life...

     Things have hardly slowed down around here lately, but I have a few minutes now so will fill you in on some of what has been filling our time.

     Marriage- My beloved and I recently celebrated our 16th anniversary! He made me a garden and brought home roses and chocolate. I made him cookies. Seeing it written out like that I feel even more spoiled. We also  celebrated by attending an impressive chamber orchestra concert. We arrived after dark, and walked through a path lined with hurricane lanterns on tall posts which were filled with lit candles. The historic church was only half filled, and the half that was missing missed a treat. Four extremely talented musicians from the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra shared several challenging selections from Debussy and Ravel. Those will be the next composers we study.

     It stormed here last week. Lightening likes our house, computers have been struck multiple times in the past. Because of that, when there is threat of a storm we unplug all the computers. Sometimes we will move our son from his room to the sofa in the living room, too, as a huge oak tree is right outside his bedroom window. The sound of thunder woke me up in the middle of the night. I unplugged the computers and returned to bed, but not to sleep. I heard it hit the same time that I saw a gold flash the size of a dinner plate right outside my bedroom door, in the living room. I woke my husband up to see what was hit and we both smelled something burning but couldn't identify the source. Joseph slept in our room the rest of the night. The next morning, I found a telephone box blown off the pole at the end of our driveway (almost a mile away from the house) and Mitch discovered the surge protector box outside was completely fried. We found out later the tv in our bedroom was hit, too. Later that day Em and Joseph discovered this halfway down the driveway:

See the huge hole in the ground beside the tree? 

To give a bit more perspective:

These trees must be at least 60 feet tall.

     I'm still working more than I should, but had a sweet experience with one elderly lady last week. Home health gives a different insight into my patients, a closer look than other therapy environments as I am in their space. One precious lady, almost as old as my Powpow, shared with me that she wasn't afraid to die, she knew where she was going. I love that peace. Tonight at church we heard that sentiment echoed in the words shared by a visiting gospel music group The Dogwood Cross. They were the second today to share about missions and sharing our faith. My eyes are constantly being opened up to more needs around me.

    The ducks have doubled in size in the week we have had them. This afternoon they enjoyed their first swim. Bingo seemed to think they were to be his snack, and even our grown ducks were interested.

     My two youngest started practicing Down By The Creek Bank with our church's children's choir. I listened to them just a bit tonight and recognized the songs from my childhood. I'm pretty sure that is the performance Mamma said that I fell asleep on the stage.

     A friend shared a link on Facebook to some pretty washcloths that she crocheted. I showed the pictures to Heather and tonight she surprised me with this one she made:

     It is about to storm again so I'll be turning off the computer very soon. Good night.