My Mommy

So, my mom has been out of the hospital for over a month now. Her surgeon referred her to a neurologist closer to home & she had her first consultation some days ago.

Mom reports that the doctor was totally amazed at her condition. First of all, she shouldn't be alive!

Ok, she's alive! She should have weakness on the entire left side of her body, probably some slurring of speech, difficulty walking, talking & thinking... Definitely some Physical Therapy, maybe some time at a Rehabilitation Facility...........

NONE OF THAT! She suffers from headaches occasionally, has some short-term memory loss (she always did forget quite a bit, I'm not ready to chock that up to brain surgery-lol), a little bit of vision issues... But nothing the doctors are too concerned with.

They have her following up on some of those things and home from work for a total of 3 months to be sure that there are no serious effects...

What patient, do you know, in Neuro ICU has a biggest complaint about how bad the chicken tastes & desperately wants to take a shower??? My Mommy, that's who!

My mom is doing great! I have so much to be thankful for. So many lose their moms from things much simpler than this, but God spared her life & I'm tickled pink.

So here she is a week or 2 after being home. Since they had to put in a shunt to help relieve the pressure in her brain, they had to shave a part of her hair... Right in the front. She decided to even it all out and boy, does she look fabulous!

This was taken about 3 weeks ago. ;)

I'm 35

Another birthday has come and 'almost' gone... So, this is what it looks and feels like to be 35?

I thought of my friends' tradition all day long... Life is too short and each day is a blessing, each laugh is a gem in the treasurebox of memories, each year is a milestone of God's faithfulness & a sign that our work on this earth is not quite done.

Too many near-misses, too many near-deaths, too many last breaths have crossed my path in these 2 short months of 2013.

Every birthday should be celebrated in the form of a National Holiday... No work/school, favorite foods, favorite people, extra treats...

Though this day we had a whole lot of work & school... All of the above was top notch!

Today is the last birthday I work!
:D

The pic is the name tag I picked up every morning at 11am & dropped off every evening at 7pm at Westchester Medical Center for 11 days while my mom laid in Neuro ICU... She was there for much longer, but...... God brought her through! One of those 'near-misses' hit pretty close to home.

Breaking the Silence.......

Psalms 51:15 HCSB
"Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise."

Anyone who has had even the shortest conversation with me knows that I have something to say... My husband lovingly (or jokingly) calls me 'The Mouth of the North.' ...I wonder if it should be 'of the South' now that we live in Florida? :/

Well, anyone who knows me better than that knows, I REALLY do because I am a talker.

As I sat and spoke with the Lord today, I realized that I am silent about so much... Yes, me! I know! I was pretty shocked as I realized it too.

I do believe I am a good communicator... But I realized today that I only speak what feels safe. I would normally call this WISDOM.  But is it... REALLY?! Not sure. Well, today I am breaking the silence. Not sure how often I won't be silent in this forum, but I start today.

Follow me on this journey........... Not sure where I'm heading, but I'm following my Shepherd. Let's see where He takes me... us!

I watched the first episode of Scandal while I was visiting NY in January. God had been speaking to me throughout my trip. The following quote sums up just one thing He had been pin-pointing in my life.

"... you'll finally do stuff that matters. Because you need to believe that there's something greater than a 9 to 5 job. That there's a higher purpose. That your life has meaning because the world feels big and you feel lost."
Quote from Scandal (season 1, episode 1)

I always like be sure that the Word of God is closely behind any philosophy... This is what God has to say to (us) today:

Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord , thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Ecclesiastes 3:22 NLT
"So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is why we are here! No one will bring us back from death to enjoy life after we die."