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.