Lonely and Only

I want to express appreciation to all my family.  This has been a week of family change.

Rebecca and family packed up and on Tuesday they drove out the driveway.  It was hard not to cry.  Of course they drive off every year, but this time it may be a long time before we see them again.  We so enjoy having them visit.

Dear Abby had a letter about a father estranged from his adult son.  Abby wrote, don’t feel left out, that might bring you together with others.  She sat at a table with several women and the common thread was that they all had estranged children.

It made me realize how blessed we are.  As siblings we love one another.  From generation to generation we love one another. What a priceless gift to have family that respects and cares about each other.  Thank you, Mom and Dad for teaching us this great lesson.  And thanks to everyone else for learning it and passing it on.

The rest of the week seemed like a quiet week.  We changed sheets and did some house cleaning. On Wednesday Tom and I worked out at the house.  He got all the old brick from the stove hearth broken out.  I painted the porch supports and railings a soft green.

I also got all the changes needed on the book I’ve been writing and sent it to the client for a last look. It is about 2 weeks overdue and I don’t know that it can be designed and printed before the client’s deadline.  I don’t know how to push without being pushy.  I assume she knows… but I hate missing deadlines.

Thursday my neighbor, Barbara had a procedure at the medical center in Little Rock.  We left at 8am and I drove her down.   There were some delays before the procedure and recovery time after.  I brought the laptop and there was internet connection, so I got some things done.  I even napped for about an hour in a very uncomfortable chair.

She got out about 5:30 with good news and feeling okay. I dashed through the Commissary – left her sitting in air conditioning. Then we grabbed some fast food and drove north.  We got home about 10:30. By then, both of us were tuckered out.

Friday I dinked around the house.  I was tired from the drive the day before.  I  worked some on the upcoming Stake Women’s Retreat. That night Tom and I watched “The Truman Show.” It was a cute movie.

Early Saturday morning I had a terrible dream.  I was supposed to be in charge of a Stake meal and everything was so unprepared.  And I was supposed to give a talk and while I’d worked and worked on it, it wasn’t at all ready.  And then I was a half our late to the meeting to give it.  I woke up in a panic.  I decided the message was that I was far too unprepared for this Stake Woman’s Retreat. 

So I spent a good part of Saturday morning making lists and calling people, asking them to help out in some way or getting information.  People really are generous with their time and talents.  I am blessed.

Tom hired some of the young women of the church to come over and clean the cabinets in the kitchen.  Years of use, dust, and grime had left their mark.  They worked for 3 hours and my kitchen looks fantastic!

After they left, Tom and I went out.  First we went to Hobby Lobby to check on paper for the program for the Retreat.  Then we went to the house and put in two of the new windows.  They look great.  Tom is so talented that he can take off the siding, get the window in, and put the siding back on again. 

As I was looking at the windows yet to go in, I realized I’d made a mistake and ordered a window with the measurements 90 degrees off.  Hmm.  Can a slider window become a sash window?

We got rained on a little while working, but couldn’t complain.  We really needed that rain.  After we finished work, Tom took me out to dinner.  It was a nice day.

Today is quiet.  When I went into the chapel, I realized I didn’t need to look for Rebecca and family to sit with.  They weren’t there.  I was all by myself.  I felt sad again.  Then in closing, we sang “God Be with You Til We Meet Again.”  I tried to be happy for them in their new place and wish the Lord’s blessings on them and all my chicks.

Oh!  Speaking of chicks.  The black hen’s chicks have grown into gangly teens. They can barely squeeze out of the fence.  And now I have another brown hen nesting.  She’s on 6 eggs.  I’ll need to move her from the “high-rise” nesting boxes down to one on the ground so the chicks can get out once they’re born.

Heat Wave

We have had a pretty mild summer; in fact July was one of the 'coolest' in years, averaging about 73 degrees.  But this week is trying to make up for that. Most days have been about 100 degrees and no rain.   The grass is drying out.  Some of our garden is shriveling up.  I think that may be due to bugs and pestilence as much as the heat.

Sunday I had a lovely time in Ava at their ward conference. This is a ward that really has it together, so we were able to train on a higher level.  We taught about ward councils, music in Relief Society, and the Relief Society’s responsibilities in disaster preparedness.  I gave about a 10 minute talk in Relief Society.  After the meetings we went and visited a lively sister and her husband.  We arrived back to the building in time for a 3pm Stake Council meeting.  It went well.

I learned that if you google Relative Finder the first thing you’ll see is a roots-byu.edu address. If you click on that and sign in with your lds account name and password, or your Family Search password, you can see who you are related to.  You can check famous Americans, prophets, famous people, royalty, handcart companies and other groups of people.  The amazing thing is that we really are related to the people around us.

They created a westplainsstake group and just those of us in the room put in our names.  We found out that we were related to each other—13^th cousin twice removed… or more… but related.  It’s really fun.  You should try it.  Joshua spent time on Monday finding out he’s related to prophets and kings (a 12^th great- grandson through the Magee side).

My meeting got out about 5pm, just about the time Tom arrived to go to a seminary meeting for the youth in our ward and stake.  Our ward had a great turnout of youth and their parents!  However, there was a lady at the ward who had two carloads of apples she was giving away. So I scored two bags full! Yahoo!

I had hoped to have my book to the book designer on Monday.  No book back. Throughout the week I sent small emails to the client, encouraging her to finish reviewing the book and send it back to me. I know she works from like 6am to 10pm and never has any time—literally.  So I didn’t know when or how she’d review it if it wasn’t over a weekend. Even then she’s booked.  She finally said she’d try to review it this weekend on her trip to Omaha.  She also enlisted the help of Beth, the reviewer I’d been working with, to try and finish it.  So finally on Saturday I got another revision back. It’s hard to finish when the client is really the only one with the knowledge and expertise to resolve some of the issues.

Tuesday I’d planned to make applesauce, but the air conditioning went out the night before. So we tried to not use the kitchen that day.  The temperature got up to 86 in the house.  It was getting a bit uncomfortable when the repairman showed up.  Good news: simple fix.  I think it was a capacitor.  But it took a while to get the heat out of the house.   So the Applesauce making got moved to Wednesday… and Thursday morning.

Tom shifted gears this week and went to work at Deborah’s house.   One of the single moms in the church wants to rent it and go on HUD.  They have strict rules.  The house did need painting on the exterior… perhaps not this moment… but it needed it.  So we went ahead and had it done.  Tom fixed some electrical and painted some trim, replaced a door and did some other stuff.  Inspection is this Tuesday and I hope it passes the first time.

Wednesday I ran and bought more paint and went to admire their work. I also had an RS presidency meeting that we decided to do by phone.  That worked out pretty well.  I’ve lost my RS notebook with all the notes I take at meetings and writing down thoughts and ideas.  I feel adrift without it.  I’ll need to start recreating things as I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find it.

Thursday Tom stopped work early and we went to see Guardians of the Galaxy. I had heard good reviews.  It was okay, but not thrilling.  I liked the animated characters the best.

 Friday we went to Silver Dollar City.

 Our first stop was at the bakery.  Joshua is downing a HUGE eclair.  Others got giant cupcakes, pecan rolls and cinnamon rolls.  They looked delicious and tasted pretty good.

 The girls checked out the map and directed us to the merry-go-round.  I'm the wincing one in the floating the lost river ride.  Tom is on dry ground taking the picture.

 It was still stinkin hot, but we took plenty of water and lots of sunscreen.  This is the first time I’ve WANTED to go on the water rides.  Yup.  Got soaked.  And it was okay.  The kids had a good time.  We had “dinner” at Andy’s Frozen Custard and got home about 7pm.

I had tried to activate the Sprint phone while in Branson, but was not successful. We decided to try to go on Adam’s Framily (friends and family) plan and don’t have good Sprint coverage here.  We’ll see if there’s a work around.

While much of the garden is winding down, the beans and the peppers are producing enthusiastically.  I’ve been freezing some and giving a lot away. We had home and visiting teachers come by and they took home a load on Saturday.  We also went to a farewell for a young man going into the Navy.

Today it felt sad to think that this was the last Sunday Rebecca and family would be at church with us. We have so enjoyed having her here.  After church we had delicious taco salad and Wendy Maple and family came over.  They ate and got home taught.

Deadline

Much of this week has been taken up getting this book ready to go to print.  I had gotten quotes from two book designers.  Becky (the client) needed to choose one.  I liked the more expensive one.  I thought she'd do a better job, and I was pleased when Becky chose her.

She came up with a timeline, and it's tight.  Finished Beth's revisions.  I figured out how to get every illustration in graytones instead of color.  But I was still waiting for Becky's last few facts.  I know she's REALLY busy.  But still.  I NEED stuff.  Finally I sent the book to Catherine to copyedit. I told her I might be sending changes while she copyedited. She was able to incorporate most all of them.

So I sent the manuscript to Becky to read and approve one last time.  There are still xx's where there should be some numbers.  I told her the manuscript would go to the book designer and be printed in the form she approved.  So I hope she can find time to actually read the book one more time.  I don't want her saying, "Wait!  You can't call a policy an account!  It's not an account, it's a policy."  We did get that one corrected, but are there other errors?

We worked on the house some this week.  I learned that when you wash the hardwood floors they actually look pretty nice.  We also learned that when you try to put crown molding on walls and ceilings that are uneven and curved it can be a great exercise in frustration!  A single mom from church will be moving into Deborah's house in Cotter.  It needs some work to become HUD approved.  So Wednesday we went to see all that needed doing.  Some of the paint has worn off the aluminum siding.  Since every surface needs paint, we'll have to do that.  I suggested Ray Coleman and his amazing paint sprayer.  Actually, it's Ray that's amazing.  He really does good work.  Tom will power wash and help with the taping off.

There are also some electrical things that need to be in conduit,screens to install, and a door to change out.  Tom will shift focus on Monday and start on Deborah's house. We hope to get it done before the inspector comes out.

Wednesday I drove to West Plains for a Relief Society meeting.  We are planning our fall conference.  Each time we meet we get a lot accomplished, but there's more to do.  And the time keeps getting shorter!  It seemed like it was two months away.  Now it's getting close to one month.  Gaak!

Thursday morning I went to a fair meeting.  I volunteered to help out with this year's fair.  I will be taking entries for the photography area.  So I learned what was expected at this meeting.   Lots of nice people.  And I do love the fair.

Right after the meeting, Tom and I left to go to the St. Louis Temple.  We arrived in time to do an evening session.  Remarkably, Five Guys AND Trader Joe's were on the way to our hotel.  How great is that?  So we dined and shopped after the session.  We went back to the temple for two more sessions, then arrived back in Mountain Home about 7pm.

Today I had a huge list of things to accomplish. I picked a bunch of beans and cucumbers.  I thought about freezing the beans... but decided to give them away instead.  Tom will take them to church tomorrow.  Tom worked around the house.  I looked outside to see him mowing the pasture with several little girls sitting in the bucket on the front. It looked so cute. He said he mowed past a momma and baby deer-- maybe 100 feet away-- and they hardly moved.

I will be going to the Ava ward for their ward conference.  I prepared some training and a short talk to give.  After church we will visit some sisters and then have stake council.  I scheduled a RS president phone conference for 8pm that night.   So I figured I'd better get all my blogging and missionary writing done today.

Family! I LOVE it!

Rebecca came home to nest this week.  It's so fun to have her and the children. They have been a big help.

Rebecca brought 50 pounds of peaches with her.  Ripe peaches.  So all day Monday we made jam. I think we made 4 batches and canned seven quarts of peach halves and slices. Later we made another batch of jam for Rebecca to take with her.  Then a peach cobbler (which didn't go with Rebecca.)  We have a few peaches still in the refrigerator.  Mmmm.  They were DELICIOUS peaches!!

Tom has been busy at the house.  Tuesday Delaney and Callie came out to help.  We washed cupboards, baseboards and walls.  That brought them one step closer to painting.  The rest of the week was mostly spend painting.  We had an insulation man come out and he said there was enough insulation in the ceiling and if we really wanted to improve efficiency, we'd change out the windows.  We'd already scheduled to change out two.  But we went and ordered 5 more-- essentially for our budget for insulation.  That will leave 3 older windows in the house.

Callie is our great Chicken Caretaker, and Marian and Delaney help out too.  Wednesday we awoke to a new little chick.  The black hens had both been sitting on nests, but once the baby chicks were born, the one hen mostly stopped sitting on the eggs.  So we didn't know if we'd get anymore chicks.  One egg broke with a far-to-young chick inside.  But this little yellow ball of fluff just appeared.  It was so small. And the mamas were busy running around with their larger chicks.  Then it fell into a crack in some bricks and got stuck.

So the kids held it and kept it warm while I got a light to add heat to the shed.

Then, to keep the mamas inside it, I closed the door.  After a bit, the other chickens were clambering to get inside.  What was their problem???  Oh.  They wanted to lay eggs.  So we had to open the door for them.  In the mean time the little chick got warm.  It's a game little thing. It will hop after the mamas and the other chicks.  It stumbles through the tall grass.  But it's alive and growing.

Thursday the termite people came out and treated the house.  That meant we could close up the hole in the floor in the kitchen.  I'm hoping that will vastly reduce the musty smell in the kitchen. At least the skunk smell seems to have diminished. Tom and I went shopping for tiles for the bathtub surround. He's bought trim and crown molding.  Why crown molding you ask?  They moved the bathroom wall and didn't put the drywall totally up to the ceiling.  There's about 1-2 inch gap. Thus, we get to add an elegant touch to the room.

As we go through, it seems like there are a lot of half-done things.  We wonder, people lived with this for years?  Why?  So we take the time to fix it or paint it properly. There may come a time when we are rushed and will say, "um, that's good enough."  Then someone will come along after us and say, "Why didn't they just do it right?"

I've been working on Rebecca Rice's book for a long time now.  She will be speaking in October and wants to have the book in hand by then.  So I talked to a book designer and counted back from that date to see when the book needed to be to the designer.  Ideally by August 15.  Aagghh!  There's still stuff I don't have.   And Rebecca asked Beth to take a look at the book and she had a bunch of suggestions.  They are actually really good suggestions, so I have been busy making revisions. My goal was to get the book to Rebecca to review by Thursday.  I got fresh revisions from Beth just as I was about to hit the send button.  So the book got sent on Friday instead.  We have decided on a title, so that's good.  I hope I'll see Rebecca's comments by Monday so we can work on the final final draft.

The garden has been generous. Notice our sunflowers!  (And the cute guy in front.)

Saturday we decided to attack the growing vegetable population on the kitchen counter.  We made a batch of Harry and David sweet & hot pepper relish and a batch of pickles.  I hope they taste good.  It's a new recipe and I didn't like the last pickles I made.   It was nice to reclaim the countertop.  However, the garden keeps producing.  Rebecca is doing a marvelous job of keeping the zucchini at bay. Now beans are coming on.  I can't believe how thick and lush the foliage is for them.   And we didn't plant ALL that many bean seads!

Baby Chick Week

This week has been such a QUIET week!  Miranda and family and the Merrill family left early Sunday morning. They really cleaned up a lot of their "footprint," so there was just a little laundry and bed-making to do.  We found an odd sock and the extra cell phone cord.  Anybody's???

Then it was on to new adventures.   I went out twice this week to help Tom with the new house.  I slavishly washed walls, ceilings, and woodwork in two bedrooms. Then I sluggishly started painting the baseboard.  Man, it went SO SLOW!  I couldn't figure it out.  Saturday, I stopped to get more paint.  I tried pre-sanding the woodwork so the paint would get a better purchase.  Finally I decided to try the new Behr paint that has the primer in it. Oh! World of difference. I did the baseboard in the second bedroom in a fraction of the time.  About that point Tom said, "Maybe it's because that old can of paint froze." Hmm.

Tom was busy fixing the board fence, making doors for the crawl holes under the house and doing drywall.  He patched up the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom very nicely.  And he moved some wiring around.  It's the little unplanned things that sometimes take so much time.  There was a wire that cut across from wall to ceiling that had been hidden by the dropped ceiling.  It took time, but now you can't see where it was.

Ray came and replaced the garden faucet knob on the bath tub with an appropriate faucet.

Tom stripped off the tub surround and we are debating tiling or something else to replace it.  Most of the deconstruction is done.  So hopefully we'll see it looking better and better every time we go out now.

I had my teeth cleaned Monday.  Look Ma, no cavities. Tuesday I went to lunch with a friend. Had a nice visit. Wednesday I worked at the house.  We came home and checked the chicken coop.  Sure enough.  There were some baby chicks.  Eventually we counted 4 of them.  Are you familiar with the book Heather has Two Mommies?  I think the babies think both black hens are their moms.  They'll go into both nests.  One is still sitting on eggs, so there's less room there.

 Thursday I had a meeting with Rebecca Rice about her book. I'm hoping we are on the last of the revisions. Friday I drove to West Plains and had a meeting with the Relief Society Presidency.  I waited to get through with the trek to dive into the Fall Women's conference, but now I feel behind. Saturday Tom and I spend a good part of the day at the house.  We had the missionaries over to dinner in the evening.

I have been doing private lending through JWB, a company that buys and renovates houses in Jacksonville, FL. It's kind of nice. 10% interest paid monthly, and principle returned when the house sells.  While you don't have capital appreciation, you also don't have to worry about tenants, repairs, property taxes and insurance. The house I loaned on sold, so my principle came back.  They have another loan opportunity so I will wire the money back on Monday. This will be my third house.  This is the first time it's been new construction.

My writing projects continue to be slow.  I'm doing the book with Rebecca and learning about product launches and applying for Elance jobs.  It's not that there isn't other things I could be doing.  I just need to manage my time better.  But all is good.

In a few hours Rebecca and her children will come and settle in for the month.