Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:6-7



Monday, February 23, 2015

Monday Daybook


In the garden...
...snow. We had a pretty big storm on Saturday. It snowed from sun up to sun down and I think we got about 7 or 8 inches, maybe more. It was mostly a soft steady snow. Not much by New England standards, but it's enough. The roads were awful on Saturday, but we didn't have anywhere to go. Now they're mostly clear but this snow will be around for at least the week.


photo by Noah



photo by Noah




photo by Noah




photo by Noah



photo by Noah
You have no idea how rare this photo is. ;-)



I'm thinking about...
...what an upside down weekend we had, and that I don't handle chaos at all well any more. 

Is it "the change," my age, my health, what? I cry at the drop of a hat. 

On Saturday Doug was working on the "project." After he tore out the jacuzzi bathtub, then fixed the shower drip (remember the shower drip started the whole big ball rolling), put new drywall up in what will be the dressing room, he decided that he wanted to put in can (recessed) lights in the master bath like we did in the kids' bath over three years ago, and so now was the chance. He is not an electrician, nor even a real handy man, but our neighbor had helped him with the lights in the kids' bath so he felt confident to do it. He waffled all day about whether to put in four or six and eventually decided six. It was a big job for him and climbing up and down the ladder into the attic all day was exhausting (we're no spring chickens!). It seemed every thirty minutes there was a problem or something not going right. He had his cell phone with him in the attic and when he needed something he would text me, and I, or one of the kids, would run up and hand it to him up in the attic. I was preparing dinner when he texted me that he needed one of these little gray plug things and I sent Faith up. A few minutes later I heard her scream (like a real scream, not a little girl scream) and she came running downstairs telling me "dad fell through the ceiling." As I was running up the stairs Doug was yelling down "I'm ok!" but the ceiling was not ok. He had stepped off one of the rafters (because he was tired, but would not stop!) and his leg, up to the knee, had gone through the ceiling. The hole in the ceiling was huge, as the drywall had just broken away -- not just a hole where his leg was, and there was fiberglass insulation all over the place. A basket of clean laundry was filled and piles of towels and toiletries I had removed from the bathroom where he was working was covered. And I just stood there and sobbed. Noah was with me and I think he was stunned by my reaction, but at least put his arms around me and patted me while I sobbed. It wasn't the hole in the ceiling that made me cry, it was just everything. I was partly scared by what could have happened and partly just overwhelmed by the day. We were supposed to be having a birthday party the next day and I had been cleaning and baking and it was just all too much. I really need to learn when to say when. The trouble was, I didn't realize Doug was going to be working on lights the entire day, and like all home improvement projects, it was more complicated than it should have been.

As it turned out, Faith was sick Saturday night and the party was cancelled. All the kids were still here, including Geoffrey, and we had dinner, but it wasn't a party. Thank God. I don't like to think of my daughter's illness as grace, but God showered it on.


I am wearing...
...a gray skirt, a red v-neck shirt, black scarf, black leggings and black suede boots. I have to remake the amethyst bracelet I made last week with my med-alert tag on it. The clasp kept coming off, so I'll have to get creative again here real soon. I noticed today before I got in the shower that I have a lot of bruises. I think I need to wrap myself in bubble wrap. That would be quite a fashion statement.


I am reading....
...I'm reading  Radical Hospitality: Benedict's Way of Love, in print, A Girl of the Limberlost, by Gene Stratton-Porter  on my Kindle, and listening to Amazing Love by Corrie ten Boom -- gosh that woman knows how to make the best out of a bad situation -- she sees grace every where she looks. And she knows how to lean on Him, a lesson I need learning over and over. 

Over the weekend I listened to Brain on Fire, by Susannah Cahalan -- a riveting book about a girl with a rare auto-immune disease causing one hemisphere of her brain to be inflamed. She went through psychosis, including paranoia, hallucinations, heard voices, all before she started having seizures which led to a diagnosis that took about 28 days, after MRIs, CT scant, and even a brain biopsy at NYU Medical Center, all before one doctor did a test that cost nothing to diagnose her. It's a fascinating book if you like (true) medical mysteries, and apparently is going to be a movie starring Dakota Fanning (how, pray tell, did Dakota Fanning become a woman? -- as opposed to a little girl, not as opposed to a man). 

I also listened to Every Patient Tells a Story by Lisa Sanders, MD, and that was quite revealing -- essentially a story about how often, and how, doctors mess up diagnoses all the time. Truly a book any one who sees doctors even rarely should read. I found out after I read it that it was the inspiration for the television show House, MD.


I am creating...

...still sewing scapulars -- that's my morning sewing.




I have a baby hat on my needles -- that's my night time work.



These booties were on the needles before the hat I'm currently knitting






The bodice of Faith's dress is finished, but I'm in a quandary about what to do with the skirt. The pattern (her dress, and the other junior bridesmaid's will be the one on the top right at the link, but with a lace over crepe bodice and solid crepe skirt) calls for an underskirt with an attachment of tulle to flare the skirt at the bottom. It's going to be June when the girls wear these dresses and tulle is going to be itchy, hence the quandary. I ordered a petticoat slip, but I think I'll even have to modify it so that the fullness is at the hem and not at the waist.

Again I ask myself, why did I do this?

Any seamstresses with any suggestions?




In the kitchen...
...tonight is dance night (and I don't cook on dance night), and I am sitting at Panera with a cuppa finishing this post -- a rarity indeed. I picked up dinner for the menfolk to heat up all by themselves (you have no idea how spoiled they are -- their dinners usually come plated to the table). 

For the remainder of the week:
Tuesday: Korean Beef, rice, roasted broccoli
Wednesday: Wild Game Chili, bread
Thursday: Birthday boy's choice -- steak, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans amandine, Better than Everything Cake
Friday: Three Cheese Roasted Cauliflower Soup, bread
Saturday: Saturday night pizza


At the school table...
...fractions and decimals in math, just more of it (and more sad faces); relative pronouns in English, which I admit sometimes even confuse me, especially when asked for the syntax of the relative pronoun -- I have the answer key but sometimes I just can't say "why;" more Middle Ages in history, botany in science (and a trip to the conservatory!), the Tenth Commandment in religion, and The Silver Crown in reading. I took quite a few photos at the conservatory, but I forgot my real camera and used my ipad so I need to check to see if any of them are post-worthy. I think this week we'll grow some stuff indoors just for fun -- because it's February.


Around the house...

...see "Thinking about" above -- lots of drywall dust. I had everything clean for the party. Now it's clean with a layer of fine white dust.


Plans for the rest of the week...
...an appointment for blood work tomorrow and a doctor's appointment with my PCP on Friday. After reading Every Patient Tells a Story, I refuse to settle for no answers. Dance on Thursday again, and that's about it. I'd like a quiet week and that's part of the reason I'm sitting alone at Panera -- it's not quiet, but none of the noise involves me.


Thought-provoking stops around the internet...
...I admit I'm not completely up on all my blogs, but I was moved by Jenny's tribute to her sweet boy in heaven. I can imagine feeling like so many years could not have passed without him.
...I enjoyed Ginny's announcement that they have acquired a goat. A  goat? I could think of other things I'd rather have, but whatever floats your boat. My kids would probably love one.
...admittedly, weather.com and the local news site with school closings is my most common stop on the internet these days.


A few of my favorite things...

...Overdrive and my local library's ebooks for listening to books while I work
...Angels and Saints at Ephesus on my phone



Prayers sent heavenward...
...for my husband and children, to do God's will every day
...for all priests and religious, especially our priests Fr. Sill and Fr. Schmit, and for Fr. Howe
...all babies whose mothers are contemplating abortion, for a change of heart
...for friends who have asked for prayers
...for a finish of home projects (photos of Faith's bedroom coming this week!)


Photos for the day...






As seen here -- and I corrected my adultery rock without the l. ;-)



"There are none who call upon your name,
none who rouse themselves to take hold of you;For you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us up to our crimes." Isaiah 64:6 





Linking up with Jenny at The Littlest Way



11 comments:

  1. OH boy would I have bawled like a baby! Seriously. Remodeling jobs are SO stressful to begin with. Add some other activities or events to the mix, and you have trouble. I am glad that your husband was not hurt. That would have been terrible.

    The "l" in adultery. LOL Had to go back and check that out.

    I am no seamstress so I have no advice, but I can tell you that the bodice turned out quite lovely!

    Oh! And the books. They sound so fascinating!

    Hoping the rest of your week is a little more on the quiet side.

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    Replies
    1. I am, too, Patty (hoping for a quiet week). We have another "cold" day off for the school kids so my high schooler is home again. I'm ready to move -- maybe southern Virginia?

      Delete
  2. What a weekend! I am pretty sure I would have had the same reaction you did.

    I am amazed at the amount of reading you manage to do. I am working on one book for myself, one book that I read to the kids at night, and some Lenten reflections.

    I really appreciated the prayers for us as we celebrated Ben's life this weekend. He has been gone for the same amount of time that he was alive and that is shocking to me.

    I hope the rest of the bathroom project goes much smoother!

    The bodice of the dress is beautifully sewn. I have no advice because you are miles ahead of me in the sewing department.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A lot of my "reading" is audiobooks. But, remember, my youngest is 13 now, so I have a lot more time not keeping little ones busy.

      Delete
  3. Ow, so sorry about the ceiling! I hope the rest is being professionally repaired and finished? I just about had conniptions when my husband walked across the attic rafters over the 2-story foyer (!) to place a mousetrap "against a wall". I really just meant not in the middle of the floor, or against a beam---not ACROSS THE ATTIC!!! :-)

    Email me and tell me about getting hardwood floors (when you have time!). We're planning to rip out carpet and install hardwoods this summer---refinish what is there and installed factory-finished hardwoods everywhere else.

    When you make the underskirt, shouldn't the tulle go on the *top* side of the underskirt so it lands between the layers?

    The books sound intriguing, but I'm so swamped with books right now! Argh! I thought of you recently when I read about something being good for anxiety, but I'm not sure what it was. Fermented Cod Liver Oil?

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  4. One day, when the kids are grown and gone, you will write a book about your life (like Laura Ingalls! or Sophia Loren!) and when you get to the part about Doug crashing through the roof, you will tell it with humor and grace but without the tears.

    It's in the retelling that we cope, I think. That's why *I* write it all down, anyway...and I'm not even Italian like Sophia Loren.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And you're wondering, what is UP with you and Sophia Loren? She recently came out with a memoir, is what, which I know because it was prominently displayed at Barnes & Noble yesterday.

      (I had gone there to get away for an hour.)

      (Thinking, if only I hadn't forgotten my wallet, I could have a coffee too!)

      (But the unfeeling barista wouldn't take a check.)

      (Not without an ID anyway, which was basically the point of needing to write a check.)

      Anyway, THAT'S where I got that obscure reference. Another celebrity writes a memoir! I'm saving my pennies to buy yours instead. ♥

      Delete
    2. When I texted my mom what had happened she responded "you made me laugh out loud; you need to write a book."

      I think I'll title it "And Then I Cried"

      But I'll try to laugh when I write it.

      Delete
  5. Wow, I'm not sure what I would have done exactly, but I'm sure tears would have been involved. Love your centerpiece for Lent Barbara. I pinned it in multiple places it's so pretty.

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  6. Barbara...every time I read your blog I am inspired! I am encouraged in my faith and I love how transparent you are. I love all the projects you are working on and I especially love hearing about what you are reading. I love Corrie Ten Boom...everything she has written. I also love The Girl of the Limberlost. I will need to look into the others...especially the one about auto immune disease. Thanks for taking the time to write and encourage others!

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I appreciate your comments -- sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself!