Dream Assignment

My long time blogger bud Jen Lemen has the biggest dreams of almost anyone I know - and one of those dreams is actually within her reach and you can help make it happen.

Jen is a Shutter Sister, mom, artist, poet, blogger-extraordinaire and she and her friend Stephanie have put together a Dream Assignment proposal and it's tied for 5th place right now - can you help them by registering and pushing them up to the top? Pic Hope:

Name Your Dream Assignment - Picture Hope

Very Hungry Birthday

Happy 40th Birthday Very Hungry Caterpillar!

As a woman who struggles with an eating disorder The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been one of my top 5 favorite childrens books. Newsweek has a great article on Eric Carle's story and shares a bit of why it resonated so deeply with him. I did not find or remember the book from childhood, it was only when I began to read to my own children that I discovered this gem. Lovely to know that Eric Carle has found happiness and is enjoying his semi-retirement.

Newsweek: The Surprising Dark Side of the Very Hungry Caterpillar

Carry your bags sir?

My friend David is wicked with pen & paper (well stylus and screen?) - his cartoon today speaks volumes:


You will find that his words are just as insightful:

Naked Pastor

The doorway

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

Source: Mary Oliver, Thirst

Turner Family Update

You have all been so patient - I apologize that I have gone silent. With the end of March break all three of us, Ali, Jacob & I went back to school. I am in the middle of my last two week intensive for my masters degree - and have had to focus on school. I just finished up my afternoon class and my brain is filled to the brim and I am both mentally and physically exhausted.

No news has been good news on Jacob. There has been two days of a lot of pain (Monday & Friday) where he left school - but Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday were all three full days of school. He's had no fevers, his blood work came back with numbers that made the doctor happy and the extra mural nurse just finished hooking up his last IV bag of antibiotics. By 5:00 tomorrow night he will be free of the pump and we'll be heading to outpatient to get his PICC line removed!!!

His scar is healing well and other than the muscles knitting themselves back together and causing quite a bit of pain he is doing quite well. He's not got all of his energy or weight back yet - so we'd still appreciate your prayers - but he it is so good to have our boy back.

Alinea is doing well, she's getting ready to enter her TEEN years in less than a month (April 10th) and we're planning a blessing service/party for her.

Keith has been pulling way more than his normal load through both the sickness and school - and I am constantly amazed at how capable he is and we are regularly blessed by his incredible talents in the kitchen.

By the end of next week I will have completed all of the study terms of my program - except the travel term (Greece/Turkey this time next year) and my thesis work. It hardly seems possible that soon I'll be able to be doing reading again that I pick instead of all of the assigned reading I've been doing (or avoiding) for the past two years. I can't wait as I've got a stack of books waiting to be read.

Thanks again for your prayers, encouragement and support during this past month - we are so happy to see the beginning of the hope of spring here and the backside of winter. We shall kiss it goodbye and good riddance. It's been a long season and we're ready for new growth.

Brian Andreas @ TED

No time to blog or read - this module is kicking my backside...

Wanted to mark Brian Andreas (The StoryPeople) TED interview on storytelling for scientists and technologists so that I can read it later (but you can read it now!):

Brian Andreas @ TED

Home alone

It hit us both at about 10:00 last night. Crap. This is all on us now. We've got no nurses checking him through the night, making sure he's safe & sound. Just us. Why did we push to get him home? GULP. Sleep was a bit fractured because our uneasiness at realizing that this isn't just diabetic care anymore, but a much deeper awareness of his frailty and needs.

The hospital sent us home with IV drip bags of the antibiotic and vials so that the local hospital could make more in case they didn't have any in stock. Keith took Jake at 10:00 last night to the St. Stephen hospital emerg and they hooked up his PICC line to a drip for 45 minutes. They went again early this morning - even before I awoke. What a guy.

I have spent the whole morning on phone trying to organize all of the care he'll need and touch bases with doctors and nurses. In speaking with his doctor this a.m. we found out that he's got 2 full weeks more of the antibiotic necessary, and not just 3 days... dang. That changed a lot. Instead of the 3 visits to hospital for the IV's they have set up an antibiotic pump that he'll carry with him in a pack. This will let him do school next week. Poor guy. Like diabetes isn't enough? I am so grateful though for the system in place that will allow him to continue on the meds without having to stay in hospital for that extended time.

The med isn't covered by our insurance and is sky high expensive. We found out that the extra-mural nurse program will be billed instead of us. This is such a gift. 2 weeks of dosing would have crushed our family financially. Social medicine at its finest. Jake's hospital stay, the surgeries & procedures and amazing medical care, even insured in the US would strap a family so deeply that it would take years to climb out of that kind of expense. Generosity and grace at it's most practical level. We are so very grateful.

So while we're "alone" in the 4-of-us sense, we are truly not alone. We are surrounded by friends and a community that is nurturing and supportive. Such a blessing. I read this quote this morning:

"A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten arrows in a bundle"

Japanese Proverb

This past month I have felt the support of our bundle - it has kept us going and in our fragile state from breaking. Thank you.

I heard that you like broken things

thank you bob

Sunday update on Jacob

Keith called yesterday (Saturday) to tell me that they are thinking about releasing him TODAY! This is a surprise as Monday was the earliest I heard when I was there. He's scheduled for a chest x-ray and a CBC - so if those things come back without any red flags they are talking about releasing him later today. His endocrinologist is the doctor on call, so he's in really good hands as she's more like his aunt than his doctor. She loves him so.

He has a PICC line that they will leave in and he'll have an antibiotic pump that will dose him 4 times a day/night for the next few days - but it will let him be HOME for March Break and his birthday on Wednesday. Woo Hoo!!

He is quite weak and will need a lot of recovery at home too. He's lost a lot of weight and his hemoglobin is really low. We just can hardly believe all four of us could sleep under the same roof tonight. Hopefully the weather will cooperate as they are forecasting some pretty nasty stuff of all sorts headed our way. I'm hoping the Atlantic takes it all and it misses us completely.

Again, we are still holding our collective breath - so please keep praying. Thank you.