What You Get When You Combine Rootbeer, Fear, and Exhaustion

I do apologize for not posting recently... This past Wednesday I traveled last minute down to West Virginia to visit my very good friend Olivia Howard. Some of you may remember a like visit last year in July/August. I was going to go on Thursday, but then we discovered that Mr. Clarke was in town, and going home that night! It would save plenty of gas for us. (The Clarkes only live 30 minutes from the Howards, and the distance from our house to the Clarkes is 3 hours... to the Howards, 3.5). So... having 15 minutes to pack, I did that.... and then...

(okay, short interruption for apology... I know I make long introductions! sorry!)

I went down to Southern Ohio with Mr. Clarke. We had a very interesting conversation that involved math/engineering, politics, government, prison, poor people, the abolition of the slave trade, history, and all sorts of stuff. :D It was very intelligent and fun.

So here I am at the Howards.

And now on to the actual post...

The Howards have a little apartment attached to their garage. It includes a kitchen/breakfast area, and then upstairs is the main room they use for schooling, or sewing, a library, bathroom, and a big bedroom. So during the time I'm here (till July 4) Olivia and I are staying in the apartment! The other day we bought rootbeer and ice-cream for - can you guess? Yup! rootbeer floats! So we had some one night... and then last night decided we needed more. There was enough ice-cream for us each to have one. We brought the stuff from the kitchen to the bedroom, and prepared and enjoyed them (thoroughly) there.

When I was little I watched a rather scary show on tv.... I don't need to go into specifics about it, but for years I had a dread of windows at night. I hated them... unless they had curtains or blinds. Even though I'm older now, whenever I pass by a dark window at night, it makes me nervous and giddy. What I saw when I was little terrified me to such an extent, that it never really went away.

Now, when we were done with the rootbeer floats, there was still a little more than a third of a 2 liter bottle of rootbeer left... It needed to go down to the fridge... but it was rather late, and Olivia and I both were exhausted from working in the garden all day... hauling 50 pound rocks from a creek up a hill to the car... plus a number of bricks... for landscaping... and a whole bunch of things.... In short, neither one of us felt up to getting up and taking the rootbeer downstairs to the fridge...

And also...

I was nervous about the windows....

"We'll just leave it and put it away in the morning," Olivia said.

"But Olivia... if we don't take it down, it will get flat, and lose it's fizz, and then tomorrow it won't be good!" I argued.

"Well... it's okay... just leave it..."

So I left it.

But after fifteen minutes, the bottle of rootbeer was bothering me. There wasn't any point in letting it get flat, was there? That would be a waste of good rootbeer!

What were we going to do?

...

I looked at the rootbeer. My martyrdom was drawing nigh. There was but one option, and one only (that we would consider) to save the rootbeer from flatting and that was....

to drink it myself.

I took a deep sigh as I submitted to my fate.

And then....

Drank all that was left of the rootbeer...

...experiencing the consequences all through the night.

New Viewpoint!

Today I was getting a stuffy nose and watery eyes... it was due to some sort of allergic reaction to our cats. Winston likes to sleep on our bed, and they also hadn't been bathed in awhile... So, to remedy these two things, we gave the cats baths (yes, they do look like rats) and I changed our sheets. (yes, I do feel much better :D). Anyways, our bed is situated in a corner, so it's kinda hard to get the sheets on... Especially since on the one side the ceiling slopes down... (living in the attic does that to you. :P) So, as I was toiling to get the one corner on, I gave up, and plopped my head upside down on the bed... (I had been working on my knees). My head was facing the rest of the room, and all of a sudden, I realized this important fact...

I hadn't seen our room from this perspective before!

This gave me a divine revelation: when we look at something, the first impression sticks, and we don't normally put ourselves in odd angles just to see if there's a better perspective. Now this was a timely revelation, especially since our family is faced with some pretty difficult decisions right now. However, this taught me that no matter how much I may not want to do something, I could look at it from a different perspective - pick out the blessings, instead of the disadvantages... Not that the latter shouldn't be considered, but the blessings will help one to be thankful in all circumstances, "...for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus."

And I know there was something else I wanted to say, but like always...

... I forget what it was. :-) If I think of it later, I'll add it to this post. :P

A Week Of Work!

Note: This was written on Saturday, June 6th... We actually got home on Wednesday June 10th. But the pictures weren't uploading there, so I had to wait until I got home. :)

The Trip...

I am currently sitting in a nice chair at my aunt's house in Lewisburg, PA... Most of you probably haven't heard of this town, and so if you haven't, you may want to look it up. ;) Jk, I won't make you do that. It's somewhere near Williamsport, PA. Right outside of town there's a bunch of mountains, and the air is always fresh and clean here. Anyways. On Wednesday, Gabriel, Tirzah, Chloe, and I traveled up here by various ways....

First our beloved Father drove us halfway to New Wilming

ton, PA, which is where his mother lives. She met us, and drove us half way to Lewisburg. Our dear cousin Conrad met us there, and drove us to Lewisburg. Even though it was roundabout, we had a great deal of fun - especially since from the time we left to the time we arrived at our destination, it rained nonstop. It wasn't the kind of rain that would let up for a few minutes, but rather, it would pour, and then lightly rain for a few minutes instead of letting up. So we had fun with that :D.

My grandma recently bought a new car...

Our grandma's ride...

One funny story involving this car is that she had parked it in the church parking lot one day, because she was doing stuff in the church. Westminster college is right there, and the students aren't supposed to park their cars in the church parking lot. When the policeman saw the fiery red car, he inquired inside the church to find out whether it was one of the college students, and if so, to give them a ticket... Imagine his surprise on finding it was my 83-year-old grandma's!

At last we arrived safe and sound. One thing that makes me say so was this incident...

Gabriel: "Conrad, are you a good driver?" Conrad: "Oh, Heavens! no!" :P And also... Conrad: "Whoa!" Chloe: "What happened? Did we almost die?" Conrad: (cheerfully) "Yup!" But part of this was because the roads were awfully wet and slippery. :P

The Visit...

We went because my aunt had so many "to do" lists that never got done. Our cousin had just gotten back for the summer from Hampshire college, hoping to transfer to the college here where my aunt, his mother teaches. They are a very busy family, hence, why her to do lists kept adding up instead of decreasing. So she thought we could come help her out for a week. We cleaned furiously, passionately, wildly, lazily (only sometimes, and that's because we were tired from cleaning [the three previous adjectives]). Unfortunately, the only thing we hadn't been disciplined in was going to bed on time. Wednesday we were incredibly tired from our trip, but did some work before going to bed, and when we did we were so tired! Of course we never meant to get up at ten the next morning ;)... Thursday night we went to bed around eleven, but woke up at ten.... But Friday night everyone went to bed at two, and got up at 8:30! If you asked why, I wouldn't be able to tell you....

Sew, Sew, Sew, Sew....

A dexterous sewer...

Chloe's job was making slip covers for an overstuffed chair and couch... Later in the week we are painting the living room and hall! From yellow to a lightish blue! Yay! All these changes are so exciting! So Chloe's been sewing her poor young brains out....Gabriel built a scratching post for the cats, Teacake and Agnes, to distract them from the new upholstery. :P He also washed all the hardwood floors, helped clean the garage out, and helped Tirzah clean the bathrooms. In addition to all this, we re-organized the kitchen, have cooked many amazing meals, and have had a lot of good laughs and fun times. :D

...can only do things like this :D (for more pictures, go to here.

The Only Thing That Taints Your View Of Nature From The Inside Of Your House....

...Is dirty windows.

You see this newspaper?

...This is what it's for!

Thursday and Friday I cleaned every single window in the house... Windows which hadn't been washed for a few months at least... It was quite a job, but SO satisfactory to clean all the grime off, and know that your washing away dirt and making something clean! (Much like what Christ does to us...) I learned that we were not to use what most people use - or, Windex and paper towels... but hot water mixed with vinigar and a rag to wash the windows, and newspaper to dry it... Well, I suppose one is always learning new domestic tricks! My aunt informed me that she had at first been skeptical of this new method, and I was the same way when she told me of it. However, I was proven wrong. The newspaper (even though the ink comes off on the hands... :P) leaves the windows without any streaks, something which paper towels will do, and absolutely clear so that you almost feel as though there's nothing between you and the outdoors. :D

And that's it until I figure out my next post! :)

Go Figure...

For An Update....

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