Redemption Day

Kaleb’s fever was gone this morning, but I let him stay home from school anyway. I had so much guilt over him going yesterday that I thought he should just have a day of rest on the couch, watching movies all day. It’s the best part about being sick – unlimited movie time. He likes to go to school on Tuesdays because it’s his gym day. It seems there is one thing each day of the week that makes him not want to miss school, but he didn’t complain about staying home. He had quite the runny nose though so he went through an entire box of Kleenex. I stayed home with him, even though I really wanted to go to school myself. It’s just too boring to sit home, but I used the time to make more reservations for our road trip, and translate more of the farm history information I have found for my friend Paula, so at least the day wasn’t wasted.

I asked Kaleb today how he felt about going back to America and he said he would really like to be in Norway half the time and in America the other half. He likes both lives equally well, but they are very different. I guess I feel the same. Our life was pretty good back home, but it’s also good here, so I’m thankful we feel established enough now that we can consider this our second home.

One of the women at the meeting I attended last night asked me to compare Christians in America to Christians in Norway. That was a hard one. I told her I have met many people in Norway that say they are a “little Christian” meaning they believe in God, that Jesus is the son of God and he died on the cross and rose again, but they don’t take it “personal” and don’t do anything to develop their relationship with God. I told her I thought in America around where we live, people don’t really call themselves a Christian unless they are pretty committed. I told her Christianity is portrayed in the media in such a negative way that some non-Christians feel hostile towards Christians. Norwegians are often shocked when I explain how God has been taken out of the schools in America because that’s where most Norwegians learn about Him. There are definitely different meanings behind the word “Christian” in Norway and in America, from what I’ve seen.

Kory worked yesterday and today and had no problems with his back, so we are thankful for that. His boss gave him easy work to do, which helped. I’m sure he would be on permanent disability if he were a Norwegian citizen as no one would work with the kind of pains he endures. Between his back and the arthritis in his wrists, he’s often quite debilitated, but he still keeps working if he can. There are a lot of people on disability here and for the weirdest things – like high blood pressure or “stress.” I know two people who haven’t worked for months because their job is too stressful, so they get to stay home and collect full pay. That system just wouldn’t fly in America. The guy with high blood pressure hasn’t worked for a year. It will be interesting to see how Norway is doing 20 years from now with all these entitlement programs and this generation of kids growing up thinking that the slightest little pain is reason to stay home from work. One woman I know has been off work for years because she has fibromyalgia but she gardens, redecorates, moves furniture around and goes on vacations. I don’t know there is anything she can’t do, but she obviously doesn’t want to work and has an excuse to get full pay to not do so. It’s shocking the number of able bodied people that don’t work.

I decided to make chicken tacos for dinner tonight so I took the pack of frozen ground up chicken out of the freezer and set it on the table outside to thaw in the sun. I walked to the store to get some vegetables and left Kaleb home alone. When I got back, the pack of chicken was gone. I asked him about it but he didn’t know anything. I looked around the yard and then I found the empty package, pecked open by the birds and all the chicken was completely devoured. I told Kaleb about it and he just said, “I saw a lot of birds out there but I didn’t know what they were doing.” So apparently the crows and magpies were having a food fest on the chicken! Funny, but irritating. I don’t know how they knew what was in that package and why they’d be so bold as to come right up next to the house, but now I know better. Uff da. Norway’s crime rate is very low, but apparently no one has told that to the birds.

(The photo today was taken on Sunday when we stopped off to visit Tante Ruth. She was all dressed up for the day, even though she never ventured out of the condo. She had color in her cheeks and was looking pretty spunky, except for her finger, which got slammed in the door when the wind blew it shut on her hand. Stakkars Tante Ruth.) ((Happy 40th Joni!))