Elena 
soccer
1. I wanted to post all day yesterday but just never had the time. Yesterday we remembered the beheading of John the Baptist. I read somewhere that in parts of the world, they commemorate the day with a bon fire in the saint’s honor. I wish we could have done something like that here. Every year I wish that and we never seem to have the time or where-with-all to do that. Next year, I am investing in a fire pit – which I have wanted for a long time anyway. I think it will be fun.
2. I remembered that I had seen some amazing pictures of St. John the Baptist when I visited the
Cleveland Museum of Art – The Head of John the Baptist by Follower of Titian
I think what moves me about this painting is the look of acceptance and even peace in the saint’s face, even after such a gruesome martyrdom.
This painting below also features John the Baptist as an infant in his elderly mother’s arms, handing the forbidden fruit to his cousin Jesus, probably as a reminder of what is to come and why. The man in the background writing is St. Joseph, which is interesting since we don’t know of any writings of St. Joseph. But since he was a self-employed carpenter surely he wrote at least bills of sales and receipts and that sort of thing.
3. My axillary abscess is almost completely gone. Saw the doctor yesterday and she let me stop one of my antibiotics (yea!) and told me to keep working the drainage out of it. She then signed me up for a ton of blood work, a mammogram (we’ll see) and colonoscopy just to get a baseline up to date. So that all sounds like fun doesn’t it! She also did the most thorough breast exam I have ever had and made sure that knew how to do so myself – probably because of my mother’s history.
4. The result of having this abscess was that I did not get a lot of the chores done around the house that I wanted to do – which does not bode well for homeschooling to start as I would have liked next week – although I’m sure we will do something in some form just to at least get going! Unfortunately, just as I was in the middle of dealing with this abscess, Mr. Pete threw his back out and has been limping around all week. I think we have to make a pact that we will NOT both be sick at the same time because things just come to a grinding, uncomfortable halt.
Mr. Pete sitting down after two Aleve’s and an Icy/Hot Patch trying to sit through Rosie’s Cross Country Match last Sunday.
4. Son #2 is happily ensconced in his new bachelor pad with his girlfriend that I’m not supposed to know about – except for the fact that her stuff is everywhere in the apartment and everyone keeps making references to “they,” “them” and “their” instead of “he,” “him” and “his”. This is one that I am just going to have to let go and give it to God because my protestations don’t seem to bring the desired results.
5. Son #3 et al are moving tomorrow- sort of. We are helping Gabe’s girlfriend and her mother move from a very old apartment into a house and I understand there are several pieces of large furniture to move down several flights of stairs. I originally had all the brothers to help with this, but Noah has a race, Sam has to work and haven’t heard from Cal – so this could be a big mess.
6. Speaking of big messes – running a soccer league is like a slow descent into the outer layers of Dante’s inferno only with lots of people thanking you along the way (just before they complain about something else.)
7. I think we closed on our property sale yesterday! I think. Because I haven’t been notified by my realtor or the title company lady. But the day before that it seemed to be all good – I guess I’ll check later today and see if we did indeed finish the deal. Let me just say now that after selling my Mom’s property in Michigan and now my Dad’s in New Mexico – Michigan has it much more together and is definitely seller friendly! New Mexico remains the land of enchantment, in my opinion, because they just handle business on a “whole nother level.”
