Join Jen and the other Quicktakers over at the Conversion Diary
1. The news for Calvin keeps getting better and better. He loves his new company. He will only be working 8 days a month – 24-hour days. And that’s considered full time. Sounds crazy to me but he’s thrilled about it. Also got a letter from the City of Cleveland that he is high on their consideration list – and that also made his day.
2. His vacation hit a small snag though –
Apparently he is back on the road after paying $350 for a new alternator.
3. I mentioned last week that I went to confession, and the priest told me, “Congratulations, you are not God. You can’t control everything.”
I’ve been thinking about that all way and at first I was bemused by it, then a little miffed, and then I decided that this was very freeing!! and probably just exactly what I needed to hear in the first place.
So my sister and I have some property that belonged to my father that is utterly and completely landlocked. I never thought we would sell it and then we got an offer! Then a buyer came along who wanted to buy our property along with some other property that was contiguous with it!! Great!! The only problem was that the sale was contingent upon another cousin I have never met, granting us easement through her ranch. She had agreed to at first, but then decided only if we swapped her some other property, and now apparently she won’t do it at all. So we will lose our buyer and the sale will fall through.
And because I am not God, and because I can’t control anything or anyone, I feel at peace about this. Things will happen, when they are meant to happen. The property isn’t going anywhere, the property tax isn’t that much on it – this may even be a fight that my kids have to fight when I’m gone.
I don’t know and I am blessedly at peace about not caring too.
4. The boys and I have been reading Faulkner’s classic, As I Lay Dying.
Granted, we haven’t been making great progress through it this summer, but we did pick it up again yesterday. It’s supposed to open sometime this fall. So I was thrilled to see this interview by James Franco about the book and his movie, and then the actual movie trailer!
5.When William Straw, a grocer, died suddenly in 1932, his grief-stricken widow and sons decided to leave their house exactly as he knew it. And it’s lovely!
6. The Lone Prairie Blog had a great post entitled, “The Undeniable Facts about the Safety of Diet Coke.” Love it! Here are some excerpts:
- I am going to die.
- You are going to die.
Along the same lines, my lovely niece wrote this on her facebook status last week:
Whenever diets tell you to cut carbs and alcohol, I’m like “Woah! I’m trying to lose weight- not my will to live.”
7.As Gabe was biking home one night this week, this little guy came running across the street right up to his bike! So cute, but we couldn’t keep him. Luckily Sam’s girl friend, who has a lot of experience with animals, took him in and gave him a home. 
And I admit to crying a little bit about it but… when did I become the mean parent that refuses to take in strays!? Probably when I remembered that in 2011 I paid more for veterinary bills than I did for my own health care needs!
