A prayer for my children's health

One of the most challenging and frustrating things for me as a parent is helping my children when they are sick. It is so difficult to know which medicines to give to them and to best know how to help them. I pray that God gives me the wisdom and guides my hand when it comes to making decisions for these little people that trust me to make the best choices for them. It is hard to wait, learn, and realize that I may be making a bad choice or a mistake. I don't want to make mistakes when it comes to their health. I don't want to give them things that may affect their health in the long run, say even years from now. I try to weigh what traditional medicine says is best. I also try to research what natural medicine says will work. It seems to be a process of trial and error. Right now, John is complaining of ear pain. Pretty much any time he complains of ear pain, he has an ear infection. Hmmm...to antibiotic or not to antibiotic? How many antibiotics have my sweet children had in their short lifetimes? Is their resistance to these growing? Am I harming the bacteria in their gut when I give these? Will the probiotics sufficiently replace the good bacteria in their system to ward of future illness and provide a strong immune system? My other child is struggling with a cold and some asthma/bronchospasms. We are doing breathing treatments with albuterol. We are contemplating allergy medicines. We have not had much success with these in the past. Should we try bee pollen? grape seed extract? God...you know my children. You know their bodies. You know what you have provided in nature. You know what you have allowed us as humans to learn and create. Dear All-Powerful God, lead me to the best path to take for the precious ones You have put into my care. I know You love them more than I am capable of loving. Your love is perfect. Your power is perfect. Your knowledge is unlimited. I trust in You. Amen.

Friends and Family

The past few days have been visiting days. It kind of goes in waves. We will have times where we are just rolling along with our regular schedule and then all within a few days, we have visits with friends and family that we haven't seen for a while. This past Friday, the boys and I packed up and headed west...two whole hours west! We drove to New Enterprise, PA, near Woodbury, PA where we used to live. We went to see our friend Sara in the musical "Cinderella" that her high school was performing. Sara was the Queen. She did wonderfully. She impressed me with how dramatic she was and with how comfortable she seemed to be on stage.

We stayed with our friends Joyce, Larry and "Big John". Their family were our boys' regular babysitters when we lived in Woodbury. They were actually more like surrogate aunt, uncle and grandparents. Helen was "Big John's" wife. She passed away the very same week that we moved away from Woodbury, to Mechanicsburg. And "Big John" was not "Big John" until little John came around. As a matter of fact, "Big John" is not really all that tall. But he has always been "Big John" to our boys.

This family really is precious to us. This past weekend, we were their first EVER overnight guests. Pretty cool. The day following the musical, Sara and her family came over for breakfast. It was fun to spend time with old friends. Ethan was John's first best friend. Those boys used to sit and gab nonstop with each other...more of what you would expect from little girls, or maybe adolescent girls. It is great to see them pick up right where they left off last time.

For some reason, going back and visiting people I haven't seen for a while takes me out of my comfort zone. This is especially true when going back to Woodbury. When we lived there, the population was 239. With Dave being a pastor at a church there, we got to know so many people. It was amazing the amount of people in that high school auditorium that I knew. I have always been uncomfortable with things like that and I don't really know why. Maybe because of the unexpected, things I cannot anticipate. Or maybe it is because I don't know how to answer questions like, "How are you?" "How have you been?" "What have you been up to?" I'm not so good at small talk and not very good about summarizing in 5 minutes what life has been like the past 5 years. Having the boys makes me do things that I wouldn't normally do. I will leave my comfort zone because I think that it is something that will be good for them. In the process, it challenges me and stretches me as well.

Well, we got on our way early because Gram and Pop-pop were coming to visit on Saturday. So when we got home, they were here already with Dave. It was great to spend the afternoon with them. They live in DE and will drive 4 hours to spend an afternoon with us and then turn around and drive 4 hours back. When the boys were younger (and she would probably still do it now if we asked), Peggy would drive 4 hours just to babysit them when we had something major going on.

Then on Monday, one of my college roommates came for a visit. She lives in Hershey and it is always wonderful to spend time with her. This time, baby Abigail didn't get to come. She is so precious.

So, all in all, it was a weekend of spending time with special people that we are blessed to have in our lives.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wow, I lost a week. Now it's time to catch up. Last week, I tried making Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies for the first time. I was a little uncertain as to how they would turn out. I only have the before pictures with my ingredients. My mom had purchased some Rice Flour (EnerG brand) when we were visiting my parents two weeks ago. We didn't use it then so she sent it home with me. I used the recipe off the box. The dough tasted good so that was a good start. I made the cookies about a tablespoon size and did my normal 12 on a pan. To my surprise, they all ran together and became very flat. I was still able to tell where they ended and the others began so I just cut them apart. They are a different texture than "regular" chocolate chip cookies. These are more cake-like. But they are certainly still good. And when you cannot have the traditional cookies, these are just wonderful! Funny how your perspective changes when your options are limited.