Tag: mold remediation

Trust God. Love People.

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I thought I would be feeling better by now.  After all, we remediated our home for mold at great expense and disruption to our lives.  The Lord provided a good part of the resources to cover many of these expenses; in time He will replenish all of our resources.  In the meantime, our home looks lovely as it’s really clean and the carpeting/vinyl flooring now sports a Canadian Maple engineered hardwood.  Wow.  I really like it!

But I still have knife-like headaches and feel sick.  I fear seizure attacks every evening, especially when falling asleep or waking up in the morning.  Thankfully, I haven’t had one in the last day and one-half.  I got pretty close with multiple nauseating “pre-tic” episodes yet no full-blown neuromuscular events.  Thank you Jesus!

So why am I so down?  Who knows.  It’s part of dealing with chronic illness and part of deepening my faith in the One who has crafted this life of mine.  I must stay in moments more tiny than ever before, where I can find peace, comfort, and even joy.  I must stay with a grateful heart and humility.  However, to strive harder to do any of these things will hurt me.   I’m just not that perfect!  Guess I won’t work on the house any more today, like putting up drapes that were dry cleaned.  All of this stuff of life can wait.  My time is now with you, gentle reader, and with my Savior.

Prayerfully I seek so much when the point is really just to dwell with the one true God, the person Who is God:  Jesus.  Yes, it blesses Him to pray and is my calling as a believer, to make my needs known.  It grows my  faith and keeps me in a right relationship with the sovereign Creator, to look to Him for answers and not the people/places/things of this world.  Love people.  Hold places and things lightly as they are transient.  Instead, I shall put my trust in the Lord who transcends them all infinitely.

In His bigness that is inconceivable in my finite mind, my Lord and Savior has a plan for even this headache, this difficulty functioning, these tears held back so I can see the computer screen.  And if He has a plan for me despite my misery, He has a plan for you despite yours too.  The Lord cares.  The Lord cries with you and me.  The Lord loves us more than anyone or anything in this life.  We are His when we confess our sin, seek forgiveness, and once (and forever) accept Him as Lord and Savior of our lives.  That is all you and I have to do!

How do I know all of these things?  I mean, people blog anything these days, seeking notoriety for their own meaningless thoughts that would never stand a test of time let alone eternity.  I know these things and these things are true because it is written in His Word.  It is written on our hearts that yearn for unfailing love.  It is written in our minds that yearn for answers, for truth.  It is reflected in the beautiful complexity of creation all around us.  Chaos Theory did not know that I needed to catch a glimpse of the bluebirds flying back to our bird feeder my first morning when I felt “in shock” after being away from home 76 days!  It was His omniscience!  It is the absolute truth to the mystery of  our questions of:   “what is life?” and “why are we here?” And it is woven into each and every yearning soul.  We know and believe because He has revealed Himself to us in His Word.

Have you been in The Word lately?  Follow me to a place where you can start reading about the One in Whom we both can place our trust.  I’ll meet you there.  I know it’s late or you’re busy or you gotta go to the bathroom!  Just take a minute to start.  It could change your life.  It just renewed mine . . .

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1&version=NIV

Day 76: home again, at last!

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Home Sweet Home. There’s no place like home. Home is where the heart is. You get da picture! PTL! :j

‘Twas the Night Before Moving

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Sung in my heart this night to the tune of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” by Don Williams

‘Twas the night before moving

And all through the hotel room,

Not a creature was stirring

The dog smelling rank, for lack of da groom.

The clothing all packed

By the door with other stuff,

In hopes that the cleaning

At home would soon be enough!

The couple will nestle at last

All safe in their own bed

While visions of dollar signs

Will forever dance in their heads.

And the contractor is gone

Who took care of the rug

He can finally settle down

For a long Spring evening’s, er, nap.

When out in the lawn

Tomorrow shall bring such a clatter

As Julie drags in boxes-n-bags

To create an end to the matter.

Away to the window

No longer cracked to air out the mold

We’ll put back together the place

Steve and Julie once again will call home.

The moon on the breast
Of the new fallen snow
Gave the lustre
Of midday
To object below.

(Just love the imagery of the original poem as the snow melts one last time this season.)

When what to my wandering eyes

Should unexpectedly appear

A check from USAA

To cover some of the new gear!

Away to the window

I’ll fly like a flash,

To see my Spring bulbs a popping

Alas not the hotel staff, smoking their midday stash.

With a little tear of happy

So lively and quick

I’ll know in a moment

No longer in my home will I be quite as sick.

More rapid than eagles

My heart begins to swell for my Lord

As I whistle and shout,

“Praise be to the Lord!”

Now Dashing Stevers,

Dancing Christine

Prancing Sonny,

On Comet Dale J.,

Cupid Stevers (again of course)

On Donder Stay Inn staff

An blitzen bloggies out there:

To the top
Of the porch
To the top
Of the wall
Now dash-away
Dash-away
Dash-away all.

****

Let us spring a new song
To His sleigh, to His throne,
Give worry a whistle to go away
The Lord’s sleighdom flies for you & me alone.

“But wait,” I hear Him exclaim
As He lifts me to my next place,
“Happy Wednesday to all
And to all a goodnight.”

The Station by Robert J. Hastings

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The True Joy of Life is the Trip
 

THE STATION

By Robert J. Hastings

   TUCKED AWAY in our subconscious minds is an idyllic vision.  We see ourselves on a long, long trip that almost spans the continent.  We’re traveling by passenger train, and out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls, of biting winter and blazing summer and cavorting spring and docile fall.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination.  On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into the station.  There will be bands playing and flags waving.  And once we get there so many wonderful dreams will come true.  So many wishes will be fulfilled and so many pieces of our lives finally will be neatly fitted together like a completed jigsaw puzzle.  How restlessly we pace the aisles, damming the minutes for loitering, waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.

However, sooner or later we must realize there is no one station, no one place to arrive at once and for all.  The true joy of life is the trip.  The station is only a dream.  It constantly outdistances us.

When we get to the station that will be it!” we cry.  Translated it means, “When I’m 18 that will be it!  When I buy a new 450 SL Mercedes Benz, that will be it!  When I put the last kid through college that will be it!  When I have paid off the mortgage that will be it!  When I win a promotion that will be it!  When I reach the age of retirement that will be it!  I shall live happily ever after!”

Unfortunately, once we get “it,” then “it” disappears.  The station somehow hides itself at the end of an endless track.

“Relish the moment” is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24: “This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.”  It isn’t the burdens of today that drive men mad.  Rather, it is regret over yesterday or fear of tomorrow.  Regret and fear are twin thieves who would rob us of today.

So, stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles.  Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more and cry less.  Life must be lived as we go along.  The station will come soon enough.

(This version of “The Station” made its first debut in Ann Landers’ Column on May 17, 1981.)

“Dear Ann Landers:  I wrote a little essay that appeared in theIllinois Baptist and I am sending it to you with permission to share it with your readers if you wish.”  Robert J. Hastings, Editor.

“Dear Robert Hastings:  It’s a beauty.  Thank you for sending it on.”  Ann Landers.

http://robertjhastings.net/

 

And then the dog threw up

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Elle's Bone
Elle’s Bone

It’s all over now.  The Lord sustained us through another crazier than imaginable 24 hours.  If all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), then all is well in this moment.

From Steve’s side:  he worked all day yesterday, drove to our home (undergoing mold/dust restoration), moved furniture, gathered a few things from Julie’s short list, ran his clothes through the dryer (to remove the noxious dust), showered, then drove back to the hotel room to meet his bride around 12:30 a.m.  Dinner was waiting and so was elusive sleep . . .

From Julie’s side:  I had endured days of noxious neuromuscular events (aka “herxing”) as a side effect of a new round of antibiotics, completed a medical appointment and Lyme treatment, arranged for the furnace to be cleaned in the hotel room, made dinner, and tried to get myself to sleep after making/cleaning up from dinner.  Seizure attacks interrupted my sleep and woke up Steve a few times as well, unfortunately.  I felt terrible for him!  Headaches and a myriad of yucky symptoms returned for me and I was unable to get up and take an Epsom salt bath to help mitigate the symptoms.  By 4:15 a.m. I was too numbed out too be bummed.  Perhaps that’s grace, I suppose.

The alarm went off to attempt to wake me from whatever sleep had transpired.  Steve turned it off and I drifted off to sleep for a moment until the sound of our dog gasping then heaving awakened both of us.  Yuck!  I dragged her into the bathroom just in time for the lamb bone from yesterday to make it’s reappearance.  Well, we were both out of bed by this time!  Happy Wednesday.

Steve decided to go into work a little late today and went back to bed.  As for me, the dentist appointment was a disaster.  This is recovery from Lyme Disease on a bad day.  It ain’t for wimps!  Even the maximum amount of nitrous oxide was not enough to prevent re-triggering seizure attacks as the procedure began.  The dentist and hygienist were gracious in employing every coping strategy we could muster to get me through it; the warmed water in a syringe for rinsing and the blue “blanky” helped some.  What was to be two procedures in two hours turned out to be one procedure in three hours plus 10 minutes on straight oxygen, 30 minutes in the lobby, and 30 minutes in my vehicle in the parking lot.  Whew.  I guess that I’m just on a different time table that’s all?

I do believe the NIKKEN Kenkotherm comforter with advanced magnetic technology is calling me for a nap about now.  I’m on a new antibiotic and I feel more stable.  Thank you Lord for my coconut yogurt treat when I got back to the room. And I love the feel of my warm puppy at my feet as I’m writing this to you from the hotel lobby.  The staff is so nice here.

********************************************************************

Nope.  Still not “there yet.”  Just endured another temporary setback that’s all.  Still haven’t arrived at “the station” noted in the Part 2 blog and may never fully “get there.”  This moment is good.  It’s all I have anyways.

You know, I think I need some chips too.  :J