progress!

the sheetrock started to go in on thursday. thought they would be done by saturday...but they decided to skip friday. saturday the last of it went in and we're hoping they'll deign to return this week to tape and texture. the joys of working with subs! but, at least progress is being made. i've got the paint picked out, friends have already promised to come by and help when the time comes. it's hard not to be impatient at this point! i love the views into the backyard, and in the morning, this room is flooded with light and is absolutely gorgeous. my new white desk will be such a pleasant place!

God Bless Blacksburg...

it's my hometown. i spent my first 7 years running around in the woods behind our house. it's the kind of town where little kids can do that, safely, and just be home for dinner. i took the school bus to school. we sledded down the center of our street in the winter. on the fourth of july, the entire town gathered on quilts and blankets and layed on our backs on the Virginia Tech drill field to watch fireworks. i learned to ice skate on the duck pond (see photo).

my dad worked in Norris Hall...first taking classes, later teaching. mom would pull up outside and I would trot in all by myself to fetch him at the end of the day.

to those of us with a connection to B'burg, this has all been a horror. i didn't realize, though, until yesterday when i saw all of the local flags at half mast, including those at my office, that the entire nation has been just as shaken. it's not just happening to me, but to all of us.

God bless the people Blacksburg, the students and the professors, and those that are left behind to figure out how to move onward. God bless those of us who are far away and feel helpless. God forbid that this evil overshadow the bucolic, happy memories we have of that wonderful town.

happy Easter!

just a few fun photos from our Easter with good friends. Little Dude definitely got the egg hunting/Easter bunny bit better this year and looked quite handsome in his suave linen shirt and khakis in honor of the day! although mommy would have been much happier had he been willing to wear the hip leather sandals grammie had bought rather than his beat-up Elmo sneakers, but what can you do?

holy belly, what is that in the corner??

how good we've got it

what do you do when you feel that tell-tale scratchy throat or burning nose? if you are like me, you run for the zinc lozenges and the airborne and more often than not, it clears up after a few days.

i haven't had a real out-and-out head cold in at least two years.

until last week.

i spent my fifth night on the couch last night, trying to "sleep" upright, coughing every few minutes. i ended up pulling a muscle in my side, so now every cough comes with a stab in the ribs.

i'm not very good with suffering. i'm not very good with pain. i want to go run and pop some pills or take some potion and make it go away. tolerating is not my forte. but, being that this body is currently housing other residents, i am not free to pollute it as i would normally and am reduced to meagre, ineffective remedies to cope with these symptoms.

i spent last week feeling angry and resentful. i was mad. i wasn't a very nice wife, and i wasn't a very nice mommy.

this week i'm trying to spend those wakeful hours in prayer asking for a quiet heart and courage amidst the suffering, and praying for others as well as myself. it's not even REAL suffering! there are so many who have faced true chronic pain, true illness, untreatable suffering and all i have is a silly little head cold and a cough. it's bound to be gone in a week or so.

what have i really got to complain about? not much.

i do know that when the day comes that i am able to sleep lying down, and actually sleep, without the punctuation of coughing every few seconds, for several hours at a stretch (i know that "through the night" is a long-distance dream!) i will recognize it as the gift it truly is!

simple things. gratitude. good.