How We Do Things

 

It's Sunday afternoon as I sit at my desk, composing this blog post. While I often carry my laptop computer to another part of the house so I can be in the same room with Gary as I check email, read blogs, and compose my own posts, this time I am at my desk where my computer is plugged in. 

Later this afternoon we have a Zoom meeting to attend, which means Gary and I will sit side-by-side at the kitchen table while my computer will operate via battery. 

Before these meetings, I sometimes take a selfie of us with the Photo Booth feature on my computer to check the lighting (and my hair, to be honest -- ha ha!!) Here's one I took last February, thus the sweaters:

Oh wait. That's not right. Gary parts his hair on the right (his right) and I sit on the other side of him. I'll fix it:

That's the problem with selfies, you come out backwards! (with thanks to Sister who taught me how to flip a snapshot horizontally)

This post will be along the lines of those "daytimer" memes that are more like a phone call to a friend where you talk about whatever is current and just wander from one topic to another until it's time to take the laundry out of the washer or go pick up the kids from school (neither of which is the case for me today, by the way).

Yesterday we both did our laundry and cleaned house, which is our usual Saturday routine. Laundry -- did you get that? My guy does his own laundry and we both clean house together. 

When we came together a couple of years ago, both of us were in the habit of doing our own laundry and keeping our respective homes clean. We continued like that with the laundry and I chose which housecleaning duties to pick up while Gary kept up with the more physically strenuous duties. 

I vacuum the carpeted areas and he cleans the floors (of which there is more square footage) with an electric steam cleaner. I dust the furniture and he includes the towels (mine, too!) when he's doing laundry. 

an especially large kitchen drawer 

While Gary both handles and oversees the outside yard work, I pull weeds in the rock and mulched beds. Back indoors, I do the occasional tasks like cleaning out the kitchen drawers of crumbs, wiping down woodwork, dusting the intake vent by the air handler, and so forth.

By the way, when I was cleaning out the trays in the kitchen drawers the other day, it occurred to me to take a snapshot of each drawer before emptying it, which eliminated the mystery of how to put it back together again.

As for cooking, Gary said at the beginning that he would love for me to take that over, and I was going to; but it's evolved into him doing the vast majority of that and occasionally I bake some carbohydrates for his sweet tooth. That is working out well for us. 

I do a small amount of seasonal decor. Gary leans heavily into classic simplicity for home decor, so I keep it simple. Storage of seasonal decorations is a problem, too, so keeping it minimal is very practical.

For those who have known me for many years, that last statement is a big change. But I don't miss all the stuff that had to be hung, arranged, dusted, and stored. It was a fun part of my life, ingrained in me by my mother (a good decorator) and many hours in Hobby Lobby. Circumstances in recent years led me to simplify on a big scale, and I'm good with it. 

my older computer several years ago

Moving to another topic here, my computer pulled an unwelcome trick on me a few days ago. First thing in the morning I discovered I could not access new email on both my iPhone and my computer. 

Similar techie problems have sent me into literal tears since my live-in computer tech passed on to Heavenly Realms a few years ago. He took with him the vast majority of the computer expertise in our home, leaving me at the mercy of my kids (none of whom live close by) or deciding which stranger to entrust with the problem. 

After bravely and oh-so-carefully trying a couple of fixes on my own (and that's dangerous territory!!), we took my electronics to a small business here in town that was able to take me immediately. In a few minutes the problem was fixed and I was breathing a sigh of relief. Tears of joy were replacing the tears of terror. 

What was the problem? I really don't know but it had something to do with coming up with a new password. Why the old one was suddenly not acceptable is a mystery to me, but it's all good now.

By the way, I've reached a conclusion about myself: I don't drink or smoke. I cry. There's more than one way to relieve stress.

While I'm on the topic of upsetting things, I will briefly address the "elephant in the room." We stayed up past our bedtime to watch the debate. In my opinion, nobody "won" because intentions were not clearly outlined on either side and the utterly ridiculous should never have been given air time. 

Of course we reflected this week on 9/11 and where we are now. In all honesty, when my daughter-in-law called me that morning in 2001 to ask if my TV was turned on, I didn't think our nation would survive. So, although in many ways we are not in a good place now, we have to thank God for preserving us this long. He truly is a God of mercy, giving humanity more time to surrender to Him.

Sand Hill Crane on pinnacle 
of a neighbor's roof

One morning while I was on my bicycle, I passed this Sand Hill Crane atop a neighbor's roof. He is preening himself while facing a lake, so you can't see his head and neck in my snapshot. Around here it's not unusual to see birds of any size perched in these high places. I am always reminded of this verse:

For the eyes of the Lord

search the whole earth

in order to strengthen those

whose hearts are fully committed to Him.

II Chronicles 16:9 NLT

That verse makes me want to jump up and down waving my arms to get God's attention, "See me! See me!" But He does. He sees me. He sees, you, too. 

Thank God!

source

Until next time, grace and peace.