The Onion Newspaper

Saw this headline in the local satire newspaper, The Onion, last week and it cracked me up.  Wanted to share it with you.

Nation Somehow Shocked by Human Nature Again

Check it out for a good laugh!

Inspiration

We've been reading and watching movies about the Revolutionary War this month- very, very inspiring. 

Anjali recommends:

Liberty Kids, Netflix, 40 episodes following kids from the Boston Tea Party to the end of the war

Young Patriots: Inspiring Stories of the American Revolution by Marcella Fisher Anderson and Elizabeth Weiss Vollstadt.  It's a series of stories about kids who helped to win the Revolution- a great read and discussion starter.

Heroines of the American Revolution: America's Founding Mothers by Diane Solcox-Jarret.  Marvelous stories about women heroes in the Revolutionary War like Mary Lindley Murray the woman who stopped the British Army with a tea party.  Amy was extremely moved, too, especially since I'd never heard of these women before.



Amy recommends:
Washington's Lady by Nancy Moser, historical fiction of Martha Washington's life

And slightly off topic, yet nonetheless inspiring and relevant
 Biography of Robert E Lee and The End of the Civil War, Netflix

Amy's jaw- it's over!

I am happy to report that I went to the oral surgeon yesterday and from everything we can see, feel, and culture, it looks like he got the infection and this whole thing is over.  On the top right you can see my former cyst.  I'm very grateful and quite tired, too.

Amy's oral surgery

On Monday February 7 at 9:30 a.m. I will be going in for oral surgery.  I have an infected cyst ballooning into my sinus above where two infected molars used to reside until recently.  I am currently on my 6th course of antibiotics in 6 months which should hold everything until then.  I am pleased to say that I got my top choice of surgeon and team and I am really looking forward to finishing this. 

Based on the symptoms which increase when I'm off antibiotics and then lessen when I'm on, I'm guessing this has been a cause for 12 years or more of my chronic head and neck pain as well as digestive issues.  I am so very, very glad to be finishing this before my 40th birthday on 2/14.

Two bits of hard won wisdom-
If you are an Eldridge- please note that all of Grampa Ernest Eldridge's molars had 5 roots!  If you have a root canal, be sure that they check for 5th roots since I also had at least one which sat infected for 12 years setting this whole mess in motion.

Second, if you have unexplained health problems, think teeth.  I can't believe how many other things I tried over the years from neurological exams and an MRI to food allergies and gall stones but never once considered that it might be related to either teeth or sinuses. One 2 minute CT scan told all. 

Please keep me in prayer as God brings me to mind.

Tim and the dishwasher

This is a long overdue thank you blog.  Our dishwasher died this fall and Tim bargain shopped, getting us a great new one, saving even more by installing it himself.  It works great!  Even pots and pans.  I've got an extra hour a day since I'm not organizing the kids to help wash and hand dry everything.  Thanks Tim!  Good work!

Mark's joke

Mark: Mom, what do you call an animal with a trunk and an X on it's head?

Mom:  What?

Mark:  An X-ephant.  It's the same word- L-ephant and X-ephant.  See?

Loving winter- snowshoeing

Anjali, Mark, and I all went snowshoeing for the first time today.  Love it!  We went to Botteneau Park in NE Mpls and had a wonderful naturalist named Kristy all to ourselves for an hour of playing outside.  We made the first footprints in last night's new snow, climbed ice piles, found helicopter seeds, and watched the clouds float by in the blue, blue sky laying on a picnic table.  So easy to do which is a pleasant surprise after trying skiing and skating many years ago. 
So, if anyone wants to go float around Wirth Park, looking for tracks and birds, let us know.  We're all there.