My Ebenezer

  We were finally seen by an orthopedic doctor Friday: one week after Seth's accident on the one wheel. What a long week spent on the phone with those On Hold Recordings ("Your healthcare is our top priority!" = a big fat syrupy lie), insurance customer service reps, orthopedic schedulers and switchboard operators... You know that scene in The Princess Bride where the Count puts Westley on that machine and then calmly reports, "I've just sucked one year of your life away." I felt just like Westley felt too.   I know now what took so long for Seth to be seen. Are you ready for it? The insurance company had Seth's birthdate wrong in their information. One little number--a 0 instead of a 9--meant the difference between an appointment early in the week and one on Friday. Yes, we still would have needed a referral and prior authorization, but No, it did not have to take so long except that things got hung up with that wrong birthdate. The authorization was se...

 Not much text here, just the before and after on our skylight project, which is now complete! Praise the Lord.

 I am in Scotland. S C O T L A N D. This is me; Joanna, the one whose comfort zone is within about one square mile, who said she never wanted to leave the USA, who hates to travel on anything public, who nearly hyperventilates at the mere mention of airplanes. How is this possible that I am here? Only by God's grace. Every step in front of the other, every long line, every minute on those airplanes was enabled by God's grace. On my end, it wasn't always pretty--usually it was very ugly--and I may have said, "I can't do this" more times than we could count (Josh had to tell me to quit saying that), but God was faithful to me and I have a really great story about one such miracle to share with you, but for perspective and contrast I have to share a really ugly story first. Here goes:  We dropped off our rental car in Dublin about 11am, and had to ride a shuttle bus back to the Dublin airport to catch our 1:10pm "quick" flight over to Edinburgh, Scotlan...

For the first time in over 9 years, all of my kids are now in school. Three different kids, three different schools; this can get logistically complicated, but that's just how we're rolling. Noah rides his electric scooter to and from his high school (!!! When did that happen?), Seth is attending 3rd grade at GRASP Academy (his last year there, perhaps, before he switches to Harvest?), and Eden is enthusiastically enrolled in morning Preschool at a church down the road from us. But my point was that for the first time in nine years, I finally feel like I can breathe again for a minute. Like I can come up for air. Maybe mop the floor and listen to classical music, a sermon, or an audio book while I do so. Draw, paint, blog, dust the furniture (I think I remember how to do that?), purge a closet, shower uninterrupted, and b r e a t h e. It's magical.  I think it's marvelous how the Lord works differently in different people's lives, giving them graces and even person...

 In this plate-spinning life I lead (and I admit, I'm not as busy as some other moms I know) it's easy for me to let months go by without updating what is going on. Well it's time for a check-in! This (above) is how I spend most mornings after the boys have gone to school (I should post my routine sometime--that's always a scintillating read! Ha!). Eden and I have what we call Eden and Mommy Time. Original and clever, I know. This is time that is largely spent doing what Eden wants to do, whether that is building with blocks, playing with play-doh, coloring, painting with watercolors (my favorite!), baking a dessert, going to the park, or whatnot. She enjoys the undivided attention immensely.  So many things to say about the simple picture above: My kids go through phases and are into forts these days. Specifically, pillow forts. They frequently summon up all the pillows from every corner of the house and make divided forts in the living room. It's great fun for the...

Have you ever been to a restaurant with a menu so extensive that there are multiple pages and maybe even a table of contents? Or a buffet which offers everything from surf and turf to Chinese to pizza to Beef Stroganoff and everything in between? Do you know what is usually true about these places? They dabble in so many offerings and varieties that they don't do any of it really well. How is the steak at these places? It's ho hum. How about their pizza? Same.  You want a good burger? You probably don't order it here. No, you should go to a restaurant that specializes in burgers. And for pity's sake, don't go to a Burgers-and-Fries restaurant and order a salad; you'll be disappointed for sure!  Wilted iceberg, mealy tomatoes, and some anemic cucumber slices, anyone?  Where am I going with this?  Well, in a lot of ways I was that restaurant these last two years; specializing in so many things that I wasn't doing any of them well. Cooking, cleaning, trying to ...

Back in December our family had the opportunity to drive our camper down to the Florida Keys for a little vacation. If you got our Christmas card in 2019 you would have seen us pictured at our campsite in Curry Hammock State Park, which is halfway between Key Largo and Key West. We loved the Keys. It's a great place to escape from winter if that's your thing.  (Right now in August it is blistering hot outside with high humidity.)  Naturally curious about all things real estate, Josh looked into land and home values and found it to be Very Expensive in the Keys. Also very hard to build anything new (you have to tear something existing down to be allowed to build something new). One thing you have to know about Josh: he loves a challenge! Hearing someone say that something can't be done is synonymous with throwing down the gauntlet to him.  You might as well double-dog dare him! So when he heard that owning property there is expensive and restrictive and generally very excl...

  I never imagined that this hummingbird would reawaken my desire to be an artist, but it did. I drew this hummingbird in June and posted it to my Instagram account, and a friend from high school (hi, Natasha!) messaged me and asked if I'd ever consider selling my art, because she was interested in this one.   I read her message, turned off my phone, and thought about it. I closed my eyes and had an actual flashback to that dismal day in college my sophomore year when, as they did for all aspiring Studio Art majors, the art department voted on my portfolio and decided that I was welcome to "change directions and pursue a degree in Art Education, but [I] lacked the determination necessary to make it as a studio artist." That verdict became a self-fulfilling prophecy; totally squashing all my desire to be an artist. I closeted my art supplies and didn't draw another thing until my mid-twenties. Then the Lord so graciously answered my prayers for children, and I had them...

 Since I just love the process of transferring photos to the blog so much *rolls eyes*, I thought I'd just get it over with and compile a few random photos here with captions, paragraphs, or stories as the case may be. This is probably one of my favorite photos I'll put here! My siblings and I were all able to come celebrate my mom's 87th birthday on July 17. These are the kinds of pictures I know I will treasure for years to come. I'm so thankful for each one pictured here--they are dear to my heart! Our cat Willow had 2 kittens at the end of June. I don't know about you, but I think kittens are my favorite baby animal (although bunnies are sweet too!). The white one is a female and the gray tiger one is a male. We plan to sell them when they are 8+ weeks old, but my kids are going to be sad! Me too, if I'm honest, but we don't want to turn into the cat people.   Speaking of pets, Eden has been begging for a dog. She loves dogs of all kinds, and wants to to...

 It's getting to that point where I haven't been blogging, life has been happening, and now I feel grossly incompetent to funnel all of my life events down and encapsulate them in a single blog post. It is times like these when I begin to flirt with quitting the blog altogether because, really, who reads this thing anymore?  And it's so much work to sit down at the end of the day or the week and write down what happened or who said what. Let alone the uploading of photos. (Which I just have to comment that I must be missing something because in this advanced age I cannot figure out how to do this any easier than emailing the photo from my phone to my email account, then saving the photo to my computer, then uploading it to the blog. Really? In 2020 that's the easiest way? Somebody please correct me!)   But then one of the kids asks what they were like when they were younger. And I don't remember. Can you imagine that? I don't remember. I, who have been knee deep...

This morning the Lord worked on my behalf in a big way, and I need to write it down so that Future Me can be encouraged. I wish I could change the names and circumstances to avoid embarrassment, but I can't. Instead, I asked Noah if I could write about it, and he said "Yes. Just don't post it on Facebook." Roger that. It was 9:47am, and I had just called Noah in from outside to give him some further instructions with Eden, so I could give Seth a Reading lesson without interruption. As Noah was standing at the door, he began what I call "man-handling" Eden, which means he was trying to forcibly get her to do what he thought she should be doing, which was to stay on the mat and not get the floor muddy. A good goal, but man-handling never goes well. It doesn't leave the one being forced feeling all rosy and teachable. It usually backfires and causes even more of a fight. Not only does it NOT work, it is also sinful. Plus, I was standing right there. I...

This is Day #20 since our lives were noticeably altered by COVID-19. I think we're all counting! For the most part these days, we just stay at home all the time. Eden is my "Can I go?" child. It doesn't matter where you're going, she just wants to go too, which is the exact opposite of me! It doesn't matter where you're going, I just want to stay home! This "safer-at-home" mandate Florida is under would be much easier if it were just me at home. Lonelier, yes, but oh the things I could do! The puzzles, the artwork, the cleaning, the organizing, the card-making, the baking/cooking... Another season perhaps!  For now, I'm trying to keep three kids out of mischief. Succeeding for the most part, thank the Lord, but sometimes things fall through the gaps.  Exhibit A: That is green sharpie on my dining room walls, folks, scrawled there by miss E herself. Don't ask me how or when she did this, but there it is. Kind of resembles the stoc...

Earlier in the week Josh, the kids, and I were itching to get out. The lockdowns here in Jacksonville are getting a little... well, the first word that comes to mind is "ridiculous." Oppressive is a close second. Maybe not quite that strong, but when you tell people to keep exercising and stay active, and then you shut down literally ALL the outdoor venues like playgrounds, fields, hiking trails, state parks, and beaches...  Anyway, we found out that the state parks with campgrounds in Georgia are still open, and there were vacancies, so we booked a couple of nights at Crooked River State Park in St. Mary's, Georgia. What a treat it was to escape, for just over 24 hours, the twilight zone that we are currently living through! Here are some pics from our time away: Our first meal at the campsite: hamburgers and hot dogs. Food tastes better when you're camping, in my opinion. It was bright down by the dock and fishing pier! Pep brought his cast net. He ...

You know when the electricity goes out suddenly and unexpectedly, and it's kind of cool for the first hour or so? You light candles, you might pull out a card game, you imagine what it must have been like for people before electricity was a given.  And then, along about hour three of the power outage, it starts to get Really. Old.  That is how the current worldwide quarantine feels to me. I'm not even going to explain about the Coronavirus since I can't imagine you not knowing about that already. A couple of weeks ago the government began clamping down one freedom, and then another, until what we're left with is the order to just stay at home.  Social Distancing. The whole world, it seems, has been ordered by the powers that be to stay at home except for absolute necessities like food, medicine, or doctor visits.  And just like that, everything from the way the world learns, worships, shops, works, eats, and lives has been freedom-restricted. I'm not saying whether...

We've been strugglin' over here in Homeschool Land. Assignments missed or done half-heartedly, subsequent discipline crack-downs completely and hopelessly ineffective...it's been extremely discouraging actually. And then I thought maybe a reward would be better than a crack-down. (I know, many of you have suggested as much to me and are probably smacking your foreheads at me right now.) So last week, I wrote out all of Noah's assignments and extra-curricular expectations on a checklist and told him that if everything was checked off (and verifiably done in totality) by Friday, I would take him to Starbucks, Just Him, and we would get a coffee together.  And he did it! Every question answered, every quiz taken, every page done.  So above is the photo we took when at last we were able to sit down at a table and enjoy our reward.  Confession: I think this is our first alone "date" we have had since before Seth was born! It was long overdue. In all of the s...

This was our Christmas picture this year. It was taken in early December when we went on a camping trip to the Florida Keys. That vacation was like an oasis in a drought, and so I love seeing this image; it refreshes me.  The whole trip was studded with God's kindness and blessings, and I wanted to make sure I recorded them here. Being a journaler, I've already recorded many of the blessings in my paper journal, but I thought it would be nice to remember them here too. I'm sure there were more items that I've failed to notice, but here are the big ones that we want to remember: 1. The weather was gorgeous! Sunny, highs in the 70s, beautiful evenings. 2. Lots of conversation time for Josh and me in the camper while travelling. We logged quite a number of hours on the road for this trip, thankfully not all in a day or two, but spread out over the course of a week. Josh drove the whole time, and most of the time I was able to sit in the passenger seat and talk with hi...