Bits from Belgium - Week 3

Bits from Belgium! (From various e-mails sent out in the past week :-)

Friday, June 24, 2011

Happy Friday!

I had another good day. It started with a cappucino and good quiet time, and then in between helping with Rebecca, I did laundry, made lunch, made dinner, read a little, and wrote a little. When I did my laundry, I decided to hang dry a lot of my clothes in y room since the weather was nice, and oh, they smell SO good now! :-) I had just enough clothes to last me two weeks, so I desperately needed to do laundry today. I turned one of my socks blue too. Ooops!

Today was busy, but not stressful or exhausting. I made stuffed peppers and home-made macaroni and cheese for dinner, which I thought turned out okay... although there are lots of left-overs. Still not over cooking for just 4! I got a most adorable letter from Keri today, with a drawing of a dog and two "googly eyes" glued to it. The letter read: "Dear MB, I miss you so much and I can't wate till you come Back. My riting mite be rong but I dont now how to spell it so thats the best I can do. Love. Keri." And then in a little dog bone on the page she wrote: "for a loving sister" It is the sweetest thing! :-) I love her!

So yeah, not much excitement today. Tomorrow, Susannah (Paul and Rebecca's daughter), and her 1 year old daugther Marta will be coming. They're from Macedonia. Susannah and I have really hit it off, and I even visited them in Macedonia last year. I can't wait to see her and visit. We have much catching up to do, and I am so excited that she will be here for awhile while I am here. As usual, the upcoming week should be rather exciting with lots of people coming and going! Dennis and Bill come back from Oslo Monday or Tuesday, until Thursday. Another caregiver, Jenna, arrives Wednesday. I don't know where they'll put everybody, but it's a good thing there are lots of bedrooms! (3 for guests, plus the family room).

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Susannah and Marta arrived safely this afternoon.

It was a fairly typical, but good day here. Nothing too exciting to report! It was gray and cool here, still, but they're still saying it will warm up and be "summer" here soon! I'm looking forward to it, although gray, cool days are very peaceful and relaxing also I suppose!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

The weather here is turning BEAUTIFUL today! Blue skies, WARM, and sunny. AND, I just checked on my tomato plants, and the "happy" plant has a TOMATO on it! I'm SO excited! :-) I feel bad for the plant that is squished in the garden among the flowers. I imagine that's part of why it's not as happy as the potted one, which has more space and sun. :-/ Livin' and learning'!

Monday, June 27, 2011

It's been a busy, but good day here so far. We have the usual Paul, Rebecca, Annie and I, plus their two dogs, Maddie and Molly, but in addition, for the next couple of nights, we have Susannah and Marta, Mary's dog Penny (Mary is having knee replacement surgery today), and Bill and Dennis return from Oslo. So... crowded house and lots of excitement!

Other excitement? My tomato plant has grown ANOTHER tomato! :-D It's ridiculous how happy it makes me! :-)

It was HOT today here! I LOVED it! :-) First really "Ohio-summer" day we've had since I've been here. Unfortunately, it's hard on Rebecca, who's hypothalamus was affected by her injury and surgeries, and doesn't always regulate her temperature well. You can pray for her for that in these next couple of hot days (I think it's supposed to cool back down in a few days).

We had a good day here - and busy! Bill and Dennis arrived this evening, so it's a full house! Just the way I'm used to and love it! But it does put additional stress and work on all inhabitants to keep things running smoothly, so it's been a busy, but good day. One of the highlights came from a taco salad I made to go with our left-overs for dinner. Paul and Rebecca LOVED it! Paul said it may have been in the top few dishes he's ever had. Wow! That was a high compliment for me, and I was touched! He wants it again for a meal. It was actually quite easy to make and not really that extravagant, but it always makes me happy to be able to make them happy. :-)

What else? Well, I just got out of the shower and need to be heading to bed since I am NOT on midnight tonight. It feels great to be clean after a hot, sweaty day! I love that feeling! The house is not air conditioned, and I'm on the third floor... and all the fans are in use, but my window is open and my hair is wet, so I think I'll sleep okay. :-)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Wow... what a day here! It's been busy and crazy, and only gotten more so as the day went on! I need to try to get a good night's sleep tonight since I didn't sleep well last night and have another busy day tomorrow, (please pray the Lord would continue to uphold my energy and attitude as He has so faithfully these almost 3 weeks so far!)

Today started out sultry hot and sunny, and then quickly followed with the first excitement of the day, a sudden rain shower that started pouring down on Rebecca having her quiet time in the garden! I rushed out to help her back to the house, and shortly thereafter, Paul and Bill followed suit with umbrellas. We got wet, but it was kind of fun and we could laugh about it. I made a sort of cinnamon/nut roll thing while Rebecca finished her quiet time in her room. Right after that, the kine came, so I had a couple minutes to myself, and then immediately after that the nurse came to help get Rebecca dressed and ready for the day. About 15 minutes after we finished the nurse, a couple ladies arrived for Rebecca's weekly Bible study (which sadly takes a break over the summer, after today - we were studying John, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!) Bible study was really good (John 9 today). Afterwards, it was time for lunch, so I helped prepare that... it was just one thing after another today! Nothing too difficult or awful, just constant! It has been emotionally stressful for Rebecca especially today, as her youngest son (who is married and living in Michigan) had an MRI today for a possible growth on his spinal cord on his back. It's been there for awhile, so unlikely that it's malignant, but she's worried sick about him, and I think the fact that she can't just go be with him makes it worse. It's also stressful having so many people in the house, even though it's fun and she mostly enjoys it, it wears her out, and then she feels "icky" or overly exhausted. Add the heat factor, and she had lots of uncomfortable moments today. :-(

While she napped, I did have time to go out to the lake for a lovely walk! It was HOT, but wonderful. I walked and listened to music and thoroughly enjoyed it all. I came back sweaty, red, and hot, so hopped in the shower, cleaned up, and then it was time to get Rebecca up from her nap. The men went out for a dinner at the Parliament, so it was just the ladies for dinner. We had chips and salsa and delicious frozen pizzas (heated up, of course! :-) I love the pizza here... it's is... unusual, but delicious! (one spinach pizza, one mozzarella and pesto pizza, Hawaiian, etc.) As we were eating our pizza and watching a movie, it started to get very dark, and we could here thunder in the distance. Eventually, it started storming, and the wind got really strong! The rest of the night, one storm after another rolled in, with lightning, thunder, wind, pouring rain, etc. It cooled off quite a bit, and felt great, but it was a strange night, with all the storms. Rebecca was still quite warm in her room and needed her windows and sliding door open to let in the cool air (she had a fan as well, but no AC). At one point, enough rain came in to soak a portion of her floor, so I laid towels all over. In addition to this, Penny, the dog we are watching for Paul's secretary, has thunderstorm anxiety and spent the evening shaking, drooling, and following us all over. At about 11, the guys still had not returned, but I helped get Rebecca settled for bed, and went to the kitchen to work on the lemon meringue pie, keep the dogs company, and be close by in case Rebecca needed anything (it was still storming). The guys arrived shortly after, and poor Rebecca just couldn't get to sleep, so called me about every 10 or 15 minutes or so for various things. I was glad I was in the kitchen (next to her room), rather than my room, which is two stories and two staircases away from her room! I did the midnight roll, (yep, it was still storming), and headed to bed with the shaking, panting Penny. (At one point, she jumped up on my bed and made my whole bed feel like it was having seizures! :-O) Rebecca did not awaken me in the night, but I woke up at about 4 a.m. to the sound of the phone ringing... then again at 6 a.m. I was supposed to take care of Marta on Wednesday morning, so I got up a little earlier than usual to be available. It was then that Susannah told me she was not going to the Parliament because of all they had heard about Stephen's situation. And so began a long, hard day of unknowns and prayer, after a long, strange night. I can't even really describe the "strange-ness" of the night. It was just eerie somehow, and the awful-ness of Stephen's situation just fit right into it somehow. I like thunderstorms and the cooling off felt great, but there was just something "in the air" that night, that I can't describe. A heaviness? Foreboding? Fear? Something.

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far! Thank you for your prayers, patience, and understanding as we go through all this, and for being there to read my updates when they're happy or sad, encouraging, emotional, boring, exciting, or whatever else! :-)

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

I'm sorry I haven't had much time to e-mail or call you lately! It's been oh, so busy, both with good and hard things (as you know!). I have been holding up well both physically and emotionally --- both to a greater extent than I expected. It is a blessing and the joy of the Lord has been my strength!

Tomorrow will be my second day off, and I may be going with Diana to the Netherlands for a few hours! It's about 1 1/2 hour drive, and we will see her twin sister again, meet her new nephew, and see her home and town! The new caregiver, Jenna, arrived safely this morning, and we have enjoyed getting to know her today. She's settling in well and already helping out a lot. Please pray for her jetlag and settling in to continue to go smoothly. I think she will do well here, and I look forward to getting to know her better in the coming weeks. She will be here until the beginning of September.