Hoo, boy....

You may never see this post.  If you do see it, it means that things in my household are even weirder than normal, and this blog is going on hiatus for a little while as we prayerfully attempt to get things sorted out.

If things settle down before this goes to publication, I'll delete it and put up something much funnier in its place.

But if you're reading this, we appreciate your prayers and good thoughts.  I'll be back with something in hopefully a few weeks.

Take care, friends, and God bless.

Thankfulness

I hope I don't come off as whiny or complaining on this blog.  It's my attempt to share some of my family's life, made a little interesting by some challenges and complications many families don't deal with.  We really do try to keep a sense of humor and perspective about things, not to mention trusting God to help see us through.

So today, in honor of Thanksgiving, I wanted to list some things I'm thankful for.

1. First and foremost, for my Savior and Lord Jesus.
2. For the hope of Heaven, by the light of which all the things of this age fade into proper perspective.  I'm going to live forever and my troubles are going to fade away.  I can OUTLAST them.
3. For the joy and laughter my family and friends bring me.
4. For the many beauties and wonders of the world.
5. For the ability to walk, talk, work, and rest.
6. For the chance to make a difference in the lives of others.
7. For plenty of food to eat and clothes to wear and a safe, warm place to sleep.
8. For....sunsets, puppies, babies, chicken salad sandwiches, libraries, waterfalls, Mythbusters, hardware stores, working vehicles, store window displays, churches, Irish folk music, community theater, photographers, the military and police officers, baby hedgehogs, bad jokes, comic book superheroes, desk toys, Christmas lights, toy shops, woodcarvers, fairy tales, Pixar movies, oatmeal raisin cookies, road trips, National Geographic, Slinkies, sidewalk chalk, playgrounds, duck ponds, walking trails, power tools, computers, art exhibits.......

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

The Driving Day

Reblogged from my Facebook post:  This was my day while Adored Wife was unable to drive due to a sprained ankle.

1. 6:30 AM. Drove daughter to work.
2. Drove back home.
3. Drove son to school.
4. Drove to work.
5. Drove home for lunch and to cheer up housebound, severely-ankle-sprained wife.
6. Drove back to work.
7. Drove to daughter's work to pick her up for a doctor visit.
8. Drove to doctor visit.
9. Drove daughter back to work.
10. Drove to bank.
11. Drove back to work.
12. Drove home. Got to have supper with severely-ankle-sprained wife.
13. Drove to pick son up from friend's house.
14. Drove back home. Did some chores and chatted with severely-ankle-sprained wife.
15. Drove to grocery store for milk and bread.
16. Drove to get daughter from work. Daughter pulled extra hours today for a sick co-worker.
17. Drove. Back. Home. Arrived 9:03 PM. Daughter's kinda tired.

Very, very glad that Adored Wife is driving again.

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

Chinchilla Sitting

We're currently keeping a chinchilla for a family friend, who I'll refer to as Muppet Dude, because he and I share a fondness for Jim Henson's creations.

The chinchilla's name is Machias.  I'm not sure how to spell that.  Neither is Muppet Dude.  He's never written it down.  MD started out as Social Hurricane's friend, but he very quickly became a family friend and is one of those great guys you give open door and refrigerator privileges to.  He's helped us out a lot over the past few years and we've become something of a second home to him.

ANYWAY, he's in the middle of some housing transitions and needed a place to park his chinchilla for awhile.  Adored Wife and I are thinking, well, we're not sure about this, but this is, after all, Muppet Dude, and if he needs some help we're there for him.  Social Hurricane is thinking "I will go clear some space in my room RIGHT NOW.  We're getting to keep Machias!"  And she gleefully boogies off and rearranges lots of things.

So SH has Machias in her room and has assumed total responsibility for his care, which I am absolutely, totally, completely cool with.  Last night was his first night at our home.  MD had told her that if Machias wasn't happy with something he would make some noise.

Which she had assumed would be an irritated little chittering.

But no.

Apparently about two A.M. today the fluffy, cute little chinchilla turned into Megolith, fell beast from beyond the abyss.  Social Hurricane was awakened by this high-pitched, keening banshee wail.  She turned on a fan, stroked him a little, and gave him a treat, and he settled back down.

This morning she told me the story.  She's going to have a little talk with Muppet Dude about how he didn't properly prepare her for Machias' unhappy noise......

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

Addicted to Snacking

This is not an abnormality.

LOTS of people deal with this one.

Okay, here goes.  My name is Henry and I'm....a snackaholic.

I'm not exactly sure how overweight I am, but let's say 25 pounds as an easy number.  If I could magically and instantly lose four newborn babies' worth of weight I might still find that I was two to three pounds too heavy, but I honestly don't think it'd be much more than that.

Ask me why I'm carrying the equivalent of a hundred cheeseburgers in my gut.  (That tends to be mainly where I store it.)  Go ahead, ask me.

I'm glad you asked.  I'm overlarge by about the weight of a decent-sized cocker spaniel because I have chosen to be.

That's it entirely.  It wasn't one choice, oh, no.  I couldn't gain twenty-five pounds as the result of one choice if I wanted to.  It's been the result of a thousand choices, to eat unhealthy when I didn't have to, over and over and over and over and........

And if I want to take the weight off, then it's going to cost me a thousand good choices.

Here goes.

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

Social Hurricane Sees Things

Social Hurricane has occasional visual and auditory hallucinations.  Not often--a few times a month, typically.  She's asked me to NEVER ask her to describe them, because that gives them more reality, and I'd certainly never press her.  She did tell me once "you know the monsters that lives in closets?  I've seen the one that lives in mine."

She takes a fair amount of medication already for various thingies, and her psychiatrist has offered to prescribe her a pretty potent antipsychotic that should take care of the hallucinations.  She doesn't like the list of side effects, though, and prefers to deal instead with the ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties.

I think she's starting to revisit the issue a little bit, though, because she's had a few bad days at work, and she hasn't always been able to distinguish between the "imaginary" noises and the genuine calls for help from a resident in distress.  (She works as a CNA.)  She's going to talk to her doctor about it.

You might say a prayer for her.  It can't be an easy thing to deal with.

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

Halloween Evening

I'm writing this while waiting on trick-or-treaters.  The lights are on, the jack-o-lantern is lit, the big honking bowl of candy bars is ready.

Canada Artist and Harbor Master are ready up in Montreal.  It's the first year Harbor Master has ever given out candy, but CA has talked him into it.

Graphics Magician is downtown with a friend, helping to take his little sister and cousin around trick-or-treating.

Social Hurricane is dressed up in skull face and cape, and is off to a small party with some friends.

Adored Wife and I are here, doing various little odds and ends.  It's the closest thing to an unscheduled evening I've had in a few weeks, and I'm kind of enjoying it.

Don't know where the cat is.  Sleeping somewhere, I suppose.  Little varmint was howling for breakfast at 5:00 AM this morning.

Fairly low-key day at work.  Staff meeting, correspondence and phone calls, some charitable aid work, shopping for the food pantry, some odds and ends of calendaring and scheduling, moving some paperwork around.  SH had the day off and slept in and did some household chores (and some video games), GM was at school, and AW was doing various household projects.

I don't think I've mentioned that she's applying for "jobs you can do from home on your computer."  It's pretty cool and she's made a few bucks already.  I'll have to devote a blog post to that.

Update:  the cat was sleeping on the stool, but all the joyful cries of "trick or treat" woke him up.  We had thirty-nine trick-or-treaters, a respectable number for our neighborhood.  Not too much leftover chocolate.  Things failed to gel in Montreal, and Canada Artist is now stuck with a bunch of Smarties and Tootsie Rolls and lollipops because Harbor Master is new to this and didn't understand about quality goodies.  CA says that next year SHE's buying the candy.

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