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….