Back among the living....

Wow, what a crazy time it's been. Besides my laryngitis, which I FINALLY went to the Dr. for on Monday, Chuck has been having a very serious flare up of gout in his wrist! He's been in severe pain. AND, Sam got strep! So how's that for a week in the Platten house? Truthfully, I"m so thankful because it's really the first time we've had significant sickness in our house in MONTHS!!! But boy, all of us struggling at once... well, let's just say I'm glad we're on the upswing. When I took Sam to the Dr., he had been sick on and off for a few days but the throat symptom was the last one to show up so I had no way to even suspect strep. The Dr. put him on antibiotics and just went ahead and put Max on them too knowing that since Sam had actually been sick for a few days, Max was highly likely to be next in line. Then, I finally got tired of feeling like I was breathing through a straw and went to the Dr. on Monday. They gave me antibiotics, some new nasal spray for allergies and also I'm doing albuterol treatments twice a day to calm the breathing problems down. I'm still croaky but feeling much better and am sleeping like a log at night... finally!

Anyway, I do have a few pictures to show. I snapped a couple pictures of the boys outside last week. You can tell Sam is sick but he's still the cutest little redheaded guy on the entire planet! :) I'm a little partial. And then, there's the camera HAM! Also, here is a picture of a robot Sam created on a mini Etch-a-sketch. Can you even believe this comes from a 7 year old? I can't do this and I'm 42! Or am I 43? Let me think....No, I'm 42. OK, so the mind starts going early...I blame it on my kids. I think you loose brain cells with each birth.

On a creative note, I finished my gourd piece! I'm so beyond thrilled with how it turned out. The title is "The Offering". The red color inside represents fire. The Hebrew writing on it is some of the names of God. Now, you people out there who actually know and can write Hebrew, please be gentle with me. It is my first time ever even trying to write this beautiful language and I know the characters are far from perfect. I'm thankful for a forgiving God who knows my heart. And I'm thankful so much for my sweet Jewish girlfriend, Fran, who stopped over to show me a few things about writing Hebrew! And gosh, it was a really good thing she came and happened to mention "Oh, don't forget that the letters are written from right to left. Otherwise, you might run out of room and stop God's name in the middle!" YIKES! I didn't know it was right to left! It was a new experience writing that way! Anyway, this piece will be part of a prayer station at a 24/7 week of prayer starting at my church on Sunday evening at 6:00 pm. It will be interactive. I have small strips of red paper that will be provided with the piece. I've asked people to go before God and ask for Him to reveal to them areas where they "hold on with a grip" to things they are afraid to trust Him with. Then, to pray for the courage to give those things to Him as an offering. OR, just to write out praises to God for who He is. They will write those things on a strip of red paper, fold it up small and place it in the center of the gourd, symbolizing their "burnt offering" to God. I'm also setting up a collage station and have all my things pretty much ready for that. We are setting up after church on Sunday. It will be a long weekend. We have a wedding to attend on Saturday and then I'll be at church from 9:30 in the morning until at least 6:00 that evening! Whew!

Well, I need to get to work. My kids get out of school at 11:45 today so I don't have much "alone" time left!