THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for mornings that start by sitting in a rocking chair and looking at my back yard while drinking a mug of hot water or tea. What's something you're thankful for?

NEW SPECS

Tyler got new glasses on Thursday, so we snapped a quick picture before heading in to get them. Why? Because both sides of his current frames had broken within a few days of each other, so he balanced the lenses on his nose just for a laugh. 

His new glasses have transition lenses, which he's super excited about because he's missed being able to wear sunglasses.

 

TIME WITH GABI

I'm always thankful for time with our original bonus W, including the few hours he spent with us today. So glad Gabi was our neighbor for a season so that he could become our friend!

SISTERS' WEEKEND - 2021

Beep and I got away for our third annual sisters' weekend over the last few days. (Or maybe our fourth? Depends on if we count the first year, even though we stayed at my home that time.) As always, the break from real life, resting without any set schedule, and time spent together was wonderful. 

We go somewhere different each fall and this time we decided to go back to our hometown as Perkins girls. I think it's been twenty years since we've been there at the same time, so it was special to go with someone who shares the same memories.

FRIDAY - We met in Medford before carpooling to Brookings, so our first stop was lunch at Tosu. We ate a delicious lunch that included my first sushi experience, watched a family's surprise reunion that was filled with tears and smiles, then stopped by WinCo to get groceries for our weekend. Our evening was spent at Harris, just walking along the beach and watching the sunset. 

Notice our matching hoodies? The art is one of my sister's new BMoff designs that she added some writing to (there's more on the back) and surprised me with for our weekend. We headed back to our room at Ocean Suites Motel after the sunset and caught the last color of the evening sky from the deck.

SATURDAY - We spent a chunk of our morning driving by places that were significant in our childhood - the four homes we lived in, original building of the church we grew up in, and the campus of a private school we attended. We also took some time to stop by Mom's grave together.

After lunch in our room, we headed back out to wander around the boardwalk and get ice cream at Slugs 'n Stones, then went down to the port. The sunshine and stillness of the previous night had been pretty, but we both also loved the blustery day with choppy water as we walked up and down the beach. 

Beep's a sneaky photographer and caught me watching the water. 

The obligatory picture of the back of our custom hoodies.

As we walked back to our car, we passed a group taking a picture together. I offered to take it for them so the gal holding her camera in selfie mode with everyone behind her could sit with them. She declined, but someone else in the group asked if I'd take one with her phone. It was at that point, as I turned to face the group, that I realized it was the same family we'd watched be reunited the day before. I love small world moments! 

We told them we'd seen them at Tosa, took their picture, then went back to our room to spend an evening chatting, looking at old photo albums and scrapbooks, and putting together a puzzle we'd picked up at Goodwill earlier in the day. 

SUNDAY - Having already spent time at two different beaches, we opted to head up river for our final hometown nature fix. We drove out to Loeb and were the only people at the water. So peaceful! We strolled from one end to the other, pausing to watch birds, skip rocks, and look at pretty flowers, then looped through the campground back to our car. 

I have no idea how many times I jumped off this rock as a kid. Lots and lots.

Our last stop was lunch at Pizza Deli, paid for with money someone had generously given us for a weekend indulgence. Then we headed back to Medford and parted ways. 

I'm so thankful for a season of life where this tradition of a weekend together each year is possible. It's definitely an oxygen mask thing for me, a refreshing time that helps keep my head and heart in a good place.  

(Photo credit: All the pictures of people are from Beep's camera.)

FOOTBALL WITH FRIENDS

I got back tonight from a fantastic weekend with my sister, which I'll post about tomorrow because it's late and it will take a while to go through the pictures, but thought I'd get these three up tonight. 

I was able to spend a little bit of time with Shon and the boys on my way home. It was a beautiful day, so we headed to a park where they could practice some football plays. I plopped myself down in the grass and just relaxed while I watched. Snapped a few pictures for their fam, but figured I'd also put them here. 

Wrapped up our time outside, then I went home to see Tim and the kids. 

 

DEVON & TYLER IN THE YARD

Devon had a rare day home back on the 6th, so he spent some time stretched out on the trampoline to read and snack in the sunshine.

Two days ago he decided to expand his paracord skill set. He's made countless whips, but this time he made a sling. His ammo? Tons of little tomatoes from our yard.  

Four days ago Tyler decided to make sit in the morning sun to read some school books. The perfect classroom.

A SNEAKY FLOWER DELIVERY

I wish I could remember the year, but my sibs and I were probably in about 7th, 5th, and 2nd grade when we decided we wanted to have flowers delivered to Mom at her workplace. And we wanted it to be anonymous. We had absolutely no idea how much flowers cost, so we called That Special Touch, the local florist where Mom bought flowers for other people and that created the bouquets she sometimes received from others. I don't remember who made the call, but we had a script written out.

"How much is One carnation, baby breath, and ferns in green wrappings, delivered & CFCU" 

No punctuation at the end. The first part appears to have been added after we wrote out what we wanted. An "and" sign instead of the word "at.  Whatever works.

Anyway, we got our answer. We gathered our loose change, came up with the $2.00, and called Dad at work to tell him our plan. We asked if he would pay the florist after work (we lived several miles out of town), then we'd reimburse him when he got home. He agreed. 

We called That Special Touch back and placed our order. They called Dad to confirm the plan, then delivered the arrangement, along with a card that said "Have a great day!" and was left unsigned. I'm pretty sure we didn't get charged for that delivery. I mean, $2.00 for a flower and delivery isn't much, even for the 1980s. Perks of small town life where everyone knows everyone and people are kind. 

I remember that Dad told us that night, or maybe the next day, that she'd been wracking her brain trying to figure out who might have sent the flower. To my knowledge, she never knew it was her kids. 

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for homemade banana bread that's been toasted and spread with homemade peanut butter. What's one thing you're thankful for?

DAD TO THE RESCUE

Our home has a sixty-five foot stretch of fence that gets tagged from time to time. That little stretch of road is poorly lit, which means tagging isn't the only nonsense that happens there. So we decided to install some security cameras and motion activated lights. 

Tim and I brainstormed how we could mount the new devices, but hadn't settled on a final plan. I called Dad on Saturday afternoon to get his input, as he's really good at creating solutions for projects around the home and yard. He asked some questions and requested some photos. By Monday morning he had a plan in place and had purchased all the supplies. Awesome!

He drove up this morning and we spent the afternoon installing cameras and lights. And by "we" I mean that he did 95% of the work, but I hung out with him and handed him what he needed from time to time. 

Here's his perfectly sketched building plan. 

Prepping the fence.

Prepping the poles. 

He and I sat in the front yard this evening and waited for it to get dark so we could see if the lights would come on. 

They did! I can't believe the difference it makes to have those lights on. I suspect the cameras won't really even be necessary now that people won't have the cover of darkness for their shenanigans.

I'm so thankful for the way Dad's brain works and his willingness to help us not only come up with a plan, but to do the work. Tim's working sixty hour weeks right now and sleeping through most daylight hours because he's working the night shift, so it was a huge blessing that he didn't have to tackle this project in his limited amount of free time. 

 
9/23 UPDATE - The lights are super bright when activated, but they've stopped working within an hour or two of darkness falling in the evening. The first night they'd had bright sun for some of the day (in a box part of the day). The second night they had a full day of mostly cloudy skies.

The sun is on the house side of the cameras, not the street side, but I suspect they're too close to the tree branches to get enough sunlight for a full charge. We'll need to trim branches, shorten the poles, or both.

The range of motion detection is way better than expected, though. It was supposed to be 10-16 feet, but it's picking up cars driving by on the other side of the street. 

I'll come back to update once we make some adjustments.

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MOONCAKES

One of our neighbors came over to give us fresh snowy mooncakes with red bean paste filling tonight. None of us had ever had any type of mooncake before, so it was neat to try something from another culture. Some Ws weren't fans of the texture, but we all agreed they looked awesome. I'm grateful for generous neighbors. 

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful I was able to drop from four elastics on my braces down to two this week. What's something that you're thankful for?

TWO TREATS

A friend who makes fantastic chocolate chip cookies gave our family a plate piled high with them on Sunday. 

A neighbor showed up at our door today with a fresh apple pie, which we ate in the front yard a few hours later. 

 Sweet food from sweet people.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for two cute little kids who did a video chat to tell Aunt Bethany about their first day of school. What's one thing you're thankful for?

AS FOR ME AND MY *NEW* HOUSE

This evening will mark one year since I made a quick phone call during our family's annual Labor Day week road trip to touch base with a friend who'd just lost a grandparent and was told a fire was burning along the freeway in the area my extended family lives. Within a few minutes I heard about the fire from two other friends and was asked if Dad was safe. I called him to find out what was going on. He and Debra had already evacuated.

We wouldn't know it until the next day, but that evening their home and my step-sister Ashley's home both burned to the ground in the Almeda Fire. So did thousands of other homes in their area, as well as many more throughout Oregon as our whole state lit up on that hot, dry, windy day.

One of the blessings that came from that horrible experience was that when I said I was raising money for Ashley to use on anything related to starting over and for Dad to buy a bike with, and that one of my nieces was raising money for Dad and Debra, you all held your resources with an open hand and gave as you were able.

A couple weeks ago, I was able to visit Ashley's new home for the first time, a home that your generosity helped her to purchase and furnish.  

Dad's put countless miles on his new bike that he's been riding since about eight weeks after his other one was destroyed, paid for with your generous gifts. 

On the same visit that I saw Ashley's new home, I also saw Dad and Debra's new home. They were still a couple days away from actually moving in, but it was theirs. 

A few days ago Dad sent me an e-mail with "As for me and my NEW house ...", a spin on the words of Joshua 24:15b, in the subject line and the picture above as an attachment.

Good gravy, typing this out is making me cry.

Here's the blog post that tells the whole story about the framed verse and has all the pictures, as well as pictures of Dad's bike, but seeing this new version of the Bible verse that's hung in his home for forty-six years, three months, and one day (minus exactly three months from the day the first one burned and the day the second one arrived ... not that I'm counting) hanging in his new home is so incredibly special to me.

To those who gave and said to use the money as I saw fit, thank you so much for not only making it possible for this verse to hang in Dad and Debra's temporary home for nine months, but for it to now be hanging in a prominent place in the home they get to stay and settle in.

On this first anniversary of such tremendous devastation, I'm grateful for the kindness, talent, generosity, and hope for the future that this picture from Dad represents.

PRIZE TIME

The Woodburn Public Library called Naomi last week to let her know she'd won a prize from the summer reading program. What?! I hadn't even known she was participating in the program this year. She was out of town, so I said she'd touch base this week. We all went in today, as they were closed over the three day weekend, and she was given a Kindle Fire 7. Super exciting! 

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DOUBT

I recently sat in a church service about doubt, the second teaching in a four week series that Rogue Valley Fellowship had on the topic. Not only did it encourage and challenge me in the season of life I'm in right now, but there was a beautiful humility and vulnerability in the presentation that I've been intensely craving from other Christians. I cried, of course. Since then I've watched the other three services (the four teachings were split between three teachers, one of whom happens to be my brother-in-law) and found each of them to be insightful, practical, and gentle.

 
If you find yourself in a place of doubt, no matter the intensity of your doubt or what exactly you're doubting, I'd encourage you to listen to the series. Each teaching is about 35-40 minutes, which I've found to be perfect to listen to as I do meal prep or work my way through a random pile of household paperwork.

Part 1 - Teaching starts about 21:25 and ends about 1:01:49.
Part 2 - Teaching starts about 16:00 and ends about 47:30.
Part 3 - Teaching starts about 15:25 and ends about 51:00.
Part 4 - Teaching starts about 17:35 and ends about 55:40.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful to live within walking distance of the bank and library. What's something you're thankful for?

SPONTANEOUS FUN WITH TYLER

Tyler and I were the only Ws home tonight, so I used a Cold Stone gift card I had and a BOGO coupon from my rewards program to take the two of us out for ice cream after church. There was no dine-in options, so we ate out in the parking lot before heading home. 

The sky was clear, so we stretched out on the trampoline to look at the stars for a while. I don't think I've ever done that with any of the little Ws, but it was a fun way to end the night.

 

BOOKS I FINISHED - AUGUST 2021

Just Don't Fall: How I Grew Up, Conquered Illness, and Made It Down the Mountain, written by Josh Sundquist

After the amputation of one of his legs as a child and the realization he can no longer play sports he loves, Sundquist discovers skiing can be done with only one leg. He soon decides he's going to ski in the Paralympics someday and this book chronicles his life from before the amputation to the 2006 Paralympics. Vulnerable, funny, and inspiring. 

p. 166, Why do doctors always have to ruin perfectly good fruit by comparing it to life-threatening malignancies? 

p. 278, "What if," Tim continues, "you did your best, and that was enough? You gave one hundred percent effort, and even if you didn't reach one hundred percent success, you just accepted it, because there's nothing you can do to change what's already happened?

p. 314, After all, truth is not always a virtue when it is pursued for its own sake or, worse, simply to make its teller feel morally superior. 

Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What To To About It, written by David Zahl

Church attendance is declining, but this book shows that no one is actually abandoning religion. We all, regardless of where we stand on issues of faith, have turned to other areas of life with religious zeal. We've come to depend on those other parts of life for our identity and as a measure of righteousness, both our own and that of those around us. 

p. xvi, While enoughness may not be a direct synonym for righteousness, it's not far off. After all, enough only makes sense if there's some kind of line demarcating it from not enough. It implies a standard of some kind. 

p. 37, Real love does not recoil at weakness. That is where it begins. Love without vulnerability is not really love at all. It's more like mutual objectification, where the other person serves as a canvas upon which we project not only our idealized selves, but our spiritual and emotional yearnings.

p. 44, The deluge of parenting resources corresponds more or less directly to the size of our fears, which previous generations would likely classify as paranoia. 

p. 49, Those who have never experienced failure lack resilience, sometimes fatally so. Protectiveness does not always protect.

p. 78, In other words, we flee from boredom because of what we encounter there, namely, ourselves.

p. 81, Whatever your conviction or interest, no matter how fringe or toxic, a community exists online that will reinforce it. A few clicks are all it takes to find allies who will confirm the righteousness of your opinions, as well as common enemies to fortify your tribe. It's intoxicating, radicalizing, and more often than not dehumanizing. 

p. 91, A less flattering theory for why we prefer the desk to the couch might be that, like technology, our work distracts us from deeper, less manageable realities. Raising children, for example, is a complicated, confusing process, where what you put in as a parent does not always correlate to what you get out. 

p. 95, You could say that the cult of productivity worships the god of success, and you wouldn't be wrong. 

p. 142, The main challenge at present, she told me, was encouraging her students to think in terms other than those of power - to allow a text to speak about its own concerns, rather than sift it through a preexisting ideology; to sit below it and learn, rather than above it and judge. She felt like she'd succeeded at the end of the semester if she'd given her students another language - any other - to speak in addition to that of oppressors and victims. 

p. 149, Indeed, calling others out for virtue signaling can be a mighty convenient way not only of dismissing any public utterance we don't like but also of signaling our own superiority in the process.

p. 158, I come from a family of clergy, and of the countless deathbed visits they've made, not one person has ever wanted to talk politics. Not one! There isn't a liberal or conservative in that hospital room, just a human being. 

p. 168, The seculosity of Jesusland seeps in when church turns into yet another venue to establish our enoughness, rather than the only reliable place to receive it. 

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