growing up

Our nightly visitors (they like to eat the remnants of the geese's corn, though lately they've become a bit bossy and started chasing them away) have grown up. They're no longer the playful, jumpy animals that start at the least noise.  In fact, they're almost not scared of us at all. Oh, they run when we come outside now, but never very far. Two of them will sometimes stay within 20 yards!  But here's our "teenage" visitors:

taken through the window so it's a tad blurry, but here's the smaller guy

3 of the 5

and the bigger guy

the girl toward the front is the last afraid of us and the geese

hot weather storms

This past weekend brought some interesting storms. We delighted in watching the temps quickly drop from 102 to 89 and then back to the mid-90s as the rain disappeared. The hot breezes before a storm have been interesting.  The aftermath of the storm has been a bit bizarre as well.

 The top of this tree collapsed. We've had to cut a section of its V before, so we thought this time the entire top was gone.  But...it's not.  There's still one tiny branch sticking out! Some trees just die hard!

I had a hard time getting the light setting adjusted on my camera so I could capture the rainbow. It was clearly visible in the bright sky (the previous picture gives you a sense of how bright it was outside) but my camera refused to register the bow's reflections without some major adjustments. Rainbows always excite me, and remind me of the song I learned in middle school:

What kind of music does a rainbow make?

What kind of song does it sing?
Oh, it's a happy kind of melody and it brightens everything.

For the rainbow is a promise that God is in control.

Oh the rainbow is a promise that He'll always keep my soul!

What kind of music does a rainbow make?

What kind of song does it sing?
Oh, it's a happy kind of melody and it brightens everything.

I've always enjoyed that visual reminder.

forms at the dr.'s office

It never fails. You go to the doctor. And to keep you from being too fidgety while you wait, they give you some forms to fill out. It doesn't matter that you filled out the exact same form the previous 20+ visits you've had in the last seven years, you still have to fill them out again.

I know. I know. Information can and does change.  But these forms always make me feel like I'm back in school taking an achievement test. You remember fighting the feelings and urges, don't you? You're taking the dumb math section and they ask a question like:

There's a cow tied to the fence. If the cow eats all the grass it can eat within the rope's reach, the portion eaten will be what shape?

A) triangle 
B) rectangle
C) semi-circle
D) square

Do you know what happens when you give such a question to a bunch of smart-aleck middle schoolers? Or how many stupid discussions we had at lunch on how we could make any one of those answers fit? Did you ever fight the urge to intentionally go through and mark EVERY single answer WRONG? On purpose?

That's sometimes how I feel at the dr's office. It's actually become a joke now, that neither Bobby nor his doctors will ever truly know what is wrong with him if I fill out his forms unsupervised. For example:

Please circle the correct answer to any of these symptoms you are currently experiencing or have experienced in the last 6 months:

Hearing Loss        Yes     No
Memory Loss       Yes     No
Confusion             Yes     No
Bouts of Insanity   Yes     No

Is it ever safe to ask a spouse those questions, covering a period of 6 months? :) I mean, he lives with me!

And I can't help but wonder, do they even LOOK at these forms? I don't think they do. I really think it's just something to fill up your time so you don't notice how long you're waiting. Sadly, like achievement tests, I will probably never intentionally fill out the wrong answers just to see what happens. But I'm afraid I will always be tempted.

when the days get hot....

my chickens go...SWIMMING?

This picture didn't take too well, but I was quite shocked to look out the window Sat and see them sitting in the puddle of condensation from the air conditioner. I don't think I've ever seen my birds sit in water before. Of course, they've never experienced temps of 102 before, either.

 A better view from outside.

 and their muddy feet.

I shouldn't have bothered them by taking their pictures. They were quite content until I disturbed them. I decided not to bother them later by checking to see if they had returned to their swimming hole. I would have if I were them!

if at first you don't succeed....

what we hope our end product somewhat resembles

It's roughly 12x8.
It doesn't have to be rectangular, nor oval-shaped.
It does need a zipper and velcro.
I found reflector piping to add to the edges, giving both a little zing and hopefully some protection (though whether for him while crossing roads or me tripping over it during the night is debatable).
It's a wheelchair pouch.
It shouldn't be too hard to make.
But my first one, well, it was not a success. Not a total failure, but not a success, either.
So I'm at it again.
I've ripped apart the pieces I need and am cutting out the rest.
We're starting over.
It has to fit the side and not the back of the chair.
It has to securely hold the essentials. (In other words, no open pockets.)
It can't be girly. (Do you know how many flowery, quilted wheelchair bags are out there?)
Hopefully you'll see pictures of a COMPLETED workable pouch by Saturday.
If not, you can then see pics of my messy dining room table with all its glory of material, thread, and scissors.
And then send me samples of bags made from duct tape.
:)

pagan possibilities

The National Association of Free Will Baptists in meeting this week... in Charlotte.  Yes, that's right. 5.5 hours away from my house. My parents are there. My older sister's family is there. And ...I'm here.  This is the week of Bobby's monthly commission meeting, something you absolutely, positively don't miss. (Except the time I broke his leg and he's being wheeled into surgery three hours before the meeting began. That was interesting trying to hold the phone for him as they wheel him back and he's trying to get all the legal info to the other attorney before the anesthesia kicked in and the nurses are looking at us like we've both lost our minds!) But, thanks to the internet, there's this thing called "live feed" where the services are being broadcasted over the web. Tonight is the missions service, which was always my favorite growing up. I am SSOOOO tempted to skip church and watch it on the computer tonight. There's some things in life that shouldn't be missed.

So if I'm not at church tonight, I'm still having "church", just in front of the fan by the computer.

lessons from kids

Yesterday a friend remarked, "With kids, you're reminded that life goes on." And I think that's such a blessing. There's a multitude of little bodies with unique personalities, playing, laughing, asking questions, arguing, and despite the inner feelings and turmoil, it's a reminder that just because of the pain life has not stopped. Sometimes that knowledge can be painful itself, as you want the world to stop and cry with you, but it doesn't.

And I've thought about this principle a lot this week. The wife of a future church planter is battling cancer.  http://lifeasalewis.blogspot.com  Her recent post dealt with the sickness and her thoughts, but also included a pic of her daughter. She had a new, flowy dress and was certain it would make a great picture of it twirling. Life goes on, and there's nothing like a child to remind us of that, to help us focus on the daily here and now, that we don't all share the same "this is important and critical" thoughts.

Our nieces and nephews start back to school in a few weeks. My prayers for them have been that they will learn, be respectful to authority, and grow as an example in Christ. Their prayers are for one more day of summer and that their friends will be in their class. Priorities, Aunt Monica!

If nothing else, children make us take our minds off ourselves and focus on others (okay, on themselves). When my oldest niece was not quite 2, we had a very tragic death in our family. When my sister and her family arrived, the antics of my niece made my Dad smile, something I had not seen the entire week. That was a healing moment for our family, a glimpse that we both would and could smile and laugh through the pain, a glimmer of hope that life might actually return to a different but good form of normal. In her curiosity and normal toddler examination of life, she reminded us that life is good and exciting.

I've been thinking about those scenarios a lot this morning. How life goes on, even with sickness and pain, and how thankful I am that God provides children to help us realize it.