The grass withers 

and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God 

stands forever.

~Isaiah 40:8

Manners

"Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them; manner is personality—the outward manifestation of one’s innate character and attitude toward life." ~Emily Post, 1922


I'd like to continue the conversation about Esther. Esther gained respect from all, and Beth Moore suggests her manners were responsible. So I researched manners. I looked up Emily Post, 1922's Miss Manners.(online for your reading pleasure here) I remember my mom having my sister and I read an ancient book of manners for homeschooling ages ago, and thought I may find some gems. I did. Some are funny. Some are thought provoking. I could use a refresher on manners. Could you?

FOR WHAT SHE REALLY IS

  Instead of depending upon beauty, upon sex-appeal, the young girl who is “the success of to-day” depends chiefly upon her actual character and disposition. It is not even so necessary to do something well as to refrain from doing things badly. If she is not good at sports, or games, or dancing, then she must find out what she is good at and do that! If she is good for nothing but to look in the glass and put rouge on her lips and powder her nose and pat her hair, life is going to be a pretty dreary affair... Beauty and wit, and heart, and other qualifications or attributes is another matter altogether.

  A gift of more value than beauty, is charm, which in a measure is another word for sympathy, or the power to put yourself in the place of others; to be interested in whatever interests them, so as to be pleasing to them, if possible, but not to occupy your thoughts in futilely wondering what they think about you.
  Would you know the secret of popularity? It is unconsciousness of self, altruistic interest, and inward kindliness, outwardly expressed in good manners.

Etiquette must, if it is to be of more than trifling use, include ethics as well as manners. Certainly what one is, is of far greater importance than what one appears to be.

Alphabitty Moments: The letter E (&D)

I've missed four letters, but I think I can catch up on this project! The goal is to scrapbook one page a week and share our pages at 4theLoveofFamily. MamaBear says:

"The carnival was created as a way to record the little things your kids do. These keepsake book pages are meant to take a closer look at the ordinary and every day moments of childhood. Some day we will look back on all the little things and realize they were really the big things."

Sometimes I'm not sure I want to remember that Madison does school in her pjs with a mess of hair in her face. She actually had a bath that morning, but no one would guess it! She just threw her jammies back on. Who can resist being all cozy? And look at how she is enjoying our garage sale find!

 UPDATE: Catching up already!

I used Mixbook.com for these pages.

Makeover Meditation/Prayer Card

I added a printable card to the bottom of this post.

A Megan Moment:

She thought it was her turn to be highlighted on the blog!

 Megan is much like me.

She loves projects.

She loves making things.

She is persistent and will not give up

until I sit down with her and her project.

Which is why I bought this book:

Though I have a creative mind, I also have a busy mind,

and those creative juices that used to overflow the banks of my mind

are now as a stream struggling after a drought.

Today Megan pestered me for a project.

So I pestered back.

I insisted she finish her schoolwork.

And piano.

And lunch.

And I needed a break after lunch.

And THEN I grabbed the book

and we did our project:

This is a Feel-Good Box;

To be opened only when we are in particular need

of  an emotional boost.

We are going to fill it with things that make us smile.

Robb's and my engagement photo.

Megan's grape lip gloss princess necklace.

(She says the smell calms her down!)

A small game.

A joke book.

Gum.

And of course, Chocolate!

I think the box is lovely.

How about you?

p.s. Yes, I recently acquired Photoshop Elements from the PRIME office.

I wonder what other gems Robb has hiding there...

Tasty Tuesday

Granola with Apple

5 cups whole oats
1/4 cup 10 grain cereal
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup chopped almonds or cashews
1/2 cup apple or pineapple juice
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar(optional- will make granola chunkier)

Drizzle liquids over dry ingredients. Mix well.

2 cups shredded dried apple
1 pkg  (1/8 c) sesame seeds
Add apple and sesame seeds for the last half of drying so they do not burn.

Dry in food dehydrator 3 hours
or in oven at 300F for 30-35 minutes.


Serve with yogurt. Yum!

 

A Dear Faithful Friend

 Otherwise known as a poem in which I use the word poop.

Once upon a time
there was a little boy
whose great grandma won a stuffed duck .
The boy got the duck
and the two formed a bond.
not with grandma, but the kid and duck.

The boy had a nuk
that he liked to suck too,
he was happy with nuk and duck.
The funny thing is
Boy pulled silly duck's fur
and formed an unusual habit.

Boy loved on that duck
as he pinched all that fur
in small tufts which he placed on the nuk.
Then into his mouth
went the fur and the nuk,
and soon fast asleep he would fall.


Next morning he woke
an unusual find:
Duck's hair had come out in his poop.

Now poor duck is bald
That old sad ragged toy;
Mitchell loves that bald duck still.
His friends tease and laugh
but the boy remains true
to his dear faithful friend, the duck.

John Update

I spoke with my brother-in-law John this morning and received his current medical status.

If you don't know what I'm talking about maybe you missed this post.

His CMV is active again. The virus is undetectable in his body, but it is affecting his left eye. Every time it reoccurs, his eye sustains more damage and the blurriness increases. The doctor said it will be a fight to keep his  eye, and the natural progression is for the CMV to move to the right eye. The doctor was actually surprised it hasn't affected the other eye yet. Present worst case scenario: eventually John would go blind. John will receive treatment every two weeks to try to keep the CMV in his eye under control. He also has monthly blood work to check his HIV viral load and his CD4 count. He is on HIV meds that are currently controlling the viral load but his CD4 count is presently low,(229) barely above the CDC's threshold for AIDS. HIV meds need to be tweaked often to keep these numbers under control. (Sorry about all the gibberish. Some of this is for my Dr. dad.) I need to research this a bit more to have a better understanding of the numbers and the lab history.

The bottom line is, John's afraid. He wants to know what is going to happen. He wants to know what his chances are. He wants answers. But there aren't any. We just have to wait and see how his body responds to treatment. But he's been treated twice, and the CMV keeps reappearing. He wants to prepare himself for the worst. But how does one prepare to go blind? And will it come to that?

John is not mad at God. He said that. He says he brought this on himself. But he never expected his sight to be the issue he would face. He is grateful for your prayers.

I'm not sure what to ask you to pray today. I guess I'm afraid to ask God to do anything more than what normal statistics would allow. I just don't know the stats. But I do know my God. And He's done the impossible before. So throw caution to the wind. Ask big. Ask for healing and that the damage be as little as possible. But mostly, pray that God would move John's heart in a big way. Pray for inner healing. Restoration.

Thanks, my friends.
You are a blessing.

P.S. Last week I asked you to pray that we would communicate with John better about his health status. Our conversation today was an answer to that prayer as well as the fact that he gave me access to his online medical chart.

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing

up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

River and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside.

 

 Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown.

 

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

~unknown

A new pet?

 

This is Madison and her new pet. Crickey the Cricket.

Crickey is housed in a ziplock storage container

and carried around in a Pucci Pups pet carrier.

Yesterday Crickey went to Target.

Mitchell said Madison couldn't bring Crickey in

because the sign said, "No Pets."

She did anyway.

We were lucky and the Target employees didn't notice

Crickey until we were checking out.

Crickey also got to go to the grocery store,

and the playground.

 

Today Crickey took a bath.

His home floated nicely on the water.

He watched the kids complete their schoolwork

and took a ride on the lazy susan.

I wonder if he got dizzy?

Crickey also observed Mitchell annoying Madison

and learned the meaning of time out.

 

This is Crickey the Cricket making lovely music.

We expect to have many more happy memories with Crickey.

And if something should happen to him, never fear.

We have at least 5 more crickets somewhere in the house.