Archive for 2006
Posted by Tricia at 4:10 am
I am up again in the early morning..the very early morning. Little Josiah continues to struggle with sleeping peacefully through the night, as he has rather frequently since the month of March. He will definitely win the prize among our children for “highest maintenance sleeper” in the early months of life. (Not counting the newborn months, the first six of which he slept like a little angel.)
We know that all of his ear infections (which started in March) months six through about twelve certainly contributed to wakefulness at night, as well as to an overall general destruction of the good sleep patterns he’d established up to that point. But those troubles have thus far been curbed with his ear tubes, and we are so thankful.
These latest issues at night appears to be nightmares or terrors of some sort - he wakes, and cannot be easily comforted by Mommy or Daddy, but cries and cries as if in distress, and acts scared until his attention can be otherwise focused. Allowing him to “cry it out” does not seem to work, as he can go on for hours, intermittently crying, trying to settle himself, only to burst out with wails again in another few minutes. Only time and patience appears to help…and just being in Mommy’s arms isn’t enough to necessarily calm him in the midst of one of these episodes. After managing to help him calm down tonight/this morning (?) I finally put him back to bed about 15 minutes ago, and he is back to a good cry again…but sadly, as with most of these incidents, it’s been over two hours since the crying began, with no obvious end in sight, and that’s a long time to be awake and upset.
So, here we are, trying our best to figure out how to help our little fourteen month old guy, first for his sake - he certainly needs more sleep than he is getting, and it is hard to watch him start to settle down only to “freak out” again and work himself back up to a state of high distress - and for the sake of his Mommy, who, given all the night-wakings, is once again feeling like she has a newborn…to say nothing of developing those attractive little circles under her eyes again just in time for Christmas!
If any of our dear readers has had a baby who struggled with something like this - where it was more than just waking every night to eat, or because they just hadn’t learned to sleep through the night - and if you found a helpful solution for your family, please feel free to chime in with any advice!
Good night, and sleep tight (I hope!)!
Posted by Tricia at 9:55 pm
The children and I have been following the progress of these two tiny preemies, Andrew and Adam, with prayerful and hopeful hearts. Their parents are in my brother and sis-in-law’s small group at church. Lindsey and Kenny’s faith as witnessed on these pages is so encouraging to me. Especially since every time I get on this weblog, I have to blink back tears as I watch these tiny boys struggle for their lives. I so want them to grow and thrive and become strong. Say a prayer for the Bolline family this Christmas if you will…
Posted by Tricia at 11:10 am
I haven’t made time to post much at all this season. The already very busy Thanksgiving through New Year’s Holiday time has been that much busier at the Horne House because we have been in the process of moving along with everything else.
A couple weeks ago our realtor suggested we clear our old home of the remaining furniture to try a new strategy for marketing. It had been a little over two months since we’d gone on the market, we’d had about 50 showings in that time (including through the Thanksgiving holiday), with not one “bite”. James hoped that clearing out the house might help buyers envision themselves in the home more easily. We planned a move for last Saturday, but knew that after we cleared out furniture and belongings, that we’d need to take the plunge and replace our carpets, much of which downstairs, were in sad shape. That meant an outlay of cash, which we were quite willing to make in order to sell the home, but which we weren’t looking forward to.
Well, WHILE WE WERE STILL BRINGING THINGS OUT OF THE HOUSE, we received a call from our realtor, saying we had an offer on our home! And you cannot imagine the elation Jay and I felt. The potential buyers were from California and had already placed an offer on another home in town, but the sellers never responded to their proposal, so they moved to their second choice (us!). We had a mutually-agreed-upon contract within a day, and inspections the morning following. They were in a hurry to return home as their plane left later that day! This past week we agreed to terms on the repairs (which are very few) and as of today, we are out of the option period and PENDING SALE!
This is so amazingly providential in its timing. We will not be replacing the carpets…or fence for that matter, as we’d been planning to. While no sale is final till close date, we have a great situation with a good deal of hope that it will ultimately result in the sale of our other home. And the buyers are happy because now they have a home to live in when they move here. While they didn’t love all the cosmetics of our home, they did fall in love with our lot, which is really nice. And they can change around the insides to suit their taste.
We are so grateful for this answer to prayer…and pray this will all come to a smooth close in early January, as planned. And in the midst of this excitement, we are so grateful to have all our furniture back in our new home. Sitting on a couch in my living room, and putting my children to sleep on beds feels like a luxury after going without these things for a few months. How happy we are to be finally setting up house in our new place.
We’ll keep you posted on the sale…I know many of you have asked about this and prayed for it to happen….thank you for your love and care for us!
Posted by Jay at 10:17 am
After paying tuition for a time, I entered the next phase of my trading: utter chaos. First, a picture:
I was starting to have some good ideas, but had no rhythm or discipline in my trading. I was all over the place, with no sustainable system to follow. That first spike was rather heady, as it reflected a doubling of my account in a matter of weeks (without using any leverage). But the same practices that led to the spike also led to the subsequent downturn. Another lesson learned.
Toward the end of the phase you’ll see the graph settle down. The spikes and drops smoothed out. But it also settled down, as in pointing down, generating negative returns.
At the end of these tumultuous months, I was back where I started. Or was I? In hindsight, I had learned just as much during this second phase as I had during the first phase of my trading, and this time I had not lost additional money. So school was still in session, but now I had a scholarship.
Posted by Jay at 10:38 am
Who would have thought a major news item could be found with the following search:
“naked man” alligator “crack cocaine”
Head on over to Google News and see for yourself.
Posted by Jay at 8:44 am
This is… weirdly fascinating.
Bad news for the hyper little ones in your home.
And lastly, though I’m against judicial activism and wish this was being handled outside the courts, I’m glad to see consideration given to better accommodating the downtrodden, even if the issue appears mundane.
Posted by Jay at 9:14 am
This looks promising:
In a paper scheduled for publication next month in the journal Epidemiology and Infection, a Harvard University-led team proposes that a vitamin D deficiency caused by inadequate winter sun exposure may predispose people to infection.
Posted by Jay at 9:06 pm
The Rice Owls are going bowling! (for the first time in my lifetime)
Posted by Jay at 9:30 am
Here’s a thought. What distinguishes the sons of God? Faith. What distinguishes the firstborn of God? Faithful perseverance through suffering. Compare Job 1:3 [+/-]Job 1:3
[3]He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of
oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so
that this man was the greatest of all the people of the
east. (ESV)
to Job 42:12 [+/-]Job 42:12
[12]And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more
than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels,
1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. (ESV)
. Job’s inheritance from the Lord has doubled, hinting at the double-portion received by the firstborn son. What took place between these two accountings of Job’s inheritance? A whole lot of suffering.
I can think of at least one other firstborn son who demonstrated his standing via suffering (Philippians 2:5-11 [+/-]Philippians 2:5-11
[5]Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in
Christ Jesus, [6]who, though he was in the form of God, did
not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7]but
made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being
born in the likeness of men. [8]And being found in human
form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point
of death, even death on a cross. [9]Therefore God has
highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is
above every name, [10]so that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, [11]and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)
).
November 16th, 2006
Fire
Posted by Tricia at 11:44 pm
The local news hit a little too close to home today, or perhaps I should say, too close to my brother’s home. This story tells of four Dallas homes ravaged by fire, two of them completely destroyed. They sit in a row on the street directly behind where Peter, Katie, and our two sweet little nieces live. The backyards of the homes that burned back up to my brother and sis-in-law’s backyard. They told me they awoke at 4am this morning to see the house behind them engulfed in flames. How terrifying.
Tonight we are thankful that no one appears to have been injured in this three alarm fire, and that the flames did not encroach onto my brother’s family’s property. It was a sobering sight to drive by the scene of the fire today and see the devastation that can be wrought in just a couple hours’ time. May God comfort those families who have lost much in this disaster, and give them the means and support to rebuild and recover.
November 16th, 2006
Poem #2
Posted by Jay at 8:06 am
Actually, it is Abigail’s first poem, written back in March, but I forgot to post it. Enjoy!
Our world is very sinful
But God is full of righteousness
He came to earth as a tiny baby
Long, Long, Ago…
He will come back someday -
We don’t know when
But God knows when
And when He comes back
We will all crown Him as our KING.
November 14th, 2006
WWWLJD
Posted by Jay at 4:19 pm
My brother is asking some questions about WWJD. I’ll leave such questions to him, and instead turn the question on its head (or inside out, or something). Whatever one thinks of WWJD, I suggest it is particularly unhelpful to read the Bible in such a way that it condemns Jesus and his activity while on earth as recorded in the gospels.
Oddly enough, this means we have to leave a bit of room (perhaps only a small space over in the corner) for a single man, perhaps even a pastor or elder, to spend time in the the company of women of ill repute. And he might just be drinking a beer. And picking up the tab.
And now I’ll open the floor: anyone want to try to unpack the acronym WWWLJD? Take a shot at it in the comments.
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