A Sunny Sunday

We made it to the second service at church today. Good thing we had two services to choose from. The relaxed lifestyle we enjoyed previously in America is swiftly returning. No more alarm clocks or schedules, we are back to our wonderfully uncontrolled (but somewhat hectic) life. We wake up when we wake up, have a cup of coffee and wonder what the day will bring. Today it brought a few challenges.

Kory’s back pain continues to diminish but the shooting pains in his legs are getting worse. I think he’s decided to go see an orthopedic doctor soon just to find out if there’s something he should be doing differently. I’m praying there is no nerve damage as that might mean back surgery and he’d rather live with the pain than have that. I do hope it’s nothing serious as he really needs to be back on his feet soon. We’ve had one call after another today about problems down at our apartment building in Seattle and he’s helpless to do anything about them. One water heater went out and he can buy a new one for under two hundred dollars and install it himself, if he were able. Since he is not, it will cost nearly a thousand dollars to have a plumbing company do it. So that’s the worst part about him being laid up. We both HATE to spend money like that. We also had a flood in the laundry room down there today but our on-site manager was able to clean up the mess and diagnose why it happened and stop the water flow. Ugh. I so want to sell that building, but Kory’s dad built it in 1968 and he’s very sentimentally attached to it. (They say it’s never a good idea to be married to your investments, and this is why.) We have two vacancies now too which makes the building not at all profitable for us, but God provides what we need, when we need it so I have faith the right tenants will come along in due time. We are pretty picky about who we let in there so the building doesn’t get trashed. The rental market is incredibly tough right now though. If we allowed pets or smokers, we wouldn’t have any problems keeping them full, but then we’d have other problems when they moved out. Did I mention how much I want to sell that building?

Kaleb and I spent the afternoon putting his clothes back in his closet and drawers. I had to check to see which ones he’s outgrown and which ones he still hasn’t grown into. I like to buy clothes on clearance, even if they are too big for him because one thing I’m certain of – he’s going to grow. I always have a full wardrobe just waiting in the wings and never have to go shopping after a growth spurt. It helps that he could care less what he wears (he prefers to wear nothing at all). I showed him how to properly fold all his clothes and pointed out all the labels I put on his drawers and which clothes get hung up in his closet. He will soon start doing all his own laundry, including folding and putting his clothes away. We are working on a lot of “life skills” this year for school. He may be a little behind in this area but he made me fried eggs this morning for breakfast, so I was impressed. He didn’t clean up the mess however, so there are still some things he needs to learn. He set his own school schedule for the Fall and he very much wants to move upstairs for a time and be completely in charge of himself (our upstairs has its own kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedroom). I’m all for that, as long as he doesn’t take any electronics with him. He didn’t like that restriction so we still have some negotiating to do before we turn him loose.

Our church had a baptismal service and pot-luck out at Big Lake later this afternoon. Five kids got baptized, so that was cool. It was even hot and sunny and not a bad day to be dunked. It gave us another chance to visit a few more friends from church and catch up on things that have happened while we were gone. Many have asked if I am going to give a “Powerpoint” presentation (a speech, complete with photos) on our year in Norway. I hadn’t planned on doing it, but it wouldn’t hurt to put something together, so I’ll add that to my to-do list after October first when Kory is back on his feet, literally. (I forgot to take pictures today so the photo is of my favorite saltwater beach very near our house.)

Tonight I began some very cursory work on preparing for a class I’m going to be teaching at a home school co-op we have here in Mount Vernon at the Baptist church. Kory usually teaches woodworking but that’s not going to happen this Fall, so that leaves me. I decided to teach 4th-8th graders about money management. I’m calling the class “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” I have some pretty fun ideas on how to make an impact in their impressionable little minds. If they don’t learn young, they might not ever learn how to be good stewards with their money. It’s a subject near and dear to my heart but I’m glad it’s only an hour long and only goes for eight weeks. Working with children is NOT in my area of “giftedness.”

Perceptions

Kaleb’s Chicken Pox are on the down side now. Every spot is looking a bit old and crusty so I guess he won’t be getting any new ones. His face was spared, so with clothes on, it’s impossible to tell he even had them. At least there won’t be any scars. He got off pretty easy, but now is wishing he could be sick longer because we’ve started to restrict his Nintendo use. He’d enjoy being sick everyday if it meant unlimited Nintendo time. Ugh. He actually went over to his friend Carter’s house today for the afternoon because he was bored at home and feeling fine. I think they played Nintendos together. Carter’s mom said she has the same addiction problem with him. What’s a mother to do?

It was supposed to rain today, which was going to motivate me to head to the basement and start bringing up all the boxes of clothes we have down there, but it never rained, so the clothes are still in boxes. (We emptied all our closets so our house sitters had a place for their stuff.) Instead, I ran into town this morning to go to the Farmer’s Market for fresh produce (oh, how I missed that in Norway), and to run a few more errands. This afternoon I tried to connect all our computers up to a wireless network router, and nearly broke down in tears from the sheer frustration of it all. Fortunately the place where I bought all the equipment talked me down off the ledge, as it were, and got me hooked up and running. I can now access the internet with my office PC and both our laptops – woo hoo. Kaleb will be doing a lot of his school work on the internet and I can’t be without mine all day (talk about addictions!), so I hope this is the right solution. I can’t believe how dependant we’ve become on electronics.

Kory keeps wanting to add things to my to-do list, but I’m holding him off until I make a little more progress on my own list – which, as of tonight, has 56 things crossed off it and just 29 more to go. Several of the things yet to do are half done, but that doesn’t count. It will be a race this coming week to see if I can do them all before Kory’s cousin arrives from Norway on Saturday. I work best under pressure. Kory is quite the opposite – he needs a lot of time to do anything and shuts down totally if he has too many things on his list. He spent a lot of time being horizontal today. (The photo today is one I took last week of Kaleb’s playhouse, suspension bridge and tree fort… all built by Kory. Kaleb is dangling from a pulley swing he hooked up himself.)

Yesterday when I went to the chiropractor, I recognized the receptionist from somewhere. It took us a while to figure out where we knew each other from and finally we connected the dots. She is one of the AWANA leaders at the church where Kaleb attends that Wednesday night kid’s program. She asked who my son was and I told her his name. It didn’t ring a bell right away (he hasn’t been there for a year). We began talking about other things and then the light bulb went off and she asked, “Is your son the high achiever?” I had to laugh. That’s certainly not how I would describe him, but AWANA is a competitive program and they get points for memorizing Bible verses. He always wants to complete the most sections in the book each week, so I knew she must be referring to him. He likes to be called forward at the end of the program and be recognized for his achievements. But I don’t think of the words “high achiever” when I see the trail of destruction he leaves behind him as he moves around the house; nor do I think of those words when I see the piles of clothes on his bed waiting to be put in their drawers or him curled up on the couch with a book or any hand held electronics. Will the real Kaleb Slaatthaug please stand up?

I find it curious how different people can have different perceptions of us, depending on the task we are involved in. It made me think about how people might describe me. Other than “curly hair and glasses,” I’m not sure what adjectives would be used. I know I’ve done things that have hurt people over the years so some would use less than flattering words. I’m thankful though that God is my only judge and He has no problem with forgiving me, even if others do. I try to live each day to make Him proud, but some days, it’s not all that easy. I find comfort in these words out of the book of Revelation, “I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first…” So there is hope. I may not now be the person I wish I were, but I’m sure thankful I’m not the one I used to be. Hallelujah!

Another Saturday Doing Chores

I went grocery shopping yesterday on my way home from school to spare me the Saturday rush around here. They haven’t gotten the old time/motion thing down when it comes to traffic patterns either in parking lots or in grocery aisles, so I couldn’t bear to go to the supermarket today -- although we did have to run errands to buy a kitchen light for over the table and a portable heater. The weather is a bit dreary today so we decided both light and heat would be a good thing. We’ve yet to go into town for anything where we haven’t run into someone related to Kory. It’s fun to see family everywhere we go.

Kaleb spent the day reading. He said, “I’ve never read an entire series in one day before,” so he’s been glued to the couch (and sitting in the car) devouring one book after the other in an effort to read all seven books in his McGrowl series by sunset (it’s been raining all day). It’s not much of a challenge for him as he reads faster than anyone I know, but I guess it’s the novelty of it all. He also learned how to sew this week in school so he was anxious to make himself a rice bag for tonight, which he just completed. (We have a bunch of them back home but we didn’t bring them.) They are just a sock filled with raw rice and sewn shut. You put them in the microwave for less than two minutes and they heat up nicely. He then uses the heated rice bag as a foot warmer when he goes to bed. They are also great thrown over your shoulders if you have a little tension or if you want to warm up quickly. We brought lots of new socks with us as we plan to make them for Christmas presents this year (I hope none of the cousins are reading this!)

There is a måtfestival (food festival) going on in downtown Ålesund this week. I’m glad I went through the booths after class on Thursday as yesterday the streets were jammed packed with people and today, I’m sure, they will be worse. There were some entertaining chef competitions going on (who could make the coolest looking uncooked food?) and all kinds of food displays and samplings to be had. If you are into nasty tasting (and looking) sausages, cold smoked (jellish) salmon, or whale meat, you would have felt like you hit the jackpot. There was a whaling ship pulled up to the dock selling the fresh meat right off the boat and there was a guy selling stir-fried whale meat to-go (see photo). While walking through the festival I managed to get a free cup of coffee and a few chocolates and then I was happy to escape the aroma. I swear, you could put anything in a brown colored tube and put the word “pølse” at the end and Norwegians would eat it. They have big ‘ol coils of sausages in the grocery stores you just grab and yank off however much you want and pay for it by the kilo. They are as crazy about their pølses as they are about their cakes and vanilla sauce. I was offered more than one sample of some type of scary looking sausage at the festival and not wanting to offend the guy I just said (in Norwegian) “I don’t eat meat.” This one kind man who heard me, offered me a taste of Rømmebrød (cream bread) and said, “There’s no meat in this,” and I thought heaven came down and landed on my tongue. I bought two boxes of those little cookie type delicacies and am using all the restraint I have not to eat them before next week. We have some American company coming and I want them to taste the BEST Norway has to offer. (If it were up to me, I’d just serve breads, cakes, Vanilla Sauce and cheeses, but Kory and Kaleb would heartily disagree – they like all those dead animals sliced and diced and stuffed into little packages.)