December 23, 2012 - almost there...

Christmas is almost here and I have not been so glad of its arrival since I was a child.

Early on I tried to talk Gretchen into cutting back on what we did for Christmas this year. The idea was to minimize the gift giving (not eliminate, just keep it simple, like homemade Christmas cookies) so that we could focus on keeping Christmas relatively relaxed. Gretchen insisted that we needed to buy gifts for everyone because they were going to get gifts for us. What she didn't realize was that she had already given them a significant Christmas gift – she survived and was getting better.

I had hoped that we would be able to have a nicely decorated house and be able to invite friends and family over and give them baked gifts (Peter and I always bake Christmas cookies and Gretchen and her dad used to back spritz). Instead we ran around buying gifts and I finally had to tell Gretchen that we would not be baking cookies this year since all the shopping had taken a toll on me. She wasn't happy but I firmly held my ground to eliminate on more item to get done in the last few days before Christmas. We did still decorate the house, we just didn't get to share it with our family and friends.

On a more positive note, Gretchen sang in church this morning and she is scheduled to sing again next week. Singing is stressful for her but it is the kind of stress that is beneficial. I did tell her that if she is going to be singing in the near future she needs to have people coordinate it through me. There were some details that got mixed up and caused a lot of wasted effort trying to straighten things out. She was able to work things out in the end but it took some effort. When she gets to the point where she can again manage multiple things at once then I will let her schedule her singing engagements.

Gretchen did sing wonderfully. God was gracious in allowing her to retain her singing ability with very little effort. She does need to sing more, I think it would be good for her. There are some possibilities at other churches, hopefully they will materialize.

Unfortunately, we now have a sick household. All three of us have runny/stuffy noses and I have a nasty headache. I know that my problem is lack of sleep because I got a call to go in to work at 9:30 last night to fix a computer. I didn't get home until after midnight and didn't wind down enough to go to sleep until almost 2:00. Since Gretchen needed to be down at the church early to warm up I couldn't sleep past 6:30 this morning so I need sleep. I suspect that Peter and Gretchen are both suffering similar since they didn't go to bed until after 11:00 and I suspect it took a while to get to sleep. Fortunately I took tomorrow off so maybe we can all get some extra sleep. Please pray for our general health.

December 17, 2012 - Not about Gretchen, Peter, or me

I warn you now, this is about the latest shooting in Connecticut and some folks might disagree with me.  If you read beyond this point please keep an open mind and if you disagree please do so politely.

I am frustrated!  Where I work we need to keep the news going 24 hours a day in case something major happens that could affect the power grid.  Every time I went into an area with a TV they were covering the shooting (I think even The Weather Channel was covering the shooting).  Yes, it is a tragedy, but Man is inherently sinful so this should not surprise us (sadden us, yes, surprise us, no).  Mention the story so that we know about it and can pray for those who are hurting but the more we focus on what this disturbed person did and analyze his actions and motives for the entire world the more likely we are to have another incident because the next disturbed person will see how much attention this one got and realize that he can be somebody by killing a bunch of people.

To make matters worse, this is being horribly politicized.  There are already calls for stronger gun control.  This guy took a gun into a gun-free-zone.  Because of that he was able to keep killing far longer than if responsible gun owners had been allowed to posses guns at the school.  Over the weekend I read how the principal and a counselor had raced to confront this young man that was doing the shooting.  The principal was killed when she charged at him trying to stop him (I don't remember what happened to the counselor).  If the principal and counselor had access to firearms and knew how to use them this tragedy would have been much smaller.  Instead we are told we need to put more restrictions on responsible gun owners (which won't solve the problem because the worst school attack in US history - 1927, Bath Michigan, 38 students and 7 adults - was done with a bomb).

Ultimately, the problem is sin and the fact that many churches in the US have abdicated their responsibilities to care for those around them and forgotten their responsibility to the Gospel.  We have asked the government to take care of the needy and hurting but government can only provide things (and not do that very well) and cannot provide the love and forgiveness that the poor and suffering need.

Let me close by saying that I don't have all the facts (I avoided the story as much as possible today).  I am merely commenting on the vulture mentality of the media, the political opportunism of our leaders, and the woeful absence of most of our churches from helping our culture. (would that I had time to expound on that last item, but I am 15 minutes late already)

December 9, 2012 - it's been a while

I happened to look at the stats for this blog this morning and I see that a few people are still checking in (probably just my family, but that's okay) so I figured I should post something.

Gretchen is doing amazingly well (though, by faith we are not surprised).  She still has memory issues but she is developing strategies for coping.  All of her therapy is "finished" (speech - which works on memory - will check back before the end of the year to see if she needs more) so that is one stresser off for the holidays.

Speaking of the holidays, we abandoned a tradition this year.  Usually we go to North Carolina and cut a tree for Christmas (for the most part they only have pines in Tennessee and Georgia but North Carolina has Frazier firs) but we decided that the stress of an all day trip plus the cost was just too much to do this year (plus, this is the weekend we would have done it and I am on-call so I can't be more than an hour away).  We found what appears to be a good Frazier and spent less and still had time to do some prep.  Still, I kind of miss crawling around in the dirt to cut the tree and then hauling it down the steep slope to the car.

Gretchen was able to sing a solo at church a few weeks ago and has two more scheduled before the first of the year.  Considering that no one was asking her to sing before the stroke I think this is great!  Singing causes a lot of stress which aggravates the memory but I think it is helpful in the long run.

Please continue to pray for Gretchen.  I know that she will make a full recovery but we are called to pray.

Also pray for my family.  My parents' house sold in record time (1 hour after listing) for full price.  Some suggested that they should have asked more but they got more than what they needed out of the house and didn't have to go through the stress of repeated showings with no offers (or really low offers).  Simply put, God pulled everything together at his time.  Now there is much to do out there but I can be no part of it.  There are still health issues to be concerned about (my dad had surgery to remove cancer - it was successful but he isn't up to a lot of work) so with the prep for moving next month they will need help.

Related to my parents moving and their health issues I am having struggles.  We want to go out there to help and see the house one last time but I only have a week of vacation available right now and with all the medical expenses we have I don't think it is responsible to plan a trip like that unless there is a genuine medical emergency.  Pray that I will have wisdom and that God will make it clear if we are supposed to go out there.

I will try to post at least weekly for a while since I expect to see much changing in the coming weeks...