My Grandma England told me once that her sister in Missouri would often get confused as to which house she lived in. They all looked the same because it was one of those housing developments where they just flip-flopped the blueprints and built dozens and dozens of the same house on the same road. She solved her confusion by driving slowly down her street while pressing the button for the garage door opener. When a garage door opened, she knew she was home. I feel like that in a way, now, only not about where I live, but about what day of the week it is. All my Mondays look the same, as do my Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Things have been shaken up a bit on the weekends with friends coming to stay and a little dog sitting thrown in the mix, but I wake up each morning and the first thought is, “What day is it today?” Once I have that figured out, the prescription for how the day will play out is already written, and all I have to do is execute it. My days are full of routine things and I’m now trying not to stress out because several additional things are on the horizon, and somehow I have to fit them into the hours of the days that are already full. It should be interesting.
Actually, I’ve already weathered a few extra storms these past several weeks, but I didn’t see them coming so I didn’t stress. A retired missionary friend of Kory’s has been in the midst of a crisis so he kicked into that “fix it” mode he loves so well and came to her rescue. He’s been gone a lot helping her, which leaves me to school Kaleb, so my “non-Kaleb days” have been very stressful trying to get my normal things plus deal with him. Kory’s been very gracious and patient with this old lady and I told him how impressed I am at the way in which he handles “difficult” people. He just looked at me like, “I’m married to you, aren’t I?” Still, he had a lot of practice taking care of his mom all those years after his dad died, and in Norway, he takes care of his Aunt Ruth just the same. Sometimes it makes me wish I were 14 years his senior, rather than the other way around. He has an attitude of just “do whatever they want” rather than discuss the logic behind it. I get the latter from him, which often leads to disagreements, but still, it’s nice to see he actually has an acquiescing side.
Kaleb’s finally finished up his Honors Chemistry class with Johns Hopkins University. He was putting in 2-3 hours a day on that class because it was a six month course and he wanted to finish it in three months so he’d get some “profit sharing” (I paid him a portion of what it would have cost to buy another 3 months of time with Johns Hopkins.) He studied hard, but the final test was brutal – 40 essay questions that would blow anyone’s mind. I told him if he got an A on the final, I’d buy him the newest Nintendo game he wants, but as it turned out, he got a C. He was crushed. He ended up with a B in the class, but he wasn’t happy about that since he knew the material so well. As we later learned, no one has gotten an A on the final, so I felt badly for him, it was just that hard. His teacher was amazed that he’s only 12 years old, since she said he sent her emails asking about quarks, string theory and anti-matter. She thought he was more advanced than this class, but he was certainly challenged by all that was taught. He’s anxious to go on to Physics next but he has to pass their Honors Algebra class before he can. He’s taken Algebra for years now, so it shouldn’t be that hard. That boy sure loves science. He even gave a speech in his speech class on how to read and understand the periodic table. I’m sure no one understood it but him, but he was very impressive with his overhead projector and laser pointer – he looked like a little college professor up there talking about orbitals, molecular structures and weights of atoms. He’s amazing in that arena, but I still can’t get him to remember to put a period at the end of a sentence.
I’m helping with a Science Fair next week for 50 homeschool kids, so I have much preparing to do for that. I’m also attending a women’s retreat this weekend and teaching a class on prayer. I’m hoping God does the prep work on that one. Our taxes are still not done but at least I’m to the point where I realize we had $15,000 more write-offs than we had income, so we don’t owe anything. It’s sad though, to lose all those tax deductions. I hate that I have to spend so much time documenting everything, however.
Well, there’s much I could write about but I fear it might be too boring. Kory continues to do art, and Kaleb is following suit. They both painted me a gorgeous valentine (see Kaleb’s work above – he designed and painted it all himself!) The house is getting messier by the day, but the days are getting longer and the daffodils and tulips are beginning to pop their heads out of the ground, so that brings a smile to my lips. I hear bald eagles crying morning, noon and night. Trumpeter swans hang out in the field in front of our house and snow geese fly overhead several times a day. The song birds chow down seed as fast as we can fill the feeders and we’ve even had a woodpecker come daily to get the suet we hang out. The views from our deck and being surrounded by nature do something to my soul, so even if my days are hectic and my sleep is minimal, I get refreshed just looking out the window. Life is good.
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