Congenial conversation—what a pleasure! The right word at the right time—beautiful! ~ Proverbs 15:23 (MSG)
The breakfast conversations between my husband and me often sound like this.
ME, cheerful as always in the morning: “Do you want banana-pecan pancakes or your usual oatmeal?”
DAVID, laughing: “I take it a banana’s gone bad?”
ME, hiding the brown banana: “Maybe. I can throw it away or make you the pancakes—your choice.”
DAVID, making a snap decision: “Pancakes.”
ME, smiling sweetly: “Wise man.”
[THE PANCAKES ARE ON THE TABLE AND GRACE HAS BEEN SAID.]
ME, resting my chin in my hand: “Do you know how to bail someone out of jail?”
DAVID, looking at his stack of pancakes: “Does this have anything to do with my getting pancakes on a Tuesday?”
ME, befuddled: “What? No. Dee’s son Zach got arrested for drug possession. I don’t know how to post bail.”
DAVID, even more befuddled: “Why do you need to know? He’s Dee’s son.”
ME, sighing loudly: “Yeah, but I want to know how to do it first.”
DAVID, scrunching up his face: “What are you talking about?”
ME, holding my hands up to emphasize my point: “She doesn’t know how to begin to find out about bail. And she’s just not the type of person who’d leave her son in jail for any length of time.”
DAVID, taking a bite of pancake: “Okay …”
ME, narrowing my eyes at him: “What’s that supposed to mean? Would you leave one of our kids is jail?”
DAVID, thinking: “Depends on the charge—and the kid.”
ME, ignoring his wise remark: “Oh, and another thing, I’ve changed my mind on the white cabinets for the kitchen.”
DAVID, turning to look in the kitchen: “Our kitchen?”
ME, giving him a duh look: “Who else’s kitchen would I be talking about?”
DAVID, trying hard to get a grip: “Oh, I don’t know, maybe Dee’s.”
ME, waving his comment away like a pesky mosquito: “Anyway, I wanted all white, but now I decided maybe a light grayish-brown wood would look nice with the stainless steel appliances.”
DAVID, again looking in the kitchen: “What stainless steel appliances?”
ME, dreaming about how it will look: “The ones we’ll be getting with the new cabinets.”
DAVID, rolling his eyes: “And how do you plan to pay for all this?”
ME, rolling my eyes back at him: “I already told you. Out of my $7,000 a-week-for-life winnings from Publishers Clearing House.”
DAVID, nodding: “Good to know you’ve got a solid plan in place.”
ME, pushing my dream aside to get back to reality: “Now, about Zach. How do you think Sergeant O’Neil knew he had drugs in his car?”
DAVID, one eyebrow raised: “Who’s Sergeant O’Neil?”
ME, surprised he doesn’t remember: “She’s the cop who works with Kyle.”
DAVID, both eyebrows raised: “Who’s Kyle?”
ME, wondering what he was doing when he wasn’t listening to me: “You know, Charlie’s friend, Sarah’s husband? Remember, I told you about Sarah being Juliette’s best friend?”
DAVID, sighing loudly: “You did? Juliette? Sheesh, I can’t keep track of all the people you know.”
ME, crossing my arms: “They’re not people I know, silly, they’re people I’ve made up.”
DAVID, kneading his face with his hand: “Are any of the things you talk about real?”
ME, astonished he would even ask: “Duh, yeah. You’re eating pancakes, aren’t you?”
DAVID, poking the stack with his fork: “Am I? Then I think I’ve earned some sausage to go with them.”
ME, taking a long slow sip of my coffee: “I’ll get right on that. As soon as my new kitchen is in.”
And oh, my dear Timothy, guard the treasure you were given! Guard it with your life. Avoid the talk-show religion and the practiced confusion of the so-called experts. People caught up in a lot of talk can miss the whole point of faith.Overwhelming grace keep you! ~ 1Timothy 6:20-21 (MSG)
Whenever my husband David and I visit my father-in-law, we have to watch Jeopardy so that sweet man can count how many answers his Son-the-Genius gets right. The genius title has been disputed by David numerous times, but his proud father insists there’s an IQ test score floating around in history to prove it.
CLARICE, HOLDING UP HER HAND: 
Hands down, this year’s major to-be-thankful-for item is my husband David’s remission from cancer. His diagnosis of Acute Myeloid Leukemia early in January was a jumpstart to a year of extreme faith.
We didn’t fret or fear.We prayed and trusted God—not necessarily for David’s healing, but for God’s perfect will for our lives. We’re not naive. We know bad things happen to all people—whether they have faith in God or not. It’s hard to understand sometimes.
David still has a couple more months of a semi-quarantined lifestyle. He’ll start the re-immunization process after the first of the year. Until we see you again, we’ll continue to celebrate a remission accomplished!
I have a list of a thousand things–all good things–I want to do before I die. Sometimes I think I have to cram them all into one month.
Oh, the ego of it all! When I feel like I’m not able to give up some of my activities, writing or otherwise, because there is no one who can possibly replace me, that’s when I know I’m in trouble. OVERBLOWN EGO TROUBLE.