You Asked How I Am Feeling?

Many of my friends and family ask me how I am feeling. And their question is sincere for they know I've been doing chemo since February for ovarian cancer.

So the answer is that the first few days after a chemo session I experience some aches and joint pains and a bit of listlessness. Once I get past those first few days I feel pretty decent and have a goodly amount of energy.

My blood counts fluctuate, of course, due to the effects of the chemo but that doesn't seem to affect my sense of well-being. But because the white blood count plummets I am a bit leary about catching some cold or other illness which might, in ordinary times, be mild. My lack of white blood cells would cause any illness to be much more severe for me. I don't want to be a total recluse and so I try to watch the white blood count and be out and about when it is at its best.

The photo? That's genuinely me! My daughter brought her DS1 which has a camera feature that allows you to distort the photo with a stylus. I think this one should be titled, "Did you say "Chemo?"!!!!!! When she and my grandson were here last weekend we sat on the sofa, taking and altering self-portraits, laughing up a storm. This was one of the funniest!

Today's verse is Psalm 5:11.

Due to Consumer Demand This is a Reprint

When I check the statistics on my blog I find that a number of visitors have googled something akin to "is it safe to kiss babies on the lips". So, in case you have not read this post, here it is again.

The Dangers of Lip Synch - Or Please Listen to Your Grandmother

Lip Synch? That's about singing, isn't it? Well....yes. But this post is not about singing...it's about kissing. And more to the point it's about teaching your children to NOT kiss! At least to Not kiss on the Lips.

When I was small we visited my grandparents maybe 4 or 5 times a year and the "goodbye" at the end of each visit meant an obligatory kiss on the cheek. Since Grandpa was old and whiskery and gruff and had a full bushy white mustache, this was an intimidating prospect. Grandma wasn't much less intimidating...she was such a quiet person and busy with household tasks and did not laugh and sing with us. She was an old woman, stooped and bent, not the happily interactive Gramma of today. But at the end of each visit we dutifully allowed them to give us a quick kiss on the cheek which we surreptiously wiped away with our shirt sleeve.

We were never asked to kiss an adult on the lips. However, we did have one relative who insisted on a goodbye lip kiss. I hated that. Lip kisses are never dry. For a small child that is a bit Uuuuugh! And I am convinced that the cold sores (fever blisters) that I suffered with for years were a result of those kisses.

What is my point, you ask? I am dismayed that today's young parents actively teach their infants and toddlers to give a quick buss on the lips. It's cute! Little Baby learns quickly and Mommy and Baby laugh together as Baby kisses on request. Believe me, you can get just as much fun out of teaching Baby to kiss you on the cheek! Do It! Forgo the Lip Kiss!

Here's my take on it. First...kissing on the lips should be relegated to the appropriate time of life. (I hope you are conservative in teaching your children about what is "appropriate".) Kissing on the lips is a sexualizing thing...how do you teach your infant or toddler it is appropriate to kiss this person and not that person? (We have a friend whose 5-year-old has been reprimanded by the school for kissing his classmates! And now Dad and Mom have to tell him that kissing is not appropriate on the school grounds!)

Secondly, kissing on the lips does run a minor risk of transmitting STDs such as herpes...not to mention transmitting colds and viruses. You can click here or here to read more about that...the risk is minimal, but it is still a risk. Are you willing to consider that risk to be so minimal as to not worry about it?

Thirdly, how do you know that the third cousin on your mother's side who happens to be visiting your home for the week is not a potential/active offender? A high percentage of child molestation is perpetrated by someone in the household, whether friend or family. Do not offer up your child as a willing/unwilling participant in a kissing game!

As Mom and Dad, you are the protector of your children. Be Wise!

This is your Grandmother speaking!

Excitement On the Block as House Movers Move a Large Two-Story House

When we heard that the owner of this house across the block was going to move it across town we were a bit surprised. After all, this is a large house! How could they possibly get that house with all its add-ons onto beams and onto a truck? This weekend it happened! We joined the rest of the neighbors who gathered to watch as the movers inched their way very slowly off the lot, down over the curb, and then out of town. Their route circled around to the north and then back into town about a mile from where they started the process.


In the first photo you can see the foundation where the house originally stood.


In the second photo the house is being backed down over the curb and into the street.


And lastly the house is being moved backwards (yes, I said backwards) out of town. The truck moved the house backwards nearly a mile on gravel road until he came to an intersection where he was able to very, very carefully turn north. From there he pulled the house nearly another three miles arriving back on the other side of town where the house now sits awaiting its new foundation. (Click on that last photo...the fellow on the left appears to be holding up the corner of the house...we assume rightly that the photo lies. LOL)

What does it cost to move a home of this size? I don't know but I did overhear one of the neighbors say that the permit to cross the railroad was $5,000. Add in any city permits/fees plus the cost of the mover and you can guess the rest.

While this Saturday morning event was exciting, the best part of the weekend was a visit from our daughter and grandson who drove 5 hours for a weekend visit. They've headed back home and I miss 'em already!

The Fiery Bush

We own a small rental home.
The residents are handicapped individuals who have caretakers with them 24/7.
Today's caretaker smokes.
Today's caretaker tossed a ciggiebutt in the cedar bushes by the front door.
Today's caretaker caused a fiery bush.
Three firetrucks arrived on the scene.
I wonder if today's caretaker goes by the name of Moses.
Probably not. Moses didn't smoke.

(We are grateful the fire was confined to the shrubbery, with minimal scorching of the adjacent wood siding. AND that the residents were safe!)

Little Annoyances

Does anyone else find it exceedingly annoying that food items, liquid or solid, are sealed seventy times over (it seems like it!) and one must use knife, fingernail, scissors, and teeth to open bottles, boxes, and packets. When the cheese package says "tear here" it really means "t-e-a-r" as in "liquid that overflows the eyelids and dampens the face". Okay! Okay! I'm a wimp!

Melissa Ohden Survived "Choice" and Lives to Tell Her Story

This is not a political rant. But it has everything to do with the laws of our land.
(And I will add this also...to those who have chosen abortion for whatever reason, please know that God's forgiveness is for all who come to Him. If you are experiencing depression or guilt over this issue, please speak to a counselor.)

Last evening I had the privilege to hear abortion survivor Melissa Ohden tell her story of how she survived an abortion. No, Melissa did not Have an abortion. She Survived her own abortion. Saline abortion. In 1977. In Sioux City, Iowa. At a hospital. Weighing a bit over 2 pounds. Thankfully, the hospital provided care for this tiny infant.

Today Melissa is a delightful, normal, healthy individual. She has a Master's degree and works in the social field. She and her husband are the parents of a one-year-old baby girl. And Melissa is choosing to tell her story...the other side of the story...the baby's story...that baby who, in spite of advocates of "choice", had no voice and no choice.

You can read her interesting biography here.

Many are not aware that now and then an aborted infant lives through the process. Sometimes it is a twin in the womb who misses being detected when one baby is aborted. Other times the aborted baby is simply still alive at the end of the process. Not all of these "live" babies survive...clinics do not always rush to assist the newborn they expected to be DOA. But in Melissa's case doctors and staff immediately took over her care. She was adopted by a loving family in spite of warnings that she might suffer serious health problems due to her early birth and due to the experience of the saline abortion itself. None of those dire predictions came true. And she has become a spokeswoman for the unborn.

I've had the privilege of hearing another abortion survivor tell her story. You can read about Gianna Jessen here. She, too, is now a lovely young woman who experienced the "choice" option and survived. She, too, now speaks for the unborn.

It may be that the law of the land allows for abortion, making it legal, giving women a choice to terminate a pregnancy of an unwanted child. I said it is legal. But it is not moral. It simply cannot be "right" to kill a human being simply because they are unwanted.

Since 1973 approximately 50 Million babies have died in our country due to abortion. In comparison, if you count every war since the American Revolution, our country has lost approximately 660 Thousand men/women in battle (Source:US Dept of Veterans Affairs). Compare those two numbers. We've lost 75 times as many babies as soldiers.

Why is it that when we consider the lives lost in battle we are horrified, but that same horror does not strike us when the deaths occur in an abortion clinic? Why is that?

God have mercy on us as a nation for the stink of our sin surely rises to heaven.

Four Consecutive Nazi Serial Number Tattoos

The scenario:
Four young Polish Jews, standing in line at Auschwitz to receive consecutively numbered tattoos on their forearms. Two are brothers. The other two are strangers. They become separated. All four survive the camp and the war and settle in Israel at the end of WWII.
Fast forward 65 years and read the story here of how the four find each other and meet for the first time since Auschwitz. (The two brothers may have been in touch with each other, but the two strangers met each other for the first time this year.)
Amazing.