The list setting on my desk beside me is long. It's filled with errands and phone calls to make and household tasks. You know the kind, right? The kind where every time you go to cross something off, you end up adding two more things to the list. It's got things scratched out, marked with an asterisk for super important, and things that surely could have been accomplished in a day's time but never got touched. It somehow found its way into the kitchen at one point and has a few grease stains shining through it. It's that time of night where I could either decide to keep it and see how much more could be crossed off tomorrow or it could be transferred to a new sheet of paper, reprioritized, and looking all nice and neat for tomorrow. Instead, something keeps beckoning me to this computer tonight. Writing a blog entry wasn't even on my list for today, but it's something that I can't get out of my mind. Sometimes I just need to write . . . to journal . . . to share. Nothing real deep on my mind but yet a whole bunch of random and bizarre things that someone might find interesting.
So . . . one day last week Haley came home and said, "I saved a life today, Mom!" She was riding with a friend of hers, and they saw someone faint and just fall over, so they pulled over to help this man who could have just as easily fallen over in the middle of the street he was about to cross. Another woman stopped to help as well, and amongst the three of them, they came to the conclusion that he was drunk, so they called 911. Before Haley could even get off the phone with the operator, there was a police car, a firetruck, and an ambulance on the scene. Who knows what became of it, but at least he was no longer out roaming the streets and putting himself in more danger.
And God bless these children of mine. Last night when Heath got home, he told us he had picked up a hitchhiker who supposedly had gotten left behind by his girlfriend and then had cut his foot by walking in some glass. I may not have my story straight, but I'm not real sure that guy had his story straight either. I think I'm thankful my children are feeling the need to be so compassionate, but my goodness, my heart does a few flips and turns when I hear these things.
Earlier this week, Haley's friend Ashlynn from North Carolina flew in to visit us for a few days. These two girls met while they were in Africa last summer, and we are certainly enjoying her and her sweet southeastern accent. She is just the sweetest thing, and you can imagine all the fun they're having as they recount their African adventure together. To make it even more interesting, Haley invited another girl over to our house last night who had just recently come home early from a missions trip to Ethiopia because of a break-in situation that she had experienced there. Her dad "happened" to be there visiting her at the time, and while he was there, someone broke into the home they were staying in one night and lashed out with the machete that he brought in with him. Both this girl and her dad had some pretty severe injuries, but they escaped the situation alive. Haley had met the dad at a graduation party, so Haley's been trying to get together with the girl ever since then, so it was pretty interesting to have three girls sitting in our living room last night who were all able to share their African stories and their ultimate trust in God.
So today we end up with this girl at our door who supposedly came all the way to America from Estonia, which I guess is a country in Europe. I'd never even heard of it! She was pretty bound and determined she was going to come in and sit down at our kitchen table and show me this 500-page math textbook that I could buy for my kids. I try really hard to be kind to people who show up at my door, but this one almost had me slamming the door on her to get her to leave! Tonight one of Haley's good friends showed up to drop off a thank-you card, so we got to talking about her plans to attend a school in Sweden this fall. She, on the other hand, was invited right on in, and we just had a delightful time visiting for the next 45 minutes to an hour.
Let's see. I could tell you that Heath is now working for my brother up in Eldridge . . . that Kelsey is detasseling from 6:30 to 3 every day and then heading to swim practice in Clinton at 5:30 in the evenings and not getting home again till about 10 . . . that Keaton got to celebrate his 4th of July birthday at the campground this year and how we had to pull the camper out there four days early just to get a spot on a holiday weekend . . . that Haley quit her job at Fareway because she was tired of getting about three random hours of work per week. I could tell you about waking up early Monday morning to about eight messages on my computer saying "hard drive failure" and how I'm praying for my computer guy to have all the answers and know how to fully restore all my data and pictures. Or about the fact that shortly after I woke up to that dilemma, the power went out for three hours. Or about our first-ever visit to a school board meeting on Monday night and how we about witnessed a fight break out in the parking lot afterwards over the issue which brought us there. Or about the call we got at 8:30 Tuesday morning from our company's auditor saying that she would be arriving at our office at noon for our "no-notice" audit that we knew would be coming sometime this summer because those happen every other year. Thankfully we just strive to keep a very compliant office on a daily basis anyway, but there's always that panic that sets in when the call comes in, and then there's always that sweet relief that comes over us as she walks out that door, knowing that we passed all the tests, once again, and knowing that next year's audit will at least be a scheduled one.
It's now Thursday morning. My blogging session got interrupted at that point last night, and my mind can't seem to think of what all else I was going to add. I was kind of on a roll! That grease-stained list is still setting beside me, and God has just given me a new day full of possibilities of how to spend my time. Oh, how I love my life! I guess we'll start with a shower and the trip to Sam's Club that didn't seem to happen yesterday. Enjoy your day, everyone!
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