Such a Pleasant Ridge

It’s now been four weeks since we’ve been back home. Mt. Baker has even peaked out behind the clouds a few times.  It’s as if we never left, and thankfully, life on the Ridge is as peaceful as ever. 

Last school year, Kaleb’s weekly routine was insane.  There was somewhere we had to go every day.  Each morning I woke up and tried to figure out how everything was going to get done before I could sleep again that night.  Now I wake up and just lie in bed, talk to God, think a little, and eventually get up.  It’s incredible, the days are just so darn relaxing.

I’ve not signed Kaleb up for any outside activities this fall simply because we aren’t home much this school year.  Now that we’ve had a couple weeks of this slow routine under our belt, I’m thinking it was a good choice.  Kaleb is a bit lonely, however.  His only outing each week is to youth group on Wednesday nights and church on Sunday.  But he’s managed to spend extended time with at least one friend a week, so that’s helped.

Kory is loving that he’s free from schooling Kaleb right now.  Our “school year” is only about three months long so Kaleb doesn’t have much time to even do art or wood working with Kory.  The Honors Biology class Kaleb is taking from Johns Hopkins University has been sucking up about five hours a day, since it’s a one-year course he’s trying to complete in less than three months. (The photo above was from his "cell respiration" lab, testing different sweeteners for their ability to do something or another.) He whines about the class on one hand, but loves learning about DNA structure and the inner workings of cells, on the other.  He’s also playing the piano an hour a day, writing on the novel he’s working on, and doing a little math and Spanish on the side for good measure.  He’s been putting in some long school days just to keep up, but I have to remind him his school year is short and it will soon be over and we’ll be heading south in our RV for the winter.  His work load will be much lighter then.

Since we are home for such a short period of time, we’re trying to maximize our social life and make the most of our weekends.  Last weekend we had one of the pastor’s families (above) from church here for dinner.  After they left at ten, I drove Kaleb over to his friend Spencer’s house to spend the night.  Saturday morning Kory and I were up at six, driving to Renton to deliver a table and chairs to my step-mom as a house-warming gift. We had to rush from there to get Grammy J (below) and take her out to lunch for a belated birthday gift, then to the Seattle Rep to see an afternoon play.  We had to drop her off and zip home to get dinner on the table for other friend’s that were coming over that night. In between those two events I had to go feed and walk the neighbor’s dog.  I planned for all this madness, and did much work ahead of time.  By the time I walked in the door at six, dinner was cooked and on the table 20 minutes later and a cake was baking in the over for dessert.  I impressed even myself.  Then I had to go get Kaleb again at 10:30 at night.  It was one long day.

The best part about being home has been reconnecting with our Home Fellowship groups at church, which we’ve done the past two Sundays.  I lead two groups, one at our house and another at someone else’s house, since that group is so large.  I love that we all feel safe enough to share what’s really going on in our lives and how we feel about different things.  It’s so much better than pretending life is good and keeping things to ourselves.  I love our prayer team at church, too, that we make ourselves available to pray for people who are hurting.  I realize it’s not just the amount of time we spend with people that matters, it’s what we do with that time that’s so valuable.

Since I’m not teaching any classes right now and have nothing to do each week except write my column for the newspaper, I’ve found myself pacing around the house wondering how to spend my time before getting dinner ready.  I started noticing cobwebs in the corner of each room and layer upon layer of dust on shelves.  It’s been a joy to actually have time to clean all my treasures perched on the shelves, especially when I can click on Netflix and watch old TV shows while I’m doing it.  Kaleb needs help occasionally with his schoolwork, so I’m nearby, but still productive, and slowly the house is getting clean.  I’m sure by the time I’m done, it will need cleaning again, but it’s been a rare day these past few years that I’ve done any dusting.  I usually try to do it once a year, whether it needs it or not, but I haven’t always stuck to that schedule. Ha.

I wrapped birthday and Christmas presents last night, as both Kory and Kaleb are soon a year older.  I’m making Christmas a bit simpler this year.  Not much is on our calendar until we leave in January, so that’s good.  And the menu is planned and shopping list made out for next week’s festivities.  We are ready to be thankful (as we are everyday, actually) that this past year has been wonderful on so many levels and we’re grateful to God for all we’ve experienced, even every last raindrop.  Hallelujah.