So then I went to Walmart. Saw a nice chair on clearance for $34 that would probably do what I want. But here’s the kicker. The test drive chairs were on a display, 4 feet off the ground, and they were bolted to the floor. Seriously? How do they expect a person to know if this chair is comfortable when they can’t sit in it? So, I came home with nothing. And I still need a new chair. Or a bigger wallet. Maybe I will just buy the recliner, and give up the desk altogether.

Now every thing I read online says let her work it out. Let her have the accomplishment of doing what she set out to do. The little girl in me remembers my first stay at camp nearly 40 years ago. I had a near fatal case of homesickness. I survived. My mom and dad came to get me at the end of the week and I begged them to let me stay another. I went back the next summer with my best friend and we had a blast! So I sit here with my cell phone, getting nothing accomplished. I am trying to clean house and remind myself that homesickness is horrible, but she is in good hands. I trusted these people enough to send them my most prized possession and that hasn’t changed because she has homesickness. I am just praying this won’t make my already very much a homebody child decide not to go back again next summer.

I guess this answers the question of whether boarding school would work for her. Just hoping she’s over it by the time she’s old enough for college. I want her to explore the world. Sure it’s a scary place, but it’s also a wonderful adventure just waiting for you to join. But she and I have a few years before that happens. By then, my guess is we’ll both be ready. In the meantime, I am going to pray, wait, and hope that all is going well for her. Like child birthing pains, the memory of homesickness often fades leaving behind it fond memories of sleeping away. In the early morning hours, when I can hear traffic on the distant highway, that feeling of homesickness often comes back. I am reminded of that camp experience nearly 40 years ago. But then I remember the fun things we did that summer, like tie dye t-shirts and make candles from scratch and the feeling goes away. I just hope in between feeling sick, she is making such memories…

But this year, we got ten inches of snow. Birthday snow! My favorite kind. And built snow men. And missed seven days of school. We only have two weather days on our calendar, so that meant we had to add 5 days in there somewhere. Then in April, tornadoes. We had three tornadoes touch down in the area of our school alone. An F1, F4 and the rare and deadly F5. We were without power here for 8 days. So that meant 5 more days of school to make up. This wasn’t five days we were sitting at home playing video games. Our entire community was finding ways to help those who’d lost everything. Teachers, students, parents were all out in neighborhoods, cleaning up debris, delivering food, sorting through a life time of things, trying hard to find anything that was salvageable for friends and family.

But our state passed a bill allowing the school district to be exempt from Act of God type days. So we don’t have to make up the tornado days. As one school superintendent said, our kids were not out goofing off that week, they were volunteering their time and they learned more in those 8 days than their teachers and parents could teach them in a lifetime. Some disagreed with not making up school days, but as a parent, I did not. I think it was the best decision our representatives could have made. Our kids did learn more in that week than they ever could have learned in a classroom. My prayer is that no other school district ever have to make such a decision again. There are just some things children should never learn…

So finally we are nearing the end of this school year. I have never been so ready for summer in my entire life. I want to swim, sleep late, do my genealogy (remember that, yeah I’d like to find time for it again. LOL). I want to help friends move into brand new homes. I want to ooh and ahh over their new digs and be happy for them. I’ve cried way too many tears in the last three weeks. I want to give hugs of joy now. I want to say, “Congrats” not “I am sorry”. I want to dance.

How is the Deep South doing you ask? Well, we are slowly finishing the process of people getting out of their homes what was salvageable. Now we are moving to the cleanup stage. Every where you look there are huge piles of debris burning. (Not good for my allergies). Bulldozers run from sun up to sun down in the affected areas, trying to get homesites ready for builders to come in for the next stage. We are an area that is still hurting, but we are a strong people. Every day I pray for my friends who have lost their homes. And for people I have never met who lost everything, including most of their family that horrible day.

And then I turn on the TV and see the flooding along the Mississippi, and I know it’s not just my part of the Deep South that is hurting this spring. And I am thankful that God does not limit the number of prayers we can have. In fact, He encourages us to pray without ceasing. So that is all I ask of you. Pray for us without ceasing. Donate what you can to help the affected areas. And thank you for the prayers you have already prayed for our communities. They have been greatly felt.

Around 10:30, mom called and said, “Do you want to go to lunch?” There was another wave of storms coming, but based on the speed of the earlier storm fronts, I figured I had until 12:30 to go get the girls, so I said, “Yeah we can catch a quick bite, then I’ll go get the girls.” Got a call from the friend’s mom around 11:00 and assured her I was headed to pickup both girls around 11:30ish.

Mom and I ate a quick lunch and left the restaurant and tornado sirens were going off. I turned on the radio and it was 6 miles south of me, traveling at 45 miles per hour. I drove 75 miles per hour the entire way to the middle school. I signed both girls out at 11:30 am. BUT my daughter had to go back to class to get her books. She got to me just as the lights went out. We walked by cell phones back to where I had left her best friend and sat down, just as the first tornado went over our area. It blew the doors of the middle school open. As we sat there huddled with 7th graders, the storm whipped hot air around us.

When the storm passed, I took the girls home. We had no idea how much damage was done, but light wires were down, trees. I was terrified, but our home was fine.

Soon after we got home, the best friend’s sister came and got her for the storm shelter an uncle owns. As the day and evening went own, several F4 tornadoes went over the school where #1 and #2 are in college. #2 would call and say, “We are in the shelter. We are fine. We are together.” So comforting that they were comforting each other, so terrifying that they could die together.

Then she would call and say, “Mom, we are fine, all clear. It was an F4 and it’s headed straight towards you and daddy, be careful. We love you.” How terrifying it was for my teenage children, who know exactly on the radar where our house is, to watch as those storms passed over our area.

We had at least three storms pass over our area that night. One has been upgraded to an F5. I am thankful, God protected us through the storm. The next day, lights were out in every where but one small city. It looked like the 70s with long gas lines. Only one grocery store was open. It was terrifying to wonder how long it would be like this. The best friend is homeless. So our her grandparents. The home they took shelter in was destroyed as well. But no one was hurt. We were blessed. Other areas were not so blessed. The death toil continues to rise. Last I heard it was around 300 state wide.

We spent the first day getting gas, food, (it was my grocery store day), trying to get our generator running. The second day, we tried desperately to get information for where food, water, ice would be. Also ran more errands. Our house was fine, but we’d had no power since 10:30 Wednesday morning.

On Saturday, we went out helping church friends who had lost everything. It was very hard, and bought back terrible memories of being a child and losing our home in 1974.
On Sunday, our church sent out as many crews as we could to cut down trees, offer laundry services, clean out homes. I ran the phone trying to keep people working. We had no idea where to go to get services and all we could do was love as many people we could any way we could.

On Monday, I had three homeless kids come to stay, another was without power. My daughter called all her friends who weren’t affected (if you consider no power for 6 days not being affected). We had a two day sleepover. We were planning on camping in the living room, but God sent power late that night. He knew it would boost all of our spirits. It helped because none of the 9 girls who were staying, or Hubby and I had had a hot shower in 6 days.

On Thursday, finally power was back for most of the area and the kids went back to school. Every which way we go, we hit terrible disaster areas. Subdivision after subdivision. I have more homeless friends than I can even count. It would be faster to tell you who isn’t homeless.

God has provided for the Deep South. I know most of you out there have been praying, donating food, blood, clothes. More will be needed of course, but I wanted to say, straight from the Deep South. Thank you so very much. Last week was Seven Days Near Hell… This week will be Seven days toward blessings… We love you, we are fine. God is good all the time.

The two best friends are no longer homeless and plan to rebuild. It is such a blessing to see them excited about the future. It makes me hopeful too.

So I have the winter blahs. Don’t even like to go shopping because it involves getting out in the cold and wet. Can’t get motivated to do anything at home either but watch TV and I’m not really all that big a fan. Tempted to start an internet flame war just for the stimulation it would provide. Nah, even I can’t sink that low. So instead I sit here trying to convince myself that now would be a good time to scan documents or get a few cemeteries online or try and find a new ancestor. Anything productive. Fold the load of towels I washed this morning instead of setting them on fire by re-drying them a third time. Yup, I am that bored.

But on a positive note, my tulips are 4 inches high in the garden this morning. Spring is on it’s way. If I can just be patient a little while longer. So my prayers and love go out to those of you under feet of snow trying to stay sane and warm. At least here today it’s just cold and dreary. It could be worse.

It wasn’t snowman making snow, too dry. Though we certainly tried to make snowmen, snow balls. You name it, we played in it. God sent birthday snow and this old lady didn’t intend on letting it go by wasted.

I am hoping we will reap another benefit from the snow. It tends to kill bugs like fleas, ticks, etc and laying here for a week, it’ s bound to have done that. It will be an easy summer for those of us with pets.

So I am spending my day at www.familysearch.org using their online documents to further my genealogy research. I think #3 is ready for a day of lounging around. We had a great day in the snow yesterday, but I think the teenager in her is ready to just stare at a wall for a while. If she changes her mind, we’ll go play again, because hey, we in the Deep South don’t usually see 9 inches of snow all in one YEAR, much less ONE NIGHT!

New Years was fairly uneventful, since it was raining, Hubby and I had dinner and then came home. We’d planned on seeing a movie, but the rain was really coming down and neither of us wanted to drive in it to town to see the movie, so we came home and had quality together time.

For two years now, my sister-in-law has been on the liver transplant list, and we have prayed for God’s healing. She has taught me so much about living life in those two years. When every day may be your last, you learn to get as much living into each day as you can and that is what she has done. When #1 graduated, I told her to not worry about coming if she didn’t feel like the two hour drive. She was there as she says “with bells on.” She saw her second grandbaby born last January “with bells on.” But by spring this year, she was really wearing down. You could tell she and her bells had seen better days. When #2′s graduation rolled around, I called her and told her we’d understand if she didn’t come. We loved her and didn’t want her to make herself sick. She told me, “I’ll be there with my bells on.” And she was. By July, our family left for a mission trip. My brother-in-law was on one as well, when the call came in, she’d been moved to #2 on the list. I told our pastor I might have to leave before the mission trip was up, but by the end of the week, she was back to #12. It was a huge disappointment. In August, Hubby and I celebrated 25 years of marriage. And again, she was there “with bells on.” By our Thanksgiving family get together, she wasn’t allowed to travel. She was #1 on the transplant list and the doctor wanted her close to home. We went to her “with bells on.” My other sister-in-law told us not to try to come to the graduation, but rather come straight to her house for the celebration and Christmas gathering. We did. But not my sweet sister-in-law. She was not going to miss the graduation of the first grandchild to graduate from college. She was there “with her bells on.” But you could tell the day had taken it’s toll by the time we said our goodbyes. Even I was exhausted the next day.

On Monday, my brother-in-law called. The call had come in. Her liver may be available if it was a match and if it were viable. He’d let me know when the surgery time would be. We waited all day. Surgery wasn’t until 3:30 that afternoon. It started at 4:30. It was over at 10:30 pm.

We got to see her in her room shortly before 11 pm. She was awake and in pain, but recognized all of us. She is greatly improving every day. God has blessed our family this year already beyond measure.

I learned a lot about living life the last two years from my beautiful Sister-in-law. I learned life is for living. Don’t miss out on a second of it. Don’t waste it staring at TVs or surfing the internet. Use your time wisely to spend it with the ones you love. And when you do, show up “with bells on.”

I have worked a little on my cemetery site, and plan on today working on genealogy all day. Looking forward to 2011. I think it’s going to be a great year for my family. God is going to do great things!

It’s cool here today, but they say it’s going to get really cold later this week and rain. SIGH. So that’s why we got the decorations out today. And now we can just enjoy the holidays. Eat too much, sleep too much, do a little genealogy, wait for the kids to get out of school for the first semester.

So I am setting here with my space heater shining on my feet, fighting a mid afternoon nap after being outside in the cold putting up the lights. But we are ready for Santa whenever he wants to bring his magic sleigh our way. This year, I’d just like to have a peaceful quiet holiday, and avoid all the drama of last Christmas. Watch a few Christmas movies, find an ancestor or two on the census, get stuff bought and wrapped and paid for before the new year. I am pretty easy to please.

Then my family go in our van, and drove home. We slept for 12 long hours and woke up on Halloween morning. We went trick or treating in honor of my father, who would have wanted it that way.

It’s hard to believe my dad would be 74 years old. In my mind, he’s still young. In my mind, he’s still wearing that devils costume, and he’s still taking all the neighborhood kids trick or treating. Tomorrow we will go trick or treating. Yes, I know it’s Saturday, but that’s what we will be doing. We’ll do it in his memory. He would have wanted it that way!