I recently had about with a stomach virus.  I was battling dehydration and trying to get a handle on symptoms which sent me on a downward track. One advisor suggested all treatment were just a placebo effect and what you have to let it run its' course. When you are really sick though you want relief and even more important you want to survive the illness. I did find IV treatment for hydration and nausea medicine helpful. In one bout of nausea I also used a breathing exercise for anxiety helpful in reducing the intensity of my nausea. Believing something will help isn't all bad when you are battling you digestion system gone haywire.

I'm feeling better then I am hit with a cold. Sure enough it settles in my throat and lungs. Now these things are common to us all. But when you are hit with these things it doesn't help to know we all get it. The good news is I have been able to sleep.

D. V. is still in

Thanksgiving my favorite holiday sadly I noticed more than football was the focus of the days being on sales and shopping. Our culture has turned into a regular business day . In fact the biggest shopping days of the year.There was a time when everybody was off but health care work workers and public servants worked. Lots of kids worked the holiday. In their lives they won't see the problems and error of our focus being so empty and shallow.

Consider James 4:13-17 ¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; ¹⁴ whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
¹⁷ Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

A big problem we have this great day and as a culture we chose to live in with out God. We can explore untold number of options in our lives and I will be positive here the choices are good choices. Choices I may love to participate with. I love to paintball with Jim and Addison even through I get blasted. I would love to go down the pacific coast with two sisters I know, it would be blast. Nothing beats taking in a mystery at a local theater group
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Many activities done this weekend are fun and family lifting but they all contain a small problem we leave God our our thinking. In the CBS' Blue bloods Grandpa has a heart attack the son with the biggest responsibilities takes of his day to care for pops. I sister in law joins him. The rest of the family show concern but carry on as usual. I think they erred there. In  the end they are pulled into the meal where a recovering pops gives the blessing.But I was thankful they come to there senses and give God thanks

Include God in your plans. Life  is to short not to. I am off for a senior walk, keep moving...

D.V. all my catholic friends recognize ae Deo Volenta'e  Lots we can do but is it God's wills. Include God in your plans.Off fo a walk

Thanksgiving

I know the meaning of Easter and Christmas but the way we celebrate Thanksgiving it is my personal favorite holiday. It is simple and not a market day. A day just to say thanks to God for the blessings and opportunity of life.

I have always enjoyed the meal and as an adult I love doing my part to make the meal  a memory. I love cooking the turkey on the grill with layers of flavor from the wood, wine, and seasoning. The wine is poured into a pan and cooks with the bird in the Webber. Every hour the bird cooks I add a few coals and soaked wood chips. At the right time I check the temp of the bird and then the golden bird is taken off the grill. Rest the meat for 10 minutes or a little longer and serve a delicious meal.

I say thanks for all in my family and enjoy the conversation and experience. Personally I will take a walk in the morning and as I walk I will give my own thanks for the day and year lived. I like to say thanks for all my friends, students, people who make my life more rich to experience. Have you noticed except for the grace at the meal, thanks is a private matter. I guess that is why I like the holiday. No big show or public display, it is just a day of thanks for an old guy like me. Not bad!

Later like many I will visit family and friends and listen. Thanksgiving as I get older I drink it in and let it into my heart. This last year my brother died, I battled depression, friends have battled worse illnesses. It is easy to forget our trials and only think in terms of good things that happened, like a birth of a grandson, a finding of an old friend, reunion with friends in a shared vacation.  I am thankful that life is not just the here and now. Our somewhat fragile bodies age and have their problems and teach us "to number our days". We call on the Lord and He saves us. Life as Darby O Gill reminds us we have to take the good with the bad. I am thankful God is with me through the difficulties and the sunny day.

I have learned to enjoy the day without over stuffing myself. I eat the meal and all the fixings but I limit myself to one helping including desert. I enjoy each bite but no seconds. The walk in the morning helps. I keep my weight the same by doing this and I enjoy the meal without guilt. Moderation is my friend not denial. Walking gives me a few hundred extra calories. If I watch my self on left overs I can enjoy the holidays without the pounds. Blessing to you and keep walking.

get ready for winter - burrrr

It is hard not to notice it gets dark pretty early. Many of the trees have lost their leaves. Frost on the windows. It is time to winterize the home and tune up the snow blower. Hot chocolate at night and curl up to a book under a blanket. Winter is coming.

There is not much we can do about a shorten day, but we can get ready for winter. For walkers we can still walk outside with layers of clothes. Barb has ashma so we walk indoors. We have walked on an indoor track or at a mall but we do best with walk Cd's from Leslie Sansone. Some of my friends go to the gym and walk or bike. Walking can help chase away the winter blues. I also find ways to increase my walking at work. A pedometer can motivate you to walk 10,000 steps a day and that can add up to a winter where you lose weight and not gain it.

Winter can be a time where you can draw attention to those you love. We have holidays that can help us. I am planning to take out each of my kids and grand kids to an outing they would enjoy. Built into that outing will be a meal time where we can talk and share. I am also going to work on recording funny and interesting stories in my life. Years from now when I am with the Lord my family can listen to the stories of my life from my own voice.

Winter is also a time when Barb and I will go out to plays, dates and spend time inside cooking for the family and friends. It is fun when we cook together.

We have an ongoing Bible study in the life of Christ. Regular daily Bible study leaves the winter out into the cold. Barb has devotions in the morning and I have them at night. In the winter these times experience the warmth of God's provision in our Labri (shelter) when outside the winds howl and the north wind blows.

NET 25:4 "For you are a protector for the poor,a protector for the needy in their distress,a shelter from the rainstorm,a shade from the heat.Though the breath of tyrants  is like a winter rainstorm." Thank God for my home. It protects My family from the weather. We winterize and prepare for the days ahead. For Jesus and His disciples their shelter may have been their winter coats. Consider Matthew NKJV© 8:20 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." They would have braved the cold nights outside. Many people talk of discipleship but fail to notice what that might of meant for the twelve who were in their thirties. They slept under the stars and not at the Holiday Inn. I know at times they may have had shelter but even then it was far from the comforts of most of our lodging.  Thank God for our shelters (housing) and our furnaces. Get ready for winter  but thank God we can rejoice in the blessings that God provides.

Lately I have  worked hard and helping the kids learn in the classrooms. I am rewarded with bonding with the kids and improve class room relationships, improve work in the class and a higher degree of respect and kindness experienced by student and staff. Knowing I have something to do with that is cool. We don't think of it but we can concentrate on the relationship in our work we know it is good for business and at the end of the day will better about work and ourselves. It can be a great time to shake the ice of winter off..

Tell me what ways do you shake the blues of winter away? Keep walking

This is the Day the Lord have give

Barb keeps me stepping

Feeling good on the walk

We are out on a beautiful day stretching and walkingAnimal life today in view werre the moths. Most of the leaves are down but the pond view and lake view were awsome. I feel the blood push through my ateries and viens, Blood pumping to my feet and head. My lungs taking in deep air. My better eating taking affect. I read this week that people whp waoi faster are more likely to live longer thst those who don/erobically for 30 minites. Barb clearly has the edge there,

Super walker Barb walkig

Later at the car we practiced stretching and at home resistace. These walking trails are right by you. 5 days a week and you will see the difference. To your health keep walking

It is wonderfrul that Barb remains my fan. We get ach other out to trail. We are not the only ones out there but many who cme to enter the race fir kife.

Simple work out and therapy scores - breathing works

The other night I had a battle with my intestinal system being at war with me. The truth it has won all battles with me  to deal with it and recover and rehab my body as I tried. I needed IV's and medicines to calm the disease and rehydrate. Round one I felt better and was able to eat simple things and drink water. The next day and night I felt like I was in the road to recovery. Then the unthinkable happened, round two begin. For three hours waves of nausea hit and weakened me and stronger as time continued. I began to speed up breathing and my blood pressure rose. My anxieties were now fueling the nausea I am in a clutch of a vicious cycle.

How did I get out of it. The nausea was real. Barb reminds me fast shallow breathes make the nausea worse. My problem was the feeling we all real. But I could not stop the anxiety about the nausea or the discomfort so I reached back into my box of treasures and pulled out to treasures to tackle the beast. One I thanked Barb for the suggestion and I went back into a breathing exercise that should help to slow the breathing down. Breath in 1,2,3,4 hold breath 1, 2, 3, 4 exhale 1, 2,2 3, 4 hold to next breathe 1, 2, 3, 4. Closing my eyes helped focus on the count and the experience of each breath cycle. With in a half hour I felt better and another half I was able to switch therapies to music and prayer and worship. With my nausea under control I was able to take my medicine and 32 ounces of water to over come dehydration.

I slept the rest of my sleep cycle and continue to recover.

Tonight simple moves push ups, crunches and work out down stairs. Getting my legs under me, Keep walking

Stomach virus, no good - wrong kind of Bug

This past week I went through a bad case of intestinal virus that requires IV treatment and IV medicines to calm down my uncontrolled symptoms. I thought I was recovering then a second wave of illness hit. I used the medicines I was given plus I used breathing exercises to calm me down. It took over an hour but the breathing exercises helped. My anxiety was contributing to my building up symptoms again. The bug is still with me and it has been six days. We may come from different political and religious point of view, but I bet we all agree when our intestinal track goes hey wire the moments seem to last forever.

While in the hospital the new bed pans are a joke. I know we want to green and save plastic, but the bed pans are designed for smurfs. When one has the runs  it is inhumane.

There were times this week I almost fainted and I was very weak. It is a time where our health and fitness takes many steps backward. As soon as this passes I will use my Leslie Sansome CD’s to start to rehab. She has walks that are slow pace and are good to get the body moving again. Thank you Barb for helping me slow down my breathing and relax.

On a different note, but related to feeling like death was close by, I find stomach flu does that to me. I have a thought about getting ready for the next life.    

I was reading Charles Swindell’s The Greatest Life of All, chapter 5. He has a great study on Jesus conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus a scholar and ruler came to Jesus by night. He knew Jesus was a teacher and did marvelous works that could be ignored. They came from God. Most of his peers believed them to be of the devil. Nicodemus is mentioned three times in John and he   stands in contrast to the unbelief of his peers.

Nicodemus needed a change in his thinking similar to a high school student learning higher levels of math and physics and chemistry where the mind shifts from concrete to abstracts. For Nicodemus it was seeing the Messianic Kingdom in a spiritual way and not the accepted way of a kingdom overthrowing Roman rule. To be in the kingdom one would need a spiritual birth to enter the new dimension of heaven and the Messiah’s reign.

Being “born-again” is applied to using a new product, a new health care or it is just sarcastically frowned upon by many in our society.

We were made to live on this planet. But that is for such a short time. We need to get ready for a eternal life in heaven that is a whole different realm. We need to be born again. Read John 3:1-16 and remember the looking at the bronze snake on the pole that was the only way to be healed from the sin and rebellion occurring that brought a deadly illness is like today when we look back at the cross and put our faith is Jesus as our Savior.  When we do we are born-again.

Being born from above is by faith and it is something God does.

I hope you kept walking this last week, I will join you soon. Keep walking

all hands on deck - dealing with illnesses

It seems the whole family has been hit with a bug. No fun at the Reeves. Fighting sickness is something we all go through. God give us strength and strong immune systems. I am pictured on the Missouri where we signed the treaty with Japan to end WW2. I am at Pearl Harbor where our Pacific fleet was nearly destroy on that day that will live on in infamy.  My dad and aunt and uncle fought in the Pacific. To be at Pearl on that day would have been no pose. The human carnage and lost overwhelms me when I picture the battle that occurred.

When everybody comes down sick we all have to help each other deal with the illness. Thank God we love each other and can encourage each other in small ways.

Health is important  in our service for the king. Be merciful o great physician. Keep walking