Safely through another week God has brought us on our way;
Let us now a blessing seek, on th’approaching Sabbath day;
Day of all the week the best, emblem of eternal rest,
Day of all the week the best, emblem of eternal rest.

Mercies multiplied each hour through the week our praise demand;
Guarded by almighty power, fed and guided by His hand;
Though ungrateful we have been, only made returns of sin,
Though ungrateful we have been, only made returns of sin.

While we pray for pardoning grace, through the dear Redeemer’s Name,
Show Thy reconciled face, shine away our sin and shame;
From our worldly cares set free, may we rest this night with Thee,
From our worldly cares set free, may we rest this night with Thee.

Here we come Thy Name to praise, let us feel Thy presence near,
May Thy glory meet our eyes, while we in Thy house appear:
Here afford us, Lord, a taste of our everlasting feast,
Here afford us, Lord, a taste of our everlasting feast.

When the morn shall bid us rise, may we feel Thy presence near:
May Thy glory meet our eyes, when we in Thy house appear:
There afford us, Lord, a taste of our everlasting feast,
There afford us, Lord, a taste of our everlasting feast.

May Thy Gospel’s joyful sound conquer sinners, comfort saints;
May the fruits of grace abound, bring relief for all complaints;
Thus may all our Sabbaths prove till we join the church above,
Thus may all our Sabbaths prove till we join the church above!

By John Newton, 1774

Graphics courtesy of Creative Ladies Ministry

(I know that Christians meet on the Lord’s Day and not the Sabbath, but I still feel the text is appropriate for us to meditate on when we meet one day a week to worship God together.)

This is going to be another of those “odds and ends” posts.

• I tend to take a long time to make most any decision. When it comes to trends or decorating, by the time I decide I like something, then the trend has moved on and I can’t find those items and that color any more. I’ve been wanting to replace my bedspread/quilt, and wanted something in pink and blue. “Shabby chic” probably comes closest to the style I like best, though it doesn’t necessarily have to be in that exact genre. You used to be able to find that kind of thing, sprinkled with pink roses, in almost every store. My family has been asking me what I want for my upcoming birthday, and I thought this might be a good time to ask for a new bedspread or quilt. I’ve been searching online all over the place, and can’t find just what I want. Either the pinks are too peachy or red or too bright, or the designs are too little-girlish, or something. This one from Target has the right colors that I want, but I think I like a more orderly pattern. But I am thinking of going with that because it’s the closest I have found and because I think it is on its way out and I want to get it before it, too, is gone. I like this one, too, though it is a bit too reddish in places. I’ve even thought of maybe trying to venture out and make my own. But besides lamenting the time it would take, I can’t find what I want even in fabrics except on Etsy and Ebay in small pieces that get pretty expensive by the time you add shipping charges and such. Of course I am kicking myself for not getting one when I could find them everywhere.

• Timothy likes to look at my cookbooks and pulled one out recently that I had forgotten about called Feed Me, I’m Yours by Vicki Lanksy, published in 1974. I had gotten it when my oldest was little, 30 years ago, but don’t remember how much I used it. Mostly it emphasizes creative but simple foods for kids at different stages. The main “enemy” at that time seemed to be refined sugars. It’s mainly recipes or ideas of what to try, but it has a few other tips in it. Mittu was perusing it after Timothy pulled it out and read out loud for us some of the more absurd advice. We were cracking up. One was, “When jam or jelly jars are almost empty, pour in cold milk. Shake and serve as a fruit-flavored drink.” I don’t guess anything is wrong with that, but it doesn’t sound very appetizing to me. Another I found odd was “For diaper rash, use your hair blower to warm a sore bottom.” But the weirdest was, “If your child won’t drink the needed liquids, try putting him/her into a clean tub of water equipped with a straw!” Bleah! I wouldn’t want my child drinking the same water he is sitting in! I did find there is an updated version of this book now: I’d be curious to know how it compares. It’s about 20 pages longer than the one I have.

• I used to follow a few “homey” blogs, where the blogger just shared things she had done around her home, whether organizing, decorating, sewing, or crafts with an occasional tutorial. I found them inspiring for my own homemaking. Many of them have closed up shop. Some have taken down their blogs completely, others like The Sparrow’s Nest, have thankfully left them up but have not added to them in years. I’ve looked for some new ones, but the newer ones are too “professional.”

• Speaking of closing up shop, 3 of my good blogs friends and most frequent commenters have closed and have taken or are about to take their blogs down soon. 😦  I am really, really going to miss their blogs.

• Some weeks ago on a lengthy book review, I mentioned that I was thinking of posting just quick, short ones that didn’t take quite so much time so I could spend more time writing other things. Some of you graciously told me you liked the longer reviews, and I thank you for that. I decided to keep doing what I am doing in writing about books, partly because I am writing down the things I want to remember about them. I don’t know how many times I’ve thought about a book I read before blogging days and wish I had notes somewhere to remind me what it was about and what I thought of it.

• I follow a couple of multi-author blogs, where a different Christian fiction author will post on different days. I was dismayed recently to see one author’s response to criticism about “PG-13” content in her books. I had, in fact, stopped reading her books over that issue. She had gotten some pretty harsh emails in response to this issue in her latest book. Of course, stating a problem in a harsh and attacking way rarely accomplishes anything except to make the other person feel wounded and defensive and close them off to hearing the issue. We need to “speak the truth in love.” Still, the first response to any criticism should be, “Is this valid? Is this something I should examine and pray over?” I didn’t see anything like that in the post or the comments. Most of the comments were along the line of, “Oh, you poor dear. You’re doing great: just ignore the stupid critics” and a plea for grace for both authors and characters. Though we definitely should extend grace, that doesn’t mean we never gently and kindly point out an area that might be going astray from what would truly honor the Lord. I tried to convey in what I hope was a kind way that I had a problem with that kind of content in books as well, that, yes, characters need to be flawed, but we can go too far in our descriptions, citing the Bible passages about David and Bathsheba and the simple man being tempted in Proverbs 7 as ways to convey exactly what was going on and what the problem was in a way that didn’t arouse the readers to lustful thoughts or pictures in their own minds. But apparently to no avail.

• It’s hard to believe it’s “back to school” time already and still feels a little odd not to have kids in school any more. One of my favorite times when I was a student was getting supplies and get everything ready for class. One of life’s simple pleasures is a box of new crayons. 🙂 Though we have no students at this time, we’re still affected by the school schedule in living close to two school zones and having to try to remember not to venture that direction at certain times of the day unless we want to sit in our cars for a while. I’ve enjoyed the many “first day of school” pictures on Facebook. Wish I had thought to do that when mine were younger!

• Though I am not really ready for summer to end, I am looking forward to some cooler weather hopefully in a few weeks.

What are you up to these days?

Thanks you so much for praying for the procedure that was scheduled yesterday, an ablation which was to correct supraventricular tachycardia. Unfortunately, they were not able to perform the ablation – as my oldest son said, they did everything for the procedure but that.

Before they can do the ablation, they have to “map” the heart and then try to stimulate it into an SVT rhythm. They did a number of things to try to do that, but it never would convert over. That was the worst part of the day because I had to be awake for it, and it was quite uncomfortable. They did send it into fast heartbeats and irregularities, but not an SVT. They had to shock my heart to set it back to a right rhythm, but thankfully they put me to sleep for that. The doctor did see that the problems were in the atrium, not the ventricle, which is a whole different set of risk factors, procedures, and treatment options. He said we’ll discuss those next time I see him, which, unfortunately, isn’t for about a month.

As you can imagine, I was profoundly disappointed. In fact, when they wheeled me back to a room, I was a blubbering mess, and the lady helping me told my husband I would be emotional for a while. I’m sure that was mainly disappointment, but the pent-up emotion of the day probably contributed, and I can’t help but think that emotion might be an aftermath of all that happened in the OR as well.

We’re left with more questions than answers now, like why did all those ER EKGs for years show SVTs if the problem was in the atrium? Do I have both, or were those wrong? I was Googling atrial tachycardia last night and found several places that said it was a type of SVT, which I don’t quite understand if the tachycardia is in the atrium and SVTs are ventricular. I’m not sure why they couldn’t go ahead and deal with that while they were in there, but he did say it was a different kind of surgery where I would be sedated the whole time. He told my husband they don’t usually do that surgery unless there were 3 risk factors: being female, having diabetes, and having high blood pressure. Of those, I only have one risk – being female. So hopefully we’ll get more answers when we talk with the doctor. I’m trying to write down my questions between now and then.

After all of that I had to lay on my back in a hospital room for 4 hours to make sure the areas where they inserted the catheters into the blood vessels weren’t going to start bleeding again. I ended up not getting home until about 9 p.m.

There were a few really nice people we met along the way. After we parked the car in the hospital parking lot, an open shuttle was right there, the driver asking if we wanted a ride to the entrance and wishing us well when he dropped us off. The man who came to take me to the OR was kind and kept cracking jokes. You have to be careful about that because some people in that situation would not be in the mood, but he kept saying unexpected things that cracked me up. The man who wheeled me out to the car was very kind. Unfortunately, in the OR everyone talked over me and to each other (about recipes, sound systems, etc.) rather than to me except one lady who was in charge of the different things that were put into the IV, and she explained things to me, answered questions, kept asking how I was doing, offered to scratch my nose if needed since I wasn’t supposed to move. I wished I’d had a chance to tell her how much I appreciated all she did. But it was just another reminder that even the seemingly small jobs, like driving a shuttle or transporting a patient, can make a big difference in someone’s day if done kindly and graciously and thoughtfully.

As to my other “issues” I asked you to pray about, I didn’t have any low blood sugar issues even though I didn’t eat for about 10 hours. I consider that something of a miracle! I had an IBS flare-up on Saturday, but nothing Monday. God gave me such a calm, I was in awe. It could only have come from Him. I am so thankful for His grace and the prayers of His people.

Another thing that helped was reading Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest by Edward T. Welch, which I mentioned before. I had finished it on Friday and Saturday and spent some time Saturday and Sunday going through and jotting notes from the chapters, and then Monday before leaving I spent some time looking through the passages I highlighted. In some ways it was mostly nothing new, though there were a couple of new ways to think about a couple of things. But going over and over those Scriptural principles helped me take my thoughts captive and keep my focus on the Lord and not on all the other things that could cause alarm. I am looking forward to reviewing it hopefully in the next few days.

My wonderful daughter-in-law and son brought dinner over Sunday and then made dinner for Monday and Tuesday while at our house on Monday. They stayed til we got back Monday night. I received my first picture from Timothy. 🙂

I have a few little restrictions over the next couple of days but after that should be back to “normal.”

Thanks so much for your prayers, your care, your comments on my previous post about the surgery. They meant much more than you can know.

Photo courtesy of morguefile.com

Some of you who have been reading here for a while might remember that I’ve been having trouble off and on for years with something SVTs or supraventricular tachycardia. It’s when a nerve in the heart misfires and causes it to beat irregularly and fast (180-200 beats per minute) and sometimes requires a ER visit to reset it. It’s caused by a nerve in the heart misfiring.

The first time it happened severely enough to go to the ER, they sent me to a heart doctor for tests, and he told me about a procedure called an ablation, in which they go up through a blood vessel in the groin to the heart and “zap” the offending nerve with a laser.

But since I wasn’t having these attacks all that often, and the dr. said they weren’t life-threatening, I decided to wait. A few years after the initial attack, my general practice doctor started me on a medication to try to keep it in check. But now they are happening more often – several times a week. The medicine they have me on usually keeps it from going into a full-blown episode, but I finally decided enough was enough and I needed to go ahead and have this done. I’m kicking myself now for not doing it years ago, but can’t help that now.

They tell me this has nothing to do with heart disease or blockage – it’s just a problem with the electrical part of the heart. The ablation is an outpatient procedure, so I should be home that night, but they told me to bring an overnight bag just in case. One risk is if they “zap” too much or in certain areas, they might have to put in a pacemaker, but they said that happens in less than 5% of cases. It’s usually a safe and effective procedure, though there are risks with anything like that.

I have a few specific concerns. First, I have to go off the medications I am on for SVTs this week, so I am hoping I don’t have any flare-ups between now and the procedure. Secondly, the day of the procedure I don’t even go in til 11 a.m., which means the actual surgery probably won’t be til a couple of hours later. I don’t have diabetes, but I do have episodes of low blood sugar. Usually I can’t go past 10 or so without eating or else I experience dizziness, lightheadedness, shakiness, etc. So I am concerned that might be an issue that day. On the other hand, sometimes when there are other things going on with my body, it tends to suppress that (for instance, it wasn’t an issue when I went in for my colonoscopy). Third, I haven’t been officially diagnosed, but my doctor has told me I probably have irritable bowel syndrome caused by “situational stress.” Basically, when I get nervous about anything, my body decides it needs to empty itself. That’s one of the reasons I don’t like to travel. I have to take more than the recommended amount of anti-diarrhea medicine even to go to a regular office visit at the doctor’s or a cleaning at the dentist’s. So far that’s been the only treatment discussed – just taking anti-diarrhea medicine when it happens or when I anticipate it might happen (like before a trip). I know that being anxious about it feeds into it and increases the problem. But it’s not just being worried about what “might” happen: it’s a legitimate concern because it has happened in situations a lot less nerve-wracking than this one. And fourth, during the procedure itself I have to stay awake at first because they have to stimulate the heart to go into SVT so they can find which nerve is misfiring. So my prayer for that is that my heart will go into SVT then so they can find and zap the right nerve and all this time and angst will not have been wasted. And then, of course, there are concerns for the procedure itself, that it will accomplish what it needs to but that there won’t be any complications.

So – if you feel led to, I would certainly appreciate your prayers for everything involved.

As I understand it, this is one of the least troublesome types of arrhythmias and least complicated surgeries for them – there are other types which can cause strokes and require a longer and more intricate surgery. So I am thankful that, if I had to have a heart rhythm problem, it’s this one and not one of the others.

I’ve been reading Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest by Edward T. Welch. It’s been in my Kindle for a while, and a few weeks ago I saw it while perusing titles there and thought it would be perfect to read in the weeks leading up to this procedure. It has indeed been very helpful. One chapter talks about the manna principle – lessons learned from the Israelites’ wilderness experience with God’s provision of manna. One part of that is that God provides what you need for the current day. The Israelites were to gather what they needed for each day and not gather ahead except for the Sabbath. Jesus said, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). So when I start thinking about all this, I remind myself the “manna” for that will come when it’s needed, not before. I’m endeavoring to “Cast all [my] care upon him; for he careth for [me]” (I Peter 5:7).

The surgery is early next week. Jim’s mom’s caregiver will be able to stay with her all that day and evening, thankfully. I’ll try to post an update after it’s all over.

Thanks, dear friends!

I’m home from church this morning not feeling very well, and even though I was awake for a couple of hours in the night, I am not really sleepy just now, so I thought I’d visit for a while. I am hoping for a nap while everyone is out.

We met with a hospice coordinator last Friday to discuss what their services involved for Great-Grandma. I had thought you didn’t call hospice in until death was imminent, but apparently that’s not the case. Technically one is supposed to have a terminal diagnosis of six months or less in order to use hospice, but certain diagnoses automatically qualify (like dementia), and they understand no one can predict when death might come in those cases. One of the biggest pluses with them is that she will be under a nurse’s care, and even a doctor can come to the house in an emergency. She had a low spell a couple of weeks ago where she was throwing up or gagging at meals, her heart rate was elevated, and she wasn’t smiling or interacting much at all. By the time her doctor could see her in his office, she was pretty much back to normal. Plus her doctor’s office is terrible about returning phone calls or handling prescriptions outside office visits. When we first moved to Knoxville and Jim was looking for a doctor for her, he had to call 31 doctors before he found one who would take a Medicare patient. 😦 So, all of that to say, it will be very nice to have someone we can call who can even come to the house if need be.They also send out a social worker who will help answer questions and help us prepare for all of that aspect of what we need to do to be ready for when her time comes. We were actually pretty amazed at all they do and wished we had known all this when we first brought her home almost two years ago. In fact, we really wondered why the social worker at the nursing home didn’t mention it as a possibility when she was making arrangements for her to come home.

I’ve been going back through some of my older posts, partly to see if there is anything I might be able to edit and use in our church ladies’ newsletter, partly because every now and then I think about gathering some posts into a book, and I wanted to take a look at what I had. I am amazed at how verbose some of those earliest posts are, and even more amazed that people read and commented on them! I don’t know that people would today. One of my purposes for blogging was to improve my writing by writing, and though I am still too wordy, I think I have improved in that regard.

I’m also sad about the folks I considered good blogging friends who are no longer blogging or commenting. I know it’s necessary some times, but I miss them.

Finally, I haven’t shared a picture of my favorite little guy in a while, and I just love this one of him:

Hope you are having a great Sunday!

I thought I’d share various “stray thoughts” on my mind lately, none big enough for its own blog post:

• The big news here is the weather. Of course, the southeastern US has not had it nearly as bad as New England, but then, we’re not equipped for it either. Counties can’t afford all the necessary equipment to just use once or twice a year. We were supposed to get snow and ice yesterday, but just got ice. Jim went on in to work but Great-Grandma’s caregiver didn’t make it here today.

• One of my main concerns is the power going out, especially in regard to heat and pureeing and heating Great-Grandma’s food (and, let’s be honest, I like having access to my media as well. 🙂 ) Last night I heard there were over 11,000 local people without power. Hoping they can get it all repaired soon. We do have one space heater, so we can all huddle together in one room if need be.

• This is the forecast for the rest of the week. Yikes! -13?!

• In other news….after my last oral surgery, I once again thought something that comes to mind often when one of us has some kind of procedure: I wonder why doctor’s offices don’t send you home with samples of the medicine or at least call it in while you’re there so you can just pick it up on the way home? Trying to drop my prescription off and answer the pharmacist’s questions with my mouth stuffed with gauze was fun. 🙂 And then I had to go back again and pick it up. Similarly, I felt bad when having to take Jim fresh from kidney surgery or one of the kids from wisdom teeth removal through the interminable drive-through at the pharmacy, get them home and settled, and then leave them alone to go back to pick up meds. I can understand small offices and clinics might not want to keep some of the stronger prescription painkillers on hand since it might increase the likelihood of break-ins, but hospitals would have them on hand. I actually remember the days when pharmacies would deliver prescription medications to your home. 🙂 That would be nice, but probably too expensive these days, and probably too much risk of robbery.

• Speaking of medical matters….It seems like every medical appointment I make, they tell you the time of your appointment and then ask you to come in 10-30 minutes early to fill our paperwork or do preliminary procedures. I wish they’d just give you the time they want you there. I look at the appointment card they gave me and have to think, “The appointment’s at 9, but what time am I supposed to actually be there??”

• Am I the only one that uses delicious.com to save links any more? Whenever I save something there, it tells me I am the first person to save it, and I know I am not the first person to read it, so I wonder how others save or make note of things they’ve read online that they want to remember. I’ve heard a lot about Evernote but it seems complicated.

• When I first started blogging, the prevailing advice was to put something interesting in the space that a person first sees when they come on to your blog, something that will make them want to scroll down and read the rest. Nowadays I see not only blogs but web sites that have almost a full screen photo as the first thing you see when you come to the site, and you have to scroll down to read any content. Funny how those things change over time. Neither way is intrinsically better or worse, but personally, I’d rather be able to start reading the blog post or article when I first come to the site rather than having to scroll down just to find it.

• Speaking of photos: I really enjoy the creativity I see on Facebook and Pinterest with different kids of photo set-ups these days. But if I could offer one thought to those setting up photo shoots for engagements, weddings, babies, families, or whatever: what your relatives and friends want to see, and what I think you’ll most want to look back on, are people’s faces. An occasional hazy or distant or silhouetted  shot in a larger group of shots is fine, but get some close ups of those loved faces.

• If onomatopoeia is words that sound like what they are (ping, fizz. etc.), is there a word for words that don’t sound anything like what they are? Like sublime, which means, according to Dictionary.com., “impressing the mind with a sense of grandeur or power; inspiring awe, veneration, etc.; supreme or outstanding,” but doesn’t sound like any of those.

• Jesse was telling me about a cop that proposed to his girlfriend by having two other cops pull her over as if she were in trouble for something, and then he showed up with the engagement ring. I don’t think I’d be in much of a mood to discuss marriage after being pulled over. 🙂

• One of the app games I play with my sisters is very similar to Wheel of Fortune, and I thought I got the phrase we were playing as “Raiders of the Lost Ark” – only I put Arc. Sigh. Sounds like a geometry story problem. 🙂

Well, that’s probably enough rambling for one day. Hope you’re having a good day and staying warm!

I tend to steer clear of politics here because feelings can run high and I don’t want to stir up unneeded heat and controversy. I have strong opinions on some things and voice them occasionally but try not to couch them in political terms. However, when I do, I believe in being respectful to people on the other side of issues and to leaders in particular.

I did not vote for our current president and disagree with much of what he does. But when I heard he was coming to our area, I have to admit to being a little excited. It would be a historic moment: it’s not every day such a personage comes to our state. And then, even more amazing, I learned he was coming to my husband’s plant!

He was coming to highlight and announce manufacturing hubs that would bring together universities, manufacturers, and government agencies such as the one here in the Knoxville area where the University of TN, Oak Ridge National Labs, and Techmer PM worked together on their latest project, a 3D printed car.

To be perfectly honest, 3D printing baffles me, and making something the size of a car that way baffles me even further, but it’s pretty cool! You can find more about the president’s visit here, a transcript of his remarks here, and more about the car here.

This visit didn’t get much press because the president’s first visit that morning to a local community college to announce a program for two years of free community college based on the Tennessee Promise program here generated a lot more attention.

There was a lot that went into getting ready for the president’s visit. The Secret Service was there about a week before to check things out. It’s a sad fact of modern society that they have to look for every possible angle that some crazed person might think of to do harm and to be prepared against it. But Jim said they were very nice and even joked with them sometimes – not at all the stoic faces in sunglasses and earpieces that you see on TV shows.

For the record, if the president ever comes to your area, know that his staff and/or the Secret Service calls all the shots. One lady called the plant to buy tickets and had to be told they weren’t selling tickets. She got quite angry. Someone else called and wanted to bring his son by to meet the president. I don’t think they realized that just because he was coming to a small town, that didn’t mean it was a small-town type visit. Not even all the employees got to hear him speak in person, partly because there wasn’t a venue big enough for that. They had one lottery for people to hear him speak and another for a “meet and greet”: my husband was part of the latter and did get to shake the president’s and vice-president’s hands. Unfortunately we don’t have a picture of that: they weren’t allowed to take “selfies” with the president or ask for autographs, but they were allowed to take pictures of each other, so he has a bunch of pictures of other people shaking hands and has shared them with those in the photos: hopefully one of them has a picture of him they’ll share.

The president was very personable, interested in what they were doing, and asked intelligent questions about their products and processing.

One incident that was funny to tell about later but not so funny at the time: UPS and other major carriers were called and asked not to deliver anything that day. Somehow one smaller company got overlooked, and one of their driver’s drove his truck past all the police cars to deliver his package. Naturally they stopped him and checked out and unloaded his truck. They found the package addressed to the company and had him open it. It as a lab instrument that was housed in a metal carrying case which, of course, looked like ammunition of some kind at first glance. When someone opened the case, it was identified as an  instrument for the lab, and the guy was free to pack up his truck and go, very much behind schedule. Even if he didn’t know the president was going to be there that day, it seems he would have realized something was going on with all the police cars there: why he didn’t stop and ask before driving in, we don’t know. If the president had actually been on the premises at the time, it would have been even more serious, I’m sure. As it is he has an interesting story to tell.

It was a long day with a lot of “hurry up and wait” time. They couldn’t go to their offices during certain hours: for security reasons they had everyone in certain areas. And, of course, as when any guest is coming, you hope everything goes well. Thankfully, it seemed to. The CEO and president of the company were very pleased. And now my husband can say he has met the president of the United States and shaken his hand. 🙂