From Cairo to Kentucky

This week my mind has been in a fog.   On Monday, I was happily chatting with coworkers at a mini-potluck we were having during lunch when my boss came on over the loudspeaker.   I didn’t hear what he said, but my to my surprise, my tablemate said, “Oh, that’s you he’s calling!” I figured he needed me to cover for another teacher last minute, so I quickly collected the remainder of my lunch—I wasn’t going to leave that piece of peanut butter pie behind—and headed to the office.   As I walked in, my boss, looking a little stressed, asked me, “Is that your car parked out on the curb?” It took me a moment to remember and then, I stammered, “Y-e-s!” I’d forgotten to move it after I’d parked it there over two hours ago to make it easier to unload some donations I’d brought for the family resource center. Now it was blocking a bus full of children from leaving school.   Yikes! Exit me looking very embarrassed and apologetic. But the one thing I have been thinking ...

Writing to a friend on the other side of the world Me: How are you? I got back this evening from FL and immediately my house overwhelmed me. My house! I’m such a bad mother. So bad my daughter gave me permission to go back. I’d been home less than a half hour! I told her that made me really sad, but you know how Paul says he did what he knew he shouldn’t do? I did too! It wasn’t until past their bedtime, that I finally gave them the gifts my parents sent them and showed them pictures from my trip. That should have been first, I know, but it’s like I become possessed and until things are in order I can’t think. I apologized to the girls before bed. I told them it was wrong of me, that I was happy to see them.   What can I do? How do I change this?  And just as I landed, we got an email from our organization telling us that because all of our summer physicals and things haven’t been sent to them, our file has been closed.   I’m not even sure what that means!!! So th...

After having a headache for most of the day, I was talking to my husband about it when he said, “I shouldn’t tell you what I just read about Kentucky.” Well, no one can get away with starting a sentence with, “I shouldn’t tell you…” So after some prodding, he said, “Kentucky is supposed to have the highest rate of allergies in the entire country.” Now this may not seem like a big deal to you, but I have suffered from allergies for as long as I remember.   And, every time we move to a new place, it’s been “fun” discovering how best to deal with them there.   In Kenya, my neighbor used to say, “I know when you’re awake, cause I can hear you sneezing!” In Egypt, sweeping my front porch always had me reaching for a bandana.   And now, Kentucky?!?!? Is it all their bluegrass? As I thought about life with allergies, I got to wondering, quite randomly, what life would be like for a shepherd with allergies.   I know. It was an allergy-induced headache random th...