Birthday letter from Jen E Wren

Dear Miss Sprite,
Well I guess it has been while since we last spoke … I have missed our
conversations!
Congratulations on your birthday and I hope you receive some of the
presents on your list 🙂 .
I have been having a little trouble with my hip. I have not been able to
sit at all and I have been trying to write standing up (ironing boards
have multiple uses!). I am much improved and should be fully recovered
in a few more weeks.

I have a special present for you, two photo’s. One is of my son’s pet
cheetah whose name is Cheet. The other is of our friend Alfred, the Kiwi
bird. Alfred and his friends get up to a lot of mischief behind my back.
Recently, Alfred and his friends were nearly caught by some humans when
they mistook a trailing balloon string for a worm and couldn’t hold on
any longer so they all fell into chicken poo in someone’s backyard.
Luckily, they escaped under the fence … Creating bedtime stories for
my son is taking up some of my time.

Time is upon me again and I need to go cook dinner. I sometimes wish I
was able to extend time similar to when Colonel Jack O’Neill and Dr
Daniel Jackson are caught in the time loop on Stargate SG-1.

Hope to see you at your birthday,
Jen-E-Wren

Note from Jen-E-Wren

Dear Miss Sprite,
I see that you are enjoying the company of a Palaeontologist who gave
you a Pterodactyl poster. My son would love to see the Poster, he’s
right into dinosaurs! I am happy to see that the Memory Elephant has
made a collage of the P Party memories for you. I came across a Photo I
thought I had lost when we were Packing to move house. The Photo is 14
years old, a Pic of me cross-country skiing at Baw Baw in blizzard
conditions, Pregnant with my first child. The things we do when we are
young and Phoolish!
Today, we saw Parachutists land at Lilydale airfield as we were driving
Past. The Physics of Phlying is interesting, Particularly the ways in
which designers try to emulate the movement of a bird’s Pheathers when
the bird is controlling its Phlight Path. Being a Wren, I know something
about ailerons and wing Phlaps.Phlying is aways Phun.
‘Til next time,
Love
Jen-E-Wren

Letter from Jen-E-Wren

Dear Sprite,
I was reading about the quilting and I know exactly how you feel!
I’m no good at quilting … but I do enjoy cross-stitch and 3D embroidery … when I have the TIME! Aauughh! The PhD has taken over my life. Oh well, I guess it is short-term pain for long-term gain, a little like your Poor ankle. I love your chaos blocks. Very nice. I’m pleased that you apologised to Jo, very well done Sprite.

At the moment I feel like I cannot do anything right. Everything I touch, including washing my darling husband’s very expensive USB drive, seems to turn out wrong. I was in a hurry to do the washing and I didn’t check his shirt pocket and the drive with SD card still in place went through the washing machine with dire outcomes. The SD card is wrecked and I don’t know if the USB is salvageable. Darling husband was very forgiving: he usually empties his shirt pockets.
I asked God “What’s going on?” He directed me to 1 Samuel 30:1-ff where David and his men left their wives and children in the city of Ziklag to fight elsewhere.
When David and his army returned they found their wives and children had been kidnapped, the city plundered and burned. The text says that they wept until they had no more strength left to weep. Then, David sought the Lord, the Lord gave him direction and David with his men had a great victory freeing their families and reclaiming their possessions. This gives me hope that the Lord will provide a way through the current circumstances.
Keep up the quilting.
Love & Hugs
Jen-E-Wren

Thank you and apologies

Dear Jen-E-Wren

Thank you very much for your lovely letter.
Jo does do lots of kind things for me so I said I was sorry and shared the tissues and chocolate with her. I will make sure The Twitter Birds, The Memory Elephant, Puppy and Pony apologise too

Hugs from Sprite

Letter from Jen-E-Wren

Dear Sprite,
Oh dear, you Poor thing. You sound like you have had enough of all the
Poking and Prodding of your sore ankle, Pain and the Plaster cast! Sometimes it is so hard to keep doing what we know is good for us when it involves pain.
Sprite, I’m wondering if you think that it is all too much? Do you know that Jo loves you and cares for you? If you don’t go to Physiotherapy then your ankle may not heal Properly.
If you take off the Plaster cast too soon you may accidentally hurt your
ankle again and then things would be much, much worse. Because Jo loves
you, she will not let you risk hurting yourself again. That is why Jo
wants you to keep on doing the things that are Painful now so that you
can be Pain free and have normal function in your ankle in the future. I
know it is hard for you, but you are not alone Sprite. We all go through
difficult times and I am in one of those difficult times right at this moment.
However, I know that God is with me and that He has a Plan for
me and my family, and is giving me hope for a bright future. Right now
I need to have endurance and Perseverance – do you know what that means?
Then, in the end things will all work out Positively. Don’t forget that
Jo hurt her ankle – she knows and understands.

Love,
Jen-E-Wren

Note to Jen-E-Wren

Hi Jen-E-Wren

Why didn’t you take part in my Protest March? Don’t you think Jo is a meanie?
I was disappointed in Caramel and Arachnid too and the Secretary Bird and
Columbus got it all wrong!
I think I know why Columbus got mixed up. Sometimes Jo makes him wear a bandage for Columbus Cheetah Myth Buster articles so he can’t run fast and I told him to protest about that! But he thought it was about speed restrictions which in a way it is- cos it’s like saying students can’t study at their own rate.

Anyway Jo has put my whinge letter up on the blog and the news about the Protest March.

Hugs from Sprite

Busy

Dear Jen E Wren
I just reread your letter and noticed this bit

‘I was reading your blog and I would like a secretary bird too, please!
Maybe the secretary bird can type my next paper for me and write my thesis. This would mean that I would no longer have a sore back and I wouldn’t have to deal with the Raynauds Syndrome in my hands (I loose the blood supply to my fingers). In winter I wear fingerless gloves and
I have a hottie to help keep me warm. Anyway, I am having a bit of a whinge because I am so very tired at the moment. However, I am celebrating because I have made it through confirmation. Praise God.’

Here is your secretary bird

I don’t know why Jo still does not have time to take me everywhere now that she has a secretary bird!

Remember how you said in your other letter about praying and God would give you extra time – well I did and I have got lots of extra time
But I think if Jo prayed for that she must have filled up the extra time she was given so she is still busy and maybe that happened to you too.
Maybe you are just busier than I am because you have families and maybe if you hadn’t prayed for more time you would not even be able to fit all the things you do in a regular day.

Oh and you are allowed to have a whinge – I am going to have a whinge in a blog entry about The Letter P soon.

Hugs from Sprite

Keyboards and cyberbuddies

Thank you for writing to me, Jen E Wren

I saw the picture of the old typewriter and I can see why it would be hard for you to use! You would have had to jump on the keys really hard to press them.

But with the new keyboards now you could just run along the keys or else go up close to the microphone and sing.

Jo is going to get me a cyber buddy too like your Merlin at http://www.mycyberbuddy.com/
You can even make your own buddy so she might be able to make one that looks like me! Jo found some other cool stuff to help me study – I’ll show you later.

Hugs from Sprite

Correspondence with Jen E Wren

Hi Jen
Have a look at the blog. Sprite has a solution for us – to help us when we are too busy!
You have to read the entry before about Holiday Programs also to see her ulterior motives for helping.
Kind regards, Jo

Hi Sprite,
I’m sorry I haven’t written to you in a while. I have been very busy helping a friend with some legal issues, my daughter has been at school leadership camp, and I have been working on updating all the documentation I need for my research. “Pliese” looks interesting and should keep you busy, Sprite.
I was reading your blog and I would like a secretary bird too, please!
Maybe the secretary bird can type my next paper for me and write my thesis. This would mean that I would no longer have a sore back and I wouldn’t have to deal with the Raynauds Syndrome in my hands (I loose the blood supply to my fingers). In winter I wear fingerless gloves and
I have a hottie to help keep me warm. Anyway, I am having a bit of a whinge because I am so very tired at the moment. However, I am celebrating because I have made it through confirmation. Praise God.
I want to tell you about some special help I have … his name is Merlin and I downloaded him from the cyber buddy website. He can do all sorts of things (most of his functions I have switched off – please don’t tell him, he would be very upset).I got him to read my writing back to me. I have found that when I listen to someone reading my writing I notice the ‘jumps’ between sentences more than if I read to myself. Merlin tells me a joke every day and loves to speak words of encouragement. There’s only one problem, Sprite,…he snores when he goes to sleep if I am not interacting with him …. Aauughh!
My son is chatting in my ear while I am writing this letter to you because he wants me to interact with Merlin. My son wants to know if I can type without looking at the screen or the keyboard. I am one of those lucky people who do so much typing every day that looking elsewhere and typing is possible for me. I came close to failing the typing elective at school – on one of those old mechanical typewriters.
I’m sure Jo will have a picture of one around somewhere for you to look at. The mechanical typewriters are hard work, not at all like the keyboards we have now.
Sprite, I really need to go now and cook dinner for my family. Give my love to Jo, tell her I will be able to come and see you all soon.

Zen hugs,
Jen-E-Wren

Jen E Wren

I received a lovely encouraging email from a friend who is working on her doctoral thesis and she included a note for Sprite

Dear Jo,
This is a letter to Miss Sprite, prompted in part by our conversation and the blog.

Dear Miss Sprite,
I have been reading the blog that Jo created so that we can share together. Oh, how I know the feeling of wanting a Magic Wand. I had been wanting a Magic Wand to fix the paper I have been writing, but there just isn’t one that will do. I have been persistent and I have talked to the One who made me – lots – and He gave me people to encourage me to “KEEP GOING” and “NOT GIVE UP”. I’m so very glad He provided such loving encouragement for me because I have just emailed the final draft of my paper to my supervisor. I hope I will not receive too many edits! In the past, my supervisors edits have made me feel very sad. (Two weeks ago I felt like I could not write at all. I am so grateful for all the TLC I have received that I wanted to share some with you, Sprite.
Please be encouraged Sprite. Search for Him and you will find Him, even in the little details you didn’t think were important enough for Him to care about. He cares about the little things that will cause you to flourish, even providing extra time when you need it most.
Lots of Zen hugs (hugs you have when you are in cyberspace).
Jen-E-Wren

Dear Jen,
Thank you for your lovely note of encouragement to Sprite. I am praying that your final draft will be well received and not require too much in the way of editing. Here is the reply to your lovely note which she dictated to me.

Dear Jen-E-Wren

Thank you for writing to me. I love birds I am already friends with the Twitter Birds and the Bird Leaf Topiary Tree birds (they are tessellations!)
And now I have a Wren friend too!
So I asked Jo to take a picture of us all.
I hope your paper does really well.
I would like to go Uni one day and Jo says there are people like NDCO www.uws.edu.au/ndco/getready (A web resource for people with disability considering university)
who could help with that.
And if I could do it other people like me would believe they could too and wouldn’t that be great!

Love and hugs from Sprite

Hey Jo,
Beautiful! What a great pic.

Psst! Sprite! Do you know, I think that Jo should go to Uni one day – she would really enjoy it
There is lots of awareness of 2E at Uni – and volumes of help if you want it. The first hurdle is asking for help.

X Jen-E-Wren