I know it sounds crazy but ...

A neighbor (a recent believer) and I were talking the other day about the rapture and the end times, prophecy and the book of Revelation, etc.  And I found myself saying "I know it sounds crazy.  It sounds crazy to talk about things like this, about prophecy and Jesus coming back and the tribulation and things like that."

We Christians know how it sounds when we talk about these things - like we should be wearing tin-foil hats, claiming that the government is reading our thoughts, that aliens have probed us, and that we've seen Bigfoot working as a cashier at the local convenience store.  I know that the Bible and its teachings - on how the world was created, on how it will end, on prophecy, angels, demons, the spiritual battle, on Jesus being God and coming to earth in a human body to die for our sins and then being raised again from the dead, etc. - I know all these things sound fanciful, fantastical (as my neighbor says), crazy.

But you know what I think?  You know what I told my neighbor?

I know it sounds crazy, but I think it's the most logical, most hopeful, of all the crazy options.  When you think about it, every option out there (and I've only listed a few) - every possible belief about how the world was created, how it will end, who God is, etc. - sounds crazy.

This one's for you! (A Christmas sermon)

Did you ever listen to a sermon where you felt as if God was saying "This one's for you"?  I've never looked up Willow Creek sermons before, but for some reason I decided to watch one yesterday.  And you know what?  This one was meant for me.  It really hit me in the heart.  Watch it; it's good.  In fact, I couldn't stop thinking about it all day and into the night.  (Skip to the 35-minute mark to start the sermon.)

"Christmas at the movies: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (December 18, 2022)"

(Willow Creek Huntley YouTube channel)

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Giggle Translate #19: Green juice and turkey dust

Since Thanksgiving just passed not too long ago, I pulled out something I wrote about a Thanksgiving many years ago.  And for fun, I ran it through many different languages with Google Translate just to see what happened.  And then I did the same languages again but in reverse.  Enjoy!

The Original Version:

Wait!  I just thought of another shining moment.  One year, 6 a.m. Thanksgiving morning, I dropped a twenty-pound slippery bird and the overnight brine it was soaking in all over the kitchen floor.  The bird never hit the floor.  Honestly, it really didn't.  (But in the name of all honesty, I probably would have served it anyway if it did.  After I rinsed it well, of course.)  But the kitchen table and floor were covered in raw turkey juice.  So gross!

Nothing creeps me out more than raw poultry juice.  When I make chicken, I'm often heard yelling, "AHHH, RAW CHICKEN JUICE" if so much as one drop splashes on me.  And now here I was, spending all morning on my hands and knees cleaning the floor while covered in soaking-wet, turkey-juice clothes.  I will never soak a turkey again!  Never!!!  Once again, though, I had tried to be fancy.  I thought a nice orange/onion soak would make it really memorable.  Oh, it was memorable, all right!

Now here's the first translated version:

Is hypocrisy the real reason for atheism? (A dare for atheists)

I've been thinking recently about a quote from Brennan Manning: "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him with their lifestyle.  That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."  

(Right now, older fans of DC Talk are thinking "Where have I heard that before?"  Answer: At the start of their song "What if I stumble?") 

I used to really like this quote.  I appreciate that it's trying to point out how damaging hypocrisy is and how we Christians need to be careful how we live because people are watching.  And this is true.  I know there are people out there who've been incredibly hurt by those who call themselves Christians, people who are now afraid of God or disgusted by Christianity because of it.  

But after thinking about it more, I don't really agree with this quote anymore.  I don't think it's biblical.

The one Calvinism post of mine you should read

 This isn't a new post, but I wanted to let you know I updated an old post: "Why is Calvinism so dangerous?"  If you read any one post of mine on Calvinism, I think it should be this one!  I think you'll enjoy it.  Unless you're a Calvinist.  You really won't enjoy it if you're a Calvinist.

Calvinists: 

            Non-Calvinists:

 

My Testimony

I’ve scattered bits of my story all over my blogs, but I’m gonna pull it all together here, about how I became a believer and some things I’ve gone through and how my faith has been affected.  (I’ll include links to posts where I explain things more fully.)

Starting the journey:  I became a believer when I was eleven years old.  (I am now getting close to 50.  I don't know how that happened.)  At a Christian camp, on one of the last nights, they gave an altar call.  I wanted to go up but was nervous about standing up in front of everyone.  But being more nervous about the window of opportunity closing, I felt myself stand up and walk to the front.  I knew exactly what I was doing, that I was making a commitment for life.  And I meant it.  I really meant it.  I knelt down, asked Jesus into my heart, and have never turned back.  It hasn’t been an easy, carefree journey (as you’ll see), but I haven’t turned back (though I did contemplate it and kinda briefly wished I could've, during one terrible summer). 

At least someone's willing to say it!

I'm glad to see that someone is finally waking up to what's really going on, wise enough to take off the blinders, and willing to say what needs to be said:

After advocating for COVID-19 vaccination for over a year, Ben Shapiro says he was deceived: "We were lied to by everyone"

If only he'd realized this a year ago (which many of us did realize early on, being distrustful of what we believe is crooked, high-level collusion between many powerful people that has resulted in an unscientific, Orwellian narrative on this whole thing that is destroying our society, economy, health, and freedoms), he could've been a strong advocate for personal choice, a wise voice of reason against the vaccine mandates ("illegal and wicked vaccine mandates," in my estimation - no one should be forced to inject themselves with something they don't want to, no one should lose their jobs because they won't inject themselves with a foreign, questionable substance).  But at least he's starting to see it now and willing to speak up.

Thank you, Ben.  May the light continue to overcome the darkness.  

Update: And another person is seeing it and willing to speak up: 

Is that weird?

Is it weird to mourn the death of folk music legend John Denver twenty-five years after his death?  To feel really sad that we lost him so early and for how his life ended?

In honor of John Denver, my favorite song from him:

Take Me Home, Country Roads

For Comments:

 If you want to comment on any of my blogs, click here: The Comment Corral 

(This is an experiment, not sure if I will keep it or not)

Giggle Translate #18: Yes, I am a Christian, but ...

The original stuff I wrote somewhere else on my blogs:

Yes, I am a rock-solid Christian, but sometimes I just want to do bad things.  I want to say bad words and watch bad movies and listen to bad music and drink bad things and be all mean and cranky toward annoying people.

            

But what I usually end up doing is just watching my 80’s movies, listening to my 80’s music really loudly, drinking no more than an ounce-and-a-half of mildly-alcoholic hard cider (because I really don’t like alcohol ... honestly, I drink no more than one bottle of hard cider a year!), muttering bad words under my breath, and telling my husband all of the whip-smart, snarky things I wanted to tell others but didn’t think of till it was too late. 

Starting the new school year with Creation vs. Evolution

If there's one thing I would go back and change if I could when homeschooling my older two children (grown and graduated now), it would be that I would have them watch more great educational videos online, instead of focusing mostly on textbooks.  

(And I would let them have more time to pursue something they were passionate about.  I'd rather have a kid who was passionate about something, anything - studying bugs, piano, building, classical literature, writing stories, etc. - than have a kid who did all the boring bookwork but never developed a passion in any one area.)   

Sometimes, for some people, watching things is more inspiring and memorable than reading about it.  It brings things to life more, helping you feel more and remember more.  My boys would have really enjoyed and benefitted from more educational videos.  There are so many interesting, good ones out there; what a shame we missed out on them.

So this year as I start school with my younger two, we are going to add some good videos, maybe starting our morning with them while the kids are still too groggy for reading.  And we are starting right from the beginning, with videos on creation.  God's Word and creationism has been under such attack in recent decades, and I want my boys to understand that science affirms - not contradicts - the Bible and a biblical worldview of creation.  I want to give them reasons now to believe it, before the world tears their faith down (which it attempts to do at every turn).  

I've always known!

When I'm online, I don't normally click on articles that are suggested to me, but I just had to check out this one: "What your dream home would be like based on your Myers-Briggs personality type", because at the beginning of the article, it showed a few different houses - one of which was a Hobbit hole - and I knew, just KNEW, that it would be my dream house according to my personality type (INFP).

And I had to see if I was right.

And so I pulled up the article, clicked on INFP, held my breath while muttering "Come on, be the Hobbit hole!  It's gonna be the Hobbit hole; I just know it!" ... and then ...

"Yes!  Hobbit hole!  I knew it!"

And I've always known it.  Because like I said in this post years ago, I'm a Hobbit deep down.  I just know it.

It's Late Summer!

As a gardener, you know it's late summer when the sight of one more overgrown zucchini or ripe tomato makes you groan. 

Can I get an "Amen"!?!

Just had to share ...

Oh my goodness, I just made a sweet-and-sour cabbage recipe for the first time.

It smells like a biological weapon and tastes like vomit.

Never again!

And now you'll have to excuse me while I air the place out. 

Book-lovers will understand!

A conversation between my husband and me as we were leaving for a hike:

Me: Am I gonna need a book?

Him: No, we're just hiking.

Me: Yeah, but are we gonna stop anywhere for a few minutes where I might need a book to read?

Him: That's not the plan.

Me: I'm going back to get a book.

I'm not a fan of country music but ...

... this video is good, worth watching and sharing:

John Rich - Progress

Watch it before YouTube takes it down.

Books I Finished and Books I'm Starting

I’ve been working my way through a bunch of books right now.  I’ve always got several books going at once for different moods and different times of the day.  I prefer Christian/inspirational/Bible-based books (and the Bible itself, of course) in the morning and maybe right before bed (depending on how much anxiety I’ve got that day), relaxing ones in the lull between finishing lunch and starting dinner, and heavier books when I feel like I can handle heavier topics (which isn’t often lately, which is why I’ve gravitated towards children’s/young adult books). 

[Ugh, I’m so bummed!  I was driving home the other day from some stupid random outing, and I saw a “library book sale today” sign on the front of the library.  I missed the first, critical day of the area’s best library book sale by ONE HOUR!  I was so mad the whole rest of the day.  I LOVE library book sales.  Bummer!  But I did go the next day, when everything was all picked over, and I found a few random art books … and a book called The Gospel According to Tolkien.  SCORE!  I’ve been totally addicted to Lord of the Rings since lockdown 2020, so I was tickled pink to find this book.  Made it okay that I missed the sale the day before.  Well, not really, but kinda.]

Still think it wasn't a "plandemic"?

Watch this 2-minute clip, and see if you still think this whole coronavirus thing wasn't planned from the beginning:

BOMBSHELL: Video emerges where Fauci and others planned for a "Universal mRNA Flu Vaccine" which became the "COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine" because people were not afraid enough of the flu virus

Sounds a little familiar, doesn't it?  

An mRNA "vaccine" has been planned and they want people to take it ... but because it would take a decade to properly test it and get people to put faith in it, they need some sort of major disruption that would cause so much "excitement" that it would bypass "bureaucratic strings and processes," to circumvent the normal process of vaccine production and testing.  (That alone is very telling, that they know it should take a decade to do it all safely and to get people on board properly.  And yet, this coronavirus "vaccine" - a brand new type - was produced, tested, and shoved into most people's arms in just over a year after the virus spread worldwide.) 

"My God"

 Because I need some encouragement today, some hope:

"My God" by The City Harmonic

And two favorites: 

"Fell Apart"

"Praise the Lord"

Herbal or Homeopathic Remedies I use for Anxiety

[An excerpt from this post: Help for Anxiety, Depression, and Suicidal Thoughts] 

... Also, if you need it, do not be ashamed to get counseling or medication.  I think it's far worse to fall into a pit of despair than to get a little help.  After one of my most recent anxiety attacks which caused me so much stress that my neck got all tight, which caused me to have such a neck pain that I threw up every hour for half a day, which caused me to not have any food or water or sleep, which caused me to wake up at 3 in the morning and pass out into my husband's arms on the bathroom floor (I laid there barely able to move, thinking "I could die right now if I wanted to," and then my husband fed me ice chips till I felt a tiny bit better) ... I decided that I had to try taking something to help my anxiety.  I am not ready for medication yet, but I did look into herbal remedies.  While they don't take away the anxiety fully (can anything really?), they do take the edge off or help me sleep easier.  

Research everything for yourself, but I like herbal teas for stress or sleep (particularly with chamomile or passionflower or ashwaganda) ... and chamomile or lavender pills ... and Herb Pharm's "Relaxing Sleep" herbal supplement (it's disgusting but it helps, so put a dropperful in a tiny bit of orange juice before bed and take it like a shot) ... and Herb Pharm's "Passionflower" and "Good Mood" herbal supplements ... and Genexa Stress Relief tablets, and Bach's "Rescue Pastilles" (little homeopathic "candies" you suck on when you feel anxiety coming) ... and Bach's "Rescue Sleep Liquid Melts" ... and those little homeopathic "pearls" that you put under your tongue, particularly chamomilla, coffea cruda (my husband takes this when he starts buzzing after too much coffee, which can feel like anxiety coming on) and, my preferred one to take at the first tickle of anxiety, ignatia amara.  (I actually prefer Ollois brand of organic homeopathic pearls when I can get them.  FYI, I am linking to these sites just to show you the product, not because I order from them.  I get mine from our local Fresh Thyme store.)  

I believe God put a lot of good, healing properties in plants, and we would be fools not to utilize them.  And you know what?  Even if this stuff was just placebo, which I don't believe it is, I wouldn't care.  I'd still take them.  Because when you suffer from anxiety or depression, you'll take any help you can get, even if - especially if - it's just in your head.  Because, oftentimes, that's where the anxiety and depression stem from anyway.

Do you realize how bad it's gonna get?

Just thought I'd put this out there...

During and after lockdown 2020, I ordered dried goods from a co-op.  Well, I recently checked the prices ... and it blew my mind.  

I'm not surprised, given the food factory fires and natural disasters and bad weather and crop failures happening all over the place, but I fear that if the prices of unprocessed, bulk grains are skyrocketing this bad, this fast, then it's a sign of terrible times to come (and these increases are even before the massive gas price increases set in and before the upcoming diesel shortages and before the massive trucker lay-off in California and before the sudden increase in natural gas line explosions and before the possible railway labor strike which would shut down railroad deliveries).

So just to give you an idea of the hard times that might be coming, here's a comparison of what the catalog prices were in January 2021 and what they currently are in 2022 (it doesn't matter what size the bag is, just look at the price increase) ...

Exactly what I thought!

 As soon as I heard about Justin Bieber's paralysis, I thought the same thing:

"Why I'm 99% certain that Justin Bieber's facial paralysis was caused by the COVID vaccine"

And this is terrifying, nightmare-inducing:

"Exclusive: Shocking microscope photos of blood clots extracted from those who 'suddenly died' - crystalline structures, nanowires, chalky particles and fibrous structures"

Talk About Some Terrifying Predictive Programming!

I don't know what you think about the idea of predictive programming, if it's real or not, but this is too precise to be mere coincidence.  So precise it almost doesn't even seem real.  Freaky!

This should make your skin crawl. (rumble.com)

I once read ...

I once read - after another mass shooting - someone who noted that there's always a mass shooting before major elections in our country.  

I'm beginning to agree.

And why might this be happening now?

I'm wondering if it's because "they" don't want to lose more democrats come election time.  

And so ... a little "accidental" leak from the Supreme Court about reversing Roe v. Wade to make people freak-out about losing their "right" to abortion ... a little disease "plandemic" to make people see the need for our personal rights to be taken away, "for our good" ... a little mass shooting to show the need to take people's guns away (Do you really think criminals won't get guns if they are illegal?  Did making drugs illegal ever stop criminals from getting them?  No.  All it does is stop the law-abiding citizens.  All it does is ensure that those who wouldn't use guns wrong, who could help protect us if the time came, wouldn't have guns while the "bad guys" had them all.) ... and, boom, you've got a bunch of people thinking "I had better vote democrat this year, even if I don't want to.  I had better bow down and kiss the feet of the globalists who want to take over the world.  I had better begin to memorize their mottos 'War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength' (Orwell, Nineteen Eight-Four) and 'Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad' (Orwell, Animal Farm)."

But ... I'm just speculating here. 

Or maybe "their" intentions really are honorable and the timing of everything really is just coincidental and there's nothing Orwellian about their agendas.  😉

Something smells fishy here!

Does it seem strange to anyone else that there were (according to various news sources) monkeyp0x outbreaks in the past (almost 50 cases in the U.S. in 2003, over 4,000 cases worldwide in 2020, nearly 4,000 cases worldwide in 2019, etc.) and yet barely anyone blinked and no hysteria was generated over it then ... but now, after a handful of cases in the world and one case in the US, the newspapers make it seem apocalyptic and the US rushes out and buys 13 million doses of vaccine?  

Why didn't we react like this the other times?  Why now?  

Could it be because our "president" wants to scare people enough that we gladly hand our medical sovereignty over to the W.H.O.?  Could it be because midterms are coming up and he wants people to be impressed by how quickly he responds to these "pandemics"?  (Isn't it interesting that in 2021, a world-wide "monkeyp0x" simulation was played out, just like the coron@viru$ before the "pandemic" hit?)  Could it be because they need more fear-mongering to condition people for the coming one-world government?  Could it be because "they" know that the coron@viru$ v@ccine has weakened everyone's immune system, making these kinds of viruses more deadly than they were previously?  Could it be that "they" need more people to get more v@ccine$ to weaken more immune systems so that they can wipe out more people to reach their goal of reducing the world population to 500 million?  Could it be because the media and those in power are playing us for fools?   

Who knows!?!  But something smells fishy here!  This kind of massive, hysterical reaction doesn't fit, not when we've had other outbreaks before with much weaker reactions.

"How many legs does a dog have?"

This response from Abraham Lincoln shows us the problem of twisting the definitions or meanings of words:  

He asked someone how many legs a dog would have if we counted the tail as a leg.

The predictable response: "5"

Lincoln's replies (paraphrase): "No, it's still 4, because calling a tail a leg doesn't actually make it a leg."

Just because we say something is so or really want it to be so - such as saying a boy is a girl or a girl is a boy - doesn't make it so.  Our society has gone mad.  Demonically mad.

"How Many Legs Does a Dog Have?"

"Family Guy Destroys Woke Insanity"

I have no clue who this guy is and I've never watched anything else from him, but my husband showed me this 3 1/2 minute video: Watch Family Guy DESTROY Woke Insanity in One EPIC Clip.  

I don't watch Family Guy either, but this clip was brilliant.  And it's about time someone said it.

Giggle Translate #17: Oh what great serenity!

This "giggle translate" is about my relationship with one of my brothers (I did two translations, just for fun).

You know what, I'm gonna put the translated versions first and then the original paragraph of what really happened.  This way, you can read the translations first and try to figure out what really happened, and then see how right or wrong you are.

Here goes:

My Kind of Books

I love books.  Of all different kinds.  Over the years, I've gone through phases of which genre I liked and read.  

I've gone through the "academic phase" during college and grad school when I mostly read educational/psychology books.  

There was the "gardening phase," which included LOTS of books on creating gardens, using food from the garden, herb gardens, fruit plants, etc.  (I did an enormous amount of garden reading in the 11 years we rented, when we couldn't have a garden.  That way, I was prepared for when we did finally get our own home and yard.)  Currently, I am researching medicinal herb gardens - which herbs/weeds (not pot!) to grow and how to use them.  Because ... well, because it's 2022 and the world's falling apart.  Time to be prepared and take some matters into our own hands.

"The Last Goodbye" - A Song for Us Hobbits

There's a song at the end of The Battle of the Five Armies (from the Hobbit trilogy) that's become one of my favorite songs.  I feel this song, especially the line about "Many places I have been, many sorrows I have seen..."  That's kinda been my last several years: many sorrows I have seen.  Many trials.  Many heartbreaks.  (Everyone who lives long enough will have many of these.)

Most recently, I had the awful experience of being on the witness stand for three hours, giving testimony against my mom.  And after nearly a week of trial, she was found guilty of ... well, of something really bad.  (She insists she didn't do it, but we think otherwise.  It's not exactly like the prosecution says, but close enough.)  And now she will spend her life in prison.  

Many sorrows I have seen.

"Honestly, I Need to be Broken"

I would like to dedicate the following song to anyone who is breaking down right now - like how I broke down this past weekend, sobbing to my husband about everything that's wrong in life and then vomiting uncontrollably for 11 hours because of tension in my neck that triggers my "throw up" button.  

Is anyone else exhausted from trying to bear up under the pressures of this fallen, evil, upside-down, post-Covid world, from watching all their expectations crumble, from feeling like the future is just one big blackhole for you and your kids, from not knowing where to turn or what to do or how to do it anymore, and from knowing that you have to testify against a close relative in court very soon?  (Okay, maybe that last one is just me.  I've been dizzy every day since just hours before I got the subpoena to appear in court.  I'm trying to figure out if it's from stress or something else, like a vitamin deficiency or something.)

Anyway, to anyone else who's breaking down too, I dedicate this song:  

"Honestly" by The City Harmonic.

Preach It, Tricia Lindsay!

A 10-minute speech we all need to hear and take to heart, before it's too late:

FreedomConvoy USA: "We have a right to resist and we have an obligation and duty to do so!" - Tricia Lindsay

And just in case social media decides to erase it, to silence her, I wrote out Tricia Lindsay’s phenomenal speech, as best I could.  And here it is:

Panic Buying

(Okay, I'm finally getting back to books.  I already brought this up, but I'm doing it again.)  

I admit it ... when lockdown happened last year (or was it two years ago?  I can't remember anymore; it's all a big blur.), I freaked out and started "panic buying."  Not toilet paper (well, a little ... okay, a lot) but a different kind of paper.  You see, shortly after the world went on lockdown, our library closed for remodeling ... and all of a sudden, I found myself in a panic.  A "what if books become unavailable" panic.  

Roses and Peonies, filtered

It's been a long time since I put any garden photos on this blog, and so I decided to post some favorites now (from my picture blog).  Because I could use a little "pretty and pleasant" in my life right now.  I took pictures I already had and put various filters on them, just to see what it would look like.  And I like it a lot.  

The Anthem of the Common People

I was just driving back from the grocery store today, listening to a mixed CD I made, and as soon as one particular song came on, I went "Oh my goodness.  If any song is the perfect anthem of the common people nowadays - a response to the heavy-handed, over-reaching governments of the world right now - it would be this one."  

And so here it is, a song for the people:

We're Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister  (Skip ahead to the 2:55 minute mark if you want to skip the talking in the beginning)

As one of the commenters in the comment section put it "You probably had no clue this would become the battle cry for freedom all over the world.  Love it and it fits so well with the citizens being fed up..." (LPS Lizzy Studios)

Are you sure your "vaccine" is approved?

So are you really sure that you're really going to get an FDA-approved jab next time you roll up your sleeves?

Read this (I have no idea what these websites are, I'm just sharing these articles) and see if you still think that:

FDA Does Bait and Switch with Moderna's COVID Vaccine, Fully Approved "Spikevax"

This sounds to me like the same thing that happened with the Pfizer jab.

Giggle Translate #16: Flying Tic Tacs

Every so often, for a giggle (or to distract myself from anxious thoughts), I will run something I wrote through many different languages on google translate, just to see the wonky results.  Here’s my newest one.  The original paragraph is something I mailed to a friend recently (I may have already done a giggle translate on my embarrassing tic-tac story, I can’t remember.  But there’s always room for more.)  I did this one several times, just to see what came up.  If there's any inappropriate translation, blame google translate.

 

If They Mated ...

(I posted this Jan 1, 2020, but I thought I'd repost it again, just for fun.) 

I think I stumbled upon the perfect "If They Mated ..." scenario for who I look like and how I act.  (You know, when they take two people and morph their faces into one to show what their offspring would look like if they mated.)  I wasn't trying to figure this out or anything; it just came to me as I was watching The Hobbit recently.  And once I saw it in my mind, I couldn't unsee it.  Then after I thought about possibly sharing it with all of you, my mind won't let it go until I do.  And so here it is, much to my chagrin ...

What we did when we got the virus

We always expected the virus would eventually hit us, but we managed to escape it … until last month.  We knew it was going around my husband’s work, and so, feeling it heading our way, I stocked up on a bunch of food and vitamins and immune-boosters.  Just in case. 

And several days later, we got our first positive.  Not through my husband’s work, ironically, but through my son’s.  Three days later, two more of us tested positive.  I expected all six of us to get it, but only three of us got it (the 12-21-year-olds).  (And yes, we all quarantined for 14 days.  Because that’s the incubation period for those still testing negative.) 

Thankfully, it ended up being quite mild for us.  (Who knows, but maybe if us 40+-year-olds got it, it might’ve been worse.  I know a few adults around my age who got it pretty rough, and a few elderly people who died from it.)  

The first to get it was already getting better before he even tested positive.  He had one or two days of a 101-degree temperature which went down to the 99-degree range for a few more days, and he lost his taste/smell on the third day, but that’s about all he got.  The second had a mild fever (mostly 99.4-100.5) for a week, which spiked to 101.9 after he took a bath on day 6, and a small cough (which sounded maybe a little "goose-like," the only way I can think to describe it).  And the third son was barely sick at all, just a very mild temp and the feeling of being a little “under the weather,” but we tested him anyway and it was positive, but with a super-faint line because he was already almost all done with it before we even knew he was sick.  And my fourth son who normally gets hit the hardest with illness, who gets the highest temperatures and picks up infections easier than the rest of us, never got sick.  (Thank you, God!) 

All in all, it was about 10-12 days of mild fever in the house (fevers lasted about 6 days per person).  10-12 days of me running around taking temperatures, checking coughs, making soup, serving tea, and dishing out various immune-boosters to help us as much as possible.  And I thought I’d share what we did to treat it, in case anyone else is looking for ideas.

"The Call" from Prince Caspian

I've linked to this song before, but it's such a beautiful song:

The Call (Regina Spektor)

It's from the Narnia movie, Prince Caspian.  And for some reason, it reminds me of Jesus's promise to come back again, a hope I cling to in these dark times.  I also like the line about picking a star on the dark horizon and following the light.  Sometimes that's how life is, darkness everywhere with just a tiny glimmer of hopeful light, way out in the distance, and we have to deliberately refuse to focus on the darkness as we set our sights on the light and faithfully trudge towards it, step after step, one day at a time, until we reach Home.

A few points of light to set your focus on:

Psalm 27:1: “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?”

John 16:33: “In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”

Joshua 1:9: “Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Psalm 3:3-6,8: “But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.  To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.  I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the Lord sustains me.  I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side…. From the Lord comes deliverance.  May your blessing be on your people.”

Psalm 9:9-10: "The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.  Those who hope in your name will trust in you, for you, O Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you."

2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16-18: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed... Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

2 Timothy 4:18: "The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.  To him be glory for ever and ever.  Amen."