails from their mama. I also had one like that for Jennifer, Ann, Everett, and Sam, in addition to some folders of other folks' kids and grandkids. Another miss, my humor/inspiration folder, where I stored neat emails and funnies I got from friends.

I miss my pictures. God knows how many pictures I had stored on here--all stored by Geron, of course, with some I received on email and added by just clicking on copy to gallery. The only problem with that was, I had no idea how to access the gallery, unless someone emailed me a picture and it just opened up. I'm guessing that gallery was somewhere on my old hard drive--boohoo, boohoo.

I miss the folders I had in Word, the "old lady's pocket book, geezer gear, honeymoon survival kit, and Daddy's diaper duty kits", the bazillion recipes (including the popcorn-stuffed chicken), the scriptures for Easter eggs, all the little stuff I used once in a while but will now have to recreate...what a drag!

And then we get to the bookmarks! I don't know if they can be recovered--maybe they don't need to be. But still--there's a potload of good websites marked there! The only blogs I have right now are the ones that are listed on the left of my blog page and ones I can access by going to those folks' blogs. That can get old after a while, I think, but I may be able to get a few of them back on here. I do hope so!

Last and least, I miss my solitaire and minesweeper. I've been wasting my time in other ways, like doing paperwork, studying my Sunday School lesson, and reading. How uplifting. I did get on Bejeweled Blitz today far too long, but it'd had been a while, folks, and I missed it!

But now I'm back, and aren't you all glad? Please write me and give me your blog address, if you don't mind. I guess I'll start a new blog folder! Love to all, and God bless!

Wacka Wacka Jing Ding?

When my children were still at home, it was a fad to wear a bracelet with the letters WWJD on it. I have a really pitiful habit of making things up, so bear with me when I tell you what I called those, "Wacka wacka jing ding?" bracelets.

I think more and more of us need to think about those bracelets and maybe start wearing something like them again. I was talking about them to David this morning, chuckling over the nickname, which I hadn't thought of in several years. Probably many of you know that WWJD actually stands for "What would Jesus do?" David, for sure the spiritual head of our house (well, second in command to God, of course), said, "That's not the important question. The important question is, 'What would I do if I realized Jesus were here in my presence?' And the reason is because He is! Amen!"

There are so many times we have a dilemma as to whether or not to do something which is acceptable, either way you look at it. This week I was supposed to go for a consultation with a local doctor concerning a surgery I need but is not life-threatening. Finally, the morning of the consultation, I decided to cancel the appointment. I believe my decision was influenced by the prayers of friends. After I canceled the appointment, I called my GP and asked for his recommendation for a surgeon for the procedure (which I know I should have done in the beginning). He gave me one, and it was not the doctor I had been scheduled to see--nor was it the one I had considered going to for a second opinion! Now I feel relatively comfortable that I made the right decision and have scheduled an appointment with Doctor #3. So much for removing myself from "the horns of the dilemma", which is a nasty place to be.

I don't know if the WWJD bracelet would have influenced my opinion or not. I did seriously think about the impact my cancellation might have on that particular doctor. For one thing, I am reasonably sure he is not a Christian, since he is from a country where Christians are a very small minority--maybe less than 2% of the population. He sees me on a regular basis, and he has already performed some surgery for me, surgery which I feel was successful, and I have referred friends to him. I will continue to go to him after this surgery, so he will know that I had it done. I wonder how I am going to explain to him that I chose to have someone else do the surgery.

These dilemmas are encountered every day. Do I shop here? Do I buy this? Do I allow my child to participate in that activity? Do I punish my child for something she thought was acceptable but I didn't approve? What would Jesus do? More importantly, what would I do if I realized I was in Jesus's presence? For I am! So I guess what I need is a "WWIDIIRIWIJP?" bracelet.

Love to all, and God bless.

Pictures from the build

I'm going to take the lazy man's way out on this, but mainly because of a camera "disaster". The first day on site, June 3, my water bottle leaked all over everything in my tote bag, including the camera. It isn't working yet, but I have hopes.

For those of you who are interested, here's a link to the official pictures. I hope you enjoy. Rather than going through all 500+ of them at one time, you might just want to look at page 1 and page 9 to see how we we went from a concrete block foundation to a pretty little house in just a little over 8 days. Love to all, and God bless.

We got back Saturday.

That's enough for now--I'll actually post something later. Love to all, and God bless.

We're leaving tomorrow.

Update: I worked with Vic and Geneva at Feed the Hungry today. Geneva thinks she is going to be able to go, after all--we're all glad to hear that!

David and I had a great time last summer participating in Extreme Build. There's probably a post about it in July 2008, somewhere. We enjoyed it so much, we wanted to do it again--which explains why we're leaving tomorrow.

Tomorrow afternoon we are going to McCreary County, Kentucky, to build a house with other folks for a family we don't know. The house is for a single mother with two sons, one of whom still lives at home. She managed to purchase a lot in the country near Whitley City, and her house will be built there. This week, June 3-5, is what they call the prebuild week, when the subfloor is installed and walls are built. Much of the work will begin in earnest on Saturday, June 6, when the walls are raised and the roof is installed.

Beginning on Monday, folks will be doing interior work (if all goes according to plans). There will be plumbers, electricians, plasterers, dry-wall hangers, people installing siding, and painters all over the place. Hopefully by the Saturday after next, June 13, the house will be ready for its new owners to move in.

David was a carpenter for 20 years before he began work at Toyota, and he dearly loves carpentry work. He has taken 10 days of vacation in order to participate. He is a team leader when the majority of the volunteers are there, June 5-13, but just a regular carpenter the rest of the time. He loves the work, the people, the area...and I love him. That's why we're going.

We will be living in a motel from June 2-June 13. Starting on June 5, almost all our meals will be communal. Our days will be long, hot, dirty, but very rewarding. Also again this year, we will have our son Everett there with us, from the 5-13th. That has been a great experience for us.

I'd like for you all to pray for Extreme Build. Here are some specifics:

1. That the weather will be cooperative. That matters really more for the first part of the build, when the roof isn't on the place, but we would love to have temperatures more near 80 than 100, like we had last year.
2. That David's health will hold up. Last year he had some serious problems with heat exhaustion (see above), before I started making a conscious effort to keep him hydrated and full of potassium.
3. That the other workers from our church will have a good experience. We have our good friend Gina Whittle going with us. Gina is a teacher in Scott County, married to Kenny, and the mother of a really neat girl, Taylor. Last year the entire family went. This year, Kenny was unable to get vacation time, so he and Taylor are staying home. Our other local team member, Vic Carr, is pushing 90. He's a great guy, and an example and role model for all the folks on the team. Please try to lift him up in prayer every day, as the work is hard on him, but he will NOT give up and quit going. This is at least his third trip to the Extreme Build. The other two years his wife, Geneva, went with us, but this year she doesn't feel up to the trip.
   
4. That we all get along. When we're living out of a motel room (well, three rooms when the other folks show up), tempers can raise their ugly heads. We need to learn to live together as a family, God's family, and this is one good way for us to practice doing this.

Well, I have a bunch of things to do today, since we're leaving tomorrow, and part of the day is occupied with a trip to Lexington for Feed the Hungry--that will take three hours or more. Sometime I'll have to tell you all about that.

Love to all, and God bless!

Memorial Day

I'm not much into schmaltz. However, I thought this link from my cousin Gayle was beautiful. It gave me goose bumps. Of course, I've always been a sucker for bagpipes.

We also went to McDonald's.

Yesterday I told you about going to Chattanooga to visit Cohen and Cora and their folks. Wednesday of last week was their anniversary. I took care of the kids that night while Lydia and Geron went on a date--according to Geron, the first date they'd had since Cohen was born! I contemplated ordering a pizza for supper, but instead decided to take the kids to McDonald's.

I told you in yesterday's blog about the difficulties of getting Cohen into that car seat--a bowling ball with legs (and chubby ones, at that). Cora wasn't so hard, since she no longer is in a five-point harness. About three or four miles into the trip, Cora started wondering where Mommy/Daddy were. I told her they were on a date, but we were going to McDonald's. McDonald's wasn't exactly where I remembered it, and I guess the ride seemed a little long to her. She got excited when she saw "my McDonald's".

She was really good about not running away from me in the parking lot, which was helpful, since I had to haul the bowling ball and his diaper bag (which seemed to weigh almost as much as he did). Ordering was not a problem, finding a table was not a problem, trying to figure out what to do about the drinks was a little more challenging, but still not a problem. The first problem arose when, true to form, two minutes into the meal, Cora announced, "I need to go potty." As we say at our house, strange terlet syndrome. So I hauled Cohen out of the high chair, grabbed my purse, and took them to the bathroom. She really didn't need to go, which was good, because I sort of had my hands full with her brother.

She had chicken McNuggets. The McDonald's had a play area. I told her she had to eat her McNuggets before she could go to the play area. She cooperated and ate the two she had on the table. Then she crawled on the floor and picked up the other two that she had dropped down there. I stopped her before she ate them. She got her straw off the floor and stuck it back in her cup before I caught her on that. Anyway, the meal was over, so we went to the play area.

She seemed just a little hesitant at first about climbing around with the other kids, but pretty soon I spotted her feet coming out of one of the tunnel slides. She seemed contented, the kids who were there were playing nicely, and I just smiled and basked in being the grandma of two extra cute little kids. A little girl younger than Cora came over to me pretty soon pushing a high chair, which I figured was for Cohen. I thanked her but kept him in my lap.

We planned to go from McDonald's to their church for the Wednesday evening service and children's activities. About twenty minutes before time for the service to start, I decided to call Cora out of the play area. She was nowhere in sight, which puzzled me, but I figured she was in a tube slide and would pop out in a minute. After waiting for a couple of minutes, I spotted her up at the top of the tower, with a little boy not a lot older than her holding onto her legs. He wasn't going to let her go. She didn't seem upset at all. I called up to him to let her go--he stared at me for about half a second and let go of her. Pretty soon she had climbed down and we were ready to leave.

On the way out the door with bowling ball (who can be pretty slippery at times), the diaper bag, and Cora, I realized my pants had come untied. Cohen was wiggling and kicking, and the danger of losing the pants appeared to be imminent. I had no clue what to do, since both hands were pretty much involved holding on to kids. Somehow I got a grip on them with the baby hand, and we made it into the car. Then I got the bowling ball buckled up, tied my pants back up, got Cora into the car, and decided I would NEVER go to McDonald's with them by myself again--at least not until Cohen is the one who says "I need to go potty".

Love to all, and God bless.

We went to Dollar General

Last Tuesday I drove to Chattanooga to see the grandbabies. It was a great trip, all around. The driving was good--I only got lost once, and that was on the way home when I wasn't paying attention to road signs and missed a turn on TN 61. I even made it through the two roundabouts in Chattanooga on the first try! Everyone seemed to be reasonably healthy, we weren't too rushed, the babies were beautiful...

Wednesday, I kept both children all day by myself. This was the first time I had ever attempted that, and it was a very good day. Actually, Geron had Cohen part of the day--he took him to the doctor in the morning and was gone less than an hour. While he was gone, Cora and I went to Dollar General. Of all the things we did, I think Cora enjoyed that the most.

Highlights of the babysitting day for me:

• Actually having both children asleep at the same time for their afternoon naps! Cohen woke up crying once, so I took him into the living room and held him while I watched Days (my favorite soap).
  
• Fixing lunch for Cora--we took a look at the fridge, and she picked "leaf" for her lunch. For the uninitiated, that was a salad, spinach and baby lettuce. I asked her what kind of "ketchup" she wanted on it. She spotted the container of sour cream, and insisted that was what she wanted. I put some on her salad. We sat there while she tried it. Then she pushed it away and said, "I don't like this, it's not good." Well, duh, I could have told her that!
• Going outside in the afternoon to play for a few minutes. It was a little bit of a hassle to get them out the door, since I was taking Cohen's walker. He got all excited when he saw his shoes--I'm not sure why, but he really was jumping around. Once we were out in the back yard, I put him in his walker on the driveway. He showed me how different he was from his sister by taking off like a streak down the extremely gradual incline of the driveway. After chasing him down, I put him and the walker on the grass. He really liked the driveway better, but the grass was okay.
  
• Figuring out how to get Cohen into his carseat. His mom said I didn't have him far enough in the seat, but I think it's just really, really hard to get a five-point harness on a bowling ball with legs!

When Cora and I were reviewing for her mama what we had done, the highlight of the day for her was the trip to Dollar General. I'm glad that she'll have that memory. Love to all, and God bless.

Birdie, part 3, and other stuff

My bird is healing. I've stopped wearing a bandage, stopped using the antibiotic ointment, and stopped treating it like an invalid. Of course it is ugly, but it works for all purposes, including letting folks know that I'm angry.

Life is good. I had a pretty busy week, lots of volunteer stuff. Monday was Hispanic Initiative and a lecture on bed bugs--seems one of the Hispanics had a problem with them, and one of our board members felt we all needed to know how to treat the problem if it arose again. Tuesday, BW's circle meeting at church and a shopping trip to Kohl's, where I probably tried on 12 garments before finally leaving with a pair of capri pants. Wednesday, the entire day in Louisville with hospital auxiliary volunteers for a conference--the highlights of the trip were the rides to and from Louisville. I met a couple of fascinating people, both volunteers at the local hospital: a woman whose husband had been a couterie (I sure hoped I spelled/got the right word there) for stage productions on Broadway in New York--I hope that word means fashion designer; and a very nice Black woman who could trace her family lineage back to slavery--it was almost like riding with Alex Haley to listen to her talk. Thursday, the final day of Friendship for the year--I'm really going to miss it. I made friends with a sweet lady who was the nahneh (Chinese for grandmother, I think) of a great little kid called Charlie. Last week, she brought me a little red silk pouch which I decided was probably a necklace, and I wore it on Thursday. I bought her a small cross magnet with some sort of quote on it about friends being a blessing. She was very touched, but not as touched as I had been the week before. I am going to miss those folks this summer! Friday, another auxiliary meeting and gym class, then a lot of just plain loafing!

Did anyone watch the Preakness? I thought it was really neat that both Rachel Alexandra and Mine the Bird were in the money at the end of the race. Mine the Bird is so impressive with his last-minute runs--he actually got within a half length of Rachel Alexandra, after she had led the entire race! It was terrific to see him coming from so far back--nothing got in his way. I really love racing, during the Triple Crown, but the rest of the year, I don't care beans about it. I've only been to two live races, both harness races, and I won money at both of them. (Not much--don't church me! $2 bets on the favorite to show doesn't exactly make you rich, but you do get to cash in tickets!)

Next week is going to be busy, too. I'm heading for Chattanooga on Tuesday to see Cora's end-of-the-year school program, then staying over until Thursday so I can give Geron and Lydia a night out on the town. I do love the grandbabies, and apparently Mr. Cohen is mobile now, not stationary, so it will be interesting. He's also talking, saying "da da", at least.

I hope you all are having some great weeks! Love to all, and God bless.

My bird (part 2)

Thios ios a continuation of the previous postk, about my poor bird.

I went to see Dr B today at 9:15 for a procedure to see what is going on with Birdl. He numbed my finger, whi9ch was by far the most painful part of the procedure. Then he left me alone in the procedure room with my book for at least half an hour or longer to allow the numbing medication to work. I got several chapters into High Fiovekl by Janet Evanovich, whoich was probably the best part of the morning. I( also got to talk to my cousin Martha for a few minutes, a pleasant way to pass the ti9me,l amd made plans to attend a shower for her frst grandbaby this-coming Saturday.

When Dr B finally got back into the room, he called for a backup nurse and directed her to wrap a rubber band around my finger. Then he proceded to remove a portion of the nail bed and poke and prod around there until he finally located just what he suspected, a synovi9al cyst in the joint. He removed a portion of that for lab analyss, bandaged me up and removed the rubber band.

Now I'm sitting here with a rather bulky bandage on bird over the top of a more reasonable band aid--he was just going to put the band aid on it, but I compalined, and he wrapped iot up more impressively. By Monday or Tuesday we should hear from the biopsy, which we assume wll be just fine. Then in about a month, if the nail has starightedned out, he figures this episode will be over. If not, he figures he'll be sending me to a hand doctor to let them do anything else that may need doing.

I'm trying to milk as much sympathy as I can out of this finger, which is currently gi9ving me no pa8ingl--oauib--pauib, not hurting. It's just hard to type. Love to all, and God bless.

Let me tell you about my bird

No, it's not a pet bird. For a few brief moments last week, I thought maybe I might have a pet bird in the making. See, I saw a pretty blue robin's egg on the grass under our pear tree. God had been hiding Easter eggs for me to find! Unfortunately, the egg was cracked, so there went my pet robin.

The bird I'm talking about is the bird finger on my right hand, you know, the one you put up in the air when you're upset with your teacher or when someone cuts you off in traffic, or when you're just really mad in general. My bird is sick.

I had a doctor's appointment about two months ago. When such visits are uneventful, as that one was, I tend to forget when they were. Anyway, before the appointment, I had been noticing a change in the nail on that one finger. For one thing, it had a pronounced vertical ridge in it. For another, there was a white streak the length of the nail. So while I was seeing the doctor anyway, I decided to ask him if the changes were anything I needed to be concerned about.

He took a look at it and said, "Hmmmm, that's interesting." Then he said, "If there's anything you don't want to be to your doctor, it's interesting." He really didn't have any idea what was causing the ridge or the color variation, but neither of us were particularly concerned, especially me, after he said he didn't know of any serious condition for which it might be a symptom. Then a little later, I read an article on line where someone was talking about a vertical ridge in their nail, and they had patched it with super glue, and all seemed to be well. Several folks wrote in to comment that they had the same thing--aaah, a common problem! And someone even went far enough to say that ridges in fingernails were like wrinkles in faces. Not to worry.

Then things changed. For one thing, the joint below that nail got sore. For another, a red place developed, in the area right below the nail. And then last week, the nail started to separate from the nail bed. So finally on Wednesday, I called and made another doctor's appointment, just to talk about my fingernail.

This time I saw a different doctor, and he spent a few minutes poking, prodding, and hmmming over the nail (and finger). Then he said, "There's something under that nail, causing the problem. I suspect a cyst on the joint." Yuk. Then he said, "What I think I need to do is numb your finger, remove a piece of the nail right here (and pointed to the moon area), open this area up (pointing to the red area), and see what's down there." Yuk. Yuk. "Then if there's pus, we'll drain it out. And if there's something that we need to biopsy, I'll take a piece of it and send it off." Yuk. Yuk. Yuk.

So next Wednesday, if you see me walking around with my middle finger in the air (wearing a big bandage, I assume), you'll know why. It doesn't sound like fun.

Everyone go take a look at your birds and make sure they look normal to you. Love to all, and God bless.

Has it been long enough?

I got an email recently entitled "enough". I'm sure many of you have seen it, since it's made the rounds plenty of times. The gist of the email is that one person wishes another enough. I like that concept, just enough--not too much, because that can cause problems, not less than enough--just enough. Is this enough of a post? Probably not.

Life recently has been good enough. My health and David's has been good enough (at least as far as we know). We've had enough food, enough time, enough friends, enough money, enough heat, enough joy, enough trauma, enough rain, enough sun, enough of everything.

Of course we could still want more, but then would we be satisfied? I doubt it. I think I even have enough satisfaction right now.

And now I think I've written enough. Love to all, and God bless.

Dogku

This was composed in honor of my son.

Bark bark bark bark bark
Bark bark bark bark bark bark bark
Bark bark bark bark crap.

So what's new?

For starters, I got hooked on Facebook (thank you so much, children) and spend WAAAAAAAAAAAY more time there than I do on my blog now (poor deserted thing). It's all right, though, I believe this inanimate blog will forgive me! (How's that for an oxymoronic idea?)

On to life in general...It's been good. I had something that resembled a cold while the rest of the county was running around with something that resembled the flu. It looks like we are all recovering, and I didn't have to go see a doctor; I only opened a new box of Kleenex. It's starting to look like my mother's house here now, with boxes of tissues in every room. I also had a visit to the dentist that did not go without trauma--while the hygienist was flossing my teeth after the cleaning, she managed to flip the back off a Lumineer on one of my front teeth. The dentist was able to replace it that day, but, with the exception of the wonderful gas, that was an experience I DON'T want to repeat anytime soon--and then I had to have a filling (I got that yesterday). Yuck.

Family news around here is mixed. My cousins in Louisville are doing well. Cousin-in-law Dexter celebrated his 91st birthday the other day (the birthday was the 3rd, and we celebrated on the 6th). That was a good time for all involved. ReeRee, another Louisville cousin, was with her son when his new daughter came into the world the next day.

Aniel seems to be fine. We got to spend Valentine's Day weekend with them, which involved a road trip somewhere looking for shoes plus an entire day shopping. We also got a chance to visit with their friends Santosh, Dora, and Grace (they have a fourth family member now, beautiful Gloria). Aniel and the royal family are leaving on vacation today to Gulf Shores (more specifically, Orange Beach), and I hope theyall have a fantastic time!

The royal family is okay. We spent the weekend of the first Sunday of Lent at the palace. The Wee One is wonderful and performing all sorts of tricks, such as eating anything you put on a spoon--except mashed potatoes! (Go figure.) The Princess informed me this week, "Granny, I have to have surgery." (Big word for a two year old, isn't it?) When I asked her why, she replied, "My ears are broke." She has frequent ear infections and has had a lot of antibiotics this winter, so the ENT suggested removal of her adenoids, as well as replacement of tubes. Her mom said Co failed her first and only hearing test to date. David and I had suspected her hearing was not good when we were visiting--what family took as terrible two stubbornness, we saw as perhaps a hearing impairment. The doctor thinks the impairment will vanish after the surgery, and that's our prayer, too.

Update on Cora's ears and hearing from Lydia: She has had hearing exams before at the ENT's office and has passed them. The doctor said the reason she probably failed this recent one was because she'd had a recent infection and probably still had fluid on her ears. He has NOT diagnosed her as having a hearing impairment. Following her surgery, she will have routine tests done over the next couple of months to check her hearing. We are expecting them to be fine and for her to pass them. I have a hard time believing a little girl who can sing in key and keep the melody going could have a hearing impairment. Also, for someone who is two and can say Chattnooda, I'd say she does pretty well. I may be in denial, but I really don't think that is the case.

Bubba received rotten news at a meeting yesterday at TIU. The recession has finally hit too close to home, and his job disappeared. Fortunately, he got six-weeks' pay and two-months' coverage of his COBRA benefits, but the job that he loved, the one that was created just for him, is no more. He is in mourning. He has no plans right now, other than to clean out his office. He figures he'll get around to planning later. Jokingly, his father suggested on Thursday (before the Friday meeting), that he might want to think of ministry to the homeless! What was funny on Thursday is too close for comfort on Friday and Saturday.

Future plans for Monkey Mama include a trip to Chattanooga to care for the Princess after her surgery. The surgery will be March 25, and I know prayers will be appreciated. We've been told she will be back at full throttle in two or three days--I would predict two or three hours, if that long. The child has only two gears: overdrive and park. That should be fun.

The week that includes April Fool's Day, David will be home on vacation. We have guests coming in from Minnesota/Chicago that week for three days (Monday-Thursday). We're going to put up some nails around the computer room and hang 1 medium-sized and 2 little boys from the nails--I need to tell their mommy to be sure and dress them in overalls so that we don't put holes in their shirts! I figure we can turn the port-a-crib over on top of the two-year-old girl to contain her. Then we can put the parents in the guest room and poor Bubba on the couch, which is where he usually ends up when he comes down anyway. It looks like a good time is in the works!

Nearly forgot! I had a birthday! Thanks to all the friends from facebook who sent greetings. In addition, I got to work at Friendship that morning and spent considerable time with a little fellow named Charlie. That afternoon, I got to work at the front desk at the hospital with my second-Thursday pal, Frances, and that was enjoyable. David took me out to supper at our favorite Chinese restaurant Thursday night, and when our bill came, the bill was missing! The owners had treated us. Very, very nice! That evening I had phone calls from all my children, my grandchildren, and two of my adopted children, which was great. I got a video of the Princess singing happy birthday and a second video of Sippy's class wishing a happy birthday to "Mrs. Brown's mom." And of course there were cards...An absolutely wonderful day, folks!

I hope this sort of catches you up with what has been going on with me. Love to all, and God bless.

Back to Judas...and temptation

I think I'm going to start looking for references to Judas in the New Testament. My faulty memory tells me that, other than when the disciples are listed by name, we don't know that we encounter him, except at the Lord's supper and the betrayal.

I wonder why it has been so hard to accept the fact that Satan could enter into a follower of Christ. Satan tempted Christ Himself. He tempts us all, each and every day. I thought back to the first mention of temptation, when Satan tempted Eve. Remember how she told him that they had been forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Up until that moment, everything they had done had been good, no question about it--because they didn't have a clue what "good" meant! Everything in that garden was put there for their benefit and enjoyment. God had given them one rule--just one. "Don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Until that moment, there had been no reason for 10 commandments, Mosaic law, or codes of Hammurabi--that was it. One rule.

And Eve broke it. Why? Because Satan tempted her into using her human brain (also a gift of God, by the way) to try to think through a situation that didn't need thought. She did not need to think about this, folks. God told her, very simply, "Don't do it." But just like a child, she had to try to figure out WHY God had told her this, and WHY shouldn't she do it. She probably already had learned that if you ate too many kumquats, you didn't feel good the next day--natural consequences. If you ate too many persimmons, you couldn't whistle. If you took a nap in the poison ivy--oh, wait, maybe there wasn't any poison ivy in the garden. So Eve probably already knew a few things she shouldn't do.

But this one thing that God had told her she MUST not do--that was a different matter. 'I wonder why I shouldn't do that. I wonder what that fruit makes you do. It looks good--I've recovered from the kumquats and the persimmons--I didn't die. And then Satan told me, surely I won't die--what's death, anyway?' And Eve chose (remember she had the freedom to choose--she probably chose to eat that last kumquat that day) to eat of the tree. Her curiosity got the better of her. And then she told Adam to try it. And he chose to do that.

So why is it difficult to believe that a Christ-follower couldn't be tempted? We don't know the specifics of Judas' temptation, like we do about Christ and Eve. Think, folks. There are ways that we as Christ-followers could be tempted to do what Satan suggests. What if he were told that by the betrayal, he could further Christ's kingdom? Remember, he knew those scriptures...or at least he may have. He probably had at least heard that the Christ must be betrayed, that the Christ must die...and he may not have come to grasp the fact that Christ's kingdom would not be earthly. I believe there might have been a way that I could have been tempted...how about you? Talk amongst yourselves, and share your thoughts on this. Love to all, and God bless.

SS Sidetrack of the day

Okay, today's lesson was on John 17, the prayer of Jesus after the last supper. We started discussing Judas Iscariot, and what was his final outcome. I guess I might have been under the impression that Judas would be burning in Hell through all eternity for actually betraying the Son of God.

Then I started to think about Judas' part in Jesus's ministry. He is seldom mentioned by name when Jesus is talking about the disciples, yet we know he was one of the twelve. When Jesus commissioned the twelve to go out and witness, Judas went with them. Judas was there when Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, he was there when Jesus fed the five thousand, he was there when Jesus calmed the angry storm...He witnessed a lot of healings, casting out of demons, saw the money changers driven from the temple...

Do you suppose that Judas made a u-turn after he betrayed Jesus? We know that he took the 30 pieces of silver back to the temple and attempted to return it. When the priests wouldn't accept it, he flung it on the floor and then went out and killed himself. Many of us have heard of death-bed confessions; the thief on the cross was told that he would be in Paradise with Jesus. Some of Jesus's last words were "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." I wonder if Judas might have been one of those folks Jesus was asking God to forgive.

Just a sidetrack, but it left us wondering today. Love to all, and God bless.

My chance to help

I just got an opportunity to help an African orphan! My daughters' friends, the Prossers, are in the process of adopting a little girl from Africa. They have a pretty novel idea on how to start raising money for airline tickets--I'm going to help them with this. You might want to check out this link and see if you could possibly help, too. Love to all, and God bless.

Tonight's insight

I've been having a problem lately with internet stories that I hear and can't follow up. These aren't the urban legend stuff, but rather stories about particular children or families who have been affected by tragedy, much like the Australian blogger who had been separated from her husband by the horrific wildfires down there.

Tonight at supper, I talked for a while to our youth pastor's wife. She and her husband just adopted a child from China. I've been following their story on their blog, as well as from updates we receive at church. Recently she posted a link to pictures of other children in China who are awaiting adoption. I wanted to adopt them all! She said she knew how I felt.

I told her about a blog post I had seen with a link to a video about a couple of small children in Africa. These children had polio, which had left them paralyzed from the waist down. They were just lying in the sun, on the dirt, in the middle of a very small village. No one seemed to be interested in them or their needs. Then a third child, who appeared to be a little older than the two, showed up with a bucket of water. She had walked over two miles to fetch back some water so that she could bath the two children, who were her brother and sister. She carefully washed them and then put their clothes back on them.

The folks who made the video found out that this older child was only 8 years old. Why she was the one who was responsible for the care of these children, we don't know. What they did at night, if they had a home where they were taken in, we don't know. The film crew were investigating the details and were going to see to the care of the children. I told my son in law about this video this past weekend. He said there were many children like that in his home country.

Folks, my heart is hurting from seeing stories like these. I told the pastor's wife that sometimes I think the internet is a curse! I get worried about these little folks, and there is NOTHING I can do for them. So very, very sad. She told me she felt internet was useful, as it allowed us to know about things like this--and maybe there was something we could do.

Then, at prayer time, I had what I call a revelation. By feeling so helpless in this situation, I was limiting the power of God. I felt God could only do what I was able to help him do, that if I could not help him physically in this situation, there was nothing He could do. Me, the one who is always talking about how we mustn't limit God to our human abilities! It dawned on me that when I prayed for these children, God used my prayers to help them. He found workers around them, much like the big sister with the bucket of water and the film crew, to meet their needs. Maybe the reason I am seeing all these things now is that God wants me to be more of a prayer warrior and NOT to doubt His ability to meet the needs of His children!

Anyway, that's my take on the matter. I still want to know what happened to the woman in Australia, the children in Africa, and if the children in China will be adopted, but I also know that I can pray for them and all the other little children and hurting folks in the world. That the power of prayer is much greater than my human appreciation of it.

I will keep praying, and never doubt God. Love to all, and God bless.

Afghanistan

If you're wondering about the purpose of sending troops into Afghanistan, read Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. I just finished them last month, and they have changed my thinking in a big way.

A prayer request from Australia

It's not a small world, is it? So much going on, so many folks suffering...Today I was skimming through my email and opened a letter from a quilting site. There was an interesting link, showing a pyramid doorstop--nothing I was interested in making, but still, there might be something else on the woman's sight. So I clicked on home...

I guess you're like most of us, you've heard bits and pieces of news lately. I just happened to hear, this morning, about a series of wild fires in Australia. We have a little interest in Australia around here, because of David sitting on a jury that tried a case involving Australians several years ago. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the story, though.

Well, this blog with the pyramid doorstop was written by a woman in Australia, from the state where the wild fires were taking place. And she was living this experience that I had just heard about on the news. And her husband might well be one of the 130+ people who were either dead or missing. She had no news as to his whereabouts. Her eight-year-old son was with his grandparents in another city, and she was sitting close to what used to be her home, trying to stay sane, and hoping to get some word about her missing husband. I don't really think her name is important at this point, but if you want more details, here is her blog.

I am continuously amazed at the way God connects me to folks who need prayer--someone I don't know, half a world away. The poignancy of her situation really got to me as I skimmed over a few older posts and saw a picture of new coffee mugs she had just purchased a few days back, one that said Princess, another that said Stud. That day, those mugs were worthy of posting. Now I am following her blog to see if Stud is still alive.

Do you find yourself forming connections with folks around the world, folks you've never met? Love to all, and God bless.

Update: Tuesday morning, when I went to check on these folks, the blog "All it took" had been removed. I'm not sure what happened there, but I do pray that Stud was found, and that soon life will be moving toward normal for their family.