Holding Life Loosely or Change Happens

And a wonderful Good Morning to all you loved ones following this blog! Isn't it great the way the Lord made families...we can each be the other's adoring fan.

I'm sitting at Sheryl's computer; Jonathan is in the den on the couch with Cinammon, and Bookie is curled up on his mat at my side. Toby and Whispy accompanied their mama to Lexington KY for Thanksgiving.

Now that we're all accounted for, I'll quickly recap the last few months of my life.

God in His grace and mercy allowed me to spend some quality time with Chris, Hannah and Duncan before they moved to Texas. We got a phone call one morning saying that one of my kids was in the hospital, so Scott bought me a ticket to fly up here to IN. After hanging out a bit, I decided to stick around and Sheryl offered me her home! There you have it.

Daniel and I had a plan worked out whereby I'd chip in for gas and he'd take me to get my things on his way to Florida with Jonathan. But his vehicles are not reliable and he's rethinking that plan. I may not be able to go get my stuff just yet. I'm considering asking Monica and Jessica to put what they can up in the attic. Maybe the next resident of my little room can use the bed and dresser. Sounds like a pran, eh?

Anyone out there like change? How about lots of change in a short time? I'm not talking about loose change jingling around in pockets. I'm referring to being all settled in somewhere with friends and a schedule and in the time it takes to blink your eyes POOF!!!! you've been transported not only far away but back in time. Major Déjà Vu.

I'm just furnishing a peek into my world here...not trying to win a writing contest. Within one day, I go from Hannah and Chris's apt. in Georgia to Indiana, sharing Louise's little aerie next to Jonathan's room. After a week and a half, the dust settled and I realized that I wanted to stay near Jonathan and Louise but that I needed a place to live. Sheryl came to the rescue and now I'm an official part of her household. There are three doggies and two ladies...we temporarily have Cinammon, as Sheryl offered to train her for Daniel.

Guess what? Louisey just knocked on the door and now both of my sweet grown kiddoes are with me this morning. I'd better go gird my loins for action (cooking). To be continued...

As Usual

As usual today has had its highs and lows (and it's only 8:20 AM).

I spent lovely hours with Duncan last night and this morning as Chris was leaving for work remembered that I'd been scheduled for childcare at the House of Prayer yesterday. I was a 'no show'. Man, I HATE being undependable. So I took Chris to work this morning at 5, came over here to Monica's house and emailed Kayla bowing out of IHOP childcare til next year. Duncan's all the childcare I can handle at the moment.

Then I read Josiah's latest blog entries. What can I say? Words can't express the fullness of my heart as I watch my son grow in the Lord.

I had lots more to write about, but I got called away and forgot it all. Sigh. Old age.

A copy of my letters to Josiah and Jonathan

This morning I made myself a cup of coffee and took it downstairs to check my email. I sat down and put the coffee near the mousepad and turned the computer on. You know how I keep fingernail files, glasses, clippers, pens, etc in a coffee cup to the right of the computer? Well, my little pinkie fingernail needed filing, so I got the nail file from its cup and filed away. When I was all finished, I put the fingernail file (the emory board type, not a metal one) back in the cup like a neat, tidy little mama. Trouble is, I put it into the wrong cup. Anyone need a soggy nail file?
PS Yep, I still drank my coffee.

I'm going to write something on this blank screen..."too much to resist", to quote Hannah. I'm sitting at the diningroom table at Monica's house chatting with Hannah. She's telling me about her morning.

She got up from her bed this morning slowly, and realized that doing things slowly is better. When she does things at a normal pace, she gets dizzy. She blacks out. She's taking blood pressure medicine because of her supposed high blood pressure, but if her bp is normal now, that medicine might be making her bp even lower. Boomere (French for "Bummer").

This morning's been good; Monica told me that she wants to use the rocks in my rock garden out front. So I rolled the rocks out from amongst the creeping Jenny and got them ready for their new home. I pulled up the soybean plants and old cantaloupe vines and raked the soil so grass can grow there again. I emptied out all the water containers I'd collected all summer and tidied up the back deck. Is Monica going to be happy!

Now Hannah is reading devotions to me. She's so tired. She dreamed that she was in Guatemala with Josiah, Louise and Jonathan and her Daddy. It was a family affair; she had candy. They were like siblings growing up; Josiah was mad at her for something and it was like olden days sibling time. Chris Thompson was in her dream too...she's dreamed about him twice lately. So we prayed for Chris and family. He's getting married to Gaby soon.

She read about conies being a feeble folk but living in cliffs; she realized that she can be a feeble folk and live in the Cliff. Also that it does no good thinking about her next pregnancy and trying to fix all the problems ahead of time.

Life is good.

This morning has been interesting. Chris needed to be at work (the Panera on Lawrenceville Suwanee near my house) by 5 AM. Hannah wasn't able to visit Peanut yesterday, so we thought maybe I could run Chris to work and we'd have the car this morning to go visit him early. Knowing I had to be up and read to leave by 4:40, I drank water during the night and managed to be wide awake at 3!

On the way to Panera, I regaled Chris with the story of the Poptun property purchase. He was sitting in the passenger seat eating his banana honey bread, and I was driving. Every once in a while he'd say something like, "This is your exit" or "Turn right here". I was so into my story that I had my driving skills set to automatic pilot (ie...I'd disengaged my brain). Yikes. A cord of three strands isn't easily broken, and in this case the Lord, Chris and I managed to get unbroken to work just fine.

After I dropped him off I drove by my house where I planned to check email and pick up my curling iron. Although I forgot the curling iron, I was able to call Danielito in Muizenberg and wish him a Happy Birthday. He's such a doll...we had the longest conversation yet, with him responding at all the right places. I'd say something or sing a phrase of "Happy Birthday to Daniel" and when I paused, he'd make an appropriate noise. Such a clever little fellow.

Next I drove by Bank of America where I deposited the check Rickie gave me. Thank you so much for the money You provide through her, Lord. It allows me to be here.

I came back to the apartment and piddled around getting ready for bed. I figured I had three more hours of sleep to enjoy before I officially started my day with Hannah. Lying on my pallet on the livingroom floor I prayed and chatted with the Lord and floated in and out of dreamland. One of my dreams was that I was sitting beside a hole in the ice waiting for something to pop its head up. I said, "I'll just wait and see what comes." Then I got a picture of waiting beside a watering hole waiting to see what came. I remembered the youtube video that Monica showed me; a camera had been set up near a water trough in what appeared to be desert-like surroundings. The animals that came to drink tripped the camera and their likenesses were captured. I saw a mountain lion, a wild boar, another small wildcat and all sorts of other critters. The final picture was of a couple of thirsty Mexican men.

OK...those thoughts were going through my mind, and I turned to look out the window at the lightening sky when I saw the tiniest little black dot lowering itself over the chair where Hannah sits. What a cute little spider! I considered grabbing Hannah's good camera to take its picture and remembered that her flash didn't work. Maybe if I turned on the lamp behind the chair I could provide enough light. When I did, I saw that the tiny cute spider was a larger not-so-cute one whose limbs were light in color (therefore invisible to me in the dark). It had let itself down from the vent in the ceiling and had landed on the chair where Hannah spends hours per day... I switched from 'let's take his cute little picture' mode to 'GET him!!' when I saw what he really looked like. I swiped at him with a kitchen towel and missed! Another swipe covering a wider area also missed. I know this because I searched diligently for his remains on the towel and black leather seat cushion and saw nothing. I sat back on my haunches with my face at cushion level and waited to see if anything would move. My patience was rewarded with the sight of a pale colored spider dashing across the seat to the red cushion propped up in the corner. One more pass with the towel and he was history. Success! No trespassing deathly pale pointy-limbed arthropod is going to hurt my Hannah if I can help it.

As I lay back down on my blanket, I pondered the ice hole/watering trough pictures, wondering if they'd been prophetic.

This Morning

One lone ringtone in my spirit woke me up this morning. I turned off the alarm clock since I didn't need it. I had a couple of hours to leisurely gear up for the day since I wasn't due in the prayer room til 8.

In the course of opening blinds, making coffee and visiting the pink room I managed to step in something soft, cold and wet. It stuck to the bottom of half my foot and my big toe...Amazing how it had been camouflaged by the carpet!

After the obligatory cleanup job I decided to check and see where Monnie's car was parked just in case someone had blocked it in the driveway, and I discovered that lo and behold! there was no car. (shades of the Matrix). No problem...I'd just leave half an hour early to give myself time to walk.

On the way back to the kitchen I stepped in something soft, cold and wet. This time the substance stuck to pretty much every part of my foot I could put weight on. So instead of limping around looking for cleanup materials, I had to hop on my other foot. Lindsay and I made a pretty good team and finally I could detect no trace of the substance on my foot. Amazing how it had been camouflaged on the carpet EVEN after I'd diligently searched the first time.
And then, just to make sure there would be no third stepping, I took a really good look at the surrounding carpet and discovered MORE!!!! Yes, more. Amazing.

My very kind Father helped me to clean the carpet yet again and leave the house in time to make it to the prayer room by 8 (I hoped). I was wearing my Dutch blue and white tablecloth/headscarf that Grace gave me. I carried my black Dollar Tree parasol/umbrella, my Bible in the new Bible cover donated by Melissa Franklin, my Polynesian footprint wraparound skirt/prayer shawl donated by Hannah Rice and my black Dollar Tree flippy floppies. What a glorious day to be alive~~

Several blocks away I remembered one of the drawbacks of my black Dollar Tree flippy floppies: they trip me.

Well, this post is getting boring; it's all about moi. I'll just conclude it by saying that my kind, gracious and loving Father in Heaven got me safely to the Prayer Room (the clock said 7:47 when I walked in). He didn't let me fall down once. And He kept other ladies from entering the Pink Room so they'd be spared the sight of me with my skirt hiked up and my feet and flip flops in the sink as I washed off the grass seeds I was covered with. He's kind.

Well, as of around one o'clock tomorrow, he'll be gone. It's been such a good season, huh? So much to be thankful for, so many blessings. This next six months'll be good, too, but I'll miss him. And he'll take a piece of my heart along with him.
OK mom, cool it.

Sonday

I've been wondering lately if I should treat Sunday as a special day. John said, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day..." so maybe Sunday really is the Lord's Day and should be lived differently. By 'differently', I mean in a manner befitting the Lord. Like reverently, quietly, etc. Dunno. But today is Sunday and I started it out by watering the garden, weeding, putting pine straw under the watermelon vines, etc. It was delightful. The sun wasn't real hot and the world seemed fresh. It put me in mind of how Adam must have felt when the world was all new and clean. I didn't have to wear my sunhat so I could see things above nose height. Instead of using the LOUD intrusive scary weedeater, I cut the grass with scissors.

Tonight I get to watch the 3-5s while their parents are worshiping. And get this, the lead teacher in our class is Jonathan P. !!!!!!! He's the bomb. I love helping out when a man is the teacher. Jonathan's so fun. He's lively and humble and pleasant. Yay for men!

Oh yeah, I just remembered my latest adventure. It was mowing the lawn in the dark. Right at dusk it occurred to me that the sun wasn't hot and the grass needed cutting. So I moved whatever watermelon vines I could and began cutting. How fun. We now have a self-propelled lawnmower and I tell you, I was flying around that yard. Wheeeee! It was dragging me around in circles and wannabee fractals and even though I know Monica desires straight mowing lines left in her lawn, I just let'er rip. After a while I slowed down and mowed over some totally skewy mowing patterns so she wouldn't think I'd been tippling when she went for her daily sabbatical in the garden.

Tom aters

I just deleted a recent post. No one had commented on it, so I assume no one had read it. Which is good. Now I have to put up another post (in the garden!). The tomater plants are so top heavy that they're falling over.

Peek-lays (or "Free at last")

This is how I say pickles in Spanish. It's not how most people say the word. I don't know the word in Spanish so I say it this way. When Chris asked me how to say pickles in Spanish, I told him peek-lays and he knew I was joshing. It's nice that my son-in-law knows me but loves me anyhow.

I had something else to say so I began a new post and now the subject has eluded me. Let me think...(blogger begins to track the thought down the rabbit trails in her mind...) Oh yes, I have put in my paperwork to join Family status at the International House of Prayer-Atlanta. I haven't heard anything in a week or so. Do you think that's an evil portent? I had to authorize a possible background check, give lots of information, including a testimony with some of the ups and downs of my life, and I had to get my pastor to write a recommendation. Since Monica is a section leader and I live with her, she was my designated pastor. I went from a family that doesn't even believe women should speak in church to having a 27 year-old unmarried woman for a pastor!! ;P

I love the weather; it's thundering and it'll probably rain again. God gave us such a good rain yesterday; I didn't have to water the garden today, and the weeds came right up when I tugged on them. I put down plank-ets under the baby watermelons so they won't rot.

I'm free from BPO. That's a disorder that attacks me every blueberry season. Maybe one of you clever readers will figure out what the letters stand for. I will try to remember to write it down somewhere so you won't think I changed it when you guess wrong. My freedom came about on this wise: 'twas the fourth of July, and Chris was driving his wifey and Josiah and moi to the fire orks demonstration at the Braves Stadium. On the way we stopped for ten glorious minutes in the local blueberry patch. After valiantly picking shriveled berry after shriveled berry, we gave up. I don't know what's wrong with the little fruities, but they taste horrid. Now I don't feel their siren call all day. Schemes to get to the blueberry patch are not constantly forming in my brain. I'm free at last.

Yesterday we walked by the river

Yesterday was a shocker. I discovered by way of Josiah's Facebook activity that Andrew and Niki were divorced in May. All you loyal followers of this blog know that if I said I was speechless I'd be prevaricating. But I'm almost speechless. That sadness opened the floodgate to other sadnesses. One good result was a heart-to-heart with sweet Monica about fasting etc etc. I stayed up til 1:30 AM reading Josiah's new posts and commenting on them. He's such a dear son.

I hear he's having a going-away party on Saturday. We're sure going to miss him around this house.

I don't have a desire to be witty today. My heart hurts for my family. Imagine the pain our Lord feels for the Youngs' pain multiplied by billions.

On a lighter note, I helped care for the 3-5s yesterday during intercession at the House of Prayer. Melissa taught on Daniel chapter 10. She had the kids enact the scene by the river where Daniel is visited by an angelic messenger after fasting for 21 days. Although his friends can't see the angel, they are terrified and run to hide. Daniel alternately falls on his face in a faint, gets trembling to his hands and knees, stands upright and finally bows down before the angel. The children took turns being Daniel, the friends and the angel. What fun. I actually missed most of it since I was caring for the tiniest ones in the adjoining room, but I caught a glimpse of Zion lying prone as the angel appeared.

Well, I've discussed yesterday and a river, so I guess I've been faithful to the title of this post.
Hasta mas tardecito, amigos.

Go figure

I am amazed. By the owner of this house, Monica.

Ever hear the old saying about understanding someone by walking a mile in their shoes? I try to do that sometimes...put on their shoes, so to speak, in order to understand them. I think it helps, don't you? Sort of delete Monica, insert D'Arcy. Insert me into Monnie's IHOP responsibilities, into her home-owner status, into her relationship with her family and friends, etc. Its goal is to help me empathize with her and see things from her viewpoint. As far as empathy goes, it really helps, but I doubt that I'll ever see things from her viewpoint. For that to happen, I'd have to be wired differently. Just when I think I'm beginning to understand her, she goes and does something like what she's doing now...

Back up. A couple of years ago I was visiting Lawrenceville with my neighbor Mary. We lived side by side in Indiana, and my daughter Louise thought it would benefit us to attend a week-long teaching hosted by the International House of Prayer-Atlanta called "Introduction to IHOP". Louise shared the basement of the K.'s house with Monica...soon Hannah and Josiah would arrive making up the third and fourth residents. One day we were in the car on the way to the HOP and Monica said, "I'm praying about buying a house." Sounds simple enough...a young woman wanting to own a home. But this young woman was living on less than $1000/mo. and was wanting to buy a home in the Atlanta area? Right. Mary and I had gotten to know Monica enough however to know that if she set her heart on something, the Lord would probably give it to her. So we said, "We'll pray too." And we did. Less than a year later, Louise was helping me move down to the new house.

Fast forward a year or so. Oh yeah, how the whole "putting myself in her shoes" fits in here is that I've really enjoyed living here. I've enjoyed the benefits of the house while having none of the financial responsibility. I pay my portion of the mortgage and the utilities and leave the rest to Monica. If I want to help clean, I can. If I want to help out with yardwork, I can. After a while, I remembered how crushing the burden of owning a house used to feel to me when I owned one. Even though 'twas but a little bitty house, I would get overwhelmed at times but the knowledge that the buck stopped with me for all the decisions involved in owning it.

So I would try on Monnie's proverbial shoes and experience her burdens. I would let the whole crushing weight of owning this home push me down and the result was real empathy and compassion for what she's going through. Or so I thought.

Now she's looking for another house! She wants a bigger one for more family members. She's not only NOT crushed by the weight of home ownership, she's positively aching for more! Again I say, "Go figure."

Sophia Sophia

I just read Hannah's blog about our household's newest doggy addition. I think the pooch is a temporary resident here; since she's so adorable, I thought I'd write a bit about her to share the wealth, so to speak. ...The official story is that she's only going to be here for three weeks, but what doglover do we know that keeps a dog for that length of time without falling in love with it?
Truth be told, the night we got her I seriously considered moving out. It was a hot night, we had lots of folks here and the addition of another dog meant four more legs trying to navigate around everyone else's legs. Folks were tripping over owners of the legs. Folks were making comments like, "It sure is crowded in here" "man there are a lot of dogs in this house." OK. Maybe those aren't direct quotes, but I did hear one comment to that effect. And it hurt my feelings, because it seemed that Angel and Rachel, who are real residents here, were taking hits for being doggies just because Sophia had arrived.

And then Angel bit Sophia. He's a small poodle so biting a bulldog's shoulder and hanging on was quite an achievement. Monica grabbed him by his collar and yanked him off after the dynamic duo knocked over her computer table and destroyed her power cord. Sophia responded to the attack by going after Rachel, the weak link. That upset some of us since Rachel's our favorite; she's the one that suffered the pitbull attack last year under similar circumstances. Julie and her friend were taking Angel and Rachel on a walk; things were fine til Angel growled at a neighborhood pitbull. He promptly attacked Rachel ripping open her back~~go figure.
Monica decided to do something about the newcomer's incredible odor and she took her upstairs to the front bathroom and gave her a nice bath. Ahhh... clean doggy, right? No, more like wet stinkier doggy. Monnie didn't know about Sophia's deep facial creases, which are probably the sources of most of her odeur in the first place. Not only didn't the bath help the smell much, it also stopped up the bathtub. In spite of it all, she's grown on us; I think part of her allure is due to her very affectionate nature. She loves to stay close to us... real close. When we stumble over her, step on her or inadvertantly punch her in the head with our elbows she shows no animosity. Quite a trooper. I should ask Hannah to photograph her. Her mouth is lopsided; she has a tremendous underbite, and her tongue sticks out of one side of her mouth when she's resting (which is almost always). I'd rest a lot too if I were built like she is. She's in doggy heaven outdoors wading in the monkey grass... reminds us of a little hippo. She tries to graze amongst it, but after copious efforts accompanied by a LOT of lipsmacking and snorting, she only nips off two or three long grasses before she moves along. The same underbite that makes her so photogenic is probably the culprit here. The trials of bulldogism. Bulldogness?

I highly recommend her breed for your next doggy/companion. She'll entertain you and be great company on your frequent trips to the vet (I've heard that their smooshed-in noses cause respiratory problems). And the money she'll cost you due to all of her other health problems will seem a small price to pay for the joy of owning her.

Well, I hear her little toenails clicking on the kitchen floor upstairs, so I'd better go see what she needs. It's an honor to serve her.

Joys of Life

There's nothing quite like digging up rocks from the backyard and eating poke and goosefoot for dinner.