Anyone have a request or a praise they’d like to share?
Psalm 84
¹How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.
4 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.
5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.
6 Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.
7 They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
9 Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
Thanks again for your prayers for our daughter whose housing situation still isn’t perfect, but she’s getting grace from a friend and enough leads on temporary living slots–couple months subletting here and there–that she’s satisfied and one of the relatives has got room for her again.
I’ve spent the summer researching and preparing to write a proposal for one publisher on a biography of my heroine Biddy Chambers. The research is pretty much done and now I need to start writing the first three chapters. While I have a fair idea on the “hook,” I still don’t feel like I’m in the sweet spot yet and so I plug along.
While I’m asking for prayer there, the real prayer request is for sleep. I’m not sleeping well at all. I appear to be functioning fine–all those prayers in the middle of the night–but this overshadows everything.
So, if you could pray against that spiritual warfare and that I fall asleep easily at night–I’d be thankful.
If you are sleep deprived, there is nothing wrong with speaking with your doctor and getting something to take to help you sleep. There is one I wouldn’t recommend. Once a long time ago the doctor told me that benadryl was non addictive, you didn’t build up a tolerance like with other drugs and to take a couple and get a good night’s sleep.
Most recently I have been taking Mega Stress Vitamin B that I got at the health food store, and melatonin.
One (not 2) Bayer P.M. also is effective and aspirin is better/safer than some of those other OTC pain relievers (though it’s hard to find in stores anymore for some reason). But there’s something called “simply sleep” (I think that’s the name) too, with no pain relief ingredients, just an OTC sleep aid. Again, maybe go with just half the recommended dosage.
Melatonin also is one that’s more natural, I guess ?
Michelle, there are times when I can not sleep, and I know it is due to spiritual warfare (there are other times that are simply due to the way I am physically). Those times, I do something unthinkable. I wake someone else up, usually my mother, and ask her to pray for me. It works. Sometimes, we need the support of others in battling those battles.
Kim, are you saying you wouldn’t recommend the antihistamine? You never actually said what you wouldn’t recommend.
I take an antihistamine for sleep occasionally. Not only does it help me sleep that night, but it seems to “reset” my sleep cycle if I’ve gotten into a bad sleep pattern. If, for example, I wake up at 4:00 a.m. three mornings in a row, or I don’t go to bed at all until 1 a.m., or I go to bed at 11:00 but lie awake until 1:00, then the fourth night I make a point of going to bed at 11:00 and taking an antihistamine 15 minutes before I go to bed. Usually I go to sleep in 30-45 minutes and then sleep through the night, waking up a couple of times but going back to sleep quickly, and the night after that I’m back to a good sleep schedule. I haven’t taken one for several weeks, and I never take them two nights in a row or more than a couple times in a week, but they’re very helpful occasionally.
Another trick that I find very useful if I wake up and can’t go back to sleep but it’s way too early to get up: I start trying out dream sequences. I think of random, boring stuff, like I imagine myself lying down in a field of sheep with my head propped against one of them, or I imagine myself making 100 sandwiches for a picnic. It often works.
Speaking of dreams, a few mornings ago I woke up from a dream in which I was seated in front of a computer and looking at some website with a big field of text and probably some photos. I woke up but was still “in” the dream, so out of curiosity I decided to “read” what was on the website to see if it made sense. (You know, that it wasn’t just that “ipsi baflay” or whatever is put on fake websites to show you what the site can look like.) So I looked at the screen and read it. It was sort of prose poetry, not rhyming but sort of poetic language. It wasn’t really my “style” of writing.
Now, I have no way of knowing if my brain somehow took a “screen shot” of a real website at some point, or what. But it rather seemed like in my sleep, my brain actually designed at least one web page, with text that seemed to my waking-up brain to make grammatical sense. I don’t know the ins and outs of how dreams work, but that seemed kinda cool to me.
Years ago I edited a book (a novel for young adults) that the author said came to her in a dream. It was about a boy who became an orphan, and homeless, and he ended up living in a church and living on the crackers and juice that were stored for communion, and eventually he was found and adopted. But she said she dreamed the whole story, but then just added in details to make it into a book. I wonder if chefs ever dream up recipes that actually taste good, or interior designers come up with some new fabric or a room design, and so forth?
I mentioned Saturday about a guy who was dying and his wife wouldn’t leave him because she wanted to be there. That went on for months.
He died this morning.
A blessing for him and his wife, but we won’t say it anywhere but here.
She needs a prayer because it will be a tough week.
But then it will be better.
He was a retired government employee, as I am. His wife will get 55% of his annuity, so no problem there.
Chas, a couple months ago I was talking to my sister, widowed very young two years ago, about my father-in-law. I said it will be hard for my mother-in-law after 60 years, but “she’ll be OK,” because all the family is close and she is surrounded by widowed friends, some of whom live on her block. My sister was offended, thinking I was suggesting somehow that family and other widows are the equivalent of a husband. (She told me very directly, “Family and widowed friends aren’t equal to a husband,” as though somehow I’d suggested they are.) No, not at all. But I think that a woman who is widowed at 44 with five children in the house is in a totally different spot from a woman whose husband has lived a full life and has seen his children and grandchildren and some great-grandchildren; whose family all lives close; whose husband is dealing with multiple health challenges and both will thus be “released” when he dies; and, yes, a woman who hosts a weekly Bible study mostly attended by widowed friends, and who thus is surrounded by a circle of support. I wasn’t trying to say, “Ah, it’ll be nothing when she loses him.” It will be hard. But it won’t approach the situation my sister faced at the premature loss of her husband. I know she thought me hard-hearted and totally clueless how hard it is, and I admit I don’t know how hard it is. But I do know my mother-in-law’s situation, and I know how hard it is right now, and I know that if she outlives him, she’ll be bereft but she’ll move on and be OK.
Another year of what my mother-in-law is facing now will be harder for her, and for everyone, than losing him now would be. She’s in decent health now, but she might not survive that. I hope that this is a time of “transition” for her, preparing her a bit for his eventual loss, but I hope it doesn’t stretch on for a long period, and I particularly hope he won’t have to be transferred to a nursing home to live out his days in a wheelchair. For the Christian, life with Christ is truly “better,” by far, than that.
My mother died five & a half years after my dad, but had never gotten over losing him. She had friends & activities, as well as family near (same town, in fact), so on the surface she seemed fine, but her heart still ached for him.
Ambian is the one I meant I would never recommend. I knew someone who took one, went to bed, got up and drove. Fell asleep at the wheel, luckily stopped at a stop light but hit the gas and rear ended the car in front of them.
I take Equate brand benedryl or Mr. P has found select brand night time sleep aid. It doesn’t have anything in it but the stuff that makes you sleepy. It is good stuff.
Last week I took 3 Vitamin B Stress capsules, 3 Vitamin D capsules, 3 melatonin, and 1 of the night time sleep aids and I slept the sleep of the dead. It was wonderful, Alas, it did not last.
It has been my experience that the spouse that survives sanctifies the spouse that died. No one adored there father more than I did, but I could tell you every one of his faults and in the next breath tell you he was the world’s best daddy. Should you speak with my stepmother your would believe she was speaking of St. James. My Mama Ruth cries almost every day three years later that she misses her husband.
Karen, I suspect most widows (in good marriages, at least) always miss their husband to some degree. But many do admit that on some level it’s a “relief” when it is over, when the caregiving is intense and the person no longer offers much if any companionship.
Mumsee, 55% of his annuity is less, I would guess, than they are getting as a couple, so she won’t be better off than she is now, financially. But there has to be the sense on some level of “I have finished my responsibility.” The wedding vows are “until death” and at death there is huge loss (I’ve imagined it since before I married my husband, since one of us will bury the other, and most likely it will be me doing the burying, and we aren’t likely to get to any major anniversaries like 20 or 30 years), but in the case of loving a spouse through a lengthy illness there is also (I would imagine) a sense of completion. The illness is over, the person is no longer in such pain, he is with the Lord, and your caregiving has been successfully finished. If there is unfinished business (such as children yet to be raised), that would complicate it a lot–my mom had that issue, and so does my sister. My sister-in-law was also “too young to die,” and that makes it harder in some ways. (But it also makes remarriage of the surviving spouse more likely.) But except in those few cases where a spouse feels that death offers a legitimate release from a bad marriage, death is going to bring pain. I don’t want to face it any time soon, myself. I’d like to have at least ten years, at least see grandchildren together.
Mumsee, I was looking at the “A blessing for him and his wife, but we won’t say it anywhere but here.” Financially it’s a step backward, except that they probably have resources other than the annuity. And she will never get over missing him. But she has successfully completed her job, and on some level that can bring some relief.
Yep. But husband is required to stay here until I am done. But we did think it was touch and go this past spring. He would have been in a lot of trouble when I got there. Just sayin…
Wandering Views 
Thanks again for your prayers for our daughter whose housing situation still isn’t perfect, but she’s getting grace from a friend and enough leads on temporary living slots–couple months subletting here and there–that she’s satisfied and one of the relatives has got room for her again.
Whew!
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Prayers for me, please.
I’ve spent the summer researching and preparing to write a proposal for one publisher on a biography of my heroine Biddy Chambers. The research is pretty much done and now I need to start writing the first three chapters. While I have a fair idea on the “hook,” I still don’t feel like I’m in the sweet spot yet and so I plug along.
While I’m asking for prayer there, the real prayer request is for sleep. I’m not sleeping well at all. I appear to be functioning fine–all those prayers in the middle of the night–but this overshadows everything.
So, if you could pray against that spiritual warfare and that I fall asleep easily at night–I’d be thankful.
Thanks.
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If you are sleep deprived, there is nothing wrong with speaking with your doctor and getting something to take to help you sleep. There is one I wouldn’t recommend. Once a long time ago the doctor told me that benadryl was non addictive, you didn’t build up a tolerance like with other drugs and to take a couple and get a good night’s sleep.
Most recently I have been taking Mega Stress Vitamin B that I got at the health food store, and melatonin.
LikeLike
One (not 2) Bayer P.M. also is effective and aspirin is better/safer than some of those other OTC pain relievers (though it’s hard to find in stores anymore for some reason). But there’s something called “simply sleep” (I think that’s the name) too, with no pain relief ingredients, just an OTC sleep aid. Again, maybe go with just half the recommended dosage.
Melatonin also is one that’s more natural, I guess ?
You need sleep. Not getting it isn’t good.
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Melatonin has never had an adverse affect on me. Don’t take unless you have enough sleep time to get it out of your system.
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Michelle, there are times when I can not sleep, and I know it is due to spiritual warfare (there are other times that are simply due to the way I am physically). Those times, I do something unthinkable. I wake someone else up, usually my mother, and ask her to pray for me. It works. Sometimes, we need the support of others in battling those battles.
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Good point, Roscuro. I’ve tried everything else mentioned . . . 😦
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Kim, are you saying you wouldn’t recommend the antihistamine? You never actually said what you wouldn’t recommend.
I take an antihistamine for sleep occasionally. Not only does it help me sleep that night, but it seems to “reset” my sleep cycle if I’ve gotten into a bad sleep pattern. If, for example, I wake up at 4:00 a.m. three mornings in a row, or I don’t go to bed at all until 1 a.m., or I go to bed at 11:00 but lie awake until 1:00, then the fourth night I make a point of going to bed at 11:00 and taking an antihistamine 15 minutes before I go to bed. Usually I go to sleep in 30-45 minutes and then sleep through the night, waking up a couple of times but going back to sleep quickly, and the night after that I’m back to a good sleep schedule. I haven’t taken one for several weeks, and I never take them two nights in a row or more than a couple times in a week, but they’re very helpful occasionally.
Another trick that I find very useful if I wake up and can’t go back to sleep but it’s way too early to get up: I start trying out dream sequences. I think of random, boring stuff, like I imagine myself lying down in a field of sheep with my head propped against one of them, or I imagine myself making 100 sandwiches for a picnic. It often works.
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Speaking of dreams, a few mornings ago I woke up from a dream in which I was seated in front of a computer and looking at some website with a big field of text and probably some photos. I woke up but was still “in” the dream, so out of curiosity I decided to “read” what was on the website to see if it made sense. (You know, that it wasn’t just that “ipsi baflay” or whatever is put on fake websites to show you what the site can look like.) So I looked at the screen and read it. It was sort of prose poetry, not rhyming but sort of poetic language. It wasn’t really my “style” of writing.
Now, I have no way of knowing if my brain somehow took a “screen shot” of a real website at some point, or what. But it rather seemed like in my sleep, my brain actually designed at least one web page, with text that seemed to my waking-up brain to make grammatical sense. I don’t know the ins and outs of how dreams work, but that seemed kinda cool to me.
Years ago I edited a book (a novel for young adults) that the author said came to her in a dream. It was about a boy who became an orphan, and homeless, and he ended up living in a church and living on the crackers and juice that were stored for communion, and eventually he was found and adopted. But she said she dreamed the whole story, but then just added in details to make it into a book. I wonder if chefs ever dream up recipes that actually taste good, or interior designers come up with some new fabric or a room design, and so forth?
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I mentioned Saturday about a guy who was dying and his wife wouldn’t leave him because she wanted to be there. That went on for months.
He died this morning.
A blessing for him and his wife, but we won’t say it anywhere but here.
She needs a prayer because it will be a tough week.
But then it will be better.
He was a retired government employee, as I am. His wife will get 55% of his annuity, so no problem there.
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Chas, a couple months ago I was talking to my sister, widowed very young two years ago, about my father-in-law. I said it will be hard for my mother-in-law after 60 years, but “she’ll be OK,” because all the family is close and she is surrounded by widowed friends, some of whom live on her block. My sister was offended, thinking I was suggesting somehow that family and other widows are the equivalent of a husband. (She told me very directly, “Family and widowed friends aren’t equal to a husband,” as though somehow I’d suggested they are.) No, not at all. But I think that a woman who is widowed at 44 with five children in the house is in a totally different spot from a woman whose husband has lived a full life and has seen his children and grandchildren and some great-grandchildren; whose family all lives close; whose husband is dealing with multiple health challenges and both will thus be “released” when he dies; and, yes, a woman who hosts a weekly Bible study mostly attended by widowed friends, and who thus is surrounded by a circle of support. I wasn’t trying to say, “Ah, it’ll be nothing when she loses him.” It will be hard. But it won’t approach the situation my sister faced at the premature loss of her husband. I know she thought me hard-hearted and totally clueless how hard it is, and I admit I don’t know how hard it is. But I do know my mother-in-law’s situation, and I know how hard it is right now, and I know that if she outlives him, she’ll be bereft but she’ll move on and be OK.
Another year of what my mother-in-law is facing now will be harder for her, and for everyone, than losing him now would be. She’s in decent health now, but she might not survive that. I hope that this is a time of “transition” for her, preparing her a bit for his eventual loss, but I hope it doesn’t stretch on for a long period, and I particularly hope he won’t have to be transferred to a nursing home to live out his days in a wheelchair. For the Christian, life with Christ is truly “better,” by far, than that.
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I thought Chas meant financially.
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My mother died five & a half years after my dad, but had never gotten over losing him. She had friends & activities, as well as family near (same town, in fact), so on the surface she seemed fine, but her heart still ached for him.
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Ambian is the one I meant I would never recommend. I knew someone who took one, went to bed, got up and drove. Fell asleep at the wheel, luckily stopped at a stop light but hit the gas and rear ended the car in front of them.
I take Equate brand benedryl or Mr. P has found select brand night time sleep aid. It doesn’t have anything in it but the stuff that makes you sleepy. It is good stuff.
Last week I took 3 Vitamin B Stress capsules, 3 Vitamin D capsules, 3 melatonin, and 1 of the night time sleep aids and I slept the sleep of the dead. It was wonderful, Alas, it did not last.
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It has been my experience that the spouse that survives sanctifies the spouse that died. No one adored there father more than I did, but I could tell you every one of his faults and in the next breath tell you he was the world’s best daddy. Should you speak with my stepmother your would believe she was speaking of St. James. My Mama Ruth cries almost every day three years later that she misses her husband.
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Karen, I suspect most widows (in good marriages, at least) always miss their husband to some degree. But many do admit that on some level it’s a “relief” when it is over, when the caregiving is intense and the person no longer offers much if any companionship.
Mumsee, 55% of his annuity is less, I would guess, than they are getting as a couple, so she won’t be better off than she is now, financially. But there has to be the sense on some level of “I have finished my responsibility.” The wedding vows are “until death” and at death there is huge loss (I’ve imagined it since before I married my husband, since one of us will bury the other, and most likely it will be me doing the burying, and we aren’t likely to get to any major anniversaries like 20 or 30 years), but in the case of loving a spouse through a lengthy illness there is also (I would imagine) a sense of completion. The illness is over, the person is no longer in such pain, he is with the Lord, and your caregiving has been successfully finished. If there is unfinished business (such as children yet to be raised), that would complicate it a lot–my mom had that issue, and so does my sister. My sister-in-law was also “too young to die,” and that makes it harder in some ways. (But it also makes remarriage of the surviving spouse more likely.) But except in those few cases where a spouse feels that death offers a legitimate release from a bad marriage, death is going to bring pain. I don’t want to face it any time soon, myself. I’d like to have at least ten years, at least see grandchildren together.
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Cheryl, nobody suggested better off. It is just one less worry she has, that he took care of for her before he died.
Husband and I have an agreement that I get to die first.
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Definitely true, Mumsee.
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Mumsee, I was looking at the “A blessing for him and his wife, but we won’t say it anywhere but here.” Financially it’s a step backward, except that they probably have resources other than the annuity. And she will never get over missing him. But she has successfully completed her job, and on some level that can bring some relief.
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Yep. But husband is required to stay here until I am done. But we did think it was touch and go this past spring. He would have been in a lot of trouble when I got there. Just sayin…
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