Day by Day

Well, here we are.....a few weeks ago we left Katie at college in Florida.  I began school and then we just left Connor at college in CT....Keera also begins tomorrow.  And Bob has a new policy at work that they have to wear ties and button up dress shirts, so we are all on our new days.  It has been a part of our lives to start over every end of August for about 19 years.  It all started with Brendan and preschool when he was three.  Hard to believe that all that time has gone by and we are still celebrating new beginnings.  It is exciting, scary, fun, difficult.....so many things all mixed into one.  I look at Keera and can't believe that she is going into middle school.  Then again, I can't believe Brendan works full time.  Where has time gone and will it continue to move so fast?  Do we miss all the things happening because we are just in the flow of motion?  Do we enjoy every little minute good and bad just because they are our...

January 26th - fire in house - smell, see smoke, see bright orange - react - Brendan awesome help, Keera did was she was told....men from next door coming to help us..dogs in garage...back in for cat....get her....runs away.....Tammy and Pete stop (on their way home to await blizzard...work with me.....hold me as I totally fall apart....take Keera to a car to stay warm....Brendan standing alone in moccasins....watching firemen put out the flames...windows broken....Tracey, Kelly, Nicki and Dad show up....family.....civil engineer talking with me....grew up with his sister....brings us to hotel....I tell him I think I bring the eucharist to his mother homebound....he thanks me with sincerity that surprises me...offers his home to us if we need it. Firemen - work hard, do their job, bring us back in...emotional...our house-black, smells of plastic and an unbelievable awful burned odor-water dripping-ruins...through the front to the back...listening to directions from fireman while trying...

I can't get to sleep so my mind starts wandering.  Here are the things I am grateful for at this particular moment: I am grateful that God has brought me this challenge and this is why.....he loves me so much that he wants me to let go and lean on him for strength; he wants me to feel free from worry and being scared; he has brought me closer to him through challenge and pain. I am grateful that on the night before a blizzard and the morning of a blizzard I earned a new respect for the big orange asplundh trucks and the men who drive them.  They all gathered at the hotel to stay for a night, talking of coming from Canada and the Carolinas.  Then in the morning they pulled out at 6 a.m., in the middle of a snowy, freezing cold blizzard.  I would not have seen that if I were tucked away in my own bedroom. I am grateful for the six windows that I used to look out of when I woke up in the morning.  We were high enough in our house that I could not see building...