What Say You?

Well, if Emily is moving out of state, I really should give her my serger [that's as old as she is] and get a newer one for myself, shouldn't I? Makes sense to me.

So I have been on Craigslist. And I didn't find much for sergers but I found this:

Ok, I am gettingno help from friends...how do you come up with ideas on conversations, I would like to be able to carry on an actually conversation with people, also, how do you get over maybe the feelings you had in high school (how do you keep them from coming back?) feeling insecure, quiet, knowing that you are worth something? I want to exuce confidence, and want people to be around me. You know like really like you not just be a person you know. I am at a loss. I welcome ur advice please. Thanks!

I wondered what all my wise readers would advise this person--I'll call her Kathy--so I emailed her and got permission to quote her. And she responded with an expanded version:

Hi, I want to start the new year off great and stick with it. A new year a better me? So, I had a bad break up a year and a half ago, and while I am still not currently dating, I am ok with that, and made peace with the crappy ex. What I need to do is break bad habits where I do not follow through with friends, or I end up either wanting to be around people, or I hole myself up. Any ideas on how to get past such a stage and be more consistent? How to not thinking negatively, make an effort, and not have such bad peaks and valleys? To take work for what it is, not take people there not talking to me personally, but how to make an effort to talk to everyone to be cordial? If any of this makes sense? and, to let go of not being everyones friend, be myself, and know it is ok, if I am still not friends with everyone from school? I hope someone understands this babbling. and offers some tidbits. Thanks for reading! How do you :
reassimilate yourself with friends again, when you have shyed away from them for awhile?
get back up there and try to pick your life up
not get upset if people do not want to be ur friend on myspace or facebook, or if they remove you from their friends, or when people do not comment or call you back.
these are things I wonder and I am not sure how other deal or if people even car about this stuff?

I think the first thing I would tell Kathy is that readers of LITS are a caring bunch and we are rooting for her even if we don't know her.

(She'll be reading this, just so you know.)

Quote of the Day:
Steven: What's this stuff?
Me: Sage. Like I put in the stuffing, and it actually comes from. . .
Steven: The ice age?

Colorado

Our trip to Canon City, Colorado, was a success. The verse I sensed the Lord giving me on Saturday morning was, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." And He did just that, in my spirit, as one thing after another checked off our list.

Climate: very dry. So dry and rocky that it could get depressing, but not if you're allergic to rain.

Church: friendly, good worship, nice people. And an amazing number of solid, satisfying Menno-connections--Cheryl from Stirland Lake days, Dorcas from Kenya days who is married to Prairie View's son Shane, Marilyn who is an aunt to Paul's nephew's wife Amy.

People who would look out for Emily: Kay and Gaylord and their family, who basically look out for everyone and would be happy to include Emily in their fold, staff people with New Horizons Ministries who have a heart for people in recovery in addition to their major calling of working with prisoners and caring for babies born in prison

Young people to do things with: lots of them

Meaningful work: Emily can work in the mission's thrift store, part time, as she feels able. She is a true Yoder in her love of digging through castoffs in search of treasure so this is a good line of employment. I also sensed that there's potential for her to use her gifts of drama and working with children.

Transportation: she'll be within 3/4 of a mile of work and church if she gets the Amazing Castle [more on that later] so she could conceivably walk or bike, but it looks like she'll have to bite the bullet and re-learn to drive to places like the grocery store and Knepps.

Housing: since she wouldn't be an official voluntary-service worker she wouldn't live with the other workers. So we'll need to rent a place. Knepps drove us around and we looked at a few options, such as an older trailer house whose pipes regularly freeze and leak, not a good choice for someone with mold issues. Then, oh yeah, maybe we should drive by this house that the pastor owns and would like to rent out. Well. You can read Emily's take on this here. Paul saw her reaction and said, "I think I'm on an unstoppable train."

So, yes, it looks like Emily leaves Redmond sometime in February, after Amy is home from Bible School, and we'll move her to Colorado.

It isn't easy for me, naturally, but His presence goes with me and gives me rest. And Emily is excited about the move, which helps a lot.

Quote of the Day:
"Well. I knew the minute I set eyes on it, it was the house for me."
--Emily, misquoting Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Cooking Article

Today's Entree section in the Register-Guard features yours truly in this story along with four other RG writers. (Click on "photo" if you want to see the picture.)

We won't go into the irony of me being written up in a cooking column. Next thing you know they'll do a profile of me on the sports page.

Thanks to Lolita from Poland for the original Cheeseburger Soup recipe. And a correction--the traveling 400 miles for groceries was when the kids were little, not when I was a child.

Photos

I posted some pictures on Facebook, yes I did. From Redmond, Virginia, DC, Colorado, and maybe a few other places too. [ I'm trying to do this in such a way that you don't have to sign in to Facebook to see the photos. Since it's a lot easier for me to put pictures on Facebook than Blogger. Three tries later it still doesn't work. Aarrgghh]
[Still doesn't work. Matt, can you help me out?? Amy? Tom?? Hans???]

One more try. See if this works.
Yes!!
Special thanks to Ellen!

Letter from Harrisburg

All that anguish led to this column.

Baaaaaa

The lamb stays.
Steven named him Homer.
Paul bought milk replacer.
Homer climbed out of the plastic tote he was in.
And peed in Jenny's shoe.
She was not happy.
But she still loves him.
Tonight he goes out in the shed with the chickens.

The Lamb

I heard a bit of bleating when I went outside yesterday afternoon, but it took Steven the former orphan to figure out that there was a newborn lamb by the fence and it had been there for hours, and the mom was nowhere around, and we had to do something.

We tied up Hansie, thinking maybe he was scaring the ewe away. But she still didn't show up.

Paul called the owners of the flock around 8:30. "My husband's already in bed," said the wife. "We'll just hope it's still alive in the morning."

Well. Were a formerly motherless child and his tenderhearted little sister and a mom of a formerly motherless child going to leave an orphaned lamb out in the cold? We were not.

So Steven brought it in, still crusty and with a fresh-looking umbilical cord remnant, and put it in a laundry basket with an old rug. By this time it was too weak to stand.

I found a Coke bottle and the nipples from last year, and mixed up my best guess at lamb milk replacer, and we got it to drink.

Soon it perked up enough to climb out of the basket and trot around the kitchen. So we found a plastic bin with higher sides and put it in the bathroom with a heater. Steven fed it at 2 a.m.

And this morning it was lively and noisy, but it had a bit of diarrhea, which means we're feeding it too much.

Paul called Mrs. Owner again. "Thanks, I'll tell my husband," she said.

No husband has showed up yet.

I hope the lamb survives. I hope we can keep it.

This from the lady who says, every spring,

Quote of the Day:
"If you want bummer lambs they are YOUR responsibility and I have paid my dues with getting up at night with babies and I am NOT going to feed them for you and I DON'T want that milk replacer mess in my kitchen!"

Feverish Ravings

Thanks for all your ideas for a column. I ended up writing about New Years resolutions and going to Virginia and how we (I) operate under this delusion that when the calendar changes I can finally get all my ducks in a row and Get It All Right which really isn't the right goal at all if you think about it. If I didn't take your idea don't feel bad, it all helps.

Well if that all sounds a bit feverish it's because it probably is. Not sure I ever wrote a whole column before while running a temperature. I am really really ready to get well.

Meanwhile. Amy the beautiful daughter made it safely to Bible school in Indiana. We miss her already. No wait, Jenny doesn't. I sent a card off today and told Jenny to add her two bits about missing Amy but she refused, writing instead only,' Hi Amy, from Jenny,' because she didn't want to lie.

I have over 50 friends on Facebook so I feel a bit vindicated for my unpopularity in high school but I am not really "into" Facebook. Maybe it'll grow on me.

Matt is back at OSU.

Ben is now 5 feet, 8.5 inches, 3/4 inch more than the last time we lined him up on the kitchen doorway. And we just got Steven a pair of tennies from Goodwill that are size 14 which is one size smaller than Magic Johnson wears and he is 6-feet-9. You learn a lot reading the magazine on the plane.

Just figured out this is my 106th column and you'd think I'd have it all figured out by now, ducks in a row, get it together, sit down and do it. But I don't.

Ok, time for cough syrup, garlic, Vicks, echinacea, Advair, and bed.

P.S. Anonymous tells me I didn't say anything about Emily. oops. Emily is still in Virginia having way too much fun with her aunt and uncle and cousins. And feeling well for the most part.

Quote of the Day:
"What do football and fishing have in common?
They both have tackle in them!"
--Jenny

Desperation

I got an extension on my article deadline--from Dec. 31 to Jan.6--because of our trip to Virginia. And now that deadline is looming over my head like the about-to-avalanche snow above the pass in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers [that my two daughters just watched with their Aunt Rebecca and I'm jealous] and I can't for the life of me think of anything to write about.

So we went on a trip. And had a great time. And I got sick. And I'm still running a fever and croaking. And it's a new year. And while the trip was great it is also great to be home with our wonderful water and the resultant pot of black tea every morning that is so good surely the angels will serve it in golden teapots in Heaven when I get there. And I got Arlene to teach Sunday School for me this morning and Stephie to do children's meeting for me this evening, and the nice lady from the Home Science Club said I can come speak to them in February instead of tomorrow, since there's not much chance any of them could hear me by tomorrow afternoon plus they'd probably all catch pneumonia from my wretched coughing. And maybe I should just quit writing that crazy column if I don't have anything to say.

However. None of this fits into a theme [of New Beginnings or Life Lessons or Something Profound] or answers the all-important question: So what? And we all know the Letter from Harrisburg has to have a Point and everything tied into a neat bow at the end.

Help me out here--Matt? Amy? Arlene? Somebody??

Emily has a name for this: Mom-On-Day-30 Syndrome.

Sigh.

Quote of the Day:
"Maybe this time you can take out two bushes."
--Steven, as Ben backs the van out the driveway

Rod, I was wrong

So we were standing on the steps of the Museum of American History, discussing whether or not Derek the charming nephew could ever be President. No, I said, he wasn't born in the U.S. or to military parents abroad. Matt and Amy backed me up on this.
Rod disagreed. Derek was born to American citizen parents and therefore qualifies.

I looked it up.

The Constitution says:
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

WikiAnswers says a natural born citizen is:
A person born in the territory of the United States of America or to United States citizen parents

So, Derek, go for it.