Month: February 2026

Saturday Morning Gifts

This morning I received a gift. Or maybe several gifts. My son and daughter-in-law were in town for the weekend and I got to make a big waffle breakfast with my daughter-in-law and then see my big dining room table surrounded by cheerful children all chatting and teasing and laughing with each other. Then I announced I was going to take a walk and my youngest asked if he could go with me.

He is now nine years old and it has been several years since he has thought that taking a walk with mom was a treat.

We took off down the sidewalk and he reached over and grabbed my hand, twining his fingers with mine. I felt a little bit like a wildlife photographer. Hold really still and try not to startle them or scare them away! The day was gray, it had just stopped drizzling. The sidewalk was wet and slick, the light subdued. But it felt like a joyful, bright, cheerful moment as I walked hand in hand with my not-so-little boy.

Neither of us were in a very talkative mood, but he would make observations every once in a while, pulling me over closer to the side of the road so he could balance on the curb as he walked.

My youngest is nine years old. I have had four children leave home and take off into the world already and the next one in line graduates high school this spring and heads to college in the fall. Andy and I are very conscious that our season of full-time parenting is going to end in a relatively short amount of time.

And so, for a tiny moment, I felt very clearly how precious this was, to have one more walk with my baby while he still wanted to hold my hand.

My oldest son sat at my dining room table this morning, with his wife by his side and informed all his younger siblings that when he was young he had been the perfect child. Of course, all of his siblings who were similar in age to him and could testify the truth or lie of this statement were not there, but his young siblings still looked at him with strong skepticism. Then someone said, ASK MOM! She’ll tell you! My son looked me straight in the face without batting an eyelash, waiting for me to confirm his story. I shrugged and said, Sure. Which, I have to tell you is so far from the truth it’s very funny. But I backed him up and he was able to gloat in his supposed superiority while the kids continued to express skepticism. And I love that. I love that its been a long enough time that we can move on from all the ups and downs of me raising my first son while I had no idea what I was doing, and we can be settled in the fact that we love each other and enjoy each other’s company.

I have wonderful memories of my oldest son as a young child, his zest for life, his amazing creativity. But I can’t remember the last walk we took where he still wanted to hold my hand. I don’t think I can remember that for any of my other children. So, I received a gift today. A heavenly tap on my shoulder. Hey, pay attention. This is a special moment. Savor it. Remember it. Write it down. One of life’s great joys, tucked away into a normal Saturday morning.

Free House: Getting Easier

Andy and I went over to the free House to work today and I have to say, I think this is easiest session we’ve had so far. Highlights were no poop or pee and no rotten food. Woohoo!

We are in the upstairs now.

So apparently, when our neighbor first moved into this house it was in the 80s and she rented the upstairs from the elderly woman who lived there. There used to be a stairway that went up the outside of the house. Here’s what’s left of it.

There was a door which was obviously not original to the house.

The room we cleaned today must have been her living room. Here’s the before.

We found some interesting things today, including this giant safe thats not going to be fun to get back down the stairs.

If you’d like an electric hotdog cooker, I can help you out.

We actually found a lot of vintage, odd small appliances, all in their original packaging.

Since we cleaned the hallway last time, we were able to throw things out the upstairs hall windows instead of hauling everything down the stairs, which also made everything easier. We could have kept cleaning but our trailer was completely full again.

Here’s the after picture.

We’ve been talking a lot more about what we’re going to do with the house. On days when we are feeling poor and overwhelmed we tend to feel like just selling it. But then we revive and think of how amazing it would be to have it fixed up and available for use. That is still the plan, but sometimes it feels a little impossible. So we push on, one step at a time. We’ll do everything we can and then when we hit a roadblock we’ll reassess. For now, there’s lots of cleaning to be done, yardwork, and several repair projects we can do with minimal funds, so no roadblocks in the near future.