Salty Zebra

   Yep, you read that right. Well, maybe you did. This is my husband's best handwriting, but it's not super legible so I'll copy it out here just in case: If you lose a day or If you lose your mind Know you will never lose me  Ok, so our humor tends toward the morbid, but it keeps us entertained! What does this cryptic message come from? Well, here's the story.  A few weeks back, I went to the ER for some pretty intense neurological symptoms. I was having memory issues, extreme fatigue, pressure in my head, dizziness connected with tinnitus and nausea. All of these sounded an awful lot like the hydrocephalus I had experienced before and I was concerned that perhaps my shunt wasn't working as it should. I messaged my neuro oncology team and they called the next evening and said I should go straight into the ER. It was 5:30 in the evening and I knew the ER would be busy after hours so I asked if it would be ok if I waited to go in, but they said it was important to go...

   By this time, my husband had the opportunity to see the house. In fact, the previous owners were very gracious and allowed us to have a fence installed before closing. This made it so much simpler to have kids and a dog down there! Our first visit to the house as its official owners was a quick one. It was just the kids and I since, again, my husband was busy with work. He was very possibly still on his trip to India. We went down for less than 24 hours to do a quick inventory. You see, the house had been sold to us with all its accoutrements: all the furniture, the dishes, the linens, even the paper towels and toilet paper! I wasn't sure exactly what was there, so we went down to take stock and see what we might need to bring down with us to make our first official trip comfortable.  That was a quick, but exhausting trip. I was up late going through drawers, cupboards and closets and writing it all down. How many towels? Sheets? Spoons? It was a beautiful gift as ...

  Our lives are lived in seasons. Some long, some short, but all of them matter and affect us in different ways. And in each of these seasons, God is present. He leads, He guides and He uses them to change and influence us. Today, I'd like to tell you about our season with the Beach House.   It started more than a quarter century ago, when we were a young family. We didn't have a lot of disposable income. I wouldn't say we were living paycheck to paycheck, but there wasn't much, if any, left over at the end of the month. Vacations weren't something we really considered. A friend from church had a house out by the Ocean and offered it to us as a place to stay for a week during the summer. I cannot tell you what a blessing this was! I LOVE being by the water. It brings me peace and joy. And being able to take my husband and son out to the beach, dig in the sand, ride in a boat, play a little putt putt golf was such a blessing. Just to relax as a family.  A dream was b...