Telling Your Story in 5 Photos June Edition

 I am again linking up with Jenny Meyerson for Telling Your Story in 5 Photos.
Weekend Routine

  For a long time I had to I work weekends until I switched from floor nursing to case management.  Now I get to enjoy a Monday through Friday work week and weekends off with my family.  It is better for all of us.  Weekends are busy with stuff the kids have going on, doing fun things together like camping, and of course if there is farm work to be done, Kenton is busy with that.  We do not have a set routine except that mass is every Saturday night.  I grew up  in a small farming town that was predominately a Catholic community where we had a big church, three different mass times each weekend and at times two priests.  We are so lucky to have our little church in Bedford.  Our members are not that many and we share a priest with two other small towns.  Mass is every Saturday night.  We have grown accustom to our little church and Saturday night mass is something we try to attend.

Your Ride

I currently drive a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country mini van.  It is not the dream car I had hoped to have some day but it gets me to and from work.  I put on average 80 miles a day on it.  Thanks to a great husband who know a lot about vehicles it keeps going.  It is great for hauling lots of stuff or when we all need to go somewhere.

A Place You Get Your Food 

Normally we grocery shop at Walmart or HyVee but I am currently anticipating some garden fresh produce.  Kenton and I have been babying these tomato plants along.  In the summer we love garden fresh produce.  We planted several varieties of tomatoes, several types of pumpkins and sweet corn.  I usually plant some peppers, onions, peas and such but we tried to make this year's garden more kid friendly with things that Kaleb would like. I can't wait for the first BLT with garden fresh tomatoes!

Something You Can't Live Without 

 

There are lots of things we think we can't live without, for me in the summer it is my Taos Sandals but for Kyle it really is his medication that he can not live without.  For the rest of his life he will be on anti-rejection medication.  Right now he takes both Cellcept and Tacro.  He takes these twice a day like clock work. He was on a lot more medications right after his transplant but now we are down to these two.  They are pricey.  So thankful we have insurance. He does a great job remembering to take them.  For him what works best is to set the alarm on his cell phone and then he has another alarm go off a half hour later just in case he was busy and didn't get them taken.  Seems to work out well for us.  He has labs drawn every three months to see where the drug level is at.  Like other medications they have side effects but the benefits definitely outweigh the risk.  We are so thankful for modern medicine.

A Favorite Snack

  Kaleb is a "cheeseaholic" and his favorite snack right now is cheese and grapes.

 Again all of these pictures will be part of our Project Life album. Thanks again, Jenny for the great prompts!

Kyle's Confirmation and How We Serve

I am a little late on this post but wanted to share it anyway.  A couple weeks back Kyle had his Confirmation at our little Sacred Heart Church here in Bedford.  Bishop Richard Pates came down to confirm Kyle and 7 other teenagers.  Kyle, along with the others had been taking classes for the last six months.  

Here is Kyle getting confirmed by the Bishop.  Kyle's sponsor is a great friend of our family's.

Troy just graduated this year and has been a great friend of Kyle and Jessica's for a long time.  Jessica and him went to Prom together her junior year and they attended Catholic  Youth Conference together.  He went with Kyle for his Confirmation Retreat.  He has been such a great mentor for Kyle.  I wish there were more young men out there like him.

  Funny how things happen but the same week as Kyle's Confirmation I ran across this great blog post, at super hero journal, blog of Andrea Scher.  She talks about a transcript from a conversation with author, Rachel Naomi Remen. I have one of her books, Kitchen Table Wisdom, in my pile of books to read.  Here is the exert from the conversation that she was talking about:

How we Serve

We don’t serve with our strength– that’s helping people.
We don’t serve with our expertise — that’s fixing people.
We actually serve with ourselves. We serve with everything we are.

Our wounds, our own wounds, are the source of our compassion for the wounds of others. They make us gentle with the wounds of others, and able to trust the mysterious process by which we heal. Not as a theory, but as a lived experience.

Because we too are wounded, no wounded person needs to be ashamed in our presence or a lesser person.
No wounded person is alone.

Our loneliness recognizes the loneliness in others, despite the masks that everyone is wearing.

And it gives us the courage to reach out to others and to be present with them as they find their way out of places of darkness and constriction.

We are enough to make a change in the lives of others.

Service is not something that you learn. It’s something that you are.
-Rachel Naomi Remen

  I love this and printed it out to put in our Project Life album.  I thought this really summed up what Confirmation is all about.  It pertains to our daily life as well.  Sometimes I get tired and frustrated at my job,(I am a registered nurse at a hospital), sometimes I get tired and frustrated with all of the chores at home like the laundry, cooking and cleaning.  This little exert puts things back into prospective, doesn't it.  

It is in giving that we receive.

I hope that you all continue to have a great weekend!