Death Is Hard

I know it's been forever since I wrote last. It's sure been a year...quite literally. It seems like there's been a lot of funerals just since 2022 started; we've lost several at church, some that we used to go to church with, other folks we've known a long time. 

This one hit closer to home. My aunt Eva lost her battle with cancer on Good Friday. She fought like a champ since she was diagnosed at the end of 2021, but she had a tough go of it. She was the aunt closest to my mom in age, and she was always the "cool" aunt who traveled to all kinds of places and had amazing adventures and stories to tell when she was back in for a visit. She was a strong, brave, kind, generous, and thoughtful person, who always took time to connect with the niece that was incredibly intimidated by her awesomeness. It's just hard to put together that she's gone so fast. You never know when the last time you'll see someone might have been. I don't remember if it was a funeral or a visit to her house a couple of years ago, but that last hug goodbye happened sometime and I didn't know it'd be the last when it did. 

Maybe it's the getting old in me, but life feels a whole lot more fragile than it did when I was a kid. 

So I came back to the blog today, trying to figure out when I went to visit them that time I took pictures for my uncle's band. 

This blog is definitely a memory jogger. I really need to write more often so I can fall back on it when I need help with my memory. ANYWAY, going through my pictures looking for Aunt Eva, also brought back lots of memories, and I thought I'd jump on here real quick and post. 

Rest in peace, Aunt Eva, you are loved and missed. 

To Laugh Often and Much

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of the intelligent people
and the affection of children;
to earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
to appreciate beauty;
to find the best in others;
to leave the world a bit better
whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
to know that one life has breathed easier
because you lived here.
This is to have succeeded.

May the Road Rise Up to Meet You

Irish Blessing – Author Unknown

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rains fall soft upon fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Positively Painful

Still not doing so hot at the blogging thing but I didn't get any backlash from my last rant, so I guess it's safe enough to come back and do it again. I'm also not doing so hot at being positive but I'm trying. 

Shut up, Yoda...I know there is only do or do not. I don't care. Hahah. 

We got a new dog...just one. She's not Obi and Ahsoka but she's sweet. She's an adult rescue named Rosie and she sheds more than our last two put together! Sheesh. LOL Lucky for me (and her) that KC didn't know she was going to shed that much when we rescued her or he would have never said yes to getting her! Hahaha! Now we're all attached, so she's staying, fur and all. LOL. We also got a black cat...it was supposed to be KC's cat, but it loves the dog, who is glued to me, therefore it has kinda ended up as my cat even though it missed the memo where I'm not the cat person in this house! I've nearly choked him several times...he really likes to climb all over us and meow and wake up the dog at 4am....and I'm pretty fond of sleeping at 4am...which is not the greatest combo. But other than that, he's not too bad. Haha! 

In other news, we got the Rona for my birthday...worst gift ever. Still dragging from that, although the worst part of it was just fatigue...kind of felt like having Mono again. It caused a hiccup in my cleaning job because that job requires a ton of energy and at this point (4 weeks later) I still barely have enough energy to clean my own house! But I've been able to go back to my other part time job that isn't as energy draining as the cleaning. 

The TDQ is driving now. She finally got enough saved to get a little older model car. Hopefully it will not get wrecked but I've rode with her a couple of times so far, and it will be a miracle if it looks as good as it does now by the time she gets done with it. I can't relate to her struggle...she can barely maneuver the car into an angled parking space...I was backing my parent's minivan out of the carport and pulling it up the driveway to the house for them when I was 11....kids these days. *insert eye roll* At least she has worked her butt off and put effort toward getting it. I'm trying to be patient and not freak out or get too annoyed with her latest obsession. LOL 

It is so hard sometimes. Patience is tough. Drat it. Teenagers will suck all the patience and goodness right out of you! I don't know how people do it. Two lousy teenagers and it's killing me...these people with a gazillion kids absolutely amaze me. How do they have that many teenagers and cheerfully survive? I must be doing something wrong. 

Anywho...then I got volun-told into doing the youth activities at one of the campmeetings I'm planning to attend this summer in NC...and then I volunteered to take like 13 of our youth girls from church here to the camp there in NC....evidently I'm just a glutton for punishment. Hah! On that high note, I'm out. 

Might make it back sometime. LOL

Cranky Pants

Blast it. I am in a fine, feathered mood. Clearly, it's not been a mood for blogging...as I have been absent for what feels like decades. 

2020 is getting on my last nerve. This year is so not my favorite. I was working on Christmas cards and I usually put a family update on the back for anyone who cares to know what we've been up to each year. This year I wrote about three sentences and then scratched off the idea of an update. 

No one wants to be depressed like that. Our senior dogs got sick and crossed the rainbow bridge this year. I've cried for months. No way to put a positive spin on that. Stinkin' virus shut-downs and quarantines delivered way too much time stuck at home with the terrible teens. Nope, that doesn't sound very nice. I am now working several part time jobs just to get out of my house and away from previously mentioned beings. Yeah, that's bad...oops. I feel like one of the rare few that disagrees with the logic of mask mandates...for multiple reasons, and yet I'm outnumbered even in my own house....which makes me question my own sanity. Am I really the crazy one? Don't want to talk about that. Politics...well that's really gone bonkers this year. Definitely better leave THAT alone. 

Sufferin' succotash. 

Also...I jumped off the "quit drinking soda" wagon. Three years of separation between me and my beloved Dr. Pepper. No more of that mess...we best buddies again. I'm literally a pepperholic. Hi, my name is Faith...

Anyway, this year's Christmas update consists of our new address and best wishes for a huge improvement of events in 2021. Best I could do. I'm a glowing ray of sunshine these days...NOT. I probably shouldn't blog either, but since the blog has been virtually abandoned and no one will see it, it feels like a fairly safe place to vent a bit of my cranky pant frustration. 

Lord help. I need it. 

Tickin Away

Merciful heavens. 

February to May...my poor habit tracker has had a blank spot in the blog category for wayyyyy too long! In my defense, I have been quite busy. But then again, we've had a stupid stay at home order for a couple of months now so you'd think I'd have had a chance to blog somewhere in there. Poor blog. So neglected. 

Well, I've been very quiet about the junk that's going on in the universe right now. This whole sickness thing has been so overblown, in my opinion, but that doesn't fit the fear narrative and everyone poo-poos on people who don't go along with it, so I've kept my opinions to myself. It's really driving me nuts though...I'm ready to go back to living. 

Well, after my foot goes back to normal that is....I had foot surgery to remove a cyst that decided randomly to show up a few months ago and has been causing pain and making it difficult to wear shoes. It's enough to make me realize I'm not going to be good at getting old. I've been off it for a week and trying to stay off it like I'm supposed to when there's so much to do....totally difficult.

Mom and Dad came up to visit this week, they wanted to help me get some stuff done so I'd stay off my foot but I had a really hard time sitting down and watching them work...it's not my style. LOL. It was really good to have them up though...quarantine made it a really long time in between visits.

One of these days I'll get around to doing before and after pictures of our house, but since everything virtually shut down right about the time we were able to move into our house, we've been unable to get things finished and buy furniture and stuff like we would normally have been able to do. We've been working on what we can though...there are still things to paint (like half the kitchen cabinets), and still things that need to be fixed (like the water damage in the basement from the flood that happened right after we moved in), but we're chipping away little by little.

The inside is coming along, but what I'm really excited about my secret garden...well, it'll stay secret as long as KC doesn't read this....hahahaha. I'm pretty sure he doesn't, so I should be safe. I don't have a garden plot ready for this year, but I really wanted some edible things growing, so I'm using the centers of some of the flower beds for my garden and planting tall flowers around the outsides to hide the garden in the middle. LOL. I also have a not so secret garden area in the back...it was all weeds, and no one sees it, so I weeded it out and planted all edibles in those...I'm so excited. The top section is lily of the valley...they are really pretty and weren't super weedy, so I left them alone!

We have a lot of property to maintain, which is awesome and also a lot of work. I think it will be more manageable after we get all of the years of neglect caught up, but getting there is tough. Especially when you have a gimpy foot that is holding you back from all the things you want to do!

Like An Old Lady

I feel like I can relate a little better to crotchety old people right now. Everything hurts, I can't get enough rest so the bags under my eyes would exceed carry-on restrictions if I were to take them on a plane, and my brain is so tired I'm making weird comparisons. Also, I'm grouchy and impatient. Still.

On the bright side, we have a house now! We still can't move in yet, because we bought a fixer upper and it needs fixered up. Which is also the explanation for my complete exhaustion...I've been painting about 12 hours a day for the last 2 weeks. And THAT could potentially explain the brain. Maybe it's not exhaustion but too many paint fumes. LOL. 

It's 8am, and the only reason I'm not already working is because I actually have a housecleaning job this morning that I have to go do before I can go over to the house. I am totally not making any sense but I had 5 minutes before I needed to leave, so I thought I'd pop in an blog since I've not had a chance to check it off on my bullet journal tracker since the last time I posted almost a month ago. (YIKES...I'm not doing very good with that. LOL) 

So here...a post, rambling, run-on as it is, I'm still alive, but ready to die. Like an old lady. 

Patience

A virtue of which I am evidently lacking. Otherwise, I don’t think mine would be tested quite this often.

Life in the basement is getting to me. Actually, it’s not the basement at all. It’s the under 18 people that occupy said basement with me. This basement isn’t big enough for that. I don’t know how previous generations survived to adulthood living in much smaller houses with much larger families. Seriously!

Anyway, KC told me to find a hobby, so I’ve dragged out and re-subscribed to the ol Photoshop, and today I was blissfully engaged in redesigning a friend’s blog for practice. Oh my goodness. SO FUN! Made me want to redesign mine even though I like how it is now. HAHA. At the very least though, I’ve got to get back to blogging. I put it back on my habit tracker in my bullet journal in hopes that it will inspire me to do it more often. LOL.

I like how my long abandonment has led to zero site traffic here. I am way more comfortable spilling my guts. Okay, not entirely. My personality doesn’t allow me to be entirely comfortable with that. Hahah.

I’ll wrap up this post with a Thursday Thirteen, I haven’t done one of THOSE in forever!

Thirteen Current Things:
1. Praying for: a house
2. Listening to: the dog breathing, my in-laws conversing upstairs (can’t hear the conversation, just the murmur of voices), K-man’s music from the back corner of the basement (again, can’t hear clearly, just enough to be annoying – like everything he does these days)
3. Reading: Misleading Miss Verity by Carolyn Miller
4. Eating: too much junk food (I’m definitely eating my feelings…I should probably add that to the things I need to pray about)
5. Working on: A Little Bit of Insulin
6. Missing: the hubby (he’s traveling for work *sigh*)
7. Wishing for: a bigger kitchen
8. Needing: A bigger house (see a theme?)
9. Singing: Blessings by Laura Story
10. Digging: my amazing hair products that knock shampoo days down to 2-3 times a week (usually 2…I LOVE IT)
11. Watching: realtor.com like it’s the hottest reality show…seriously…I check it like every 20 minutes. *eye roll* reality is, it’s more like watching paint dry than an exciting tv show, but I can’t stop myself. lol
12. Playing: Toy Blast and Scrabble
13. Need to Stop: worrying =)

So what’s on your list?

Adulting Angst

angst

/äNG(k)st/

noun

a feeling of deep anxiety or dread, typically an unfocused one about the human condition or the state of the world in general.

…

Really I just wanted to use this word today. LOL.

HOWEVER….

I feel like it might be a fitting word for my life right now….the overwhelming-ness of life is getting under my skin.

Life is good. I’m not complaining. But I would positively love it if the to-do list would stop multiplying and burying me in self-imposed guilt when I can’t get everything done.

Grr.

Adulting stinks.

Moving Adventures

Yeah, we're moving again. Lol! We just don't seem capable of staying in one place. We've technically been in the process of moving for like six months but I've been so busy,  I haven't really had the energy to talk about it. 

Anyway, today we're in the moving truck (second trip/last load, praise Jesus) and I've got 4 hours on this leg of the trip so hello blog world. 😂 

Home base is now Ohio, and we are in a 26ft massive truck, so we are breaking up the trip into bite sized pieces. 4 hours last night, 8 total today, pausing in the middle to visit our NC family, then another 8.5 on Monday. 

Last night was ROUGH. But that's the kinda night that makes great memories to laugh about later. I wasn't laughing in the moment because I had just finished sprinting a quarter of a mile, after working all day to load the truck, after only getting about 2 hours of sleep the night before because we stayed up loading the truck til 2 am, plus having a massive headache from extreme exhaustion. Yeah, I was just trying to keep my head from exploding and catch my breath in that moment. But now I'm laughing. 

So let me just summarize yesterday: 2 hours of sleep, up at the crack of dawn, finishing the last bits of packing (the annoying things like bubble wrapping pictures and cleaning out the random left behind stuff), loading the spare bed we had been using and the rest of the boxes, 9 am appt at the dealership to sell KC's baby (bye sweet F-150 that was our longest owned vehicle 😢), 11 am bank and tag office to finish the transation, chick-fil-a food (praise break again lol), back to the house to keep loading (snap, we forgot the stuff on the rack above the garage door), 2-3:30 pm signing at the lawyer's office for next weekend's closing, back to the house to clean up and shower, quick bite to eat, and off to return rental car so we can hit the road in the moving truck. 

Whew...are you tired yet? I was! At this point, I'm at like 18000 steps. This is where it got a little interesting. Now I'm dropping the rental car at the airport, but we weren't sure what kind of clearance was available at the airport for KC to pick me up. So we determine that he will wait for me at the hotel just outside the airport and I will walk out of the airport to meet him. It's probably a half mile...in the dark. I'm speed walking, there's a sidewalk, a little bit of lighting, but I'm feeling kinda rough from lack of sleep, severe headache, sore feet, achy back, you know I'm thinking sheesh...it didnt seem this far in the car! 

So I'm walking...finally I see the big yellow truck way down there at the end of the sidewalk. Then....

Rut-Roh. 

Blue lights across the intersection just flipped on and pulled across the street. 

No no no....ain't nobody got time for that.

And I immediately take off. Full out sprint. I have not ran that fast since childhood. 

Please see me coming, please, oh please see me, he's just my ride, we have only good intentions!! Don't make him leave or give him a ticket! I'm so close! 

At this point I'm still at least thirty feet away and the cop is pulling away slowly. 

KC sees me, and hasn't started moving yet.

I, for 2 seconds, think it's ok, then I hear the cop yelling back at him..."I SAID, MOVE!....MOVE!!!!!!!!" 

NOOOOO! 

So KC starts to pull away. I gun it! Adrenalin super kick. That moment where you suddenly become superhuman! 

Thankfully the truck is so heavy and slow that it takes a solid minute to go from zero to 55, so it wasnt going too fast as I reached it, grabbed the handle, yanked open the door,  and scurried up the ladder into the truck as he rolled away. 

Sheesh!!! 

Thought I might die. My head, my heart, couldn't breathe. 

Might sign up to be a stunt woman next. NOT! 😂😂😂

The good news is that we didn't get a ticket, only a lecture about blocking traffic (in a not busy little side road...really?!) And a yell. And mild heart failure, but I caught my ride.  😂😂 

The next four hours were miserable and we gave up the idea of driving all night so today we're paying for that with all the traffic delays, but at least we're a little rested, showered, and breakfasted (Thank you, Hampton Inn). 

So here we are. My awesome hubby doing a great job over there and me being the chief navigator, radio operator, snack handler, and selfie taker. 

LoL 

Good times! 

Next stop North Carolina...well...maybe a bathroom break first. 

If we ever get there...currently we are on I-26 following about a hundred cars behind some kind of escorted envoy that is taking up both lanes and no one can go around. And max speed is around 45...but at least we're moving...and this truck barely moves faster than that anyway 😂😂😂

Just A Test

Does this thing still work? Well, yes. Amazingly enough. If only all tests were this easy!

So I don’t blog much anymore (obviously), and as I came back for this quick and easy little test, I looked around my dear blog for a few minutes and realized I’m not the only one who doesn’t blog much anymore. Only a few of my “blogs I read” are kept updated, although the ones that have been updated are enough to inspire me to continue, since as I clicked through and read a few minutes, I remembered how much I loved blogs and blogging.

HOWEVER. <—that’s a big however! There’s a lot of stuff that is killing the wonderful creature that is blogging. When you post life updates to facebook and instagram, then jot down all your innermost feelings in a bullet journal, and everything you could ever want to know is already on pinterest or in podcasts, on top of being so busy in real life that you barely get any of those things squeezed into it…it’s hard to find time to do it or topics that haven’t already been covered. For the record, that kills the mojo.

Anyway. Test Passed. Something Posted. Now we’ll just see if I can do it again next time I get a minute. LOL. That might be the truer test. =)

Remembering Wally

I got really sad news this past week. One of my favorite co-worker/friends moved on from this world to the next. Time and distance somewhat hindered that friendship the last few years, but we stayed in occasional contact through Facebook. I tried to get with him in person last year when I was in town, but our schedules never worked out, and I was going to try again this summer when I came up. I had no idea his health had gotten so bad that I wouldn’t have another chance, and that breaks my heart, even though I know he’s much better off. Another mutual friend posted, “now he has all the answers.” I’m truly happy for Wally (his nickname on this blog), that he’s got the ultimate healing, but so sad that he’s not just a phone call away anymore.

So, since he was one of my biggest encouragers to start this blog (and to keep it going), I thought I would post one more in his memory.

I keep starting and deleting paragraphs. This is really hard. I’m not great with words, and I’m horrible with feelings. Everything I start to write, I hear Wally saying, stop that and just remember the laughter. And boy howdy, did we ever laugh. He made tough workdays bearable just by making me laugh. It wasn’t part of my original job to help him in Studio B, but when he lost one of his assistants to budget cuts, I gladly picked up the slack. Those ended up being some of my favorite memories of working with Wally. He would talk about what I said on my blog, we would chat about microphones (he had some cool ones!), he would tell me stories from his California days, he talked about his family and asked about mine, and just random conversations while we worked on getting the studio set up for his sessions. He showed me how to set up the microphones, where to put the wires…every setup was a little different, but he eventually got me trained…through a lot of laughter when I got it wrong. The gaffe tape especially…I would try to get the gaffe tape over the wires just right…he was very particular about that, but he NEVER got mad, just laughingly ragged me and made me redo it…again and again…lol…I was so happy when I finally learned the way he wanted it and would get it right on the first try.

He would tell you exactly how it was, and he pulled no punches, but when you were his friend, you knew he had your back. He loved God, he loved his family, and he loved his friends. It was my honor and utter privilege to have been one of the latter.

In conclusion, I’ve never been more grateful that he pushed me to keep blogging, because I was able today to go back through and pull out a few specific mentions of him that brought back memories I had forgotten. So I will close with these blog post bits.

Thats about all the interesting news I have for the day. I only got hit on by Wally today....and he only did that b/c he was making fun of me for that last blog entry....and b/c it bugs me. LOL....and he was actually literally punching me in the shoulder. Like I said, he was laughing at me and poking fun. Isn't that sweet? LOL...I guess I can take it from him....but he's only one of the select few allowed to poke fun. *grin* Shhhh...don't tell him. LOL. (August 16, 2006)

I had a duh moment today. (act surprised, will ya?) I got to work and Wally mentioned to me that the Flickr account that I've been using for my blog pics is linked to my main yahoo mail, not my blog yahoo mail....the main yahoo mail has my name on it. Ooops. I've created a flickr under my blog yahoo now, so all I have to do is go back and figure out which ones are where in my blog and re-upload them all under the new name. URGH. What a pain. I can't believe I missed that. (February 15, 2007)

…And Wally.....who asked if the foot in my mouth was the one with the ingrown toenail......
Pause for a moment while I laugh out loud......
Okay.....anyways, Wally.....I think I'll have to draw the line on answering that question. Ya know....I wouldn't want to give TOO much information out on here. ROFL!!! There are some things that should just remain a secret forever. Like whether or not I've got an ingrown toenail on the foot that was in my mouth. LOL. (June 4, 2007)

What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your blog? Have you been successful? If not, do you have a plan to achieve those goals?
Um, it started out as just a place to have an outlet for my thoughts and random details of my life, and it's still that, but now, one of my biggest kicks is making Wally laugh at whatever I'm blogging about at the time (hahah). And since both of those things seem to happen fairly often, then, yes, I guess that means I have been successful. =) (June 11, 2007 

…If it ain't one thing, it's half a zillion others. *sigh*
Wally asked me the other day if I had a "hot key" for that *sigh* thing. No, I sure don't, but I use it so often, it would save me at least 50 keystrokes per blog entry if I did. End of sentence. Press F7. Write another paragraph, insert F7. (December 7, 2007)

After leaving the bluegrass music this evening, sitting in the car while Daddy's pumping gas:
(a little history is that "Uncle Wally," which is what munchkin calls a guy I used to work with that I was talking to at the festival, was kidding around with the munchkin after I told him we were heading off to take our hot and grumpy kids to the air conditioned grocery store to pick up some much needed groceries and tells her, "Okay, I need toilet paper and laundry powder.....oh and FROSTED Flakes, too. Did you get all that?" Of course, she giggled, so I thought she caught on to the fact that he was kidding.....LOL.....okay so back to the car scene:)
Munchkin: "Mom, don't forget, when we get to the store, Unca Waw-we needs to'wet paper and.....um....what else?"
Mommy: "Frosted Flakes."
Munchkin: "YEAH. Fwosted Fwakes and.....um....what else?"
Mommy (laughing): "Honey, Uncle Wally was just playing with you. He doesn't really want you to get all those things for him."
Munchkin: "Nuh UH, he needs to-wet paper!!"
Mommy: "I'm sure if he needs it, he'll get it the next time he goes to the grocery store."
Munchkin (insistently): "No, he needs it NOW!"
(July 3, 2008)

Randomosity….Or as my friend, Wally says: “because you just NEVER know!”  (LOL) (December 19, 2010)

In recent years, I haven’t blogged as much, hence the lack of recent mentions, but here’s his photo of us (altered his name to what he went by on my blog) and his last birthday wish to me on Facebook that I somehow missed last year =(, (although we’ve talked since then, I only just saw this when I went looking for this picture):

Faith.Wife.Mom.Photographer.Artist.House Painter.Dog Wrangler.Child of God.One Funny Lady.My buddy.Today is Mizz Faith's Birthday. She is sumpin' else. I bet she is at the beach with those two beast she calls dogs. God Bless you and all in your life.

Farewell, my friend, until we meet again.

It's About Time

Well, it only took three years, but I finally updated the aesthetics of the dear neglected blog. For future reference, here are the before and after images, since they’re not that much different.

This time I got smart. I planned ahead for my problem of staying current. Now it’s the year dash question mark. That means the next time I get around to updating it, it might only be KC and me on there…but who knows…except the question mark makes it all okay! LOL!

Well, now that this is done, it’s time to get back to blogging again. I have so many thoughts running through my head, but most of them won’t make any sense without a little backstory since I’ve been so absent from the blog over the last few years.

I’m not sure how far to go back, since I don’t remember where we were when I lost track of blogging, but I guess I’ll just go with 2018.

We sold our NC house at the end of 2017 (it was like our favorite house ever…*sigh*), and moved to FL for KC’s job in January of 2018. We lived in a rental for 3 months (holy cow is it ever hard to transfer addresses twice in less than a year…I’m still trying to get all of the mail switched over). Anyway, we hated renting just like I knew we would, because we HAVE to be able to paint! LOL. All beige walls with patches showing from previous renters was totally KILLING us. Yeah, it’s a first world problem. I shouldn’t complain. But I was still really happy when we were able to move into our own place and start painting. Haha. I’m a professional at this point.

So that was March. Then we had a ton of visitors from back home (which was AWESOME, because living in a new town without all your old friends is pretty sad). Going to the beach and pool while all your old friends are still wearing hats and scarves is fun and all, but it sure doesn’t make up for all the missing them! =)

Summer was busy, the TDQ turned 14, the K-man turned 13, and just like that, we don’t have any kids in the house anymore. Just loads and loads of hormones. And also, they don’t want me talking about any of it anymore, because it’s so embarrassing, which is another reason it has gotten harder to blog. Teenage kids just don’t do the cute things little kids do, and even if they pull off something cute, they (or their friends at school) can pull it up on the internet and read it and be mad at you for ruining their life! So yeah, at least 60% of the things I like to talk, vent, brag about are gone…just like that.

Total rabbit trail, I did ponder for a few moments last week if I should delete all photos from my blog history, after finding out that the TDQ has someone with stalkerish behaviors that somehow found my blog and sent pictures from here to other kids at her school. Obviously, I’ve never posted anything bad, but I *THINK* I’ve addressed the problem and it shouldn’t happen again. Either way though, I decided to leave the pics alone and just hope that legal action doesn’t ever become necessary. Seriously, the things you never think would become necessary to think about!

Where was I? Oh yes, school! So the TDQ started at a private charter school which has been AWESOME for her! The K-man started back at Classical Conversations again, but about 3 weeks into it, I realized we had reached the end of the point where homeschool was beneficial for him, too. Sadly, we were too late to get him into the same private charter school as TDQ (well, the middle school version of it anyway), but we joined the waiting list and continued homeschooling.

October and November were total blurs on the calendar…I have it all written in my bullet journal (of which I am still totally HOOKED) but that would be the only way I could remember what all happened those months. We were just busy! Thanksgiving, KC and I took an early anniversary cruise while a friend from back in NC flew in to stay with the kids for Thanksgiving. That was awesome on so many levels. Our kids will want a friends-giving every year now. Haha.

December was another insane month! Our family was all over the place at all different times that month…that’s another unexpected side effect of having teenagers. They can sometimes travel without you now, so you have to manage four individual schedules instead of them always being part of yours. Anyway, we had Christmas Eve in Ohio with KC’s family, and Christmas Day in NC with my family. I wish we had had more time in both places so we could have seen ALL the peoples we miss, but time was too short to catch everyone. Hopefully we can catch more in the next trip north, but that will be awhile yet.

Anywho, so now, January! We finally got a call from the private charter middle school, and K-man is finishing out the year there! Hallelujah! I’ve already seen a huge difference! He just needed more of a challenge and something to occupy more of his time. And although he was incredibly nervous the first week, he is doing AWESOME. Hopefully he won’t kill me for saying this much. LOL. He is way more easily embarrassed than the TDQ. I try to be understanding although I’m not sure he appreciates my herculean efforts! LOL!

There it is. Update complete. I’ve now burned an entire morning and the laundry still isn’t finished.
Till next time! =)

The End of an Era

e·ra

ˈirə,ˈerə/

noun

a long and distinct period of history with a particular feature or characteristic.

"his death marked the end of an era"
synonyms: epoch, age, period, phase, time, span, eon;

Ends are never very fun, goodbyes are some of the hardest things to handle…even ones who’s effects are lessened by geographical distance.

This place is nowhere near me now, but today marks the last service in this little NC church. This church in which I have spent countless hours in worship, in service, in VBS, in weddings (one of which was my own), in choir practices, in choir recordings, in workdays (like the one where we got into paint mischief), and like that post on paint mischief, this church also became the topic of more than one blog post (although, occasionally the references were vague to avoid causing trouble—I know…me? trouble? Never! LOL).

No, I don’t attend there anymore, haven’t in years, for a variety of reasons…one of which is the reason today was the last service there. They moved to a new location closer to the communities where most of their regular attendees live, and that makes total sense. When you build relationships with people, it’s usually people in your community. And when you get to the point of inviting them to church, not only are you asking them to give up precious weekend time (let’s get real, we all love the weekend), but you’re also asking for an extra hour (or more) of their time just to drive. That makes it tough.

So I get it.

And I also get that not everything in that building’s history was sunshine and flowers. Lord knows, I get that. I weathered a few of the storms myself. But I also know that when I remember that place now, I remember the good times…the glory of God…the love…the imperfect people like me.

And I hope that these imperfect people like me will carry it on in their local community so that it will be the beginning of a new and even better era. 

Imperfect: by that I mean, capable of making mistakes and human error, not intentionally choosing wrongdoing….that term without clarification makes me cringe…but that’s a topic for another day. LOL