As my sister and I plowed through boxes of old paperwork to try to find the documentation we need to submit my mother’s application for Medicaid, we also found a few childhood treasures. Including these sweet photos. Yay, 1970’s!                  But not so much yay early 1980’s. Blech, blech, blech for my tomboy days. But wasn’t my sister pretty as always?                     

I’m so glad to be here in Michigan with my mom and stepdad. It is a true honor to get to serve them. Yesterday was a full day in the hospital. Sophia’s gift of a handmade ornament in my mom’s favorite colors (red and purple) was a big hit:  I took a lot of notes after her transesophageal echocardiogram and electrical cardioversion. And today I got to help with a little cleaning, shopping, and setting up all sorts of home cardiac care nursing appointments and follow up doctor appointments. My sister, Kali, should be joining us Friday evening and we will hopefully have a couple of days together as a…

In just a few months, my mother’s heart failure has gone from a 25% to a 15% ejection fraction. This is “severe decrease” in heart functioning and she is suffering all of the standard results: shortness of breath, cardiac edema (build up of fluids), and extreme fatigue. She is also experiencing cardiac arrhythmia and was hospitalized this weekend so that she can have some procedures done beginning tomorrow morning (Monday morning). Thanks to the amazing generosity of my sister and her Fred (who are paying for my ticket) and my dear friends (who are helping with childcare for Sophia & Ella), I am going to fly out tomorrow to hopefully…

    It only took me 17 years of married life, but I finally stepped out of my fears and tried my first Indian/Pakistani recipe.   This was SO yummy and SO easy! If you’ve ever had an Indian meal in a restaurant and thought (like me), “I wish I could cook something this good!”, then this is the recipe for you: PAKISTANI “OLD CLOTHES” BEEF CURRY (NIHARI) IN THE SLOW COOKER (From The Indian Slow Cooker; with my personal notes in parentheses at the end) 2 medium yellow onions, peeled, cut in half, sliced (I used only 1 onion b/c we don’t usually like onions) 2 lbs of beef…

On air right now with Joanna Weaver—join  us online! Wellspring Radio  

I bought and read this book the old-fashioned way (with money and paper) and found it absolutely with  the investment. But FREE? Can’t beat that! True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia (by Jerry Bridges)  

But always there is someone, somewhere, singing  at her grinding. Hopi Indian Proverb  

In addition to a fun (albeit slightly biased–what would you expect?) review of U.S. history at the Alberta Bair’s Rock the Presidents, we also braved the snow (yes, snow) to enjoy a hearty cup of soup and a caramel cookie waffle at our beloved Billings’ Dutch brothers’ establishment:                 Now I need to start packing for my trip tomorrow to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where the weather is apparently so muggy that it feels like 87 degrees. We’ll have a low of 28 degrees today in Billings! Yeah. I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to pack for this 60-degree-swing adventure … What an…

We love autumn in Billings—especially Riverfront Park. Even at its low point, the Yellowstone River is beautiful …                                                

We slept in on Monday and had a leisurely morning in a very nice Hilton  in Wyoming …