Gravel Road Musings

We were just over to the hospital for the 3rd time this morning and while it seems like Dad's eye lids move a bit when we talk to him, he is giving no other indications of waking up. The nurse was trying to get him to respond to pain but no response.   Our big request right now is Pray that Dad will wake up. Vivian for the rest.

What a day!  One that is likely good for every person to go through at some point but I sure wouldn’t suggest it.  It is no picnic!  But it does open your eyes to the difference people make and the need for community and how important it is to care about people and to stand by them during difficult times. We left Dad’s room around 7:45 this morning.  The periodic reports we received were great and when we got word at 2:00 that the Doctor would soon be out because the surgery was done we all heaved a sigh of relief.  But when the Doctor was not out for an hour and a half we all began to silently get fidgety.  Does soon really take this long? Finally after a brief update call again saying the Doctor would soon be out she arrived.  (Yes, his surgeon is a lady, she doesn’t look mighty until you look at her hands and then you see the strength.) But the news was not good.  She already had dad closed up from surgery but when they took him off th...

Dear Cheryl, I can't believe it.  Are you really gone?  How could you do that?  We need you here. Jason and Braxton need you here.  God, it isn't fair.  You are so young and so full of life.  My heart has a huge ache in it right in the spot where our friendship lived and I already miss you so much. Only 8 years ago, I moved down to Marshfield and you and I hung out together.  I remember times in my apartment, visiting my friend Joy, going to Wausau shopping together.  Then when you and Jay got married and Dave started working for Burkey's we did even more together: camping, campfires, out to eat, hanging out at each other's homes.  I remember catching that first glimpse of Braxton and he was so cute and it was so amazing to see you become a mom. You were there for us when Nicole was born, coming to visit us on the awful snowy day, bringing us coffees.  I remember that you asked the second time to hold Nicole and that blessed...

Good morning, Just to let you know, Dad is back in the operating room.  He went back a little after 8. It will take an hour and a half until they start the surgery. This post is taking me a long time to write, so by now we have heard once from the operating room about 9:50 and they were just ready to start.  They will be calling with updates about every hour and a half to two hours.  Expecting it to take until around 3:00 this afternoon. Continue to pray for all of our family, but if I can be a bit selfish please remember Dave and I.  We feel very pulled right now trying to decide how much to be with Dad and when we should be in Marshfield right now. Our good friend passed away yesterday--I will post more on that later. I will post again when Dad is out of surgery. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support.

I'm a nurse, right?  I know a little of how hospitals function and the changes that can happen, but it is much easier to be on the nurse side trying to explain to the family why things are changing than to be on the family side trying to accept the changes. When I last posted, Dad was supposed to be in the middle of surgery right now.  Instead, he was discharged from the hospital on Saturday, spent the weekend in a hotel and now today had a tooth pulled.  Praise the Lord, the tooth was not infected, but it was rotten.  Surgery was postponed because of this tooth because it could have caused problems with the heart valve as I understand it.  Because it was not infected, he should be on to have surgery tomorrow, but......  The surgeon who has been seeing him is a fill-in surgeon from Green Bay.  He has never really wanted to do the surgery because he will be leaving mid-care and didn't want that, but now he has flatly refused to do the surgery bec...

It's a routine procedure, right?  Just go in through the femoral artery, look at the heart vessels, double check the valve and be done.  And while you're in there, please put in a stent or two so we know the cause for the shortness of breath and chest pains and then our lives will be better than ever and we will continue on our merry way. Thank you for your consideration in this matter. If only--. The cath was a routine procedure, it was done in an hour and the cardiologist came to talk to us, but alas, it is not as simple as a couple of stents.  Blockage at 85%, 80%, and 75%.  So now we are looking at quadruple bypass and a valve replacement.  It seems scary and it is, but we do know God is in control.  That can sound trite, but it's like the cardiologist said, "God has given you a lifeline."  And that is true.  This could have all been discovered through a heart attack, so we are grateful. But if you think of my dad and mom and the doctors...

The Homeless donkey who Taught Me about Life, Faith, and Second Chances Okay, so I have about 5 books to choose from and one of them is about a donkey.  Really? How interesting could a donkey book be and how in the world could a donkey teach life lessons? It somewhat intrigued me and seemed the best option available and so I picked Flash to read and review and boy am I glad I did. Flash is a homeless donkey that just shows up at the Ridge's house one night when tensions were high and funds were low.  After searching for the owners with no success, Flash became a part of the family and taught Rachel some life lessons.  Flash was friendly, loyal and forgiving, except to the family dog, but even they made up before the dog died.  He did not like change and would destroy things that were changed in his barn.  He liked to supervise any going on in the barn as well and was always open for some TLC and treats. What did he teach Rachel?  I could write a blog...

Grow tons of Organic Vegetables in Tiny Spaces and Containers I am not having a garden this year, I told myself as I considered the prospect of a first-time garden here where we are renting and the fact that we don't want to rent long-term.  Then I got this book!!!  At first-glance, I was rather disappointed.  I was expecting glossy pages and full-color pictures, but instead it is more papery with few two-toned pictures, but the content is great. I didn't read the book, every line, every verse, but I read the basic gist of it and it made me excited to once again try some container gardening, this time using good soil, some compost, and even some manure. One thing I really liked about this book is she took the common vegetables, gave them a rating for how good they are for a small postage stamp garden, gave how to plant them, what kinds are the best and some growing tips along with how to store them.  That would be very helpful I think, especially for first-ti...

 The Lost Art of Taking Him at His Word by Thomas R. Yeakley I wasn't sure what this book would be like when I picked it up, but I have to agree with what Tom had to say in it.  You can't just randomly open the Bible, pick a verse and declare that your promise that God is going to fulfill.  But there are many promises in the Bible that can be applied to your life. Tom talks about how there are conditional promises which may or not be applicable, but will have a specific action required on our part. "Delight thyself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." I must first delight myself in the Lord. "God wants dependent children, not independent ones!" This is a quote from the conclusion and such a true statement and yet so hard to live out.  I want to depend on God; I try to depend on God, but it is so easy to think I have life under control and I forget to ask God to lead in my life. That is also why some of God's promises can fe...

So, when I do book reviews, I always try to look for the best things in a book and focus on that.  I try to be kind and positive and minimize the negative, if possible.  To keep that policy, this review would be about two sentences if that, but I am asked to give my opinion, positive and negative and so I will try to do that is as kind of way as possible. The theme of the book was a young girl going away to college and getting caught up with the wrong boy and all that happens from there.  I think the idea of the book was supposed to be redemption, but I will be honest: the book was extremely disjointed.  The grammar wasn't that great and there were numerous misspellings.  I have noticed that this is more prevalent in ebooks, so that might be why there were more mistakes here.  Bible verses were included in the book which was good, but then I also thought there was a little more explicit content than what was appropriate or necessary in a book that was s...

Good morning. It's 6:09 in the morning. I have more work to do than I am likely to get done if plans continue to hold as they are, but here I am blogging.  Why? I'm not sure, because I really don't have anything to say, but felt like I should post so you know I have a little bit of a life outside of reading books and writing reviews about them, though in all honesty that wouldn't be the worst kind of life to have.  Was that the right use of the word worst or should it have been worse?  Anyone? On the subject of book reviews, the next one I post will be the worst (there is that word again) ever, I think.  I try to be nice on book reviews, but this one?  I will have to be creative.  I don't even want to finish it, but I think you are supposed to read the whole thing when you volunteer to blog about it. And my conscience will force me too and my curiosity to see if it gets better--which I'm pretty sure it won't. I found these pictures online this morning ...

And the fine print says: "Becoming your Kids' Go-To Person About Sex," Now, I like to keep my blog a little on the light side.  Yes, I share about grief and things I'm thinking about, but I stay away from issues like sex. I am a Mennonite after all and we don't talk about such things, right.  But this is also a subject that D and I have discussed quite a bit-- this thing of teaching your kids about "the birds and the bees" and how to do it and when is it the right time, etc. etc. Now granted, our daughter is only 7 weeks old tomorrow, we aren't planning to start now except now would be the easiest time.  I mean really, she's not going to get embarrassed and we don't need to hem and haw because we're embarrassed.  Anyway, enough on that. How do you talk about these things with your kids?  No disrespect to our parents, but this wasn't something discussed in our families growing up and I would imagine we weren't alone in this...

This book is adorable.  By now, you all should know that I love children's books and books like this with a good message and clean, beautiful pictures can be hard to come by.  This is a children's book of rhyme about a little boy asking his mom who made the things he was seeing. For example: "Mama, look! A gift for you! Who makes an iris bloom so blue? Then the mother answers him assuring him that only God can make a flower or a kitten or a seed, etc. etc.  The book says it is for ages 4-8, but I personally think a younger child could enjoy it as well. I think the author does a great job of giving God credit for His creation.  The illustrations are very appropriate for the rhyme for that page.  The illustrations are a little, almost whimsical, maybe or old-fashioned, but that adds to the beauty of the book.  The mom is dressed modestly so I don't feel like I have to use a marker on her :)  and is being a good mom by taking the time to go on ...

Is anyone tired of my book reviews yet?  Well, I guess following my blog is not a command, so you will have to deal with it, but I only have one more book in hand that I need to review, so there might be a little break and maybe I will post some pics of the newest member of our family again.  Because of her, I have been able to get caught up on my reading and maybe even branch out to reading my own books instead of just barely hanging on to keeping up with the books I'm reviewing. That's not a very encouraging paragraph to start a book review off with is it?  That being said, I have never read a book by Melissa Tagg before-- truth be I hadn't even heard of her before, but the description looked interesting and I like trying out new authors, so I picked her.  And it was a good decision. This is the story of an NFL starting quarterback whose career was destroyed in a moment when he decided to chase the interceptor down the field and collided with two other oppone...

By Sarah Wilkerson, CEO, Clickin Moms Are you looking for the perfect gift for that hard-to-buy for person?  Do you have a budding photographer on gift list or even an experienced one who is always looking for tips and tricks?  Look no further than this book. This book is beautiful, full of amazing pictures.  But, it also includes directions and guidelines to give advice from the amateur to the professional.  Each picture lists the camera used, lens, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO used in taking the picture.  Also with each picture is a tip about how to use light, lines or whatever the chapter is talking about. There are six chapters: natural light, composition, storytelling, fine art, black and white, and low light.  It gives a reference to explain photography terms so the newbie can figure out what's going on. I don't have a DSLR camera, but I'm hoping to be able to use some of these tricks anyway with my point and shoot camera and maybe, mayb...