I'm still here!

I have worked every day since a week ago Monday (including four hours on Saturday and a couple of unexpected hours on Sunday). Oh, I am soooooo tired. I can only give you a taste of what a campus bookstore is like this time of year... Macy's the week before Christmas. Looking for a parking place at the Mall on Christmas Eve. The grocery store the day before Thanksgiving. I think you get it.

I have arrived home each evening ready to drop into bed but there is still work at home to do. Most things are being accomplished a little at a time... dishes soaking as I read a few blogs, one load of laundry run in the evening and dried in the early morning, one toilet quickly swished (not perfectly but enough) one day and the other the next, checking the salt in the water softener to see if we are okay, watering plants, making cakes (two on Sunday and then two tonight) for a belated 65th birthday of one of the managers and a going-away of a friend at the store... important gotta do's in the evening hours.

In my youth (and before developing a chronic illness), I could bring home the bacon and fry it in a pan... you know, if you are old enough to remember that commercial... and still have energy to read in the evening. Now I get bone tired, the kind of tired new moms get when they are sleep deprived for months on end.

However, God is good and His mercies are new every morning. I may wake up thinking I want to go back to bed for more hours but I stumble to the kitchen (literally), push the start button on the coffee pot... and sit for awhile until it is finished. Sometimes I can't wait and since my coffee pot is the kind you can remove briefly while the hot coffee is running into the carafe... I take advantage of that feature.

This morning found me sipping coffee in the dark while watching praise and worship videos on TV. I believe my brain came alert about the time I drove into the parking garage, which means I feel quite sorry for anyone in heavy traffic with me. They didn't know I was sleep driving.

Sunday evening I looked out the front window to see if my husband was finished mowing the lawn and was amazed to see a flood of red colors intermingled among the trees in the forest. This time of year, it is impossible to see an actual sunset but the amazing colors drew me out of the house and down the gravel lane, almost to the Christmas Tree Farm. I still cannot view the actual setting of the sun below the horizon from this setting but I can look down the county road and see more of the brilliant reds and corals.

The cool breeze and the red light reflecting in the forest made the day feel more like October than August. It doesn't take long in such surroundings to find peace amidst the business of day to day living. In between necessary work Sunday afternoon and evening, I had watched the first two episodes of the Lord of the Rings and standing by the forest as the sun set gave a feeling that Hobbits would be arriving any moment. Hmmm... that is better than seeing Bigfoot amongst the trees and heavy brush on the forest floor.

The beeper is beeping... that means my two cakes are ready to come out of the oven. Since I'm quite weary this evening, I doubled the recipe and baked two yellow cakes. When completely cooled, I'll make a vanilla frosting for one and then a chocolate for the other... an easy way to make two cakes for about the same time and work as one. Just what I needed tonight.

This Saturday I will decline any work hours as I must pick up a prescription. God has provided again just as I ran out of one of my medications. I must tell you how amazed I am at the way He has taken care of us since we lost one-third of our income. Sometimes it has been through unexpected and oh, so welcome gifts. Right now it is through work offered and energy given to complete the work. I am thankful for both...

Picture: Billy Jacobs, There's No Place Like Home at allposters.com