Well, there’s been a lot going on around here. I’ll start with a Ruby story. My extended family had a graduation party for two of our family members, this past weekend. We make a big deal over the kids when they graduate from high school. It’s a big step toward independence- not to mention a promotion from the kiddie table- so we like to give them a time to be celebrated. We were going to have a big cookout and I was bringing the baked beans. Well, since it was such a big crowd, I decided to order them from a local bbq place. I picked them up and they had them ready for me in a large tub. I got home and stirred in about 3/4 of a large store-bought can of beans to stretch them a little more for our big crowd and I put the empty tub and partially empty jumbo can in the trash. Well, at the current time, our kitchen trash cans are displaced in the laundry room as our cabinet doors aren’t put back on yet, which would leave Ruby with unlimited access to the garbage and that would be less than ideal for a dog who eats all things. 

So, when it was time to go, we told Ruby goodbye and headed to the party with the hot beans. Five hours later, we returned and opened the door to find that she’d thrown a party of her own. I’m not sure if she had other dogs over or if it was just her, but there were cans, wrappers, old coffee grounds and dirty paper plates strewn around the place. Thankfully, we currently have no floor covering. She’d opened the laundry room door. Knocked over the trash can. Gotten the bean tub and the bean can out. Taken them into the family room to her bed and eaten them in front of the tv. Kind of a dog’s version of popcorn and a movie. All the beans I’d left in the bottom of the big can were gone and both vessels were licked clean. She saw me coming and stuck her whole head back in the can to ensure she’d gotten them all before I shut the party down completely. A last call of sorts. Later that night, she was lying in her bed with the blanket over her. I heard a horrible noise and saw the blanket balloon out. Party now. Pay for it later. 

And amidst all of our renovation chaos, we started having septic system issues. Around here, when you’re a city dweller, you’re on the city’s sewage system, but when you’re living outside the city limits, you’ve got this septic system thing. Every few years, we have to have ours cleaned out as tree roots grow down and stop things up. So, the septic guy comes in the big pump truck and takes care of our problem and closes the tank, but Davis tells him not to put the dirt back in the hole as he wants to pour some pool salt in it to kill the roots before he fills it in again. The septic guy rubs his chin and agrees that it’s a good idea. That was 36 hours ago. Eager as I am to get it all put back together out there, I’ve asked Davis, a couple of times, when he plans to do that. He assures me soon, but, meanwhile, I’m looking at this hole that’s about 6 feet long and 4 feet deep from my bedroom window. I’m starting to wonder if Davis has other plans for that hole. If he starts fashioning some sort of box out of the reno scrap pile, I’ll start to worry. 

As far as the renovations, well, we’re starting to finally see some of the actual finishes in a couple of places, but it’s been a long time coming. I just love all those home renovation shows like Flip or Flop, Hometown, and Fixer Upper, but they do give you unrealistic ideas about how these things work. You know the shows where they buy a hideous house that you can almost smell through the TV screen? They’ll fill a dumpster with rotten wood, stained mattresses, and filthy toilets and, only two weeks later, it’s a beautiful designer home. Or there are those shows like Love It or List It. They go in people’s homes and fix them up to meet their needs to convince them that their house can still work for them and not to sell. Most of those people don’t really need a new home- they just need a vacuum cleaner, some garbage bags, and a commitment to fold the laundry every once in a while.

Especially now, I can appreciate the fictitious nature of these shows, where the sub-contractors start pulling in the driveway on day one and they’re working inside and outside- so many of them that they’re bumping into each other. They show them arriving early in the morning and working into the night to get the job done. When one worker is finished, the next guy is right there ready to start his part. No waiting. No delays. Just 1, 2, 3, done. That’s how it works on TV. 

But, in real life renovations, the tile guy can’t come until the plumber comes. The plumber is working on another house, but might be able to squeeze you in before he starts another big job at the first of the month. If he can’t get to you before that job, it will be another 5 days or so after that before he can come. The plumber finally comes a week later than his original worst case scenario date. Tile guy started another job and has to finish before he can get to you. Electrician guy thinks he can come in 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, no electrician. Says it will be another week. Finally, tile guy comes and works a couple of afternoons. He doesn’t finish and says he will come back after counter top guy and sheetrock guy come. Counter top guy can’t come until the painter comes. Electrician comes but doesn’t get finished. Says he will be back after painter comes back for the final time. Painter comes and works until lunch. Will be back after sheetrock guy. Counter top guy can come at the end of the week. Sheetrock guy will be a couple of weeks. No, can’t come then. Not done with his other job. He’ll give you a call when he’s done. Finally, sheetrock guy comes, so painter is put on alert. Painter has no idea when he can come back because he’s gotten really busy. Floor guy can’t come until painter finishes and painter can’t come until sheetrock guy finishes. Electrician can’t come back until sheetrock and painter are finished. Sheetrock guy finally comes. Wait and wait for painter. Painter will be there in 2 weeks. No, make that 3 weeks. Not sure when the painter will be there. Finally, painter comes back. Floor guy is called. Electrician is called. Floor guy has started another job. May need to call another floor guy. Electrician will be there by the end of the week. No, the first of next week. No, it will be toward the middle of the week. Electrician will get there when he gets there. 

So, I kind of feel like we’re living in a really low budget southern movie over here. A hound dog eating beans in front of the TV set. Gurgling toilets when the washing machine drains. An open grave in the backyard. Septic pumper truck in the driveway. Old sinks, light fixtures and countertops tossed out the back door. We’re just one car on cinder blocks away from a Cousin Eddie situation over here. 

On a happy note, Carson graduates on May 12. Did you just hear angels singing or just me? I thought we might get to celebrate in a finished house, but that’s not going to happen unless we get selected for one of those shows or Chip and Joanna drive up unexpectedly. Either way, it will be a happy day. We’ll celebrate somewhere! 

It’s nice to catch up with y’all! Have a great week! 

JONI 

I’ve been suffering from fatigue. Fatigue, tiredness, exhaustion, lethargy- whatever word you choose to call it. Now, while my mother is frantically looking for her phone to call me, let me pause and clarify. I don’t really mean the physical kind that would warrant a doctor visit, although I have always had a natural affinity to daytime napping. No, there are a lot of different ways we can feel fatigued or tired. There’s that kind you have after a big meal- like on Thanksgiving day around 1:00 p.m. after you’ve had a plate full of starches and the dessert sampler. There’s the kind that you get when the preacher is making his 7th point and the sunlight is beaming through the stained glass window and warming your pew. There’s the tired you feel after a really hard day of work when you fall asleep so fast that you do that weird jerking awake thing. There’s the kind you have after a big event is over- a good one or a bad one- when the surge of adrenaline finally wears off and you just run out of steam. Then, there’s the kind of fatigue you feel after expending mental and emotional energy continually for an extended time and I think that’s where my tiredness is rooted. 

Let’s face it, y’all- we’ve all had a few rough years. I know we’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating. We had an election year in 2019 and you know about the constant divisive noise that brought. Everyone was firmly planted on their sides and we were all completely spent by the year’s end. Just coming out of that, 2020 brought Covid and we fought over how that should be handled and divided ourselves into teams based on the health choices we made. For two years, we heard about very little that wasn’t related to the virus and what we should be doing about it. We found ourselves with little patience or empathy for those whose Covid fear level was different from our own. More fearful and they were overreacting, brainwashed sheep. Less fearful- they were ignorant with no care for their fellow man. And all along, through the election, Covid, and mounting social issues, new lines were being drawn around what we could say and what we couldn’t. Sometimes, undeniable truths were labeled as misinformation. There were new rules to follow if you wanted to enjoy the privileges of social media. Questioning or stating facts regarding some issues became grounds for being cancelled. Disagreeing somehow became equivalent to hating. Crime and violence skyrocketed and our moral fiber seemed to disintegrate. Now, the world has recently fallen further into chaos. And those are just a few of the excruciating mental exercises we endured together as a country. That doesn’t even include the personal experiences that we encountered in our individual lives during the same time all of that was happening. It seems like there’s been, at least, a decade’s worth of happenings in three years’ time. 

I’ve noticed a shift in us since the onset of all of that- especially in my age group and younger. I’ve noticed a shift in myself. I can’t quite define it, but I’ve seen changes and they weren’t all for the good. For the last little while, I’ve let myself slide in some ways. I won’t be specific, because I’m not sure I can really put my finger on it. I just know that there are little things that I once did that I’m not really doing right now. There are places in my life where I’ve allowed myself to take a break. There are things that I have reordered on my priority list and others that have kind of fallen off completely. There have been times I’ve been more content to observe than to be in the game. Some of the shifts may have been good, but some were not. I’ve just felt mentally numb from this seemingly infinite period of crises and debates and division and moral decline that we’ve all been witnessing for the last few years. Unless you were living in a cave, there was nowhere to go to escape it or tune it out and, eventually, those things catch up with us. 

Not only has there been the mental fatigue, but I think the pandemic gave us all a valid excuse to take it easy for a while. We were home more than usual with so many of our normal activities cancelled. In a way, I think the unusual time of rest was kind of a welcomed thing as we were in the midst of living faster and more frantically than any other generation before us when we were suddenly forced to slam on the brakes. Maybe we kind of liked the way that gentler pace felt. Covid became a legitimate reason to coast along and we had more time at our disposal to do with as we pleased. It was something we hadn’t had in a really long time. We had almost two years for new habits to form and for others to break and they did. Some were good. Some were not. 

It’s the Easter season now- the time we, Christians, celebrate the resurrection and new life. The spring weather is here in the South and nature is coming alive again. The brown, crunchy grass is green and growing again. The bare trees have new leaves budding on their branches. The azaleas are blooming in pink and white. The birds are singing in the day and the frogs in the night. Something about the awakening of new life in nature has inspired a sort of an awakening in me. I’d tried a reset at the turn of the new year, but it never really got off the ground. But, I’ve rested long enough and taken my leave in some places, but I’m not content to stay there. Jesus modeled physical and spiritual rest for us and, if He needed it, how much more do we? But, it’s a place for us to visit momentarily- not to reside in permanently. 

We’ve got to know when it’s time to get back out there. To throw off our complacency and come off the bench. Maybe it’s getting back to church in person. Back to the gym. Back to a ministry. Back to visiting. Back to a mission field. Back to a Bible study group. Back to friends. Back to a social life. Back to volunteering. Back to mentoring. Whatever it is for you. It’s time for my generation and younger to step up and do our part. It’s been a rough time for all of us, but we have work to do. If the world has ever needed Christians to get up and get busy, it’s now. And if Christians have ever needed the support of other Christians, it’s now. When we need it, we should rest, but not retire. I’m sure there’s something all of us could be doing that we’re not and if there’s somewhere we haven’t fully re-engaged, maybe it’s time. 

Have a happy day, friends! 

JONI