Saturday, June 27, 2009

Psalm 91

When sick or in pain read Psalm 91

Laura Ingalls Wilder (as found in her bedside Bible after her death)


Psalm 91


1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.



2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."


3 Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.


4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.


5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,


6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.


7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.


8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.


9 If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the LORD, who is my refuge-


10 then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.


11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;


12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.


13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.


14 "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.


15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."


All we have to do is believe and his protection is ours.

The cast is off....and another break!

The good news and the bad news!



Let's start with the good news shall we? I always like the good news first. We went back to the orthopedic and Reagan had the cast removed, re-xrayed and Dr. Anderson decided the cast could stay off!! We washed that hand and scratched it and rubbed her arm (the break was in her pinkie finger and knuckle). This was worthy of a celebration lunch at a pizza buffet that we have here locally.



The bad news is that the week after Reagan broke her hand, we went back to the same inflatable play place thinking that it was just one of those fluke things that happened. Well...wrong! Reagan came down off of a slide and landed wrong and had been limping off and on for about a week. While we were there I asked Dr. Anderson if he would mind taking a look at her foot and he did and x-ray (my daughter probably glows in the dark now :)) and guess what?? her heal is broken. After much discussion and examination it was decided that we wouldn't cast her foot for now. She is walking on it and the break is not severe. We are to call him next week if things are not better and he will have to cast it.

Believe it or not, we are supposed to go to this same place in two weeks for a birthday party....I am not to sure about that one.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Little House on the Prairie Wrap-up

We have spent this year in a small co-op with the Prairie Primer. For those of you who might not be familiar with the curriculum, it is written to spend a year going through the Little House on the Prairie books. It is written like a unit study with all subjects based around these books. We had an awesome group this year and had prairie dresses and lunch pails that we used each week in co-op. There were some awesome field trips...nature center, square dancing, weather center, train ride and many more. As a final trip to wrap up the year we decided to take a four day vacation as a group and go to Independence, KS and Mansfield, MO to visit two of the locations that she lived in.

We started met up and were ready to hit the road at 7:00 am. OUCH!! We are not early birds.

After a brief stop in Bartlesville, OK for a break, we arrived in Independence, KS at the site that the book Little House on the Prairie is based on. There is a replica of the house the Ingall's lived in based on the description given by Laura Ingalls in her book and others that lived in the area and had similar cabins.
Reagan just couldn't believe that all five of them lived in a house smaller than her bedroom. We also took a wagon ride out to the prairie where we had a guide talk with all of us about the differences that would have been found on the prairie back in Laura's days in comparison with what we were seeing now. It was really interesting to hear.
We then drove in to Joplin, MO for the night and spent the evening swimming in the hotel pool. We got up on Saturday morning and drove into Mansfield, MO to the home that Laura shared with Almonzo and also the place that she wrote the Little House books. She actually did not start writing these books until she was 65 years old. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the home, but were able to take several outside the home.

When Laura's daughter Rose was an adult, she used money she received from selling one of the books that she wrote to have a retirement home built for her parents. This home was purchased from the Sears catalog for $2,000 dollars and put on another area of the farm. Rose had many extras added on such as running electricity from the city of Mansfield to this home (they were the first outside of town to have electricity). In the end, the home ended up costing $11,000, which was a huge sum for that day and time.
We then took a side trip to Branson, MO for one night and then to the Tulsa Zoo and Oklahoma Aquarium on the way home.
This was a REALLY great trip. It was both fun and packed with so much history! We had a great time and I highly recommend visiting these sites if you get the chance.

Reagan and her hot pink cast

Thanks to an inflatable slide and a little bravery, Reagan has a new hot pink cast. Well, it is not exactly new...this happened about 2 1/2 weeks ago. We were playing at a place here called the PlayZone and decided to go down the slide hands first instead of feet first. Reagan hit a pocketed area at the end of the slide and it broke her pinkie finger at the growth plate, I believe this is called a green break because it is more of a buckle than a break which must be common with younger children.

We will be returning to the Orthopedic doctor on Thursday afternoon. Reagan will be so happy to get the cast off, wash her hand and arm and scratch! At this time they will determine if there is a need to continue on with a new cast. We have been fortunate that they now have water casts that you can swim in, bathe in, etc. We already had a vacation planned that I will post about later that involved lots of swimming that we were able to continue on with in spite of the cast!


Here is the cast:






Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Struggling

I am going through something right now and I am not sure what it even is. All I know is that I feel angry, unhappy, tired and like I am going one day to the next to just get through life. It is effecting my marriage, family, homeschool and my house sure does seem to show it.

I hope to pull it together soon and share about what we are doing in homeschool right now, and the few fun things we have done lately.

Please pray!