Life is Good

Our life is back to normal, in all senses of the word.  Kaleb is back to his old school routine, Kory is back volunteering here there and everywhere and I am back to cleaning up after them both.

My only angst lately has been trying to come up with something to write about for my weekly column on Norway.  I actually chewed off my fingernails last week it a fit of worry that I wouldn’t make the deadline.  It’s getting harder and harder to come up with something to write about – or else my brain is just getting slower and slower to work.  Could be both.

We are so thankful Kory is doing as well as he is and each day we realize more than ever, is a gift.  My prayer is that he’ll live long enough to meet his grandchildren, but God has His own plans and I’m sure we’ll all be just fine, no matter what.  But it is nice to have a warm body cuddling me at night and Kaleb sure enjoys racing Kory around the house – so we hope he’s around for years to come.  He came a little too close to death for all of us, including Kory, so finally his attitude has shifted about how he takes care of his body.

Before, when I’d get after him for unhealthy choices he’d roll his eyes and scoff at me, but now he smiles and says, “Thanks for caring.”  I have all along, but it’s just now that he realizes it and accepts it for what it is.  He hasn’t even complained once about being vegan, but I’m not sure he notices all that much.

I have a chalkboard I write what I’m planning to make for dinner each night. I wiped the slate clean last week, and before I could put my plans on it, Kory just wrote “Veggies” on each and every line.  Ha ha, but it has been kinda true.  I’ve tried not to make any weird “healthy” dinners – I’m just making what I’d normally make but without chicken or fish thrown in the mix.  I’ve found it’s a lot easier than I thought.  I use soy milk, olive oil and a little tofu here and there as substitutes for things – even a banana substitutes for an egg in muffins, so it’s been pretty easy.  The main thing is that Kory’s not been hungry, like he thought he’d be, and there’s always food in the house that he can eat, so he’s happy.  We even had friends over on Saturday for dinner and I roasted a chicken but Kory and I didn’t eat any of it.  Small sacrifice for now.  He’s telling people we are “trying this out for a few months to see how it goes.”  One day at a time is all I think about.

The funniest thing is that we’ve had chickens show up in our yard everyday (see top photo) since we went vegan.  They belong to the neighbors down below us but they’ve never ventured up the hill before.  I guess they know it’s now safe.  One of them even tried to fly in out living room window the other day.  I might need to hang out the other frozen chicken I have in the freezer as a warning.

Kory finished building the mantle for our new fireplace redo (see before and after photos below) and I couldn’t be happier with how the whole thing looks.  He didn't carve the face of it - we had that done by a Norwegian living in Wisconsin, but he built around it. We are so enjoying the wood burning insert and the heat it produces – over having the diesel furnace blasting air through the house.  The timing couldn’t have been better with all the snow we’ve had.  We have plenty of wood for the winter and a cozy fire in the fireplace never feels better than when there’s snow on the ground outside.

We’ve been out enjoying the snow, playing with Kaleb and throwing snowballs at each other.  We don’t have any hills around steep enough for Kaleb to go sledding on so he launches off the top of the deck.  We went up to the cemetery but the slope there wasn’t drastic enough either so Kory put chains on our van and pulled Kaleb behind it – round and around and around.  Kaleb loved it, and it got Kory off the hook for being too old of a father that he can’t keep up with his son.

We’ve had a few days off school with the snow keeping us home, and canceling our normal school week this week, but it’s been great to play games together, sit by the fire and read and have homemade soup in the pot.  God is good and we continue to live in a state of thankfulness for all He’s done and continues to do.  Hallelujahs never felt so good.