Do you recognize this machine?  It's been a regular member of our family for the last (almost) 5 years.  It's a feeding pump, used in conjunction with feeding tubes.  When our little preemie came home from the hospital, feeding her was a HUGE challenge.  Micro-preemies (babies born before 26 weeks gestation) are particularly bad at sucking because they haven't gotten to practice in utero like full-term babies have.  So that was our first problem:  her feeding wasn't very efficient.  Our next problem was that she had kidney failure.  When she came home from the hospital in March, 2008, her kidney function was about 25%.  It turns out that children with kidney failure don't eat very well because food doesn't taste good to them.  Some people with kidney failure have described food as having a metallic taste.  So she also had no appetite! I really wanted to avoid a feeding tube.  I tried so hard.  I spent hours and...

My maternal grandmother has always been a quilter.  She made a baby quilt for each of her 45 grandchildren and made many others, I'm sure.  When I started college (a while ago!), she sent me a twin-sized quilt that I loved.  One side was a faux brown fur, the other was a leopard print.  My roommates thought it was hilarious because a) they were freshmen, b) they had never seen anything like it, and c) they didn't think it fit my personality.  I loved it because it was an unexpected gift from my grandma--a gift of love--plus I really needed a blanket for my bed.  After I got married, I let my children use it on their beds although it's now starting to show its age.  It's probably time to retire it. Now I'm carrying on the tradition with my own children.  I made quilts for my first two boys when they were freshmen in college.  Here's my third son wearing his quilt.  He started college back in September so obviously I was a little slow...

Monday was Presidents' Day, a holiday for everyone in our family.  I'm just now realizing what a great holiday it is.  First of all, everybody gets a day off from their usual responsibilities.  Second, there is no extra work involved with the holiday, ie. gift-giving, costume-making, or feast-creating.  Call me a Scrooge but I get tired of all the extra work associated with most of our major holidays.  Sadly, Christmas and Halloween are not really days I look forward to.  Coming off Valentine's Day which still had all the usual responsibilities (school, work, etc.) plus extra work for the holiday, I'm really appreciating these no-stress holidays. I still (mostly) enjoy the holidays that involve lots of extra work (especially for moms) but I wouldn't mind lower expectations for some of them (yes, I'm thinking of Christmas and I'm as guilty as anyone in this). Back to Presidents' Day...we got together in the morning with our college kids and ...

This little girl has been climbing a mountain since she was born.  She was born very prematurely at 23.5 weeks gestation and it's been a battle to keep her with us.  Her pediatrician told me recently that she has the longest medical record at his office.  I actually have some trouble believing that because there are a lot of children out there with a lot of medical problems.  But it's pretty clear that her health is complicated.  Recently she's had some kind of respiratory virus that put her back on supplemental oxygen for the last few weeks.  She seems completely recovered but she's still needing the extra oxygen.  It's been so frustrating to me.  Finally tonight I tested her blood oxygen saturation and it was good enough to take off her oxygen until bedtime.  We'll test her again in the morning but I'm feeling hopeful that just maybe we can go somewhere without taking that heavy tank of oxygen with us. I love this picture of her....

This was the view from my back windows around Christmastime after a fresh snowfall.  Isn't it amazing?  This view is one of my favorite things about living here.  The mountains where we live are very close and a constant part of the landscape.  Mountains represent so many things.  In the scriptures, they are holy places where God talks to prophets.  They represent beauty and majesty. Mountains are also a metaphor for challenges to be overcome.  All those things are topics I would like to talk about in my blog.  Here goes!