Jesus Heals

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I went to church today with my kids and we sat in the second row from the front (we love it up front).  Our pastor was reading from the bible in Mark chapter 2 verses 1-12 about the story of four friends who take their paralytic friend to see Jesus in hopes of healing him.  However the house where Jesus was speaking was too crowded to get inside from the doorway, so these four friends hoisted their buddy up on the roof, cut a hole in it, and lowered him inside.  Jesus goes on to forgive this man his sins, and heals him.  When I first heard this story I totally didn’t understand why Jesus would forgive his sins FIRST before healing him.  But then my pastor explained that Jesus could see this man needed his spiritual needs met first which were forgiveness, and then he moved on to his physical impairment.  How amazing huh?  After my pastor explained the passage, it gave me a whole new understanding of this story.  I just love going to church and getting taught the word of God, getting my weekly spiritual batteries recharged, and courage and confidence to face another week.

What I thought was really really neat was what my 12 year old said after the pastor read the fifth verse {And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."}.  My son said “that’s cool”.  Wow!  My son is getting it, and I was there to witness it.  That’s amazing stuff that God is working in my sons life too!

Mark 2:1-12

English Standard Version (ESV)

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

1 And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. ² And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. ³ And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. ⁴ And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. ⁵ And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” ⁸ And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? ¹⁰ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— ¹¹ “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” ¹² And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

5 Things Friday

Since I’ve been entirely too busy lately with school to blog anymore, I totally had to make time to squeak out my 5 blog-worthy things that happened this week.

This was how my Monday started out on the way to my Peds clinical.  Which was okay because eventually the skies cleared up long enough to get through our orientation to and from the hospital tour.  Sometimes you just gotta love a rainy day, and quickly after I got home, I changed into my pjs!

 This picture shows a golden and much loved coupon for a free value meal from McDs that I turned in on Tuesday because my son gave it to me and I was craving salt.  In all reality though, my son won two of these and he gave me one to pay off the $4.80 fine I paid on his account at the library.  Hey I'm no dummy, I believe in receiving McDs coupons for payment any day.

Here is the common look of my couch now-a-days, overwhelming, unmanageable, and purely disorganized.  I swear this semester is made up of 95% group work, slightly meaningless group meetings (where more complaining and less work gets done), and deadlines.  My head usually has no problem staying organized but not at the moment.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way.

 Thursday I finally opened the package and made a wrap with these tortillas.  Usually tortillas are 150 calories each but this brand (found at Walmart) were 100 calories each.  Nice, score!  I put 3 oz. of lunch meat and a low fat skim mozzarella string cheese to a tortilla to make a filling wrap for lunch all under 360 calories.  Ow ow!

Friday was a busy day because my daughter has a homecoming dance scheduled for Saturday night and I chose to hem up her dress right at the last minute.  This is fine because I LOVE TO SEW, but I don't like putting myself into such a time crunch.  Sewing is much less enjoyable that way, either way my daughter was pleased with my work and I was glad for the reprieve from school work.  

On to another weekend filled with work and back to the grind school on Monday.  

How was your week?

5 Things Friday (done on saturday)

5 Things Friday is where I post 5 things throughout the week that I liked the most, so here goes;

This was the view while sitting on the ground stretching after one of my runs this week. Aww I love fall.

This is one of my lunch meals, starting from top to bottom left to right I had watermelon, lettuce, fiber one bar, mini rice cakes, and turkey/string cheese wrap.  All for under 400 calories.

This is one of my note pages where our instructors love PowerPoint and I love printing 6 to a page on less compacted lecture days as opposed to densely covered days in which I'll print 3 to a page.  Don't forget to notice my purple water bottle, drinking water is important!

This is my dauther's choice for her homecoming dress this year and I just love the color gray and blue together.  I think it looks classy and can't wait to see her all done up!

 This is my attempt to curl my hair easier using a sock bun, and if you're interested in learning more on what I mean check this youtube video out.

What 5 things were your favorite this week?

The Ride

 

During this gargantuan amount of stress and uncertainty I MUST remember that even though I don’t know the road set before me, that God does!  He is in control especially when I am out of control.  He makes a way through the muck and mire that is called nursing school, and HIS will for me will be done.

I never thought I was much of a micro-manger or control freak, but just shortly after the second week of school, I am faced with a situation that is out of my control – group work.  And I have no choice but to be okay with it and continue on this ride until I graduate. 

You have never changed.
Your love is endless and your mercy has remained.
Through all the ages You shine so bright.
Nothing can compare.
You made the heavens and Your glory fills the air.
Through all the ages You ride the ancient skies.

And you ride the ancient skies
You’re amazing
Creation cries
So will I
You’re amazing

Psalms 68:33-35 to him who rides the ancient skies above, who thunders with mighty voice.  Proclaim the power of God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the skies.  You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God!

 

Part of Why I Care

I’ve been sitting at my computer work area since 10am working on different assignments off and on all day.  I think it’s time to write a little post for my blog.

First off, let me tell you that this semester is heavy on the amount of readings that the instructors expect from us.  More so than normal and this is the first semester where I’m kind of worried of what to expect if I don’t attempt to look at most of this stuff.  Keep in mind most of these instructors assign a bunch of reading material as complementary resources, but I still feel obliged to read the chapters assigned from the text book. 

Let me just give one piece of advice, if your text book states they offer additional learning activities on their website, you should check it out.  More than likely your instructor has used this resource and incorporated a few questions in with their exam.  Plus there are activities such as flash cards, mini-quizzes, and even crosswords that help the student retain information in a different more creative way.

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Anyway I went to work Friday in the OB dept., but was reallocated to a med/surg. floor to help out.  Now since I work on OB when I get reallocated from that department to other departments, they don’t utilize my abilities as an aide.  Instead I just do basic stuff like vitals, turns, helping feed but I’m not assigned any one patient or group of patients for total care.  So once I got onto the floor I was met with cries of help from a confused patient yelling from her open doorway.  I went into her room and found the patient trying to climb out of bed; she seemed agitated and annoyed as to why she was in the hospital.  So I went in and helped get her untangled from the blankets and we sat down together and talked.  I learned a little about her between her bouts of short-term memory loss.  All she wanted was to go for a walk, and since I wasn’t needed at that moment for anything else, I took her for one. 

When I got her back to her room, I excused myself and stepped out so I could get report from the other aides to see if there was anything else they needed help with.  When I got done helping a few of them with their work, instead of wandering aimlessly around the halls or sitting on a computer surfing the internet (that sometimes happens with other aides), I went back to the confused lady’s room.  I spent the rest of my four hour shift there chatting and walking around her room with her.  It was so humbling and enlightening to talk with this woman who was wise beyond her years and had quite the story to tell.  My time with her helped remind me why I care so deeply for others, we’ve all gone through a lot in our lives and we all have our own story to tell.  I look forward to more times like this in my future.  PS when my shift was over, the RN came and thanked me for my 1:1 care with this patient so she could get other work done.  I wondered why the patient hadn’t been evaluated for more 1:1 care or a sitter.  She definitely could use someone to look into that for her.

Syllabus Schnyllabus

I started back to school yesterday and I gotta say I really missed my classmates during summer break.  Knowing that we’ll be graduating in May kind of makes my eyes a little misty.  But thinking about my future swells my heart with excitement and pride.  Overall what I didn’t miss was all the high school baloney with cliques and popularity issues.  I just wanna enjoy the most out of each experience I have before I actually have a “real” job with “real” problems.

After getting done with back-to-back classes yesterday, and being that this is my first semester as a senior I’m still shocked that instructors can write their syllabi so sloppy and unorganized.  Some of our classes are hybrid (which means some of the time we would have spent in the classroom listening to lecture is spent outside of the classroom studying or working in groups) and the syllabus doesn’t clearly state which days are in class vs. which days our outside of class.  Also I really dislike it when the instructor talks about projects, and dates and what to expect but doesn’t have a syllabus posted for us to look at.  I think they’re trying to confuse us on purpose…ugh!

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Today was one of our community clinical days and because it was our first day we spent the entire seven hours inside the skills lab.  We learned about effective listening and being present with ourselves.  We practiced hand and foot massages on each other (which by the way felt amazing and I gladly accepted all the rubs I could get after my busy summer and what looks to be a busy fall).  We tried different meditation techniques including deep breathing and taking a walking journey.  I was most excited today to learn different coping mechanisms for the craziness of hospital nursing and the added stress that comes with the job.  Overall, I feel more relaxed and have a few more tools to add to my foundational skills tool bag.

Friday is promised to be a busy day of planning group projects and time slots to meet.  We also have two medication quizzes (one that’s a take home and the other an online quiz).  Even though I work both Friday and Saturday my shifts are only four hours each.  My excellent hubby once again budgeted flawlessly so this fall on average I only have to put in between four to eight hours of work each week.  That’s such a load off my shoulders to worry about especially since I have 15 credits to get through, thanks honey, and I love you!!