My Prayer Journal-Flight TWA 800

I have been impressed more and more lately to keep a prayer journal. I pray for others often, but, I never write those prayers down. For me, there is something powerful about writing things down. I am very much a technological kind of girl. I have a laptop, an I-touch, a blog...you get the picture, but I still keep a paper datebook and I still find pleasure in writing things by hand.

This morning while I was having my quiet time with God, I thought of a lady who lost her four children in TWA flight 800 on July 17, 1996. What's odd about this thought is that were 240 people that lost their lives on that flight and this lady has been on my mind ever since. This morning I prayed for her and I wrote my prayer down in my journal. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will comfort her and give her the peace that passes all human wisdom. I have no idea why this lady stays so heavily on my mind and after so many years no less, but I am learning to be obedient to the promptings of the Spirit. I pray that one day whether on this earth or in the earth made new, I will get to speak with her and hear of her story of how she made it through.

Is there a seemingly random person or a thought that comes to your mind often? Consider writing it down and presenting it before the Lord in prayer.

Quilting Project

Before I mentioned a website called Craft Hope that is hosting a quilt give-away this month. I started working on my quilt and bought enough material to make 2 of the same kind. I will give one away and keep one for my son as a Christmas present.

In the picture above you can see several of the prints. There are 3 horse prints. I sewed the last strip on wrong. The cowboy print in the corner is supposed to be in the other corner so that the horse prints make a diagonal. At least that's what I saw in my mind. I did the second one correctly and am still trying to figure out if I want to "fix" this one before I finish the quilt.

Here is a closeup of one the middle horse fabric. I thought this was very "Texan" and boyish. I love the burgundy and cream and tried to bring that out in some of the other squares.

So next I need to purchase the batting, and cotton flannel material for the back. I hope to be finished by the end of the week.

Blood Center Field Trip

This week the kids and I went on a Field trip to the Blood Center. At first my son was very nervous about going. I guess he thought someone was going to poke him with a needle.

Once we got there, he calmed down quite a bit. There were many things to keep his attention.

Here is a rack of blood ready to be taken to the lab

Here is a lab technician sorting blood and getting it ready for the hospital.
We learned about plasma (on the right) and how the blood is prepared. The kids learned how blood is made in the marrow of the bones, and how blood cannot be manufactured by any outside source. The machines behind the rack that look like washing machines are centrifuges. The kids learn how the centrifuges are used to separate the blood.This picture was taken inside the refrigerator. There was a freezer next to it. We learned that the blood is never frozen (only the plasma is frozen) and cannot be stored for very long before it is no longer usable.
We ended our tour by checking out some of the cars outside. All of them have lots of colorful designs on them.



The kids had a great time and now we excited to do more follow up on blood and how it works in the body!

A Worthy Cause-Craft Hope

Since I discovered knitting, one of my new favorite things to do is listen to podcasts. This week I was listening to the Craftsanity podcast (episode 105) and found out about a website called Craft Hope. The woman who founded this blog hosts a different craft everymonth to be given away to needy children somewhere in the world. How nice is that?

This month's craft is quilting. You can read more about the organization that will be collecting the quilts here. If you quilt, please consider joining in. The deadline is November 15th. Even if you can only make a quilt top it will help out tremendously.

I plan to make the take-along-quilt. This is a great project for Christmas gifts as well.

4H Vet Science Group

My daughter has joined a 4H Vet science program. It's a 5 year program to be a Veterinary Assistant. It is quite amazing how this all came to be. When my daughter was 5 she said she wanted to be a Veterinarian. Now the only problem with that is that she was terrified of dogs. "In her own child-like faith way, she would say God is going to take my fear of dogs away and I'm going to be a Vet!" And sure enough He did take her fear away and now we even dogsit for others when they are out of town. Now that is the kind of faith I need!

Last night was the group first activity meeting where they interview a Veterianarian and ask about educational background and duties. Our group chose a PetSmart. The staff was so friendly and helpful.

Here my daughter is trying on the gloves they use to keep the cats from scratching them.

They got to go into the x-ray room and see an actual x-ray of one of the patients. The Vet nurse explained what they were looking at.

All the kids went home with a free stethoscope and one of the parents wrote to our Yahoo group last night to say that her daughter was already trying the stethoscope out on her cat. How sweet.

We are looking forward to the next activity.