Summer Ponderings

 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 in little kid incidents for the past 13 years, who was certain that these events were indelibly printing themselves into my being like my very own name, cannot remember these things. So then I'll go back and search through a particular year and peruse all the funny stories and the frustrating ones, see the photos, and remember how God worked on my behalf. How can you put a value on that? Which is really why I changed the name of this blog awhile ago, because I wanted this place to be my rock of Ebenezer for remembering.  So here goes. This could get rather lengthy because I feel like I've just encountered an old friend and I have a lot of catching up to do, so bear with me. 

The coronavirus has gotten out of control. Well, actually the public's response to the coronavirus is what is out of control. As a nation we have collectively taken leave of our senses, mandating things that should not be mandated. Masks, I'm looking at you here. But it's not just masks; could you ever have foreseen mandating which way people enter an aisle at the grocery store? How about forcing landlords to "float" their tenants indefinitely without receiving rent, while still being required to pay their property taxes and keep the buildings in good working order (hello, a/c and functioning plumbing pipes!)? I could go on and on about this subject, but it's not worth it. It just makes me angry and at this point I have to remember that God is in this too.

I've been listening to books lately more than reading because I can multitask that way. I can drive, fold laundry, and make art all while "reading" books. (And you know, come to think of it, I have the coronavirus to thank for this too! With the libraries shut down "for your safety" it has forced me to online digestion of books. Not all bad!) So far I have listened to a few of the Jane Austen favorites (Emma, Mansfield Park, and Pride and Prejudice), and Jane Eyre, as well as a few of the Narnia books that I never got around to reading to Noah. The Silver Chair and The Last Battle were so good and very very encouraging, especially in times like these. God wins!

We have done a TON of travelling this summer. Josh and I bought a fixer-upper mobile home on a canal in Big Pine Key (38 mi from Key West). We bought it way back before we had made the decision to stop home schooling and put our kids in school (now there's a can of worms!), and so we have made 3 trips to the Keys this summer as well as a trip up North to visit family in CT and PA.  Maybe I'll upload a few pics  be done for now. It's 10:40pm and I'm starting not to make sense anymore. Quite frankly I'm surprised I haven't turned into a pumpkin yet!