Ending, beginning, all of it

Ending, beginning, all of it
First of all, I'm so thankful. I have a safe home, I have family, I have a job. I have health insurance and supportive people around me.

I also have eyes. And I see that people around me are struggling so hard with all of this. And a heart. I see that people around me are hurting, and scared, and lonely. And that people are dying and sometimes the only reason they are dying is because someone else was selfish. And I have a brain, that knows we are in a trying time with a terribly trying government.

And then I found out that someone who was a great friend in high school and even in college has maybe had a stroke. And I had lost touch with him and didn't even know. That makes me sad.

On a home note, we made it through finals, and house prep and the house goes on the market on Friday. We are moving to a smaller town in another state. I'll miss South Carolina. But I think this is a good move for both of us.

I also am reminded that I HATE putting a house on the market. I think we need a new real estate trend - not "dorm room" but less than "showroom". Something along the lines of clean but normal.  I mean, does anyone keep their counters TOTALLY empty all the time? How the hell do you get anything DONE?
The dogs are already so over this whole process, it's pretty funny.

Interesting Times

So...we live in interesting times, to say the least. It hasn't even been 6 months since the world saw the emergence of the COVID 19 virus, and yet life is now terribly and terrifyingly different than it was even 2 months ago.
2 months ago, I was at a conference in Atlanta, sharing space with LOTS OF PEOPLE and having an amazing time.
1 month ago, I was back from a trip to our soon to be new area and thinking about mortgages and offers and all that.
Then it all changed. Now I leave the house only a few times for a very specific and isolated purpose, and never to a store. DH has taken over that part. I do my ministry virtually and by phone, I video chat with friends and try to keep the peace with 2 college age kids, a husband, and 2 dogs who are just really ready for this to be done.
I have found, however, that listening to daily prayer podcasts are a blessing. I try to listen to morning prayer and compline each day. I'm trying to do yoga each day.
I also spend a lot of time playing words with friends and solitare on my phone. And thinking "I should really get something done". Reader, she doesn't.
This is hard, but I can do hard things. I just don't want to somedays.
Today our plan is to work on the house, doing the things we can do. Outside contractors will have to wait. But the sun is shining, I am blessed to be able to withstand this time in all the ways, and I can pray and help in other ways for those who cannot. For those who will not, I pray even harder.

Also, I packed up almost all of my knitting before all of this hit. So it's in a POD somewhere in our soon to be new place. Really? Timing is everything.

Well good gravy

I am the worlds worst blogger.
Still working. Still enjoy my job, although there are stressors at play right now that make it more stressful than before. Trying to keep your eyes on a future goal to make present hassles worth it is a lot easier to do for 8 months than it is for 2 years or more.
Oldest is now graduating from college. That's fun, and he's off to seminary in the fall, which is awesome.
Middle has had a rough college year. We pulled him from his residential college after the 1st semester and he is attending community college. I still agonize over if that was the right decision. But while academically he was fine, emotionally he was a wreck in seriously unhealthy ways.
Youngest still needs to finish Eagle project. Plus get some get up and go.
I've started knitting again, which is good.
I also managed to lower my Cholesterol by 30 points in 6 months and raise my good Cholesterol numbers. Yea me!
I'm also starting that phase of life where grouchiness is a mainstay. I've never suffered fools well, and I do so even less well now.
Maybe i'll get back into this whole posting thing....

Heh. Look. Over a year. I kinda forgot about the whole blog thing because of the whole new job thing. Which is wonderful, and amazing, but keeps me very, very, busy.
It's for a good sized church in a affluent community. Lots of kids (that's my job) to wrangle - Sunday School, choir, Bible studies and so much more. I've been here a year now and I really do love it.
The oldest is in his second year of college. Loves it for the most part. He's an RA. Doesn't love that so much.
Middle is doing well, junior in high school. Still loves art. Thinking of majoring in English.
Youngest is still playing flute. Doing marching band. Which I love that he loves, because it drives me bat crazy. Boy scouts...eagle project time approaches.
Husband still at same job, but not enjoying it as much.
Dogs still dogs.
More later...but not a whole year later, I hope.

Pops head up, says hello!

Life has been hectic this summer. Oldest graduated (goes to college on Friday) and wrecked my car a few days post graduation. He was fine, car was totalled. So new car - actually truck- for husband and I took the smaller car. It makes sense because I drive the furthest to work, and it gets WAY better gas mileage, but we needed something to pull the boat!

Youngest did Boy Scout Camp, middle did drama camps, I worked. DH worked in June. No idea where in the world July went.

Now, it's back to school for everyone. Well, not me, but everyone else. I never stopped working so there's no re-starting. In fact I worked more this summer than I had planned on. Ugh.

I did get to go to a wonderful children's ministry conference - it was held here, which was awesome, and I learned so much.

We just got back from a quick trip to see the inlaws, it was fun, but I'm worn out.

I promise to be better about posting, if anyone still cares :)

Time Warp Tuesday

So, as I am frantically cleaning the carpet in my house because we have two dogs and I have a meeting here tonight, I was thinking about when I was growing up - we had cats. Cats do not put huge muddy footprints all over your carpet. Cats might leave you dead things on the porch, but you don't have to steam clean a porch. Besides, we always had cool cats. Growing up, we had a black and white cat who was part siamese, part alley cat. His howls once scared off someone who had broken in our house because he sounded like a baby crying. He died, and my mother swore she was going to get one, beige, female cat.

 We ended up with two, black and white male litter mates. Boots (on the left) and Spats (on the right). Boots because he had white boots, and spats because he looked like he was wearing them.

They were loving brothers their whole lives. Boots was so big and rather fierce towards the neighborhood dogs. They would walk AROUND him on the sidewalk. Spats would lay on top of the fridge, hang over one corner and look like a gargoyle. We also trained them to dance for treats, and they loved the little sticky octopus things that would walk down a wall. They were great cats.

They also would do things like jump on the table, or rub the ribbon edge of a blanket on their teeth (right next to your ear), leave me dead things on the porch while I was running to catch the bus in high school, meow to go out and come in (They were indoor/outdoor - out as they desired during the day but in at night). They did love this scratching post - and would sleep in it often. 

When they were older, my brother moved back home and brought his two cats. A large, white, dumb cat named Turbo, and a small, multicolored pscyho cat named Shadow. Boots and Spats tolerated them, but they definitely still ruled the roost. 

Spats died first, and then boots later on. My mother spoke about getting a kitten, but never did. We tend to have long lived cats in our family, and I think she was worried it would outlive her. 

I really want a cat. My youngest really wants a cat. Instead, I have two boxer/hound mixes, who are loving and wonderful in their own way, but I really, really want a cat. Or actually, what I really want is my cats, back again. 

Mid Terms

So this week is mid terms at the high school. So I have two rather stressed young men.
They will survive and so will I, I think.

Just a quick note to say I'm here, we are all done with Christmas, although I keep finding decorations that I forgot about - like the santa in my window.

It's going to be one of those weeks, meetings every night and then a seminar to give on Sunday. WOWZA.

Nothing too new to add. Tomorrow I'll have a post up about time warp tuesday, sponsored by Jenn at Juggling life. Oh, wait, we did get to go out to dinner with another couple this weekend - wife birthday dinner, at a very nice downtown restaurant. I had salmon on goat cheese grits and some green leafy thing. Very good, but oh so pretentous. The creamer for our coffee? Silver, wedge shaped and didn't hold but a smidgen of cream. Funny. Good food though. And fun to be grownups.

For today, it's raining. We need it, so I'm not whining, but it's also like 65 degrees. Which is just too weird for words. And my dogs don't like the rain. The bigger one looks at you like you have done this on purpose just to torture him.

Well, off to work I suppose. My enthusiasm this morning is a bit lacking. But I must go, and then come home and frantically clean for a meeting here tonight. I've already cleaned the carpet to get the dog footprints up. That should last about a day.

Time Warp Tuesday

The picture on top is from the first time we went skiing in Germany. This is when we were leaving to go home - train to Munich, then flight to Sicily. The bottom picture is out the window of our cabin we stayed in at the military resort. We managed to get the same cabin two years in a row. My kids are so much taller now - and so much fun, even now. 

We miss, miss, miss going to this place every year. It was our post Christmas tradition - my husband could never get leave over Christmas, so we'd take it the week after, and go skiing for a week. We'd stay in these cabins, not in the hotel, because it was much cozier - and far less people. We didn't go a gazillion places when we lived overseas, but I think we wrote a good story when we allowed this tradition to develop for the kids, and for us. It let us get to know a place a little bit deeper. 

Time Warp Tuesday

My Dh and I were talking yesterday morning about how we really, down the road, want to buy a large amount of land out in the country and have horses, etc... That was what we really wanted when we moved here but it just wasn't going to happen - between the bank, available properties and reality of three teens or almost teens...
I've always loved horseback riding. Started when I was quite young at a friends "gentleman's farm" in Virginia when I was about 6. They put me on a horse and about 4 hours later I reluctantly got off. This picture looks like it was taken when I was about 7 or so, and had been riding Dolly (the horse) for awhile. Dolly was an older horse, very gentle, and who only occasionally stood me in the cow pond for ten minutes at a time.
Riding horses taught me so many things, not the least of which was a love of riding. Because it was a farm, with lots of open space, as soon as Mr. T said I was ready, he taught me how to gallop. There is nothing like that feeling in all the world. I can close my eyes, see the empty cow pasture ahead of me and remember that feeling. I wish I could recapture that feeling.

The farm also had chickens ( I Loved collecting eggs), and a fabulous old farmhouse (used as a guesthouse - people built their houses on plots of land up on the surrounding hills/mountains and shared the farm land communally). The farmhouse had been two houses actually and connected by some former owner. So you had this huge barn like room inbetween that was HUGE. And it had a great little farm kitchen, and a little room they used as a library - read Wuthering Heights there for the first time. And there was always a little scuttering of mouse feet when you turned on the lights in the kitchen! Heady stuff for a suburban girlie like me. I loved it. Still do, even though our friends are gone and I haven't been there in probably 20 years. Still, we  drive by it on our way up to see my family (I'd see the town name on a sign) and think I'd love to go and just see. But sometimes memories are sweeter than reality.
Thanks to Jenn at Juggling Life for Time Warp Tuesday! Next week, I think I'll do some kiddo ones :)

Cough, Cough, Sneeze

So now 3/5 of us have some version of a cold. Blech. And the weather is being terribly indecisive. Pick one. Warm or Cold. I'm good with either, although I prefer cold.
Tree up and almost done. Still have to add snowflakes. Tree generally looks like this:

Snowflakes made by my Grandmother - a tree is not complete without them. The Angel needs some work before I can put her up there this year. And this is the year I need to restarch some snowflakes. But still. Now to figure out what I still need to buy. 

And to send out cards. Because I get to say my oldest son is going to college! I'm so excited! 

Time Warp Tuesday

Okay, thank you over to Jenn at Juggling Life I am reminded that it is Tuesday and time to look back for a bit.  The last week of November/First week of December is a tricky one. Dad's birthday, Parent's Anniversary, and Dad's death all cluster around this. He died in 1991, a few months after I got married. This is my Dad, probably in the 70's - the anti smoking literature in the front, and the lovely tape recorder he is holding. He worked for a medical association, and did a lot of special projects. I remember being paid 25 cents a survey to tally a survey of Physicians on breast cancer. Learned how to do mean, median and mode, let me tell you.

This is one of his medals from WW2. He enlisted in the Navy and then went through Officer training to become an officer during WW2. He went to college on the GI bill. His people were poorer than church mice. 

We giggled when we found this in his papers. My DH's folder of this type looks EXACTLY the same. 

And here's his youngest daughter (me) starting college at his alma mater. I think he was pretty thrilled that I chose to go there. I think he was even more thrilled that I graduated in 4 years !!! This was taken in the summer/fall of 86. Where the HECK have those legs gone?????

Service Members and the Holidays

So here's the deal. If you send a card to Any Recovering Soldier, it will never, ever, get where it would do some good. Please don't fall for that hoax.
Instead, send them here:
Holiday Mail for Heroes by the Red Cross

OR perhaps you'd like to donate funds - there are lots of good places to donate funds, but since the title is Service Members, here are three related to that...
Fisher House - Kind of like Ronald McDonald houses, but for military families
and
Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society
And
The USO - they do more than you think!

If you have links to Army/Air Force/ Coast Guard relief societies, please let me know.

Now, off to figure out where the tree is going this year....

Time Warp Tuesday

So This is my Mom and Dad. They aren't holding me - or any of my siblings- but my cousin. My mother had such killer legs! This is fairly soon after they were married. They did not marry young. My father had a birthday, got a PHD and got married all in the same week. They had me, the last of their kids, when my mother was 40, so my siblings are all older than I am by a good many years. Still, we had a good time growing up, and having slightly older parents meant that I had a little different perspective of things. Like hearing about the Great Depression, World War 2, etc. from my Parents, not my Grandparents. My father passed away about 3 months after I was married. My mother died in 2011.  I love this picture because they look so YOUNG!!! 

Thank you to Jenn at Juggling Life for inspiring me this morning! 

Thanksgiving, already?

I can't believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Not that we do anything major - we don't usually travel, just because of the hassle, but if TG is almost here, that means Advent is close behind. And I love the Advent season. Even the obscure advent hymns...well, not all of them.

I have been asked to lead a one hour training seminar on Children's Ministry for a district training for my denomination (sounds fancier than it is, really) in January. I'm both thrilled and terrified. I also found a conference I want to attend on Christian Education.

In some catalog we received (because it is THAT season again) there is a sweatshirt that says something along the lines of 'Agenda for the day: Let dog in, let dog out, let dog in, let dog out". I am seriously tempted. When I am home, the dogs are worse than cats - or children- in the door, out the door, in the door, out the door.

It is cold here, all of the sudden cold. I love cold, sunny days. Not a big fan of cold, drizzly days like yesterday - just rain all at once, would ya?

And if you are in the south, and not easily offended by a few curse words (nothing too awful) this video is hysterical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUFL2GT1-2g&feature=youtu.be

I really don't want to go to work today. Everyone I work with will feel the opposite way I do about the election, and I don't really want to hear about it. But I will keep my mouth shut and just do my job...because I'm not going to change their minds, and they sure as all aren't going to change mine.

Here are the Halloween Pumpkins - carved by me with a minimum of slicing of the fingers....

The Tardis

 The Tardis unlit

A Good Picture of the TARDIS 

PIKACHU!!! 

In which I ramble theologically

So, one of the lectionary verses this week is Mark 10 46-52. The last line says "Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made you well." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way." (from Vanderbilt http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=225#hebrew_reading) 

What struck me was the "followed him on the way". He took the healing and he followed the one who healed. I've been healed so  many times, of so many things, but often I trail off on my own little way, not simply following. Not trusting. 



I'm having a rough time of it lately. I am floundering and flaling and walking through a grief road I thought I had already traveled. Psalm 34 is another part of the readings this week, and verse 6 was so appropriate this morning I laughed out loud. "This poor soul cried, and was heard by the LORD, and was saved from every trouble."  I don't think this is saying I won't have any trouble in life, or that if I believe in God that all manner of good fortune will descend upon me. I think it means that when a soul cries out in anguish, often of our own making or imagination, that even then God will not desert that soul - that soul will be saved. Not always in the way we think ought to happen, but always in the way God sees as best. That peace, and soemtimes joy, can creep in when we think we have just cried out our last tear. 

Enough theological rambling for one morning. Of course, your interpretations may vary. And mine proabably will in another day or two when I'm a bit out of this valley. Because of course, valleys look different looking down into them then looking out from the bottom. 

Socks, staying up till midnight, sunshine

Wow. Alliteration. I must be tired.
Socks - got aggravated and started over. It's not bad, because I need the practice in all the pattern stitches. The second try looked much better than the first, so the third? Will be awesomesauce as my kids say. And they are just sample ones, made on worsted weight yarn, so it isn't like anyone is *waiting* on them!

Staying up till Midnight was NOT the socks. It was the Senior (look! Another S) who was struggling, struggling with a paper. We worked on it for about 5 hours together - I was scribe, editor, and thesaurus all rolled into one.
Midnight - or shortly thereafter - it was done, and then he realized he had not annotated the bibliography. I was getting his brother up early anyway so I just dragged him out of the bed as well. His brother had been struggling with an art project that needed more work. Today he gets to work on projects - 4 of them - that he had neglected to tell us about.

It is sunny today, and lovely fall weather. I had stuff to do in the morning but then came home and took the dogs for a walk. It was so wonderful - the sky is that amazing blue it becomes in the fall.

Now I am watching the clock because I have to take middle kid to therapist today. Mostly I want to go to bed.

Socks

Update on the socks. I do fine until I finish the heel flap and get ready to start the legs. I somehow got all turned around and inside out and now my socks are not going as designed.
I just couldn't get the whole pick up a stich and knit them together thing....I somehow didn't do it right. I am dreading it, but I think i have to start over.

HIPAA

Just finished designing presentation for work about HIPAA. That's the privacy act stuff. It's very interesting and kind of terrifying all at the same time.

For doctor offices it is seen as a burden - BUT the presenter I went to made a good point - we may not all be doctors, but we are ALL patients.

A few nuggets - your doctor's office owns your record, but you have a right to that record. They cannot prevent your obtaining a copy even if you owe them money, but they can charge you a reasonable fee for copying. Oh, and you can amend your record - they don't have to agree with you, but you can insert a document saying you disagree with doctor if you want to.

Both parents, unless court ordered, have a right to medical records of minor children no matter who has primary custody.


Thus endeth the lesson.

It's cloudy, cool and drizzly today. A perfect day to sit home and knit. I actually am starting on socks. Toe up ( thank you SC), two at a time. Doing the sample socks at the moment (for the second time - had to totally rip out first try) and finished the heel of one of them last night. AND IT LOOKS LIKE A REAL SOCK. I am so pleased.

I also have a scarf to finish, two small backpacks to make, and dishcloths to do.

But no, now I have to go to work. Ugh. And the college fair is tonight. But oldest has big paper to do - don't know if we will go or not.

Fall

So, knock wood, I think I am over the trifecta of bronchitis, sinus ick and ear infection.
Although I still would like to crawl in the bed for about a week.

Have actually finished two, count em' TWO, knitting projects in less than a month. Am now working on my third. Actually the fourth one I started, only the dogs got ahold of one (not the first time) and while they didn't ruin it directly, they did break the knitting needles (acrylic - cute as all get out but a pain in the nevermind to knit with) into more than two pieces. So that one is demanding a restart. I actually logged into my ravelry account, and even posted pictures. The world, it may end soon.

Work is busy. and boring. and busy.

Oldest is in the throes of college applying and all that. Took the ACT again but only went up one point. He was so upset.

It's fall, I want to go apple picking but have no idea when I could actually find the TIME. Sigh. I also am in the mood to bake, to knit, to do anything but go to work. Gotta fix that somehow :)