Plans are to fly to South Carolina this weekend, speak at the Biblical Mennonite Alliance convention on Saturday, and then Amy and I drive her car home, all 2833.3 miles. Amy is in Jamaica at the moment with her old SC youth group.
My speech is 95% done so I'm not worried about that.
And I've planned our route and have it all printed off Microsoft Streets and Trips.
And most of my clothes are packed.
Now I just need to make copious lists and menus so when I come home the garden is still alive and the potted plants aren't brittle and brown and the animals aren't hungry or thirsty and neither are the people and the younger ones remember to go to Vacation Bible School.
And I have one more big assignment to finish: my column for August. But first I have to decide what to write about.
a) harvest, and having a houseful of seedsackers on rotating schedules, and dumping grass seed from jeans pockets, and having little shoots of ryegrass growing out from under the bathroom baseboards next winter
b) my three big hairy dogs. . . or is it my three big teenage boys with mischief and big feet. . .or is it two boys and one dog who eat everything in sight. . . or should it just be The Story Of How Hansie Came To Be Chewing On Birthday Candles Early One Morning
c) my two universes and how odd it feels to step back and forth between the two. Universe A: muddy garden sandals, trying to talk to young people who keep interrupting, noise and dirt and dishes, "Wow, Mom, you have a lot of gray hair!" Universe B: shoes with heels that click, speaking to tasteful ladies who listen with rapt attention, quiet voices and decorated tables and coffee brought to me, "Ooooooh, you look far too young to have six children!"
Ok, I can't think what the redeeming point would be for any of those, so if any of you fine and supportive readers have tips for me, or ways to extract a point from any of the above, or completely different ideas, please comment.
Quote of the Day:
"We have a hippie group here. 5 of us."
--"Barbara" at the library table at the Leaburg Festival, talking about the volunteers who have had hip replacement surgery
I would vote for the third option or C. That is definitely like being in two different worlds. I always enjoy the comparisons of such articles.....things from opposite ends of the spectrum. Whatever you write about, I am sure it will well-written. :)
ReplyDeleteHarvest - it's all around us (the dust, the smoke, the combines on city streets) but most of us don't know much else about the day to day of it and would like to.
ReplyDeleteMaybe reading a column from you would cause me to romanticize farm life less!
After several years of reading your monthly column--sent to me by my SIL, and then finding your blog which I enjoy so much too, it feels as though I know you and your family, personally! In fact I recognized Amy when she visited our church several months ago while she was in SC. And now I find you're going to be speaking a little over an hour's drive away this weekend, and I'll be out of state. Maybe sometime I'll have the pleasure of meeting you. Keep up the great work, writing! Love it!
ReplyDeleteWrite about how chaotic, not necessarily bad, but crazy, your life during summer/harvest is, what with birthdays (hence, the candles) and grass seed in weird places and people and dogs everywhere. Then, say how you can step away from all that in an almost magically different world of clicking heals and whatever else you mentioned. Maybe your point could be that even though you chose and want the life that you have, it's sometimes nice, especially around this time of year, to enter a completely new one for a while.
ReplyDeleteI have a quote of the day for you.
ReplyDelete"Yay, a mouse!" spoken by my geek husband who has been fighting with his dying motherboard and a computer that only half wakes up, upon actually getting his mouse to respond.
Yes, had it been a real, furry, gray mouse, he would be standing on the sofa screeching in soprano, "EEK, a mouse!!" (one reason he doesn't complain that we are up to 9, count 'em, 9, cats now (6 of which are barely a year, or less).
"Oh," she sighed, "If only I could heal magically with a click." Sorry I just find mispellings too funny to pass up sometimes. =D
ReplyDeleteI, too, would like to hear about day to day life during grass seed season. Altho, hearing about Hansie and the Birthday Candles sounds fascinating too!
I see a "Seasons of Life" theme here, although, by itself, it doesn't sound too exciting. Seeds sprout and produce more seed, dogs and boys grow from getting in the way to really being able to help (or really getting in the way), people get gray hair and increased wisdom, rest follows labor, ministry responsibilities come first in one area, then another, etc.
ReplyDeleteCan you tell I'm indecisive? I'm not choosing one of your options, but all three!
The first one.
ReplyDeleteI would love some more stories about your "hairy dogs"but seriously, whatever subject you choose will be interesting. I have been reeding you blog for a while now,and reading your books with a great pleasure.
ReplyDeleteThank you for these daily bits of life. Do you realize the effect they have on readers? They make people better!
I guess all authors have to have a 'point" for writing... maybe the reader should figure it out... maybe the everyone would be going nuts until the next piece you wrote, because it would leave them hanging... like singing 'do, reh, me, fa, sol, la, ti...............
ReplyDelete~I
Dorcas, I choose the harvesting of ryegrass. I always enjoy anything you write about your family.
ReplyDeletePhyllis
I would definately like to hear about Hansie and the birthay candles!
ReplyDeletethis isn't going to help much, because you've had votes for the first and the last options for columns. but your second option was the one that made me laugh, even tho i'm kind of sad tonight. so i vote for that. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh....I was so close to going to the BMA Convention (to see friends from Bible School) but decided it was impractical.
ReplyDeleteNow that I know you're going to be speaking I wish I was going again. Rats.
Oh well. Have fun!