Eliajah and me. Loves to jump on me or have me read books to him.
On Sunday, we picked up our son and his husband at the airport. On Monday our daughter and husband and their four children drove in. So we have had a houseful. But it all ends tomorrow.
Because of them all leaving the day after Thanksgiving, we decided to make our Thanksgiving meal on Wednesday. Otherwise, there would have been too many leftovers for the wife and I to finish on our own. It was a great feast, even with leaving out the corn. On Monday our son prepared a nice meal of chicken breasts, pasta, and broccoli. Tuesday the four younger adults (I don’t think I can call them “young” any more as they are now at the lower end of middle-aged), and I prepared Grandpa’s Mythical Sandwich along with cabbage and carrots. That, along with a nice breakfast casserole and some blueberry muffins our daughter brought and a fruit salad Lynda made, and we have eaten very well.
Morning reading time worked very well.
I instituted a new rule for this visit: No screens in the morning until they had read 30 minutes in a physical book. They could pick any book(s) in the house. Ephraim chose a Dickens book off our shelves, the one with the Christmas stories. Ezra grabbed the first volume of The Lord of the Rings. Elise picked a Chronicles of Narnia book, but then changed her mind when her uncles gave her a book as an early Christmas present, a book with famous women’s stories, I think. I actually haven’t been able to look at it much. She read it in the first two days and began re-reading it today. It was kind of hard to get the youngest, Elijah, to participate.
With more work after this photo was taken, the fort is 3 posts short of being done, including this year’s repairs and modifications.Ezra worked hard on the fort and the path leading to it.
We worked on the fort in the nearby woods, and it is done, all but three posts. That included finishing one wall destroyed when a tree fell on it and moving one entrance and closing another. Ezra and I also worked on the path to the fort, marking it with logs. They didn’t play much it in, but I have come to realize that the fun is in the building.
Lots of board games were played, the grandparents not really participating. But the grandkids had fun at it. Little Elijah let me read to him several times.
Thanksgiving is in the books for 2021. It was the first time for the whole family to be together since Thanksgiving 2019. May there be many more such times.
Board games resulted in much fun, cutthroat as it was.
Every year, in November, tens of thousands of writers, at the start of November, sign pledges, set goals, and sit their rear ends in seats in front of computers and begin a novel. Yes, it’s National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. Internet groups have formed for it. Some in-person meet-ups are probably happening. The goal is 50,000 words for the month. That’s not quite a novel for most genres, but it’s more than just a good start. It’s well on it’s way to writing a novel.
But I am not participating. I never participate in NaNoWriMo. The main reason is the busyness of November. Our main annual family celebration is at Thanksgiving. Preparations for this normally consume much time and energy, leaving little for writing and certainly not enough to complete a novel or even 50,000 words of one. I am working on a novel, and today hope to carve out enough time to add 1,000 words to it. But I can’t commit to NaNoWriMo goals.
This year the time crunch is made worse because of decluttering. Two bedrooms have been in use as decluttering staging areas. They are cluttered. The dining room and our large dining table has also been a site of staging. Boxes and piles, boxes and piles, seemingly everywhere. They grow a little and shrink a little, depending on whether we are finishing with something or starting something new.
Saturday we made some good progress, so naturally the dining room looks much worse than it did on Friday. I said progress because we finally, after nine months, dug into boxes of linens left behind in our house when my mother-in-law died three years ago. We sorted. Somethings we discarded (which means put them aside to go to Goodwill, which takes odd cloths and makes things out of them). Today, Monday, with a little extra effort, might have all this sorted out and put either in the garage for storage/donation or in smaller boxes for storage. I hope.
Writing will continue, even as I work on both physical and digital decluttering. But I have no real goals for output until after Thanksgiving. Then, maybe by the end of December, the first draft of that novel will be done. Meanwhile, I will say with Emerson, there is time enough…for all that I must do.
We just got back from visiting in West Texas late on Friday. Company came on Saturday and leaves this morning. I have two blog posts started in draft, but neither is close to being finished. So, I won’t have a real post today.
See you all on Friday, when I should be able to write something more meaningful.
Elijah enjoyed the bowling and wouldn’t use the launching rack.
The wife and I have been on grandparent duty for the last week. The parents have been around. We had relatively few times where we had to babysit. We came to celebrate birthdays. Youngest grandchild Elijah turned 5 on Oct 3, and his dad, Richard, had a birthday on the 6th. The celebrations were delayed due to a conflict with church activities last weekend. On Saturday they did a bowling party for Elijah. I guess 5 years old is a milestone if not a breakthrough.
Ezra is in the middle of the photo, in scout shirt with hands in pockets.
On Monday I did parent duty at Ezra’s cub scout pack meeting. He had missed the week before so didn’t have his toolbox put together. The cubmaster told him to have it next week. Grandpa remedied that with him this afternoon at Ace Hardware. I only got him only the box and a few tools, telling him I had some surplus tools at home which, had I known he needed them, I would have brought them. At the pack meeting they learned a little about car maintenance. Checking the tire air pressure (and where to find the right pressure) and checking oil level are now part of the scouts’ knowledge base. And we got to use his tools this afternoon on a home repair.
Ephraim approaching the finish line. The boy is second can just be seen in the trees over Ephraim’s left shoulder.
Tuesday, oldest grandson Ephraim ran his final cross-country race of the year, the District finals. It was held in Big Spring, where they live. That may have given the Big Spring kids a bit of home course advantage. Ephraim had missed the last race, as he was recovering from an ingrown toenail and the coach rested him. Last year, in 7th grade, he finished 13th, which wasn’t too bad for his first year. Now in 8th grade, he is best on his team (a small team at this particular race). How would he do? His female counterpart won the girls race by a big margin. Then came the boys race. At the first viewing place, right after the start, Ephraim was 2nd or 3rd in a bunch. At the second viewing point he was 2nd but was passed and in 3rd as they went out of sight and started to spread out. Two minutes later, at a very brief view, it looked as if he was 4th, but they were far away and it was hard to tell.
Big Spring took 1st place in both girls and boys races.
Then came the viewing place on a good straightaway, and he was in 1st! And seeming like he was pulling away. He went up the hill and looked strong. At the final straightway leading to the finish line, he was still first with no one else in view. He cross the line a full 25 or 30 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor. I consider this a breakthrough because now he knows he can win, and how hard he has to race in order to win.
Useless and Nitwit are allowed on the kitchen table to escape the torments of Nuisance.
The week has been made a little more exciting because of the three new pets in the household, a kitten who is almost a cat, a full blown kitten, and a rambunctious lab-mix puppy. They are new to the household after older pets expired earlier this year. Their names are Nuisance, Useless, and Worthless, though the latter name was replaced by Nitwit while we were there. No, that’s not their real names; that’s just what Grandpa calls them. Nuisance (the dog) is very powerful. I walked her 1 3/4 miles almost every day, and she had as much energy at the end as at the beginning. I won’t say that I will miss them when we go, though Useless was starting to cuddle up with me the last few days.
You can tell when I started to advertise it.
And, the last breakthrough, again more of a milestone, was me posting my 1000th book sale. Actually, as of 10 p.m. today (Thursday), I’m still at 999 sales. I should have another sale soon, perhaps by the time we get back home on Friday. While it’s a milestone, it’s still less than 30 sales per item for sale. I still work, publish, and sell in obscurity. Maybe someday I’ll be able to report sales that are more of a breakthrough rather than a milestone.
Ah, the beauty of God’s creation, tapped and packaged by man. We are not to love it more than God Himself.
It was not my day to teach our Life Group class yesterday. And, since Lynda is still recovering from her heart ablation on Friday, I decided to stay home and join the class via Zoom. Since my co-teacher is a veterinarian and sometimes gets called in even on his weekend off, I always prepare to teach. I did so on Saturday, and then some more yesterday morning. Good thing, as he almost didn’t make it due to veterinary duties. Our study is in 1st John, and our scripture for yesterday was 1 John 2:15-17
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
Lots of years to spend with these four. But should I not want heaven more?
As I prepared to teach and worked through various lines of discussion, I found the concept of not loving the world difficult to work out. God created the world. God so loved the world. Should we not love it? Obviously there is some nuance here. Perhaps the word “love” needs some explanation. Or the word “world”. What exactly does that mean?
I thought of the difference between the world and life. I wouldn’t say that I love my life, but I do like it and enjoy it. God has given me certain skills which I am able to use to change the world, one book at a time, one letter at a time. I have children influence then watch as they moved into adult responsibilities and careers. And grandchildren to watch and influence a little as they grow up. I would hate to miss all that. And I have a wife to love and care for, and share the years with.
What a joy it was watching these two grow up, and perhaps influencing them a little.
But the thought came to me: Would I trade five years in heaven to have five more on earth to accomplish more and be part of the family? I’d like to have those five years to accomplish more; a lot more than that really. If God were to say to me, “I know you have things you want to do, things that you will enjoy and find fulfilling. But I’m ready for you to come home. It’s your choice.” What would I do?
The same thing happened to King Hezekiah in the Old Testament. God said his time had come. He told God he wasn’t ready. God answered that prayer and gave him 15 years more. During Hezekiah’s extra 15 years weren’t all that good, as he showed more interest in his own wealth and position than he did in the things of God.
And spending more time with my soulmate.
But I love the things in my life. I’d like to live it some more. And therein lies the problem and probably what John meant. While there’s a lot of bad stuff in the world, there’s a lot of good stuff too. A lot of enjoyment. A lot of satisfaction. Ah, but heaven! The beauty of God’s creation, the beauty of a life being well lived, cannot replace the beauty of heaven.
Maybe that’s the answer to John’s question. No, not a question but a command. Do not love the world or the things in the world. Do not let anything take precedence over God. Enjoy life while you can, but earnestly desire heaven when that time comes. Until then, I will embrace what the apostle Paul said:
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far…. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue….
This post will go live tomorrow, at 7:30 a.m. I write it now and schedule it because I will be quite busy at that time. Actually, I will be in a hospital waiting room at that time as Lynda will be undergoing a heart ablation. We have to be at the hospital, about a 45 minute drive, at 5:30 a.m. We haven’t had such an early wake-up and departure in a long time, our recent trip to Chicago excepted.
Lynda’s heart first went into a-fib in the fall of 2019. She began seeing a cardiologist at that time. They scheduled some kind of procedure (maybe a heart inversion), but when she got to the hospital her heart was in normal rhythm, so they canceled it. Since then they’ve been watching it, having Lynda take her blood pressure and being careful with her activity. Her heartbeat has sometimes dropped to 45. When she was in the hospital in April 2020 for her appendix, she went into a-fib and they had to treat it.
Fortunately, she has great awareness of when she goes into a-fib. It happened on the drive home from Chicago on Monday, but lasted only a short time. With a new medication, she hasn’t had those really slow heart rate.
The “ablation”—and I don’t know how I got that name—seems to me to be an odd procedure. The put electrodes through the groin up a vein and zap the vessels adjacent to the heart (arteries or veins, I’m not sure which) with electricity. The goal is to cause scar tissue to build up on the vessels, and supposedly the scar tissue will prevent the heart from going into a-fib. How that will prevent a-fib is a mystery to me. And who first thought of it to begin with?
It is also possible that they will decide instead (or maybe both) to install a pacemaker in her. That decision will be made during the procedure. They say this will be a 3 or 4 hour procedure.
I’ll be in the waiting area. Since Arkansas is now having a surge in covid cases, mainly the delta variation, I don’t know where exactly I will be. Plus this is a new hospital for us to go to. I don’t know if they will let me be in the room where they prep her, then with her in recovery after, or if I’ll be kept out away from her. While this is a procedure which might result in her going home the same day, it’s also possible she will be kept overnight or even two days. Given her general weakness right now, I suspect they will keep her at least one night.
They say this procedure, the ablation, works 95% of the time. I think that’s what they told us. Such odds don’t sound to good to me. Which got me to thinking thoughts I don’t really want to think. You know what I mean. What if it doesn’t solve the a-fib problem? What if her body isn’t strong enough to come through the procedure? What if——. Thoughts you don’t want to think. Fortunately, I have access to God through prayer, and an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. While I’ll have reading material with me tomorrow, I suspect I’ll be praying more than reading.
If you read this shortly after it’s posted, please say a prayer for Lynda, as she will be in the midst of the procedure. If you read this later in the day on Friday, say a prayer, as she will be in recovery. If you read it anytime later, say a prayer for success of the procedure and her return to something closer to a normal life, being able to be active again.
Our only reason for going to Universal was the Harry Potter exhibit. We didn’t see much of this. We went on the Hogwarts ride and, while it made me a little sick, I managed not to puke.
On May 20, about noon, Lynda and I pulled out of our driveway and began a three-day drive to Orlando, Florida. We had much preparation for this trip, though the decision to make it took a long time. We were to meet our daughter and her family there. They had saved up for a long time for a big family vacation, and this was it. They had invited us to go along, and we were providing the accommodation through a timeshare exchange.
We weren’t sure we were going to go, what with covid and then the gas shortage. But things seemed to be falling into place, and a few days before the time, we made the decision to go. We told our son in a phone call but forgot to tell our daughter. The first night in the motel we let her know via Messenger and she replied, “Oh, I didn’t know you had decided to go.” She wasn’t upset; we just had forgotten to tell her. That meant that she wasn’t able to make suggestions about things we could bring with us that they would need but couldn’t take on the plane.
You go to Florida you expect to see an alligator in the wild, right? We had two in our resort ponds.
Fast forward to Orlando. Our daughter, her husband, and their four kids had four days planned for theme parks: three at Disney and one at Universal. Then they added a second day at Universal. We bought tickets to go to Universal the same day they did. The other days we planned to just stay in the resort (which was very nice), doing the usual things we did at home, plus maybe a little walking, a little shopping, a little sight-seeing. In truth, we did less than that. Other than preparation of meals for everyone, or taking everyone out to eat, we just had a restful time. Oh, yeah, I played chauffer to reduce parking costs.
What’s a vacation without a little trauma? In this case, a foot gashed on barnacle-encrusted rocks at a Gulf beach, requiring 4 stitches.
We had great interaction with all the grandkids. I had several good conversations with Ephraim, the oldest. He and I are sort of planning a book together. I think I’ve mentioned it before in these posts. Tentatively titled, The Forest Throne, it will be a time-travel sort of book. I’m brainstorming it now, trying to figure out how to make it unique, not just a run-of-the-mill time travel story. I talked to Ephraim that I was concerned that I’m too far removed from being a 12-year-old and how to make the book suitable for kids that age. He said not to worry. I should write the book and he’ll make adjustments to make it suitable for kids his age.
The lines and noise level at Universal made the experience less that satisfactory for us boring, old folks.
The day we went to Universal I had problems getting Lynda and me into the park, something about our e-tickets wasn’t right. So the rest went on. Later we all met up. Then Lynda and I got in line to do the Hogwarts Castle ride. That was an hour, maybe more. From there we went to the Three Broomsticks for lunch. That was over an hour wait, most of it in the sun. Lynda was tired, I wasn’t tolerating the noise level very well, the heat bothered both of us, and the walk to find a quicker place to eat took us all the way back to near the park entrance. So we left, getting some ice cream near the entrance.
A big city has a variety of foods. One evening of a down day I sprung for Indian food, which made the day worthwhile.
It was a couple of days later that I was talking again with Ephraim. I don’t remember exactly what it was we were talking about, but probably about my not enjoying amusement parts because of lines, noise, and not liking any rides that are high, fast, or quick turning (which is all of them). Ephraim said, “Grandpa, you’re boring.” I replied, “I try to be.”
He didn’t mean it in a bad way, but I’m very happy to be described as boring. Maybe it isn’t quite true that I’m boring. As I look back on my life, I’ve done a fair amount of risk taking and exciting things. But no more. I’m happy to sit at home, write my books, trade my stocks, walk the streets and trails for exercise or on the elliptical. Let others have their amusement parks. I’ll take boring any and every day of the week.
Masks and wands at the ready is how you do theme park at the end of a global pandemic.
We were with the kids from Saturday May 22 through Tuesday June 1. They left for the airport and a couple of hours later we hit the road. We made it home in two days this time, as we were in a mind to travel and, except for one major slowdown on I-40 in western Arkansas, the roads were clear. Now having been home for five days, I can say, “It was good to be with the kids, and it’s good to be back to our boring existence at home.”
What’s going to happen with The Forest Throne? If I don’t make it my next book, Ephraim may be too old by the time I get to it for him to help with it. My brainstorming is causing all the parts to come together. I’ve figured out an angle to make the time travel different. I’ve figured out two stories of this unique time travel. The last piece will be how to finish it all, for it won’t be a series that goes on forever. I’m brainstorming that now.
For almost two weeks just past we have been much tied up with the grandchildren. We left for Texas two weeks ago, dropping recyclables in Oklahoma City, then six more hours to West Texas. We spent three days there, then on Sunday we drove back to Bella Vista with four grandchildren.
They were here a week. I wrote about them in the last post about some of the things that filled the week. We took them back on Saturday, another all-day drive. We spent four nights there, driving back Wednesday, dropping more recyclables in OKC as we came back. We stayed up a little late that night, and Thursday took a day of rest. We watched two of my favorites, Lawrence of Arabia and My Fair Lady,
Now, it’s time to get back to work on my writing. During the last two weeks I began going through my novel-in-progress for the third time. I also got some mock-ups of the cover for it and for the whole series. It will take another three days of reading to get through it.
I need to get back to the church history book. I’ve been brainstorming it while I was otherwise engaged the last two weeks, but didn’t add any words. I also need to get back to the Bible study I had started on. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I need to get a little farther into it before I know if it’s a viable project.
Yesterday it became painfully aware to me that I have to do a lot of work on this website. I hate the thought of that. The person suggesting I need to make changes said I first need to back up what I have. I have no idea how to do that. I know I need to learn how to but hate the thought of it.
But, today I need to work on all these things. Hopefully, I will be able to apply my mind to it.
The day before we left Texas for Arkansas we endured a hailstorm with golf ball size hail, and some bigger.
My last blog post was on March 8. As it’s now the 22nd, that means I missed three of my regular blogging days. I hate doing that, but I had a good reason. We drove to West Texas and picked up our four grandchildren bringing them back to Arkansas for their spring break.
Due to the covid pandemic, which included Lynda and I contracting it but processing through it easily (for me) or at least not severe (with Lynda) was reason enough to cancel any hope for a family Christmas. We had already decided not to have Thanksgiving together, so that meant we hadn’t seen our grandkids since last June—except on Messenger or Zoom calls.
The two 11-hour drives gave plenty of opportunity for food and treats.
So we had the kids from Sunday though Saturday. E1 and I worked on repairs to the fort in the woods across the street, which had a wall damaged from a leaning tree. We had to untie a number of posts from the damaged top bar, the try to push the tree in a way that it would not damage another wall. We could only do this after I sawed the tree into two pieces. I had already cut a new top bar from a dead but not yet rotted tree on our property. I carried it to the street then E1 took it across the street into the woods and to the fort.
Ice cream on the chin mitigates a lot of hours in the safety seat.
E1, who is in junior high track and ran cross-country last fall, did a timed mile on our hill. He did this in new running shoes we got him, well fitted at a running shoes shop.
E2 was his usual quiet self. He pulled out our set of The Chronicles of Narnia and picked up reading in them where he had left off at home. He is reading the Bible through, now in Job, and we read with him several nights. He went on a couple of walks with us. One evening, as twilight was beginning to fall, he and E1 went into the woods chasing after a herd of 10 deer that passed through our yard. They went through the deep ravine and made it back to our house via the street just as dark was closing in.
E3 enjoys art and making displays such as this.
E3 really enjoyed her walks. She and E4 and I played with Leggos in the play room. She reads a lot, and was always ready to go on a walk with me and Grandma, or sometimes just with me and “the two littles” i.e. E3 and E4. E3 also helped me put away the winter display and put up and Easter one. She especially enjoyed putting the tiny eggs on two little trees.
The youngest, E4, had the job of gathering up the lengths of twine and putting them in a bucket for re-use.
E4 worked on his potty training and did well with it. Since Grandma has had relatively little snuggling time with him, she was the designated “read him to sleep person”. Sometimes Grandpa had to come in to take him from her arms and put him in bed. A few nights he wanted me to sing him to sleep. He kept wanting to be on screens like his older siblings.
Mindful that this was their vacation, Grandma and Grandpa were somewhat lax with bedtimes and the amount of screen time we let them have. Hopefully they will fall back into regular routines quickly at home. The three older kids also got in some laser tag with the boy up the street (who was not on spring break) for a couple of days. But they all had opportunity to work on making words from longer words for money. The three older ones all earned something. And they wrote letters home to their parents and to their other set of grandparents.
They could do as many words as they wanted, limit of $15 per word at 15¢ per word made.
The two adults in the house are beat. We will be glad to be home soon and to wind down from all the work, but we wouldn’t have missed it for anything. Possibly we’ll get them back sometime this summer, when they will have another large pot of Grandpa’s Mythical Sandwich for supper over several nights.
[Note to self: Don’t hit the browser back button when typing a post if you haven’t hit “save draft”. Maybe the second time will be a charm.]
This is looking up the street from our house on Thursday 2/11. It is sanded (actually gritted). I believe I could get up it if I tried.
I’m looking out The Dungeon windows to a light snowfall. It’s just condensation due to the cold, 14°F. We were supposed to be in Texas this weekend, watching the grandkids while their parents were at a church event. Wednesday last was our departure day. But we woke up to a winter glaze on the roads, a freakish ice storm overnight. It had been predicted then removed from the forecast. After a quick survey of the situation, I postponed the trip a day.
If not, perhaps I could get down the hill then loop around the circle and go up the next street which, last time I checked, was free of ice.
I spent time chopping and clearing ice, spreading rock salt and sand. I was able to get the already-loaded van up to the end of the driveway. Once the City truck came by spreading grit on the road, I probably could have made it up the hill. But reports on conditions elsewhere indicated the trip would be difficult. Thursday morning was not much different. Radar showed light, frozen precipitation along our route. I delayed the trip from morning to afternoon. By noon it was clear things were no better. Reports of accidents along our route said it all. I cancelled the trip.
So were are unexpectedly home. The forecast now calls for 6-10″ of snow Sunday-Monday, with temperatures like we have now or lower. After a trip to Wal-Mart today (hopefully) for fresh items, we will hunker down. I made a large pot of soup yesterday. We have enough frozen, canned, and boxed food to get by a long time should the W-M run not be possible. I plan to write in the church anniversary book. I plan to begin the editing process in The Teachings. I will read C.S. Lewis and other things. On Sunday I will teach Life Group from home. And I will walk outside a little but get my main exercise on the elliptical. I might even get a little genealogy research done.
I realize that the last paragraph is all about me. “I plan…I will…” Obviously I will do that only by the grace of God and the strength and abilities He has given me and continues to give me.
Oh, in the last half-hour we learned that the church event have been postponed due to…weather.
