Day Twenty One - a day to relax, I wish the sun was out.

I was looking at the pictures of my Dad's 90th birthday party.  A few pictures were taken of me, and I looked horrible.  I remember my mother once saying that she noticed that her friends who came down with cancer looked gray.  Well that is surely how I looked.  Sickly and gray.  I already feel much better, and I've already lost ten pounds from eating better and not being stressed.

Actually, it seems odd to think that I am seriously sick, because I do feel quite well. Maybe God is giving me an opportunity to get my house straightened up. There's such scope for the imagination in that area. Where to start? I think I will start on the third floor, because that's where everything gets put when we are cleaning up, and you can be sure it's not put in a sensible place.

Proverbs 16:1-3

The plans of the heart belong to man,

But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. 

All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight,

But the LORD weighs the motives. 

Commit your works to the LORD

And your plans will be established.

to be continued - I'm off to clean 

Well Annie and Emily came over at lunch time.  Emily was so cute in a very pretty white sleeveless dress carrying a basket with things in it.  She rushed into the house and towards me, quickly put down the basket, and took things out of it until she got to what she wanted.  She pulled out two dandy lions, and held them towards me and said "Nana, I brought you some flowers."  She was soooo adorable.  We right away went into the kitchen to put them in a vase.  And then I asked her if she'd like to go into the garden and get some more flowers.  She was keen to do that, and we went out and she selected a pink rose, a red rose, and some sweet william.  And then we put them in a vase that Emily's great-great-grandmother had given to me.

Then she wanted to put a puzzle together with me.  We selected Fancy Nancy.  Though soon she wanted to play the piano with me.  I think that these are the things she's been missing since I don't take care of her every day.  I then made myself some lunch, and we went out into the garden to eat.  She quickly wanted to be eating my lunch, so I asked Annie to get us some more.  Then after lunch I went and got out some grapes, and she ate her way right through them.  And then she wanted a bowl of cereal - the kind that I usually eat, but isn't at her house.  But soon she was a bit of a handful, and I thought she needed a nap, so I took them home.  Emily was sooo sad when I took her out of the car, but I promised to take her to jump group tomorrow.  That's what she calls her play group.  It's so hard for me to see Emily sad.

Back home I did tidying on the third floor - that's my bedroom - and did make a dent, but there's so much more to be tidying up up there.  But I did get the sheets washed, and the duvet cover washed, and the towels washed, and my laundry washed.  And that's with that stuff all coming from the third floor to the basement.  Then I was hot, so I went to the basement to sit on the couch, where I found my high school year book.  Now that was an interesting read.  I looked like a cute innocent little pixie.  I graduated from Lincoln, and boy were we a good looking clean cut class - really.  High school kids don't look like that any more.  That was 1964.

Then I found Experiencing God Through Prayer by Madame Jeanne Guyon, and after folding laundry, and getting stuff in the dryer I came upstairs and read the first of that book.  I believe it is also called A Short Method of Prayer and Spiritual Torrents.   I'm really enjoying and appreciating this book.  The author lived from 1648 - 1717, and was persecuted and jail for her beliefs - she believed that we are save by grace and not by works.

By the time Riley got home at 6:45 I wasn't at all hungry.  This is a terrible problem I've been having - not being hungry.  I'm really worried about how I'm going to be when I take chemo.   Like I keep saying, I don't want to be one of those cancer patients who actually dies of malnutrition.  Corey went over to Annie's this evening with a plan to make a whole bunch of vegan muffins for me, because I like them so much.  I told her today that she was going to have to work on making me eat.

"Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:31-34

For dinner, we went to Taco del Mar and shared a fish burrito, but I only ate 1/4 of it.  And on the way home we stopped at whole foods and bought a whole bunch of organic fruits and vegetable.  I do like to eat that kind of stuff, particularly raw.  And then I made raspberry/strawberry yogurt smoothie for dessert.

Well the Mariners won in the bottom of the ninth, and Adrean Beltre was responsible for the whole thing.  I had been worried that they might be thinking he wasn't carrying his weight, but he sure did today.  So that makes the match (set?, something like that) against Baltimore 2-1, Mariners.  Last year the Mariners were doing great until they lost 3 straight to Baltimore, and they never did recover.  It was very sad.  Now it's off to get my bed put back together.  Don't need much, as it's rather hot up there.  We could go put our feet in the pool.

Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4

'Our Father who art in heaven,


Hallowed be Thy name. 

'Thy kingdom come 


Thy will be done,


On earth as it is in heaven. 


'Give us this day our daily bread. 


'And forgive us our trespasses, 

   as we forgiven those who trespass against us.


'And lead us not into temptation, 

   but deliver us from evil. Amen

I realize that as I child I learned a version of this prayer that is a combination of the two passages.  I could tell by looking at the Greek.  I've been reading quite a lot on this prayer of late, and I would recommend to everyone to pray it more often, and slowly, thinking about it.