LIFE --1 Hour At A Time!

Posted by Bluebirdy at 05:38 7 comments  

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Posted by Bluebirdy at 11:26 21 comments  

Can't Afford Your Prescription Medication?
Free Prescription Medicine is Available to those who qualify.
http://www.mhsanctuary.com/add/rx.htm
http://www.needymeds.com/ -this one is the most comprehensive site I found and I think it might be the only that pays for the strong pain medicines that are needed for serious pain.
http://www.themedicineprogram.com/
http://www.volunteersinhealthcare.org/home.htm
http://covering kids and families.org/communications/bts/
http://www.freemedicineprogram.com/drug/ELDER+TONIC/
http://www.mycancernews.com/viatical.html
http://www.cancercare.org/HelpingHandsGuide/HelpingHandsGuideList.cfm?c=49
http://www.helpingpatients.org/
http://www.rxassist.org/default.cfm
http://www.mhsanctuary.com/add/rx.htm
http://www.astrazeneca-us.com/content/drugAssistance/
https://www.merck.com/pap/pap/consumer/request_application.jsp
http://www.sch-plough.com/schering_plough/corp/patient_programs.jsp
http://www.phrma.org/
http://www.hrsa.gov/osp/dfcr/obtain/obtain.htm
http://www.lillyanswers.com/
http://www.benefitscheckup.com/

Every one of America's uninsured, regardless of age or income, can call toll
free to 1-866-776-3700
or log onto the Internet at http://www.pfizerhelpfulanswers.com
to find out how to get Pfizer medicines for free or at significant savings.

Direct links to the food stamp site -- officially the USDA Food & Nutrition
Service
Frequently asked questions --
http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/faqs.htm
Applicants and recipients
http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/applicant_recipients/default.htm

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal
program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child
care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches
to children each school day.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Lunch/Default.htm

Modest Needs is a non-profit, tax-exempt philanthropic organization that
began as one man's personal project in March of 2002. Since that time, Modest
Needs has become a community of unlikely philanthropists dedicated to helping
others as best we can with what we have.
http://www.modestneeds.org/

Find a National Depression Screening Day site near you
(for members of the public wanting to take a free anonymous screening)
http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org/
http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org/locator/NDSDmap.htm

A national free eye care program for low-income working Americans that is
now open year round. See web site or call 1-800-766-4466.
http://www.aoa.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?site=AOAstage&WebCode=VISIONUSA

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a Federal agency
within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Programs for which CMS is
responsible include Medicare, Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance
Program(SCHIP), HIPAA, and CLIA.
http://cms.hhs.gov/default.asp?fromhcfadotgov=true

Links to help with Disabilities.
http://www.disabilitypolicycenter.org/relatedlinks.htm

Sources of Free or Low-Cost Food and Nutrition Materials
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/pubs/bibs/gen/freelow.html

A list of directories of grantmakers by state/region/city
http://fdncenter.org/learn/topical/sl_dir.html

Volunteers in Health Care staff have prepared the following list of links
useful to those serving the uninsured.
http://www.volunteersinhealthcare.org/links.htm

Insurance for kids
Insure Kids Now.gov
http://www.insurekidsnow.gov

Patient assistance programs
http://helpingpatients.org/

Prescription medications are an important part of total patient care
http://www.rxassist.org/default.cfm

Free Medicine For Low Income People http://www.mhsanctuary.com/add/rx.htm

Merck Patient Assistance Program
https://www.merck.com/pap/pap/consumer/request_application.jsp

Habitat for Humanity
http://www.habitatforhumanity.com

WIC
http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/

Food Banks in the United States
http://www.wadv.org/foodbank.htm

Administration for Children and Families and Domestic Violence
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/opa/facts/domsvio.htm

Energy Assistance: Home Heating and Cooling
http://www.ncat.org/liheap/referral.htm

Free or Low-cost Medical/Dental Care
http://ask.hrsa.gov/pc/

Financial Help to Pay for Home Heating and Cooling
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/liheap/faq.htm

Head Start (Administration for Children & Families
http://www.headstartinfo.org/infocenter/infocenter.htm

Job Opportunities for Low-income People
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/dcdp/joli/welcome.htm

Medicaid - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/mover.asp

Resources to Help Children and Families
http://www.ncfy.com/Resources.htm

State TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) Links
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/news/welfare/stlinks.htmSingle

Touched Twice
http://www.touchedtwice.org/index.html
Touched Twice provides free clinics and more to the less fortunate.
many of the clinics provide free food, clothing, dental and medical
care, free haircuts, free legal, financial and spiritual advice. free
clinics located in the US.

a leading resource for senior related information
http://www.friendly4seniors.com/_search.asp

Get Connected: Afford-A-Phone
The Lifeline telephone discount program, also known as "Lifeline
Assistance", gives people with low incomes a discount on the basic monthly service for
either their wireline or wireless phone. The Link-Up America program pays for
a portion of your wireline or wireless installation or activation fee
excluding the handset.
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/getconnected/faqs.html#signup

Listing Of Free Clinics
http://www.medkind.com/FCF/

Posted by Bluebirdy at 16:34 1 comments  

Last year I posted these articles I wrote. I just looked back, and it was 1 week before this date last year. Every year, around the last week of March and the first week of October, my lupus gets really tough. This week I feel like I've been hit by a car and beat up. I am covered with bruises and they come from the inside, (broken blood vessels and inflammation inside) so the inside hurts more than the outside. So I started thinking of feeling like I was being punched around like a piece of clay, and remembered my magazine articles, which won a couple of awards. I hope you will enjoy them!


THE FIRING
(c) Sheila Wall
(please use my name when passing on)
Once I was a bank of clay along a wetted marsh. I was content and silent, enjoying the natural sensations. One day an artist came, and with a strong, forceful knife, he cut me, again and again, until I was a lump of my former self. He took me to a strange place and with torturous strength he kneaded me. He threw me on a potter's wheel. He squeezed me. He punched me. He poked me. It seemed to never end. He bent me and thinned me out. I was no longer anything like I once was. Then the wheel stopped! He held me up to a mirror. I was beautiful! The pain had made me beautiful and useful. Now I could rest, I thought. I had become what I was meant to be. But wait! Where am I going now? To a firing kiln? Fire? More pain? Why, artist, why? "My little pot, you are the shape you'll always be, the design I planned for you, but unless I fire and glaze you, you will not endure. I hope you understand, it will not be for long, and then you will be the model for my other student's pots." And so I endured the fire, with anticipation of what I might someday inspire.


ENJOY THE FALL (c) Sheila Wall
(please use my name when passing on)
Well, you did it. You just jumped off the plane for the first time, but not onto solid ground, into thin air! You quickly assess the situation and think, "Now I can panic, or I can savor the experience. Wow. Up here, I feel no pressure, I feel no pain. I can do flips and somersaults that I couldn't do before. I can fly! I can see my town with a different perspective. I don't worry about hitting the ground, because I know my parachute will hold me."
Many years later you find yourself on solid ground, where everything seems heavier and harder. You feel that you are falling in life. After a long series of small stresses, the one catastrophe that you thought you could never bear just occurred. The weight pushes you to your knees in tears, then in prayer, and you hear a soft, quiet voice whisper to your heart, "Well, you did it. You just jumped off the ledge of security for the first time. Now you can panic or you can savor the experience. Down on your knees I can take the load from you. You will be able to do things you couldn't do before, with my strength. You can see things with a different perspective, through my eyes. Don't you worry about hitting the ground. I will be your parachute. I will carry you to safety. Enjoy the fall." Falling doesn't always mean destruction.

Posted by Bluebirdy at 00:30 5 comments  

http://sonofmanproject.com/

To me, this is the most Holy week of the year, even more than Christmas.

May this easter season bring you new wisdom and peace;

and may the answers to your spiritual questions

be resurrected within your spirit,

as our Lord was resurrected, so that we all may be someday.

Blessings, Sheila

Posted by Bluebirdy at 15:20 5 comments  

MORE DRAMA?!?!?!

It seems like our house has something dramatic happens every other day, things that happen to most other people only once or twice in a lifetime. I'm trying to figure out if every one's life is this dramatic. On top of Mom's 5 week, day to day life and death battle, and my trip to court to get my husband here, and now wondering if I even have the physical strength to be a good wife, and our debilitating illnesses keeping us from doing even the basic survival things for each day...

4 days ago~ Mom was in a rush to go to a Dr. appointment. I had such a strong feeling about her driving so soon after being in the hospital, and asked her to please take a cab because I was too sick to drive, and when she refused, I just had the strongest feeling that something might happen, and just hugged her and said GO SLOW! I cried when she left, I was so scared. I don't get that scared very often. Maybe it was ESP or inspiration.

When she got home, she didn't tell me anything happened, then a few minutes later a policeman showed up at our door! It turns out that 2 teenage girls, seemingly spun out on drugs and giggling and trying to cross the street in a random place walked into the side of Mom's car when she was at a stop light. She opened the door to see if they were ok, they were on ground laughing hysterically, and she told them to get in and she would drive them home. They got in and were not hurt and were not limping or anything, and she took them where they wanted to go (McDonald's), but they must have called one of their moms and told them that a woman hit them while they were walking. I just don't know how they found Mom's identity so quickly.

No teenager would tell their parent that it was their own fault, because they often would fear the parents more than the police, and the mom probably thought this is a good chance to get some money from an auto insurance company, so she didn't skip a minute in getting the police over here to start court proceedings to try to sue Mom. As if she has the strength for a legal case! NOT!

Every cloud has a silver lining, so this silver lining...--Thanking the Lord that it was not a worse accident and that the car or Mom or the girls didn't get hurt!!) It seems the Lord is making these stresses that come up, as easy as possible.

Yesterday~ The freezer died overnight! We woke up to hundreds of dollars of food thawed out, melted sticky ice cream and other sticky stuff all the way down the fridge and on the floor. I tossed the food and cleaned up the front of the fridge, and called a repairman, then when he came, we cleaned behind the fridge, which had not been done for 10 years because we had no help to pull it out. It was thick with dust, but that's all. The repairman said others looked so much worse, with toys and bugs and even a dead mouse sometimes back there, and many treasures, thought lost forever, had been kicked under fridges. We had to scrape with a paint scraper and soak the floor with hot water to get all those years of stuck stuff and dust out. We also found out the fridge has wheels!!! The repairman loosened up the wheels so now we CAN move behind it to clean! We were pretty sure we would have to buy another used fridge, from what we had been told on the phone by the repair company, but the repairman just fixed the fan, and the cost was very little, and it was quickly fixed.

The silver lining...--that we even had the strength to clean up the mess, that we didn't have to buy another fridge, that the repairman left it BETTER than before, and that we were not taken advantage of by the repairman, like usually happens.

Today~we discover that my older, single (divorced) sister has decided on the spur of the moment to fly overseas ALONE to meet a person she met on an online dating site. *SCREAMMMM* Every law of safety and reason tells most people that this is not a safe thing to do! She believes everything he says he is, which could all be lies. I am trying to convince her to go with someone and to leave contact numbers and addresses with us in case something happens and we have to send the police to find her. I looked at the man's profile and I don't completely trust all that he claims to be. Even on the dating website itself, it has

"RULES FOR SAFE INTERNET DATING".
1. If you decide to meet someone, meet in a neutral place, preferably with someone to travel with you if you are a woman. Leave contact information with family, and take enough money with you so that if you need to get out of the situation quickly, you can.

My Mom (or I) really do not need the stress of worrying if her daughter will be returning alive or dead, or beaten up. We can't even go help her if she gets in trouble because we don't have a passport yet. I bet Mom won't sleep for a week. She is back on oxygen today, and I am trying to tell her to trust in the Lord or she will be back in the hospital. With stress, her blood sugar goes so high she goes unconscious. Often mine does too, but lately it hasn't happened very much, thank heaven.

The silver lining...~yet to be seen, but for me, already I feel so blessed to know the Lord, to feel his comfort and strength. Mom also knows the Lord, but we both know terrible things happen to good people, especially when they are careless.

Oh yes!! Yesterday we found out that Mom's regular Dr. of 30 some years who had gone out of the country for at least 6 months and was not expected to return due to him dying of cancer, has returned, and will take only a few patients back, Mom being one of them. This means I will have to find the strength to drive Mom out of town every week or 2, because she won't try to find a Dr. locally. This man is downright dangerous now, and is heavily medicated and makes some serious mistakes, so I don't want Mom to be treated by him anymore. The Lord will have to help me work on that one.

Silver lining~yet to be seen.

Some day this week, can't remember when, I discovered that the device I was going to have installed into our house to deter the "dirty electricity" http://www.emfsolutions.ca/radio_wave_sickness.htm that is making Mom and I sick, and making people sick who stay overnight for more than 1 night, is already installed into the house, (required by law) so we have to find some other way to remedy the situation, other than shutting off all modern electrical conveniences. There are SO many choices out there for protection from electro- magnetic frequencies (EMFs) for those who are becoming electrically sensitive, it has been quite an undertaking to research each gadget to see if it really works or is a scam. I was hoping so much that this would be a partial remedy. Even a 20% improvement in my strength would make me more functional and make every task easier.

Silver lining--I am learning tons about electricity and how it affects people and animals, I'm sure I can help others in the future with that knowledge. Even the WHO (World Health Organization) realizes this is a severe and debilitating problem.

I know my problems are not as bad as most people have. I know things could be so much worse. I am grateful for my many many blessings and the protection of the Lord. I just have not got the same stress-coping abilities that I used to have before the exhaustion and pain got unbearable, so I am searching for new methods of stress relief, as is everyone else in these hard times. Here is one with other related articles listed beneath the article.

6 Great Ways To Vent Your Frustration
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/six-great-ways-to-vent-your-frustrations.html

Hmm, no wonder I'm exhausted, since stress worsens lupus and my other conditions. Like everyone else, I am still a student practicing how to COMPLETELY relax and depend on the Lord and never worry about anything. Some of you have achieved it, I am still learning and practicing....and I do believe it takes practice to know how to recognize that feeling of peace that is so quiet and deep inside. Elijah sought the voice of the Lord in the thunder, and in the earthquake and in the fire, and in the wind, and he did not hear it, (1 Kings 19:11,12) but then after all of that, God's voice came as a still, small voice inside of Elijah. Most of the time the world and the worry and the pain and the noise around us prevents us from hearing that guiding, teaching voice, that comfort and strength, and that, to me, is also the voice of the Holy Spirit, and it takes practice to know if what you are "hearing" is coming from Him, from the adversary, or from your own thoughts. I am certainly further ahead in my faith and trust than I was a year ago, and I hope to continue to grow, until I can say, like the Lord, that I have overcome the world, and anything that can happen to me. May we all develop this skill, which will be needed more and more between now and the Lord's second coming.

Blessings,

Posted by Bluebirdy at 16:16 5 comments  

(Apologies that I can't embed the youtube videos here, after my daughter showing me how step by step, they will not embed here for some reason, so I can only supply the links for you to see them at youtube.com. When I tried to paste the embed codes, they showed up on the blog only as code, not as the video.)

There are a few hymns that have gone through my mind and heart again and again since I discovered my faith, at about 12 years old. This song has been the "soundtrack" of my life, my prayer to the Lord. This is the essence of who I am in every cell of my body and spirit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MnqpTv9yW4

Then in my young adult years when this song was written, it too became my goal in life, and who I wanted to become: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X23r4ATlUA

Here are the words to "Because I Have Been Given Much"

Because I have been given much, I too must give.

Because of thy great bounty, Lord each day I live.

I shall divide my gifts from thee with every brother that I see,

who has the need of help from me.
Because I have been sheltered, fed by thy good care

I cannot see another's lack and I not share-my glowing fire,

my loaf of bread-my roof's safe shelter over head,

that he too may be comforted.
Because I have been blessed by thy great love dear Lord,

I'll share thy love again according to thy word. I shall give love to those in need. I'll show that love by word and deed, thus shall my thanks be thanks indeed.

Then when my first husband of 20 years left me, and I had to leave my children in the USA as I fled home to Canada rather than being homeless in the USA, this song has carried me through.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HYKvrhtEdc

Do any of you have a hymn like that? One that is the "soundtrack" of your life? A spiritual song that comes back to you again and again throughout the years?

Blessings,

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