Saturday, May 25, 2013

Memoriam

It's been a rainy week.  Q went on his first school field trip - to the zoo!  He loved it, of course.  We haven't heard about the monkeys yet, but that's only because he was so tired he could hardly stay awake to eat.  Q's therapy schedule has been a bit light as some of his people have been out on vacation.  It's not all bad - he gets longer school days and especially loves the longer time he has in the library, music class, and PE with those longer days.

We haven't run as much over the last couple of weeks because of various injuries and odd little bumps in the road.  The girls have been talking about increasing distances and training for a sprint tri or half marathon.  There had been some talk of training for a marathon in the hopes that we could make the finish time cutoff for Boston.  I'm relieved to report that "technical difficulties" make that idea a non sequitur.  I think we'd have to drop everything but math, running, and music in order to pull off that kind of training - something none of us is prepared to do.  Hopefully the various hiccups will resolve in the next couple of weeks and we can get back out there.  They'd been doing so well with longer runs and with speed and strength work, and I hate to see them lose any ground.  Quite a bunch of troopers, these punkins - especially as they jostle for Q-pushing privileges during any given interval.

Between rain showers, I poked nasturtium and annual morning glory seeds into various locations throughout the yard, looking for enthusiastic groundcovers to keep the weeds out while we grow as much food as possible.  I'm hoping that the weather will cooperate well enough on Sunday to allow the baby tomatoes to be set out.  We've been trying to think creatively about how to make trellises for green beans against the back fence with just rocks and twine, since we already have plenty of both.  I was hoping to have sunflowers again this year, but we're probably a bit late for them.  We're going to go a little crazy and try short season cantaloupe and small watermelons.  The west side of the house retains crazy amounts of heat with even a little sun, so maybe we'll even see some fruit!  Lemon cukes are also ready to set out.  A friend surprised us with a packages of short-season veggie seeds, and those will go out too, directly into the dirt: round zucchini, fat little carrots, and Delicata squash.  A family friend stopped by a couple of weeks ago and after receiving a tour of the backyard, declared it an "edible park."  What a charming description.  We would love it to be true.

A young man with a diagnosis similar to Q's passed away this month.  Jorden was twelve years old, one of the five children (of whom I'm aware) with some form of Polymicrogyria in this state.  He had a seizure one Sunday morning, while his family was getting ready for church, and he did not recover from the loss of oxygen.  Jorden's thoughtful parents chose to donate his organs, and many other children are now living more promising lives because of the family's kindness.  If you would, please say a prayer for Jorden's parents and siblings as they celebrate his life with their church family and many relatives this coming week, and as they navigate life without their beloved and joyful young Nascar fan. 

Peace be with you.


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