Life at Hidden Pines
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Sat 26 Dec 2009
We had a good Christmas here, even though money was tight. The amount of money we had to spend on the children was nearly half what it normally was, but it all worked out great, and the girls were exceedingly grateful for their gifts. We had some Christmas surprises, including a laundry basket of groceries being delivered anonymously to our door. We were really shocked, although we think we know where it came from. I was given a new camera, even though I didn’t want any money spent on me. I hope to be able to use it to make money. I am really loving it!
I had wanted to post many times about how we spend Christmas, but time has been short. Although I said no to everything I could, it was still a very busy time. The children had a lot of ministry opportunities at church. It helped tremendously this year that my oldest is driving and could take her sisters and herself back and forth. Also, for the first time in many years, the girls got to spend time with their father, which I’m glad of. Although it has left me with some mixed feelings and different situations to face, I know that God is doing something wonderful in all their lives, and I can rest in that, if I will but trust Him.
Christmas has been a hard holiday season for me over the years, and I’ve not enjoyed it the way I wanted. I remember my very first Christmas alone. I had been single for about 2 months, and hid tears as best I could from the children, as I attempted to put together their toys on Christmas morning. I felt so stupid and lost, because I didn’t know how to easily put together things. I also felt in the core of my being that it just wasn’t right that a mother had to do all that. I remember one year not even having a tree until about a week before Christmas, because I just didn’t want to face what Christmas meant alone. Last year, the girls did all the decorating. This year, I felt a bit of a rebirth of some of the joy of Christmas. Although I’m so glad for the hustle and bustle to be ended, there are parts of Christmas that I don’t want to give up yet. I am enjoying still looking at our beautiful, but broken tree.:) (The stand broke, so the tree was just placed into a sturdy magazine rack and covered with beautiful fabric.)
I try to buy the girls an ornament every year. I want to give the ornaments to them whenever they are on their own and have their own tree. I try to buy quality ornaments that will last over the years. I found out quick that the cheap ones are just that–cheap! I love Hallmark ornaments, especially the ones by Marjolein Bastin, because I love nature and birds. I have learned to put the girls’ initials on them, but now realize I should have been putting the year on them all these years! Ugh!
Here are some pictures of the ornaments on our tree.
The girls’ made my mom and me quite a few of these ornaments made with old CDs and old Christmas cards. They are beautiful with the lights on them. I love them!
My 2 oldest girls each chose a solid wood owl this year. These large birds carefully watch over everybody on the tree.:)
For my youngest, who loves Club Penguin.:)
I’ve had this Raggedy Ann, along with others, for years.
A little chickadee nibbling on a pine cone. My oldest and I have one just alike. These are teensy!
This birdhouse belongs to my youngest.
I just love this very large snowflake.
This busy feeder belongs to my middle daughter.
This silver teapot was on our tree when I was a little girl.
This ornament was for my daughter whose name I could not find already imprinted on these angel ornaments.
My Marjolein Bastin ornament this year.
 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. ~Psalms 19:14
Wed 4 Nov 2009
August 2008 started us on a roller coaster ride with all of us having ongoing health issues that required multiple doctor visits, but the worst situation was with my oldest daughter. The rest of the health problems finally healed, but my oldest daughter was in a life-changing situation. She was first diagnosed with Raynaud’s phenomenon, which often accompanies other major diseases, so she had to go through some testing. A year ago this month, we received a devastating diagnosis of scleroderma. I was terrified and held on to the Word of God and the prayers of other Christians to get us through. Then, as I often do, I tried to imagine that this will be past us a year from now. But with this diagnosis, there would be no getting past it in a few weeks, months, or a year. It would be something she’d have to deal with for the rest of her life.
Six weeks later a specialist found that my daughter did not have scleroderma. After more and more doctor visits, my daughter was referred to another specialist to find out what was really going on. During those times of waiting for that appointment, my daughter was having multiple problems that were not going away. I researched, had a consultation with a professional herbalist, and more. I tried all sorts of natural remedies. In desperation, I went to the health food store for more products, and found that there were natural doctors in; they never had been in there before, and I go quite often! After telling them the situation, the doctors there immediately said that it was my daughter’s thyroid, especially since she looked far younger than she was. I called my daughter’s physician to see if they had checked it. With all the blood work and tests that she had had, her thyroid had not been checked! I took her right in and found that it was indeed her thyroid! Praise God that He answered my prayer and let us find out what was wrong! It really chilled me to the bone, because no one had even thought to check it, and if we had not found out, my daughter could have lost her hearing, sight, had multiple physical problems, and even have died.
The second specialist agreed that my daughter didn’t have scleroderma. She also said that with autoimmune diseases, it may be years before they present themselves, so my daughter would have to always be monitored. Her diagnosis did not comfort me; I was terrified of what the years may hold. It was terrifying waiting for the other shoe to drop at any time. Eventually, I was able to accept the diagnosis and also came to realize that perhaps the only autoimmune disease accompanying the Raynaud’s was the thyroid issue. What a comforting thought to me!
Praise God for the difference that a year makes. Praise God that He has the future in His hands.
“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.”
—Psalm 91:14-15 KJV
(I have held on dearly to these verses during this past year.)
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. ~Psalms 19:14
Sat 31 Oct 2009
“In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil. And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as from August to November.“
—Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden, 1905
Where we live, we do not have blazing, glorious colors in the fall. But the colors we do have are beautiful to me. As far back as I can remember, all I have known is the ugly brown of the leaves from the pecan tree or the bright orange of the needles from the pine tree. Here at Hidden Pines, we have 2 trees in the front yard that have gorgeous leaves in the fall. I love to watch them fall when a good breeze blows. They are beautiful blanketing the front porch that some young lady forgot to sweep.:)
The brown-eyed susans are everywhere down here, but this is the first place I’ve lived in where they were close to my house. The are so pretty with the goldenrod. Unfortunately, everything is already fading.
These are the last brown-eyed susans at the pond. I hate to see them go.
“Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile.“
—William Cullen Bryant
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. ~Psalms 19:14
Mon 26 Oct 2009
After a very busy summer, we are enjoying a much quieter fall. Missy is doing so well and has no problem with her once broken leg. After being cooped up for so long, she is enjoying spending almost all her time out in the backyard every day. She is such a joy to us. She is learning to bark at things, but barks more often than we’d like.:) The girls and I all have been sick for over a week, but are now much, much better. I find I still tire easily, and some of us have lingering coughs every now and then, but we are all doing much better. Our appetites have returned, and I find myself ravenous at times.
We are cleaning and organizing today, and will get back into our schoolbooks tomorrow. My youngest has been thoroughly cleaning her room today. She is a little pack rat, and saves the oddest things.:) The oldest girls do a great job of keeping theirs neat. I’ve got a lot of paperwork that I want to take care here in my bedroom/office. The girls will be hauling a load of pine cones to use as fire starters, and they will be cleaning out the inside of my car.
It is so hard to believe that November is almost here, and then Christmas will be following close behind. We want to start back to yard sales soon, to get Christmas gifts for our family. I do dread the busyness of the holidays—we almost always end up sick after going, going, and going. I’ll have to be diligent on not taking on too much, but it seems every year that there is nothing I can say no to. Taking quality vitamins, eating well (which is hard, when you are on the run!), and getting enough rest should help.
Here is a picture of Missy and Autumn on the bed. Missy loves to playfully attack her brother, and sometimes they will wrestle. Missy doesn’t understand why Autumn doesn’t join in playing with the dog squeaky toys though. 
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. ~Psalms 19:14
Wed 9 Sep 2009
It has been another long busy summer for us. I don’t think any summer is quiet and relaxing for us really. It seems there was been something going on every week during June and July this year. In June we had to take my oldest daughter to the pediatric rheumatologist 5 hours away, and the following week had to drive her an hour away for her drug and alcohol awareness class for her drivers license. She had to go to 2 classes, so we had to travel 2 days. Another week there was VBS, and the next week an airplane trip to see my friend. In July all my girls had birthdays, along with my mother and sister-in-law, so it was a party all month! Not to mention, getting the puppy, taking her for shots, much practice of parallel parking for the drivers test, following up blood tests and other tests for my daughter, and a slumber party.
August started out busy, but less busy. We helped a friend pack up to move, and our puppy broke her leg! She was trying to pounce on Teddy, the neighbor’s dog, when she missed and fell off the back porch. The porch is pretty low, but she landed in the right way as to break it. She’s had to go back to the doctor every week for a recheck and rewrap of her bandaged leg. We have to keep her in the house unless she goes potty, when we have to wrap her leg in a Ziplock bag and be sure she’s on the leash. She’s went from 6 lbs when we got her to 20 lbs, so it’s getting harder and harder to carry her up and down the steps. What a trial it’s been dealing with this! She’s doing great, though, and is just as frisky as ever.  In addition to everything, we also homeschool during the summer, except for July, and I’ve had website work to do for clients, so it’s really been busy! September has rolled in kind of quietly. We hope it will remain that way!
By the way, it’s really nice to have another driver in the house. After doing everything for 9 years by myself, the load is getting lighter! What freedom, what joy!
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. ~Psalms 19:14
Sat 7 Mar 2009
On our landlord’s property, there are three deer stands, two of which are occupied by flying squirrels.
Pamela lives in the one closest to our house,
while Claudia lives in the farthest one away.
Both girls are very shy, petite, and beautiful. Claudia keeps house much neater than does Pamela.
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. ~Psalms 19:14
Wed 18 Feb 2009
We got some great news on my daughter. The doctors are now thinking she just has eczema and not scleroderma or any other autoimmune problem other than Raynaud’s phenomenon! We don’t know if God healed her (her symptoms were very bad at the initial diagnosis) or if she was just diagnosed wrong in the beginning, but we are praising God for this answer to prayer!
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. ~Psalms 19:14
Wed 28 Jan 2009
I did a huge OOPS tonight! I was trying to learn more about databases, when I accidentally deleted my blog database! So, I’m starting over. For some reason, my old theme showed back up when I reinstalled Wordpress. I don’t know how or why, but I’m so thankful! Thank You, Lord! I hated to have to redo that, too, although I have been wanting a blog redesign. I just haven’t had the time lately. Fortunately, I’ve saved nearly all my posts, so I can upload them again.
It has been a while since I have been able to write. The last several months have been very busy with the normal things, but also with extra things. My business has been extremely busy, for which I’m so thankful. God has been so good and has blessed my business. I am a bit nervous about the situation with the economy, but I keep reminding myself of God’s promises in the Bible to take care of us even during famine.
Additionally, we have been back and forth to the doctor for the last several months, trying to find out what is wrong with my oldest daughter, who is 16. We are sure of one condition that she has, which is Raynaud’s phenomenon. It has certainly caused some changes for my daughter and has handicapped her in some ways, but she has had a wonderful attitude. We have made the best of it and even joke around with Miss Icy Hands.:) She was also diagnosed with scleroderma, which will kill if left untreated and will almost definitely disfigure. In addition to taking my daughter for all sorts of tests (she has had to go through so much), we have been researching, praying, and trying not to worry. At first I just accepted what the doctor said and tried to educate myself and prepare for a lifetime of constant medical care. But I started praying for healing. I believe God can heal anything. Last month I took her to a specialist, who feels like she does not have scleroderma! My daughter’s symptoms were gone when we went. I don’t know if God healed her or if there was just a misdiagnosis in the beginning, but we are so, so thankful and relieved! It may be that my daughter has a different autoimmune problem, such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. She will probably be referred to the nearest pediatric rheumatologist, which is a few hours away. Although all the blood tests have been good, autoimmune diseases can take years to fully present themselves, and my daughter will have to be monitored regularly. However, I’m praying and trusting in the Lord for a good diagnosis. If not, God is in control, and we will deal with it. Please pray for her if the Lord lays her on your mind.
I’m really hoping to start back blogging regularly. I have so much I want to share. I really want to encourage women in their homes, especially single mothers.
Have a great evening!
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. ~Psalms 19:14
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