...With Two Cats in the Yard: Organizing ducks

This entry might sound tired. I've been busily writing all week. But I'm tired with the kind of satisfaction that comes from hard work that's behind me now. I'm taking a moment from my toil this semester, now that it's the last day of spring break, to reflect and to feel good about where we are, and to let you all know how we prosper.

The Pylons, lovely in the increasingly bright evenings.

We're multitasking over a lot of simmering projects right now. We're looking to buy a house in Pueblo, did I report that? We finally decided the rental market would just be too much of a gamble, and besides, we weren't seeing a lot of houses for rent that fit our needs anyway. We're borrowing and accepting gifts and putting ourselves very much on the hook for it, but it feels like time. We have plane tickets: we're spending our 10th anniversary this year looking at houses in Pueblo.

I can't believe this is real.

Please pray we are able to navigate this, that we have the resources we need. We have no connections or friends in the area. It feels awfully vulnerable to be doing this alone. The homeowners our age that I've spoken to were able to make use of family and church connections to help them with various aspects, and it's more than a little daunting to know how very much we're on our own.

Sunrise out our office window. Pirate House.

Jon is preparing for a research trip to DC of 4 weeks duration. He needs to take it, dissertation-wise, before we leave the Eastern Standard Time Zone. However, we have no idea at the moment how we're going to make it work. He didn't get a fellowship he was really hoping to get, that would have funded the trip and then some. He doesn't have anywhere to stay. He's applying for a travel grant from the graduate school, but we're not at all sure he'll see that money.

Meanwhile, I'm going to need to find a babysitter. Jon is our childcare this year, and I can't afford to take time off work. Someone will need to get Adele from preschool and Miles from the bus stop, someone will need to care for them until I get back from work. So far, no luck on any of these fronts.

I've spent the week trying to focus on things I can control. I wrote my research term paper for the semester. By Wednesday of this week. I finished my capstone proposal paper and bibliography for my thesis. I got ahead on my reading journals. This comforts me in the face of all I can't nail down yet.

I still can't face the fact that I'm leaving Blacksburg in three months. This town has nurtured us so well. It feels ungrateful to leave it.

2016

2013

2014

But the little, less momentous things keep us grounded.

Miles' ant experiments have gone very well! We have a trifold to assemble now, to display his work, and we'll be sitting in a little booth at the elementary school science fair next week with our little ant pals in a jar. I find this delightful.

The election is at least a distraction from our own drama; it's the country's drama, so there are a lot of sharers in that to fellowship with.

The kids are Bernie fans. Just ask them.

Miles recently had to dress for his future career:

So glad he isn't aspiring to be anything that would have required more of a costume! I'm short of time lately.

Adele recently attended a birthday party for a girl in her class. Even though it was pretty clearly an all-girl party, and even though the dad was taking brothers of the party guests to the movies, guess which boy elected to stay and party with the girls?

There he is. At least he's trying to be useful here and help his sister with her anti-social streak.

She was so done.

I'm still involved in our Sister Parish committee, even though everyone knows we're moving, at this point. A couple of our members updated our SP bulletin board at church. I stood and admired it for a really really long time.

Recently, I received a response to the letter the children in Children's Chapel sent to the children of San Andres Itzapa. We sent that letter in February of 2015. But mail travels slowly in Guatemala. Anyway, we received 36 letters! Most were from children, a couple were from the families we stayed with (including one to me personally and one to the entire church), and we also got several hand-made postcards!

I've spent a fair amount of time this week translating letters. I'm preparing a chapel lesson on Saint Paul's epistles, and giving the children one more chance to write letters to their Guatemalan "pen pals' before the responsibility goes to someone else. This feels good.

It's warming. I'm dreading Daylight Savings Time and the resumption of classes deep down to my bones, but it's warming. That helps.

We've had a few family campfires again. That helps too.