he will remain as he is
but
if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be
and could be
he will become what he ought to be
and
should be
Goethe
We're not well yet, but lots better than a few weeks back, and we are homesick. We can do the exercises at home.
The weather this past few days is just totally spring!....finally! Winter too long.
AND
I AM NOT WHAT YOU THINK I AM
I AM
WHAT I THINK YOU THINK I AM
Robert Bierstedt
Courtney came to visit and let us meet our newest GREAT grand daughter. We had a nice visit getting to know Dreyken.
This picture was taken last Friday. It was his 5th time for the rehab program.
The nurses sit at a desk and montor everyones blood pressure and other stuff.
Dee and his new friends. the man in front is the farmer with 15 children.
This is Dee one week after we got to Idaho – Karen took this because he looked lots better than he did when we left LaGrande - but my priorities were elsewhere, so I didn't think to take a photo then
I can't believe we've been here in Idaho Falls four weeks, and plan to stay longer. Dee is getting stronger every day, and doing great at the re-hab, up to 10 minutes on the bike and 17 on the treadmill. The classes are also good, learning a lot about diet, stress, etc. They switched him to the 3:00 class which is much better, he's not so tired as the 4:00 one, and there are people who visit more there. Three are bishops, and one old farmer has 15 kids, all within 20 years! Imagine, 6 girls and 9 boys.
We are enjoying being here with Karen and her kids, and it is good for Dee to look out the window and just see a yard, instead of a lot of work calling him. His days of long hard work are getting closer to an end, and he can really retire, after 15 years since he left medicine. About time.
It seems to me that a woman is like a big pie, cut into pieces. Some years there is plenty to go around, other times it just doesn't stretch.
With seven kids and one husband, I used to cut myself into nine pieces, with the last one left for me. Pretty soon others (friends, neighbors, church, school, total strangers) started wanting parts of me too, so I gave away portions of the piece I'd saved for myself, a bite here, and a bite there.
Self's portion kept getting smaller and smaller. Then as some children demanded more of me, I usually took bites out of my husband's portion for the kids.
Now the problem seems to be, if you don't tell other people to stop pretty soon you don't have anything left...to nourish self or others.
I have finally reached the point where I know how to say no, even to some of the things I'd really like to do. My time right now is being used to replenish my year's supply...my inner supply to get me through the next years of possible famine.
Dee and I were both drained so empty for so long. We have finally told the world GO AWAY! I'm going to sit here all alone and just enjoy my own piece....and peace...for a while. And no one can have a bite unless I say they can.
You cannot share what you do not have
ABOUT READING
Once there was a little boy who wanted to learn to read
All the other people did and oh, he had a need
to get a book and really know the words, to somehow recognize
the meaning of the sentences, why
all the other guys had lots of books
the boy just looks at pictures almost every day
The little boy would tell his Mom
"When I get back from play I hope you'll get a book and teach me
how to read, all by myself I want to know and understand
the stories on my shelf"
and so
he worked and worked and taught himself!
with a little help from mother
He was too young to go to school, now one day some of the other
people came to visit little boy . He couldn't believe his eyes
He hoped that he could sit around with all the other guys
and share what he had read
inside his head were stories running o'er and he had never been so full of words
not EVER before
but the boy was quite amazed to find
'though the other guys all could read
they hardly ever bothered 'cause they rarely had a need to know
They liked what they had read about when they were rather small
and now the other people all read nothing new at ALL!
So in the end the little boy discovered we mostly read
for just ourself(and maybe our Mother)
the others don't seem to need to talk and listen
so their minds can grow as ideas they exchange
and although the little boy began
to think the world was strange
he kept on reading, he was needing to learn everything he could
and inside he kept knowing, someday
someone, somewhere! would
be there to talk with, take a walk with
and they'd listen every day
to see what they were thinking
when they got back home from play