Good Week and Slow Sinks

God is good and I had a great but challenging week.

Sunday my throat continued to get sore and I had a fever and chills. I also had body pain and fatigue. Typically I get sick and it's over in 1-2 days, but I am just getting better a whole week later. The kitchen sink also had a major clog that was not discovered until the water filter system came on at 3am. Flooded everywhere and stressful. I thought it was because I put the orange and lemon peels in the garbage disposal.

Monday I went to work sick. I was cold and coughing with a sore throat. I met with my supervisor two weeks ahead of my 6 month anniversary date and did my 6 month review with her. I didn't realize it at the time, but after my 3rd month review, I could use my pto without having to get a doctor's note or too much notice. I asked to use 2.5 hours and passed over the slip.

I usually don't take time off and as soon as I was walking down the hall, I regretted it. I got out on the street and took the stairs to the train to find a dollar in the stairwell. 

This is the second time in life that I found money on the street.

I wasn't until I got back to my car that I knew I made the right decision.  I tried to rest the remainder of the day thinking I'd be cured by Tuesday. I received an email from HR and boss boss that I passed my 6 month probation period.  I am now eligible for life insurance, long term and short term disability. The sink was still clogged. I couldn't run the washing machine because of it.

Tuesday I was worse. My throat was horrible and I couldn't breathe without feeling like I wanted to give up. A lug of bloody cold (which I later gargle up and out with peroxide) clung deep in my throat threatening to choke me out. My lungs front and back hurt. I felt like I was floating. I worked 4 hours and took off another 4 with PTO. I headed out in the cold windy rain all the way back home.
Sink was still clogged. My dad has been working on this since Monday.

Wednesday was tough, but the Lord helped me through.

Thursday and Friday I had tough deadlines but was able to deliver. Problematic providers all agreed with my schedule. That never happens. 

I was so focused on my cold and I prayed that nothing would hit my car when i drove on Friday. I was behind this huge truck and forgot that EZpass functions a bit differently for the one area I was approaching. The toll arm almost came down on my car but stopped, thank the Lord! I paused thinking I might be in trouble. Hopefully the detector picked up my EZ pass transponder and there are no consequences in the mail. I'd hate to imagine what would have happened if it came down on my car

The water system was finally unclogged after my dad used a few snakes and drilled off a part of the drain. Creatures think they can get grub by coming up the sewage line. It wasnt the orange and lemon peel i put in the garbage disposal blocking the drain. Beware people.

And now Saturday. I had a good meal of french beans (cause Trader Joe's says they got them from France all fancy and what not), carrots, and Cajun Creole Tempeh.  I feel so much better ( 95%). The Lord helped me through it all and kept my family too.

Backpack

Happy Sabbath :)

I am home relaxing and thinking about the week's events and how well everything has gone. I started the week with my son being sick, but the Lord permitted him and I to be home in observance of President's day so I was able to work on him and help him get back to health. It's Friday night and now I have a sore throat, but it's all good.

I was blessed to get to work on Tuesday moving forward. A bunch of crazy situations came up with a few individuals on my caseload,  but they were still manageable. I ordered some stuff on Amazon last week Thursday or Friday.  I ordered a bubble umbrella for my son and some other goodies. I also wanted to get a nice bag and finally opted to get a Herschel backpack after eyeing it online for a year. I've only seen one person on the street with one and one youtuber and it looked great so I ordered one. I was surprised everything except the one item (that's probably being packaged in China or Sudan somewhere) made it to my home one to two days early by Wednesday night.

Before the backpack arrived, I carried a green camping backpack that I originally bought for my son. I decided later to get him something a little more his age since he was starting pre-school. I have been all over the city with that backpack. I never once saw anyone else walk by with a green backpack because when you're trying to be original you notice those things and walk the other way. You know. She's wearing the same dress kind of thing? Well that.

Well, today I saw someone walk hurriedly past me in his green backpack. I wanted so badly to get this new bag and to be the only person on the street with it to then see the green one and realize how silly this all is.

Nothing is wrong with the green one I have. It actually functions better than the new one I have. God is still working on humbling me and I see this green backpack as one of those moments.

Like the time when I had gone to the beach for the first time to spend time with God and He had the sea gull crap on me.

God orchestrated an amazing set up. He woke me up and I left straight to get the train to get to the beach with seconds to spare and no planning. A friend I didn't hear from in months called me up and was actually headed to the beach with his mom and aunt to do the exact same thing: have quality quiet praise time with God on the beach.

I had a major crush on him and lost focus on my reason for being there. I looked up in the sky and saw this seagull flying off in the far distance and yet it's poop still hit me right smack on the front center of my head. Mortified, I rinsed what I could with ocean water and then looked at the guy and his family. They were sitting scattered about on the beach focused in their individual worship sessions with Jesus.

It was then I left off trying to be "cute" and returned to reality.  Come to think of it, today I parked my car and as I got out, there were bunches of dog poop people who walked their dogs left right where I had to get out. I almost stepped in some and returning to my car I was afraid I'd fall or drop my new Herschel bag in it while trying to get in the car. God didn't allow it. I've never had a parking situation like this before. 

God has a lot of work to do on me. Today the lesson was with a backpack and I am thankful that I didn't step in that crap. With this sore throat, it is also a blessing. I decided to stop talking about 2 hours ago to avoid feeling more pain. Being quiet is allowing me to focus more on what matters because I know I am the chatter box that never shuts up.

So I'm in a good place right now and this week has been great from start to finish. Thank the Lord for everything because He can use any situation for good.

Motivation or Manipulation

I read a starter verse and then went to look at a testimony from a woman who's face I've seen before. This time, I didn't believe what she had to say. It's hard for me to explain. I closed the screen and by accident the Magazine app that is activated on samsung s5's invisible sidebar opened up. Android is so much better than Apple, I'm just saying...

The first thing my eyes went to on the line up was the words "God morning". Now I'm subscribed to many different things on youtube and the magazine app and everything is not expressly "God focused".

This snapshot that was listed was in the Arts and Culture magazine section, and that made it even stand out more to me because, Arts and Culture, Business feeds, Fine Dining and even my twitter feeds do not talk about God related matters.

The second section of words that jumped out to me were, "to be motivated, not manipulated".

I want to hear testimony from other Christians to be motivated to do better in my walk with the Lord. We are all a work in progress and I know my walk has been wonky, but I'm still trying to walk. I have had people in my life who were fake followers of Christ and moved away from those I realized had alterior motives. I am not open to being messed with in this way again.

You cannot accept everything that comes out of their mouth. Even Satan knows the Word of God and can quote what we missed. Pray about what you hear and ask the Lord Jesus if what you heard is for you or if it is true. Satan is out there like a lion to destroy and devour what ever he can get close enough to. He will try to manipulate and steal your motivation. 

Listening to, reading about other people's exeperiences with Jesus is a great part of my motivation process. God provides the Holy Spirit to help us to choose what is right and to know the difference.

Happy Sabbath everyone

Progress

I am enjoying another Sabbath day and am thankful for the good news I received this week. If I didn't say before, my son has a speech delay. I took a class some time ago as an elective about providing therapies for children with disabilities. My university did not offer any course geared towards adults with disabilities and they only recently created one for geriatrics after more student demand. I personally want to work with adults, but I chose the course because it would give me a good foundation. It also was the only one that worked for my schedule at the time too.

I learned about developmental disorders in more detail and as I watched my son grow with the time frame we progressed through each disorder, I was surprised  when a classmate who inquired about my child's age said I must be terrified. Terrified that he could develop any of the conditions that is.

I had it at the back of my mind as I studied and watched a young family series on youtube. The youtuber's child was exactly one month older than mine and I saw my son follow the same trajectory as hers with easy prediction.

But then as he neared one year, I noticed his words were not picking up. He began to spin more. He began to spin a lot actually. He focused on fans and flashing lights or anything with rapid movement and it was difficult to gain his attention again. He didn't like certain food textures either. I calmly accepted that my son has autism and so before reaching out to doctors or other agencies, I started working with him. I bought him a Samsung tablet and found material online, dollar stores, walmart, and did what most people would argue against  (permit a lot of screen time). I did this because my son would benefit from a lot of repetition and I limited the videos he could access, and let him play mainly with educational toys, some of which were well beyond his age.

The Lord opened doors to get the occupational and physical therapists. He put me in that class so that I could recognize the signs and act in time. My son has gone from someone who screamed, whined and was completely inaccessible to an awesome little boy who I couldn't be more proud of. He says my name!

He received his report card from pre-school on Friday and after attending for only 3 weeks, he has grown so much. He teaches the class the alphabet. He knows many shapes (octagon, pentagon...), says numbers 1-10 in Español and can count up to 29 easily in english. He follows directions, can dance, sing in tune, knows many many songs even some in different languages. He can do puzzles with more than 10 pieces. He can read several words, knows the phonics, write his letters and small words, and do many other things. He just turned three last month.

God is amazing and none of this would be possible if it weren't for Jesus. My son is growing up and he's going to be okay. My son astounded the teachers, doctors, and therapists. His report card is amazing and I am so happy!

God is doing wonders for my family and that is my testimony for this week.

Praise the Lord!