Thursday, October 29, 2009

Quotable Quote from Tenneva Jordan

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Quotable Quote from Golda Meir

At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you've left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your heart is rent.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Quotable Quote from James Fenton

The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother attempts to transform herself back from an ogre to a saint.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Kite Flying and Whistling

Flying a kite is our new family activity whenever the weather is fine. It's an exhilarating as well as frustrating experience especially for my husband who is the official 'kite flyer'.

Long before we had our store bought kite, my husband and I attempted to make our own simple kites. I made mine out of paper but it had a poor balance and did not even take off. My husband did his out of plastic but the stick he used as a backbone broke. So, we bought a kite instead which was on sale.

Armed with our kite we excitedly prepared for it's first flight. The weather was fine for an outdoor activity but not really for flying a kite. There was just not enough wind.

This is where the whistling part comes in. I remembered when I was still single, I went kite flying with some friends. We looked pathetic trying to make our kite fly (although we were still having fun) and some kids (around 9 or 10 years old) came to our rescue. They offered to help us fly our kite.

The kids informed us that it's not windy enough and then they began to whistle. "Why are you whistling?," I asked. One boy answered, "We're calling the wind." Then... there's the wind and our kite took flight.

Now, I don't believe that you can call the wind by whistling but it was a happy memory for me so I told my older daughter to whistle. Whistling became her responsibility and after a while there was enough wind and our Hannah Montana kite soared up in the sky. It was fun to see our kite flying but all of a sudden the wind died sending Hannah Montana back on the ground.

Life is full of ups and downs. You can not control the circumstances but you have full control of your own reactions. One moment your kite is soaring up in the sky and then plops back on the ground in the next instant. Don't lose hope, keep whistling. The God who created the wind has good plans for us. Keep the faith!

Monday, August 24, 2009

I'm Back

Wow! More than 5 months passed since my last post. So many things happened to me and my family that I don't know what to blog about anymore.

Let me just share with you something I experienced that I never would want to go through again.

It was just another ordinary "grocery day" for me and my family. Most of the items in our grocery list are in the cart already and because there are lots of people queuing to the check-in counters I asked my husband to take his place in the queue while I get the other items in the list.

Our younger child was sitting in the cart so she stayed with her dad while my older daughter went with me. We went to get some canned goods and while I was busy comparing prices my daughter was busy looking at some stuff beside me.

Maybe I got too engrossed with what I was doing that I did not realize that my daughter was no longer beside me. I calmed myself and did not panic. I called out her name but there was no response. I then thought that maybe she went to her dad so I went to see my husband. By this time more people are lining up and I even had a hard time looking for him. I did not go near him but just tried to see if my daughter was with him. I did not see her at all and I was thinking that if I had a hard time locating my husband then It's more likely that my daughter will have a hard time finding him too.

By this time, I felt myself go pale and cold and my heart filled with fear (brought about by news of abductions I see almost everyday). I went back to where we were last together and still there was no sign of her. I searched the other aisles and I just can't find her anywhere.

Feeling helpless, I took a pause and sought the Lord's guidance. Then I heard a tiny voice in my head saying, "Go to your husband." I took a peek once again to where my husband was but I did not see my older daughter. I did not know what to say to him so I did not talk to him at all. Between the two of us, he's more likely to get anxious and I fear he'll get a heart attack if I tell him that our child's missing.

I took another look around (the place was quite big and there were lots of shoppers) and heard again the tiny voice saying, "Go to your husband." I just can't ignore it anymore, so I steadied myself and prepared to tell my husband about what happened.

I kept praying while I was approaching him (by this time it was nearly his turn to pay). About one and half meters away from him, I saw my older daughter with my younger child busy sorting out the toothbrushes and other stuff on a rack. You can just imagine the relief I felt when I saw her.

After feeling relieved, I felt my anger surfacing. I felt the need to confront my daughter for making me go through all that. Then I heard again that tiny voice telling me to calm down. I realized that my daughter is safe -- that is what's important.


God works in mysterious ways and He knows what you're going through. Listen to that small still voice. God bless you!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Still Can't Say Goodbye!

Yeah, I've been meaning to start writing about my Aunt's journey with Multiple Myeloma but I realized I still have not fully internalized the fact that she's no longer with us. Some days I expect her to enter our home and play a bit with my kids or maybe bring them a surprise like an injured bird or a wiggly worm.

Every time we pass by the hospital where she spent her last days, my younger daughter will encourage us all to say goodbye to Nana. We do miss her a lot. She's been a part of our lives for many, many years that her memory will always stay with us.

Bear with me my friends! I will soon have the drive to write about what she went through! God bless you all!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

For My Aunt!

My Aunt who suffered from Multiple Myeloma died on the last week of November 2008 at the age of 70 after being in the hospital for about 10 days. She would have wanted to live longer but her body just can't handle it anymore. We, her family, terribly miss her but we get comfort from the knowledge that she's no longer in pain.

As I put her things in order after her death, I came across some of the notes she had written about what she was going through especially during her chemotherapy. I just can't help but shed some tears as I read them. How I wish I was more patient with her. How I wish I did more for her.

But wishing will get me nowhere. I have decided to blog about my Aunt's journey with Multiple Myeloma instead. It is my hope that it will help others, especially those who has a loved one with the same condition.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Geographic Tongue Update

My daughter's GT has improved a lot. There are still occasional red patches on her tongue but they don't bother her much anymore. As a matter of fact, she now enjoys eating some spicy foods but keeps away from acidic fruits, especially pineapple. When I looked at her tongue today I only saw one red patch (Hooray!).

So what helped her? I really don't know! She takes Vitamin C occasionally, uses ordinary toothpaste, occasionally takes antihistamine (loratidine) for her allergies and stays away from acidic fruits. Nothing special at all. I completely forgot about it until I checked on my blog and realized that my post about Geographic Tongue got the most number of comments.

To help those who have GT or those who know somebody who's suffering from it I will list down comments from my readers who learned to cope with it. Read on...

stephsali said...

I also have geographic tongue. I seen a doctor for it when I was a teenager. He assured me that I was fine and that the cause was unknown. He told me taking a multivitamin daily would often put it into remission or at least help somewhat. It worked!! If i take my vitamin daily I rarely have an episode, and if I do it is very mild. If I stop the vitamins, my geographic tongue returns in just a few days. I hope this info helps, it sure helped me!

Alyson said...

I'm 32 now and have had this for almost 10 years (my 5 year old nephew has it as well).

Took me a long time to figure out that Oregano is the actual culprit in a lot of the foods that irritate my tongue.


Photoshop Diva said...

I've had GT for as long as I can remember, since preschool maybe? My mom & dad BOTH have it so I didn't stand a chance. I am now 28 and find my irritation 'spells' are more frequent. SImilar to others, I react to tomatoes, pineapple, walnuts, eggplant, most citrus/acidic foods and who knows what else.

I was just reading suggestions on another site that involve switching to non-tartar-control toothpastes, swishing with peroxide, and applying the contents of a broken Benadryl capsule directly to the patches.


Anonymous said...

I think I have a cure. It is working for me. First, I bought a natural toothpaste with NO SLS. Next I always swish hydrogen peroxide around in my mouth before I brush my teeth. I took the following supplements. You can get them at a health food store. L-Lysine- 1000 mg. 2 x a day. Super Quercetin 500 mg 2 x a day. Homeopathic Sulfur 12c as directed on bottle. You must take it regularly for at least 3 weeks. I took it for about 1 month. I have been free of pain and the markings for about 3 weeks. My doctor recommended the supplements.


Anonymous said...

Well, I was reading about this and realized that not too many people actually suffer from this. I found out what it was called when I went to a dentist checkup about 6 years ago. I knew it was worse when I ate things that were spicy or acidic. Also I noticed someone commented about it becoming worse when they drank and smoked. I quit smoking about 5 years ago because of it. It used to cause infections on my tongue. I definately don't recommend drinking or smoking if you suffer from this condition. You'd only be asking for problems.

Anonymous said...

I suffer too from geographic tongue and fissured tongue. I'm now 31, but I have had this condition since I was a child. Like many with GT, my mother was told not to worry about it.

At present, I now also deal with burning mouth syndrome (may or may not be related). I know that drinking orange juice caused me to get canker sores. I stopped drinking it because of that. I decided to recently start (again) Vitamin C supplements. Geographic and fissured tongue came back (it had been gone for a long while). So now I am going to test a 2 week no Vitamin C diet. To see if the tongue clears up entirely, and if the burning mouth calms down.

It's worth a shot, but I am telling you folks, Vitamin C definitely has a drastic impact on my mouth.


renea said...

My 6 year old son has had this for years. He also has rally bad eczema and I was told that GT and eczma could be a milk allergy. So I took him off milk and with in a few days it was gone. He has never had any pain in his tongue with foods. And his fav food is pineapple.


Mike said...

I've had GT for over 5 years now and after going to several doctors, my dentist was very helpful as far as steering me in the right direction. Here's what I do: brush teeth and tongue (and scrape tongue with tongue scraper) twice a day and floss at night. I also use the prescription mouthwash Periogard which has a generic brand as well--this is the hard part because it tastes AWFUL, especially sitting in your mouth at night. My theory, at least in my case, is that my tongue is extra sensitive (allergic, really) to bacteria and over-reacts leading to GT.

I still get occasional flare-ups but only when I don't follow the regimen religiously. Getting back on the regimen gets rid of it quickly. It also has the benefit of impeccable oral hygiene! Anyway, this worked for me.