Watching Jane

I spent Wednesday afternoon with Jane, the 11-month daughter of a couple in my church. I wasn't quite sure how she would respond to me since I haven't spent much time with her but when I went to rescue her from her crib after her midday nap she greeted me with a broad smile. We had a grand time together even though I did all the talking. We played with toys, read books (with Jane turning the pages), looked out the window (the weather wasn't fit for a walk) and I tried to get her down for a nap. On the first attempt I didn't have enough milk in the bottle so her eyes popped open as soon as it ran out and she was up for another 45 minutes.

My time with Jane reminded me of several conversations recently with friends about God's love and grace. There is something about small children that is just precious. Even when I needed to correct Jane she was still precious. "No Jane, you don't want to stick your finger in the outlet... You don't want to eat my statistics book... You REALLY don't want to put the strap from my backpack in your mouth. It has been on the floor in some very dirty places..." I guess you could say that I corrected her simply to protect her and I wanted to protect her because she is so precious. She hasn't done anything to be precious. She just is and that's enough.

I think God looks at us in much the same way only more so. It's because we are so precious to him that he sets some limits, corrects us when needed and puts up some barriers to keep us from going where we think we really want to be. None of it comes out of condemnation as if he's impatiently waiting for us to get our act together. It's all out of love and grace. I'm precious to him and because of that he's looking out for me. That's something I need to hear this week.

The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing. 

Zephaniah 3:17

Anatomy lab practical 1

On the first day of anatomy lab the professor told us that he was giving us all the answers to the test. That sounds easy--until you remember you have to match the right answer with the right question. The "answers" for our first lab practical coming up on Tuesday are found on 18 pages, each with a list of 20 or so anatomical items. Our job on this test is to be able to identify the type of tissue (as seen through a microscope) or the specific bone (a physical model) as well as certain details on each. An example is in order.

The humerus is the bone in the upper arm. It is fairly easy to identify because it has a ball on one end that isn't as completely chiseled as the ball on the femur. The challenge is to remember the 13 items we need to not only identify on the humerus but also spell correctly. Some are rather easy; the ball is called the head. (Sounds very scientific, doesn't it?) Some are more difficult; the indentation on the back side of the bone on the elbow end is called the olecranon fossa. Add to that the coronoid fossa and the radial fossa on the front and there are three indentations to keep straight. It's actually not that bad - as long as one remembers that the olecranon process on the ulna attaches to the olecranon fossa on the humerus forming the pointed elbow and the radius is on the outside of the arm (when the palm is facing up). The fossa (indentation) that is left is the coronoid fossa, not to be confused with the coracoid which is on the scapula.

So that is about half of one bone down. Only 44 more to go. And we haven't even got to figuring out a way to remember what all those holes in the underside of the skull are called. Would that be the optic canal or the superior orbital fissure? Is that the foramen rotundum, the foramen ovale, the foramen spinosum or the jugular foramen? I'll assume that everyone could identify the foramen magnum (the BIG hole) since that's where the spinal column passes.

Long story short, I have my work cut out for me between now and Tuesday morning at 8 am.

A typical week

People often used to ask me what my typical day was like. I usually responded, "I don't have one." Days are more typical now and my week is definitely predictable as well.

Monday: I have class in the morning followed by some time in the Learning Center with the models for Anatomy to get ready for Anatomy lab on Tues morning. I usually go grocery shopping on Mon and spend the rest of the afternoon studying. If all goes well I get some exercise before it gets dark.

Tuesday: I have class from 8 to 11. By the time 10:30 rolls around I'm starting to eye the clock. I don't think any Anatomy teacher could hold my attention for that long as my brain is rather full at that point. I have another class at 2:30 but I have time to come home, eat and do some studying. It helps that I'm less than 10 minutes from school by bike. This past week was livened up by a sunset walk around Lake Harriet with a friend.

Wednesday: I have one class in the morning beginning at 9:45. The rest of the afternoon is mine to study. I'm part of a home group that meets at 6:00 and sometimes I need to prepare food in the afternoon.

Thursday: See Tuesday. My class schedule is the same except I don't have Anatomy lab at 8:00. That makes it easier to pay attention during lecture.

Friday: I don't have any classes on Friday which makes it a great day to do my volunteer work in the OT department at the hospital. I'm there from 8 to 12. This past week I began tutoring 8 students in French as part of a homeschool co-op. They are all studying French so my role is to help them with oral comprehension and speaking. The challenge will be working with numerous levels all at the same time. This will be every other week on Friday afternoon. The other weeks are a great opportunity for a long bike ride.

Saturday: This fall I'll be working security at the University of Minnesota home football games. Yesterday I was there for 8 hours which involved at least 6 hours of standing near an elevator in a premium seating section. My basic task was telling people where the bathrooms and water fountains were and advising them to take the stairs when the elevators were shut down to allow the coaches to get from the field to their boxes and vice versa. Things were slow enough that I was able to review some of my anatomy flash cards.

Sunday: I do my best to keep this a quiet day, or at least a day of no studying. Besides church I try to get together with some friends. It's often my only chance to read something for pleasure or to get out my guitar. Today I spent the afternoon with some extended family.

Labor Day

In my family Labor Day was always about laboring. Mom always had a list of things for us to do. I don't really remember the contents of the list but it was different from the usual Saturday cleaning. I think it probably involved washing some windows and doing some work in the garden.

In keeping with family tradition, I had a list of things for my parents to help me with when they came to visit this weekend. By the time they left this afternoon the apartment looked quite different. There are curtains at the dining room window hiding the view of the wall that is 2 yards away. There are pictures on the walls making it look much more homey and putting some color into our lives. I even figured out how to get out the screens and storm windows so two of the front windows could be washed.

Saturday we made two trips to Home Depot to figure out the best/most inexpensive way to add more counter and storage space to the kitchen. In the end we added 74 inches of workspace to the 21 inches we already had. Dad made numerous trips to the hardware store a couple of blocks away. They definitely recognized him by the end of the weekend. The other project was getting the basement store room organized and putting up a hook so one of our three bikes can be off the floor.

It wasn't all work and no play. Saturday afternoon we went to cousin Levi's football game at Bethel. Last year I went to a game but he stood on the sidelines in street clothes because of a knee injury. It was good to get to see him actually play and he was easy to spot being the only one on the defensive line with two knee braces. After the game we had a leisurely visit with cousins Janet and Eric complete with mint tea.