Today is trash day. I'm thankful for that... it's also the day I clean out my refrigerator. For some reason the furry creatures in my house are fascinated with the corn on the cob I put in the trash. It was past it's prime.
Austin is really enjoying his Economics class. I'm thankful for that too... it's a class he has to pass in order to graduate. Every day he tells me about something else he learns in class. He's also taking U.S. History for the second time. He passed the End of Course Test but failed the class... so although he proved he knew the material, he didn't complete enough course work to pass. Hard lesson for him. His other classes are Study Skills and Catalyst Christian Learning Center.
He has Senior Pictures today. He will only agree to doing one pose - the absolutely necessary one for the yearbook. I'm slightly anxious that he will ditch the whole process. He has to stay after school for about an hour before the photo. I'm meeting him there but I can't leave early enough to get to the school and walk him through the process. I started to but... this is silly, he's a senior for goodness sakes... he needs to be able to figure out where to go. He wants to be grown and is aggravated that I haven't let him start driving but there are still these things where he is completely behind appropriate behavior.
Yesterday I was thinking about how far we've come... I picked this place to come to when we left Jacksonville because I wanted Austin to have a sense of community. He gets on the bus with "Miss Nessa" and rides to school where he has two classes with people who know him well and want the best for him... (the other two I don't know yet)... he has a youth pastor who is deeply involved in his life, who Austin has no hesitation about contacting when he needs something. I grew up in a good church and we were close to our youth pastors but it would have never occurred for me to call any of them for any reason.
When Austin was a tiny little boy we went to Tara Baptist in Jonesboro. Pastor Ron was a sweet man who loved little kids... one day when Austin was about three Pastor Ron said, "Hello Austin!" and Austin said, "Pastor Ron neckerized me!" (recognized) It's so important to him, always has been, that people know who he is. I picked up some change for the office last week while Austin was with me... just drove up to the drive thru, said, "Hi! I'm Heather" told them where I worked and got handed an envelope. Austin was so impressed... he said, "could anybody do that?" I said, "no... I had an errant nickel that was hitchhiking in the last deposit and they had spoken to me about it... I told them when I'd come by to pick it up"... but still, it's a small town thing.
We moved here because it was important to me for him to have a sense of community... a village, of sorts, to help me raise this child. It was important then because we were both healing from such deep emotional hurts... and it's important now because of my physical pain that is so limiting for me. I realized yesterday that I had accomplished exactly what I set out to do... pretty amazing, if you think about it.
We know our neighbors, we know the people who own - or at least work in - a lot of the businesses we go to. I recognize some of my clients just by seeing their car. There is a great sense of community here and I'm thankful for it, but even more, I'm thankful that it's still new enough to us that we don't take it for granted.
Jim and Jamie moved in the dryer on Tuesday and there's still a power supply that has to be put on. Jamie intended to do it yesterday but it has been a busy week for our church as we have had six families that have had a death in the family. Because our church acts like a church should and ministers to people in their time of need... there wasn't time yesterday to finish up the hook up on my dryer. There were grieving people to feed and minister to... and honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. The same compassion that helped us get settled in and made sure we had the things we need... takes care of others in their time of need. That's what a community does.
And... if I had bought a dryer... it would have been this weekend at the earliest before it would have been set up and ready to go... so we're still way ahead of schedule and ahead of budget to boot!
I'm still struggling to adjust to the new medication they put me on a week ago. It's a gradual dosage, I started with 12.5 mg a day and over the course of two weeks I'm supposed to be working up to 100 mg a day. Apparently the side effects will gradually disappear as your body adjusts. I hate it. My stomach starts cramping about two hours after I take the medication and doesn't stop for the rest of the day. Rough stuff. Makes me want to quit every pill I'm taking and find herbal alternatives. I hate this stuff and I hate the way it makes me feel but even one missed dose of the pharmaceutical cocktail I'm on makes every step pure agony... I have such a love/hate relationship with modern medicine. I'm grateful for insurance but I hate having to need this. I just want a reprieve. Seven months...
I think that's about all there is to talk about this morning... if I think of something else, I'll come back and add it. Hope you have a great day!
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