This is going to be long, so if you want the short version,
here it is. Megan has taken over the
kitchen and God has provided a way for all of us. Praising God today! For the details, read on.....
Let me share what God did this week….
My PD (Parkinson’s Disease) has progressed to the point that
the Orthostatic Hypotension (OH) won't let me stand in one place long enough to
do anything without risk of passing out, then add the tremor and PD is making
cleaning, laundry, cooking, doing dishes, etc. impossible. I can stand up as
long as I am moving, but standing in one spot, I will begin getting woozy and
can pass out. So if you stop me to talk, I look for a chair, or a wall, or somewhere
to lean or I have to move, flap my arms, rock backed and forth, march in place
or I begin to black out. I can shop,
leaning or hanging on to a cart and between ""off" periods, and
NO dawdling, but once the food is home, I have trouble doing anything with
it.
With all of this, our 14 year old daughter, Julie, has been taking
care of Mandy and I, the house and doing much of the cooking all summer. I knew it was too much for her but I didn’t know
what else to do. The rest of the family wasn’t seeing it as they aren’t home, everyone
else was gone from home 12+ hours a day (overlapping schedules, combined rides
and long commutes), and so, all we had was Julie. She has been a trooper and done what she
could but something had to give and the one thing we could do to take some of
the burden was to purchase pre-packaged food. All supposedly healthy, gluten
free- for Mandy and Julie, but not anywhere near real food. I call it healthy junk food, or maybe
non-allergenic junk food? Plus, we found
out that, well to put it bluntly, Julie can't cook, well, she 'can', it just
doesn't taste that good (she loves to embellish the recipe) and you might get potato
soup or ice cream for breakfast. And it’s
not because she doesn’t try, she somehow fell through the cracks and didn’t get
taught, something we ARE going to resolve!
(I read this to her and she says, she KNOWS how to cook, she just doesn’t
have TIME to do it right. Megan says her ADHD shows when she cooks. All we all agree
on is that things often just don’t’ tastes quite “right”)
All this to say, this summer we about starved to death on that
“healthy” junk food. Is that
possible? Before this summer, I wouldn't
have thought so, but now I believe it is not only possible but is the #1 reason
for so many health problems. We could
visibly see Mandy decline yet further, and I knew in my gut that the poor
nutrition this summer was behind it.
Before the twins started work last spring we had done fairly well, but
this summer we had resorted to packaged foods just to get calories. Not a good
choice but we did what we had to just to survive. Megan didn't realize how bad it had gotten
until she was home, breathing & off allergy/asthma meds enough to see what
was going on and had spent a week eating our ‘diet’.
Sunday night, I watched the Carpenter special on PBS and it
hit me how much like Karen, Mandy was looking and I was just overcome with how
desperate our situation had become. I
knew we couldn't continue this way. No, Mandy does not have Karen’s eating
disorder, but I knew that the ‘diet’ they had her on was slowly but surely
killing her. You see, everything she was
eating had been approved by her nutritionist but was providing no real nutrition
and as she gets weaker, she eats fewer and fewer calories.
Add to this, in a week, Julie needed to start school and
even her time to help would be reduced. At
3:30 Monday morning, I prayed, Dear God, help us, I don't know what to
do!!!!
Monday, we had to get up at 4:30 to go to town for errands
and shopping. I determined that I was going to figure out a menu that would
feed us right, but still didn't know how to get it done or how to do it long
term. Megan would help for this week,
but she was hoping to find work north of here 20 miles and would be moving as
soon as she found something, but I thought maybe she could show Julie some
things and it would at least get us started???
What I didn’t know was that God had been working on Megan’s
heart at the same time. She started
Liberty U Online Monday, with few bills but no job. We had told all of the kids that we would
like them to live at home - room and board free - until they turned 20 and
still attending school (with rules, of
course), then, after 20, we would charge a minimal amount for rent and
food. The amount is much less than they
would pay on their own, but gets them used to being responsible adults, while
still living here, if they so choose.
After Megan’s 6:00 a.m. dental appointment, on our way to
the hospital to sit with my Dad, Megan approached me with a proposal. She had been off work just over a week and
the first week she was down recovering from a summer with severe allergies/asthma
and weaning off the drugs. Who knew
there is such a thing as being allergic to money??? I digress…
But in that week, not being able to help much around the
house, she had realized what was going on, how hard Julie was trying, how much help
both Mandy and I now need and what we were actually eating. And she came up with a plan.
Her offer was to continue helping with her portion of food
costs, if we would waive her rent in exchange for taking over the kitchen,
planning the menu (not an easy feat with 3 different sets of dietary
requirements and several sets of food allergies to deal with, all a big part of
the poor nutrition this summer), teaching Julie to cook, and preparing the
meals. Anyone available could help with cleanup and lend a hand in cooking, but
she will do most of it. I will still do the shopping, something she doesn’t
like to do, and I can actually do! The
rest of the family will help with other chores when they are available. This
will let her concentrate on finishing her B.A. and give us the help we so
desperately need. We accepted.
We all wondered what God was doing when she developed the
money allergy and had to quit her bank job. But even in this we can see God's
hand. She made enough this summer to
cover her limited expenses this winter, and we were rapidly coming to the place
of having to hire help both for everyone's health and for Julie, who needs a
break and time for high school and to just be a teen.
Monday we put together a menu, and purchased the food. Yesterday,
we got 3 real meals, 3 snacks, all made with fresh vegetables, fruit, raw milk
products, and good fats and proteins. She had time to do her college work. The kitchen was clean before we went to
bed.
God is so good. He has
a path, even when we can’t see a way, He has it all covered. I know that this is only a temporary solution
and we need to be seeking His will for our future, but I am not afraid of it,
He will show us His path in His time and in His care everything will be good.
Praising God for His quirky, unexpected, unpredictable
yet perfect way.
