My Hope

The Solid Rock

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Refrain:

On Christ the solid rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

When Darkness veils his lovely face,

I rest on his unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil.

(Refrain)

His oath, his covenant, his blood

Supports me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way,

He then is all my hope and stay.

(Refrain)

When he shall come with trumpet sound,

O may I then in him be found!

Dressed in his righteousness alone,

Faultless to stand before the throne!

(Refrain)

Edward Mote

1836

My New Chaise Lounge

Now that spring is here William likes to go out in front of our apartments to play. It is hard to tell him no because he sees all of the other children outside playing. The problem is that I can't sit up long enough to take William outside on most days.

Last week I told William that I would take him outside to play. I knew that I wouldn't be able to sit up while he played, so I brought a blanket to lie on in the grass. Unfortunately, the ground was very wet. William was already playing with his friends, and I didn't want to make him go back inside after only two minutes of play time. I just brought the blanket over to the concrete sidewalk and laid down there. It was hard and very uncomfortable, but it was dry. We stayed outside for two hours. I was a little sore, but I had survived. For the next couple of days, however, I was in pain! I was achy from having been on the concrete for so long.

I knew that something needed to change. The ground is often too wet to place a blanket on, and I am often too weak to sit up long enough for William to get a decent amount of play time in with the other children. I needed a chaise lounge. I spent an evening looking for one online. I checked Sam's, Wal-Mart and Target, but they were all so expensive. It wasn't sure if I could afford it, and so I prayed that God would provide a chaise lounge for me so that I could take William outside this spring and on cool summer days.

Two days later I won a $50 Target gift card on Marrdy's giveaway at her blog, One Krazy Kat Lady. I almost cried as I told Will that God had provided the money for my chaise lounge.

Today my gift card came in the mail, and Will took me shopping. We found a chaise lounge on sale for $34!!! Not only did God provide the lounge chair I needed; He provided more than I needed. Praise the Lord for His goodness! As George Müller would say, "How very kind of the Lord!"

This is me in my new chaise lounge. :)

A very big thank you to Marrdy for her generosity!

Blog Makeover

My blog makeover is here! How do you like the new look? I am so pleased with how it turned out. It's all personalized now!

Many thanks to Cassandra for her gift of a new header and button. Her husband designed them. Didn't he do a great job? I was thrilled when I saw the design!

This is my new button. It is also located on the side bar of my blog. If you want to put the button on your blog, just copy the HTML code.

<center> <a href="http://www.cranberryteatime.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/ss215/dchicksdesigns/ODAAT_BUTTON_LAYERED2.png" /> </a></center>

Thank you so much for reading my blog. All of you readers and commenters really help to make this fun for me.

Perseverance

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Hebrews 12:1-3, NIV

Steamer Trunk Mini-Makeover

The steamer trunk in William's bedroom has been in need of some new knobs. The old ones had broken, and only the tiny center of the knob was left.

Guess what we found at the thrift store for free! Knobs that fit perfectly.

The New and Improved Steamer Trunk

My Snuggle Bug

Every morning William comes in to snuggle me. I can't get out of bed right after waking up. Sometimes I'm stuck in bed for an hour or more. William doesn't mind at all. He just crawls up, snuggles close, and keeps me company.

My Snuggle Bug and Me

Look how happy he is! Even when his mommy is sick in bed, he's happy to be with me. Makes me feel pretty special.

Giving lots of kisses

Indoor Gardening Continues

We have planted even more seeds!

Sprouts are coming up.

William is really enjoying watching the flowers grow. He checks on them multiple times a day. A few of the small plants got squished because he was a little to eager to look at them. It's a good thing we planted way more seeds than we need!

Disclaimer: I have never planted flowers or herbs before. I don't know what I'm doing. If you are wanting to get into indoor gardening, don't think that you can copy me and have a great flower pot garden! I don't know if this will work or not!!! I'm just doing my best based on the instructions on the seed packets and mini greenhouse instructions. Y'all get to see if I succeed or if I fail. :)

It has been fun for William and me to plant some seeds and watch them each day. It is good to have an activity that both of us can do while sitting down and staying in one place. I still get completely worn out after sitting for an hour to plant seeds, but our time together has been worth it.

Gastroparesis Flare

I haven't done an official health update since starting this blog, and I figured it is probably time. I like blogging about things other than my health. It makes me feel normal for a few minutes. :) But if this blog is to be about a disabled wife and mom, it has to include health updates too.

The biggest battle lately has been gastroparesis. My gastroparesis has been getting worse over the past three weeks, but I didn't think much of it until this past weekend when it really flared up. For the weekend I had to be on a mostly liquid diet, and my stomach still had a hard time emptying. It has been hard to get enough calories and nutrients. I'm praying that this flare doesn't last long.

Meanwhile, I'm eating pudding, soup, saltine crackers, and drinking a lot of Ensure, juice, Gatorade, and soda. I'm staying away from water as much as I can right now. Normally that's not something I would do, but I need any calories I can get. Water fills me up, but doesn't give calories, so I've replaced my normal water bottle with glasses of ginger ale and root beer.

Mornings are harder than they used to be. It is so hard to get my body moving in the morning. Waking up and getting out of bed can take an hour or more, and it feels like a fight the whole time. Once I'm up and out of bed, it can still take an hour for my brain to "wake up."

As always, I have to rest a lot throughout the day, and I have to spend most of my time lying down. This can be discouraging because I have so much on my to do list: thank yous to write, taxes, letters, coupon clipping, filing, medical journaling, appointment scheduling, and more that I'm forgetting. I feel so unproductive. I can usually only accomplish one small task per day, and some days not even that. I'm very careful about pacing myself. I can't do too much or I'll pay for it later (with even more fatigue, weakness, dizziness, etc). I have to push myself just enough, though, so that I don't lose even more muscle. It's a delicate balance!

So that's a bit of an update for those of you who are wondering. Enough about me. How are you doing? :)

Wisdom and Folly

Earlier this week William was watching his Cars movie, and he heard The King tell Lightning McQueen, "You're stupid." William has seen this movie about 97 times, but this is the first time he noticed that the word "stupid" is used. His eyes got big and he looked at me completely shocked. "He said, "stupid!" William informed me.

"Yes, he did. That's a naughty word," I started to say. Then I realized that was the easy way out. Stupid isn't a naughty word. It's only naughty if you use it in the wrong way. I then changed my answer. "Yes, William. But in all honesty, some people are stupid." William's eyes got even bigger. Had his mommy really just used the word stupid?!!

I told William about the book of Proverbs in the Bible. It teaches us about wisdom and folly, about being wise and being stupid. The next day William and I sat down in my bed together to read verses about wisdom and folly. I thought William would only sit through two or three verses, but he kept asking for more! We read and discussed about 15 verses on wisdom and folly! After that we prayed together, and we asked God to teach us to be wise.

Throughout this week Will and I have been reinforcing this lesson with William. As we go through daily life we talk about actions that are wise and actions that are foolish. Even at the age of three, William has a very good grasp of what is wise and what is foolish. We pray that he will grow into a wise and godly man, and that he will not choose the path of folly.

Here are some of the verses William and I have discussed:

• "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." Proverbs 1:7
• "A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother." Proverbs 10:1
• "A fool finds pleasure in evil conduct, but a man of understanding delights in wisdom." Proverbs 10:23
• "Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid." Proverbs 12:1
• "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm." Proverbs 13:20
• "A fool's talk brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them." Proverbs 14:3
• "A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly." Proverbs 14:29
• "Understanding is a fountain of life to those who have it, but folly brings punishment to fools." Proverbs 16:22

All verses are taken from the New International Version of the Bible.

My Fortress

My soul finds rest in God alone;

my salvation comes from Him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation;

He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Psalm 62:1-2, NIV