Cuties Playing Soccer

If you haven't been to a peewee soccer game lately you need to go, but only if you can handle the cuteness, because there will be a lot of it. For example, this little girl is my niece, Calea.

Calea lost her front teeth this summer and one of them is growing back in. She was giving me all the details of how this is working out for her when I took this picture.

This is Cade, aka Batman, refusing to look at the camera. He was in rare form Saturday morning.


One of the benefits of being the adorable little brother is that you get to listen in on the team meetings and get in on the team snacks.



Calea is a good friend. She's the kind of friend who will commiserate with you about your battle scars,



Tell you off for sticking your tongue out at her,

then make up with you quickly so you can get on with having fun.

She'll even let you play with her hair if you are bored.

She's a fierce competitor though,

so don't mess with her.

Things Mono Is Teaching Me

I have learned more than I ever really wanted to know about mononucleosis in the last few weeks so I thought I'd share. Who knows? You might even find it interesting!

1. 95 percent of adults in America have had mono and once you have had it you are immune to it. If you have it as a child, you may not have any symptoms. (Web MD)


2. Once you have had mono, it can become active again without causing any symptoms and when it is active it can be spread to others. (Web MD)


3. The older you are, the longer it takes to get better. I am very old.


4. You shouldn't get a massage if you have a fever or infection of some kind. I got a massage on Friday, thinking it would help stimulate my immune system but I felt much worse afterward and after reading up on it I realized why. When you have a fever, your body is trying to isolate and destroy the infection. Massage stimulates circulation which is the opposite of isolation. (Check out this link about when not to massage.)


5. It is important to not 'push it' when you have mono but laying around all of the time isn't going to make you better so do what you can when you can.


6. I am leaving this bout of illness with some new insights about chronic illness that I hope I will use in the coming years. A few of those insights are:  a. People with chronic illness need their friends to stay in touch with them. We all tend to be 'out of sight, out of mind' so we must rely on the Holy Spirit's prompting. b. People with chronic illness don't need advice. They probably have more information than you do about their illness. c. Bringing a meal is always nice. Just because you are too tired to cook doesn't mean you want to order pizza again. d. People with chronic illness are tired of talking about their illness.

There, that's about it. I think I can get well now.



P.S. After re-reading this post, I noticed a couple ironies. First, it probably would have been helpful for me to have someone give me the advice, 'don't get a massage', before last Friday so point 6b isn't always applicable. (Smirk) Second, apparently point 6d isn't always true since I am posting about it AGAIN. Hmmm, maybe it would be better to say 'let people with chronic illness bring up their illness because most of the time they are tired of talking about it.'

My New Hobby

I have a new hobby thanks to Teva, Charlie's groomer. The last time I took him to see her I dropped him off at 8am and when I went to pick him up at 5:55pm, Teva brought him out still brushing him and apologizing for the two mats that were still on him. Bless his heart. Bless her heart more.

She said she had brushed him out and then bathed him but he had lots of mats close to his skin that she hadn't noticed so she let him air dry, combed him out as much as she could, then bathed him AGAIN and gave him a deep conditioner, then brushed him out while he was drying, then combed and picked and cut and brushed for the rest of the day. I'm sure she fit some other dogs in there somehow but obviously, we had a problem.

So, here's the thing. I brush that dog. I admit it had been about a week since I had bathed him and brushed him out but I thought I was doing a pretty good job so I asked Teva for some advice and here is what we do now: We comb him out. With a metal comb. At least every other day. All the way to the skin. If I do it every day it only takes about five minutes. If I skip a day it takes more like fifteen minutes and neither one of us is very happy by the time he is tangle free.

To attempt to distract me, he will lay on the side I am brushing. Then he'll hop down and bring me his ball.

Do you think you could resist that waggy tail? Well, I can. Because that puppy has to be combed! Every day! All the way to the skin! With a metal comb! Or I'm going to lose my groomer. And she's sweet, and wonderful, and does a nice job, and loves my puppy. She thinks his kisses are sweet. We love Teva. She's a keeper.

And just in case you think you would never have a dog that requires that much attention, feel free to come cuddle with this sweet ball of softness. He feels like the softest, fuzziest stuffed animal you ever felt. And he hugs you back. And if you are really nice he will kiss your nose. Totally worth it.

Things I Have Learned From My Clients

1. God really does support the humble and resist the proud. He is close to a broken and contrite heart.

2. People can recover from anything. Nothing is too big or terrible for God to heal it.

3. Sin will always take you farther than you thought you'd go, cost you more than you thought you'd pay, and keep you longer than you thought you'd stay.

4. This world is broken. I am broken. You are broken. We are all in desperate need of redemption. I am so thankful Redeemer is one of his names.

5. I don't have to know what the end of the journey looks like. Sometimes God just wants me to trust him for the next step.

6. Forgiveness is the most powerful thing a person can ever do.

Change Your Life Caramel Apples - Seriously.

I am not even going to try to be poetic about this. The entire purpose of this post is to get you to go to this blog post and get the recipe for these caramel apples. They are the BEST WAY to spend an Autumn afternoon. Amen.

Just in case it helps to inspire you to see a picture, here is the one she posted on her site.

Wait! Wait! If that didn't inspire you, how about this?

That's chocolate, caramel, and your choice of candy coating that delicious, juicy apple. You have to SLICE it to eat it! Bring it to a neighbor that you hope will forgive your yard this summer. Oh, you don't have one of those? Oh. Nevermind.

I Love

New balls of yarn.

Walking along difficult paths with dear ones and seeing the Holy Spirit join us, bringing meaning to pain.

Friends who I can call and say 'tell me the truth', trusting that my heart is safe.

Sisters who believe a sister hug can cure mono.

Young women who join my daughter on her life journey and deposit dreams and beauty into places her mother can not reach.

Seeing people love the people that I love.

My messy house that doesn't define me.

Knowing that 'all my days were written in Your book before one of them came to be' in a way that brings peace to my worst days and profound joy in unexpected places.