One Summer Day..

Here in the Midwest it has been pretty hot. Yesterday the heat index was 105. My nephews have a great way to cool off. they come to Mammay's (Grandma) house and play in thier wading pool. Mosiah (3) would throw balls into the pool and Israel (1 1/2) would promptly throw them out. Israel had is cup and I was trying to convince him to dump the water in the pool and not on the concrete. Aren't little boys at play sweet?

Thoughts on the Dugger Family

I have personally heard some pretty rude comments about the Dugger Family that I took offense to. On the other hand there have been some who highly praised the obvious love within the family, the order, and devotion of the parents to their children. I read this post by Crystal Paine the other day. She articulated her thoughts on the subject so well I wanted to post it here for others to read.

We need as many well-equipped arrows as possible from Crystal Paine
"I posted something about the Duggar's new addition yesterday and braced myself for the onslaught of angry comments which I knew would ensue. I've chosen not to allow comments of that nature here because there are plenty of other places on the internet to hurl insults at this family. Suffice it to say, people are very upset at the Duggar family for choosing to have 17 children. What I don't get is that the majority of people saying vitriolic remarks are also the same people who will say out of the other side of their mouth that everyone has a right to do as they please, a right to choose what is best for their life.Those statements all go out the window when it comes to the Duggar family, though. It is okay to sleep with multiple partners, have multiple abortions, or ship any children you have off to day care centers for the bulk of their growing up years. It is okay to call "marriage and family" a group of any sort of people you come up with that suits your fancy, it is okay for parents to work at the expense of their children, but it is absolutely not okay in their book for anyone to trust God with their family size and have 17 children. Never mind that these 17 children are in a warm and loving family environment, never mind that there seems to be much order and structure in the Duggar home, never mind that these parents are well-providing for their children, never mind that centuries ago, having 17 children was not anything extremely out of the ordinary.For some reason it is okay to have fancy cars, big mansions, and all the electronic gadgets and toys we could ever hope for. It's okay to have pets - lots of pets if you prefer - cats, dogs, reptiles. However, it is not okay to have a lot of children.Do you see how silly all of this is? We spend all of our lives working to afford fancier cars, bigger houses, and more gadgets and gizmos, and yet one of the few things which can leave a lasting legacy - our children - we overlook.No, I'm not saying that everyone needs to follow in the steps of the Duggars and have 17 or more children. Most normal married couples cannot have that many in their lifetime anyway. What I am saying is that we need to get over this low view of children, a view which has sadly infiltrated most of Evangelical Christianity.The Bible says children are gifts from the Lord, why would we want to reject His blessings? What is more important than investing our lives training and raising up the next generation?I pray God raises up many more large Christian families like the Duggars to show the world - by example - that children are a blessing from the Lord and that responsibly raising many children is possible. More importantly, though, I pray that many more parents would grasp hold of their responsibility to train and raise their children up to love the Lord with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. We live in a sin-sick world and we need as many well-equipped arrows as possible to be shot out into the world to impact our culture for the glory of God."

Duggers Welcome Baby #17

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- It's a girl - again - for the Duggars. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar welcomed their 17th child, and seventh daughter, into the world Thursday.
Jennifer Danielle was born at 10:01 a.m. at Saint Mary's Hospital in Rogers, Ark., the Duggars said in an interview. Jennifer weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces and arrived five days after Michelle's due date.
Less than 30 minutes after giving birth, the Duggars already were talking of having more.
"We'd love to have more," Michelle said, adding that the girls are outnumbered seven to 10 in the family. "We love the ruffles and lace."
Jennifer joins the fast-growing Duggar brood, who live in Tontitown in a 7,000-square-foot home. All the children - whose names start with the letter J - are home-schooled.
The oldest is 19 and the youngest, before Jennifer, is almost 2 years old.
"We are just so grateful to God for another gift from him," said Jim Bob Duggar, 42, a former state representative. "We are just so thankful to him that everything went just very well."Jennifer joins siblings Joshua, 19; John David, 17; Janna, 17; Jill, 16; Jessa, 14; Jinger, 13; Joseph, 12; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 9; Jedidiah, 8; Jeremiah, 8; Jason 7; James 6; Justin, 4; Jackson, 3; Johannah, almost 2.

Read the full story.

Health Insurance

My head is spinning. I'm trying to decide on the best health insurance plan. I have had some agents talking circles around me as I try to understand the deductables, coinsurance, maxiums, and so on of each plan mentioned. So far I'm liking Blue Cross, Coventry, and Assurant Health. So many options..sigh. I'll have to ponder on this tonight. I think one specific agent can recognize my voice now when I call to ask a question. :-( To me this is a big decision and I'm determined to take my time and understand what I'm signing up for.

Back Again

Gone since March? I can't believe it1 Wow time flys by. In the last few months life has brought some very busy times. I was able to stop and take a Colorado vacation in June. When I think about Rocky Mountain Park it brings a refreshing moment to my day. It’s absolutely beautiful there! This week was of to a flying start. My Mom spent time in the hospital. I’m very thankful she is home again and resting. I must say the entire staff at the hospital was awesome! She started out in a hospital nearer to home. The Dr. and nurse were very nice but everyone else seemed to have a “I really don’t care about you, please leave me alone” attitude. She was transferred to a different hospital and I was amazed. Everyone had a smile on their face and truly seemed to care about their patients as fellow human beings. When we care about people it shows up in the way we treat them! I was so happy with their care I’m going to send a letter to that hospital highly praising the people who were such a blessing to my Mom.

My Sweet Nephews

Here's a current picture of my two cute nephews, Mosiah and Israel. Mosiah is a busy boy and helps his Mamma Caroline keep track of little Israel. You can count on Mosiah to start saying, "Israel no, no!" when Israel gets into something he shouldn't. Like pulling all the CD's out of the CD rack! Israel doesn't seem to have a need to talk yet. His talking consist of his own little language and pointing. I try to get him to talk but he's not real interested in it yet. The day will come. I keep wondering what he will be chattering about.:-)

Emergency Weather Radio

Last week my Aunt called and informed me a tornado had touched down about 5 miles from were I live. I told her I didn’t know about it. She was surprised being used to the emergency weather sirens in the city. I live out in the country. We don’t have that luxury out here! I had looked out the window and saw the weather was pretty bad but never turned on the radio. Then last night we had another bad storm come through the area. I thought it would be a good idea to get an emergency weather radio. After looking around I decided a radio alarm clock with S.A.M.E. would be the best. You can program these for the county you live in and get warnings through the night. I found one on RadioShack.com, the Desktop Weather Radio/ Alarm Clock, model 12-262 for 69.99. The other kind I was looking at was at LLBean. It is a hand crank weather radio with a adapter to charge your cell phone battery if the electricity is out. The disadvantage is in bad weather you have to leave it on all the time instead of the alarm that will sound off for your specific area with the desktop alarm.
I’ve still been wishing for one more good snow so I can go sledding one more time. It looks unlikely being March 1 but with MO weather you never know. There’s a great snowing hill across the way calling my name.:-)

Work from Home companies

I'm on a group board were someone gave the links to these two companies that hire professionals to work from home. They look like legitimate companies so I'll pass them along here.
http://www.cloud10corp.com/
http://www.livops.com/

Quote for the day

"Time is God's Way of keeping everything from happenning at once." Gregg Harris

Steve is home

I received an email with this report concerning Steve. What a blessing for him!

GREAT NEWS!!!!!

Steve is home!!! On Monday the doctors were going to do a biopsy to see why the kidney was not functioning fully. However, when Monday came they decided that it was not going to be necessary as the kidney was functioning beautifully!!!! The dialysis session was also cancelled!!

They sent Steve home tonight. He has to go back to New York once a week for awhile for tests to make sure everything is continuing to work properly. Then after a month he will have to go back once a month for a while.

Thank you all for your prayers. Hundreds of people were praying for Steve and we truly believe in the power of prayer.

Don't forget, if you feel moved to help financially I am sure the family will appreciate any amount you can send.

Mike

Kidney Transplant for Steve

I decided to post this email I received from my Mom's cousin Mike. Steve is his nephew. He has been updating us concerning the need for a transplant for Steve. If you you these last few emails you will see that Steve did receive the transplant and is progressing with his new kidney. If you are able to be prayful or help financially I know both areas would be appreciated. ~Jennifer



Dear Friends,

Good news. It seems the kidney is starting to work!! It is not yet fully functional but the doctors feel good that it will be soon. They said the body is showing no signs of rejecting the kidney so everything looks positive. Steve will continue to be on dialysis however until the kidney is fully functional. While Steve and the family are optimistic they all will breathe a sigh of relief when the kidney is fully functional. Let's hope it is soon. Don't stop praying!

Many of you have gotten back to me saying that although you couldn't donate one of your kidneys (because of having the wrong blood type, or couldn't get time off for work, etc) you did want to know if you could help out financially. The answer is YES.

Last year when Jim donated his kidney to Steve, Jim had put away $10,000 to cover the costs (hotel, food, transportation, etc.). It wasn't enough. They are still in debt from that experience. Now with this transplant occurring without warning only 1 year later, there was no time to save to get ready for it. Again, since it is out of town, the family has hotel, food and transportation expenses. So they definitely will need help. I think Insurance covers 80% of the medical expenses but that's all.

If you can send anything at all please send a check to:

Jim Scarduzio
4 Crofton Commons
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034

Please include a note that you are a friend of mine so they will know where you found out about their need.

Please forward this to your distribution list. They have been through so much and if a lot of people can send them money it would sure help.

Thank you so much for your help.


A. Mike Segalo



Dear Friends,

Late Monday afternoon my brother Jim got a call from New York (he lives in the Philadelphia area) saying that there might be a possible match for a kidney for Steve!! They said the kidney is coming in from another hospital and they think it might be a match. They said to get up to New York as soon as possible. They said you can't wait until we know for sure. You need to start coming up here within the hour and we will call you in your car to let you know whether to turn around and go back home or whether to continue coming here.

Steve was actually in dialysis at the time of the call so they had to wait until he got home before they could head up to New York. As they were driving they were told to keep coming because everything looked good. When Steve got to New York they took a blood sample and then they had to wait a couple of hours to see if the test showed that it was a match. The test came back positive! Then they decided that since Steve has been through so many situations where things have gone wrong they would do another test on him and the kidney. They were told that this would take 5 more hours. They just wanted to be absolutely sure. This test also came back positive!! It was a perfect match. So they took Steve into surgery around 8 AM Tuesday. They told Jim and Flori that they were going to take their time and make sure every possible thing was done to make this a success. The surgery normally takes about 5 hours. It actually took a little over 7 hours.

Now the next step of course is that the kidney needs to start working. Sometimes it starts right after surgery and sometimes it takes a few hours and sometimes it takes a few days. It is now about 22 hours after the surgery and the kidney has not yet started working.

Obviously we are all sitting on pins and needles right now. Please continue to pray for Steve that God will bless him and start the kidney so that it will work perfectly and for many years.

I will keep you posted on the progress.


Mike

Snow and more Snow

Last weekend was the ice storm that hit the Midwest. Being out the country with no ice salt or plows I end up stuck for a few days. My Mom has learned the value of a food pantry. She has enough food on the shelves to last a week or more. I find it funny to go into the city right before a storm and see how busy all the stores are. People seem to be in a panic at the idea of being caught at home a day or more.
The ice storm was a lot of fun since I was at home. Across the road is some property that has been divided into 3 acre lots to be sold. The gravel road through the development has been laid but none of the lots have sold yet. One section of the road goes down a good hill that my brother-in-law called Thunder Mountain. When Thunder Mountain is covered with ice I can tell you it is a lot of fun to go sledding down! We all had a blast though it is difficult to get up the hill again.:-) I’m looking forward to sledding down Thunder Mountain tomorrow evening.
The ice was not gone yet before our snow storm last night. We got 6" of snow where I live. I tried to get out of the driveway this morning but the snow was too deep. It is gorgeous. I love being in the country after a snow storm. I went outside and took pictures. We don’t seem to get a good 6" snow like this very often. The bad thing is church has been cancelled 2 weeks in a row due to the weather.

Learning from Thomas Edison

Last night I watched a DVD that was a biography of the life of Thomas Edison. I love history and learning about the lives people have lived intrigues me. As I was learning more about Thomas Edison several things came to me about his life. This man certainly had a gift from God. He was brilliant as an inventor. Thomas Edison was a hard worker with a spirit of endurance. He used failures to learn and apply to new inventions. Once he was working on a storage battery. He had experimented with this battery 10,000 times. Imagine being so persistent you continue trying at your goal 10,000 times! A friend was trying to encourage Thomas Edison after he had reached the 10,000 time. Thomas Edison replied, “I haven’t failed. I have simply found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Thomas Edison became very wealthy, he was internationally famous. He had 3 months of formal schooling then was homeschooled by his mother the rest of his school years. Later in life he was given honorary degrees from several colleges.
For all the good things I could see in his life, such as perseverance, as I thought about Thomas Edison one scripture kept coming to mind. “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and loose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? “ Mark 8:39 Thomas Edison was a man who made his work his life. He most certainly lost the hearts of his children. One of his daughters was 6 before she said she truly realized that yes, she did have a father. I have not found any indication that Thomas Edison was a man who walked with God. He gained everything men dream of in this world, only to loose it all when he stepped into eternity. To me that’s the most important lesson to learn. Intelligence without out God is like a piece of paper blowing in the wind. While you were holding onto it and able to read the paper you thought it was worth everything, once it blew out of your hand you were left with nothing. That’s what the things of this world bring. Happiness (so you think) while you are holding it. Once you step into eternity it’s gone and nothing will bring it back.

Chicken Alfredo Pizza-Yummy!

Chicken Alfredo Pizza
Spinach Alfredo base:
1 ½ cups light cream
¾ cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
½ tsp. garlic powder
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. oregano
2-3 oz. fresh spinach leaf, chopped
1 pizza crust already baked ¾ time needed
The cream is heated to boiling then turn down to a simmer while the other ingredients are mixed in. Remove the mixture from the heat when it begins to thicken. Lightly coat 2 boneless chicken breast, cut into slivers, with flour and fry it lightly in olive oil and about 2 cloves of minced garlic. Spread a thin layer of Alfredo spinach sauce onto the pizza crust and top with thinly sliced tomatoes, garlic chicken, and mozzarella cheese. Bake for 15 minutes at 475 degrees.

The Everything History of the Bible

I found a neat book at the library on the New shelf. It the "The Everything History of the Bible" by Jeffery Donley. It was a fascinating book covering topics such as: uncovering Genesis, Dead Sea Scrolls, Archaelogy and the Crucifixion, the Mystery of Miracles, and Founders of Modern Science.

Throughout the book I learned a lot of things I didn't know anything about. In the modern science section I found it amazing once again to think on the modern philosphy concerning science. In modern thinking it is taught you can't have a brain, think, and be a scientist if you are a Christian. I guess only Darwinian scientist are the real brains capable of reason and discovery. Or so I've heard. The Modern Science chapter is an amazing rebuttal of that idea. Starting with the Scientific Revolution of 1600-1775 brief bio's of devoted Christian Scientist are given. These men were filled with a desire to discover the world and the laws ruling that world which they believed God had created. Some of the names you may well recognize: Johannes Kepler, Galieo Galilei, Sir Frances Bacon, Issac Newton, Blaise Pascal, William Herschel, Samuel Morse, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, and Joseph Lister.

The short biography of Blasie Pascal gave a note about his famous challenge "Wager". I have never heard of it but I would like to try and find it. I have thought a lot about this challange he gave and can't find anything more worthy to think on than this.

"His famous challenge encourages individuals to consider that if one chooses to believe in Chriostianity and it is false, nothing is lost. But if one chooses to disbelieve in Christianity and it is true, then everything is lost."