the weekend passed (so fast)

It seems the weekends come and go so quickly. It was a decent weekend. We had a great service Sunday at church. Rev. Allen preached for us. He is in his mid 80's and still full of fire. It was a good time.

TJ had a bad back/hip/leg weekend. She spent much of the weekend tethered to the bed. I think the only way she could spend more time in it is if I tied her to it. Then she would hurt herself trying to get loose. The bed is the most comfortable place for her to sit. The problem with that is that (by design) the bedroom is off the main traffic area of the house. when one goes to bed, one wants that cave like experience. One does not want to be bothered. Her being tied there by her pain is worse by the fact that it is out of the mainstream. No-ne sees her unless they are expressly looking for her. She looses the casual contact.

We have one chair downstairs that is semi-comfortable. We will work on making it more so, so she can get back into the traffic areas of the house.

We shall see.

Plumbing, Germany, Carpet, and TJ

Yes, it has been 5 days.

It has been a busy few days for me. There has been errands, and family, and driving, and drawing. Mom called me Sunday morning to let me know her brother-in-law (my uncle) Joe had passed away in Germany. I had to make arrangements for international calling on her cell phone as she was flying out on Monday. She was planning a trip to Germany in July. This moved her plans drastically.

I was in Church Sunday morning/afternoon in Flemingsburg (home church) which is 33 miles one way. When I got home, I had enough time to sit down and then drive to be in church with Mom in Lexington (42 miles one way.) So, it was a busy Sunday. While I was driving and churching (I am sure this should be a word. Active church going must be churching,) TJ and Kyle pulled up the carpet in the downstairs foyer. It is hardwood floors underneath. We will be sanding, varnishing, and shellacking. We intend to also remove the carpeting from Kyles room. there will be more sanding, varnishing and shellacking there.

Thursday, I dropped of the necessary metal for the welding shop to make my meter key. It was done on Friday. I now can turn of my water whenever I need to do so. I have several pending plumbing jobs to do. This gives me much more flexibility in doing them. We plan on replacing the stand alone pedestal sink in the bathroom. I am not sure if it came with the house when it was built about 100 years ago or not. However, it is old. It might be worth something once it is removed and cleaned up well.

We are also working on coming up with a workable plan to rework the bathtub faucets without having to put out the $1500 to $1700 estimates to replace it. I got some great ideas form the guy the runs the plumbing shop in Winchester when I was there looking for replacement parts (which seem not to exist.) We are looking to incorporate a shower of some sort into the deal.

About mom: She arrived safe and sound in Munich. She met Brother Horst Krauss, a missionary in Germany, at the airport. We have been in contact with him for some time. I spoke to him yesterday on the phone to let him know about mom's change of plans. He had intended to see her while she was in Germany in July. He had to be at the airport to meet a friend about the time mom was arriving. I spoke to mom after her arrival. She made contact at the airport.

TJ is still overdoing it routinely. However, she is recovering more quickly. trips still wear her out, but a shorter rest is required after each one. I will accept this as a good sign.

hindsight .. so perfect

Looking back, I would have made different decisions. I guess we could all say that.

Our Sunday morning rush .. er .. routine is that we leave home to go to church and pick Cloe up on the way. Non-regular readers, Cloe is our 21 month old granddaughter. She is one of six grandkids. She lives closest to us. She is Sierra's daughter. Again, regular readers will know that Sierra and Cloe lived with us for about 8 months until recently. (TJ says, as she passed by reading over my shoulder .. "None of our readers are regular. Just reading us makes them irregular.) Cloe always goes to church with us on Sunday. It is a good routine for a child to learn. We generally call Sierra when we get up and tell her to have Cloe ready. This rarely happens. Picking her up puts us behind schedule. We mostly make it to church on time, but without pre-service fellowship time.

We had this great idea. Here is where the hindsight comes in. We would keep Cloe on Saturday night. That way she would be up with us already, and we could get her dressed and out the door on time. Great plan or so we thought. We now know that neither of us are ready to slip back into parenting on any kind of full time basis, especially for a bright toddler like Cloe. She had us up until late, playing in our bed. Then, when She was settled and sleeping, I was going to get up and go to the restroom. We have a king size waterbed. So, I, in an effort to reduce any movement, used the sideboard to get up, rather than push on the mattress as I usually do. The sideboard broke loose from the foot and head boards. The mattress survived.

Now, it is after midnight, Cloe is awake again, and I am trying to screw the bed back together. It was useless at that point. There was much more work involved in fixing the bed than just a few screws and good night. TJ and Cloe stayed in the bed. I went to daughters room (she was spending night with a friend) and slept in her bed. I didn't sleep well. TJ didn't sleep well. She froze all night because I wasn't there to keep her warm. Cloe kicked her all night.

Hindsight says:

Do not offer to watch toddler granddaughter overnight until she is around 12 years old.

I know the bed incident wasnt Cloe's fault. It was just a crowning moment to an already otherwise busy night.

Today, after church, we broke down the bed, removed the water, and decided how we needed to proceed. It involves replacing some wood on the foundation and sturdying up some places. Perhaps it will involve scrapping a waterbed and buying a conventional bed. The Doctor already told TJ we need a FIRM bed for her back. He said a waveless mattress was fine if we wanted to keep the waterbed. We are exploring both options.

Daughter is spending night with a friend again, so her bed is available for us tonight. She told us we were not allowed to do the sex thing in her bed. If she isn't allowed, we aren't allowed. I don't know about all that, now.

A good day

It has been a good day.

Church was good.

I had asked a young couple to bring me a pic of their 2-yr-old son so I could sketch him. They did. When we got home from church, I worked on his drawing. When I finished, I took it to them (they live about 25 miles from us.) We had a great visit. While there I picked up a picture of their 5-yr-old daughter. I drew it when I got home.

Before church, I had some time, so I drew a fellow blogger's son.

Here are the pics. First: blogger's son, Second: 2-yr-old, and Third: 5-yr-old

church, a birthday thing, and a POD

here is the catch up of my day thus far.

Sunday is church day. Our Sunday service starts at 11 am and usually runs until 1 pm. The church is a 30 to 45 minute drive from home. We did our usual. We picked up the grand baby. She loves going to church with Grandma and Papaw. Today, however, after church was a surprise birthday party for the Pastor. He turned 71 today. Because of his health and energy, you would never guess him much past 60, though.

Before we left for church, my oldest daughter "A" called me about poetry. She didn't like the TS Eliot poem I found for her renewal ceremony. She had been searching online for poems and decided to check out the website of her favorite poet. (That would be me, her dear old dad.) She found one she liked but it didn't fit exactly. Tammy mentioned, loud enough to be heard, that she needed a POD. A POD, she questioned, What is a POD? POD is Poetry On Demand. Over the years, several close friends have requested poems for certain occasions. They would tell me the situation and what they wanted to say, and I would go from there. I do have a couple things in my favor. I am very empathic. I can seem to feel what those around me are feeling. It goes back to a prayer I prayed about being more compassionate. Also, I do know how to write. It isn't being conceited, it is just a fact. I call it one of my gifts from God.

"A" found a poem with a couple lines she liked and asked for her POD. The lines she liked were on a brass folding purse mirror that I had engraved as an anniversary gift when her mom and I were married. They were also in another poem I wrote years ago. I took those words and what I felt from her an composed a new poem. I called her this afternoon and she was pleased that it was done (I mean, we only have 8 months until the ceremony.)

You will see the lines she liked in the following poem:

I Knew

I knew you before I knew you

There are things we have and outgrow
There are clothes that become too small
There are toys that become too childish
For all the possessions that come and go
There are things that we keep all our lives
One of the deepest is the idea
That there is someone just to love us
It is reinforced every time
We see lovers holding hands
It grows every time
We see couples steal a kiss
From our birth we have held this knowing
There is someone out there
Someone just for me to love
And to love me in return
So you see,
I knew you
Before I knew you

I knew you, and then I loved you

When I first met you I did not know
I didn’t know if you were that one
I didn’t know where you were going to fit
I didn’t know what place you would hold
But I knew you
You were like a rose
I was captivated by your charm
I was awed by your beauty
The vibrancy of your colors
The sharpness of your thorns
Time passed
And my heart fell in love with you
I knew you
And then I loved you

I loved you, and then I knew you

As our love grew
I began to behold
As the rose opened itself
Revealing more and more
What I knew I knew more
What I loved I loved more
The love became deeper
The knowing became fuller
The more I knew The more I loved,
The more I loved The more I knew,
I loved you
And then I knew you

Before I knew you, I knew you
I knew you, and then I loved you
I loved you, and then I knew you

Ron Simpson, Jr.
October 26, 2008