I Still Have Foggy (Cold) Brain

1. This has got to be the longest lasting cold I've ever had. And it's only a cold, because I had a regular visit with my doctor on Monday and he said as much. So I've been experimenting with different over the counter medicines, trying to find that perfect cocktail to avoid the grogginess of most cold medicine and keep the cough at bay with only some success. Dang.


2. I made great progress on my cross stitch this week as the pattern moved on to an easier section. Thank God, because I thought the confetti was going to kill me. Here's your progress pic:

3. Tonight our church is hosting a special couples' night so we get to drop our kids off at church at 6 pm and go down the block to enjoy a meal with our spouse. It's going to be a lovely way to start the weekend, especially since this will be Marshall & my 15th Valentine's Day together. Woohoo!


4. I was kind of sad when we finished the last of all 26 episodes of The Green Hornet last weekend. It was a charming little show, if rather predictable. So, I've decided to stay with that era of television and start us on Season 1 of Mission:Impossible. I'm also blaming my pastor, who just finished a sermon series of the same title and showed clips from the original show, thus whetting my appetite. I remember watching in syndication when I was much younger. According to many reviewers, it holds up pretty well, in spite of the nearly 5 decades since production. We'll have to see.

5. Marshall and I watched a fascinating documentary this week proposing a counter-factual history called Virtual JFK: Vietnam if Kennedy Had Lived. We highly recommend it, even though it makes you wish we'd avoided so much of the blood shed there. Although, The Fog of War is better, but only slightly, and we also enjoyed the television movie, Path to War. I'm not a huge fan of Alec Baldwin, but watching him bring McNamara to life is amazing, especially for someone like me born after the war was essentially over. These kinds of films help me understand the world my parents grew up in but fill me with dread about how later generations will look at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lord, have mercy!

6. Three of my friends welcomed new babies this week, two girls and a boy, which was cheering, since we know of two other families who are soon to be saying farewell to their loved ones as they go home to Jesus, one older but one way too young. Yesterday, our church sent a team to Haiti for a weeks' worth of work in Jacmel, where this missionary family has been serving Jesus and is now about to bury their 4 year old daughter. Christ, have mercy.

7. I just finished working on my own Valentine cards and will be spending tomorrow helping my children prepare theirs. It helps that they are in small classes (8 students in Alex's and 9 in Miranda's) but instead of doing them all myself after the children go to bed, their teachers want them to "help" by writing their friends' names on the actual cards. Which should keep us busy for quite a while tomorrow.


Bonus: 8. My mother's book, Bathsheba's Lament, continues to earn praises and recognition from among a growing number of readers. There is a great review of it on the International Christian Fiction Writers' blog that you must read! There is another awesome review of Bathsheba's Lament on LeAnne Hardy's blog. Read it here. Remember, if you haven't already ordered a copy, you will find it available here, or, if you are a local fan, inform me that you are claiming one of my few remaining copies.


And, just in case you missed my blog post yesterday, I have to share this again:

And here's Jen.