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slipping in here for a linkup with Chatting at the Sky.  Monday i will return with ‘An Unexpected Journey’ as promised.

Here are 11 things i learned this summer:

  railroad

1.  This 190something train depot will be moved to another town to serve as a gift shop for their railway museum.  Apparently the current railway company planned to tear it down, but someone in the know found this other solution.  i am sad.  this is one block from our house and i happen to like the building.  now all we will have at this intersection will be train tracks and fields of gophers and goat-heads.

2. After 15 years out of the workforce, creating a resume, introduction letter, and appearing for an interview would be a process worth going through.  not getting the job will be a nice souvenir.

3. just ten years ago taking your phone with you to dinner was not so common.

4. taking my getsalongwithallthepeopleandnoneofthedogs Saint Bernard camping and to a baseball tournament would prove good for everyone.  She got more practice with being out and about and i got better at the whole anxiety thing (she did attack a little dog once and it cost thousands of dollars to save little dog’s life so i’d been avoiding public places with her)

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5. there was a scandal over cheating and test scores in Georgia.  i find all of the information fascinating and am still taking in the tragedy these tests are subjecting our kids and teachers with.

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6. in South Dakota there is this tower that looks like a castle and it is only a 3 mile hike to get there and totally worth it even if you happen to be sick at the time.

7. there is a Dairy Queen nicely placed next to an elementary school (playground!) near a transmission shop somewhere in Grand Junction, CO.  Howard the tow-truck driver will know this, but what he doesn’t know is that it will be just the mercy and therapy we all need and i will be strengthened for what is ahead and overcome with gratitude.

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8. stressful travels will all be worth it when you see your boys in their ‘discovered’ fort near grandma’s house and hear one declare to his cousin; “this is way better than screen time!”

9. the nester finds feathers.

10. i don’t have to have previous knowledge about numbers 6-8-God will show them to me moment by moment, showing Himself to me in the moment by moments.  i find feathers too….just in a different form.  this summer i learned how to find the feathers.

11. making a deal with my son that he could earn 5 minutes of screen time for every 10 minutes of reading a book that is not Calvin and Hobbes would lead to this every. single. morning.  Note his cup of tea.  he would thoughtfully fix me a cup too and place it next to my bed.  unfortunately, by the time i awoke it would be cold because he was waking at 6 (!) and i …..wasn’t.   i will miss this summer morning routine.

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