Sister Joy!

I interrupt my almost-finished-30-day-photo-challenge to bring you this photo of pure JOY!!!!!!

My sister is here for a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 28 ~ Books

I am really enjoying the first book in a new fiction trilogy by Dr. Dobson and Kurt Bruner:  Fatherless, Childless, and Godless.  The first book takes place 30 years in the future, when America's population growth has declined to the point where it is nearly impossible for those working to financially support those who are not.  This has created a cultural climate in which "pre-screening" for healthy pregnancies is routine (basically selective abortion), and where suicide has been institutionalized and couched in terms of compassion and dignity.  The premise is actually rather depressing, yet I am finding this first book to be a fascinating and even hopeful glimpse into a possible future for our country if we continue down the path we are currently on.  The characters are well developed and are interwoven with each other in some really unique ways.  I can't wait to finish this first book so I can move on to the second!

30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 27 ~ Close up

Little Man and I on his birthday *minute* last December, 5:27 a.m.!!

30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 26 ~ On a Shelf

Okay, so technically this is not a shelf, just the top of a bookcase.  But I love this little bookcase!  It fits the wall space perfectly, and I love how the black pops against the red wall.  On the top are mostly cousin pics.  The frames are all from the dollar store, so not exactly designer, but an inexpensive reminder of fun family times together.

30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 25 ~ Your Workspace

I wish I could say this first picture is when the kitchen is particularly messy, but it usually looks like this!  Our kitchen just never closes.... no matter how hard I work.

And here is my other workspace... when it's not cluttered and I am able to work uninterrupted, it is one of my happy places.

30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 24 ~ Love

About six weeks ago my 95 year old father in law had a stroke.  It was not life threatening, but it was life altering, rendering him incapable of swallowing or speaking.  He has had dementia for the past several years, and his two remaining pleasures in life were eating and the ability to joke around with people.  It just seemed plain cruel that these two pleasures were taken from him.

Last week he and my mother in law celebrated 58 years of marriage.  We set up a little "party" (without cake and ice cream!) in a room at the nursing home where my f-i-l now lives.  All available local relatives came.  We wore party hats and played kazoos and sang to them.

Like relationships can be, theirs has been a mixture of good and bad.  Honestly I have not always found a lot in their marriage that I wanted to emulate.  But you have to be doing something right to make it 58 years.  My m-i-l is watching the deterioration of her beloved happen before her very eyes, and she is doing it with incredible courage.  For all the things that have looked, from the outside, to be "less than", what it boils down to is love.

She loves him.

He loves her.

He cannot speak to her, comfort her, laugh with her, or advise her.  She gets nothing from him in this current state except the pleasure of being in his company, him whom she has loved for nearly 60 years.  She comes to the nursing home every day and sits with him for several hours.  Talks with him.  Does crossword puzzles out loud.  Watches TV and talks about it.  Chats up all the nurses and nurse aides.  She is working out her marriage vows.  She is loving him "in sickness" and "for worse."

In this very difficult, final stage of their marriage, I am finding quite a lot that I want to emulate.

30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 23 ~ In Your Fridge

30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 22 ~ Sun glare

Really????

Is this a joke????


Actually we are beginning to see snippets of sun here and there now, so the long winter may finally be coming to an end!  Little Man is squinting in this picture, so I am guessing there was a bit of sun somewhere.

30 Day Photo Challenge, Day 21 ~ Words