Each morning, we kiss Husband before sending him off to work. I usually add "Drive Safely" with my daily "have a good day".
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This morning, Silly Sally shouted out as her Daddy walked out the front door, "Drive safely! Don't crash into any cars or zambonis!"
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I kid you not. Good morning, all, I wish you a blessed day.
I have been following Amy's story since July. I can't remember where I heard of her, surely someone else in cyberspace directed her readers to pray for this young mother. I do know that I've been reading her blog since her second entry was posted, so perhaps I heard from someone who knew her or was a friend of her family? .
At any rate, Amy's story has kept me engaged in praying for her, for her husband and for her baby. I've prayed for her brother, who was a generous marrow donor when it was Amy's last chance at health. I have rejoiced when she has rejoiced at the good news from her biopsies. I have prayed for her to get stronger and be able to care for her son.... I have probably spent more time praying for Amy and her family than anyone else I've ever known (or not known).
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And now, my friends, I ask you to join me in prayer for Amy and her family. They are in more need now than they have ever known. And my heart aches for all of them. There is nothing I can do this Lent to know even a portion of the cross the Wilhoite family bears. But I do keep praying for continued grace for all of them as they face this Easter season with the burdens of such a heavy and ungainly cross. I believe God is a God of miracles and I want so much for Him to grant this family peace - and the miracle of life for Amy.
Sorry I've been rather distanced from this place. With my shoulder, I'm back to typing with one hand, so that's no fun.
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We had a nice weekend, visiting the National Aquarium in Baltimore, along with at least 200,000 other people on Sunday afternoon. Outside, at the Inner Harbor, the ground was covered with ice, but inside, there were so many people, we were actually sweating from the heat - and that wasn't even in the rainforest section. My brother and his family came from Ohio and since it was the first time we'd been together in over three years, it was a real treat. You might remember some conflict between him and me almost two years ago, and because I have never felt like things were the same since then, I was worried. But I was pleasantly surprised that it was just a really nice weekend. The kids all played well together (and you'd have never guessed that they didn't know each other) and by the time they left, my nephews both were saying how they couldn't wait to come back again.
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We look forward to seeing them again in a few months, after my neice is born. We've been invited to attend her baptism in Ohio, so we'll definitely be there.
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The girls and I have been working hard at trying to get back on track with school work. If we don't take any breaks, we'll finish at the end of the summer. If Bookworm has a few days where she wants to blaze ahead, we may actually get to where we're done by the end of July, which would be great. I am not going to put any pressure on her, though. I've enjoyed doing more things with Silly Sally, as she is finally starting to be interested in working with us.
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I have very little else to talk about. Lent this year is looking to be a time of great growth for me. I enter into this Lenten season filled with anxiety and homesickness. I think maybe I'm expecting too much of myself, but since tomorrow is 3 weeks since we moved in and I haven't met anyone yet, I'm starting to feel really isolated. I'm hoping that with a bit of a weather warm-up, we will get out more. My goal for Lent is to make it to mass 35 days. Since there are 40 days in Lent (not counting Sundays), this means I need to go to daily mass at least Monday through Friday.
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This is a rambling post and part of it is that I'm not wanting to talk about what's really on my mind. I think I will be back in the morning to give it a proper post all its own. If you read this Wednesday night, please pray for Amy and her family. I'll be back tomorrow for a better explanation than that.
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God Bless you.
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I'm Alive... barely...
Okay, that maybe is a bit melodramatic. But, let's recap the last couple weeks, shall we?
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The week of the move, I was sick as a dying dog. I could barely stand up on the day of packing and the next day, when they were loading the truck, I was positively wiped out. For me, those days were spent supervising the crew and cleaning my little heart out. (I had tried to hire someone to help me come clean, but she didn't return my calls until 4 days after I left town.)
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I was feeling pretty rotten and weepy and begged out of dinner with Cara on my last day in central Georgia. I possibly didn't want to face the "goodbye" portion of the evening, so I just skipped it altogether. I'm a bit sorry now, as I miss her terribly. Not that one more weepy hug would have made me miss her less now.
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Anyway, after a rocking friend (who'd kept my kids from 8am til 7 pm), brought the girls to me (so I wouldn't have to drive to her house, which is away from the interstate, and in the opposite direction I needed to travel), along with picking up dinner for the three of us on the way... I hit the road. On the way to Becca's, I remembered that I had pottery to pick up in the "city" that we'd painted two weeks before with my cousin, so that was a 10 minute detour, but we had to fill the gas tank anyway.
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I can't tell you how grateful I am to Becca for putting the girls and me up for the night. Not only did she leave cough drops on my pillow, but she had cough syrup on the ready upon our arrival. What a gal! In spite of feeling like crap, I still managed to stay up too late. In the morning, after waking way too early, I was like a thief in the wee hours as I set off the house alarm in an attempt to gather our laundry out of the dryer (have I mentioned how welcoming Becca has been to me and my family?). Scurrying (can you picture me? scurrying?) upstairs as quickly as I could manage on my aching legs, I shook Becca awake and I swear she thought she was dreaming as I begged for her help to turn off the alarm. Isn't that how you like to wake up on a Saturday morning? Not to mention, my kids woke her daughter at, oh, 6:15 am. Yeah, we are sucky houseguests.
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Anyway, I had a chunk of driving ahead of me and we made to my grandma's by lunchtime. We enjoyed a nice visit for two nights with my Dad's mom, whom we hadn't seen in 3 years. Then we headed east and spent one night with my Mom's mother. Aside from the fact that her house is almost literally a zoo - which the kids loved, by the way - we had a nice visit with her and her husband. That visit was even a bit too short, if I dare say. Though, I think next time, we might prefer to sleep at a hotel, since the girls and I were parked in the living room and were awakened at dawn by the parrots.
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We had another uneventful day of driving and arrived ahead of schedule (again!) in the Baltimore area. That evening, the girls saw their first snowfall, 5 minutes after arriving at the house to show them what would be our new home.
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2 days later, Thursday just over a week ago, our stuff was unloaded from the truck. It was the first time I've had the girls with me for any part of the actual movers process, if you don't count the hour they spent playing in the backyard the week before on packing day. I was nervous about keeping the girls out of the way of the movers and keeping them happy in the midst of the chaos. I shan't have worried as they were content playing and the movers were fast, so by the time we were dying for lunch, the truck and crew were gone, or mostly finished anyway.
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We've been busy beavers, though for the past 10 days and I am pleased to say that we have one room left to finish unpacking. Of course, it is the school room, which means we still haven't gotten back on track with school. It looks like summer break is being flipped into a winter break and we will school for almost all of 2007 with only a 2-3 week break in the summer.
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We are looking forward to a visit from my brother and his family this coming weekend, it will be the first time he has brought his family to see mine - ever. We haven't spent much time together since we've had children (over 7 years!) and I look forward to getting to know him as an adult.
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So... I know this post is rather boring, but it gives you an idea what's going on with us and lets you know that we're still here. Oh, about the barely alive thing....
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For those of you who might remember, a year ago, I learned I have a strange shoulder injury. After physical therapy and many months of pain, I was feeling better - and then we moved last summer and it got worse again. And I've tried to rest it since the summer, to let it heal. And it was feeling not-too-bad. Until we moved again. Between the scrubbing (repetitive motion) and moving of boxes and unpacking, this rotator cuff issue is at its worst. I've been in a lot of pain and this past weekend I didn't actually do much unpacking (God bless my husband for helping with so much stuff this weekend). Last night, on my way to check on something in the kitchen, I took a stumble and fell down the stairs. I didn't go face first, as my retarded husband assumed (and stopped himself ahem mid-stream and ran from the bathroom to check on me). But, as I was falling, I tried to catch myself and I fear I may have done some serious damage in that left shoulder. My upper arm is still searing, 20 hours later...
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Damn stairs.
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I'll be back soon. This has taken me a long time to type, with one and a half hands.
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Hope you're well.
