A Touch of Grey

Thank you M, for your note! I'm so grateful that you think of me! It made my day to find your letter in the mail!

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It's a lesson to me, the devils and the East and the free
The abc's we all must face, try to save a little grace.
The Grateful Dead

This weekend I noticed that Mr. WestBerryDad and I had both acquired a further touch of grey.

Moving has been difficult. The dog, the sheep, the washer, the piano and well, a good 3/4 of our "stuff" is still at the "ex-house."

I'm in the middle of an investigation involving several arms of law enforcement and I need to reference years of back e-mails. My mother decided, out of the blue, to cancel said e-mail account (MOAN).

Last night a teenage member of our church family drove off of a ravine. The car flipped over and all four in the car were Mercy Flighted to the hospital (prayers, please).

And last week I took my company's required health evaluation. The on-line test revealed that if I don't shape up, I will probably die from a stress-related illness.

I've been duly warned.

So today I'm trying to incorporate even more stress-reduction into my day. After my shower I imaged the tension in my body lifting up to the Lord like steam rising. I listened to Bobby McFerrin on the radio ("Don't worry be happy!") I rap to myself a la Chile Peppers "give it away, give it away now."

I feel a bit silly.

Really, I am enjoying the journey. And I'm grateful for every second with my family even if the "cow gives kerosene." Who cares about another touch of grey (' cause my hairdresser is on speed dial:)

QVC

With turmoil in Egypt mounting and crisis all over the world, it seems frivolous to focus on shopping and excess. However, in my own little world there is an abundance of stress these days...a broken dryer, a teenager with a rotten attitude, overdue grad school papers. Gotta take a break from serious for a few minutes....

When we moved into our new house the six-, now seven-year old longed to put candles in the windows. With 15 rooms there is no shortage of windows so we settled on enough electric candles for the front windows that face the road. We purchased an even two dozen candles at Lowe's, filled them with AA batteries, screwed on the tops, and allowed W to set them out.

Each morning W loosed the bulbs to turn off the candles, and each night he lit them again. The ambiance they created was warm and welcoming.

This lasted for maybe three days. Then the boys began to use the candles as props for "scary games." Several candles got knocked off of their posts and were broken. We blew through two value packs of batteries. I took several shards of broken bulb glass in the heel.

Enough with the candles.

At our Open House a friend visited and said, "Oh, the QVC candles are so much better." Better ,how? They don't shatter? They don't use batteries so quickly? They burn brighter? Are they tied into a switch so that all 24 turn on and off at once?

I began to wonder if i'd really missed something with the QVC thing. I don't have TV, but I've certainly seen the show while staying at hotels. I could look it up on the internet.

Some of my girlfriends shop there quite often, but I usually tune out the conversation when it turns to this topic. What if it's true?! Do you shop on QVC?

Signed,
Mom with an inferiority complex.

Ketchup and Salt

We closed on the new farm last Tuesday. What an adventure this has been!

We stayed at the new house on the very first night. Mr. WestBerry fetched mattresses for the children and our bed and we collapsed after hosting his parents for an "opening day" dinner of pizza and wings provided by the sellers' real estate agent.

Since then, we've taken it day by day. We take a van or truck-load of boxes over on our way to/or from work or when a situation necessitates a special trip. Last night, for example, we discovered that their weren't enough boy socks at the new house (H2) for school so we ran over.

Our dog is at the old house, keeping guard. He was glad to see us (again).

Today I'm working on grading and my own homework here at H1 (House 1) because there is no high speed cable at H2. The washer and dryer are still here as is the stove. From the chest freezer downstairs I pulled some frozen french fries for my lunch.

But the ketchup and salt are at H2.

We're making do.

Croup

I was wondering, this morning, if I would even remember, ten or twenty years from now, that right before moving into our new house we had croup.

I do remember that I was sick for Christmas both last year and the year before. I remember that N had whooping cough while we were practicing for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

That whole thing, quite frankly, was a nightmare. He would stand over the sink and cough and you would think that you heard the water running but in effect, it was blood gushing from his mouth. Once we had a diagnosis three county health departments got involved and we had to alert every person we'd been in contact with for two weeks prior.

So three children with croup seems minor, really.

J, in kinder garden, has missed a week of school. His fever was terribly high and he wheezed and gagged and barked for several days. We went to the doctor for steroid and saline inhalation treatments.

I was unable to miss more than two days of work to care for him. The two older brothers, generously, each took a day off of school to stay with J (and play video games).

W, in second grade, is still home. And it's Halloween. Will I break my "you can't go out if you don't go to school" rule?

We are supposed to go to a dinner party. The doctor says that croup is EVERYWHERE and, as long as there is no fever, we are free to mingle with the public.

Lots of hand washing this Halloween.

Hopes & Dreams

I'm taking a graduate level leadership course that focuses on motivation. At the same time, I've been waiting for a closing date for the purchase of our new farm and our "dream house." This has me thinking a lot about hopes and dreams.

This week the seller worked with us to tie public water in from the road to the house. He "gathered the troops," if you will, and mobilized town officials, a plumber, an excavator and a independent testing lab together in order to get the job done quickly. With much emotion he declares, "I just want to get this over with!"

I wish for the type on my work computer to be larger. I long for more time to read for pleasure.

As I drive by the Mexicans working in the fields to harvest squash and cabbage, I imagine what their wish lists look like. Enough money to travel back home to see family? A system that allows them to work here legally that is uncomplicated and free of corruption?

So much of the world lives in poverty. I'm so very grateful that safe, clean water CAN bee hooked up to my new house (even if it takes a few extra days!).

My Cottage Takeaways

Both of our older boys have commented, separately, that "this is a really great week...we are headed to football sectionals, the cottage closed, the furnace was repaired...." Their optimism strikes me as I struggle to stay positive about the cottage sale.

I have a few "takeaways" following yesterday's closing.

1. I do feel a deep sadness, yet I had a choice about selling the cottage. I can only begin to imagine the impact on a person after losing something due to bankruptcy or natural disaster.

2. I'm not supposed to be "tied to this earth" and I sometimes think I'm not. And yet I feel this strange pull to the beautiful view from our cottage windows, the sparkling water, the mosaic of lake stones...

3. God allowed me to help a customer whose husband suffered a traumatic brain injury a year ago while riding dirt bikes with his boys. He uttered his first words just this week, and then had a stroke that causes him to sleep most of the time. He has been transferred to four different hospitals, with setback after setback. He was the family's sole provider. What in the world do I have to be sad about??!!

Thank you Lord for the privilege of owning the cottage and for the happy memories we have of spending time there with our friends and family.

"Revive us again" (Allelujah by The Museum)

Motivation

I've been thinking about motivation lately, as I watch the Wall Street protests progress and I wonder HOW IN THE WORLD to motivate my boys to wash more dishes and turn their socks right side out. This week I began a new graduate level Education course and the introduction to one of the textbooks described two monkeys in an experiment. The scientist gave them a mechanical puzzle to see if they could solve it. There was no "prize" for the monkeys for solving the puzzle, yet they worked for days to figure it out and solved it over and over. This was curious to the investigator. What motivated the monkeys if there was no promise of food or play, no reward at the end of the day?

(I am, apparently, no better than a monkey because I don't give an iota about solving puzzles)(But then again...I am up at 4:45 a.m. to bake banana bread, wash dishes, fold laundry and blog).

Our cottage closing is tomorrow. I asked my brother for a ride there and he texted me back that he couldn't because he had too many errands to run. I would think that thousands of dollars would be a motivating factor in making sure that your older sis, the co-signer, arrives at the court house.

On the other hand, my friend Heidi didn't blink when I asked her to take me and stay for emotional support. Her motivation: friendship.

We have, of course, been watching the boys' football team play all season (they are headed to the sectionals...woot woot!). They are a strong, disciplined team. Up until Friday night, however, their execution seemed to lack passion.

Last season they played for Nick, their fellow team mate who was battling leukemia. After Nick passed away in June a deep sadness settled in. They continued to play in his memory.

On Friday the rival team constructed a coffin and placed it outside of the h.s. with a note...that at the game our boys would be "goin' down." At stake was a spot in the sectionals, and for my son, 24 cupcakes baked by his good friend Liv (a student at the "other" high school.

Tradition says that the winner of this yearly battle takes home "the rock," a large lake-stone-turned-trophy.

Friday night's game was suspenseful, intense, and FUN to watch, because the boys were, at last, fired up.

I'm hopeful that I can keep my own "eye on the prize" this week, the new farm we will be able to buy once the cottage closes.