Praying for Health in 2011

Last night I had the opportunity to spend time with some precious friends.  We have all taught together at one school, and most of us are now scattered across the county at different school sites.  We have been together through marriage, divorce, birth, death, and sickness and health.  Right now, one of us is very, very ill.  The dreaded C word has invaded her body for the 2nd time.  This strong, beautiful woman has fought breast cancer, and now has stage 4 metastasized cancer in her bones and soft tissues.  She has been fighting this second round for two years now.  Brave and outwardly strong, she has fought, and planned a future for her and her girls regardless of the prognosis. 

Seeing her last night was precious time.  The laughter was medicine for all of our souls and hearts.  Playing a silly game, eating junk food, and just loving on each other all night was priceless. 

Lord,
You are Jehovah Rapha, our healer.  I pray over my beautiful friend today, that You who can do miracles will perform your healing on her body.  If it is Your will God, please keep her pain free, and able to continue to have a good quality of life while she fights this.  She will come home to You one day Lord, of this I am sure, and the angels will rejoice at her arrival.  Please be with her and sing over her and bring her peace.

While I was there, my littlIe guy, who was home with daddy, spiked a fever.  We dosed him with tylenol and it seems to have dropped.  Praying for him to be well today, too. 

My own Daddy is still fighting something we are not sure what it is, and I pray today that You will reach his heart and he will be drawn to You. 

I am not ready to lose a friend or a parent.  I know that You will never give me more than I can handle, so Your holy strength will be behind me. 

Amen

New Year, same old stuff

A picture post to come when I have more time, but until then, a few words about travel and home.

We got stuck in the north while on our trip to see my family.  Three days stuck.  Three days that I desperately needed to take care of things at home.  With me working now, it takes so much time to clean up and tidy the house.  It always seems cluttered and there is no end to laundry and dishes.   Without those three days, now we are behind even more.  It may be a new year, but the same old stresses are present every day.  Clean the house, do the dishes, feed the cats, purge the old to add the new.  There has been no time to restand relax.  Then on top of all of it, I go and severely sprain my left wrist.  It is currently in a splint, and hurts terribly.  My week off with my son suddenly becomes complicated.  GRRRR.  

Without the delay, the wrist might not have been sprained, but then my heart tells me, what else could have happened?  God has a reason for everything.  I got more time with my family and got to do a few things we otherwise wouldn't have.  So I will deal with the house in due time, and until then try to enjoy the week with my sweet baby boy. 

Working on things...

Resolutions in the new year have never been my strong point.  I am also not a very good writer or am I very disciplined in anything but checking my email and facebook daily, oh and daily showers and teeth brushing of course.  With those things said, I am trying hard to create a space for me here on this blog to be creative and maybe vent out a few things or just speak what is on my mind in writing and photographs.  I am going to try for weekly posts. I have one follower, which I just found about two weeks ago, and I am hoping that there might be more in the future.  We shall see how this goes.  Once a week isn't too daunting....right??

Finding Hope

When my little man was born, I found myself in the midst of the baby blues.  I had everything I ever wanted, a wonderful husband, a beautiful son, and I felt so melancholy.  To me, I should have been jumping up and down with joy and giggling with giddyness at the situation.  Instead I was drowning in anxiety and worry about everything.  Can I really take care of this child?  Will my husband still love me post-baby?  What if he gets sick? What if I get sick?  What if, what if, what if..... all the day long.  I cried out to God, asking why me?  Why?  I tried to put on a brave face for Mr. Reese, but eventually it just came crumbling down.  In those moments I held on tightly to God and my loving husband, waiting to see the doctor to find out just what was going on.  On arrival to the Dr.'s office, I was reassured that all would be well, and that this post partum depression would only be temporary.  Meds perscribed, filled and taken, and within a week, I was doing much better.  I had hope that there would be and end to the heavy, wet blanket that had been thrown over my fire.   My husband and I began to pray that I would be able to overcome this and be victorious.  Six months later I was able to slowly wean off the meds, and am back to my old self, with some new stuff thrown in for good measure.  Child of God, Wife, Mommy, Daughter, Sister, Friend.  

needs and wants

Ok, so this being my first blog post of my own, I am a bit nervous.  What if I can't write my thoughts so that even when I look back and read them, I can understand them!  I have never been good at journalling.  I teach writing for pete's sake, but can't seem to produce when I am writing my own thoughts. 
So....here goes!
I have been thinking lately about things I want to do.  Not things that I NEED to do, but things I WANT to do.  There are major differences between needs and wants.  In the past few months, being off of work and taking care of my little guy, I have learned that there are things that just have to take a backseat.  Those are the wants.  I need to feed my family, need to make sure my son is clothed and has a clean diaper and is happy.  I want to craft, to sew, to take walks and peruse the shelves at the local bookstore until my eyes burn, but there have to be priorities.  The house needs to be tidied, the clothes washed, etc.  I want to spend time with my son and play with him and teach him things, that to me is a need to do, but it is often trumped by those pesky chores at home.  So then I don't do the chores, and Mr. Reese comes home and the house isn't clean and laundry not done and "oh, what did you do all day?"   How do moms out there balance it all? 

I have to go back to teaching in the fall, due to those things that we need to do, like pay the bills.  I so desperately want to stay home with my little man, but can't.  Then the thought of going back to work, coming home each night to take care of cooking, cleaning, feeding the family, and then having so little time to spend with the baby and my husband is killing me.  If I can't get it all done now, how the heck am I supposed to do it while working full time as well?

I now NEED to go take care of the baby, which is exactly what I WANT to do.  Sometimes I can have my cake and eat it too.