Ray of Sunshine

I think I will try to explain “immunotherapy”, the treatment I receive for cancer. It is a controversial treatment but most of them are, in that it could be described as experimental. Which in essence is the whole treatment of cancer - no one can really say that a treatment will give 100% results. Immunotherapy is touted as the newest and most promising treatment option in cancer treatment. Now I have many friends who have never been offered it….for them the chemo, radiation

I had sent the above picture and saying out to a handful of people and I was really taken aback by the responses. Some responses were like mine, “Okay! A detour, let the adventure begin!” Brian and I lived that way, there were no detours, simply new things to discover. Some responses were more like they would have to think about that and digest. Some were not happy about the detour. Now not all detours are pleasant or enjoyable but all detours teach us something about oursel

The seedlings are growing and yet they sit here on my kitchen table. One day I walked them all out to the greenhouse but our nights are too cold. I have 2 heat lamps but they made it too hot over them. Talk about a Goldilocks syndrome. Where is just right? We have had a fair amount of windy days and I realized that no matter how I babied these plants one day of our winds and they are goners. Enter the fan and resistance. Daily now I blow a fan over my plants to strengthen the

Oooff, my energy level has tanked from the immunotherapy, on good days I get 2-3 hours on followed by 2-3 hours of resting. On bad days, well I get less. Figuring out what to include in a day now is basically prioritizing what is the most important. Before you offer to help in any way, please know that I am very capable of doing all the necessary tasks, including eating. I get more done in my half days than a lot of people do in a full day, I honestly do, as I have been a go

A garden is only as healthy as the soil. We planted 10 little blueberry bushes 4 years ago. I watered them, placed them where the ground was more moist, fertilized them and watched over them. They were about a foot to a foot and a half high and I had to put some ribbon on them so we could remember they were there and not mow or weed whack them down. Blueberries are my favorite, fresh on the bush, frozen, in jam, dessert, basically blueberries add goodness to everything. After

I want to introduce you to someone but first let me say this: There is a belief about “healing” shared by many “well meaning” people that is detrimental to people’s spirits and contrary to the Bible. In my ministry I have had to do the work of holding broken people who believed it, to help instill truth into their beings and to tell them, they did have enough faith, it was not their own fault that they were sick. The belief is that because you are a Christian then no evil c

The land of Israel is made up of different topographical areas. Even though it is a small country it has an ocean, sea, lakes, snow capped mountains, farmland, and deserts. Actually more than half of the whole country, 60%, is made up of desert. Think about that… the Promised Land is made up of a great deal of dry, sand, rocks, no water, hot, barren. This is a description of the Promised Land. In my trip to Israel, I was taken to the desert and had lessons sitting on the “roc

Life has its own way of bringing ups and downs, the feeling of being tossed on waves that you did not create or want, nor even saw coming. I have had some time for some introspection lately, I had a couple biopsies last week and the healing has gone a little sideways. Truly the couch or bed and I are best friends. I sit and look out the window, I have read, listened to books on tape and done some deep thinking. When these times happen I think I am like most of us and wonder,

Ever have something happen and you know that God sent it along to make you realize that you are still very human. It happened to me last week. Now I had been teaching a class and we wrapped up the last one of five and I was on a “teaching “ high. It had gone well, and I was feeling “gooood”. Never mind the fact that I had every week told God to please teach the class, simply use me but speak through me. It is amazing to be able to teach like that. But here I was after the cla

I am an adventurous type. I love to travel and discover new places. I am blessed to be able to do this often throughout the year. As winter is near ending, I am comtemplating the "where to's" in front of me. New year, new travel - Scotland was so "last year". I imagine many families are planning their Spring Vactions holidays right now. It is not far away. I have no particular place picked this year, it is confusing, what to do, where to go. Now I am all set to go somewhere

Life has its share of ups and downs, highs and lows and we know it can be a quick change from one to the other. I have found that it only takes a glimpse of a few signs that can switch my mood abruptly. One of those is the sign above. My heart sinks as I wander into my aquasize class to be greeted with “this pool has been poop free for ____ days”. It makes one second guess their decision to come that day… or any day because what if “today’s the day?” Why do we need reminders

Canada banned BPA’s, Bisphenol A from baby bottles back in 2010. But there is still BPA and other similar chemicals in and around us to take notice of. The past few years has shown the BPS, Bisphenol S, and BPA’s , Bisphenol A chemicals, the ones used on thermal paper that you get handed as a receipt are doing some serious damage to our bodies, particularly in pregnant women, children, and infants. I first saw a post that in the State of California it is mandatory to provide

I was listening to a radio program the other day on FamilyLife Today and they were talking about kids and organized sports. They commented on the great benefits of team sports. In many cases a parent has to be available to get your kids to practices and then games, often having to drive out of town or a fair ways away. One study was done and it surprised me. The kids that “quit” organized sports, 70% of them left sports because of the drive home in the car. As parents we are

Picture via Lulus.com Yesterday I did one of those things… Jane things. Sigh… I did a really good number on getting my hair brush stuck in my own hair. I had been to a salon a few weeks back and the stylist was Korean. She did this amazing twist the brush thing that created these cute curls. Well I was trying the method, same brush, disastrous results, no curls. It had looked so easy when she did it. That is when I figured the round brush would work better. Bad assumption! T

Where do I start with this one??? I saw the book and the title was “Book 1 of 2: Complete Guide to Christian Witchcraft.” It was one of 5 books on the subject that popped right up. Although the front was all “pretty” I have to admit my blood pressure rocketed, my body went rigid and everything in me wanted to yell… “there is NO such thing as a “Christian witch!!!” You can never put those 2 words in a sentence- Christian and then - witch. NO it is not right. However there see

I hope these 2 stories give you a chuckle! I had to share this, one of my boys got woken up with a phone call. He listened for a while as the caller in a foreign accent told him that someone had gotten his personal information and bought some assets in his name. He explained several things about these assets that were not making sense. The caller went on to ask if it was making sense to my son? Did my son understand him? He replied, “I am not an idiot. I don’t fall for scams.

I did not get much feed back from many readers about my “olfactory” blog until one reader asked me an important question. How many essential oil drops in water should they put into the diffuser? Screech, halt went my brain!!! Water diffusers are not strong enough to affect your Olfactory nerves. The diffuser used in the medical trials and the one I ordered and have are designed to have straight essential oil come out. No water. The nozzle fits directly onto a small essentia

I am truly excited about this to the point I have been trying it myself for a few weeks. Can I say it is working? I am not sure yet but I have nothing to loose, neither do you so read on to find out more… I was challenged a few years ago to do something that seemed so easy but naturally kind of silly. The challenge was part of a bigger picture about: is God a God of encounter? That is does He like to share in our experiences and can we share ours with Him? Hear me out becaus

We are technically in December for the last day and the theme this month has been Hebrew word translation. I cannot decide on a word! So here are a couple: Good morning- Boker tov Good evening - Erev tov Thank you - Toda Please/ your welcome - Bevakasha Yes - Ken No - Lo Often at the close of the year we get reflective on what we did or did not accomplish in the past year. This mental list we carry around with us is totally at the whims of us. Yet when it does not happen we

God was silent for 400 years between the Old and New Testament period, perhaps some of you feel He is silent today. He is not, but you are not so sure as you look at your life or the world around you. In the time period before Jesus was born the Israelites were in despair thinking God had forgotten them. The first time He spoke again it was about babies. Yes babies! The priest in the temple at that time, Zechariah, received a message from an angel while he was in the temple b