My husband

My husband is wonderful-today is just a tribute to him:

With thee conversing, I forget all time,
All seasons, and their change, all please alike.
Neither breath of morn, when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds; nor rising sun
On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers;
Nor grateful evening mild; nor silent night,
With this her solemn bird; nor walk by moon,
Or glittering starlight, without thee is sweet.

Kids

Today I went to Arianna's school to talk about nursing. She is in kindergarten. It was fun and of course instead of asking questions, they wanted to tell me stories of when they went to the doctor. One girl said she got a big needle stuck right in her forehead-not sure what that meant. Not sure I wanted to know. One little boy was a diabetic and had an insulin pump. At first I felt sorry for him but he does well everyone says and doesn't let it affect him. What a great way to be.

I stayed for the 4-5th grade chorus concert. 2 of my friends' kids were in it and they couldn't be there so I was glad I went. Besides, I love music anyway. They sang songs I haven't heard in a while like Michael Jackson's ABC, Lean on Me, Swing Low, Ain't No Mountain High Enough. I knew every one of them. I am getting old,but it was nice to reminesce.

I am on Day 4 of the little to no carb South Beach diet. I do not have a headache-yay! I have lost 2 lbs already and feel good so far today. Stomach is definetely flatter. I hope I am on my way to kicking the carb addiction but I know I will have to watch it my whole life.

Friendship and the church

Our pastor yesterday asked us what was the purpose of the church. There were various answers, mine being one of them, which I thought were correct. But then he said,"The purpose of the church is to exemplify Christ-afterall, we are called christians and are using His Name"
This really struck me. I can't believe I never heard of that or thought of it before. It is so simple, and all the other purposes we gave flow from that-evangelizing, fellowshipping, learning the word, worshipping,etc. Now I know my purpose much better.

I have just finished the book The Lost Virtue of Happiness by JP Moreland and Klaus Issler.
It was very good. I paricularly like the session on prayer: Pray what they call the Jesus' prayer "Lord have mercy on me" many times a day to keep your focus on Jesus, pray other memorized scripture throughout the day, and take 7-10x/day where you go off for 2-3minutes on your knees and pray. This would really get me going. Now to remember to do it and have the discipline to do it.

Also, his desccription of what closest friendships can look like:
(For extra challenge, find where all these are in the Bible)

Accept one another
Admonish one another
Do what leads to peace and building up of one another
Carry each other's burdens
Have equal concern for each other
Confess your sins to each other
Be devoted to one another
Encourage one another
Bear with one another
Forgive one another
Greet one another with affection
Don't grumble against each other
Honor one another
Offer hospitality to one another
Clothe yourself with humility toward one another
Be kind and compassionate with one another
Do not lie to each other
Be patient and forbearing with one another
Live in peace with one another
Pray for each other
Live in harmony and be of the same mind toward one another
Serve one another in love
Do not slander one another
Speak to one another in psalms, humns, spiritual songs
Speak truth to one another
Spur one another on toward love and good deeds
Submit to one another
Teach one another
Wait for one another

This is quite a list and quite a challenge but I want to be this kind of friend. It takes time with each other though and I am finding that most people do not make the time. They are too busy. It is too bad b/c then they will say they have no friends and are not even close to their husbands. Are we taking the time and effort?

I am in the midst of carb withdrawal! It is not too bad so far but it hasn't even been 24hrs.

Truly a welcome site

Boy were we glad to see this sign. We were exhausted but in a good way-we had served and loved and glorified God. What a privilege to live in this country of ours. I feel so unworthy after living with the people in Honduras for only a week.

I learned to pray more, have more compassion for others and not to judge-just love and point others to Jesus.

I have 1,000 pictures of this trip if you ever want to see more.

Now in just a little over 2 weeks we go to a very different culture and people-to Iceland. Please pray for us as we seek to exemplify Jesus and glorify God there. Our whole family is going on this one and thanks to many of my friends and family who made both trips possible-the Lord will bless you for your generosity.

The Boat

Remind you of planes, trains and automobiles? Replace trains with boats. Here is the boat we took (or rather crammed into with all our luggage) from the puddle jumper to the town on the island where we stayed.

This is the van we took from our hotel on the mainland to the puddle jumper. Boy could they pile on a lot of luggage! Riding in cars with them is quite an experience-worse than the taxi drivers in NYC. All the people were very helpful and kind to us.

The puddle jumper

This was the "small" plane we took from mainland Honduras to the island. It seated a little over 30 people and boy was it a bumpy and turbulent ride (think broken elevated or Tower of Terror at Disney). But we made it there and back.

On the way to the next town

We went on foot to a couple of the towns on the island unless they were too far and then we crammed over 20 people in a pickup truck-once with chickens too.

beauty

Here are some of the "stray horses" and one of the beautiful parts of the island. we were able to go swimming here (until huge jelly fish the size of big kickballs invaded our space and caused me to almost run on water!) away from sewage (we hope).

The medical team

Well here we are-the "doctors, nurses, pharmacists, aides" all wrapped up in one. The Honduran lady is a nurse in the clinic in Guanaja, the island that we stayed in. She is a neat lady and really knows and cares for the people there and still works although I think she is at least in her 60's! No retiring for her. We went to 5 towns on the island throughout the week.

Honduras trip pictures finally

For those of you who don't know this, I went on my first mission trip on November 23rd (Thanksgiving Day) until December 3rd. We went to a small island in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. We met a group there who were with Alternative Missions. You could probably google them and find out what they are about. It took us forever to get there (long layovers in the airports, 4 planes, one boat) but here in this 1st picture is what the island of Guanaja is like:very wet and we were in rainy season, poor sewage, dogs everywhere ( I am not a stray dog fan )and horses roaming. No one picked up after them if you get my drift.

Unfortunately, I got sick for over 24hrs but after that I was able to minister medically as you see in this picture. It was a bit scary and very different from my nursing in the states as I had to play "doctor" by assessing patients, figuring out what was wrong with them, and treating them with appropriate medicine (providing we had it) all in spanish or with a translator (here I have Sylvia translating, God bless her) in 90-100degrees! Hence the hair was always up! I was so glad it was long enough. We did medical clinics for 5 full days and I mean full-100's of people-mostly women and children for free. I really wished I knew more spanish but that comes so slowly for me. I really enjoyed the missionaries down there-2 men and 2 women - and admired their dedication and selflessness. I also enjoyed getting to know these people-helping them, treating them, praying with them, talking with them, we even washed some of their feet. I do not enjoy roughing it (dislike camping) but I roughed it here b/c of its higher purpose and I made it through!

Physical weather and a stormy life

It has been 80+ degrees the last 2 days here and yet this weekend it might snow?! So unpredictable.
But then, we are very unpredictable.
I got another call from Jonny's teacher today. It seems when I talked to him I forgot to mention the substitute and specials' teachers. He is taking advantage of those times. The teacher said he has spring fever. I said it is going to be a looooooong spring! She said he is not doing his best work and he can do better. Aparently he is just flying through assignments to get them over with and go play. Then she said something interesting: don't we all do that when we get the chance? That got me thinking-how many times do I rush through something and not do my best just to get through it and do what I really want to do? What kind of example is that for my children? Am I fooling them, or rather, am I fooling God? I am not even really fooling myself-just settling for second best. So I had a good cry with the teacher and we are moving on with hope (and lots of prayer for Jonny and for me).
I will let you know how the storm plays out-outside and inside of Jonny and me!

Accepted!

I am officially accepted to Liberty University's graduate program. I am trying to register for my first 2 classes tonight which run from April 30-August 13th. I have 7 yrs to complete 60 credits and 1,000 hours of internship. Here goes. I may even get it cheaper since Dave was in the military! That would be an unexpected nice miracle. Thank You God. I am also praying they accept my 3 prerequisites. That would be a blessing also.

I am taking ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) on-line this year. Oh the wonders of computers! I may also take another course in Richmond. I have become quite the student. Now to try to juggle that along with all my other roles and responsibilities.

Went to the middle school today to do my first 4 yr high school plan for my son David. It was exciting and about 10minutes! He seems to know what he wants though.

More funnies from Arianna: She was asking when everyone was born. Of course everyone in our family was born in the 1900's with the kids being born in the 1990's except her. She was born in 2000. This made her mad and jealous, so the following questions/statements occurred: "Why couldn't you have me in 1990's? I was trying to push out! I remember feeling you eat-the food went down to your belly and that is where I was and I felt it." We all had a good laugh.

Jonny struggled in school a bit again this week-I got a call and a note sent home. I kept him in today and talked to him again gently but firmly. We figured he only had 6 hrs a day to really focus and not talk in school and the rest of his day was either free or much freer where he could talk. I told him to just use those 6 hours-to glorify God, honor his teacher and parents by being quiet, listening, focusing. He wrote me an e-mail saying " I am sorry for not telling the chruth". You gotta love this kid even when he drives you crazy. I told him I always love him!

I am going to look into the South Beach diet/lifestyle again. Reserved a bunch of books from the library. I must do something about these carbs, too much food and junk! I've got the exercise down.

Planet Wisdom

We just finished this weekend at Planet Wisdom-a youth conference held at Hylton Memorial Chapel. It was excellent-Friday night from 7-10:30pm and Saturday from 9am-5:30pm. There was great music and worship, The Skit guys-who did hilarious but also thought provoking skits, messages by 2 speakers, give aways, multi media. What does God really want from me? was the theme. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. We explored what all that means. I came away from the prayer skit with the reminder to not worry and fret so much but rather spend more time with God instead. Another thought from one of the talks was to not just de-clutter your house , but de-clutter your relationships. We can't be good friends with too many people. I have been at the other end of others who try to have so many friends (I being one of them) and I don't feel close to them at all b/c we hardly ever spend any time together. I am not in his/her life and they are not in mine. So I will focus on just a few as Jesus did and let God give me oportunities for others to serve them and/or open up new friendships. I was tired though and we lost an hour of sleep on Saturday night so went to bed early.

My brother flew to Scotland today for his new job -I am happy for him. That was truly an answer to prayer how that all worked out.

Our friends flew out to Iceland this week also. Hard to believe we are going in less than a month.

I got a bunch of pictures from my mission trip to Honduras but I must wait for Dave to post them on this blog as I am clueless.

languages

I am trying to learn sign language and re-learn spanish (had done that for 4 yrs in high school but have forgotten a lot of it). I find sign language so much easier-it is so expressive. My daughter Elizabeth is learning sign language and Jonny and David are learning spanish. So that all helps.I tell you, if you know another language, teach it to your kids early! It is much harder when you are old like me.

Song

I'm back already-this is addictive.
I was listening to a Chris Rice song this am (I love his music):Dream in brilliant colors.
It speaks of heaven and what it may be like. Anyway, the chorus is:

I get so clumsy,
I get so foolish,
I get so stupid,
then I feel so useless,
but You say that You love me,
and You just want to hold me,
You want to be near me...

Then it talked about the wedding feast. Oh how I can't wait to go to that and it is not b/c of the food or "dancing". I want to see Jesus, and go up to Him at that table and kneel down at His feet and wash them with my feet and hair. But then I got to thinking, I could do that now! When I go to Him instead of carbs, spending money, other people and all their opinions. May I lay them all at His feet in an act of washing His feet and humbly giving up!

musings

My friend has been coming to the gym at the same time as me in the morning for the last few weeks. She hasn't been there this week. I miss her. But she will move this summer. It makes me realize how much I miss all the people in my life that have moved out of it at least physically. It is sad but a part of life. I hope it will not be so in heaven. There are so many people I wish I could be with on a regular basis but just can't. Anyway, I hope she is there tomorrow and that I can keep up with her when she moves to California!

Found a poem by Abraham Cowley in my Great Poems book:

Today is Ours

Fill the bowl with rosy wine,
Around our temples roses twine;
And let us cheerfully awhile
Like the wine and roses smile.
Crowned with roses we contemn
Gyges' wealthy diadem.
Today is ours. What do we fear!
Today is ours. We have it here!
Let's treat it kindly, that it may
Wish, at least, with us to stay.
Banish busyness, banish sorrow!
To God belongs tomorrow.

How often I wish the day away and just try to get through it and the week! That is why I am enjoying some reading and doing this blog-to seize the day. To not let a day go by without talking to God a lot! To not waste my day thinking about tomorrow-plan a little yes, but that is it. NO WORRYING! Easier said than done with me.

The snow was a dud today at least here in Stafford-just flurries. School was in session!

I have a problem (well I have many but here is one). I LOVE CARBS! This does not help the weight. This does not help the belly fat. This does not help the tiredness, the afternoon slump. I put back in all the calories I burn and more so in the gym. Must get control over these carbs. They are everywhere! I think they give me comfort, they fill me up, send me into a bit of a trance I guess so I don't have to think about things that are sad and stressful in my life. I must redirect. I must work through my stresses , sadness and fears. I must go to the One Who understands. Carbs cetainly don't!

An old friend of our family is a builder/contractor/construction. He gave us good ideas for our siding. It is nice to have wise and knowledgeable friends.

Keeping up a house

I come home from errands yesterday around 3:45pm to see the nice neighbor boy picking up something in our front yard. I looked up over the garage and the vent cover and 1/2 our siding in that section was off or hanging off. So he was picking up pieces of my houses! Dave usually repairs this-happened before but not to such an extent-but this time the pieces are broken. So off to Lowes we go in hopes of matching the siding and initiating yet another project for Dave!
God bless him that he is so handy and willing to do all this. I will make him wait until the wind is not 40-50 miles/hr before he goes up on the roof and a ladder. (This wind is what ripped the siding off in the first place-at least the roof is still on so far!)

It is back to cold here-20-30 degrees with a wind chill of low teens. Too much wind for me! I am glad I go to the gym.

Dave and I come home the Saturday night to find a note at the top of the stairs-"the toylit is clog" from our dear Arianna. At least she told us!

I am amused at how my brother's blog shows pictures of Arianna and me side by side and how much he thinks we look alike. I am glad one of the children look so much like me. David II looks just like his father. Elizabeth and Jonny are mixes. It is good and bad that Arianna also is a lot like me in personality/spirit. We have our pluses but being strung out/ freaked out often is not one of them! I must do a lot of praying with her!

Supposed to snow here again tonight into the AM-only an inch but school will be closed again I am sure. Kids home-oh joy beyond all measure!

David II has finished all his testing for Governor's school. He says they were all easy. We will see. He has an interview on March 13th and then we wait to see if he gets in- sometime in April they will let us know. He is now excited about this-I here him talking about it to his friends and Grandma and Grandpa Fauth. So even though we pushed him to do it, I think he is happy we did. It is hard to know when to push your kids and when to let them be. This time I think, we got it right (makes up a little for the many wrongs).

I was in church yesterday and we sang this great song. One of the verses really struck me: Brokenness, Brokenness is what I long for, Brokenness is what I need, Brokenness ,Brokenness is what You want for me. I cried b/c I am often so proud! Felt mighty convicted. So I prayed for brokenness and now I better watch out. But I would rather have Jesus and be close to Him than anything this world has to give.

Went to the Quantico Marine Museum on Saturday. It was very large and very interesting. We didn't even get through half of it. We will go again. What struck me most was the pictures of the Marines coming home. It is a blessing when they come home. So I would recommend you go there if you are in the area. It is free with donations accepted.

Wow 2x in one day but I didn't like my first one-felt like it was a Christmas card. Sorry.
2 good movies that I have seen this past week that have helped me in my grief and life issues:
Hanging Up with Meg Ryan (I am like Meg Ryan's character)
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Could identify some with all the girls)

Try them out-get tissues. You would understand me more if you watch the first one and pay attention to Evie-Meg Ryan's character. Good quote:" Here's a toast to your bravery and your grief".

Ok I'm done.
Nancy

The kids and me

I (Nancy) decided since I love to journal, I should just do some of it on this blog and that way I wouldn't have to repeat myself to everyone- I could just direct them to this.

I am going to start small today. I am still in a quandry about starting this Master's degree in counseling. It seems that I must complete the entire degree and 4,000 hrs of practicum or internship, if you will, within 7 yrs. I must also decide if I want to be a Licensed Professional Counselor (48credit hours and more individual counseling) or a Marriage and Family Therapist (60 credit hours and more couples and families including children/teens which scare me). I am leaning toward the LPC license and am going to try to complete the degree in 3 yrs so I have 4 years to do all those hours. This scares me too. I am married, have a home, 4 children and a job. Who am I kidding yet I feel like I want to do this and that God has prompted me. I think I will just start with the first class on April 30th and see. It lasts for 8 weeks. One at a time. Meanwhile my first child goes to college in 4 yrs so I want to be able to keep working as a nurse and hopefully be done paying for my college courses just in time to start paying for his!

Speaking of David II, we went to his High School orientation last week! My first "baby" is going to high school next year! He is applying for governor's school also. It is a good experience for him even if he doesn't get in. He wants to be in the concert and marching bands. He also wants to keep playing soccer-hopefully for the school team if he makes it. He is a busy man. He gets bigger every day-eats a lot and keeps going up sizes in clothes and shoes (almost size 11men's in them!).Elizabeth thought his shoes were her dad's the other day.

Elizabeth, now her brain and creativity I cannot keep up with. She goes to middle school next year but when we were at high school orientation , she wanted to skip middle school and go right to high school! She probably could too if everyone would let her! But alas she needs the middle school experience. She still in the gifted program and still getting straight A's. She is currently doing Odyssey of the Mind-an extra curricula program using intelligence and creativity. She still does gymnastics and Dave was impressed with her balance beam routine last night. We are glad she does gymnastics b/c she normally doesn't like to go outside, but rather read, scrapbook, draw,etc-not like Jonny.

Now, Jonny, he is still an extremely active kid. So full of energy and noise. So much noise that his voice is shot already-has nodules on his vocal chords. We take him to speech but I still hear him yelling outside , not breathing right, not drinking water,etc. But he is 9-he doesn't care. He is enjoying basketball and plays football in the neighborhood. His hair was quite long for a while but we cut a bunch off last week. He looks better, he was just too small for all that hair.

Another active kid is Arianna. She is also a performer and the "baby" and she knows it. She is "cute" and knows that too. I keep cringing every time anyone says she is cute b/c then it just reinforces it. She still is very girly and does ballet. She's at the top of her class in kindergarten and reads remarkably well. She is the one most like me, God help her! Very stressed and emotional so I have been trying to calm down and be a better example for her. We try to pray when we get freaked out.

Me-This fall was a lot-that is the only way to describe it for me. Aside from the falls usual madness-school starts up, all the birthdays in our family and Dave's family, holidays, and activities start up, other items happened to add to the craziness:
In October I had to move my mom to another assisted living as the one she was in was about to abruptly close. This was no easy task b/c my mom was not independent and had uncontrolled diabetes (not for lack of trying) so 1 assisted living actually rejected her! This was so upsetting to me but finally we got her in one that was able to care for her within a good price range but farther away. So we moved October 25th-Arianna's birthday. And we made the trek to visit her each week-1/2hr away.
In November I did a lot with my church's woman's retreat. Lots of meetings previously both for organizing it and for music. I spoke and sang but was sick so didn't sing very well. I enjoyed speaking-hadn't done so with women in a long time. But then we were criticized by 2 women so that was upsetting.
I went on my first mission trip to Guanaja, Honduras November 23rd-Dec 3. It was definetely 3rd world. While a great experience, it was stressful and 1/2 of us (including me of course) got sick.
On New Year's weekend I went downhill skiing for the first time at age 40! ( Oh yeah I turned 40 Jan 10th right after that-also an annoying event). This was very stressful for me but with the help of Dave I actually did it and would go again. I was proud of myself but also exhausted after that (We went with the youth so I stayed with 3 teen girls so not much sleep either).
On Jan 4th I got a call at 0615 that my mother had died. I was a bit shocked as a week or so before she had been fine. So getting through that -funeral/burial Jan 6-7, bills, money, death certificates,etc-was really a lot for me. So I got my stress illnesses as I call them-insomnia, headaches, stomach pain, anxiety and depression. My health coach after telling her my fall-winter told me to go to couseling! So I am trying but not easy to get a couselor. But that will be good for me if I ever become one! It is also sad though that we are so sad and messed up that we need so many couselors and medicines. But I am one of them so I understand but America is very sad. We have lost our focus somehow. I for one aim to not lose it! And help others find theirs.
So much for me starting small. But I will try to do this more often so I don't write so much and take so much time!