birthdays

  • February is Finished (Almost)

    ByLauren entertainment, family, Grace & Truth Link Up, monthly review
    20 Comments

    FebruaryFebruary is usually one of my favorite months.  Two of my dearest loves (husband and youngest daughter) celebrate birthdays.  Well, let’s be honest.  Ever since my daughter made her arrival onto the scene on the day after my husband’s birthday, he  gets overshadowed.

     

    This February hasn’t been as festive.  The hubs is deeply entrenched in both chemo and radiation now.  It is not fun, but necessary for his healing.

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    So we are thankful for it and continue to persevere through it.

     

    Chuck has chosen to personalize this journey in every way possible.  He is using stickers on his radiation mask to count down his sessions and makes the medical staff laugh as often as he can.  His good humored relatives make this easy with wearable gifts to lift his spirits.  Some are self-explanatory.  If you aren’t a comic book nerd, you may have to search the recesses of your memory to recall how Spider Man got his spidey powers (radiation).

     

    He has now gone on full leave of absence from work for the remainder of his regimen.  I’m so thankful he has the ability to focus on rest and self-care.  And I had my own – although markedly minor – health issue.  A tennis elbow flare up that sent me to the doc for a second cortizone shot and a brace for my wrist (of all things).  This is not, however, unusual for me.  As my friend Terri says, “I’ve got more issues than Time Magazine”.

     

    We had two little ice storms here in Texas.  Nothing as severe and inconvenient as last years’, but they did shut down school and most businesses for 2 days and 1 day respectively.  The first came right on the heels of a two day school closure the week before to try to slow down the spread of Omicron.  People, we have too much going on to have the kids underfoot so much!

     

    The Super Bowl brought me some much needed socialization when one of our favorite neighbor couples came over to watch the game.  We had no horse in the race and really only cheered for the commercials.  My Valentine and I had a low-key Feb 14th and just went to sit at the lake with our girls and my in-laws for a while.

     

    We took Allie and a couple of friends to hibachi to celebrate her 17th and then Chuck’s parents cooked us dinner complete with Spiderman cake the next evening for his plenty-ninth.  He can taste almost nothing now and has some food aversions thanks to radiation, but we still managed to have a good time. 

     

    February Entertainment

     

    Please don’t cancel me, but I am about to say something fairly unAmerican.  The Winter Olympics have been a snooze fest.  There.  I said it.  Most evenings we turned it on, but never lasted longer than a few minutes.  Where are the attention-grabbing stories and personalities?  It makes me nostalgic for the days when we didn’t have so many other choices.  When everyone watched with bated breath and talked about the athletes and events at work and school the next day.  Is it just me?  If you still love the Olympics and can’t get enough, tell me about it in the comments below.

     

    What did excite me?  The movie adaptation of Francine Rivers’ Redeeming Love.  I know it got very mixed reviews, but it captivated me.  For anyone unfamiliar with the book, it only comes off as a western love story.  But I know it is a retelling of the biblical book of Hosea.  And I could hardly stop crying for the beautiful picture it presents of the mercy and grace of God.  Warning:  very mature content and much racier than most Christian films.  Have you seen it?  If so, give me your thoughts.

     

    I also watched Red Notice on Netflix.  A much less spiritual or emotional experience.  But enjoyable none the less.  I love me a wise-cracking Ryan Reynolds (especially when he’s not in a rated R format) and Gal Gadot is always stunning to look at.  I can’t resist a rom-com so we went to the theater for Marry Me.

     

    The hubs and I started a new to us series on Netflix.  All American reminded us a lot of Friday Night Lights, which is one of our very favorite shows.  But although the concept is interesting, I can’t really recommend it due to some inappropriate content.  Disappointing.

     

    With everything else going on, a beach read in the winter was the perfect distraction.  Before the Crown by Flora Harding explores (fictionally, but based on facts) what the beginning of the relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip was like.  If you like The Crown, you will like this book.

     

    And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!

     

    Laura Thomas’ Why Waiting Matters spoke straight to my fast food, high speed internet heart.  Plus you still have three days to get in on her giveaway!

     

    1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

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  • Kissing February ’21 Goodbye

    ByLauren Christian, entertainment, Grace & Truth Link Up, monthly review
    24 Comments

    Have you seen the social media game that asks you to look up the title of the #1 song on the day you turned 21?  That’s how your 2021 is supposed to go.  Mine was “I’ll Make Love to You”  by Boyz II Men.  Uh, love is definitely not the word I use for this year so far.

    For the first three days of this month, my husband and I took turns in the hospital with our oldest.  Her spinal fusion surgery on January 28 kept her there for several days.  (You can read a little more about that here.)  And while my husband and I enjoyed hospital food and acting as ships passing in the night (thanks, Covid), we celebrated in being able to come home and be together.  The long days of pain meds and recovery since put our nursing skills and patience to the test, but our sweet girl heads around a metaphorical corner as we speak.

     

    Several sweet friends provided meals and gift cards for meals as we settled in back home.  One even sent her housekeeper over to clean for us!  This completely made up for the week of hospital food.  We thank God for His generous people.

     

    Just a week and a half after Shelby’s surgery, our youngest underwent surgery to correct a deviated septum she sustained the day of her leg surgery last year.  She passed out and took a nose dive into the tile, breaking her nose.  Last March with the leg to deal with, we kind of forgot about the nose after the swelling and bruising went away.  The lingering repercussions reminded us months later.

     

    Allie’s turn under the knife wasn’t as serious but did entail a week out of school and a trip to the ER to remove a nasal stent that became unstitched.  Once she could feel it poking the back of her throat, she and her dad made the pilgrimage for care – returning home at 2:00am.  The stitch came out of the other one the next day.  After watching the ER doc, her dad felt sure he could pull this one with jewelry pliers – and did!

     

    For Valentine’s Day we experienced a winter weather catastrophe here in the Dallas area that lasted for a week.  130 car pile up on black ice came first, then temps in the single digits and millions of homes without power and water.  For days.  And as I write this a week later, the thermometer touched 80 degrees!  Please pray for those still trying to get power or water back and those whose homes or businesses sustained damage.  Once again, my family thanks God for His generous people who put us up so we could stay warm and entertain my daughter with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

     

    At the beginning of this week, my incredible husband celebrated a low-key birthday, followed by my youngest turning Sweet 16 the next day.  We gave her 16 bags with different little gifts instead of one big one.  Many of them were gift cards for fast food and coffee shops she likes.  Those were probably her favorite.  We let her pick out the restaurant for dinner and had a Dairy Queen Blizzard cake waiting until we could sneak her 4 besties in to surprise her.  Was a nice day.

     

    In the midst of all this chaos, I indulged in a little low-brow comfort TV.  Framing Britney Spears on Hulu (what?  I was curious!), and the teeny bopper To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Always and Forever on Netflix.  The Super Bowl, Ted Lasso on Apple+ (entirely too much language for me), WandaVision on Disney+ (part of the Marvel universe), and For All Mankind on Apple+ ( fascinating reimagining of our space program) rounded out viewing for the Sparks brood.  My husband and I tried Four Weddings and a Funeral on Hulu, but we turned it off almost immediately.  The first 6 words spoken started with an F.  We also tried The Mindy Project – on Huluas well.  My husband didn’t care for it but I think I may continue it on my own.

     

    Well, I’ll wrap up this 14th month of 2020 by saying, “I love you.  I thank you, and I hope March treats you well.

     

    Now, for this week’s featured post!

     

    Did He Really Say…?  from Kim Hood of  embracethisseason.com brought a recent conversation with a loved one racing back into my heart.  I believe this article highlights the number one technique satan uses to place doubt in believers about God’s Word.  It’s subtle, it’s slippery and we have to be diligently on the lookout for this weapon in our own lives and the lives of our loved ones.  See what Kim has to say.

     

     

     

     

    Grace and Truth_Rules

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