My Hero

There are some verbal non-negotiable points that a marriage brings with it - young couples, deeply in love, begin to make promises for a lifetime before the day of marriage. "I will always let you read the morning paper in quiet." "I will never interrupt your phone calls." "I will have supper waiting for you when you get home from work." And then marriage happens, and kids happen, and things don't necessarily go as planned. But something that my husband does to consistently serve me is taking care of the driveway in the winter and the lawn in the summer. Shoveling may not seem like a big deal to some of you - but it is a gift to me. It's not because I can't - I spent 20 years helping my mom and sisters dig out our Michigan driveway. It's not because I won't, because there have been a few times that I pick up a shovel and find a measure of satisfaction with a task that shows immediate results. It is because I just don't want to. When I see snow I generally start reviewing all the things I have that will allow me to hole-up for as long as possible. Soy milk. Milk. Juice. Ramen. Pasta. Ground beef. Popcorn. Shoot, we can live for a week before we need anything! But Matt diligently serves us by clearing and clearing and shoveling and clearing for as long as necessary. Yesterday we received over 14" of snow from sun up until sun down. It was beautiful! (Now, this looks a little like Buffalo!) And Matt shoveled and shoveled. What a great looking driveway! Honey, thank you for working so hard to keep our home looking great in the summer and accessible in the winter.

The kids are well, except for a few runny noses and hacking coughs. This morning Levi has developed an ominous faint, tight squeak at the end of his cough, which may mean a fifth round of oral steroids on top of his twice a day inhaled steroids and Singulair. For a little guy, he's got bad lungs. We'll be headed to the pulmonologist next week to begin a long and beautiful relationship, I'm sure.

Tonight I'll be starting a working relationship with Centegra NIMC about 20 miles from my house. I still plan to work primarily at Loyola in the city (100 miles round trip), but a back-up hospital that's only a few towns over is a good idea.

Next week my mom is going to Liberia for about two weeks. This will be her first BIG trip ever. She's going with a medical missions group... we're so excited for her! My dad and sister, Stef, will be home, maintaining homeostasis, with Kat and I in the wings if necessary.


Here's to a great Thursday!