I may be guilty of blogging and running, but our weather has turned very gloomy, snowy and cold here for the past few weeks. This has inspired me to clean in the event the spring weather returns I will be free to go out and enjoy it.

But today I really felt compelled to comment on Terri Schiavo's  plight.

I am very happy with congress taking such swift action to save her and I pray the judge will do the same.

I am not against living wills. I really don’t want to see people kept alive using machines and every means possible while they suffer with no hope of survival. But that is not the case here. Terri is basically a very healthy woman.  Severely brain damaged, yes. But her body is strong and she maintains all of her bodily functions. There are no machines doing any work for her. There is nothing to unplug or turn off. There are no powerful drugs doing the work that your brain stem might normally perform

What they are doing there is making her sick. They are causing her to die. There is a fundamental difference there. This is not an end of life issue, it’s an issue of euthanasia on a woman who is not capable of stating her wishes. This situation has the disability community up in arms because we all know babies, children and even adults who use the very same type of feeding tube everyday.  For those who are mentally handicapped, what is to stop someone from removing their tube and starving them because they feel their life is not worth living with their current mental capacity? Nothing, really.

A couple of years ago a teen with cerebral palsy was found dead in his home, a victim of starvation.    Since my daughter can be very ill for long periods, I can understand how this could happen if the single mom of 4 had no help with her son. What I don’t understand is how he starved to death with out anyone in her extended family, friends, church, school, community not knowing she was in desperate need of some help. But my  point here is this mom went to jail for starving her son, which is of course as it should be, but then so should Michael Schiavo go to jail for starving his wife.

What is the difference?

We all say we would rather not be kept alive by machines and life support, but how many of thought they were including food and water as ‘life support’ ?

Christine is back at school today for the first time in a week! That's the good news. Bad news is Joseph threw up last night and is home as is Thomas complaining of a headache. I am most worried that Joseph has brought in yet another NEW viral bug. Will this ever end????

Yesterday  Christine had her ENT apt. The remaining T-tube was pulled out accompanied by large alligator tears.  Her ears look great so I am very grateful for that considering the number of sinus infection this year. My beloved Rhinoflow machine is not doing the trick this season for some odd reason and our ENT has recommended yet another nasal irrigator gadget.  He also mentioned in passing having her adenoids and tonsils out. I can see things progressing that way and I get the feeling he is just prepping me for it.  He knows me well.

A bright spot was seeing all the seeds  in the store while picking our lastest prescription!!!  Spring is such a hopeful season. Much more so then the New Year when everything outside is dead or fast asleep. In Spring all things seem possible again. Much more satisfying then the seeds and plants themselves are the dreams that  are inspired by planting them. The endless possibilities in a pack of seed is the true addiction of the gardener.

What a glorious day out today! One could almost imagine it was summer if you closed your eyes to block out the dead plant life everywhere. Though there is life under those dead leaves. Too delicate to uncover yet as I am sure we still have cold weather coming. There are a couple of brave species who have poked   their leaves up past the safety of the ground. It won’t be long and the gardens will be full of color again. It was a wonderful birthday gift to be able to sit in the warm sun and do some weeding in the herb garden and get to enjoy that heady scent of dirt and roots mixed with the aroma of herbs.

I am pretty sure I heard a robin singing off in the trees. I searched and searched but couldn’t see any.

We celebrated my birthday today as everyone in the family has been too sick to care much. Christine wasn’t able to go to the store for the shopping part as she is still recovering from her nasty cold, but when they all came home, she went in the house to help. I stayed out in the herb garden and every once in a while she would come out the back door with some party element to show me. J A balloon, a present she sat down and wanted to open, a birthday card which she did open and show me… then she would exclaim ‘Happy Birthday’ day…and  back into the house she went.

The boys all did a wonderful job decorating too. It looked as though the garden had exploded with color in the house! Lots of helium filled balloon and Jack had bought me tulips in bloom. It was definitely my kind of birthday party and of course I didn’t have to cook which it made all the better.