Our Little Piano Player

I just can't get enough of those eyes!

This sweet face is so proud of the music he has just made on Ludee's piano!

Adrian has discovered that he can now stand at the piano and play "tunes" to his heart's content. He helps his Grandpa study Greek at the table in the next room!

These pictures are for his Mama.

A good piano teacher will notice his fingers are natural for playing the piano.


Picking out just the right note!

He has a good ear too. He goes all the way to the last bass key,

then back over to the highest treble note.

Not one to miss a good photo op when Ludee brings out the camera!

Lookie! He's already playing chords!

Just making sure it's okay with Mommy.

I'm so glad I have someone to pass this piano down to!

Persistence Has Paid Off!

Woohoo! I just got my report on my bloodwork from my annual physical and I'm pretty happy with the results. Forgive me if I gloat just a little. Let me explain.

I have an aversion to taking prescription drugs. Aside from estrogen replacement therapy for a few years, I refuse to fall prey to all the chemicals that purport to keep me healthy while maintaining an unhealthy lifestyle. In particular, the statin drugs that are prescribed to lower cholesterol levels. I'm not convinced of the need, to begin with, or of the safety of the drugs.

So I have had an ongoing tug-of-war with my physician as my cholesterol levels have crept upward: he, wanting me on statins; me, looking for natural means. The internet has been a great place to do personal research. And I have tried two or three different supplements over the years, mostly to no avail.

Last January my doctor called in my numbers and I admit they were getting precariously high - moving upward in the 300 range. He gave me his "Your life is in your own hands now" speech and begged me to get a prescription. I refused, because I had just read a report about Niacin. And Graham has a good friend who sells supplements, including Niacin, and he sent us his report which looked very hopeful. That was the start of my year.

Today, after a year on Niacin, my doctor is congratulating me! Wow! My total cholesterol has dropped 75 points! And triglycerides are down 60 points! I am a NEW woman! As well as a very determined woman. Perhaps my experience will give hope to members of my family, who may be inclined to high cholesterol, that there are alternatives to the chemical remedies of the drug companies. And the best part is that I have had zero side effects from the Niacin therapy.

Woohoo!

Random Thoughts

I'm just about at the end of my editing of Sunday school lessons.

The most tedious part for me is to take out the answers to the questions in

the Teacher's manual so that the Students will have blanks to fill in.

This series on Revelation has 40 lessons and each lesson has 25 - 40 questions.

I don't want to do the math!

What I want to do right now is rest my brain for a few minutes.

So I'm going to post some very random thoughts during my "brain-cation".

Yesterday was the presidential inauguration. Forgive me if I don't capitalize "presidential".

I just think the world is making too much of Obama. If all the expectations that have been verbalized were counted... let's just say there's no way he will ever live up to them.

Perhaps we are doing the man a disservice. His politics are certainly not mine,

but I do hope he's able to move the country forward.

It will have to be with a lot of help from everyone, though.

We shouldn't always get what we want.

Illustration: Treasure really wants to open the door and come into the kitchen.

It's her house and she can't understand why she's being put out.

Adrian really wants to open that door and let the dog-dog inside the kitchen.

She has a nice black nose and he doesn't know why he can't squeeze it.

Conclusion: We don't always know why God withholds our wishes,

but I'm willing to bet it's for a very good reason!

My idea of an ideal winter climate is a really cold night - maybe freezing or just above - and then sunny and warm in the afternoon. That's why I live in south Texas. I continue to experience severe chest pain when I'm out walking in very cold and very windy places. So I have concluded that we should limit our vacation destinations to warmer places. Duh!

Okay. That's it for my brain-cation. It's time to get back to work.

Pennsylvania Photobook

We celebrated the birthdays of Doug and Lois White last night and the gift I gave them was a copy of this Shutterfly photobook of our recent trip to Pennsylvania. Much to my delight, I have discovered the value of preserving my photo memories in one of these nifty photobooks. I just upload all my photos onto Shutterfly, then turn on the creativity button in my brain and let the memories flow out onto the page. One small photobook can contain as many pictures as I want to include, and it sure is easier to store (and to share) than a heavy, bulky 240 photo album!

Now that I've given the book to Lois and Doug, I am posting the link here so you can enjoy the photos of our trip. Keep in mind that this is meant to be a visual narrative of our week in Pennsylvania. If you want to see many more photos of the trip, go here.I am so sold on these photobooks! Hope you enjoy it.

Time for a Break

Either I'm getting too old or Graham is getting too wordy. Either way, this proof-reading and editing is wearing me out! I'm on the fourth edit today. The first one was to correct Graham's first round of errors. Then I started my "format" where I put in headers and footers and all kinds of helpful graphics. I glance through to straighten the margins and change fonts and stuff like that. The next edit is Graham's second set of corrections and that slows me down quite a bit. This time our friends and Board members, Doug and Lois, did a proofing, so now I'm going through for the fourth time and making their corrections. Did I say that I'm worn out?

I decided to take a break and do a little cross stitching. I found a pattern in my Jeremiah Junction magazine of a barn that looks amazingly like one of the many Amish homes we observed on our Pennsylvania vacation. So I grabbed some canvas, pulled the threads I need from my work box, and sat down and started stitching! I had forgotten how relaxing that can be.

My mother taught me many sewing techniques as I was growing up. I remember that she and I used to do needlepoint projects together. She was very good at crewel embroidery, something I really didn't catch on to. But I picked up the art of cross stitch and enjoyed that for several years, then put it away for a decade or so. About nine years ago, my friend Ruthie and I started a cross-stitch group from our church that met once a month to sit and stitch and enjoy each other's company. She directed me to the Jeremiah Junction books which are filled with "Americana" patterns and Scripture verses. And I've had a love relationship with that magazine ever since!

This has been a nice break in the action. I just realized, though, that I have to get my choir notes written for tomorrow night - yikes! There's just no rest for the weary, not tonight anyway!

My Other Life

I'm posting tonight mainly because I see that my brother has checked several times in the last week and nothing new is up. So in order to not discourage him from coming back, I need to explain about this other life of mine.

Graham and I have a writing/teaching ministry in which he writes Sunday school lessons and I am the designer/formatter/editor of the lessons. That can be almost as time-consuming as the writing. And usually he comes pretty close to deadline when he turns over the computer files to me.

We have just three weeks left in our current study of Acts and hope to begin this study on Revelation by the first of February. So I have been tied to the computer and in the book of Revelation all week and will be for at least another week before I'm ready to print.

I'd like to just say that this study in Revelation seems very timely, considering the world events that are swirling around us. I have asked my children, and I ask it here, "Do you know that you have everlasting life? Have you trusted Christ for salvation?" I can think of no other time when this seemed more important. The only security we have is in Christ.

Having said that, I will be busy for several days and probably not able to post. I'll be back soon.

Good News for Treasure

Treasure had her appointment with Dr. Earl today.

He did another ultrasound on her bladder to measure to growth progress of her tumor.

With a big smile he came and reported to me that there had been no growth in the last six weeks! This is such good news and really makes my heart happy.

I had been alerted by Treasure's foster mom in Austin about a DNA study at Purdue University regarding this very cancer that has become prevalent in Westies.

So today I showed the email to Dr. Earl and he is very interested in submitting Treasure's history and blood samples for the study. We may not be able to cure Treasure,

but maybe we can help find a cure for Westies in the future.

We have also been given permission to stop the peroxicam, the drug that makes her so sick.

I'm glad I don't have to put her through that anymore.

She does well on the monthly dose of antibiotics, so we'll keep up with those.

All in all, it was a very good report.

I gave Dr. Earl one of Treasure's Christmas pictures,

which was passed around to all the girls working up front.

And they all exclaimed, "Isn't that Jefferson's girlfriend?"

My goodness, Lois, our kids have a reputation!

Virtual Friendships

We live in a very interesting age. It's safe to say that the internet has reached into every aspect of our lives and brought some kind of change, good and bad. If you are reading this post, you have been favorably affected by it, in a way that I find very curious. I'm talking about Virtual friendships.

For about four years I have been regularly visiting a discussion forum on Ebay that is dedicated to a little rescued Westie in Illinois. The majority of folks who visit and post on this board own (or are owned by) dogs and/or cats - in other words, they are all animal lovers. This love of animals has given each member an empathy that cannot be explained in any other way. And though most of us have never met in person, we consider ourselves to be good friends - such good friends that we have even named our Virtual community Tessville, in honor of the little rescue Westie who brought us all together.

The last year has been rather a tough year for Tessville. No sooner had January begun than little Tess went into a health crisis and passed away. Our community was in shock and grieved for weeks. Every post was accompanied by tears and support for not only Tess's owner, but for all of us who felt the terrible loss of a pet. We worked through our grief with words of encouragement, with photos and memory books, and continued sharing of our lives with each other. Soon, the sadness began to fade and life moved on with births, weddings, and vacations to share with the community.

Then, sadness made another appearance in the life of one of our regular members whose Scottie became ill and quickly passed away. This was too much, too soon. Once again our little band of virtual friends banded together to support one another and move through another period of grief. Human illnesses and disappointments seem almost secondary to the canine dramas that entered our "town."

At the end of summer, I received news of Treasure's cancer and dire prognosis and I went directly to my community of virtual friends for support and encouragement. I remember the words of Tess's "mom" after Tess died when she said this community had given her more sympathy and love than even her own family. And we all understood, because we all share the same love for our pets. And that is what has held us together.

The year had not ended before one of our members received the worst news a parent can get, the death of a child. Not a doggie, nor a cat. This time it was a deep, stabbing pain. Once again our community came together, blending hearts and souls in support for our virtual friend - a friend many of us have never met face to face, but one we hold dear. This one will take more time to heal. Words and photos will not make the pain go away. But we will be waiting in our virtual community, ready to embrace our friend when she's ready to come back.

It is indeed a curious world we live in.