Those words have double meaning for me.  As a nurse, for the last 15 out of 16 years, it means giving medical care in the home. Currently, it means caring for Hannah’s home.  Hannah is single, she has never married.  She lives with her cat named Black Canary.  Let’s just say that she doesn’t keep house the same way that I keep house.  Tiff and I have unpacked several boxes so far that she moved here with 2 ½ years ago.  Part of our plan is to be productive so putting Hannah’s house together for her is our productive time.  We are doing fairly well so far, and Hannah seems pleased with the results of the rooms that are done.  Today I spent over an hour outside mowing the yard.  Hannah did the weed eating and some of the mowing.  It’s a lot of work doing a yard this size, I was happy to be able to help her with this chore. She doesn’t have help as a rule.  I’m going to be much more grateful for my husband who sees the importance of keeping up with the care of the house, especially the outdoors. I can’t imagine doing all of this on my own. 

Church this morning was good.  For the month of May the church is focusing on some of the many missionaries that they support both financially and physically.  Today’s mission focus was on a group that helps at a nearby school that has a very dense population in the district, mostly Spanish speaking and at or below the poverty line.  The church has people who volunteer in the classrooms, and they help with the food closet ministry.  The first Sunday that we went to church there we noticed paper bags on the ground sitting behind parked vehicles.  This is how they collect food donations.  They ask that when you bring donations for the food pantry that you do this, then during the church services the volunteers go around the parking lot picking up the bags of donations.  Part of our plan is to do acts of kindness; this will be our next one.  We plan to fill 2-3 bags with food and/or paper goods for the food closet.  Today we took a donation of diapers and nursing pads for the ministry that they support for expectant parents/families. 

The pastor then gave a message about the need to remember that, as Christians, it’s not about us.  We are to be ministering to others while we are here on earth.  He had a great quote that he used – “Love people and use things, don’t love things and use people.”  I liked that.  It’s very easy to get caught up in our stuff and forget that there’s a lot of people out there who could use some assistance. He also reminded us that it’s the things that we do for others in Christ’s name (ministry) that goes with us into eternity.  Not one of our possessions will go with us.

Today, while mowing the lawn, Tiffany went to the grocery store for – you guessed it – juicing stuff.  This is the second time that she’s gone somewhere by herself.  I am still a bit leery of letting her be without me, or Hannah, due to the seriousness of her situation.  I’ve let her and Hannah go together by themselves a few times knowing that Hannah knows the situation and will call for help immediately if anything occurs.  I must be diligent about this.  Tiff is showing such improvement that it’s easy to forget the seriousness of it and just do life as normal again.  Today we decided to check a random blood pressure and discovered that Tiff was only 87/58 – this is too low.  We did a second check, and the readings were very close.  I am having her cut one of her medications in half for today and will call her PCP in the morning to let her know what is going on.  I believe that she is on this med to help with heart function, but we can’t have her pressures this low.  She will increase her water intake to help also.

Day 19 is done, day 20 is on the way.  “There is no better exercise for your heart than reaching down to help another person up” – unknown