Rules For Our Home

Have you ever heard of the Duggar family? What a family! They seem to be wonderfully sweet people. Below are rules their family goes by, and I'm thinking they're worthy of incorporating into our own home!


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



Always use soft words, even when you don't feel well.

Always display kind actions, even if you have been mistreated.

Show joyful attitudes, even when no one else is looking.

Have sincere motives with no thought of self-gain.

Always give a good report of others.

Never talebear unless physical harm will come to someone. (Use Matthew 18)

Never raise a hand to hit.

Never raise a foot to kick.

Never raise an object to throw.

Never raise a voice to yell.

Never raise an eye to scowl.

Use one toy/activity at a time.

Never let the sun go down on your wrath. (Don't go to bed angry or guilty)

J. O. Y. -- Make serving your family a priority -- put Jesus first, others second, yourself last.

Yummy New Lunch

As you may or may not know, I am on a quest to lose my extra weight as well as find healthy AND yummy meals and snacks for my family so we can all be healthier.



But we're a pretty picky bunch. If it doesn't taste good, it doesn't matter how healthy it is, we're not going to eat it! And if it's not something I can find at my local Wal-Mart or Kroger, or if it costs a fortune, it won't be finding it's way into our home.



So in my quest, any time I find a new recipe or idea that is both healthier AND tastes good, I'll share it here with you so you can glean from my searching and testing. Likewise, if you have any recipes that fit this bill, I would be so thankful if you would share them with me!




My first new find came from a desire to get some more vegetables in since I'm NOT a veggie lover, or even veggie LIKER. I do enjoy the occasional salad, but only if I can enjoy Ranch dressing with it. And no, I do NOT like reduced fat or fat-free ranch. Yuck!



I'm also trying to get more fiber in my daily diet, since I know that's really good for us. So, this is what I came up with, and much to my surprise, it's really, really good! I've had it for the past two days:



-The original carbdown Light Flatout Wraps (from Wal-Mart in the deli section; only 90 calories but has 9 grams of fiber per flatbread!)



-Lettuce



-4-5 strips/pieces of Hormel Natural Choice 100% Natural (No preservatives) Grilled Chicken Strips (also from Wal-Mart)



-1 TBSP. good-ole regular creamy Ranch dressing!



Just lay down the lettuce and grilled chicken pieces on the flat wrap sideways (the shortest way on the wrap, not long-ways), and top with the Ranch dressing. Fold up one long side about an inch or two to keep the ingredients from falling out and then fold over one side, then the other. Enjoy!



This yummy lunch idea will provide you with 9 grams of fiber (you should be getting between 25-35 per day), 209 calories, and 9 grams of fat. For those of you who may be counting Points with Weight Watchers, this comes out to 4 Points.

Receive Updates on Maggi's Condition

The family is setting up a website for Maggi here: www.carepages.com



You'll have to register (free and takes a few minutes) and then go to Care Page named : maggipiv



This site will even e-mail you when an update is posted.



(If you aren't familiar with Maggi's story, please see this entry.)

Please Say A Prayer For My Baby Girl

It seems like poison ivy just JUMPS out whenever Baby Girl is anywhere within 20 feet of it. All our other kids have been all the same places she has and none of them have ever had poison ivy, but Baby Girl gets it SO easily.



Here is her latest battle. This is, by FAR, the worst she's ever had it and it just doesn't seem to be going away. I took her to the doctor a few days ago and she is taking Prednisone for 10 days as well as an antibiotic (Cephalexin 500MG four times a day!) because the nurse practioner thought it might be setting up a secondary infection.



After 3 days of medicine and two oatmeal baths only her face looks better. She's just miserable! If you could say a little prayer for her I know she would be so thankful.

Stop The Snoring Tonight!

If you or your hubby (or anybody you know!) suffer from snoring take
my advice and RUN, don't walk, to your nearest Wal-Mart and buy some Breathe Right Snore Relief Throat Rinse! It works immediately and all you have to do is gargle 2 tsp. of the minty-tasting rinse before bed.





I'm not making any money from telling you this, and not many things get my Stamp-of-Approval, but when something does exactly what it's supposed to do and it's something I truly and honestly believe in and plan to continue to buy, I'm going to be sure and tell everyone I can about it.





This stuff is wonderful and we will be keeping it in our cabinet for years to come. If you pick some up, be sure to let me know what you think.

Please Pray for Maggie!

LATEST UPDATES WILL BE ADDED TO THE END OF THIS POST





Please pray for Maggie, a fellow homeschool mom and a dear FIAR (Five In A Row) sister from Kansas.





She is an amazing lady. While pregnant with her 2nd son 10 years ago she was diagnosed with cancer. So she was home with a 1 year-old son, a newborn preemie baby and going through chemo. The doctor's said she'd never have any more children, but she's had 2 boys since. Praise God! Her boys are now 11, 9, 4, and 1.



Maggi was fine last Thursday (April 12) but woke up feeling like she had the flu Friday and stayed in bed all day. Her husband wound up taking her to the ER early Saturday morning.



Maggi has no spleen (removed due to the cancer) and it seems that is causing her body to not be able to fight whatever this might be. When her husband got her to the hospital she had respiratory failure, liver failure... he said every kind of failure you could think of.

The doctors originally thought she had some form of meningitis. She had all the indications, including swelling of the brain, but all the cultures have come back negative for that. She is currently in an induced coma and they are hoping no brain damage has occured. The last I heard, they will slowly be bringing her out of this so she should be more aware of what's going on.



There has also been limited function of her liver and kidneys. She has been on dialysis some to help with her kidneys.



Maggi is purple all over - like bruising - they are sure that this will all go away, but it will take a month or more and will possibly blister up as it does. Pray that this will go with as little damage as possible! Her skin in general would be good to pray for. She has some dark spots on the bottom of her feet that they say are gangreneous areas - as long as it doesn't spread there will be no amputation, just tissue removal - PRAY it doesn't spread!!!



As of the latest update, the newest prayer request is for Maggi's hands, fingers, legs, feet and toes. Her circulation is really poor and real damage could be done to these extremeties.



I will add any updates as I hear them.









UPDATE: Tuesday, April 24 (1:00 pm)


The doctor wants to make clear how deep in the woods Maggi still is. He put it this way - "Can she survive? Yes. Will she survive? We don't know."

A major concern right now is Maggi's legs. She has no circulation or pulse in them - the tissue is dying. It's not a sure thing that she will lose them, but with every hour that passes like this, it becomes more likely.

Maggi's mom is praying for her to be returned to us WHOLE! But, she also said that if Mag loses her legs, she'll handle it! She's an OT and will know just what to do! Her mom is very strong and full of faith!

Pray for those legs! And for Maggi's life!




UPDATE: Tuesday, April 24 (11:00 pm)

There's not much change. They are giving Maggi extra platelets with her dialysis. They are hoping that this will help with the circulation issues. I don't understand the ins and outs of it, but pray that this will work!

She's a little less "under" - she has responded to requests like "bite your tube if you hear me" and "blink if you hear me" - which seems like a positive, but now John worries that she'll be anxious now that she's more aware.

Finally, Mitch, Maggi's oldest boy, has told his dad that he's scared. This is huge because Mitch isn't what you'd call an "open sharer", if you know what I mean! He's got to be really scared to share that - and understandably so. Please pray for these boys! Tomorrow they'll be at their once a week homeschool support school - normalcy is good, but I'm sure they'll get lots of questions, etc. Lift them up when you think of them tomorrow.

SAHM I AM

I consider myself a stay-at-home mom........ with a job.



I quit working a couple months before our oldest (who just turned 11) was born and haven't had a job outside the home since. And let me just say I wouldn't have it any other way. I LOVE being a stay-home mom!



But a couple months ago an opportunity just dropped out of the clear blue sky when I wasn't even looking and now 3-4 days a week (3 days one week, 4 the next) I am an official 'baby photographer' at our local hospital. I take those irresistable newborn pictures no new mother can refuse! Well, most new moms anyway.



But I still consider myself a stay-home mom because HOW can you think of what I do as a JOB? I can't believe I even get PAID to do this! And for the amount of time I actually spend doing it, it's pretty decent pay. We're a small town and the hospital is only a 5-minute drive from our house. Some days there will only be one or two newborns so I'm only there about an hour. Other days there's more, some days there's none. The ONLY thing that's hard about what I do is actually putting the babies down when I'm done instead of holding and cuddling them.



Thankfully, I've gotten much faster than when I first started. One day early on I had 5 babies to photograph, along with meeting with the moms and collecting orders, and I was there for 6 hours! I knew that couldn't happen again. MY babies are more important than something that's going to take me away from them for that long. Now I can average about 2 babies per hour. That includes both visits I have to make with the moms and taking the pictures. Not too bad. I can go faster if the babies are a bit hungry because they're easy to wake up. But oh boy! Those little ones with full bellies are like trying to wake the dead. I've actually had a few that I've tried for 30 minutes or more trying to wake up and had to wind up just taking them while they were asleep.



Another 'problem' I have is that I'm a bit of a perfectionist. But in this case I think it's a good thing. I know that these pictures can never be re-done and they are the most precious ones for mom and dad so I want to make sure that they are the best they can be. If one turns out with puckery lips or even the slightest frown I delete it until I get three good ones to present to mom. Time-wise this sometimes turns into a bit of a longer day for me. But, when they're good I tend to sell more so it's worth it!



Tomorrow, I'll have SEVEN babies to photograph! For around here, that's a lot. More than I've ever had before. I'm praying for moms who have their baby's outfits and are ready for me, semi-hungry babies, and beautiful pictures so all the moms just can't resist ordering lots and lots of pictures!