Celebrating

There have been a few challenges of late in our household for me personally, and it's very easy to get bogged down with my eyes on the negative stuff.

Today I choose to celebrate the blessings.  In no particular order, just as they occur to me:

1. It is very soothing to watch a cat sleep, and very entertaining to watch him play with a cardboard box and packing material.
2. There is plenty to eat in my kitchen.  I don't have any worries whatsoever over where my next meal is coming from, or indeed my next several meals.
3. I have no shortage of things to play with in my leisure time.  I have several good books I'm working through, numerous episodes of "Mythbusters" recorded, lots of computer games if I'm so inclined, and a new tool chest I want to get set up and organized.  Boredom is not a problem.
4. I have weights, a chin-up bar, and a treadmill if I feel the need of exercise.
5. I enjoy talking with both my girls about fictional stuff--movies, creative writing endeavors, books, television shows.  I like hearing about their work and telling them about mine.
6. My son, while on occasion an uncommunicative teenager, often surprises me with his ability to carry on an insightful conversation about current events and matters philosophical.
7. My wife and I have a mutual love of the theater, have very similar tastes in popular culture, and have a couple of games we like to play together.  She usually wins.  But not always.
8, On a professional level I like my co-workers, get to interact with lots of delightful people, and the other night got to spend twenty minutes on the playground with a lively three year old boy.  We had a ball.  Plus I get to hold babies a lot.
9. My parents are elderly and beset with many health difficulties, but they are still with us and I cherish the time we have.
10. I have ample evidence that God is watching over me, guiding me, and taking care of me.
11. I have plenty of creative pursuits, and opportunities to do things that I am both good at and find fulfilling.
12. I have a relationship with an accountability partner, a godly man who gently keeps me straight.
13. I am close to my family, particularly my twin brother.  We talk frequently, about everything.
14. My health, while not perfect, is good.  I'm strong, capable, generally feel well and energetic, and I sleep great.

I feel better already.  May I encourage you, friends, to count your own blessings?  Hope all's well out there, and may God watch over you.

Bathing the Cat

There are a couple of scratches on my left forearm, a few small ones on my hands, and a truly impressive set of claw marks on my right arm.  Fortunately most of them are fairly superficial.

We've been combating a flea problem.  We don't have many fleas, but there are a few and Adored Wife is militantly trying to eradicate them.  We've bombed the house twice, we've put down flea traps, we've ruthlessly and regularly powdered the carpet, vacuumed, and repeated.  We're still getting a couple of fleas a day in the traps.  Kind of mystified.

So, last night we gave the cat a bath.  Again.  And when I say "we" I mean "I."  The girls watched.  I'd given him a flea bath a few weeks ago and it wasn't too bad, because he had no idea what to expect.  I had him in, shampooed, washed, and out before he knew what hit him, and then he was free to run with mad indignation through the house.

This time I was trying to do a more thorough job.  And he was on guard for it when I brought him into the bathtub.

I don't know if you've ever tried to restrain a panicking, soaking wet, small whirling yowling tornado full of razor blades, but if you have you might have some idea of what I was up against.

I got him bathed because I was GOING to get him bathed and I'm too stubborn to let a few battle wounds stop me.  But, yeah, I was bleeding at the end of the encounter and Oscar was dripping wet and ill as a hornet.

Hopefully he's flea-free today.  But if not it still makes a lively story to tell.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

Friends With Social Hurricane

We had a very rough time of it with Social Hurricane a few years ago.  Full blown bipolar disorder onset plus an extremely rebellious streak showing itself.  Ran away from home a few times and stayed away for days (didn't know where she was), had a couple of suicide attempts, a few trips to the hospital, two stays in psychiatric facilities, and all manner of unhealthy behaviors.

We got into several yelling matches, I had to physically restrain her more than once, and one time I knocked her locked door down because she was doing herself mischief on the other side of it.

It was a pretty stressful era, to be honest with you.

So it's come as a bit of a surprise that she and I are getting along great these days.  We talk about lots of things, enjoy going out and doing stuff together, and bond over a mutual love for certain authors and books.  The relationship's not perfect, but if you'd told me a few years back that I'd find myself sitting at Bojangles with my daughter hearing with entertainment about funny stories from her work day and telling her a few from mine, I don't know that I would have believed you.

It's nice, to have come safely through a storm.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

Playwrights in the House

Adored Wife and I are heavily involved in the local community theater.  The kids used to be but the girls' schedules no longer permit much and Graphics Magician has lost some of his interest in it.

But AW told me she wanted to write a play and present it to the "New Playwrights" competition next month.  The winner gets the play produced at the theater (and gets to direct it).  She said it was just a wild idea but she's gotten enthusiastic about it.  She's never written a play before, and she told me she was going to want my help.

I told her I'd be glad to help her out.  I was more than happy to commit to being her sounding board and proofreading her punctuation.  (In all due modesty, I'm better at semicolons than she is.)

But that wasn't the kind of help she wanted.  She wants my help as a co-writer.

So now we're co-writing two one-act plays and it's a lot of fun thus far.  The concept and most of the funny ideas so far are hers; most of the wordsmithing is mine.  It'll wind up very much a collaborative piece.

So, a new adventure.  Let's see if Adored Wife and I can survive writing a play together.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

Grumpy Baby

Happy Monday, friends!  What with one thing and another I didn't make time to write a proper post.  Please enjoy this picture of a grumpy baby girl instead.  We will return to our regular posting schedule on Thursday.  Thanks and God bless.

Snowed In and Slowed Down

We had a couple of snow days.

School was closed, so Graphics Magician didn't have to go anywhere.

Church was cancelled, so I didn't have to go anywhere.

The restaurant where Basement Artist works was closed, so she didn't have to go anywhere.

Social Hurricane works in a 24/7 medical facility (and somebody has to do it) so she did have to go out one night.  "Fortunately" she came down with a mild bug so had a medical excuse to take a couple of days off and rest.  Regrettably she didn't feel well and had almost completely lost her voice, but even she seemed to enjoy the downtime.

And we had about forty-eight hours of downtime.  Some playing in the snow happened and quite a lot of snow cream.  I got to sleep in a little and finished reading a book.  The kids played some video games together, and generally some low-pressure unwinding happened.

I could do that again sometime.  I quite enjoyed it.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

God's Still Watching Over Us

Have I mentioned before that Graphics Magician is adopted?  Long story short, around fourteen years ago Adored Wife and I felt God's overwhelming message that we were going to have more children, and then a scant few weeks later we learned that GM's birth mother was expecting a child out of wedlock and wanted to know if we would adopt.  He's thirteen now.

He's grown up knowing he was adopted and it's never been a big deal to him.  But it was only in conversation with him this past week that all the miraculous "God's leading" stuff came up.  I don't use the word "miraculous" lightly, and I'd just never had the occasion to tell him the particulars.

But, yes, it was a miracle time.  I've rarely experienced a sense of God's direction as clearly as I did fourteen years ago, but it's happened a few times in my life.

And I needed the conversation this week.  I have a few stressful situations in my life right now, and I'm earnestly praying for God's guidance to see me through it.  And the conversation with my son was a reminder that God has always watched over me and seen me through times of testing.  And the timing of that conversation, relating to my son the Providential circumstances surrounding his birth and adoption, came in the midst of me seeking reassurance from God.

Yeah, He's still watching over us.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

Incompatible Schedules

Our family has incompatible schedules.

When I have my preferences I get up about six in the morning and go to bed about ten at night.  I very, very, very rarely get my preferences.  I still get up about six because somebody has to and I'm the best qualified, but circumstances usually keep me up later.

By preference Adored Wife and Graphics Magician stay up until midnight or one in the morning and then sleep in until nine in the morning.  (GM prefers to sleep until noon if possible.)  Circumstances rarely allow them to sleep as late as they'd like.

Basement Artist's restaurant job frequently has her getting home at one or two in the morning.  Fortunately she usually does get to sleep in with this happens, but it throws her off as far as getting anything else done.

Social Hurricane works nights and sleeps days.  This isn't so bad except for days off because she's used to sleeping days and then there's nothing for her to do at home at three in the morning when she's awake and the rest of us are asleep.  She'll try to stay awake during the day when she has a night off, but then it messes up her whole body clock.

As you might imagine, the whole family uses a lot of caffeine just trying to stay caught up.  Occasional naps are nice and occasionally absolutely necessary.

Plus it's awkward trying to get everybody together for anything.  I'll have days when I don't see Basement Artist at all--she's asleep when I go to work, she's at work when I get home, and I'm asleep when she gets home.

But we manage, because we're awesome like that.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.

Dealing With Memory Issues

Happy New Year, friends, and hope all is well out there.

I deal with memory issues.  I don't suffer from them PERSONALLY, other than the usual "I can't remember the details of a conversation we had six months ago" and "Oh, man, I forgot to turn off the lights in the Jeep and the battery's dead" sort of way.  Normal absentmindedness, in other words.

But I regularly interact with people who have significant memory loss, whether from dementia or other neurological issues, and it's a little tricky sometimes.  I'd rather be the one having to deal with it from the outside rather than the poor soul living through it, of course.  Still and all, sometimes it's frustrating.

I'm going to be a little more cautious in this post about identifying people, for fear of embarrassing them.  I generally have people's permission to tell personal stories, and it's hard to get permission to share something that the individual in question doesn't remember happening.

But I was recently talking with a person (maybe a family member, maybe just a friend) who regularly forgets things, and he or she had completely forgotten some very significant interactions we'd had just a few days before and got upset with me when I brought it up.  In my defense I had no reason to know that he or she didn't remember the conversation--the memory issues are sporadic.  But I got accused of making the whole thing up and I don't mind telling you that kind of bugged me.

I appreciate that it'd be terrifying to have someone tell me about something recent I'd said or done that I had absolutely no recollection of, and there is a huge need for patience and compassion in being friends with people with memory issues.  I appreciate prayers for wisdom and grace, because it's not likely going to get any easier.

Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.