The Miracle

Steve left for Shanghai early this morning. We Skype each other every day…for those of you in the dark, it is an internet program that allows you to talk for free via the computer. He is more than half a day ahead of us, so when he gets to his apartment at 9:00 p.m., we’ll be up and getting ready for Sunday morning service. I love being able to talk to him twice a day while he is gone. I never know what his schedule is, so I just let him call me at his convenience. Also, I know I can call him if the family miracle happens and he is available most of the time.

The family miracle happens mostly when he is gone or I’m under some amount of stress. What’s the family miracle, you ask? That’s when one of the kids suddenly becomes like God and knows all things, while I at the same time have my intelligence diminished to one level above a coma.

We had that very miracle happen this week. I was informed in the truck by one of my dear children that I really don’t know how to drive, nor do I know how to spend money and have a fun time, nor do I know how to raise children. This couldn’t be the same child who put the very truck in the ditch while traveling 5 miles an hour, doesn’t have a dime to their name, or needless to say, a child to raise. I must be mistaken.

Apparently I have lost quite a bit of my intelligence over the summer, perhaps it didn’t get packed or got lost in the move.…good thing school is starting. :o) I had to pull of the road and have a 45 minute talk and try to set some things straight…key word there try. By the end of the 45 minutes, I had visions of sounding like Charlie brown’s teacher, ”mwah, mwah, mahw, mwah, mwah, mahw, son, mwah, mwah, mwah oaky?” His eyes had glassed over by then and I knew he was day dreaming about motorcycles, girls or soccer. It appears I generally have lucid periods of 20 minutes, or maybe slightly longer if I’m lucky, then I’m back to hovering near comatose on the intelligence meter.

And they say these are the best years of my life, someday I’ll look back and know with certainty that they were. I think that day will come when the family miracle begins to occur in my children’s homes. Thank goodness I was never like that with my parents…cough.

On another note, I’ve had to put the chickens back in their pen. Seems a pair of eagles has decided they are a tasty snack. These eagles are massive and just beautiful, but I’m not into feeding them my fledgling flock. At the same time the chicks have picked up some respiratory bug, so I lost 2 that I know of to that. I put them on an antibiotic, when I found the second one hiding in the weeds, dazed and staring off into the distance, waiting to go to the great feed bucket in the sky. When they began to disappear, I assumed they were sick and went off to die, but an hour of searching the weeds and grass around the house revealed nothing. I decided to let them out and keep a close eye and sure enough several hours later an eagle began moving in. At the final count, I have lost 3 Cochin, 1 barred, 3 Sussex, 1 Rhode Island, 1 buff, 3 leghorns and 1 bantam. I’m guessing 11 to the eagles and 2 to illness all in just 3 days. Sheesh! I have just the place for a pair of stuffed eagles above the mantel! Good thing most of my hen chicks are still in the garage, having hatched just 3 weeks ago. Also the antibiotic has kicked in and they are all back to their normal, lucid selves. Perhaps I could use a little antibiotic myself, just ask my kids, they say it wouldn’t hurt.