Necessities

When I saw the weather report a few days ago I had big plans for today.  It was supposed to be warm and sunny and we were supposed to be up on a mountain or down at the beach… but then the day came and the rain showed up.  It drenched my spirits for having a fun family day on one of the few days we are here in Norway with nothing else on the calendar.  Bummer.

We used the time this morning to do several necessary things however, like clean Kaleb’s room.  Poor guy, he has very little space so even just one or two things lying around makes it look a mess.  But the real problem was we hadn’t yet identified a place for everything, so everything COULD be in its place, so that happened this morning.  He has his t-shirt drawer and long sleeved shirt drawer and pants drawer, and hangers in his closet for his shirts and hoodies.  He has a bin for all his Pokemon stuff and a place to put his books and magazines.  It’s all so nice now I wonder how long it will stay that way.  I haven’t yet reminded him we have a few boxes of his stuff still in the basement, however, as there is no place in his room for it, and I’m hoping I can get rid of it before he remembers. 

Kaleb even crawled under his bed and washed the floor with a wet rag, since the dust was getting pretty thick in there.  Somehow, it makes our whole place feel cleaner.  We hung up a few wall decorations and made it look a little more like home.  I love it.

Kaleb was anxious to get over to his friend Andre’s house today so Kory drove him over there and then Kory and I went to the hospital to pray for Daniel’s dad.  I guess that’s not real common here - for people to show up and pray for the sick - so they were surprised by us doing that.  But God showed up too, so that was the most important thing.  Poor Are, he’s in terrible pain and they won’t give him much pain medication until they know the full extent of his injuries.  They know he broke his collarbone in one place and shattered his shoulder blade in several places, but that’s not enough for them to know he’s in so much pain he’s nauseous and needs some relief.  So we prayed.  And while we were praying, he felt a huge flood of healing go through his body and the pain totally disappeared!  Hallelujah!  He was crying, he was so relieved to be feeling a little better.  We will continue to pray and trust God for total healing.

Are said he was going to work yesterday, full force, which is the way he rides his bike.  Some car was blocking his vision as it pulled out of a side road, so he didn’t see a woman walking on the path he was on, until the car pulled out and then he smashed into the woman.  She was ok, but he went flying off his bike.  Fortunately, he landed on his left side, since he’s right handed.  He looked pretty tough but he was thanking God he had on a helmet and his legs are OK.  It will hopefully just take some time to heal all his wounds.  Uff da.

With Kaleb gone, Kory and I worked on hanging things on his bedroom walls, straightening up a few things in the house and going to the mall to get a few household items.  It turned out to be a terribly boring day with not much activity, but I did make banana bread only to discover neither Daniel or Andre like it.  They came home with Kaleb at dinner time to have a “double sleepover” here tonight.  I thought I’d treat them all to some warm banana bread right out of the oven, and they both took one tiny bite and wrinkled up their noses and shook their heads.  Kaleb was pleased, because it meant all the more for him.  It’s funny how many things are an acquired taste. 

After dinner tonight Kory and I went for a walk.  The rain had stopped and the setting sun provided some incredible landscapes (see today’s photos).  We then stopped in and visited Tante Kari for a while.  She’d been home alone all day with no one stopping by – not the norm for her.  Often her children, in-laws, ex-in-laws or grandchildren will buy a cake or something from the bakery and show up on her doorstep. She makes the coffee and a nice long visit ensues afterwards.  That’s pretty much her life.  She’s lucky.  Many older people in our complex get no visitors whatsoever.  I can’t imagine such a lonely existence.  I do enjoy our social life here quite a bit and wish we had more of it in America.

It’s nearly midnight and the boys are still up, playing their Nintendos.  We tried to get them to play Mexican Train or to go down in the parking garage and play hide and seek among the parked cars, but the addiction to electronics is just too hard to break. When we were out for our walk one day we saw a sign that directly translated to “Olsvika (the neighborhood where we walked) has many children, but none to lose.”  It meant of course, to drive carefully, since children are playing around in the streets.  But it was an old sign with the paint peeling off.  I’m certain now, with the invention of hand held electronics, the children are already lost.