Yes, I'm Really Back

Beloved:

I considered holding up today’s newspaper just so you’d know I really am alive.  But this really is me, dressed and in makeup and shoes before 8:30 am for the first time in weeks.  In dire need of a haircut but otherwise fit and ready to get back to business. I cannot thank everyone enough for stepping up and doing so much more while I was away.  What gift and privilege to be so fully present with my girls through their transitions over the last month. 
                                                                    
Mariah Briggs Mescher is settling into their house and neighborhood in Cincinnati.  As expected, her big front porch is full of kids most days.  In the spirit of her Yankee ancestors Emily marched into Savannah and found it to be the hottest place she’s ever been.  She reports, “Even when it’s not raining, it still feels like it’s raining.”  She cut off most her hair and said that helped.  The bridge over the Savannah River which separates South Carolina from Georgia is Emy’s dorm room view.  Thankfully, while Savannah has gotten all the same rain as South Carolina, thanks to the river they’ve not been so flooded.   Emy is thriving in art school.  Ben Briggs marches to math class, Russian Lit class and Chinese class.  He and Bailey come for supper a couple of times a week and sack my fridge on their way out the door.

My dogs are good.  I think my cat has dementia.  He keeps getting lost in the laundry room.  My chickens are big and fat and happy.  They’ve loved free ranging every day for 3 weeks.  No eggs yet. 

And then there’s Carl, the darling boy with whom I share this big, mostly empty nest.  I have loved, loved, loved, loved, loved being here every day when he gets home.  I love having supper ready and the house fairly restored to order (so long as we are only referring to certain rooms and areas of the property).  We talk.  We sit outside.  We wonder what the kids are up to.  The whole evening is just ours.  We miss the kids and we love this.  Before we had kids we were both students so every minute together felt like time stolen from schoolwork.  This is more fun, way more fun.

Hmm, what else to tell you?  Honestly, once we got the girls settled I slept for about a week and since then I haven’t done much but play with my dogs and rearrange my yarn.  Oh, one day we went to Nashville with the Meschers, and the Salvation Army was having Outhouse races. I paid $5 to steer an outhouse downhill while two men ran alongside to stop me at the bottom as the outhouses did not have brakes.  I won my heat.  I’ll have Rob put the video on the church website.  On second thought, that may not be the video of your pastor you most want shared.  

After the Colts squeaked past the Jaguars on Sunday a reporter asked second string quarterback Matt Hasselbeck how he felt about the win. “I’m pretty tired,” he said, “been a long time since I played a whole game.” Come this Sunday, I expect to feel much the same, joyfully so.  I pray the day finds you finding joy. 

 ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette

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