Confessions Of Our Ideal Life

               Elv told me last week that whereas I do a nice job of blogging our lives; I do make it appear a little more ideal than it really is.  I have been suspicious of that, but I defended myself  citing the few blog posts in the recent past that tell of not so pleasant things in our lives. 
                                        
I certainly don’t want to give a false impression.  But why magnify the problems? I took this picture of the table on a regular Monday morning. My computer and the current bouquet of garden posies are there along with things to deliver to a friend, a stray book and pencil. Not a major mess, granted. But this is a fair measure of the week’s disorder already budding.
Last Friday, Amy and I tackled a few of our “pile-it” areas.  I cleared the deep window sill and cleaned and rearranged the china cabinet. While Amy completely gutted and reorganized the sewing area upstairs. Why do we keep all that stuff?

                        
The flower part of the gardening this year has been borderline successful.  Oh yes, we got illions of a few of the flowers we planted, but the zinnias, my favorite, are blighting badly. Some of the most promising buds are suddenly falling over on a molding stem. Poor, sad garden. The tomatoes were by far the worst thing I have ever seen in my life! True statement and not an exaggeration.
Then there are the hard parts of our lives like making the money stretch, but who wants to talk about that, and children leaving home and relationships to maintain which is not easy sometimes. So I have never wanted to give the impression of having it all together. True, I didn’t take a picture of the 50 or so broken  bricks on our badly-in-need-of-repair patio and post it here, but why should I? I hope to earn enough to replace the entire thing at which time I will do a before and after, if you’re interested.
I don’t believe it is necessary to tell you each time someone is sick around here, or the work just doesn’t get done, that the dryer clunks loudly and needs repair, or one or more of us wants to STOP being the half-way house around here.  These are just temporary moments in our lives. Thank You, God.
The truth is we love being the half-way house! A lot! And if I were to say it any other way, I would be misrepresenting us. We’ve taken to locking up when we all leave for several hours because the Native American children like to run in and out too,sometimes, and we suspect they would do that whether or not we were at home.  Nothing is ever missing or out of order, they just want to see inside or bang on the piano for two minutes. I wouldn’t trade the times every other Tuesday evening when our house fills up with young people talking over the evening  children's ministry session, nor the boarders that come and go here, in exchange for a quiet, sterile, clean home and solitude, ever!
  We have a lot for which to be grateful.  We have much more than just a shelter, we have this dear old historic landmark, fieldstone house with all its oddities and uglies and beauties combined, making it home. We have a happy family. We have good work. We have church friends, neighbors, and extended family. We have the latest in technology for communications with our globally spread family, if you know what I mean. We have promise of eternity in heaven. We have a Savior who has saved us from the bondage and sin and sadness that would have ruined anything ideal! We have the victory! The Comforter lives here with us. And our Father watches over us all day and night while the world buzzes by on the nearby roads, the carousers run through our yard at night, and our nation tumbles over the waterfall to destruction so to speak.
I take it all back. We really DO live an ideal life.

Copper Falls 2012

We made our yearly sojourn to Copper Falls last Saturday. We took the same hike we always take on the very much man-made and maintained trail, complete with bridges, steps, and railings around Brownstone Falls. Happiness is playing where there are trees, water, and skies for this family.

Lists...For Life @TheStoneHouse

   We live from lists at our house. Work lists, item lists, camping lists, load lists, grocery lists, packing lists, wish lists, and happy lists. I am hopelessly forgetful and disorganized without them.  Grocery needs that are not on the list don't happen.
    I have gotten our family onto list making. Elv makes work lists on Saturday mornings and shopping lists for L&M.  We're talking about written lists. Sometimes he asks me what something on his hand-written list says. (I can read his hand-writing better than he can sometimes. Although with an I-phone, complete with Siri, that "humble assistant", he has moved above handwriting to orderly typed lists, correct spelling, as well. But we won't talk about I-phones and Siri Servants just now. Maybe later.)
   Frances had her "think book" on hand for list making and memos several weeks before leaving for Thailand. She kept working those lists right down to the last day.  So many last things that couldn't be forgotten.  She depends on lists as much as I do.
   So here is a happy list for today.  I need to make a happy list today, because it is too easy to sit down and cry now that Frank left us this morning.

~ God answered all of our prayers in series this morning making all of Frank's flying connections tick off  like clock work.
~ Whereas the van STILL stinks, especially on a longer trip like going to MSP, it works beautifully and safely.
~My clean kitchen after getting my hands in dish water to unwind when we got home.
~ I am, even now, working from my fixed computer. Our technician installed a new and better hard drive.
~ Coffee from fresh ground whole beans, not grounds from a can, in my mug!
~ Amy bought a new sewing machine today. Now we can both sew at the same time.
~ We have had rain...now sunshine, and more rain coming.
~ The flowers in the garden are glorious just now.
~ It has finally cooled off to normal 70's and 80's outside.
~ Brad did a whole pile of dishes from last night's lovely fish chowder supper while we were gone to the airport this morning. China dishes.
~ Oh yes, we had a sit-down supper together last night. Lance filled his bowl with chowder, crumbled cracker and cheese over it and declared it too pretty to eat. It was a wonderful supper hour.
~ There are events/trips/weekends to anticipate. Steve & Nell and Elv & I are going on a weekend get-away.  We, the four of us, have not done this in years. I believe it would be at least 25 years.  Isn't that amazing? A LOT has happened in that 25 years. We won't get done talking even with two days to try. Then I fly to Idaho to be with Mom and Dad for Mom's surgery while the children drive out to Nebraska. When I fly home Elv will pick me up and then WE will go on to Nebraska to see Jenny and her family.  Elv and I will take the travel trailer and go camping on Black Lake in October, we hope.
~ And the fall work lists make us happy, too. Not much canning available with crop failures both at home and abroad, (speaking of peaches and apples abroad and tomatoes at home.) But we have plenty to do before winter: firewood, garden mulching and lime-ing. Patio brick replacement. Strawberry patch rejuvenations. Comforters to create. School coming right up.


 

Woods Evening

I posted this picture on Facebook and kept thinking it was on blogger. It’s time to put the last post down further on the page.  So this is my paltry offering today. 

Our week was good/busy with work and plans.  Frances is on her countdown, operating from lists she’s been making. Packing to go overseas is such a lot of brain work.  She is taking seeds, books, chocolate, other gifts, and paraphernalia of all sorts.  She said right along that she wouldn’t, couldn’t, didn’t want to get involved this way. But she knows good and well how unavoidable it is.   Amy and I have been sewing between times. Which means that the machine stays set up on the dining table, so when we can, we sew.

We are doing last things before Frank leaves.  Today it is to go to Copper Falls.  Elv’s mom would have like to go with us. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that there is no way that we are going to try to take our 86 year old mother around on the only thing that I know of there is to do at Copper Falls besides camping and that is to take that hike around the falls.  I admire her ambition and energy to be sure. We enjoy Copper Falls.  The one year that we couldn’t go when I was so crippled up with a dead joint was frustrating to me.

They finally gave my Mom a surgery date this week.  So I spent considerable time dickering on a ticket through Priceline. In the end I went back to the beginning and just bought the ticket outright that was ridiculously low priced anyway. And our Nebraska visits are being planned around my flights as well, because when you get to MSP you are already a third the way to Gabe and Jenny’s home in Nebraska.

Mom and Dad are excited about mom getting her prosthesis…and dreading the whole thing, too.  Finally she will be able to take walks again.  I remember all of the things that are going through her mind from my own experience.  I know that the end result makes the whole surgery, therapy, and pain meds worth it.  I met a white-haired, plucky lady at the clinic yesterday, who came limping in on her cane.  She was frustrated, yet cheerfully determined as she told me that she has a good job of house cleaning and yet her surgery isn’t until mid October. I wish I could have talked with her longer. I have half a mind to call the clinic to find out if I can see her again. She was looking for someone to tell her that she can make it through.

We did corn this week. 52 meals in our freezer and 21 meals in Abbey’s. And it went fast and easy and fun. Thank You, Lord.  It helps immensely to have an outside stove and the water hose.  Amy commented on how much water we use to do corn. And there were no flies this year. None. Only two bees strayed from the garden to see what we were doing. 

                                                                                                                                     Good Day

One Of Those Days

   I am glad today will soon be over.  Not that anything bad happened…it was just a day when I could cry over things.  Things that tomorrow won’t seem like anything.  “Horror Moans” is what our daughter-in-law says. Aren’t we all glad that our salvation is not gauged by how we feel?

   We split up first thing this morning and the children went over to ‘you-pick’ Charlotte’s sweet corn and I had the house to myself to take phone calls, do dishes, and plan the day.  While they were in the corn patch over at Joe’s it dumped down rain here so that I had to wait to pick the green beans.

Green beans and corn in the same week, hmmm. Is that odd? So has our Wisconsin summer been odd. Finally, it is blessedly cool.  In fact, we are seeing leaf color here and there.

Frances called for me to come pick up Brad and Amy when they were done husking the corn and she headed on down to help Charlotte process it. Brad and Amy helped me for a while but then disappeared. Yeah, it was Monday.  I found Brad reading Narnia down in my sitting room, and Amy upstairs napping off the weekend.

Eventually, we got down to the work. I canned 5 quarts of green beans and Amy cut and arranged blocks for another comfort top. This one is all denim and will fit a queen bed easily. Brad ran errands and read Narnia between. And I cut out two more dresses to sew.

Elv called a couple of times to say things to me just to see how they sounded, I guess. He has a lot of time to think and process ideas.  I talked with Jenny on the phone and now I miss her some more. Talked to Susan too, who apologized for being “flat” today.  I would even opt for flat feeling.

After supper of Amy’s meatloaf and mashed taters with Brad and Amy, Brad read aloud to us out of a little book from Dot,  A Present Help by Marie Monsen.  The moral of the story was how God’s timing is always the best for us and our needs. I’ll take this by faith today.  I have to wonder of what use a day like today is to Him in my life. Perhaps His keeping power in spite of tears and fears of the moment.

We rode our bikes around “two blocks” as Brad consented to, since his bike is WAAAY too small and hard to pedal his gangly legs all scrunched up pumping it. Poor child.

Thinking of something bright and wonderful to remember and thank God for: Brad was baptized yesterday.  He was apprehensive, of course of all the publicity (if you can call our little Grace Bible Church group and a few visiting relatives publicity).  Our youngest one of seven made the big eternal step for Jesus. What more can a parent ask?

Sunday Evening Picnic

   

Sixteen, Summer of 2012

     

I remember being 16.  I was finally considered old enough to join the Youth. Such a big deal it was in those days. Though I’m glad that age/grade segregation is not so important and functional now-a-days, being homeschoolers, I always hope that our children enjoy the little epoch entries of growing up through the teen years, as much as I did.

So I want to dedicate this post to Amy, our daughter, who is in her 17nth summer.  We have been sending Frances off to Thailand for the last few weeks.  We did all the paper work, planning, and shopping. I think Amy has been quietly looking forward to owning the whole upstairs for herself sans suitcases spread all about.  We will all miss Frank, that’s for sure.  But still , for a cleany soul like Amy, this mess has to be trying.

With  income from cleaning 8 bathrooms at Old Chicago Club every Saturday morning, Amy bought a guitar.  We had educated ourselves about guitars so that she would end up with a practical instrument that fitted her and found just what she wanted through Craigslist last week.

Here is where I, as Mom, need to follow through.  Here is my chance to make good on a dream for a daughter.  No goofing off.  Clark is coaching her initial steps of learning, but we plan to get started on official lessons this fall as part of her education program.  In the meantime we took an hour Saturday to visit the local music store in town for new strings.

It was fun to take Amy there and to watch her show her instrument to the kind person who had recommendations and encouragements.  I particularly enjoy having other adults come in to our children’s lives with expertise and advice for them that we parents can’t give.  I like being there at the onset of such a time just to be sure about the new environment, but not to hover over long.  All we could have done for Amy in the line of safety and discernment is done already anyway, whether is was adequate or not. Scary, but true. 

I am looking forward to singing and playing together this winter. 

Amy is going to finish high school this winter. She is also going to be the only girl at home for four months and will take our home keeping in hand in an orderly, timely fashion. She does this like most people breathe…without anyone noticing how it happened. If I am not careful I could easily take advantage of this and just let her do it, while I do my job and scrapbook and scribble. But I must make an effort to let her play and have friends over and go out with them. She needs to “scrapbook and scribble” too, with her water paints and sewing.