Nearing the end of this Chapter

Wow, has it been a while since I have posted anything! Tonight I have been going through everything I have to do in the next three weeks for classes before our spring break and realizing that yes it seems overwhelming, however God has carried me this far, and He will continue to carry me to through the rest of the school year. The end of school is so near and is on all my classmates minds as we are fast approaching the day we will part, going our separate ways into our nursing careers.

It has been a little over a month since our class has said goodbye to a fellow classmate so dear to us. It is hard not seeing her smile every day in class. She had a way of bringing all of us together and she is most surely missed. It has been a blessing that our class is close with one another, that we can still lean on each other for the support during the time of mourning. But we also have wonderful professors, who I have grown to appreciate, that are there every step of the way to hear our concerns but to also pray with us as we are going through difficult times like this.

Yes nursing school has been ruff, however, I have learned so much and grown even more that I will never forget my days here. Even today as I took one of my harder tests early this morning, and came back brain dead, I will always appreciate the wonderful education I am getting in order to better care for my soon to be patients. I will also always appreciate the many people in my class, who are not just friends, but more like family at this point as we have gone through everything together. Through some of the hardest classes and tests, through the many clinicals and labs, we have all been there for each other.

But better yet, I will never forget what God has done for me during my time at school. He has carried me through so much, through the good times and bad. He has been my comfort and my strength and I hope to never take him for granted, but appreciate every moment I can freely talk about Him.

It is crazy to think that this is all coming to an end in 82 days, and in three weeks I will be completely done with classes. As much as I am so ready to be done with school and see what God has in store for me after graduation, I will miss this place and the many people I have come to know  and love, like crazy!

Beautiful day on campus!

Senior Year Nursing School

My roommate and I graduating high school.

So I finished my first week of my senior year of nursing school at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Yes it was stressful but it will be all worth it, when I graduate in 8 months with a BSN in nursing. I am in an apartment with some pretty awesome ladies. My roommate is one of my friends that I have known since 7th grade year, who also graduated from the same high school as I did and is also a senior nursing student.

This week was one of just diving into school. You know that thing they call the first day of school for college student, called syllabus day? Ya, no! As a senior nursing major, you have to come to the first day of class already have read the first several chapters already printed out and looked over the syllabus. Go to class and take notes for the full class time and study for a test and prepare for a presentation on the second day of classes. Yup we are definitely seniors, but we are so excited to see what all kinds of experience we get. It may seem like it is hard, which it is, but it will be so worth it in the end.

I have enjoyed getting to see everyone again and being able to catch up. I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for our class and especially for my roommate and I. My advice to anyone in nursing school. Enjoy it while you can, even though it may be difficult. Take it seriously, but take a little time for yourself, otherwise you will get burnt out.

Starting a Cookbook - The How To

This has been a summer long process and I just finished this past weekend. Back in 2009 for my mom's birthday and Christmas present, I had made a cookbook out of all of her recipe cards that were bent out of shape and falling out of her recipe box. I typed it up and printed it off and put it into a binder. At the time I didn't really know what I was doing and have since learned my lesson. This summer however, was spent adding new recipe's that she had found from magazines and Pinterest as well as fixing old recipes.

When I started this back in 2009, I had put it in an excel file. Not really sure why but I did it that way and would definitely recommend not doing it that way, but hey I was only freshman in high school who didn't know any better. Now I would say Microsoft Word is probably the better choice.



I modeled the pages after another cookbook mom had and remembered her telling me that she liked the design. On the left is the ingredients, and on the right is the directions. But what makes this one different is that there are breaks in between, linking the ingredients with only a certain section of the directions.


For the page numbers I abbreviated whatever the category was for the particular page and used the number key that is in Microsoft Excel. This was so that I could add more pages later on.



Once printed, I put them in page protectors and then in a binder. I had made a table of contents as well as an index. We discovered that because the pages were in the page protectors that the tabs we had gotten were too small and would not stick out. So I printed out a page for each section with different fonts and then a box around it. On the edge I used permanent markers and colored about 1/2 inch on the right side.

Because I had used a binder with a front pocket I was able to find a nice front off of Bing pictures. And made my own spine that had the name of mom's cookbook "Holly's Family Cookbook." Even though it took me most of my summer. I think my DIY cookbook turned out to be a success.

The Sibling's take on loosing a baby

Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I got on to facebook and found that my mom had posted the article "Why We Should Talk about our Children who have Passed", written by Washington Post. I opened it up and read it, realizing that I have a hard time when it comes to telling people how many siblings I have that I have one alive and that one was miscarried and the other lived for eight days before passing. I am one that doesn't like the pity response of, "I'm so sorry." For me it happened and that's the way of life. But yet when those that I do tell, and are understanding and are willing to listen, it means a lot and I feel that they genuinely care. Many times have I heard of other parents talking about their young and knowing that they went through some of the same things that my parents went through. But I rarely hear from those who were siblings and went through the process with their parents.

As a sibling it is hard not only to watch your parents go through the heartache and it is also hard to not think about the what ifs. Like what if they made it, what if they were still alive. When my parents lost the baby, I lost the chance of growing up with a brother. My life could have been way different if he would have survived. On July 27, of this year would have been his 16th birthday. I would have had a sibling just taking their driving test for the first time. Instead of there being two of us kids, there would have been three. Maybe he would have helped me to become more interested in sports when I was younger. Thinking about how my sister and I would have had to share a bedroom, while he got his own. But maybe we wouldn't be living in the house we are in now. I would have had a sibling closer in age to me than the six years apart between my sister and I. There is always those thoughts about what could have happened.



Yes, I am sad that the chance to have grown up with a brother did not happen, but I am so thankful for the eight short days that I had him. As Christians who have lost loved ones, we can look forward to the one day that we will see them again. There are these things that happen for a reason even though we may not understand at the time, but through the years, I have been able to relate to those who have lost loved ones and been there to be a comfort.

As a sibling going through this time of losing their sibling, I am very grateful for the involvement I was able to have while Josiah was alive. Even while mom was scrap booking, she let me help and even let me do one page by myself. I am still very grateful for the support that our family has received before, during and after he was born.

Prayer Squares - It is the Little Things that Count

Recently I went to Dominican Republic on a missions trip with the group called MMI (Medical Ministry International.) While there, we handed out prayer squares to the people that would come through the clinic. As I looked closely at them I realized this was something small and easy that I could do even though I will not be able to go on a trip next summer. I asked some of the ladies in charge of the clinic if this was a need and they said that if they have them they would definitely use them, they just don't always have them to hand out. The idea behind a prayer square is that as you are making the square, you are praying for the person or family that will be receiving the square. A prayer square can be crocheted, knitted or even fabric sewn together and is about 4x4 inches big. This is something that I will continue doing and would invite you to join.


I looked it up on Pinterest and found different patterns and such. Anyhow here are a few that I have completed.

Left:
chain a row of approximately 4 inches long.
Row 1: skip the first two chains from the hook and do a half double crochet (yarn over, insert into stitch, yarn over again and pull through all three loops). Continue to do this until the end of the row. chain 2, turn
Row 2-13: half double crochet in each of the previous half doubles until the end of the rows, chain 2 and turn.







Right: I made a cross into the square even though it may be a little difficult to see.

Instructions:
Chain 12
Row 1: sc in second ch from hk and in each ch across. ch 1, turn (11sc)
Row 2: sc in each of next 3 sc, puff st in next sc, sc in each of next 3 sc, ch 1, turn
Row 3: sc across, ch 1, turn
Row 4-9: repeat rows 2 &3
Row 10: *sc in 1st sc, puff st in next sc, sc in next sc*, repeat to end
Row 11: sc across, ch 1, turn
Row 12-14: repeat rows 2 & 3
Row 15: sc in each sc across. 
Then create a border: I did 3 sc in the corner and turned and sc all the way around to where I finished off, making sure I did 3 sc in each corner.

Puff Stitch = PS: YO, insert hook in next stitch, yo, pull through and bring yarn up to height of rest of stitches (3 loops on hook), YO, insert hook in SAME stitch, yo, pull through and bring yarn up to height of rest of stitches (5 loops on hook), YO, insert hook once again into the SAME stitch, yo, pull through and bring yarn up to height of rest of stitches (7 loops on hook).
The pattern came from the site: http://myhobbyshopblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/pattern-prayer-squares.html     I would encourage you to check it out!

Left:
Chain 14
Row 1: sc in second loop from hook and sc in each across, ch    1, turn
Row 2-15: sc in first sc, sc in each across, ch 1, turn
Border: sc 3 in first corner, sc across all edges making sure to sc 3 in each corner. Join at the end with slip st. and tie off.



Below: Same as above with a different type of yarn and no border added.







Make this fun to do, get a group of people together and pray as a group. This is also a great way to try new patterns and benefit someone in the process. Also if you would be interested in joining me, by making prayer squares for the MMI organization to hand out to the many people that come into their clinics, then let me know. It doesn't have to be crocheted, it can be knitted, or even fabric sewn together.

Medical Missions Trip - Dominican Repbulic

Wow, this has been such an amazing trip where God has shown himself in every step of the way. On the first day a group of us went on a hike where one of the teen guys proclaimed himself to be atheist. After many talks and prayers from the whole group it was on the fifth or so day that the teen accepted Jesus as his savior while still others rededicated there lives to Christ. And then every night we would here of the patients we saw that had become Christians as well.

As some of you know I had the privilege of going to Dominican Republic on a medical missions trip with one of my best friends and her fiancé. It was a great time to get to meet a bunch of awesome people as well as to get to serve people who are in need of health care and may not always get it because of cost.

The way this trip was set up was there was one big group but we split into two. One group included the surgeons, nurses and whoever else they thought they might need for the surgeries and just to help out at a local hospital. The hospital was very small and our group had to bring almost all the supplies and equipment in order to even be able to do the surgeries.

And then there was the medical/clinic group, which I was part of, that went to a new school/church everyday. Our drives ranged from a little over an hour to ten minutes. We would have to set up and tear down every day. We had several doctors and a nurse practitioner that would see the patients and they would prescribe the medications and the pharmacy would then be able to fill. From the doctors the patients would be taught how to take care of themselves better and have their medications explained to them. It was in that same teaching that they heard the good news about Jesus. There was a total of 142 that gave their lives to Christ in those two weeks. The patients were also given the opportunity to see an eye doctor where some received glasses and a dentist who did cleanings and some bigger procedures.


It was a great week and I hope to be able to go on another trip in the future once I graduate for college. If you have any questions about the trip or possibly wanting to go on a medical missions trip feel free to ask!

A Little Bit About Me

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a little while now, and I guess today is the day. Just a little about me, I was born into a Mennonite family and raised in Ohio, moving around a lot when I was younger but now have lived in a small town in the middle of no where for the last 14 years. I live with my mom, dad, sister, my dog named Napoleon and like 5 cats. I just finished my 3rd year of college and have one more year left before I graduated with a BSN in nursing.

During my free time I enjoy baking, reading, crafting, playing games, and just spending time with friends and family. I also enjoy traveling. When I was a baby I went to Ecuador and Canada, so I guess you could stay it started early. But more recently I have gone to Haiti in 2011 on a missions trip with my church youth group.  Our Spanish class my senior year of high school went to Spain in 2012. Last summer I was able to go to Colombia on a medical missions trip and visited both Peru and Brazil. This just happened to be during the time of the Fifa World Cup and I came back a soccer fan. Tomorrow I just happen to be leaving for another medical missions trip with two of my friends. I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store. And promise to tell all about it when I get back.

After the trip to Haiti in 2011, I have felt God's calling to do something related to missions. I don't know that if in the future it will mean living over seas or just going on short term trips every once in a while. But in the mean time I will prepare myself for what ever God has planned for me.

Thanks for taking the time to read.