Blogging lately has fallen low on my list.  Much of that has had to do with a load of changes over the past couple months.

So consider this a quick catch-up, I-should-have-posted-this-before post.

The end of July saw us sell off the first home we’d ever owned to buy another.  The whole thing happened quickly, and I don’t likely need to explain the work involved in packing up a whole house and moving it to any of you.

The new house is bigger and newer, though neither of those were why we bought it.  We are using the new house to run an approved mental health home.  Translation: We have four adults who live with us.  We monitor their medications, supply food and meals for them, and aim to create a healthy and stable home for them to be a part of.  So beyond the normal disorder of moving in and settling a new place, this responsibility has been in the mix since day one.  All in all, it’s gone VERY well; it’s just added one more major change to the pile.  All of this (selling a house we loved, buying more house than we needed, and taking on the approved home) sprung from our desire to have a parent at home when we had kids “in the future”.

As was posted some time back, “the future” has arrived.  We are within two weeks of our due date, so the changes are about to continue!

For good friends of ours, this post is likely all old news.  But I’m told blogs are at least partially for updating people on your life–particularly if you’re not part of the Facebook cult–so consider this my way-overdue update.

A man can always learn something new.

Let me save you some trouble by sharing a few recent lessons:

• Chrysanthemums are winning flowers.  When you decide that your wife needs a visible reminder that you’re a great husband, these little beauties do the trick.  The bonus: They last a long time.  Translation: That visible reminder that you’re a great spouse … it stays for a while.  You following?
• If you’re ever shopping at a large market in Bangkok, factor in the monsoon-type sweating.  Those jeans that fit you just perfectly… you’ll be putting them on a different body when you return to Canada.  Just saying…
• If you really want to know your community, ride your bike.  You’ll notice things you never noticed before–things like yard and house details.  You’ll also know quickly which streets have invisible inclines and just how windy it REALLY is out there.
• If you leave a piece of wooden furniture outside through a Canadian winter, you CAN demolish it with your bare hands the following summer–makes you feel mighty!
  
• If you want to break open a pinata but you wish to slow down the process, using chopsticks in place of a big stick definitely achieves the goal.  Who’d have thunk?!
  

Class dismissed.

I just finished mowing my lawn.

While I was in the front yard, two ladies visited the neighbours.  When they turned towards my driveway, I knew they were our friendly neigbourhood JW’s.  (If you don’t have any of these, you should move to a new place.)

They asked for my wife, who they normally chat with.  Upon learning that she was gone, they settled for me.

The latest literature was put in my hand, and I listened politely.

After our visit, they asked what I do for a living.  I’d say they were visibly surprised to hear that I worked for a church.  With a different tone of voice than earlier in our conversation, the older one asked, “Are you the secretary?”

“Not in the strictest sense.”

I hope they come back.