1. Debriefing week with 22 kids aged 4 – 18.  An amazing, tiring, multilingual, stretching, hilarious wouldn’t trade it week with great kids.  We sewed, glued, presented, searched, bowled, listened to each other’s stories, went to the doctor, and all in all had an excellent and hurried week.
2. Transition seminar with 53 kids aged 14-19.  A super group of kids to hang out with—very helpful and mature.  I hope to keep some of them in at least the fringes of my life for quite a while.  Have already gone out to coffee with one.  The flip side was that as wonderful as they are, too many of them are besieged with huge things like deaths and betrayals and all sorts of other nastiness.  They are an amazing witness of God’s goodness to carry us through the muck of life.  Wouldn’t have traded it, but it left me drained of everything.
3. More doctor’s visits.  Two different endocrinologists and my primary care.  My thyroid hasn’t changed—all the nodules are there and unchanging.  I suppose that’s good . . . it’s better than them growing or replicating.  The bad news came from my primary care doc—my blood pressure is most often through the proverbial roof—though I’m thinking it’s a roof of thatch and fluff not some steel and concrete one.  Anyway, I go on bp meds next week.  I’m not at all thrilled about that.  She also admonished me to cut things out of my schedule and take care of myself.  It feels selfish, but I know it’s a matter of self care not selfishness.  So, I’ve cut out as much as I think I can.  Now my hurdle will be doing the things I should to get healthy.
4. Ironing.  After more than 10 years of living in Africa with househelp who ironed almost everything, I have a hard time wearing unironed clothes.  So, I had most of a summer’s worth of ironing to catch up on.  I’ve ironed for a few hours here and there so I had something presentable to wear, but I never got through everything.  Over the last few days, I’ve conquered the pile of clothes waiting for attention.  Now I have a laundry phobia—if I wash clothes, there will be more to iron. I wonder how long all these ironed clothes will last.  Perhaps I’ll just have to try to stay on top of things and not have a pile waiting for me again. What a novel idea!

Other things . . .
1. The other half of humanity . . . I haven’t seen the guy I wrote about in the last post.  He did call the other night to remind me that he hadn’t forgotten about me.  His schedule is almost as crazy as mine; in a way, that’s nice.  Still don’t know how I feel deep down, but I’m not going anywhere.  Yesterday I came out of church, checked my messages, and a guy I haven’t seen in a year had left a voicemail.  Interesting.  I told him last year I never wanted to see or hear from him again.  He sounded so sweet in his message, but I know “sounds like” and “is” are not necessarily the same thing.
2. I’m leaving on a jet plane . . . I’m headed to my brother’s house for the week.  He informed me this AM that my nephews’ plan is to get me home and tickle me till I pee my pants.  Oh the things I have to look forward to!