BirthChoice Project

Tiffani was assigned a Benevolence Project last month wherein she was to learn about a charitable organization, create a goal to contribute her own time/talent/treasure, and write a report about her experience. She chose BirthChoice of the Desert and will add a brief synopsis of her report to this post very soon. She met her monetary goal and donated 2 baby blankets as well. Tiffani donated a fleece blanket. And a big thank you and hug to Andi, who crocheted a beautiful blanket that Tiffani could give!

Baby items given to new moms in need.

Each new mom receives a bag of goodies and diapers for her precious baby.

Tiffani showing Andi's beautiful blanket.











Tiffani meeting with Patty Stringer...BirthChoice's Director.

Tiffani sharing with her class about her experience with BirthChoice.

Luke 18:16-17
But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

Day 11 - Fruit and Flowers

7:20 AM ~ A brand new day...a day of new possibilities. :-)

I woke up praying for the woman who shocked me with the message she left on my cell phone yesterday. It dawned on me that it's probably just her nature...some people are just more empathetic than others.

God is so good to have always pressed His message from 1 Corinthians 13 on my heart...Love keeps no record of wrongs...so I'm blessed this morning to move forward in love and joy. And I pray that I meet this woman in-person someday (I don't know her, nor have I ever met, seen or spoken with her) and give her a hug. Because I'm a hugger. :-)

And it's a good lesson for all of us in addressing someone who is ill. We better pray for the fruit of the Spirit to overflow out of us before our encounter with them OR before leaving them a phone message, because an ill person needs our: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). They don't need to be told a list of things they already know. They don't care about our agenda. They are caught in their own little world of hurt and healing for a while. They need to know that you are concerned for them...and that you love them. That is all. So simple.

And onto Flowers...I forgot to mention the beautiful flowers I received on Tuesday! I have them both on my bedside table.
The first to come in are from Leslie...pretty little purple flowers. They have a name (campanula get mee), but I just call them "my purple flowers." I love all purple flowers...they always catch my eye and cheer me up. There are lots of perfect little flowers on each stem and the stems are "wild" ~ shooting everywhich way out of the little container. I love them! They make me think Life and Vibrant Health.
The other flowers came in with dinner from Marny on Tuesday night. She told Tiffani she was hoping they'd be "Birthday flowers and not Get Well flowers." I love them, Marny, for any occasion. :-) They are little pink roses...2 in full bloom, 2 waiting for the perfect moment to burst forth with blossom and fragrance. The 2 that are open smell delicious. The petals are soft and their green leaves lush. They remind me to relax. Stop and smell the roses...

This morning's Prayer Request:
1. That driving again will be no issue. I know I have plenty of help getting Tiffani where she needs to go today, but I'm going to drop her off at CoOp classes, because I have to go to my Treatment appointment right after anyway.
2. My largest request...Please begin praying for Tiffani's CHSPE test tomorrow. She only needs to take the math section to pass. And I've been a huge burden to her these 2 weeks leading up to this test. Interrupting study time, etc. Lord, I pray that you will cover any question she encounters that would have been studied for had she not been attending to me. A friend also mentioned the stress of knowing an ill mother is waiting for while she is taking the test on top of general test stress will need to be overcome...she said she knows from her own experience. So I pray for His guidance and wisdom over Tiffani...she'll be sitting for the test at 8:30 AM.

I'm feeling well this morning...I'd say about 50%. Breathing is good. Still pulling thin, slippery stuff from my lungs. Brain seems clear. Will update after my treatments today.

Q. Have you been running a fever?

A. I was until a couple days ago. Between 100.5 and 102.2. My temperature was normal yesterday when I checked. Haven't checked today.

7:32 PM ~

Treatments went great today! Marilyn is wonderful.

1. Cell Energy Therapy - Reaction: Again, didn't physically feel a lot with this one. Today, I felt a pulsing a few times around the area of my right foot injury last April.

2. Infrared Sauna - Reaction: I was in the sauna for 45 minutes. The temperature hovered between 140 and 145 F over the 45 minutes. Marilyn checked on me throughout this time. Again the warmth felt beautiful to me. I barely perspired the last time. This time, I was excreting some toxins. :-) Still not a full-sweat, but I'm working up to that.

3. Sea-Ionic Footbath - Reaction: By the end, my water was about the same color as last time indicating the same things are still being released from my body, but there was a noticeable decrease in the amount of debris. The stench was worse today...more chemicals.

I left feeling relaxed and about 65%, as the day has gone along and I've continue to drink my special water with minerals, and eat, I'd say at this time, I'm at least 75% Yippee!!

A big thank you for another great dinner! DeLora you are so sweet. I think you're the only one I've actually seen during a meal drop, so that was really special. And just so you know, Tiffani had seconds. :-) I loved the spinach salad...I personally can't use dressing right now, but it was delicious with the sweet strawberries and almonds.

I thank God for all of you. I really can't find the words to thank all of you enough for seeing my family and me through all of this with your prayers, encouragement, and practical help. I pray that you are all happy and healthy.

Much love...Traci :-)

Seek My Face...

When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”
Psalm 27:8

Painting: Seek My Face by Danny Hahlbohm

Seek the LORD and His strength, seek His face continually.
1 Chronicles 16:11

If My people, which are called by My name,

shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face,

and turn from their wicked ways;

then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin,

and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14

Seek the LORD, and His strength: seek His face evermore.
Psalm 105:4

Therefore came I forth to meet Thee,

diligently to seek Thy face,

and I have found Thee.
Proverbs 7:15

A Great Start

It is a great thing to start life

with a small number of really good books

which are your very own.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

Painting: Books in Winter by Jessie Wilcox Smith

I cannot live without books.

Thomas Jefferson

I find television very educational.

Every time someone turns it on,

I go in the other room and read a book.

Groucho Marx

A well-composed book is a magic carpet
on which we are wafted to a world that
we cannot enter in any other way.
Caroline Gordon

There is more treasure in books
than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island
and at the bottom of the Spanish Main...
and best of all, you can enjoy these riches
every day of your life.
Walt Disney (1901-1966)

The Typewriter

Even in these days of high-speed electronics and computers, Tiffani loves all things "old." While visiting Grandma and Grandpa on Thanksgiving Day, she saw the progression of "mechanical writing."

First, my mom pulled out her old, manual Royal typwriter with the red & black, striped, cloth ribbon. It's in beautiful condition and Tiffani found that it still types. Grandma recounted how she received it...she was in junior high and one night at the dinner table, she mentioned to her parents how much she'd like to have a typewriter. Much to her surprise, that very evening, they took her to a store and bought her the Royal typewriter. It cost $50 back then, which was an exhorbitant amount of money at the time.

I can recall MANY days of my childhood hearing the click of those keys as Mom kept in touch with friends and relatives across the country.

Next, Tiffani experienced the Smith Corona electronic typewriter, which Grandma allowed her to bring home with her. It was very fancy in its day...auto-correction of one letter OR a whole word!

The first letter Tiffani typed on it was a Thank You letter to Grandma & Grandpa for all the wonderful things they gave her that day. Then a letter to her friend, Stefanie, who moved away a year ago. She normally writes letters to her far-away friends in the style of Jane Austen's day...written on a large piece of paper & folded into an envelope. But this typewritten letter was special.

Lastly, during our visit, I showed her my old Apple IIC computer. It was the first personal computer I ever owned. My parents surprised me with it on my October birthday during my Senior year in high school. What a blessing that turned out to be! It seems like such an antique...no hard-drive to save on, a tiny monitor, and green, dotted characters. They have even kept the old dot-matrix printer! Tiffani loved it!

The King's Daughter

A mother's heart prays for the safety and well-being of her daughter...emotionally, physically, intellectually and spritually. Years ago, a homeschooling mom shared with me a magazine for Christian girls called The King's Daughter...

"The King’s Daughter magazine began in 1994 as a small publishing venture edited by two sisters and mailed to twenty-six friends. The beginning was small, but the vision was great – to provide fellowship and Biblical inspiration to any Christian woman or girl who felt lonely in her walk with the Lord, and to link in a circle of encouragement like-minded sisters who were separated only by geographical distance.

Over the next several years, The King's Daughter magazine spread rapidly by word-of-mouth recommendations. Issues averaging thirty pages long (with no advertising) arrived bimonthly in mailboxes across the country and around the world, bringing inspiration to hundreds of girls and women of all ages.

Readers found in The King’s Daughter something new, something different – a high standard of purity, a willingness to stand alone, and an unwavering commitment to Biblical truth.Perhaps the most distinctive trademark of The King’s Daughter magazine was the personal relevance and appealing frankness that characterized every issue.

The editors of The King’s Daughter magazine and the readers who contributed submissions supported Biblical truth with real-life examples. They wrote about situations that ladies and girls really face, and they shared their own experiences with humility and humor. Their articles were written from the heart, and God worked through them to touch hearts around the world.

Over the years The King’s Daughter mailbox received hundreds of letters of gratitude, and personal testimonies of changed lives.The King’s Daughter magazine was edited by three sisters: Lara, Lisa, and Lana Bode, with the help of their entire family."

The family has also published an online Bible Study:

A Young Woman’s Guide to

Applying Biblical Principlesto Real-Life Situations

A 15-week Bible study

published by The King’s Daughter

Sweet Music and a Child's Goodnight

Of all my mommy memories, I love to recall when Tiffani was little and wanted me to sing her to sleep. Everynight until she was about four years old, I'd sing various lullabies and two specific songs ~ the 3rd verse of Away in the Manger (Be near me Lord Jesus...) and The Flower that Shattered the Stone.

She recently told me that she'd get so sad when I sang The Flower that Shattered the Stone, because it was normally the last one that I'd sing and she knew that I'd be leaving her room. Awww...

We started recalling those precious nights as we walked around our neighborhood one dark evening, singing at the top of lungs. She'd found some old cassette tapes in a box that she just unpacked after two years. One of the cassettes was made specifically for her called Tiffani's Lullaby, where the Man on the Moon spoke to her. Very cute!

A few days later I came across this quote from Thomas Alva Edison:

Of all my inventions, I liked the phonograph best.

Life's most soothing things are sweet music and a child's goodnight.

Cell Phone Surprise!

Sometimes Mother-Daughter Outings include going out to buy special things!

How fun was this day?! Tiffani had asked now and again when she'd be able to have to her own cell phone. I never like giving "ages," so I told her, "when you need one."

We decided she "needed one" when neither the mother nor I could reach her one day at a home where she was babysitting. (It turns out that their house phone had been forwarded and the kids never even heard the home phone ring.)

Jeff and I decided to let her know she could pick one out as a Christmas gift last year. That's her "surprised and shocked" face in the picture above.

A few days later we were off to the phone store to put her on the Family Plan. All new territory for us as parents, since these things didn't exist when we were her age!

Watching Ava

Ava and her family visited our area from Texas last March.


Tiffani was a Ball Girl at the 2008 Pacific Life Open Tennis Tournament in Indian Wells, CA.



Tiffani: "I love my cousin, Ava!



I was so excited to babysit her a couple times during their visit."

.

Ava pushed Tyler Kitty in his buggy and chatted with him as we strolled the neighborhood. She was soooooo cute!

Ava became a big sister last month!

Traci: Before Tiffani was old enough to babysit in other families' homes, she babysat in our home under my guidance. She has always loved little ones and she is so blessed by the families for whom she cares. She's taken 2 babysitting courses now, the latest one included 12-hour CPR & First Aid certification. Tiffani and a couple of her friends started babysitting within the past year. What wonderful skills they're learning!

Special Love

The love between mothers and daughters is so special at any age. A mother takes her daughter under her wing and teaches her how to be a woman. A daughter reminds a mother about the importance of each stage of life.

Mothers, how do you pass life lessons on to your daughter? What are your hopes for her? How do you love her?

Daughters, how do you love and care for your mother? What does she do or say that makes you feel loved? How do you enjoy spending time with her?

* Painting: "Gathering Memories ~ Mother & Child" by Laurie Justus Pace

Quote of the Day:

The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.

~ Elaine Heffner