Happy 2nd Day of Christmas!

The gig is up. Kaleb said to me this morning, “I really want to believe in Santa Claus but the evidence just isn’t there to support it.” I told him he needs to believe in what he wants to believe in and it might serve him well to continue to believe. He asked me “why” and I said because I believe he’s the best boy in the whole world, but sometimes the evidence just isn’t there to support it, but I still believe it anyway. He had to think about that for a minute. I didn’t fess up about being Santa, but he knows. I’m amazed it’s taken him this long, but he does lead a sheltered life.

This Christmas will not soon be forgotten. I wasn’t exactly up to speed. I plan things so far in advance that it bit me in the butt this year. Traditionally we have a big neighbor guy dressed as Santa come over to our house on Christmas Eve. We have two families here for dinner and there are five kids between us. Santa comes in, asks if there are any good boys and girls in the house (a Norwegian tradition), then proceeds to pass out gifts to everyone – including the adults. The kids get two or three gifts and the adults get one. I prepared Santa’s bag way ahead of time and for some very odd reason, this year, I forgot to put in any gifts for Kaleb! Here we were all gathered in the living room opening gifts and Kaleb is just standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face, wondering why the bag is empty and there isn’t a single gift in his hand. I grabbed one of his gifts from under the tree but he refused it, saying it was for the morning. He was crushed. I have no idea how it happened, but it did. It was the Christmas he got NOTHING from Santa.

Then Christmas morning there is usually a large gift for him in front of the tree from Santa and this year, there wasn’t. I filled his stocking, but left his new bike out on the porch so he didn’t see it until all other gifts were opened up. All he kept saying was, “Santa didn’t leave me ANYTHING?” Even after he saw the bike he was a little miffed because Kory and I also got more presents than he did. I usually buy my own presents because Kory never buys me anything and it’s been awkward on Christmas morning when the two of them are opening things and I have nothing, but this year Kory outdid himself and bought me a LOT of things and I bought him a LOT of things and Kaleb, not so much. Kaleb got a few expensive gifts but the volume wasn’t sufficient for him to feel he was on equal par with us, so he was sorely disappointed. As he was heading downstairs to install one of his new Wii games he muttered, “This is the worst Christmas EVER.” I felt horrible. Then I decided we needed to have a talk about STUFF and that the holiday is supposed to be about celebrating the birth of Christ, but as a kid, it really is just about the presents. Ugh. I guess that’s how the light turned on in his head that Santa isn’t as real as he thought he was.

Currently I’m trying to redeem myself by giving him the 12 Days of Christmas so each day from here on out he’s getting an “act of service” from me to show him that possibly the best gifts are those that express love and don’t come with a price tag. He’s looking forward to the next ten days as he insists each day he gets each thing AGAIN, just like in the song “two turtle doves AND a partridge in a pear tree….” The first day of Christmas he got a “real breakfast” (bacon, eggs, toast…). The second day of Christmas he got two hours on his Nintendo DS (instead of his usual one hour), and tomorrow he’ll get “three less chores” (meaning, I’ll do them for him) so he’s holding out for all the repeats in the days ahead. I hope it shifts his memory away from the whole Christmas Eve debacle.

Christmas Day we had our old Seattle neighborhood kids over for breakfast (we call them the “Powerline Kids” because we met them while walking our dog under the power lines by where they lived at the time.) The three of them have now multiplied into11, so it was quite the gathering. We haven’t seen them since we’ve been back home as they are scattered all over the state, so it was great to get together with them again. The youngest, Eric, is now married and has a baby boy. The kids have always called us their “God parents,” which is OK, but when Eric handed me his baby and said to him, “Go see Grandma Mickey,” I about fell over. I was totally NOT prepared to be called Grandma. I told him I could be called “Auntie Mickey,” but “Grandma Mickey” was out of the question. I’m still trying to get used to being Kaleb’s “Mama.”

Earlier this week we went to Stanwood to see the Lights of Christmas then home to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and “The Nativity Story” movie - both excellent. Last Sunday we had Christmas with my step-mom and her family and today we had Christmas with Grammy J and her family. Both gatherings were wonderful, but never long enough. The days are too short! We feel blessed to have “families of choice” in our lives because we all get along great and there aren’t any weird dynamics going on that sometimes put a damper on the holidays. Of course this year I totally blew it with Kaleb, so he’s now perfecting his “forgiveness” skills so future holidays won’t be damaged.

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

This was a week all about Christmas traditions, celebrations and preparations. It was a good week. I got most of the Christmas cards out, but the house is still a mess. Oh well. We got a card from someone in Iowa, complete with photo of their new baby and their Christmas newsletter and we had absolutely NO idea who these people were. Both Kory and I were scratching our heads. I finally got on Facebook and typed their name to see if maybe they were friends of any of our friends or to look for any clue as to why they were sending us a card, and as it turns out, it was the daughter to a good friend of Kory’s but we didn’t recognize her married name, nor did we know she had moved to Iowa. Apparently it was to inform Kory that his friends had now become grandparents. We got a good laugh over that one, but it scared us there for a while thinking our memories are fading rather quickly.


Our week started off with a Christmas party with our home fellowship group, which is always a good time as we love the dynamics of our group and how well we all get along. Friday we did our traditional downtown Seattle Christmas day where we see the gingerbread houses at the Sheraton Hotel (I liked the “Christmas Story” one the best – see photo), get the Santa photo at Macy’s, have lunch at Westlake Center, ride the carousel, see the trains at the Center House, watch it “snow” inside Pacific Place and let Kaleb spend a little quality time at the downtown public library. We didn’t expect 54 degree weather and patches of blue sky, so other than that, it did feel like Christmas will soon be here. Saturday we took our traditional Santa Train ride at Wickersham up in Whatcom County. Our friends joined us, as usual, and the boys each got to sit on Santa’s lap as he grilled them as to whether they’ve been brushing their teeth and putting their toys away before he asked them what was on their list this year. He’s a great Santa. Today we attended a Christmas Open House party in Seattle before going on to Renton to celebrate Christmas with my step-mom and her family. Getting together with people is by far my favorite thing about this time of year.

I had to fight a lot of internal turmoil this week as it became more and more apparent to me how Christmas is slipping away from our society. When I went into Chase bank, there was barely any evidence of the holiday season at all. Small little nutcrackers were stationed at every teller window and a bow was hung up on the rope that starts the lineup of customers. When I got to the teller I said, “Wow, you really outdid yourselves on Christmas decorations this year,” to which she replied, “We weren’t allowed to put up anything with religious significance or to make any of the decorations very noticeable – company policy.” I thought then and there about how much I’ve hated that bank since they devoured Washington Mutual and my New Year’s resolution will now include changing banks – after 20 years with the same account number. I’ll be sure to let them know when I close out our accounts how offended I am they don’t acknowledge the birth of Christ. But it’s not just them. Twenty years ago “Candy Cane Lane” in Seattle was a huge deal, driving in the area of Ravenna the glow from the houses all lit up for the holiday could be seen blocks away. I’d sit in the car for an hour just to get close to the neighborhood as it was a sight to behold with house after house all decked out for Christmas, but this year we drove by and the lights weren’t even there. Just one small little cul-de-sac had a few lights on and I nearly cried. What’s become of Christmas? It’s more than sad.

Every year Kaleb asks for a dog for Christmas, and he gets one, but then has to give it back because we’re just dog sitting it. It’s no different this year. We got a four month old Golden Retriever on Friday night and I think this dog just might be the one to remove all future desires for a puppy. It’s as cute as can be but it’s not potty trained and it chews up everything. Kaleb is already quite annoyed by it and I’m so thankful. He’d much rather just sit and read a book than walk or play with the dog, so his priorities are pretty clear. This week when he was practicing the piano he finished up his lesson 15 minutes early so I told him to go down and just play songs for 15 more minutes because he needs to practice for 35 minutes a day. He went downstairs and belted out a few rounds of “Frosty the Snowman” before I went down– and there he was, sitting at the piano playing that song WHILE READING A BOOK! I couldn’t believe he had that music so burned into his memory that he could play it perfectly while having his mind understand what he was reading. That kid just freaks me out sometimes, and that was downright freaky.

Happy Birthday Week

The night before Kaleb’s birthday every year, we fill hundreds of balloons (thanks to our air compressor) and put them in his room after he’s gone to sleep. The idea is that he wakes up to a room full of balloons on his birthday, but inevitably he sleepwalks in the middle of the night and crawls into our bed. He loves the tradition so we still do it, but it would be nice if just once he stayed in his own bed for the night. Balloons usually float around the house until after Christmas every year but they make Kaleb happy and they give him something to play with, so we won’t be stopping that tradition anytime soon. He had a wonderful birthday, as usual, as we had the lunch with the neighbors and they watched him open his gifts. We got him a Wii this year so he was thrilled. Technology has replaced toys which I appreciate because they don’t take up as much room in the house but they sure cost more. Raising kids ain’t cheap.


This week was much about Kaleb. He had a day off school on Monday for his birthday then Tuesday he completed his science course and got a 93% for his final grade. Pretty impressive, I say. He started a new class on Earth and Space Science with Johns Hopkins yesterday so we’ll see how he does on that one. He’s always “inventing” things so studying science gives him a lot of good information. I love watching his brain at work. I’m also now loving to watch his fingers work as he tickles those ivories on the piano and plays beautiful music! He had his first piano recital last night and did very well. I don’t know why I’m so surprised by his talents and abilities, but I am. It’s just so shocking to me that he came out of my body and he’s actually GOOD at stuff.


We’ve had incredibly cold weather this week which really highlighted all the hot and cold spots in our house. Our furnace does not distribute the heat evenly so we have rooms that are too hot to stay in long and others that are like a walk-in freezer. Keeping doors closed helps, but that’s a discipline that’s tough for a little boy to remember. I’m glad it’s warming back up again as I hate being cold. Kory has appreciated the crisp days and has been outside doing yard work but I’m happy to sit inside and address Christmas cards. Some days I feel there is no time to just enjoy life - that it’s all just about getting stuff done. I hate that, but this time of year comes with quite a bit of stuff that really needs to be done.


I went to two fabulous cookie exchanges this week and they both (unfortunately) contributed to my waistline in a marvelous and tasty way. I was able to have some female chit-chat time, something I lack on a day-to-day basis around here, and I realized while being able to verbalize some things, that I just need to be done grieving Norway. It’s time to get out of my pit and accept that life is what it is here on the Ridge and start looking for things I enjoy about that – like the flocks of Trumpeter Swans that fly overhead each day or the sliver of orange that peeks out between the gray clouds at sunset or the way the ice formed a beautiful protective shell over the fountain in our pond this week. Each day there are blessings and small miracles and my eyes just need to see them and not the piles of laundry or trail of books Kaleb leaves throughout the house. I am blessed, and I know it, but in Norway, I felt so spoiled. But as my Daddy used to say, “This too, shall pass.” He meant it to comfort me over bad things, but it’s also true of good things – they don’t last forever either. Today would have been his 77th birthday.

Kaleb's Last Day Being 10

We are in the middle of the holiday hustle and bustle here. Kaleb’s 11th birthday is tomorrow. Today he had his two big performances of the Christmas play at His Place Community Church. Saturday he had a practice piano recital and working back through the week we were running here and there all the while the house stayed messy as the boxes of Christmas ornaments didn’t put themselves away. Today, I hope the house gets clean, but I know I’ll have to be the one to do it, so maybe it won’t.

In many ways it feels like the days before Kaleb was born, all the rushing around trying to get this and that done, so maybe it is appropriate that this time of the year is so darn busy - all in preparation for celebrating the greatest birth of all (not Kaleb’s!). I just know the New Year comes with a huge sigh of relief that life gets back to normal, so that’s something to look forward to, but I sure don’t want to miss the advent season by being too busy now. So the house may not get cleaned. Except company is coming tomorrow… Uff da.


Kaleb did pretty well in his Christmas play today. He had a main part and was happy about that. The first service went much better than the second because they had his microphone headset turned off for most of it so his lines weren’t as audible the second time around. First service he had taken some creative liberties with the script and added a few punches that got a good laugh, so the director wasn’t mad he’d done some ad-libbing. He tried it second service but the microphone was off so no one heard it. Funny boy, nonetheless. I’m glad it’s over.


I’m also glad I’m over the hump in terms of my commitments. I spoke at the women’s Christmas brunch at our church on Friday. It went OK. They just wanted me to share all that God did for us in Norway so it was an easy talk to give, but really hard to describe in enough detail to get the real points across. I just hope someone was blessed by it.


We got a call from Norway yesterday that Aunt Ruth fell and broke her hip. We’ve been praying for her non-stop since she was in a lot of pain waiting for surgery. She didn’t want surgery but they didn’t give her that choice. We were worried she’d die on the operating table as her health is so fragile already, but we got a call during church today that she made it through OK and will be in the hospital a while recovering before they send her to a rehab place. Cousin Odd doesn’t think she will ever be able to live on her own again so he assured us when we come in May we will be able to stay in our condo. I’m sure that’s a relief for him since we always crash at his house and next year we’ll be there for seven weeks. But I’m sure Aunt Ruth won’t mind us staying at her place if she’s not there. Now we will pray she doesn’t get pneumonia. When I talked with her two weeks ago and told her we’d be back in just a few months she said, “I might not be alive then,” so maybe she knew this was coming. Who knows. We just don’t want her to be miserable. God’s in control.


Kory got all the lights hung this week and the tree up in the living room. I wish Christmas lasted longer. I’m so not ready, even now. I still have to finish the newsletter and get cards out. Bows are still missing from presents and I haven’t done any Christmas baking. The days are too short and my enthusiasm is waning. Every year I think I’ll do more before Thanksgiving to take the pressure off, and every year I don’t. Tradition! (Ha.)


Last night I had a little Chick time with some old Junior High school girlfriends. We used to have sleepovers back in the early 1970s, and they are still going on nearly forty years later. I couldn’t spend the night this time because of Kaleb’s play today, but it sure was a hoot to get together with those “girls.” It’s nice to have a SAFE bunch of people in my life. I don’t have to worry about being judged or hurting anyone’s feelings – we all just talk about everything we can’t talk about with anyone else because we’ve all been friends since before puberty. What a gift they are to have in my life. I got to brag about Kaleb a little – especially about his piano skills. He played several songs at a home school Christmas party on Friday night, but found it challenging when the kids sang along because they kept a different beat. It was a good experience for him. This week one of the songs he was playing was too easy for him so when he played it for his teacher he crossed his hands on the keyboard and played the right hand part with his left hand and vice versa. She just shook her head and said he obviously needs to be moving along at an even faster rate. Even she is impressed. I love that he tries to challenge himself so he doesn’t get bored. I wish I could do the same.

Advent Begins!

Sorry I missed last week! Not much was going on during the week, and then my step-mom was here over the weekend so I totally forgot to write anything. It happens.



This week has been both sweet and sour. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving time with our “chosen” family (good friends) and we feel abundantly blessed in all areas of our lives, so that’s the sweet news. The sour news is that both Kory and I had a doctor’s appointment this week and neither one of them contributed in any way to solving the problems. Ugh.


Kory’s lab work from a few weeks ago showed he had something going on that needed the attention of a urologist. Turns out he has some food allergies (yet to be determined exactly what) and possibly some kidney stones. He hates being the human pincushion while they try to determine the cause of it all so for now he’s decided to do nothing but try to pinpoint the cause of the allergic reactions. I don’t blame him. I on the other hand saw a naturopath for my constant wheezing cough and she too said I need an inhaler, chest x-rays, lab work, etc. If I were going to spend two thousand dollars on something, it sure wouldn’t be to get rid of a cough, so I opted for quick stop at Super Supplements to try and resolve the problem naturally without contributing financially to the medical profession. (I have a five thousand dollar deductible each year so insurance won’t cover a thing.) I do believe God made our bodies to heal naturally, so the farther I stay away from doctors, the better I’m sure I’ll feel. Besides, I know God works miracles and healing my lungs of whatever ails them is not out of His reach.


I’ve also been a bit distracted this week with preparing for my sermon TODAY. It’s hard to believe our pastor asked me to preach, but he did, and I did, and I think it went pretty well. I had to give the same sermon at both services so I stuck to the script so as not to leave anything out. Based on the feedback I got after both services, it seems the Holy Spirit was at work in people’s lives as what I said touched many. Hallelujah! I’m just thankful my gift of gab can be used for good, and not evil, as I’ve done my share of damage over the years with the words I’ve spoken. But God is my Redeemer and He sure made some inroads today.


I’m feeling a bit stressed I haven’t gotten the Christmas newsletter written, nor do we have lights up or a single Christmas decoration hanging, but we did get the tree on Friday. Good thing too as the snow level was so low we barely made it out of the woods and it snowed up there yesterday so we would have been without a tree this year if we'd waited. We went up to the Mount Baker National Forest to cut our tree as we do every year and this year we headed for our usual spot, but got stuck in the snow. I was quite nervous and could only think of the Lee family that got stuck a few years ago on a snowy road down in Oregon. I started praying after Kory had made several attempts to get unstuck, and couldn’t. And wouldn’t you know, we got our own little miracle when three big rigs came barreling up the otherwise abandoned road we were on and helped to shovel us out of the mess we were in. It was no coincidence, it was a total answer to prayer. Hallelujah!


So perhaps tomorrow we’ll be hanging the mistletoe, but today, we are all taking a breather. Kaleb practiced hard this week both for his upcoming piano recital and for the play he’ll be in next Sunday. We have another busy week ahead of us but today is the first day of Advent and we want to spend time just waiting in the presence of God. I don’t want to rush a single thing this year as time goes by quickly enough as it is.

A Little Off

We were all a little off “normal” this week, but then, that just might be the norm around here. Kory started off the week with a visit to the ear doctor. Every time I tell him I think he’s losing his hearing, he responds with, “Huh?” He was there for an hour and a half and yes, they said, he needs a hearing aid. His response to that was, “And if I took my car to a mechanic, of course they would tell me I need something fixed.” He thinks they only want to make a sale. I told him I’d go in as a spy to see if they tell me the same thing, but even if they told me my hearing was perfect, I’m pretty sure he isn’t getting a hearing aid anytime soon. He’s trying to keep the phrase “stubborn Norwegian” alive and well. At least he did agree to go back to Chelation therapy – mostly to complete the mercury detox he was doing before we left for Norway. In my quest to discover “why” he has hardening of the arteries, I came across some literature that said mercury could contribute to it. When he got his mercury test results back, the scale went from 0-3, with 3 representing very dangerous levels of mercury in the blood. His level was 27. He got all his amalgam fillings taken out and went through some detoxing to get his level down to 9, but he still has a way to go to get it under 3. The worst fear about mercury toxicity is what it’s known to do to the brain. I hope we aren’t too late. Some days I wonder.



I actually went to a doctor this week for the first time since Kaleb’s been born. My friend Dani told me my cough was “annoying” and she told me I need to do something about it. I just assumed it was from dairy allergies, but even when I stayed off dairy, I still coughed, so I bit the bullet and went in. The doctor ordered a bunch of tests, which I’ve yet to schedule because I really don’t want to spend money on such things, but her best guess is that I have bronchial pneumonia, asthma and allergies. Lovely. She’s not sure if the pneumonia is brought on by allergies or an infection and that’s why she wants all the tests. I’m giving prayer and naturopathic means a shot before I even have any tests because I’m against taking any kind of prescription drugs and I like to give God the first shot at healing me anyway - there’s never any side effects with Him.



Kaleb and I went to see the “Bodies” exhibit in downtown Seattle this week. Truly, our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made. My first impression of all those cadavers, somehow preserved to show us all the inner workings of our earthly form, was that, “It looks a lot like chicken.” Really – it reminded me of all the times I’ve chewed on a chicken leg – as our muscles wrapped around the bone don’t look much differently. And the other thing it reminded me of is the first time I went snorkeling. Once I saw all those incredible creatures under the surface of the water, I never looked out at the ocean with the same eyes. That’s how it is with our bodies… previously I just saw skin, now I can visualize all that’s under there. Interesting stuff. Kaleb and I also attended a play at the Children’s Theatre that day, which was beyond awesome. I love live theatre.



My two biggest time consumers this week were the dogs we are dog sitting, and preparing for Christmas (wrapping gifts, etc.). Those dogs have somehow decided I’m the coolest person on the planet and they only want to be with me. They won’t go for a walk with either Kory or Kaleb, unless I come along (they return to the house every time, waiting for me.) They won’t even chase after the ball if Kaleb throws it – I have to be the one. They only come to me for all their love and affection and they are constantly competing for a little face time. It would be great if I weren’t trying to get so many things done, but if I sit at the computer, they push their nose up under my arm to dislodge my hand from the keyboard. When I’m in the kitchen, they lie in front of the stove or sink so I’m having to cook meals while contorting my body around so as not to step on them. They are going home Tuesday - just in time - because I’ll still love them by then. (Kory just about lost them this week while Kaleb and I were in Seattle. He let them outside while he was working on a project, and they took off. He didn’t notice they were gone right away and it took him a while to find them. They were off running in a neighbor’s field, so all’s well that end’s well, but he was in a panic there for a while.)



Kaleb was all set to run in a two mile race this morning but he stepped on a nail in our driveway (he was just wearing Crocs). His foot hurt just enough when he put his running shoes on that we thought it wise to bag out of the race. He didn’t complain, as he spent the day on the couch reading books until a friend came over to play. He’s done so well in school this week I know he needs some down time. He’s been pushing it hard in his web design class as he’s actually at the point where he’s designing the real website for his Weekly Puppy newspaper, so he’s very excited, but he also gets frustrated to tears when something doesn’t work right. It’s all so detailed, I’m surprised he likes it so well, but the reward of it going live is just around the corner. He’s also doing quite well with his music lessons. When he came in the door after practice this week Kory asked how he did and his response was, “Unfortunately, very well.” His teacher skipped him a year’s worth of books and put him up to where her second year students are. She said he has a “knack” for music so she’s pushing him hard. I love it.



We had our home fellowship meeting tonight and had another great time together. We are so blessed to be part of such a fantastic group of people. Every meeting I start us off with a “getting to know you” kind of question (even though this is our third year). Tonight’s question was about our bravest moment. It was so interesting to see the clear line drawn between the male and female responses. The bulk of the women talked about a time they fought some injustice or worked with the mentally ill, while all the men (but one) said their bravest moments were around something to do with public speaking. Pretty funny. My response was, the day I became a mother, because motherhood isn’t for sissies. Every day, I feel like a hero if we all manage to stay alive.



(The photo today is of Kaleb with Penny and Luna, the dogs we are watching, in the Anacortes off-leash dog park. Kaleb is standing next to the section of fence “dedicated” to him for his work done on The Weekly Puppy. The green plaque has his name on it.)

Peace, Peace, Wonderful Peace

I didn’t yell at anyone even once this week. I consider that a major improvement. The time in California was very good for me – mostly because I had four days where I didn’t have to look at my to-do list, nor look around my house and see a dozen things more that need to be added to it. It’s amazing what a little R&R can do. I think the margaritas helped a lot, but also just the non-stop chatter with my friend Dani was just what I needed. Kory and Kaleb did fine without me. I’m not even sure I was missed (I left food in the freezer – otherwise, I might have been). Kory asked if I wanted to stay longer – I’m sure he needed the break from me more than I needed a break from life. Peace has finally returned to our household now, so Hallelujah!

While I was gone, two yellow labs came to live at our house. Now that I think of it, that might be something that’s contributed to the peace – they are the most adorable dogs I’ve ever been around. A woman from our church is on a cruise and she asked Kaleb to dog sit. The word is out that he loves dogs and he dog-sits for cheap. Before we moved to Norway he was dog-sitting for a dollar a day. Most kennels charge around $25 a day, so we always had dogs around. One time we had four here at a time. This is my clever way of meeting his “dog needs” without actually owning one. The first time he watched a dog, when the owner came to pick it up and asked how much she owed him, Kaleb said, “Well, I charge a dollar a day and she’s been here four days, so four dollars – but really – I should pay you.” He was so happy to have a dog – even if just temporarily.

Kaleb’s made a little money dog sitting in the past, as people often pay more than he charges, but while we were in Norway he decided to up his fee to two dollars a day for returning customers and five dollars a day for new customers. The two labs are new to us so he’s got dollar signs in his eyes because they will be with us for nearly three weeks. I told him he gets a dollar a day to feed and water them, a dollar to scoop poop, a dollar to walk them, a dollar to play with them, and a dollar to clean up the messes they make in the house. If he fails to do any one of those things on any one day – I get to keep the dollar because it always falls back on me to take care of them. I think I might have made as much this past week as he did as the dog hair I’ve had to clean up has been enough to stuff a pillow. But other than the shedding, we are all in love with those dogs. My friend Dani would call them “Velcro dogs” because they just stick around us wherever we go but they don’t do anything obnoxious or destructive. I forgot how good it is to get sloppy kisses every now and then. It makes me miss the two basset hounds I had many years ago, but we are SO not getting a dog of our own. Our needs have been met in other ways – and in ways that pay!

Kory has finally begun to work on our summer kitchen – a little building that’s been an eye-sore for as long as we’ve lived in our house. We’ve had plans to restore it since we bought this place in 1997 and now is the time. I think the year in Norway was good for lighting a fire under him as he had nothing to work on there, and redoing the summer kitchen is going to be a big project that he’s finally ready to tackle. It needs a new roof, which will be replaced with a grass roof like they have in Norway, and the tall concrete foundation will be covered with river rock so it looks a bit more like a “cottage.” We still haven’t worked out the details for the inside, but he pulled out the old smoker and chimney this week and is figuring out how to remove the well pump so we can replace it and have access to the well water to water the lawn in the summertime. I’d like a little “tea house” feel on the inside but I’m not sure that lines up with Kory’s plans. One step at a time. I’m just glad he has a focus.

Kaleb is playing the piano so well already I can hardly believe my ears. He’s practicing his piece for the Christmas recital and I think he secretly loves the challenge. He complains about having to practice, but he’s said a few things that make me think he really loves learning to play. The other day he said, “Now I can read four languages – English, Norwegian, HTML and music!” (HTML is the programming language he’s learning in order to create websites.) He’s spent an incredible amount of time this week working on his web design class. He was in tears on many occasions, but they were all teachable moments so once he made it over the hump, he really progressed in his understanding of how it all works. He’s a year younger than Johns Hopkins recommends for taking the course, but he swore he could do the work. The age difference comes in to play more with his study habits and ability to follow through on things more than his ability to just learn the code, so I’ve had to spend way too much of my time keeping him focused as his mind tends to wander – especially when there are two dogs in the house. Life is good.

Perspectives

This week had it's shares of disappointments, but currently I'm not thinking about them as I write this from sunny California sitting at my friend Dani's house with not a care in the world. This is payback time for all extra work I had to do when we first came home from Norway. It was Kory's idea to reduce my stress one day by suggesting I plan a little weekend get-away so I had something to look forward to. It worked then and it's working well now, even though I wasn't sure I was actually going to make it here. I'm such a skeptic sometimes.

I decided to be hip and use the new light rail system to get to the airport from downtown Seattle. Kory and I were up at 5am on Thursday so he could drop me off and I could take the supposedly 40 minute tram to the airport. I had plenty of time, but that was only if I believed what I had read on the internet. It felt so European as I was completely unsure how it all worked and didn't realize until I was at the airport I was supposed to buy the ticket before I got on the tram. I felt like a foreigner in my own land. It actually took nearly 90 minutes to get from Seattle to Sea-Tac as the rail doesn't go all the way just yet and there was a transfer involved that ate a lot of time. I arrived too late to catch my flight and I had a ticket that allowed for no changes. I prayed before I approached the agent to tell her of my dilemma. Because, she said, I decided to try the new light rail, she had mercy on me and booked me on a new flight with no fees. Whew. I was to arrive at 10am in Fresno and spend the day with my friend's husband but I knew that wasn't going to happen so I made the best of the day anyway. I didn't want to sit at Sea-Tac all day so I
asked for a flight to Portland so I could spend the day there instead. I never hurts to ask.

The agent was more than accomodating so I was able to spend the day in Portland just a few tram stops from the airport where I did a little tax-free "retail therapy" and bought a few Christmas gifts. I had a cheap lunch at Ikea and I was back at the airport waiting for my 3:20 flight to Fresno. It was a sweet day, but even sweeter when I got to see my pal Dani once I arrived in Fresno.

It's been sunny and hot since I got here so that's a nice change from the weather I left behind in Seattle. Dani treated me to a mani-pedi (manicure and pedicure)on Friday as she took the day off work to spend time with me. We did a little shopping, had lunch out, enjoyed a margarita and a few movies and chatted in all the in-between times. It's been nice to be doing her life instead of mine, even though it means we've eaten dinner on paper plates standing around the kitchen sink and have had cheez-whiz and Ritz crackers for appetizers. She doesn't have a sophisticated life, but I love her anyway.

Kory and Kaleb have been doing just fine without me. Imagine that. Two yellow labs arrived yesterday for a two week dog-sitting stint so Kaleb is in doggy heaven. He did well in school this week and I hope it continues next week without the dogs becoming a distraction. Kory is back working a little at our apartment building in Seattle and going about life as usual.

One day this week Kaleb told me, "I just can't imagine anyone else being my mom. Sometimes I think you would do just aboutanything for me ." It was one of the nicest compliments I've gotten and I assured him that was true, as long as whatever I did was for his good. There are definatly lines to be drawn in that arena and I wanted to be sure he wasn't buttering me up for something. Turns out he wasn't, I'm just a skeptic about my mothering skills.

It's good to get away to work on my perspective. And there's nothing like being with Dani to help with that task.
(The photo is of Dani and her foster granddaughter on Halloween.)

Kaleb Was a Sick Boy This Week

This week revolved around Kaleb and his ever distressed stomach. He also frequently complained of a headache but I could never tell if it was brought on by some illness or his disdain for algebra. We lost some ground on his school work schedule because of his illness – which actually started last week but having four kids in the house to run around with somehow helped him forget his pains. After the Roberts left, however, all he wanted to do was lie on the couch and moan. Just as Kory recuperated enough to get up from the couch, Kaleb took his place.

I don’t get any brownie points for being a good mom this week as I called “baloney” on most of Kaleb’s complaints and I made him do his schoolwork anyway. When I wasn’t around, Kory set him free so he could perfect his couch potato skills. Boy does Kaleb ever know how to work Kory. Without hard evidence of a fever or any other overt symptoms, I wasn’t buying it, yet his complaints persisted. He swore his stomach hurt even when he drank water, so he didn’t eat or drink much all week. Finally on Thursday, he did feel a little feverish and he said he felt nauseous. I very lackadaisically got up from the couch to go get him a barf bowl and just as I was pulling it out from the cupboard, Kaleb came running by me trying to get to the toilet. I held out the bowl just in time. I then had terrible feelings of remorse for all the grief I’d been giving him about “faking it.” So much for my mother of the year award. Needless to say, he didn’t do school work that day even though he felt much better after throwing up. He was thrilled to have the day to sit and read more “Redwall” books and play his Nintendo. The only bad part about it was that his classes from Johns Hopkins are on a schedule and he was getting behind.

Normally Friday afternoons are playtime after Friday School (the homeschool co-op we attend) but I had him stay home to do some of his work. He’s well into the depths of learning how to set up web pages and the amount of time it takes to keep up with the homework for that class is unbelievable. He got behind last week when we had company so it wasn’t good this week to try and catch up, especially when he was feeling a little punky. But he loves that web class so much he was up late Friday night and worked on it all day today – well into the night. He’s pretty excited he can now link videos and pdf files to a site – which is what he really needs to know if he’s going to set up a website for his Weekly Puppy subscribers. He’s getting close. Last night he nearly gave up as the homework was so tough, but after a good night’s sleep he figured out why certain things weren’t working the way they should and today he enjoyed the fruits of his labor. I tried to paste in the example of the kinds of things he’s “coding,” (programming) but it actually affected this website, so I had to take off the first character < from every line to keep it from reprogramming this webpage!  See, he wrote this -

!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

html>
head>
title>6b
/head>
body style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',verdana;">
table width="100%" height="100%" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" border="0">
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td colspan="2" height="80" bgcolor="#0469B3">

My Assignment

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align="center">Videos
a href="my_embedded_youtubes2.htm">Video1

He so impresses me sometimes with what he is capable of, I can hardly believe we share DNA.

It was such a gorgeous day today I felt terrible Kaleb was inside on a computer but he was pumped over all the tricks he’s learning how to do and only the neighbor dog, Duchess, was able to coax him outside for a few minutes to play ball. Kory and I went a bit overboard on yard work as there was a lot of wind yesterday and when we woke up today we couldn’t see a speck of green in our lawn. All the cedar trees that surround us had left their rust colored droppings all over our yard. Plus all the maple trees dumped their leaves as well so I got out the riding lawn mower and looked at it as an opportunity to “vacuum” the yard. I love that instant gratification stuff. I then raked all the flower beds and now the yard looks like a well manicured park. I took photos because I know it won’t last long.

Kory spent the day trimming some bushes that border one of our neighbors – he was so pleased with himself that he worked hard all day and never had to go inside to lie down even once. But for several hours this evening he’s been on the couch “relaxing.”

This week was pretty routine – Sunday was church and Kaleb’s Christmas program practice; Monday Kory schooled Kaleb all day and I worked on some photo books, Kory went to Seattle on Tuesday to work at our apartment building and I went down on Wednesday to take Grammy J shopping and do some housework for her. She’s getting better but is still in a wheelchair. I love my Wednesdays with Janet. Thursday was Kaleb’s worst “sick day,” and I taught my Money management class on Friday. Most days seem so boring and routine. It really was lonely this week without company here, but just in case someone drops by, our place looks FABULOUS!

Time Marches On

We almost had a normal, routine week, but then the Robert’s came back for a visit on Wednesday and stayed til late this afternoon. It was impossible to get Kaleb to do school work after that, but we so enjoy their stays with us that we just blew off school for a few days and let the kids run wild. It’s a joy for us all when our house is full of friends (even if the kids spend most of their energy trying to spy on us). Bennett, their 8 year old boy, was running through the house yesterday and I overheard him say to Kaleb, “I sure wish you were my brother or cousin or something…” to which Kaleb replied, “I AM your brother – in Christ!” I thought that was pretty cute. They all play so well together, and we love visiting with Joni and Jimmy – lots of late nights, stories and wine. Good thing we don’t have to get up in the morning and go to work.

What school Kaleb did do – he did pretty well. His piano teacher said he is learning quicker than any kid she’s ever had – and she’s been teaching for 24 years! So maybe he’s a natural. I love having piano music in the house, even if it is just a steady plunk here and there. Kaleb also had a mid-term science project due this week which he’s nearly done with (he’s making his own bouncy balls), and he got his mid-term exam back with an 84%. He loves science, and has decided to be a mad scientist for Halloween.

I thought he was working on his Halloween costume when we went to a craft store this week. As we were getting out of the car, he’d taken a big bite of a piece of bread and began to chew it as he walked behind me. I heard a muffled, “I think I have a loose tooth” and when I turned around, all I saw were two bloody hands, blood smeared all over his face, down his neck and the wad of white bread in his mouth completely soaked in blood. It was the grossest thing I’ve seen and we had nothing to clean it up with so he went walking through the store looking for the bathroom like a real life monster. One of his molars came out – the one that had a cavity – and I couldn’t believe how huge of a hole it had eaten into the side of the tooth! It was discovered while we were in Norway but they said they wouldn’t do anything about it because the tooth would soon fall out anyway, so it served as a good example of why he needs to brush and floss and avoid sugar. Eeek.

Kory has gone three days now without even using a back brace so he’s excited about that. Each week shows more and more improvement but I’m anxious for him to get back up to his normal levels as we are still having to hire out the repairs down at our apartment building and it’s costing a fortune. Kory has started going down there once a week, but he’s still afraid to lift anything or do any big jobs, which hurts the bottom line (and his back), but hopefully not for long. I’m thinking he’s been lying around way too much though as somehow the blood has stopped flowing to his brain. I discovered all the apple cider we pressed a few weeks ago – in the basement pantry. Normally we freeze the cider, but this year, for some reason, Kory put it in the pantry. I only noticed it because the bottles swelled up so much in the process of fermenting, that they rolled right off the lower shelf where he’d stashed them. What was he thinking?
I’m continuing to plod along. I’m not nearly as productive as I’d like to be but at least I haven’t been screaming or crying lately. I have so many things I want to do but the days just fly by. Planning out Kaleb’s school days, and doing the preparation for the money class I’m teaching on Fridays are huge time consumers, and keeping the house clean is the biggest energy drain on the planet. But “this too shall pass,” as my daddy used to say.

Kaleb and I did some baking on Tuesday – he made some yummy molasses cookies and a cake for his friend. When I was upstairs taking the cookies out of the oven, he was downstairs putting the final ingredients in the pound cake (almond and lemon extract). When I licked the spoon as I was pouring the batter into the pan I noticed it didn’t taste like I thought it would. Kaleb asked if I liked his “experiment,” so I had to ask what he had done. He decided a little mint extract might also be good in the cake, which I must say, wasn’t. He thinks cooking is a lot like science because he gets to mix things together and he never knows just what might happen. Unfortunately, we have to eat the results.

We’ve had some beautiful days this week, complete with rainbows, dramatic lighting and glorious sunrises. We love where we live (see photo of our view) and we’re now thankful for the rain. Two deer have been hanging out in our driveway for a while, but something has eaten the goldfish in our pond this week. The moles are all dead and the eagles and snow geese are returning. The fall colors make my heart skip a beat and almost bring tears to my eyes. I so love this time of year.

Returning to Normal

This week I made it over the hump and now I feel like I’m beginning to slide back into routines and “normal.” The week started out pretty rough with Kaleb pushing a few of my buttons last Sunday and me screaming a bit more than is healthy, but as the week progressed, life got simpler and we started settling back into some of our old comfortable routines, which felt pretty good. I so need to be done with the stress, the screaming and the crying. Uff da.


I started taking Grammy J’s advice and used some time each day this week to clean and purge. We have enough closets and drawers in this house that if I purge a location every day it will keep me busy throughout the entire fall and winter, but that’s my goal. I could probably have one heck of a garage sale by the time I’m done, but I hate garage sales so I’m not sure where everything will end up, but I’m definitely motivated to get rid of some things. Kaleb even jumped on the band wagon and held his own private sale – selling me everything he wanted to part with – that way I’m free to do with it as I please after he’s relinquished control. He’s trying to raise money for the three week contest I’ve given the kids in my millionaire class – to see who can raise the most money during that time. I’m sure he’ll win as I can’t imagine any kid having more things to sell than Kaleb. I think he finds it easier to sell things than to work for wages, but either way, it serves me well.

Kaleb did incredible in school this week and even had a pleasant attitude while doing it, which I so appreciated. He reached the mid-term point of his science course and took a big exam, which he did well in. He was a little frustrated though with one of the first questions and didn’t write down an answer because he thought he knew the answer but felt it was too obvious and too easy, so it must be wrong. He said he’d rather leave it blank than get it wrong. I tried to tell him it’s always better to write something down than leave it blank, but he didn’t see it that way. Every once in a while he has some perfectionist tendencies, which scare me, but hopefully he’ll learn a lesson once he gets the test back and sees that he got it wrong by leaving it blank, when indeed he knew the answer but didn’t write it down. I’m just in awe of him and his ability to understand all this chemistry stuff as I couldn’t have answered a single question on that test even after watching the lectures. It just doesn’t compute in my brain for some reason, but it does in his. He also found out this week he got one of the main parts in an upcoming Christmas play at His Place church, so he’s pretty excited about that. Every year he’s been in their Christmas play, but with just a one line speaking role, so this is his big year. He always memorizes every person’s line in the whole play, in case someone is sick, hoping he’ll get to fill in their spot. He says he loves to memorize things, and I know he does, but I still can’t figure out why he can’t memorize when he’s supposed to get in bed, start school and practice his piano lessons. Time management is not his strong suit.

I spent Wednesday down in Seattle with Grammy J again – taking her swimming and doing her laundry and whatever else she needed as she’s still in recovery mode, and will be for many more weeks. It’s such a tragedy that she broke her leg, but on the other hand, it gives me an opportunity to spend more time with her. She’s like the wise Yoda that has an answer to every situation and problem in the world. I’m thankful God can work all things together for good as there are certainly some blessings to be found in this midst of her suffering. And I do believe I’ve been the recipient of an unexplained miracle this week –which I hate to even write about because it defies logic and I don’t fully understand it. But I’ve been praying earnestly for the return of my external hard drives since they went missing two weeks ago. I have faith to believe that if something is lost, God can make a new “whatever” and put it where I can find it. I know it’s happened before in my life, and this week, it happened again - my hard drives showed up! It was the strangest thing, as I had put them in the laptop case when Kaleb and I went to the water park a few weeks ago. They were at the hotel, but then when I got home I noticed they weren’t in the case anymore. I searched the Honda, called the hotel and went through our luggage time and time again. I looked in all our vehicles and everywhere I could think but they just weren’t anywhere to be found. It only made sense they were taken by someone, but today I found them on the backseat of the Lexus. And it would have made good sense to find them there if we had taken the Lexus to the water park (they could have fallen out of the laptop bag), but we didn’t take the Lexus – we took the Honda. I’ve even looked in the Lexus several times in my search for them, so I have no idea how they got there today. It’s as weird of a situation as can be but all I can say is HALLELUJAH! Oh, how thankful I am to have my files back!

Kory was shouting Hallelujah this week too as he attempted to be normal (well, as normal as he can be, anyway.) He washed and waxed the cars, blew leaves off our driveway, cleaned out the gutters and did a few home repairs. He also spent an entire day down at our apartment building in Seattle fixing things there. He’s not quite 100% but he’s close. He still has to lie down a few times a day just to take the pressure off his back, but he’s happy to have a to-do list going and projects to work on.

We had company for three nights this week – friends of friends that needed a place to stay while they visited family in the area. We so love being able to share our house with people and have friends over. Our neighbor, Joan, came over last night for the evening. We’ve had a long standing tradition that during fall and winter she comes over one night on the weekend for a soup dinner and we spend several hours playing cribbage. She lives alone, so it helps break up the long dark nights for all of us. And today our friend Tracy came up from Seattle for a visit so we took her out to a pumpkin farm to get our pumpkins and to see all the beautiful art and displays at Gordon Pumpkins. We’ve gone there every year since we moved to Skagit Valley and every year, Eddie, the owner does more and more artsy things with his place – it’s really incredible (see photo). When we were sitting at a picnic table eating pumpkin muffins, drinking cider today, I said something to Tracy and Kory that Eddie Gordon’s dad had just died recently. Kaleb piped up and said, “You mean his last name is Gordon? I thought it was called Gordon Pumpkins because they sell gourds here!” Where does he come up with this stuff?

Tonight we had our home fellowship meeting, which also contributed well to our sense of normalcy. We love our group and the time we get to spend with them. I guess I like routines as it makes life a bit more predictable and less frantic. But sometimes routines are problematic. Like the one I have now of writing a blog on Saturday night. I completely forgot to do it and went to bed at ten o’clock – then woke up at 12:30am realizing the error of my ways. It’s now 2am and I’m sitting in front of a computer, a slave to my routine. Lord help me.

ugh

It's 2am and I just finished my blog.  For whatever reason, it won't post.  I give up.

Fall Finally Fell

Looking east, as I write this, the full moon is beginning to light up the entire Skagit Valley as the setting sun to the west has turned the horizon into pure gold.  The weather today was absolutely spectacular and the sunset tonight was jaw-dropping.  Everything about this day felt like Fall.  It was a good day and I needed it.  It's been another challenging week, but in a technological kind of way this time.  (My internet connection is even down at this very minute, which only serves as the icing on the cake for me and all the techno-dilemmas I've faced lately.)

The week started out good for Kaleb and Kory.  Many months ago I reserved a room at Great Wolf Lodge, south of Olympia, where they offered a screaming deal for several homeschool co-ops in the state.  I thought it would be fun for Kaleb to spend some time with other homeschool kids as they played in the incredible water park that's at the hotel.  The hotel is a destination kind of place, totally designed for kids, so Kaleb had a blast.  Kory enjoyed having two days home by himself and I asked a friend and her son, Malik, to fill in the gap Kory left behind.  The last place Kory wants to be right now is in a water park.  I feel the same, but again, the ol' "mother's love" thing kicks in from time to time and I just gotta do what I gotta do.  I figured while Kaleb was going down the water slides and jumping in the wave pool, I'd be cuddled up with his laptop (because his works and mine doesn't), getting my lesson done for the "Millionaire" class I'm teaching on Fridays.  I brought along my two portable hard drives so I could work with my files on Kaleb's computer, but it seems someone broke into our room and took my two hard drives and Malik's wallet while we were in the waterpark.  There's no other explanation as to how all three items could go missing when the last time we all saw them was on the table in our room.  I'm still in denial, as those hard drives contained all the photos for the entire year we spent in Norway, as well as my year's worth of blogs and several other files I really didn't want to part with.  I'm holding out hope somehow they show up, because honestly, I can't deal with the thought of losing everything.  Some of the files and photos are also stored on my laptop, but that computer had a virus and had to have the hard drive formatted so I lost all the software that would enable me to access those files.  When I finally found the discs that came with the laptop so I could reload all the software, I couldn't find the "key code" number the computer needs to make them work.  That number is printed on the box the software came in and I'm pretty sure that box is sitting in our storage unit in Norway.  I just broke down and bawled at that point.  My friend Janet says I should be asking God what He's trying to teach me in all of this because I've sure had my share of headaches in trying to find things that don't seem to be where I need them to be.  She said I may need to simplify my life a little and get more organized.  Now there's a thought.

Kaleb tried to SKYPE (video call) his buddy in Norway earlier this week but the microphone didn't work on my laptop so he could see us, but not hear us.  I got a webcam and installed it on my office computer and this morning Kaleb tried to SKYPE another buddy in Norway and he could hear us, but not see us.  Finally I took the microphone off my office computer and put it on my laptop, and we were all able to see and hear all that was going on, so that was one minor triumph, but only after much time and frustration had passed.  I'm so ready to be done with computers and just go back to writing letters by hand and making old fashioned telephone calls.  I'll even get out my IBM Correcting Selectric typewriter if I'm every going to write again as I'm sure I'd be using less time than what it takes to deal with all these technological problems.  Ugh!

It's much more pleasant to think about the good things from this week and there were plenty, so I'm thankful for that.  Kory is continuing to improve and is able to do more around the house (he vacuumed today!).  He's also driving a bit more and really has no pain, just fatigue in his back if he's up too long.  He picked all the Asian pears and apples off our trees for the wonderful cider press party we attended today at my friend Wendy's house (see photo), so that was good.  We also had the Robert's family back for one night this week, which was a treat for us to spend more time with them.  And I was able to spend time with Grammy J (Janet), taking her to the pool so she could go swimming to get some strength back in her broken leg.  It was a busy week, full of school routines and schedules but we all survived.  Kaleb went through about five boxes of Kleenex though as he's had a terrible cold but that didn't keep me from cracking the whip on his school work- he's had far too many distractions to let a little sniffle slow him down now.  He's plodding along and only drags his feet on algebra.  My money management class is a big hit with the homeschool kids so that's also good (I pay well for their participation.)  And we may have found tenants for our last empty apartment in Seattle.  Woo hoo.

So, I should be thinking about all these good things rather than focusing on the negative as I'm still a bit more stressed than I'd like to be.  Kory told me he thinks I should fly to California soon to visit my good friend Dani, just to get away and have some time to myself.  Honestly, I think it's more for him to have time away from me, than for me to relax - but either way, I'm taking him up on his offer.


P.S.
(The challenges continue - who knows why the photo landed where it did, and why it failed four times in a row when I tried to post the blog?  I finally had to retype the whole thing as I couldn't copy and paste from my Word document.  Double ugh!  OK Lord, what's the lesson here?)

It Was a Very Good Week!

I found my car keys today, so now I finally feel settled back into our home. It was very UNsettling to not know where I had left them before we moved to Norway, but now, I can stop looking and life can go back to normal and hopefully this will end the sleepless nights. I finally sent an e-mail to our house sitters asking if they had ever seen them in the house while they lived here (as Kory was certain I wouldn’t have left them behind), and sure enough – they had relocated them from the key rack where I THOUGHT I had left them to the coat closet, in a little pouch on the inside of the door meant for gloves and hats and scarves. I’m sure I would have NEVER found them there so I was extremely relieved they remembered where they had put them. I thought I was going to lose my mind over this last little detail in our adjustment back to American life. And just in time too, as Kory is making big improvements and is almost back to normal so we’ll be needing two cars here pretty soon and we won’t have to share our only set of keys. Hallelujah!

Kory was very encouraged this week by his lack of pain and increased mobility and especially that he was able to find a few projects to do that kept him busy. Our Asian pear trees are dripping in fruit so he picked the pear trees clean (and the apple trees), washed them, sliced them and dried them in the dehydrator. They taste just like candy they are so sweet. He’s quite proud he was able to do something helpful and now he’s eyeing bigger projects. Woo hoo. He even had his first big outing today as we all went to the Fall Festival in downtown Mount Vernon, the Pumpkin Toss in Burlington, and to Costco to buy some wood flooring for our upstairs kitchen. I want to cash in on his new found enthusiasm for home projects as I’ve been waiting ten years for a new floor up there!

This has been a good week on many levels. Monday, our friends the Roberts (see photo), came for a visit and stayed on all week. We wouldn’t let them leave. They used us as a home base while they visited all their friends they left behind in Anacortes when they moved to Montana last year. It was so good to spend a little extra time with them and to stay up late every night filling in all the details of our lives. They have four kids so Kaleb was well occupied and it was hard to believe he got any schoolwork done at all, but he did. We cut his days a little short so he had extra play time, but he did very well in all his subjects.

Friday School, the once a week homeschool co-op we attend, started yesterday. Kory normally teaches woodshop there, but that wasn’t possible this fall so I am now the teacher – not of woodshop – but of a money management class for 4th-8th graders I call “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” I limited it to twelve students and I’m making up the curriculum as I go (and as the Spirit leads). I’m not a teacher and I’m not all that thrilled about kids in general, so this is WAY out of my comfort zone, but I feel so strongly about the subject of money management that I’m going for it. So far, so good. I got all the kids’ attention by giving quarters for each good answer to my questions. I even brought a crisp one hundred dollar bill and asked them to write down what they would do with it if I gave it to them. One kid wanted to buy an MP3 player, most would save all or part of it, but one little sweetheart of a boy (not mine) said he would give it to someone in need. I gave him the hundred bucks and told him to report back next week who he gave it to and how they reacted. It’s all part of the plan I have for the eight week course. I also sent them each home with a five dollar bill of MY money. I had them write down the serial number so I was sure to get my money back. I asked them to put it somewhere safe and watch over it because it’s not theirs – it’s mine. That’s the lesson this week – that we are just the caretakers of all God trusts us with and if we prove faithful and trustworthy – he trusts us with more. It will be interesting next week to see if they bring the money back. This class will cost me a bit, but I’m not sure I could buy anything that would be more fun or hopefully, make more of an impact. I’ve only heard good reports so far, so that’s encouraging.

Our pastor called me this week and asked if I would deliver the sermon at Bethany Covenant Church the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I was honored he thought of me as he wants me to speak on TRUST, “Because,” he said, “you kind of live there.” Good thing my trust is in God and not in my own abilities as I couldn’t even find my own car keys.

Another Year Has Come and Gone

I turned 52 yesterday. On one hand, it’s just a number that at this point only matters to the social security office, but on the other hand, it’s over half a century and I fear things I remember from my childhood might already be showing up in museums. Kory’s worried I might actually join The Red Hat Society (where does he come up with this stuff?) I’ve now lived the life of two 26 year olds, which is a somewhat daunting thought, but cause for celebration nonetheless.


Kory and Kaleb normally bring me breakfast in bed on my birthday, but that didn’t happen this year. On my last day of being 51 I drove cousin Ingeborg up to Vancouver, BC for the day and on my way home I was informed we were out of bread, eggs and juice and if I wanted breakfast in bed, I’d have to fetch the ingredients myself. It seemed like a bit much at the time so I opted to go out for breakfast at Calico Cupboard in nearby LaConner instead. Kory and I also went out to the Oyster Bar restaurant on Chuckanaut Drive for a wonderful dinner last night. It was decedent and I honestly felt like I deserved it. Then we spent the night at a Bed and Breakfast on Samish Island and that was wonderful, too (see photo of me actually sitting down for a change.) I so needed some quiet time. Honestly, I’ve been near the breaking point. Earlier this week I couldn’t talk to anyone without either crying or screaming, so I knew I was in trouble. But my batteries got recharged within a 24 hour period of not having to do anything for anyone else, so for that, I’m thankful. I got to leave the house and my to-do list and instead, watch dozens of seals bobbing up and down in the water in front of the B&B, see bald eagles and blue herons coming and going and hear the sound of the rain on a tin roof in the middle of the night. It was God’s creation at its best. This morning we walked on the beach and collected a few colorful rocks as the sun came back and warmed up the day. I’m now ready for another week, year, decade, or 26 more years, whatever God has in store.

The big news this week is that Kory is getting well enough to drive a little. He drove himself to the Retired Men’s Bible study and to the chiropractor, which took a big load off me, so I’m thankful for that. He says he just has a little discomfort every now and then and his ability to stand up or sit down continues to grow longer before he feels any fatigue. He’s been watching about two movies a day so he’s still logging in some horizontal hours, but I’m thankful he’s more able bodied than disabled and full recovery is in sight. Hallelujah!

Kaleb started doing more school work this week, but I had to take on the bulk of his teaching because Kory was having troubles taking instructions from me (for some reason!) on what to do with him. We still haven’t settled into a groove with school as there were several out of the ordinary events this week that kept things from running smoothly, but the good news is, he loves his science course from Johns Hopkins University. He is already 20% of the way done with that three month program and has a score of 95% after taking four exams. Another sample question from one of his tests: Water has a boiling point of 100 degrees Celsius. Acetic acid has a boiling point of 117.9 degrees Celsius. Both substances are colorless liquids. How could you use this information to determine which of the two unknown substances is acetic acid? And his answer: Heat each substance to 100 degrees Celsius and check for gas being formed. How he knows this stuff is beyond me as I’m sure this has to be high school chemistry. I can’t imagine they teach this in 5th grade anywhere? It’s so impressive to see his brain at work, but I like it best when it’s focused on academics and not on trying to out-smart me. He also started a Web design class with Johns Hopkins and he’s well on his way to making his first web page. It seems overwhelmingly difficult to me but he swears it all makes sense to him. Now if I could just harness that enthusiasm and energy and direct it to his Algebra course, I’d have no worries. He’s SO not motivated to do Algebra as he’s yet to understand “why” he has to do it. (I remember wondering the same thing when I was in 9th grade.)

I had a long talk with Kaleb this week about my expectations and frustrations with schooling him. I told him he was free to go to public school and I’d insist he go if he continued to give me flack about certain subjects. I explained that I try to do the best for him in everything, but I expect him to give me his best in return. I told him I was totally stressed out with having to school him everyday and with Kory being laid up right now and I pleaded for mercy and kindness from him. He understood what I was saying (maybe because I was crying at the time) and he changed his attitude about it all, did all his chores without being asked, did his best in school all week and even did extra things for me without complaining. I was ever so thankful. He really is a good boy.

I sure hope the worst is behind us as this re-entry into America life has been a little rough, to say the least. At one point this week I screamed at Kaleb just because he kept asking me to look at a rock and guess what the shape looked like. I couldn’t see anything other than a rock and he kept insisting I keep guessing. It was more than I could take. On the upside, some friends invited us over for dinner one night, other friends from Montana surprised us with a visit, Kaleb had some adorable school pictures taken, and I had enough time to return phone calls and chat with friends. It’s now been a month since we’ve been home, and in only seven more months we are heading back to Norway for a vacation. Kaleb even commented today, “It’s all just so normal now, you know?” He too, liked living in the fairy tale.

A Tough Week

I am so thankful for our home fellowship group from Bethany Covenant Church. We met for dinner tonight and I laughed and laughed. I haven’t laughed much lately, and I desperately needed it. It’s been a rough week. I now realize why we didn’t speak a word of Norwegian after we got home – because it’s so hard! English takes no effort and when I’m tired, no effort is a good thing. I’ve been tired all week. We’ve had cousin Ingeborg from Norway here since last Friday and with Kory still laid up from his compression fracture, I’m the one that gets to play tour guide and show her around (see photo of her and Kaleb in Winthrop as we were doing the Cascade Loop on Tuesday). She understands very little English so I have been speaking Norwegian all week, translating things to her, and trying to understand her. As Kaleb says, “If I don’t know one word in Norwegian, I have to use three sentences to get around it,” which makes it even more work. Plus I’m making meals, cleaning up, and taking her here and there. We absolutely love having her here, but the timing (unfortunately) couldn’t have been worse with Kory still recovering from his accident and Kaleb starting school this week. (Ingeborg is now with Kory’s brothers for a few days so I can pay bills, do laundry, mow the lawn, open the mail, write my blog, hopefully return some phone calls, and perhaps get some sleep. One can hope.)



Kaleb has been a source of great stress for me this week as well. It started off with “an incident” at a sleepover he had with a friend last weekend. As is usually the case, the friend’s little brother got on their nerves. Kaleb decided to retaliate for the annoyance by pantsing the brother as he was taking off on the zip line. Little did Kaleb know, the kid didn’t have on any underwear, so off he goes to the end of the zip line with his bare little bottom whistling in the wind. It grieved me deeply because Kaleb was pantsed at soccer practice in Norway last year and he knows how humiliating it is. I couldn’t have been more disappointed in him. The only upside is that Kaleb got restricted off anything Pokemon for a month. (At least I don’t have to fight that battle for a while.) I’m sure he won’t be doing anything like that again as he didn’t even pitch a fit when I gave him his consequence. He knew he’d done something terribly wrong.



We didn’t really get a good “first day of school” this week so I’m declaring Monday to be that day so I can dress Kaleb up cute and take his picture. There were too many interruptions and out of the ordinary occurrences to really begin school full-time this week but Kaleb did have his first ever piano lesson, for which I’m extremely proud and excited about. He also thought it was fun, and he’s been showing off to anyone who will listen. I can’t wait to have piano music in the house! He’s got a full-line up of classes, so this Fall will surely fly by. I’m so thankful I only have to teach him every other day as he just wears me out. Why he can take six different instructions from his piano teacher all at once, without making a peep (sit up straight, relax your shoulders, don’t look at the keys, curl your fingers, feet on the floor and speak out loud when you hit the key), but when he practices at home and I tell him to put his feet on the floor, curl his fingers and speak loudly, he just flips out that I’m telling him TOO much at once! Yet I only said half of what she told him. This is where homeschooling has its biggest challenges – being both mom and teacher. I’m just so thankful most of his classes are “out-sourced” this year. He’s taking Physical Science and Web Design from Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth. He’s already taken two science quizzes this week via the internet and just to get a feel for the kind of stuff he’s doing at age 10, one of the quiz questions was, “If you have an isotope of the element carbon (C) that has the mass number of 14, what other information would help you determine the number of neutrons? And he was given the choices of a) the number of electrons b) the number of isotopes c) atomic mass or d) the atomic weight. I thought I would choke. I was looking over his shoulder and he answered it correctly and was on to the next question before I could even read all the options (I had to have him go back to that screen so I could write it all down.) He likes science very much so I’m thankful I don’t have to teach THAT to him! (What’s an isotope, anyway?) He’s also taking a once-a-week writing course taught by a very talented homeschool mom, so I’m glad I’m not the one to have to teach him THAT. He has an Algebra book with instructional DVDs he works on independently (also, not one of my strong suits), but Kory and I will both be working with him on Norwegian grammar (or, perhaps, Kaleb will be teaching us a thing or two about Norwegian grammar.) I’ll be working with him on cooking and hand crafts and Kory will be teaching him art and woodworking. Some Geography games and History projects are also in the mix along with gymnastics, swimming lessons and a Wednesday night Bible class, so needless to say, next week we’ll hit the ground running and come up for air sometime in December.



Kory is more vertical than horizontal these days so that’s a good sign, but he knows not to push it. He’s been watching a lot of movies and not lifting anything - as I’m certainly the one carrying all the weight around here, literally and figuratively. He is improving, but he feels terrible for all the stress I’ve been under this week. Tonight helped tremendously though as a few good belly laughs went a long way to lifting my burdens. I’ve been in tears nearly the whole day as I just heard last night about the tragic motorcycle accident that caused the death of my cousin, Jolyn. We were pretty close as kids. The Bible says that sorrow is just for the night, but joy comes in the morning. I’ll be looking forward to the morning. In the meantime, I’m glad I got to laugh tonight. Jason, a guy in our home fellowship group, said he developed an addiction to my blog while we were in Norway. He said he tried to stop reading it after we came home, but “it was like a bad train wreck,” and he just couldn’t tear himself away. Now there’s a happy thought – that our lives are like a bad train wreck. So here’s the first installment as we head down the tracks of a new blog….