What's Been Happening

 I've been working on a new "serious" post.

 It's not going well. 

This is partially due to the fact that I had a "survival" week at the beginning of the month, and we've been picking up the pieces since then. A camping trip combined with a business trip, a flu like disease, a stomach bug, and a dear friend I don't get to see very often coming down to visit combined to make a very interesting week, but not one condusive to that thing I do to fill spare time. 

Until I get my act together, here's a quick rundown on how life's been going. 

1.) In Sickness and Health 

Mostly in sickness this past week. 

No idea if it was the 'rona or not, we were off school and work for the week so we didn't bother to check, but something ripped through the house. The only person not to get it was Little Boy. 

For me, it looked like a bad cold one day, a crippling fever and headache the next, a day of relative normalcy and then an out of left field stomach bug.

 Luckily I was the exception; pretty much everyone else just had a day of fever and some sniffles. I'm deeply thankful I'm the only one who had to deal with the stomach issues too (a momma with tummy issues is no fun, but a toddler with tummy issues is a circle of hell). 

2.) Camping 

Weirdly, this is the only picture I took the whole trip. 

We finally got the new (to us) RV broken in with a trip to the local lake. 

Why not the beach? 

Simple. 

Sand. 

While I wouldn't mind a trip to the beach in the future, the challenge of cleaning the sand out of every nook and cranny after a maiden voyage seemed like a lot to take on. 

That and the lake has stuff like trees and rocks and other stuff that isn't sand or water. The kids can go out of the RV and be far enough from danger to not need constant supervision. 

The new RV is much roomier than we're used to, and has things like a table and seating big enough for everyone to sit down at once, and a kitchen functional enough that we don't have to set up the camp stove outside. And, wonder of wonders, a small tub to bathe kids in instead of making the trek to the bath house. 

The kids had a blast exploring, riding their bikes, playing in the dirt, hitting stuff with sticks, and all the other outdoorsy stuff kids do. 

Unfortunately, the aforementioned crud chose that day to attack Chris. He spent the lion's share of the time curled up on the bed in the RV sleeping. I honestly think he got more rest there than he would have at home though, so I suppose it worked out (it's easier to keep loud kids entertained and out of the way in a nice big park rather than at home). 

Then he turned around and took a couple underclassmen to a statewide academic competition for three days. One of them took second place in his event. 

So I guess the RV has restorative powers as well. 

3.) Friends 

My friend from Wisconsin came down to spend time with me and another friend who lives in the area. Unfortunately the time she was able to spend down here overlapped with my turn to wrestle with the crud, but we still managed to take a day trip to San Antonio. 

We did the usual touristy stuff with the Alamo and riverwalk (and I made an ass of myself by saying David Bowie instead of James Bowie...I caught the mistake, but I'm still embarrassed. What kind of Texan am I?). The highlight was stopping by a random antique/junk store that had an army shirt with "PRESLEY" on the nameplate proudly displayed and an unusually large collection of Democratic campaign buttons- two or three of which  featured Bill Clinton's cat, Socks. 

We then drove back to Corpus, watched a silly (but fun) rom com and ate takeout Mexican food.

4.) YouTube Movies

YouTube has apparently figured out that they can make more money playing certain movies for free and gathering ad revenue than they can make offering those movies for rent. 

A lot of them are duds no one's ever heard of, but there are a couple classics in there. 

I just finished watching Lilies of the Field on there. Loved it. The lead actor got an Oscar for it and he earned it. A sweet, but surprisingly real, story about a traveling handyman helping a group of German nuns in the middle of the desert to build a chapel. (Sydney Poitier, and apparently I butcher that last name when I try to pronounce it. 

Sorry again, Sara). 

They also have O Brother Where Art Thou? which I have wanted to see for years but never got around to. That'll be next on the lineup. 

5.) Confession

I got myself in the door for confession for the first time this year. Or, rather, a friend of mine roped me into agreeing to go to confession with her. 

It was in a strange church I'd never been in before. You could tell it was a newer parish, or at least a newly large parish; new enough that they're still having mass in the hall and haven't built a proper Church yet. Of course, "newer" is at least fifteen years old-- these things take a long time. 

It was actually to a priest I haven't seen since I was fifteen. He used to teach Scriptural theology at my high school. He didn't seem to recognize my voice from behind the screen, which I was just fine with. 

Going to confession isn't a particularly pleasant experience for me. I suppose it isn't for most people, but a particularly bad experience has left me with pretty much zero desire to go for a few years now. I treat it like those rope course things they take Christian teens to as a team building exercise or faith building metaphor or...something, where you have to put on a harness and jump off a tall platform or go down a Zipline or something. Grit your teeth, jump, and then deal with it once you're in the thick of it and you don't have a choice anyway. 

Thankfully I didn't have to deal with too much advice. I hate advice in confession. It's rarely any sort of help, it tends to make certain assumptions that don't apply, and sometimes it's even harmful (though I blame living with a mental disorder for that-- it's hard to know what to do with an OCD brain). Just let me list my sins and give me absolution please. That's the only part that actually matters, and the only reason I put myself through it anyway. 

I suppose it's just as well Padre Pio isn't still around. We wouldn't have been a good fit. I'd be part of a pilgrimage group going to Italy, everyone else would be waiting in line for four hours to get some saint advice and I'd flag down the first guy with a collar I saw, get confession over with as quickly as possible, then go drink a cappuccino or climb a mountain or something. 

6.) Mending. 

I started a new mending project. 

A pair of Chris's jeans has gotten really threadbare and started getting holes in it in the upper thigh/knee area. 

I'm mending it by putting a piece of scrap denim on the inside of the worn area and basically quilting it by doing a running stitch back and forth with embroidery floss.

 I tend to go for the "functional embellished" look rather than the "you can't even tell it's there" with most projects. It helps cover up that I'm not that good a seamstress.  

The result is a stripey embroidered looking area and a much thicker area of fabric right at the worn place. Hopefully that'll help the jeans last awhile longer. The other leg is getting worn as well; I'm thinking I might try a zig zag pattern on that one. 

And that's what I've been up to. Hopefully I'll have something meatier to share soon.