MICRO-PREMIE: 1988: 3 1/2 months early: A MIRACLE

 BORN: August 7, 1988     2lbs. 11 ozs.                                        DUE: November 24-27th
Here she is, 2 or 3 weeks old, perhaps 4? Her four long skinny fingers wrapped over my first digit only. Her arms were the same circumference as my pointer finger; her legs like my pinkie…and I have long thin fingers. A long straight nose, it looks like mine! Not her birth hair, no nipples or nails..a struggle for survival for the next 3 or more months!!! The chances she'd be blind, have lung problems, developmental disabilities and/or, Cerebral Palsy, Retardation; or, perhaps dead. A roller coaster--"it will be a ride" the doctors tell us; prayer on our side.
(African-American girls the strongest for survival…and last, Caucasian boys)

Four weeks for sure by now or 5, she's permitted out of bed and I can hold her! Her fingers appear to cover a larger area? Other children are there but the curtain is drawn; their struggle is over, the parents just begun.

They try her on some breast milk around 7 or 8 weeks but she cannot tolerate it. It was not even a drop; if it were continued her intestine would develop necrosis-more complications.

She grows to 5lbs. 1 oz. but is still on a machine; insurance forces her home and the doctors fought to keep her. So home on machines and stuffed in a stocking; her family really loves her and cares around the clock.








By ONE: she's become a MIRACLE: all systems seem GO! But mommy's a therapist so we work head to toe. Tactile and visual, auditory too, is this why God had be become an Occupational Therapist after all this time? Of course having 3 siblings helped welcome her to the world of activity, NOISE!

(to be continued)

Words: Are They Necessary?

LET'S JUST SAY yes for this one picture?….THIS BIRD AND I HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON….
I 'd love to take flight over the ocean,
Eyes closed with heart opened
On the waves of the sea.
I'd love to rest peaceful and lap up the sun,
Listen, taste salty
The calm of the sea.
To be happy and bobbing, laughing and calling
Ocean birds as they wing-
                                                Wispy sprays of the sea.                                  -Suzie

Can you see upon the water
Restive hues,  reflective color,
Hints of day,  its busy waders?
Yet my eyes draw up and yonder
breathe of life where heart stands still,
                                  the what, the how, the when and why?                     -suzie

Obama and the Burden of History by Myron Magnet - City Journal

Obama and the Burden of History by Myron Magnet - City Journal
sobering
   sad
      so,
          read:  "Living With Confidence in a Chaotic World" by Dr. D. Jeremiah
Pray for our country, pray for our leaders, pray for your children's children, pray
for our neighbors - India, Africa, Europe, Asia…..the world in which we live.

Churning Waters

How can I go a whole month without putting something up. That really isn't a question. Life throws curveballs.  I don't know an individual who has not had difficult times in his/her life.

With that in mind I realize I am not perfect, no one is perfect, only Christ; so why are we surprised when others hurt us, abandon us, forget, use us for their gain,,,,etc. Then there are promises... My hope is that I do not do that; but then, I am not perfect and unknowingly hurt others. Wouldn't it be nice if others overlooked our quirks as much as we would like to think we overlook theirs? What about showing mercy and grace; what about flexibility? What about love; the love that receives us just as we are? The answers are in God's Word. Sure the Bible doesn't give us chemical formulae, the entire historical record, or tell us who we will marry, etc. But, it does tell us everything we need to known in order to live with the joys and sorrows of this life. Some of the answers contained in the Bible are rather hard to hear but it is truth that guides, confirms, confronts, comforts (not always),…and we grow. This doesn't mean we will be ''happy." Happy is not why God put us here. Can we hope to be happy? Sure. That is not the issue. 1) What can we hope for? and, 2) The big question is ''what is the chief end of man?" What is my chief end? I want to deal with that first:

                                                      THE CHIEF END OF MAN?
 Well, that depends who you ask; the answers are a kaleidoscope. There is only one answer: To love the Lord and enjoy Him forever (for brevity I'll leave it at that) When I/you get a grip, so to speak, on this therein lies contentment….as Paul says, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength..." Philippians 4

now take that in…no matter what I/you are doing, love the Lord in it and enjoy Him in it. He wants us to enjoy the gifts he has given us but He is center stage in those ''things." Quote from scripture.. "all good gifts come from heaven above..so thank the Lord.." as an example. 
Whether in want or in plenty, whether hunger or well-fed, whether struck down or flying on a kite Love the Lord and enjoy who He is giving thanks and praise. But how can we do that?
Only by knowing Him. And "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." 

So what is the Word of God? The Old and New Testaments of the Bible. But, so many people would rather pick up a different book than ''that book." I'm guilty! Why put off what we know will guide, protect, help, comfort, encourage, give insight etc.? Because I am afraid of what it will say to me sometimes because it isn't what I want to hear!! At least not today. I want what I want and I want what I wanted. Thus, I delay what really ''I know" I should do. What I want to do. Scripture says, (paraphrased) ''why do I do what I don't want to do and don't do what I ought to do?"

It is the nature of man. It is my nature. 

Thanks be to God who does not give up on me but has promised to pursue me and love me even when I have wandered far off; even when I am ugly. "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. He does not always treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities. As high as the heavens are above the earth so great is His love for us…" Psalm 103 
                    
                     CONTENT IN ANY AND EVERY SITUATION?
"Lord, make it so. That I can be your compassion, grace and mercy, being slow
to anger, abounding in love, no matter how I have been treated or will be treated." 

-suzie

Friday, August 31st, A FULL MOON! A BLUE MOON! really? Well, yes and no. Yes the moon will be FULL but Blue? Well, not really!!! A "blue moon" is a term used when two full moons appear in the same month! I never knew that did you guys? So who of you will be looking at this big wonderful ''blue moon?" I will……and hope you will be too. So, sing it….. "Blue, blue..my world is blue…."…..see P.S. below.

(the article below is copy/pasted from: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/30/turning-blue-fridays-full-moon-a-blue-moon/?hpt=hp_c2

GETTY IMAGES

Full blue moon

This Friday, Aug. 31, might not be all that much fun for you, especially if you’re someone who vows to only do obligatory tasks once in a blue moon. Then again, if you’re a believer that good luck comes your way only once in a blue moon, Friday might be just the day you’ve been waiting for.

The fact is, for the first time since March 2010, we’ll gaze upon a blue moon this Friday, illustrating just how long that fabled stretch of time really is: almost 30 months. After Friday, you’ll have to wait another 36 months — until July 2015 — for the next one. So, it’s time to loosen up Friday and do all those things you say you do “once in a blue moon.”

It’s a rare cosmic rising that will be unveiled, coincidentally, on the same day as astronaut Neil Armstrong’s funeral service. Armstrong, who died last Saturday at the age of 82, brought the fabled moon into mankind’s domain when he became the first man to walk on its surface in 1969.

Despite the colorful turn of phrase, you might be disappointed if you look into the sky. There will be no magical chameleon act performed by the moon on Friday. That’s because the phrase blue moon — dating back centuries with no pinpointed origin — is nothing to do with hue, but instead signifies a full moon happening for a second time in the same month. Full moons occur every 29 days. With a full moon having already appeared this month on Aug. 2, Friday’s full moon will turn blue, well, in name only.

At times moons have actually appeared blue, but that phenomenon has nothing to do with full moons and everything to do with ash particles floating in the atmosphere. Varying volcanic eruptions over the last few centuries have sent up ash clouds. When the ash particles reach a certain width, they can block reds and yellow from getting to our eyes, giving us tints of blue — and sometimes green — moons.

Of course, we can’t rule out a volcano erupting between now and Friday evening, giving us an actual blue moon. But, then again, that only happens once in a blue moon.

And PS: Do you ever use the term, ''once in a blue moon?" I do…oops, is that a good thing or a bad thing? (to be continued, gotta get some shut eye)

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/30/turning-blue-fridays-full-moon-a-blue-moon/#ixzz255sdWKGx

Alzheimer's & Mitochondria

For mitochondria, bigger may not be better: Optimal length of mitochondria is essential to preventing Alzheimer's

"We have a good idea now of where the process starts. We know it ends with neurodegeneration, and with this study, we know some milestones along the way," said Feany. "But we still have to fill in the gaps and learn more about DRP1 and its role in this process."

(oops: just noticed I didn't put the reference/source of this material: will do that another day)
apparently if my Tau is out of whack then dumdey dum dum….not good…..

Just Because There's A Smile….

How many of us hide
all of our lives
curled up in a little ball?
To close our eyes
sitting a while
it's a place to block out, find calm.


How many look on
think we're "great" or just "fine."…...
"They can accomplish & do anything."
"I wish that I could be…...
….that personality, 
          …...that smile…
                   …they always seem to win…"

How many of us struggle
yet, Always seem to muster the "lustre"
for family, company and calls?
We dare not to bother or
take up their time….
We want them to be happy not grim!

How many look on the other
through their narrow eyes,
their experience, perspective, own lives?
"They cannot imagine, touch or intone
what another experiences within,...
that pain those cross' they bear.."

To care for another,
No judgements, those assumptions!
Only the Lord & this individual's aware,
Of  their struggles, their efforts,
To walk through each day...
Perhaps minutes of hours,  burdens

Are there…
                    ... of a racing pacing heart.
                                                            -suzie

BIRTHDAY THEME: FARM or BARNYARD ANIMALS

Some of us learn by reading, some by pictures/tutorials, some hands-on….Here I will primarily post photos which will give you some ideas: THIS PARTY WAS FOR YOUNG TODDLERS so there are not games per se, rather, activities. (the above photo: everytime I crop this and adjust lighting only the original transfers…rats! Will keep trying)

CAKE: Check out the cake Daddy made up for the party! (above)…little pig made out of starbursts, hay is yellow-dyed coconut with marshmallow behind for circular bale; cake = pound cake; walls of barn use red string licorice; roof = chex; fence = pretzels, 2 round 9'' cakes, icing and presto! Barnyard Cake. Blue icing for a pond, black for pig in mud, green for grass, red for some of barn. Notice the 2 round cakes are nestled within one another; cut out a portion of one to fit the other inside it. Feed the birthday child his first piece of chocolate cake iced separately with green icing. Everyone else has cupcakes…the following days the family enjoys the Barn Cake together. You can give the baby the entire silo to dig into! Oh man; oh fun.

CUPCAKES: Pigs, Chicks and Cows and Sheep:

1) Pig: nose = marshmallow dipped in sprinkles; string licorice chopped for nostrils; eyes =choc. chips; ears = pink starbursts

2) Cow: nose & eyes = same as pig; nostrils = choc. dripped through small hole in bag; ears                                                                 
   = pink mentos gum

3) Chicks: covering = yellowed dyed coconut; wings are gummies; eyes same as pig; nose (oops I forget - some sort of orange gummy)

4) Sheep: one large marshmallow surrounded by tiny marsmallows; eyes = drip like cow; mouth 
    =  pink gel icing. 

BARN YARD: (for mother's to sit with crawler's; or toddler's to play.) Place blankets/table cloths on ground and set around barnyard stuffed animals and books about farms for mom/dad to read etc.)


HAY RIDES: label a wagon with a sign and presto! Kids love taking rides in a wagon

You can include a ''waterpond'' if you don't mind the kids getting all wet. Heather did have this with towels nearby (no picture).

now for FOOD: 


Wanted you to see the pig placed in dark icing for mud; blue icing for a little waterhole and the hay is coconut dyed yellow with a marshmallow behind some to make a circular bale of hay.


The main theme was a garden patch of vegetables on a tray made to look like a vegetable garden. Place vegetables in rows and make some dip! (left front: with play fences on the sides. They borrowed my animal dishes/bowls for fruit; Oreo cookies labeled as 'spokes' of a wheel; Rice Krispie treats labeled "bales of hay"; the candy called 'Cow Tales'; and in the Crock-Pot were ''pigs in a blanket.''
Hot dogs wrapped in bacon cooked in a crock-pot ahead of time. Labels with a farm theme name and presto! Barnyard Party and Food.

What To Make for A One Year Old

        Baba            
 THAT'S WHAT!
   (Baba: knit project)

At the last minute, actually 24 hrs. before the birthday I thought, "I'd love to make Joel a huggable something." So, searching on Ravelry,
a knitter/crocheters' website, I found the perfect pattern to download by Shafer Dobry. Find her pattern on Ravelry.com or Etsy.
Ravelry is great to join, by the way. 

Store pictures of all your projects in one place, see what people all around the world are making, share ideas, free patterns, trade yarn, meet professional knitter/crocheter's and get advice etc. etc. etc.

PICTURES ABOVE of Baba: my son sent these to me in an email with the following captions:

"Waiting around for my little boy to wake up," says Baba (picture two)…."But first some fun!" (picture one). You see, Michael, age 29 is still a child at heart; the apple doesn't fall far from this tree! He has all the animals talking to his kids and being goofy and crazy well, like I was I guess. Michael you are a blast. Sometimes I am not sure who the children are; you and Heather?
(below: Baba ''hanging around in my flowers." NOTE: I'm a beginner knitter - easy pattern; written well.

Watercolor: Double Impatients

-for my guy, son Jonathan 

(okay, now that i look at it here..it needs more bright color in upper left..this

is a joke..i was trying to sweep color through the picture and dahhhh..it looks arghhhhhh dumb…

oh well, that is how we learn, right? the background isn't bad though. so yeah.

A Daughter, A New Son: They're Wed!

       






  JOHANNA & DAVID 
        JUNE 2nd, 2012
The Inn at Whitewing Farm

    A cello, 
   A harpist,
A setting so bright,
Sound and scent apple blossoms, this breeze,
        It's just right!
 
                   
                                        Mother's are waiting,
                                 With sons and grandsons.

  
Flower girl "Ella" with Ring-bearing ''Isaac," wait                                                                           for their entrance - but First comes his ''mommy," It's daughter-in-law
Heather!! 




Sarah, Maid of Honor, sister of the Bride, loving and beautiful, sweetly she glides.  

                                                                              And now comes the time for the children
to enter,
    Daddy makes certain that all is together!
                                     
                                                                      Groomsmen and Best Man look on with wide smiles,
                                                                         supporting the Groom as he waits for his Bride!  


  The Harp strikes its note, the Bride takes her stand, atop of the stairs looking down at her Man!

Proud Father, so careful, guides His Daughter down the stairs, Arm in arm  tender words &  laughter exchanged; twenty-four years meeting as one descending those stairs.

Overwhelming tears, the Groom is in awe, the magnitude of this gift; Christ and His Bride! Is this not what the occasion then mirrors for us?

The setting,    how gorgeous,   flowers in bloom,    the "poofs" Johanna's made,   -perfectly strewn.  


(more to come…)

can't come up with a title

Something was different about today: are you ever in a more pensive, melancholy mood
than usual? sure, who isn't. thoughts:

If I could touch the moon from this small patch of earth where I live and toil; and,
if another could touch the moon from their small patch of earth where they live and toil.
Write a story;''if'' I was creative enough for such a thing. I admire creative writers.

The Owl and the Pussycat poem; they sailed away under the moon on the sea...what if they could have touched the moon? And, when the author wrote their story..why did he put together these two - an odd combination,......hmmm...isn't that what makes for a fabulous story? The coming together of. These two would not seem to be a pair but the author places them together and it's a perfect fit.

When I stare at the moon there has to be at least one other person staring at the moon, right? Or, several thousand or million? This same moon: Napoleon, the Disciples of Christ, unknown tribes of today, Socrates (was he Greek), slaves of the south escaping to the north navigated by, etc...all looked/are looking at the same moon, right? Did you ever think about that? The moon, what is it that
fascinates us about the moon; its beauty, fullness...and there are romantic stories that go along with the moon; stories around fires...and on and on. Yeah, what is that song,,,''dancing in the moonlight..."

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


ps: I missed once again this year Isaac's birthday wish (yesterday)    <Happy Birthday To You>
will post what I made you! I always tell what mistakes I made on something or apologize for it; why is that? BUT, this once is it okay if I brag and say... I did a GREAT JOB on Isaac's gifts...of course with my new Artista 730 Bernina (a splurge...eeeehhh). Who couldn't. 

TWO-SIDED Toddler APRON (my own pattern)

Apron: playing kitchen, art/painting, etc.

-  waterproof liner.

-  Velcro ties and neck strap for independence.

-   Elastic in neck strap grows with child.
- 3 pockets on front: Isaac side
- 2 pockets reverse side

 

-posting another day: designed/made
mixing bowl and hand mitt that coordinate with the apron. Tools? just
pull from your drawer!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC...(to left)

NOW WHAT TO MAKE FOR JOEL...HMMMM