Shortest blog post ever…

Here’s all I have to say today…

Self-absorption helps no one.  Get out there and make a difference, whether or not it makes you uncomfortable.

Hitting The Wall

We all have moments… days… seasons, even, when we “hit the wall” so to speak. Professionally, emotionally, spiritually, creatively, financially… there are a thousand obstacles, it seems, to our progress.  And there are at least another thousand cliches that attempt to reduce our obstacles to a simple formula for relief.  And frankly, when I’m trying to navigate through life’s big questions, the last thing I want to hear is some trite quote about how my attitude determines my altitude… or how when God closes a door He opens a window.  Maybe those motivational nuggets have a place, (although I can’t, for the life of me, think of what that place might be other than the flames of hell), but their place is most certainly not in the middle of questions for which there are no simple or immediate answers.

So, today, I just want to say that if you feel like you’re over your head in life’s challenges, you are not alone.  I am right there with you.  And I’m finding that the long season of widespread challenges in my life are digging out everything pretentious, everything flimsy, and definitely everything temporary.  It’s not a comfortable journey and relief isn’t immediate… but believe it or not, it’s a good thing!

A couple years ago, I prayed that we would somehow help our children not to become spoiled… and that prayer has been answered.  Scott lost his job.  Twice.  Am I rethinking that prayer?  No.  But is this season fun?  No again.  It is, however, a direct and specific answer to a sincere prayer.  As a result of this season, we are becoming more resourceful, we are attaining a level of closeness we have never experienced, and there’s a growing sense of gratitude for life and unconditional love that might have otherwise gone unexcavated.

I’ve asked God over and over again what He wants from me.  And apparently, He REALLY wants my trust.  I’d much prefer to be self-sufficient which, as it turns out, is the opposite of faith.  So when I’m tempted to come up with a man-made solution to my questions and challenges, I keep hitting the same walls over and over again.

I don’t know where you are in life, but I know that we all have a limited supply of emotional and physical resources.  Everything runs dry eventually — everything EXCEPT our Creator’s resources.  This is the same God who literally and figuratively creates “streams in the wasteland” according to Isaiah 43.  Though I’ve heard the following passage a million times in various translations, today it’s as if these words are written here (from The Message) in a letter so fresh to my circumstances that the ink seems wet.  This is no over-simplified cliche.  This is the reality of a God who created us with purpose and who has charted out a course that is not about our comfort… but our growth and our trust.

“Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands.
Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’
—the coyotes and the buzzards—
Because I provided water in the desert,
rivers through the sun-baked earth…”

Trusting is hard.  REALLY hard.  But so is the wall we keep hitting when we refuse to trust in a faithful, dependable God who has proven Himself to be the only Source in Whom there is no end.

The Things We Do for Love

My son recently had his second appointment with Dr. Mary Lou Hulseman, whom we have known for years but later learned has very successfully treated many, many kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders.  One of those kids was the doctor’s own daughter.  The reason for her popularity is found in one word.  Results.  Can’t argue with that.

After our son’s Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis in February 2007, we were immediately faced with medication dilemmas because of side effects and a lack of on-going positive results.  Already thin, our son became pale and listless.. couldn’t sleep at night (which has always been a struggle for him anyway, before the meds)… and to be blunt, the bright, funny child we once knew was nowhere to be found.  He had been away for a long time, but went further away with the medicine.

We first attended Dr. Hulseman’s seminar last fall and began to take steps she recommended at that time.  Since then, we’ve had two appointments, one in June and one in early October.  To make a long story short, we have made some drastic dietary changes (incrementally) and our son is taking numerous natural vitamin & mineral supplements… and we have him back after just a few short months.  He is off all medicines and having his best year of school yet.  He isn’t 100% symptom free, but close.  He isn’t “melting down” like he used to do often – weekly, if not multiple times daily.  He IS feeling great, looking healthy and handsome, hugs us spontaneously now, laughs easily, and has gained eight pound since our June appointment (he is still thin, but it’s a great start!  This, my friends, is a different child than the one who was diagnosed during his third unsuccessful week of an out-patient anger management program just a year-and-a-half ago.

As part of the healing diet he was prescribed for a limited time (called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet), we have completely changed the way we eat as a family.  Our home was once starch CENTRAL.  Now those aren’t allowed.  Our boy had such a ravenous sugar craving it was almost scary.  But sugar is out now.  Many foods we once took for granted now are either not an option or must be homemade to specific standards. But we’re doing it and it’s helping all of us feel great.  The learning curve (on which I am still a full-time resident) has been dotted with successes and plenty of flops as I’ve learned to make things he could eat.  This week I had a huge success.  And I needed it, because a few flops in a row had me discouraged.  My success?  Homemade Gingerale.

First, I don’t blame you if you’re dying laughing right now with thoughts of me making my own pop.  But my kid has been AMAZING at not complaining not getting to eat so many things he loves (like commercial gingerale)  SO… I tried my hand at it.  I bought ginger root for the first time in my life (it was cheaper than I EVER imagined) and went to it.  After the finished product had chilled a few hours, the moment of truth came with the taste test… And he LOVED it!  He said, “Oh my word!  It tastes just like Gingerale!”

I posted a couple tweets about the homemade gingerale on Twitter (including the photo above) and I immediately got several requests for the recipe.  So here’s how to make your own honey-sweetened gingerale.

Homemade Gingerale

You will need:  A blender, hot water, ginger root, honey, club soda.

In a blender, pour in 1-and-a-half cups of hot water (not boiling).  Add 2 tablespoons of minced ginger to the hot water.  Then add honey to taste.  The recipe I used calls for 1 cup but that seemed like a lot, so I used more like a half to three-quarters cup of honey.

Blend all that in the blender f or 1 minute.  Strain into a canning jar or other clean container.  I used a coffee filter as a strainer.  Worked great.

Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hrs.  Pour a small amount of the strained ginger solution (approximately a fourth of a cup or less) to an 8 ounce glass of club soda and add ice.  The ginger/soda balance will be a matter of your own personal taste.

I NEVER thought I’d know – or care – how to make homemade pop.  But I love my kid.  I love the progress he is making; and homemade gingerale is now just one of the things I do for the sake of love.  Next challenge?  Homemade yogurt!  I must really love this kid a ton.

Thank you, H1N1…

I’ll admit, I thought the media was being ridiculous when they started talking about the H1N1 “pandemic” when less people had been  affected by it than had caught the regular old-fashioned Influenza B virus.  But now that it’s hitting Indiana hard (and possibly your area, too) I’m starting to think maybe – MAYBE – all the warnings weren’t completely unfounded.  Local schools have had so many student absences that they’re closing school and/or tacking on extra dates to their fall breaks.  And we’re hearing about children across the nation dying from complications from the virus.  My next door neighbor informed me this weekend that one of her kids came home with it on Wednesday.  So it is literally next door now.  A little more sobering.

My daughter has been fighting allergies for a few weeks now, but when I got a call from the school Friday that she was feeling “really badly” I suddenly wasn’t as nonchalant as I might’ve been before the H1N1 scare.  I normally would’ve made her stick it out at school if she didn’t have a fever yet.  But just knowing that classmates of hers have been diagnosed with the dreaded virus made me want to get her out of there and home with me as soon as possible.  She has been pretty miserable all weekend with a head cold and she did end up running a low-grade fever, but here’s the good news.  She and I played more UNO games than we’ve been able to play together in months and she told me this afternoon that even though she was not feeling well physically, she was completely happy because we got to spend the day together.  She added that she was so, so glad that I’m her mom, stating, “I mean… what other mom knows about that tea you gave me that helped me feel better?!” (Don’t tell her that lots of moms know that chamomile tea with honey is good when you’re sick — she thinks I thought of that!)

Her joy at having me at her side all day made my day… week… maybe year.  So thanks, H1N1 for making me take very seriously the fact that my daughter needed 100% of my attention today, even for a harmless head cold.  And?  I’m rather enjoying seeing hand sanitizer everywhere I turn.  The school has already burned through their year’s supply.  YES!  I’ll donate a case of it!