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.