New Year’s Flyer

• Happy 2010 everybody!
• 2009 has been quite a year for our family. One year ago, I certainly never expected that this New Year’s Eve we would be living in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in our own new home.
  
• God has truly blessed our family in these difficult times for so many people in the United States.
  
• I am also blessed to have each of you who I consider part of the OneMom family. You have made me laugh, cry, and encouraged me in so many ways – I am humbled and so grateful.
• There is no way I’ll make it to midnight, so …. Happy New Year!

To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy

—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord,

before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

(Jude 24,25)

OneMom

Christmas Flyer

• Merry Christmas to all who are part of the OneMom blog family!
• On this Christmas day, I am delighted to report to you that this week all our ducks finally lined up the way we needed them to … … and on Wednesday, December 23rd we closed on our new home!
• As I have only been on my new job for a few months, and considering that the last couple years have been difficult financially for our family, it was truly the hand of God that brought everything together (including a great house at a great price) at just the right time and place. We are humbled and grateful at His provision.
• We also started moving on Wednesday! We are “in” now, but still much work to do to be finally settled.
  
• Thank you for all of your prayers and support over these months when every Friday I could only report to you that we needed more ducks to get in line so that we could finally feel more settled as a family. I believe there were a couple of you that guessed what we were up to, but I didn’t want to get into specifics until I knew for certain. As it was, we found out on Monday that everything was approved and that we would close on Wednesday!
• There are many more pieces to this story that I’ll share with you in the weeks ahead … for now, I hope you will rejoice with us for God’s overwhelming blessings.

Merry Christmas!

OneMom

Duck, Duck, …

What is going on here?! Could it be that all the ducks are in a row ….? Could it be that just two days before Christmas, months of waiting and unsettledness could be coming to an end? Stay tuned.

OneMom

(Hey, what’s that Moose doing here?)

Friday(?) Flyer

• This is probably my latest Friday Flyer yet!
• It was an exciting week with the vision scare, but I am exceedingly grateful that it was nothing as serious as a retinal detachment.
• Maybe, just maybe the last little duck will be in a row in time for the Christmas Day Flyer. We shall see.
• Yesterday, I was out and about in our little town, and came back feeling like Scrooge. People were surly – not one person greeted me with a smile. I also heard two “Christmas” songs that sent me over the proverbial edge. One was entitled the 12 Pains of Christmas, which listed such things as Christmas trees, relatives, children and the Salvation Army as being big pains. The other sang about traffic and going into debt to buy presents, but on Christmas morning it was all worthwhile. Both of these songs certainly put the depravity of mankind on clear display.
  
• Actually, hearing those songs brought me back to the old Carol I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day …
  

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”

• More important than any packages and bows, we are surrounded by people in need of the Savior – Jesus Christ.

OneMom

Retina – update

Friday morning –

Yesterday morning while I was at work, I experienced a shadow over my left eye with a ring of lights around my peripheral vision. Almost 6 years ago I experienced a detached retina in my right eye (this is not uncommon for those of us who are severely myopic), so this change in my vision was disconcerting.

There are no ophthalmologists in the small town where we live, so my husband and Hannah came to get me and we headed off for Marquette. There are very few things that can get you an appointment at a busy ophthalmology center as quickly as saying “I think my retina is detaching”.

The bottom line is I experienced an atypical ocular migraine and my retina is ok. I have had atypical ocular migraines before, but they appear slowly as a cloud and last several hours (a typical one lasts but a few minutes), but I never had one that so closely looked like a detachment, complete with flashing lights. Most unsettling.

The doctor said I did the right thing by coming, as he expects (and requires) anyone who has detached before to be hyper-vigilant with any change in vision.

If you or anyone you know is myopic (nearsighted), you must see an ophthalmologist at least once a year and have your eyes dilated so the doctor can do a thorough exam of your retina. Small holes, tears and even detachments (in most cases) can be repaired and your vision spared. While I have some permanent shadows in my right eye from the detachment, I can still see and that is a wonderful gift.

For more on myopia and retinal detachment, please visit HERE.

I will post a Friday Flyer later today.

OneMom

Wonderland

There were some beautiful sights as we were out and about today following a week of  a lot of snow, high winds and brutal cold. What a wonder that God creates so much beauty out of a storm. For more views from today’s outing, stop by OneMom’s Window.

OneMom

Friday Flyer

• A little late, but here is this week’s Friday Flyer.
• After several days of impressive snow, the temperatures plummeted and brought us wind chills well below zero. Fortunately, the sun came out on Friday and gave an emotional lift. I have a few pictures posted looking over town and Lake Superior … the sun and snow made everything beautiful.
• In our family’s ongoing saga, all but one little tiny duck is in line. If that little duck will take his place, we will have some intense days of craziness, but well onto our way of routine and being settled in all ways. Maybe next week …
• Governor Mark Sanford and Tiger Woods both were unfaithful to their wives and brought heartache and pain to their families. The details of what they did is none of our business. I am sad for both families. Governor Sanford is a professed born-again Christian, so I am more disappointed in his behavior. Tiger Woods is not a Christian, but there are many outspoken Christians on the PGA Tour … perhaps this shattering of Tiger’s image will open his heart to hear the Gospel from one of the other golfers. It will take the love and forgiveness of Jesus to heal both of these families.
• I spent much of Friday sneezing. Not sure what triggered it, but it was most unsettling!
• Nell – the Sussex Spaniel – is snoring. Sophie – the basset hound – is draped over Nell, sleeping. Sophie considers Nell her Mama and her own personal furnace.
• Many of you have been praying for a pastor friend of ours who found out he had a brain tumor just before Thanksgiving. He is home from the hospital and healing from surgery. In the next couple of weeks he will begin radiation and chemotherapy. Even with treatment, this is a cancer with a poor prognosis. He and his wife are grateful that they do still have some time together and that the surgery did not affect his speech. We are praying that God will do what the doctors cannot, and remove the cancer.
• I ask you to pray for our family as well, and that the last duck will get in line quickly and completely.
  

OneMom

Football Coach Brian Kelly Does it Again

The University of Cincinnati football team finished 12-0 this season and will be taking on the Florida Gators at the Sugar Bowl. Big game, big stage, but the Bearcats will have to play without their head coach, Brian Kelly. Last night he told the team at their annual banquet that he was leaving them for the fighting Irish at Notre Dame.

Right on cue, Brian Kelly did exactly what I predicted he would do – leave Cincinnati as soon as a prettier girl came along. For Kelly the prettier girl is money and attention. Personally, if that’s what he wants in life, that’s his choice. What I dislike is him leaving the Bearcats at the altar – the exact thing he did three years ago to the Central Michigan University Chippewas.

It was December 2006, and CMU had just won the MAC Championship. Coach Kelly was just finishing his third season and the Chips were heading for the Motor City Bowl right after Christmas … except they had to go without the head coach that brought them there because he had found a prettier girl at Cincinnati and couldn’t wait around to even finish the year.

A note to Notre Dame: if you think you are big enough and pretty enough for Brian Kelly, think again. If in a year or two, the USC Trojans or the Florida Gators decide that Pete Caroll and Urban Myer just aren’t up to par anymore and start courting Brian Kelly, he’ll leave you at the altar as well. It’s not about the team or the school with Coach Kelly … everything is only about him.

I give Brian Kelly a lump of coal in his stocking this Christmas.

OneMom