A Very Social Week

This past week has been like none other. My sweet boy is back. Just as I was at the breaking point with him, I prayed for wisdom and help from God, and He delivered! About ten days ago I woke up with an image in my head of something that I needed to design as a behavior modification tool to help Kaleb see just where he stands. I won’t go into the details because according to my friend, John Foreman, I could make a million bucks on this idea and he’s already contacted a patent attorney on my behalf (he’s even more excited about this idea than I am). I made the first prototype and Kaleb’s been like a new kid. Of course, there are rewards for good behavior involved, but it’s a lot like giving little immediate gratification treats to dogs in obedience training. It has made our house here on Pleasant Ridge a rather happy home. I’ve got no expectations about making money on this deal – in fact, I’d make them and give them away because I know they work, but I’ve shown them to a few other moms and they too think it is brilliant. They said they’d pay me $20 on the spot (it costs less than that to produce) as they thought it was so clever. All I can say is, Thank You Jesus and Hallelujah! It really does work for Kaleb and he’s been so obedient, hard working, kind and responsible for the last week or so that I was afraid to write about it - worried things might change, but no, I do believe we’ve turned a corner. Woo hoo!



We’ve had lots of company this past week – especially over the weekend. I attended a retreat in LaConner with women from my old church in Bothell. Six of them stayed at our house because literally, “there was no room at the inn.” I loved it. Then Sunday afternoon some old high school girlfriends came up to see the tulips and we had more than a few belly laughs. A few other friends came on Tuesday for lunch and to see the tulips and Wednesday a few old MOPS leaders (Mothers of Preschoolers) came over for a little 10 year reunion gathering. We liked working so well coordinating the MOPS meetings we used to have that we just might have something new up our sleeves for the future. We’ll see how God leads.


Last week the editor of the local paper told me I can consider myself a “local celebrity” now as she’s gotten many compliments on my “Nuggets From Norway” feature column in the paper and many are talking about it. She is going to submit it into a newspaper competition, she thinks it’s so good. Woo hoo! I stopped by the Norse Café in town (a new little bakery place) and asked the owner if she’d been reading my column. She said she LOVED it and gave me a big hug. She told me people come in asking if she is friends with me and she said she didn’t even know if I was a man or a woman – but now she can tell them all we are friends. She was too funny. We had a good long chat about all things Norwegian and I’m heading back every Thursday to buy cardamom bread, fresh from the oven.


This week I also got to meet one of my “loyal readers” of the blog I kept in Norway – a friend of a friend who is here from out of town and up until this week, a total stranger to me, but now I love him dearly (Hi, Bubs!). I think he memorized all my blog postings as there wasn’t anything I mentioned that he didn’t already know. He was excited to meet me and he also was very encouraging saying how much he loved my writing. So I’m all the more convinced to start marketing these excerpts and go for the gold… maybe someday I will get a book published. Stranger things have happened.