Seven Quick Takes

1. I was feeling a little bit stir crazy yesterday and couldn’t figure out why. Then I realized that except for Wednesday, when my MIL watched my children for a few hours so the GH and I could go our for lunch to commemorate our anniversary, I’ve not been more than 1/8 of a mile away from my house for more than 3 weeks. One walk, one trip to the store and a few forays to the community swimming pool right next to the laundry room have been the extent of our wanderings. No wonder. We’ll all be happy to be out of quarantine I think.

2. Next year for our tenth anniversary I want to throw a party. None of these fancy date like things that we keep trying. We’re both extroverts, we love having people around and our marriage plays out day to day in the community we have with our friends and family. Why not have them celebrate with us, just like they did when we married?

3. The GH and I have been talking adoption recently. There was a specific circumstance that inspired it, which I won’t tell you about. It’s just interesting to find out as we talked, that we had both been thinking the exact same things, and our hearts were in the same place about it. Open. No we have no concrete plan to adopt or anything. We are simply open.

4. I signed a new lease last week, for another 10 months. One year ago I said we were going to move to Thailand to work on The Charis Project. We still plan to. But there is still work that we can do, that needs to be done, here in the US. Like gather a large enough donor base to make sure the children’s home is well provided for. We’ve learned over time not to rush these things or force them. It will happen when the time is right. It seems like it’s God’s timing, since there is a person here that we have just started caring for who we are committed to and if we left now we wouldn’t be able to be here for them when they needed it.

5. I got our rent reduced. I did a bunch of research before talking to the manager, because I was convinced we were paying more than market value on our apartment. They are leasing them now at much lower rates than 3 years ago when we moved in. When I brought it up she just walked away, got out her little book, and lowered our rent. Which, over the course of the lease, saves us almost exactly what the orthodontist fees for fixing the Boy’s jaw will be. (I had been wondering how we would afford that.) Needless to say, I am pleased that it was so simple. I know for certain that if I hadn’t asked, I would be paying the same rate I used to. I share in case anyone else can benefit from my story. Ask. Who knows what may happen?

6. I have been seized by the desire to write a book for teenagers and 20 somethings. The theme of it will be something along the lines of, “The search to find yourself is a silly pursuit. Knock it off. The more introspective and self absorbed you get the less you will have any kind of true self knowledge, and the more skewed your perspective will be. You will find yourself by looking at Jesus and living in community with others who are looking the same way. Also, you will fail. So stop trying to figure it all out before you try something. No one who did anything worth doing ever did it without making a few mistakes along the way. Get used to it.” I will title it Get Over Yourself. I think it’s going to be a best seller.

7. I am steamed at UPS. I shipped a breast pump to Lerin two weeks ago, and they broke it in transit. The only way that could have happened is if someone drop kicked it into the truck. Really. It’s not like it was made of glass. Grr. Shipping Fail.

7 Quick Takes is hosted by Conversion Diary