Sick Daze

Vintage Vicks Ad from 1946

I'll be the first to admit: I am not a good sick person. I don't like being sick and I'm "Grumpy McGrumpy Pants" when I do get sick. Unfortunately, sickness has come for a visit at our house hitting both CJ and me. So far, RJ has survived unscathed.

I have some sort of cold. Fortunately, having in-laws who are retired pharmacists has great benefits -- like getting recommendations on medicine. So far, their latest suggestion of Mucinex seems to be doing the trick. On a side note, Mucinex is the medicine with the cartoon commercial with the gross looking green guy. Meanwhile, their packaging has nothing to do with that green guy or the color green. It is a very nondescript white box. Looks like they would market it to help you find the product easily. RJ almost didn't find the right one since he was looking for the gross green guy.

I must give a sincere thanks to the makers of Vicks Vapo Rub. That stuff works wonders. It's one of the few things that keeps me from coughing throughout the night. It may just be the memories of having my Mom slather it on my neck when I was a little girl, but that eucalyptus smell always makes me feel better. I've heard of people putting it on their feet, but I've never tried it.

And, I have got to thank the makers of Play-Doh for helping me keep CJ entertained during the past few days. Looks like he caught a stomach bug and has been having trouble keeping his food down. This is a problem for a little boy whose favorite past time is eating. He keeps looking at me with his big brown eyes saying, "I'm hungry. Can I have just a little snack?" So far, his food has been very bland and in very short supply. I hope that tomorrow he can return to his preschool. I've been trying to keep him in the parts of our house without carpeted floors. Playing with Play-Doh in the kitchen has been an ideal location.

I'm hopeful and prayerful that the rest we've gotten today combined with some good medicine will get both of us back to our regular routines tomorrow. I'm watching way much too TV. But I'm having fun exploring some blogs that I usually don't have time to read.

By the way, if you've made it to the end of this post, I'd love for you to Follow Me with Google Friend in the left-hand sidebar of my blog. So far, I have one friend and I'm feeling like I did in middle school when I was the last one picked on the playground. Please help me feel socially accepted in the blogosphere!

Love is patient

to my husband, Happy Valentine's Day!

Love is patient and kind. (like when you wash the dishes for me that have been in the sink for way too long, even though you cooked dinner)

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. (like when you affirm me spending time with the chicks so that I can have some girl time)

Love does not demand its own way. (like when you watch “SuperWhy” with CJ instead of Sports Center.)

Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. (like when you fill up my gas tank in the wee hours of the morning because I forgot that it was almost on Empty)

It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. (like when you help people at work who are struggling with loss after a disaster)

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. (like when you encourage my efforts to get in shape even though you’ve heard me make the same statements for the past 12 years)

Love will last forever … (till death do us part)

There are three things that will endure – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love. (I love you, wonderfulness!)

1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13

The Wisdom of a Child

Source: ChristianPhotos.Net - Free High Resolution Photos for Christian Publications

"Let me hear your Bible verse," I ask CJ.

"Let the little children come to me. Luke 18:16," he replies happily, doing hand motions that he's made up with the verse.

My heart gets warm and fuzzy when I hear my 3 year old — almost 4 year old — son memorize Scripture. It's because I want to be a good role model to him that I'm attempting for the umpteenth time to make the Bible more of a priority in my life. As a book lover, I think it would great to actually know God through reading the Bible.

So here I go again — I'm trying to read the Bible through in a year. As someone who named my blog Book Smart Mom and has loved books since I was a little girl, it totally mystifies me how I've never managed to read the Bible from cover to cover. You would think sometime in the 30 years that I've called myself a follower of Jesus that I could manage to read one book.

My inspirations for this journey are my little boy and a 7-year-old girl I've never met. Her mother, Kat, wrote on her blog Inspired to Action about her daughter reading the entire Bible. "I love that she just did it," Kat writes. "She didn’t talk about doing it. She didn’t list the reasons why she couldn’t. She just did it. One page at a time."

I've heard people compare the Bible to a library since it contains so many smaller books. All I know is that several times I've started reading the Bible through Genesis and Exodus only to get stuck in Leviticus.

Since I work best with a plan, I'm using Read Thru the Word with speaker and blogger Wendy Pope. Using a chronological version of the Bible, she guides people through the Bible in a year. Each day, she posts some main points and includes a 10-15 minute video of her thoughts about the reading.

So far, so good. I'm up to date with my readings and since it's in chronological order, I've already done the book of Job before starting on Exodus. We're on day 35 with 330 remaining, but who's counting?

"Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples,

'Let the children come to me. Don't stop them!

For the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.'"

— Luke 18:16