The good news is, 99.5% of my itching from the poison ivy
attack is gone. I can take hot showers
again, sleep through the night and wear clothes. The bad news is, all my pains are NOT gone
and that’s not necessarily referring to my poison ivy attack.
Our company from Norway is on their last week with us. Sabina, the 13 year old, joined Kaleb last
week in a Missoula Children’s Theatre production of “King Arthur.” She was a damsel in distress; Kaleb was a
knight in shining armor. The play went
incredibly well and it always boggles my mind that they have auditions on
Monday and by Friday they are performing the play. It’s such a good experience for kids to have,
even if it creates a crazy making week for the adults that have to schlepp them
around.
Most homeschool kids canceled all their schoolwork for the
week so they could concentrate on memorizing their lines and going to the five
hour a day rehearsals. Kaleb,
unfortunately, still had to attend his Physics and English classes and go to
his piano lesson. I canceled math for
him and all his other subjects, but the three heaviest hitters got him pretty
stressed out, especially since he had his first big exam in Physics this past
week. He had a few meltdowns over the
time pressures and there was stomping and screaming and doors slamming. He even ran away from home for a few minutes
(down the driveway, hidden in the trees).
I wasn’t home at the time but when everyone finally settled down, Kory
agreed to let him skip his piano practice for the day and that helped reduce
his stress.
It was a very stressful week for me because besides the
Norwegian guests, we had one of the directors from Missoula staying at our
house and both of our cars had events that landed them in the repair shop so
there was a lot of extra strain on my time.
Really, I thought I’d pop a cork a few times but I got smart and called
up some prayer warrior friends of mine and sure enough, things started to calm
down and life seemed manageable again after their prayers reached the heavens. Prayer is an incredible thing. Whenever we bring something before the throne
of God, stuff happens – or stops happening as it was in my case. Hallelujah!
My neighbor, Wendy, had a cider press party last Sunday and
we took the Norwegians there. Another
person at the party sat and talked to Tone, the mom, for hours on end and wanted to get together
with her again before she left, so today is the day for that. Sabina went home with the Wilkens after
church (friends of ours), so she could hang out with their daughter,
Joanna. Kory and Kaleb are on a scout
outing today and tomorrow and right now, I’m not sure what to do with me,
myself and I. The house is quiet, the
laundry is folded and dishes washed. I
took a quick nap, then prepared for an upcoming class I’m teaching on Friday,
got ready for our home fellowship group tonight and paced the floor wondering
what to do next, which is when the idea of updating my blog came to me. I haven’t thought about it all week as I’ve
been gone from early morning until late night every day and writing has been
the last thing on my mind.
Oh, I just now remembered the big news of the week. I won two awards for my writing! I forgot all about that. Friday I attended the Washington Newspapers
Association “Best Newspaper” awards ceremony in Everett. The editor of our local paper bought dinner
for all us award winners so it was fun to meet the other people that work for
the paper. Most of the awards our paper
got were for photography and advertising design, but I won 3rd place
in state for Best General Feature Story for the article I wrote about
connecting two long lost buddies, and I won 2nd place for Best
General Interest Column for my “Nuggets from Norway” column. How cool is that? I’m now an award-winning writer. Who knew.
The guy that won first place for best column also writes for our paper
so we nearly swept that category. It was
a fun night and I found out my cousin Neil would have been the MC and given out
the awards if he weren’t recovering from a stem cell transplant. He’s the big boss of the printing company
that sponsors the event. Small world.
This week, my favorite person in the whole world (Janet
Johnson! - see photo of her with Kaleb above) turned 75 and she wouldn’t even let me throw her a party, but I at
least got to bring a cake to our Bible study, in her honor. I’m so glad God’s kept her around for the
rest of us to enjoy.
Kory has been enjoying spending time with Tone, and since my
schedule has kept me out of the house so much, he’s been taking her with him
everywhere he goes, so I wouldn’t be surprised if rumors start to fly of him
having an affair with some hot blonde Norwegian bombshell.
There are so many things I could write about, but I won’t
because I’d just as soon forget about them.
Life is soon back to normal however, so I’m hanging on for the
ride.
Most of the photos were taken two weeks ago at the Festival
of Family farms in Skagit Valley. I
love it here.
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