Please someone -go ahead and rename today. My brain's dead.
The friend's comment to the father was, "Well, are you in the business of growing a healthy lawn or are you in the business of growing healthy boys?"
Loved that little story, Helia. Reminded me of the neighbor of a vdfriend. She wouldn't allow her children to play in the snow in the yard as it would 'mess up the pristine condition'. Wonder what she thought of all the other yards in that development.....
I've been up for a while, have the bed made & my meds done. That's it so far. Think I'll move on to breakfast and a cup of Joe. Good morning start to you all.
Breakfast is done & sipping coffee. L&&ts are done so I somewhat know the direction in which I'm heading.
((Kathryn)) re: septic tank failing. But if that's the 'worst' then it's all good. You're right money can fix that.
Have to do dishes this morning -expect that means I should get off this seat, turn on the water heater and get dressed.
It's gotten pretty cloudy again and it's considerably cooler out this morning. Yesterday was too hot, too fast. Think the heat got to both dh and me. I'm sure I was not the 'favorite' on his list yesterday. He came running in to ask me to drive his 'summer' car to the mechanic's to get the inspection done. Now this car was his Mom's, is at least 40 years old (still in gorgeous condition btw) and it drove like a tank when I drove it 30 years ago. And that was when I had 2 good arms. I immediately went into panic mode yesterday and dh told me to "never mind, I'll take it." He's just trying to get so much done here and he was done in already by the heat. Did ask me to follow him out so he could leave it. Did that and when I got there he came right back out to tell me it would be only 10 minutes & he'd wait. I felt guilty but I'm still sure there's no way I could drive this car. Just getting it started can be a challenge. Not often dh is unhappy with me or vice versa but I think yesterday may have been our time for this year.
Have a LOL gathered and sitting on the outside steps ready to go up to the laundry room. BUT, that being said, I don't think I'll do it until afternoon since I'll be 'babysitting' it while it twirls away. First time to use the new machines here. See how long it takes now. The old machines, dh tells me, were over 13 years old when the other company installed them. It was a weekly fix situation. Now dcampowner has put all new ones in (and has new ones awaiting the additional laundry room). Perhaps I'll get lucky and it won't take as long to wash/dry. Have to find my clothes rack (pretty sure it's in our deck bin) so I can hang a few things on that if I need to finish drying something.
Next up: Heat water Dh already did it Get dressed
Wash dishes
Clean off the couch
Straighten table
(It's amazing to me how messed up such a small space can get in a hurry. Sure MT knows of what I speak!) I'm trying little-by-little to downsize even more. Have a whole big (paper) shopping bag full of plastic storage containers to take to dfriend in the park who does a lot of cooking for others. In the process I managed to clean out 4 cupboards yesterday.
Sitting here in the quiet of the morning drinking my coffee. No one else is up in ludi g the puppies. Willis is allowed to jump up on my side of the bed and curl up inside my bent knees early in the mornings. It usually last a half hour and then I'm up with him following me at my heels, just like a little kid.
Willis has very short hair and very little on his belly. He sleeps in a very tight ball to stay warm. Sometimes like this morning I can cover him with my blanket when I'm about to get up and he's so warm he dose t want to get up. That's fine with me cause it gives me a little bit of me time.. That never works with Sadie as she cN only get on our bed if we help her up... Plus she is a bed hog so she just stays in her bed until I get up. Guess I should explain we have to kennel them and only allow wash one out one at a time. They get along just fine but are like a pair of kids... On e they start playing Sadie gets excited and then the next thing you know they're fighting and that ain't pretty.
So we kennel and alternate who's in and who's out every two hours including nights. Of course we walk them together every night walking two miles or so and they are just fine sniffing butts, licking each other and playing as we walk, go figure.
Puppy is up and so is Sweetie so my morning is on its way. I sub yesterday and am doing the same today and tomorrow. I'm off and waving to ya'll. enjoy your day, hope it's filled with laughter, love and fun...cya'll
Live boldly, take risk, no regrets...Jillian Michaels
I'm awake (sort of - stayed up past midnight because I was wired) and looking forward to writing today. My friend has identified writing as the one thing he needs to do to stay centered and I can relate to that sentiment. Now that all the craziness of the house staging and ds's visit is over, I can focus on writing again.
Our conversation yesterday was so far reaching I'm still processing it. We needed the 3 hours and we only scratched the surface on so many items. We are really just beginning our friendship since I only had regular contact with him for 2 years, then no contact (his rule after he stopped being our minister) for a year, and now I only see him 2 - 3 times a year for a few hours at a time. But when it is just the two of us, those few hours are intense as we try and get to know each other's back stories while also discussing the current issues that interest us and make us want to be friends in the first place.
I found out yesterday that he isn't sure he'd have chosen to be a musician if his mother and grandmother hadn't pushed it on him (he is gifted and when I think of him, I think of his playing and the way he expresses God through the music.) He would have chosen counseling (which is where he is headed now at age 54) and he's right, that is probably his forte. But when we are young, we often do what is expected of us and find ourselves doing things we are good at, but not necessarily our greatest gift.
I'm still not convinced he is being his authentic self in his church and we talked about that a bit. I appear to be missing the "it's not your business" gene so was quite surprised to hear myself tell him that. He is very happy right now with his studies and so that makes me happy and the church job pays his bills. Finding balance in life is what is important to me and his studies balance off the theological compromises he has to make so that he can keep his job.
It also reminds me that I'm blessed to not have to make any compromises since I'm not paid a living wage so can walk away from the work at any time.
Later at the Presbytery meeting one of the prominent leaders of the church (on a national level) recognized me as being from my little church (it was his first church after graduation but he had left long before I moved here and we've only chatted a couple of times). He asked to be invited to our new minister's covenanting service in the fall but was worried about his travel schedule so I gave him my card and told him to email me with his schedule and we'd try to work around it.
Turns out he attends the church closest to our new home and when I mentioned it, he immediately invited us to join, saying it was a wonderful church home. Another woman sitting there chimed in that it was. She is the first diaconal minister I ever met (my mom worked a little bit with her mission to a low-income neighbourhood of new immigrants.) I met her when I was in my early teens and was impressed with her social justice work and thought I might like to do that some day - but got distracted with pleasing my dad with my money-handling ability and so followed that strength. Now in my 50's I find myself back with my early passion, almost a complete repeat of my friend's story (except I'm no where near as talented with numbers as he is with making music.)
Anyway, with such a welcome by such prominent members of my denomination, I'm really thinking I would like to try out that church for a while. My licensing is tied to my current church but with support from these people, I may be able to get it transferred to their church. We'll see how that goes, my theology may be just too conservative for them (it is an affirming church, which, to translate, means it is a safe church home for LGBTQ and others on the margin of society.)
All in all, it was a wonderfully renewing day and I was able to put the news of the septic system behind me.
Personally, I think the inspector is interpreting what he sees incorrectly. I can explain the evidence by pointing out that we were away from Jan to mid-Feb in an extremely cold winter with a very deep frost. Likely, because it wasn't being fed with warm effluent regularly, the pipes to the field froze, then the tank filled to the top after we got home until the system thawed out in the spring. It is no longer filled to the top (but there's evidence it had been) and so that shows me the field is working again, but playing catch-up. Of course, my theory could very well be wrong but it is an alternate way to view the evidence.
Sunshine long gone, now it's raining (in earnest). Sure dh is loving it (NOT).
I'm definitely not heading to the laundry room in the rain so will wait until later this afternoon. That's probably a better plan anyway. Then I can get things done here. Does anyone else have that syndrome of "not being able to get into it, once I've gone out & away?"
I'm done with my a.m. routine, including QT, except for brushing my teeth. I've also taken dd15 to testing site and fielded a phone call from dfriend who will be staying with us tomorrow - Sunday. He was leader of the Christian group of which I was a part during my undergrad years at Univ. Ill. He also was one of 2 ministers who officiated at dh's and my wedding
Elizabeth, that is an interesting idea to designate an area in the yard where Maia could dig!! Hmmm..... we could maybe do that. I don't know why she prefers the area she does. However, I don't think the output in the holes would work in our situation for a couple reasons. Maia is digging very close to the driveway, and we don't want large piles of output (the holes are quite large) near where people need to walk when they approach our home. Also, the dogs are not allowed to put their output in this part of the yard. This used to be a problem with Maia, and we had to train her to go elsewhere; bringing output back to this part of the yard might start that habit up again. Our property is slightly over an acre, so there's plenty of space for a digging area, an output area, gardens, etc.
We had sunshine earlier today, but it is cloudy now.
Later:
- pick up dd15 at 11:30.
- farmers market with dfriend for flowers for small group leaders and child care staff tomorrow; leave house at 12:30
- prep guest bedroom, aka dd15's bedroom
- figure out who is doing what for moms group wrap up meeting tomorrow; this isn't my job but the teaching team chair seems out to lunch right now . . . I sent an email last night but no reply yet. The dfriend with whom I'm going to the farmers market is also helping with wrap up, so she might have a sense of what is going on.
Ds is up so I can work on the guest room. First, brush teeth to finish a.m. routine and switch laundry.
Elizabeth - I am following your professional testing progress with great interest. You are doing fantastic! I thought of you when DDIL told me she is fostering 5 baby kittens that were going to be put down. The baby kittens require bottle feeding on a regular schedule. Once they get old enough to eat food by themselves, DDIL plans to give them to organization that will find people to adopt them.
My deep cleaning focus time was spent washing the walls down in the bathroom. I didn't get everything washed down so will continue that effort in tomorrows focus time slot.
Spiff bed x
Breakfast x
Qt x
Journal x
Put in fiber req. X
Boil eggs to devil x
Planned left overs for dinner.
Learn something working on a net crochet stitch.
Last edited by Nancy on Wed May 14, 2014 8:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kathryn - I''m thrilled you had a good time yesterday. It will be interesting to see if those conversations are springboards to launch you in new directions.
I spent the majority of that timeslot in LO bedroom putting things where they belong. He is going to be excited when he sees how nice it looks again. Also swept kitchen & laundry room, plus used blower on the front porch.
Lunch will be Chicken tenders, potato salad, cowboy beans and spring mix salad. I have most of it almost ready to serve, just need to do about 10 minutes finishing it up.
Sure dh is loving it (NOT).
