Well, hello there.

I’ve been gone for awhile,

but I’m back now.

Wanna get back together?

Oh good!

Here we go.

10 Things I Learned This Summer

1. I keep forgetting how big the world is. Somehow I begin to believe that the 50 mile radius around my house is The World. Thankfully, PB drags me out of that circle from time to time. It’s such a relief to see long highways and tall mountains and wide rivers and not be in charge of any of it. Which reminds me that I’m not in charge of my 50 mile radius, either.

2. PB and I have turned into 18 people. Four kids, four spouses and eight grands came for a weekend in July. It was remarkably sane and entertaining and free of melt-downs. We even got a picture with all 36 eyes open and looking toward the camera. Glory!

3. When an extended family hasn’t had a reunion for 45 years, name tags are required. I met a whole generation of new cousins and marveled at the fact that I have graduated to the older generation. Thanks to a lot of planning and hard work by the senior cousins, it was a fantastic day. This was my contribution:

4. Potatoes can grow in a garbage can. I had my doubts, but PB saw it on Pinterest and set out to prove it could be done. He planted 4 potato chunks in June and in August we dug out a whole bucket full of spuds.

5. You can go to Missouri and back in one day. Macon, Missouri to be exact. If you leave at 6:00 a.m., you will arrive around 1:00 p.m. Then you can grab a bite to eat at Sonic, go to the theater and watch a two hour play, give the leading lady (who is your talented niece) a hug, hop back in the car, fill up the gas tank, buy a bag of cheese popcorn and a bottle of grape pop and get home at 11:30 p.m. Ask me how I know.

6. Quote of the month: “We assume that what we see is all there is, and that’s rarely all there is to it. We assume that people who do things easily, do things because it’s easy. And that’s not true. They do things easily because they work so hard to do them well, and they put in the time and energy and the grit to get good at it.” Crystal Evans Hurst

7. We are officially a “pour-over” household. Gone is the Keurig coffeemaker from our kitchen counter. Gone are all those expensive, little plastic K-cups. Gone is the water reservoir with gross deposits all over it. Gone is the steaming cup of coffee in less that 45 seconds. Gone are all the fun flavors to try. We are free.

8. Maybe I should have lived in the 1920s. This summer, I have been transcribing pages and pages of letters and diaries that a cousin wrote in 1927 while on tour with the Circuit Chautauqua. Marjorie was a virtuoso violinist, but I only knew her as a crotchety spinster who wasn’t very fun to visit. Maybe she just missed the good old days. Much more to come on this.

9. Thirty-eight years is a long time, but not really. PB and I have been married 38 years, which is a feat in itself. I’m not easy to live with. I still remake the bed and reload the dishwasher the “right” way. But it has flown by in record time. I doubt if we’ll have 38 more, but you never know. If he can keep making the bed wrong until he’s 98 and I can keep reloading the dishwasher until I’m 95, then we’ll have something to celebrate.

10. I wish I could take all the Bible study ladies on a field trip to Philippi this September. That’s probably not going to happen, although I did check on the price of an airline ticket to Macedonia (about $1300 roundtrip). So we’re just going to have to dive into the letter that Paul wrote to some of his favorite people, the Philippians. I’m looking forward to going deep in study with some of my favorite people too.