Found!

My keys have been found. I feel like such an idiot. After leaving a long reply literally 1 minute ago about how I still hadn't found them yet, I went to get ready for bed. I picked up a few papers that I had taken out of my purse this morning and set on the bed, and sure enough, there were my keys. I must have taken them out of my purse along with the other things and forgot having ever touched them. By the time I was ready to leave, I couldn't find them. I searched everywhere, all over the house, and did not think to check under the papers I had just put down. At least I have them, although I was looking forward to getting everything picked up and put away tomorrow. Maybe I still can :)

Missing Keys

If anyone happens by here today, please pray that my keys will reappear. I have searched the house from top to bottom and cannot find them anywhere. They have to be here somewhere because I used them to unlock the door when I came home yesterday. I have an extra car key and house key, but I don't have a key to my bike lock and the lock on our gate, both of which I needed to bike today instead of drive.

In the meantime, this is a good exercise in not being anxious, but trusting God for everything. It's also a lesson in organization, telling me that I should always keep things in the same spot. I obviously don't have a good spot for my keys.

Mulberries!!

We have been graced with a very tall (i.e. as tall as our two story house) mulberry tree in our backyard. Mulberries aren't my favorite berry in the world, but they're not bad and they're growing in my backyard for FREE, so you'd better believe I'm going to pick them and use them! (Mulberries are technically not a berry, but a cluster of individual fruits; however they look like a berry, hence the name mulberry - what did we do before google!?) I put some on vanilla ice cream last night and on my cereal this morning. I looked up some mulberry recipes this morning, and some of them sound really good: mulberry jams, pies, muffins, ice cream, coffeecake, cheesecake - yum! Now I need to find a ladder so I can pick or shake down more than just what I can reach, and have enough to make some of these things. Yesterday evening, I picked about 2 cups, which is great for eating, but not enough for cooking.

The dilemma of buying local

We try hard to buy as much as we can from local sources, including local businesses. We have a fabulous, family-owned hardware store that's been in our neighborhood for decades and carries a little bit of everything. There are a few things they don’t have and every now and then we have a desperate need for something when they’re not open. Otherwise, we try to get what we can there.

Here’s my dilemma right now. Big box stores can often carry products at lower prices because they buy so much and have homogeneity among their stores. A lot of the time, items at the hardware store are much more convenient and are fairly similar in price. We want to drylok our basement walls, to keep moisture out and keep all the minerals from being pulled out of the bricks. We’re going to need 7 to 10 gallons to do the whole basement. Lowe’s sells it for $22 a gallon. At the hardware store, it’s $26. That’s a difference of $30-$40! If I hadn’t seen it at Lowe’s before looking at the hardware store, I would have bought it there and never known the difference. On the other hand, if I hadn’t thought to check the hardware store, I would have gotten it at Lowe’s and not felt guilty. But since I do have all the information, I don’t know what to do. I’m torn between my frugal self and my socially responsible, wanting to support local businesses self. I don’t know which will win out in this case.

Any thoughts on how to decide when to buy locally versus when to take advantage of the cheaper option?

This is a REALLY BIG DEAL!

I did it. I officially submitted my thesis to the graduate school!!!! Whew. It’s been a long and difficult journey and I’m glad to be done. It’s time for some healing and renewal and time to move on to the next stage in the journey. Praise the Lord for his faithfulness to the end. And a very special thanks to my wonderful husband for constantly supporting me and believing in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself. Thanks to everyone else too for the hugs, prayers and encouragement.

Surviving the Craziness

Wow. How can I be so tired when it’s only Wednesday? And we still have a crazy week in front of us!? Dave went in to work at 6:00 this morning and works through the night. Theoretically, he should work until noon tomorrow, but he has to go in for a medical procedure at 6am. So he’ll leave at 5:00, come home to get me (so I can drive him home when he’s done) and be at his normal hospital signed in at 6:00. He’ll be zonked out most of the day on Thursday. On Friday, he goes in again at 6am and works until noon on Saturday. We’re supposed to go to a graduation open house in the afternoon and then have a hospital dinner for all the graduating interns and residents Saturday night. Sunday morning, he goes back in again at 6:00 and works until noon on Monday. He’ll come home to sleep on Monday but I’ll be leaving about the time he’s getting up. This means that he’s working 84 out of 126 hours between today and Monday. Originally, he was supposed to be at his hospital this month and have this weekend off. His schedule was also just right for the procedure on Thursday. But when he showed up for work the first day of the month, he got a page from the other hospital (where he sometimes does out rotations) asking where he was. It turns out he was scheduled to be at the other hospital for the month but nobody told him, and it wasn’t listed that way on the schedule he had. It kind of threw our June schedule into disarray and created this crazy weekend, but that’s life as a resident. Pray for us if you would. When the schedule gets this crazy, we don’t really see each other much and our communication tends to be less than ideal.

Good times with the neighbors

On Friday night a major storm came through and took down a large section of one of the trees near our house (the limb was a good 10 inches in diameter, plus all the branches, and long enough to stretch all the way across the street). So at 11:00 at night, we had 12 people from the block using 2 machetes and a handsaw to clear the tree from the road. It was a really great time to interact with neighbors and to meet a few new ones. Plus there was discussion with some of the ladies about wanting to revive the old block club. Fortunately, no one was hurt and it left only a few very small dents in the one car it hit. Several other cars around the corner were not so lucky, though.

We’ve also had more interaction with D, the kid from down the street. We met his dad recently. D’s been over riding bikes with Dave and stops by our house every couple days. Yesterday he came by and had dinner with us. We called another neighbor who came over with her daughter to join us. Good times.

I think we’ll see a lot of D this summer. We’re glad to be two more adults with a positive role in his life, but we also realized last night that we’re going to have to work hard to get the right balance loving on him and setting boundaries and being firm with him. I think I also need to adjust the amount of food I have on hand for snacks and meals!