Sara Frankl aka Gitzen Girl

I have been thinking for the past few days of what to write as a tribute to someone who, for the past year that I have been following her blog, has been such an inspiration and encouragement to me in my Christian faith. I stumbled upon her blog by chance when I was reading some articles at (in)courage, a page where women share their stories of faith to encourage one another.

This person, Sara Frankl a.k.a Gitzen Girl (see the big orange button in the sidebar on the right of my blog? That's the link to her blog), passed away on Saturday night after many years of living with a painful progressive degenerative illness. She had to give up a job that she loved, and because of very severe allergies she could not venture out from her home or even open a window, and those who visited her had to be in the pink of health because even the slightest germ or virus was life-threatening to Sara.


Being confined to her little apartment with just a cute little dog for company, she started a blog and reached out to many people around the world through her computer, allowing herself to be used by God to love, encourage and lift up others instead of wallowing in self-pity. Her motto was simple yet powerful:

She had this wonderful gift of words and a wisdom far beyond her years, and as she shared her life story through her blog, many times I felt as if God spoke to me through her. I'd like to share something that she wrote 2 months back:

Life is meant to be shared. The good, the bad and the ugly... which I think is really just the good and the beautiful to Him, you know. Things are hard for us, bad for us, ugly to us, but to Him it’s all just the pattern of life that brings us closer to Him. And there is beauty in that.
The good, the bad and the ugly... God can see ahead to the beauty that comes from the ugly. He's knows the beauty in the ugly pain that we can’t yet see. Our perspective shifts when we trust that He will bring beauty from our pain. That He will carry us as we carry our burdens.
And we can be Christ to each other as we help each other carry those burdens.

When Sara was too ill to update her blog, one of her friends did it on her behalf and that was when we were all informed about her passing. I read with a heavy heart, yet at the same time I was glad that Sara had gone home to heaven and is now able to dance and sing like she used to...free from pain. Hundreds of people came for the funeral. Thousands more couldn't because of distance. That shows how much her life has made a difference.

Thank you, Sara. Yes, I too will CHOOSE JOY.

Here's a newspaper article about her and if you would like, go to her blog and read through what she has written. I'm sure you too will be encouraged and blessed.

Things Seen Around The House

Every home has a story to tell. The way it is decorated and the things lying around the house reveal the personality and characteristics of the people who live there. A home with toddlers would have toys strewn all over the floor, as was the case in my home when my children were little. I would always have to step very carefully around the living room in case I knocked down some carefully stacked  Lego bricks or stepped on a little toy car.


A neat and tidy home might mean that the kids have grown up and moved the mess into their bedrooms...as is the case at the present moment in my  home. I can't stand the mess in their rooms and am always reminding them to tidy up, but sometimes a mom just needs to 'close one eye' and let them live in the mess they create...or... when they've gone to school, just throw away junk and find space in their cupboard to keep everything out of sight, and wait for the: "MOM!! Where are my stuff??!!" the moment they come home from school and discover what I had done (muahahaha).


Over the last few days I noticed some things around the house that seem to have a story of its own to tell:

The step-pedal on our dustbin is no longer functioning... 

So hubby attached a string to the lid of the dustbin
and secures the string to the wall.
Now we only need to pull the string to open the dustbin lid.
Innovative?

CoolTeen drumming facts into his head.
This is something I can't quite understand but is a typical teen trait...
how he insists that loud music helps him study better.

SweetTeen and her choice of location to air her ballet slippers
before storing them in the shoe cupboard...
in the living room just as you step in the front door (sigh).
.

I found this interesting quote on the internet about family:
"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together - Erma Bombeck"

To Blog Or Not To Blog

Seems like quite a number of people on my blog list has updated their blogs this week except me. I was having problems viewing my blog last week and had to upgrade to Google Chrome, so all is well now and I have no more excuses not to update.


I notice that with so many available social networking sites nowadays, it's getting harder to think of things to post on my blog. Let's say I left my cake in the oven for too long and it got burnt, I could just grab my phone and post on Facebook:


Burnt my cake! Forgot to watch the clock 


...and to show how I feel I would add :(

And I could also take a photo of the cake with my phone and upload it immediately...and all my friends would know what had happened in just a few minutes after I have removed my blackened cake from the oven...wow!


That would be so much easier than sitting down to type a new post in my blog, checking my grammar and punctuation, and then having to upload photos from my phone to the PC and from my PC to the blog.


Despite all this, the satisfaction of creating a well-written blog post complete with pretty pictures is...great. Sometimes I'm just amazed at the number of people dropping by my blog each day.


So while I use social networking websites, I will still discipline myself to update my blog at least once a week (yes, for me it does take discipline to sit down and type because as all moms would agree, there's so many other things to do daily). As I share bits and pieces of my life here I hope that I have brightened your day somewhat :)

CoolTeen's New Best Friend

My son, CoolTeen is always complaining about being bitten by mosquitoes. It's strange how we could all be watching TV together in our living room and he would be the only one bitten by mosquitoes, while the rest of us would not even notice that there were any mosquitoes around.


A few days ago, I was at shop selling electrical appliances when I saw this gadget...and bought it:




A rechargeable electronic mosquito bat
(that's what it says on the packaging)

Since bringing it home, CoolTeen keeps it by his side to zap annoying mosquitoes that keep buzzing around him. He's quite pleased that it's very effective and was describing to me how he has been 'toasting' mosquitoes in the last few days and even making one explode...ewww!