A Road Less Travelled

Three times today I got this call from James asking if we had (fill in the blank) and if he could borrow some. Admittedly one of those times was actually something for Kathey, but I started wondering what was up. My question was answered when we got to the Lansberry house and found the table very nicely set with candles and several plates. It was really quite lovely. The only bummer was that Noah was running a bit of a temperature so Seth and Justice stayed home with him. James and I walked some food to him so he didn’t miss out on dinner or dessert and the dinner was much calmer without the two youngest. During dinner we talked about odd restaurants we’ve heard of and Kathey’s dog. After dessert the women started talking about books and James and Jeremy decided to walk over to our house to have manly conversation. The children mostly stayed down in the basement playing video games and so we could have a lovely conversation ranging from good experiences with doctors to Bargains Food in South Carolina to family trees. All in all it was a lovely evening.

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 A gardening haiku from some yard work we were doing yesterday:

 

clumps of earth
showering down
from clouds of rootlets 

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  This was a haiku that I particularly had in mind when I mentioned mediocre haiku. But then when I decided to post it, I realized that I could make it better… Maybe not far above mediocre, but in the acceptable range, I think.

 

 

blue flame
glowing
under a white kettle 

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  Last night we congregated at the Lansberry abode to perform scientific taste tests to ascertain if Pottstown bratwurst were better than Alwan’s or if it was the other way ’round. Admittedly, the Pottstown brats may have been a little over-cooked, but we still all agreed that we like the Alwans brats better. They have a sharper snap to them in spices and in natural casing and the texture was more enjoyable. Earlier this year we tested Smith hot dogs against Alwan hot dogs and we agreed then that the Alwans were better. So, folks, that’s Alwan Brothers Butchery (or something like that) located at least on the corner of War Memorial and Wisconsin and maybe elsewhere as well.

We talked about their vacation and we did One Good Thing and Theresa said a funny that haunted me late into the night. It may end up sticking around for a while which is a real shame. Not because Theresa said it, but because I’m not sure I want to think about it for long portions of time. We talked about church matters and how we can’t hold to one conversation at a time. Once again we had a short recess to clean up and put children to bed and then James and Theresa came over to our house to continue an important conversation and I went over to their house to chill with Raquel. And a good time was had by all.

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 Now, as soon as I start trying to write down the highlights of last week in an effort to catch you up on all the stuff you haven’t been reading because I haven’t been writing it, I’m sure I will promptly forget most of the interesting events. Still, there are two things that stand out about last week.

 First, (chronologically speaking) Gabrielle and I started walking in the mornings. To our surprise, this effort actually ‘took’ and we walked four mornings last week. We only skipped the morning that Justice had hernia surgery, and I think you must admit we had sufficient reason.

 Second, on Friday James started his slightly-over-a-week long vacation on which we are doing no travelling. We are going on one overnight camping trip this week, but we don’t even have to leave the state. Or spend hours upon hours in the van. Or get up early the next morning to get back on the road.

 We are also running (or more precisely, driving) around the area to visit various museums and such fun places, to the extent that I will probably feel the need to crash after the vacation. I suppose that’s what a vacation is all about, but I can only take so much fun. Throw in some yard work and similar around the house projects, and a few time slots designated to play board games, and you have a pretty good picture of what this week will look like for me. (Plus walking with Gabrielle in the mornings, of course. Because we’re still following through on our plan to walk. How odd…)

  Now a quick poll question: Would you rather have me go ahead and post some of the mediocre haiku I’ve written, and try to actually post every day, or should I skip days that I can’t find/write a really good haiku? I’m trying to start posting haiku again and I’m having trouble figuring out which of the haiku in my notebook are good enough to be worth posting. Any opinions?

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Today’s haiku:

unwritten haiku
whisper around me
if I would stop to listen

It’s been a long time since the last haiku. I will try to start posting them regularly again next week.

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One of the super nice things about living this close to the Lansberry’s is that it makes dinner at their house much easier. We also moved dinner to Wednesday so that we don’t have to worry about vacuuming Seth’s workplace (our second job) on the day we have dinner. So instead of getting the little boys up from their naps, piling all the children into a van with all the paraphernalia we require to function and taking them to the Lansberry house with enough time for one of us to go vacuum we get them up after they’re awake, gather the children and some things we might need and walk down to the Lansberry’s house. We show up just before dinner with enough time to help set up and then we can have an enjoyable dinner without Justice getting stressed because he’s been around too many people for too long or Noah getting over-stimulated because all the children and all the running.

It was a small group this week- just the sixteen of us. We ate rice with some sort of sauce (I never asked) that I’m told Noah helped season, peas and really good bread. We did One Good Thing That Happened Today which is a tradition from my childhood wherein we go around the table and everyone gets to say one good thing that happened to them today. Seth’s and James’ revolved around a going away party their work threw for someone and how they each got to eat several different kinds of meat for lunch. Raquel’s had to do with a secret project she is working on so she was kind of vague on the details, but it was a good thing. Theresa discovered YouTube and wiled away a happy time with that. Crystal got her new shoes in the mail yesterday and found them to be very comfortable and I had gone to the library with the children. I don’t remember the children’s one good thing, but I do remember Samuel L. couldn’t think of one so we were going to come back to him, but before we could Peter stole the one he’d thought of. After dinner Theresa showed us some knitting movies she’d found on YouTube and then we talked until Justice started to melt down. I offered to take him home and ended up with Justice, Noah, Moriah, Elsie, Arianna and Raquel. It was really nice to leave before Noah became a mess. He walked around the room giving hugs goodbye and as we left he said, “Bye! Wuv you!” which was simply too cute for words.  I put the boys to bed and then made tea and popcorn for the girls. They had a lovely little party and I crushed Raquel at Boggle. Really, it was impressive. 64 to 109. Yep, crushed.

So, our dinner at Lansberry’s extended past the Lansberry house, but that’s okay. Last night was exactly the sort of thing I’d hoped would happen when we moved down here. And it did! Fancy that!

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Justice is doing fine after his surgery today. His surgery was later than anticipated because the surgeon had to do an emergency surgery, but that just means Seth and Crystal are more worn out than they expected. Justice came home smiling, ate some lunch and then took a nap. He seems in cheery spirits though that could be partly due to the last little bits of anesthesia running through his system. Hopefully, prayerfully, this will be the last surgery he will have to go through for a long, long time.

Thank you, Yaweh, for Your grace on Justice and Your watchful eye. Please heal him quickly and keep him safe while You heal him. Amen. 

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On Saturday, August 19, Justice had officially been alive for one whole year. I look back on this past year and, man, it has been a doozy. Especially for Justice. And the fun isn’t over yet because tomorrow he goes in to have surgery done on his other hernia. Did I mention he another hernia? I don’t remember right now. Any way, tomorrow he gets to go in to the hospital and have yet another surgery. I can’t wait for it to be over. Sometimes he’ll be a real bear and you never know if maybe he’s hurting or if he’s being willful or if it’s a combination of the two. Hopefully after he recovers that will start becoming easier to figure out.

I feel like I should have some words of wisdom to say on the event of my nephew’s first birthday, but considering his life so far all I can say is I’m glad we made it thus far. First, just a few days after he was born we all got whooping cough and Justice had to be kept secluded from his family. Then, Justice got whooping cough and we spent a very hard three or four weeks praying for his life. Then, he got a hair wrapped so tightly around his toe it cut off circulation and made a really terrible looking cut all the way around his toe and we had to dig under his skin to get it out. And then he got his first hernia and had that taken care of and then right when we’re getting ready to move we find his second hernia. This child has probably caused more sleepless nights than any of the other four put together. I pray that after this surgery God will see fit to let all the excitment die down for a while. It would nice to have a year without any major, medical troubles.

Justice, you’ve had a rough life so far. I pray it gets easier from here on out, but you can believe me that it probably won’t. But you hold on to that smile and keep those blues eyes sparkling anyway, hon. Your Father who carried you this far will sure be able to carry you for the rest of the way. Don’t lose that, baby. I love you. Happy Birthday.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the dog has been named. And when I tell you the name please know that it was not I who named this dog. Crystal is responsible for the naming of this poor, unfortunate dog. We wanted something ironic so Seth and I were batting around names like Cerberus or Medusa or maybe Grendel. Crystal didn’t like any of these names, but she liked the idea of an ironic name so she picked the most ironic she could think of. She named the dog Kitty. Yes, that is correct. Kitty.

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