Over the Hump

Besides being overwhelmed with things to do these past few weeks, it’s been a pretty good past few weeks. Kaleb has had a very cooperative attitude and done very well in school, which is a huge blessing.  When he’s being defiant, it affects us all.  But he’s nearing the end of his Honors Chemistry course and doing well, so he’s excited to be done with it.  As it is, it takes 2-3 hours a day just to keep up on that one class, so his other school work has been lagging behind.  Just today, as I was e-mailing his teacher with questions about his final, I mentioned that he just turned 12.  She is the head of the science department at Johns Hopkins University, and she’s used to working with “bright” high school kids on this class.  She was completely floored that Kaleb is only 12.  She wrote me back and said it’s very hard to believe his age because of all the e-mails he sends her with questions about things like quarks, string theory and anti-matter, so I’m thankful I’m not responsible for his scientific education, anyway.  By the time he hits college, I’m pretty sure he’ll have all his science requirements out of the way.

Kory is still holed up in the basement doing artwork, night and day, but he gave up on watercolors for now.  He took one class at the LaConner Senior Center, but then the woman stopped teaching it and he feels he needs help if he is to progress.  He feels like he is not able to control the paint like he’d like, so he switched back to ink drawings (see photo of his latest creation of our home town in Norway).  I do love his ink drawings but his watercolors were hit and miss.  He’s found his new passion (and time consumer) and he is not very engaged in homeschooling Kaleb anymore.  He wants out.  He does like doing woodworking and art with him (see other painting of the daffodils that KALEB painted), but he’s ready to retire from teaching.  Because of that, we’re trying to figure out our schooling options for Kaleb for next year. 

Last week Kaleb and I sat in on a private school for homeschoolers.  They meet one day a week, then get loaded up on homework for the rest of the week. It seems like it might be a good fit for him.  I was most impressed with the student body.  They are a bunch of kids that have been homeschooled their whole lives, but are now in high school, wanting an accredited transcript because they are all college bound.  They didn’t seem to mind a bit that Kaleb knew all the answers before any of them.  We sat in on Chemistry and Algebra II.  He got several turned heads when he shouted out answers to things.  The teachers in both classes just shook their heads over the speed at which he came up with the answers to things.  I loved that in no way was he made fun of or put down for being smart, so that was good.  He was able to participate in the lab in the chemistry class, which he loved.   That’s what he’s lacking now with Johns Hopkins because all the labs are virtual, so he would be willing to take chemistry all over again if he could get his hands on some of the high tech equipment they had at that school.  It was pretty impressive, and expensive, so we’ll worry about that later.

I’ve been losing a lot of sleep lately just trying to keep things straight in my mind, as I have had my fingers in too many pies.  I’m over the hump now though, so life is back to the normal treadmill, but I was on overload there for a while.  I was asked to speak on generosity at our Sunday School class this past week so I had to work up a speech for that.  I also spearheaded a Hallelujah Party at our church, so that was the biggest time consumer, since I also provided most of the food.

We’ve had so many answers to prayer lately that some of us thought we just needed a party to thank God for all He has done.  Our church has never done anything like it before so I took up the charge.  I made fudge and spaghetti sauce the day before, and the morning of, Ceasar salad.  We sang Hallelujah songs after everyone got their food, and I asked several people to just come up and tell their stories.  It was so incredible to hear time and time again how God worked things out and answered so many specific prayers.  Everyone was shouting Hallelujah by the end and I’ve gotten many comments, calls and emails saying people want to do it again!  So Hallelujah for that!  It was hard to make food, not knowing how many would show up, but I was hoping at least a hundred, and I’m pretty sure there was close to 140, but we never ran out of anything (loaves and fishes!).  God was in the house. I’m hoping we do it quarterly, with those who’ve experienced the miracles and answered prayers providing the food, but we’ll see.  We take off in two months to Norway so I’m not sure to whom I can pass that baton.

The Destination Imagination group I lead also had a whole day workshop at our house on MLK Day, trying to get ready for competition coming up in just five weeks.  They have to write a play, make the costumes and set designs, and build a tower that can hold weight, for their competition.  They have to do all this without any adult input or “interference” as they call it, so that’s the challenge, but they are slowly figuring things out. 

I was gone on a two day prayer training retreat last weekend also, and after I committed to that, I was asked if I could speak at the 95^th anniversary celebration of the Covenant Women Ministries on the same day.  I had to leave the prayer training in Issaquah and run out to Mercer Island to deliver that speech, then back to the training.  It was a bit too much crammed into one weekend, but my speech was very well received and I do feel I had a message worth sharing, so that was good. I got good feedback on it, anyway.

I just submitted my 52^nd article to LaConner Weekly News for my “Nuggets From Norway” column,  which means I’ve been doing that for a whole year now!  Wow, that time went fast.  Once I get to 100 columns I’m going to try to market a book of them.  They are still well received as people find them interesting AND entertaining, so woo hoo for that.

I’ve intended to update this blog weekly, but the last few weeks have been brutal on my time.  Hopefully the next week provides something worthy to write about, and the time in which to do it.

Back in the Saddle

School started back up this week and I was worried about Kaleb being resistant to it after having two weeks off, so I prayed.  God, being the all faithful listener of my non-stop prayers, heard the cries of my heart and answered me in the best possible way.  Kaleb was pleasant, cooperative and hard working all week – more so than he’s been this whole school year.  Hallelujah!  He got a lot of work done without complaint or whining.  It was the kind of week that if repeated, would make homeschooling him a joy and pleasure.  I need to keep praying.

We finally got around to removing the Christmas decorations this week.  The house was a mess and Kaleb, who loves to coin a new phrase, said, “Boy, this place is sure Christmessy.”  He’s so clever, that kid.  He got another good laugh out of me the next day.  He’s been memorizing entire chapters in the Bible (because verses are just too easy), so when he saw Kory reading in First John he said, “I know the Second Letter of John.”  Impressed, Kory said, “Really?  Let’s hear it.”  Kaleb responded with “O.”  Too funny.

Kory’s been painting every day, all day, and well into the night.  Even when he should be paying attention to Kaleb on “his days” schooling him, he’s downstairs painting.  He’s been painting until 2am several nights in a row.  I don’t know what the obsession is, but he’s got a learning curve to master and he’s working hard trying to master it.  He’s good already, but he wants to be better.

We had the meeting with his cardiologist this week just to hear him say again that Kory is fine and the angina he gets is nothing to worry about.  We’ll see him in a year.  I didn’t realize how much stress I was carrying around not knowing if Kory could drop dead at any minute, but now that we are beyond that worry for the moment, I feel completely different inside.  The tension is gone and so far this week, I haven’t eaten anything compulsively, which has been an unexpected added benefit.  Hallelujah for that!

Last night we had two couples over for an evening of food and fellowship.  I’d purchased a lot of food for the expected company we were to have last week, but when we all got the flu, those meals just didn’t get made.  I cooked up some of it last night and it was good, so I’m glad we got to share it with friends.  One couple that came up from Mill Creek just decided to spend the night, so the evening got extended until noon today.  That was an extra bonus and sort of made up for all that we missed out on when we were sick.  It’s good to have friends. 

I guess if I have one goal for this New Year it would be to eat less and pray more, both of which require more self control.  I’ve noticed that a lack of self control is the root of many of my evils.  It’s time to move on. 

Happy New Year!

Well, all but one thing we had scheduled this past week had to be canceled.  Life throws us curve balls at times, especially when the flu is involved.  Kory got it first late Monday night.  He didn’t eat or get out of bed Tuesday. Wednesday we went to a friend’s for dinner, because he was feeling slightly better by then, but he laid low all week.  Kaleb came down with it Thursday afternoon and I got it late Thursday night, so both of us were in bed all day Friday.  It was so sad to cancel all our planned events, but we were in no shape to go anywhere or have anyone come over.  Kaleb had a few buddies here for a sleepover the night he got sick, and they just played without him – they didn’t want to go home – so Kory had to look after them.

My heart ached over not seeing friends here from out of state,  but my biggest concern was I was asked to speak at Sunday School and I not only needed to write my speech, but I had to be able to deliver it.  A few friends kicked in some prayers and I actually wrote it Saturday and delivered it yesterday.  It was well received, based on the feedback I got, so that was good.  I was pretty weak by Sunday from not eating anything for a few days, but after a good meal with our home fellowship group yesterday after church, I perked right up.  God is good!

The Christmas decorations probably won’t come down anytime soon and the housework has backed up, but I’m not going to start the year off frazzled.  I liked the NO STRESS part of Advent, so I’m going to carry that forward into the new year.  I haven’t made any resolutions, but I have a few things in mind I’d like to do.  One of them is start writing my autobiography, which I got a jump start on last week when I had nothing else to do.  It might have to be a series of books, as I have much to tell.  If I at least get the first one done this year, I’ll be satisfied.  Kaleb has been reading it over my shoulder as I write it and asks every day if I’ve written more.  He claims it’s well written, which is good, because he is my intended audience.  I’m hoping he’ll find ways to forgive me, once he’s walked a mile in my shoes.  

(The photo is a view from our deck this past week - the setting sun lit up the clouds in the foreground.)