more normal than not

Help me to not be ungrateful.

That’s a good prayer to pray in a gravel driveway, out by the porta potty that we’ve rented to take some of the discomfort out of a messed up septic system.

I called the insurance company this afternoon, and in spite of what I was told earlier, the repair to the system won’t be covered, even in part, by our homeowner’s policy.

So….it’s a freak-out.

Now, this whole “not be ungrateful” could be rephrased as “help me to be grateful”.

That’s an easier way to say it.

But….I think that praying to not be ungrateful hits the mark a little better than the other way of saying it.

Ungratefulness is an active thing.

Ungratefulness is more damaging, somehow.

Nobody here is hurt or ill.

We’re dry at night and have good food to eat.

We have friends who can help us fix this issue.

There isn’t a reason in our world to be ungrateful.

I have a lot of strong reasons to accept that I really do live in a state of grace.

That’s why I find myself standing in our gravel driveway, eyes closed, praying to recognize that I need to guard my heart against a temporary loss of focus.

I need to pray not to be ungrateful

This is the breed we’ve chosen to be our family dog.

We don’t have any sheep….we don’t have any chickens….we don’t have any goats.

He’ll have to guard children for a while.

The Great Pyrenees is an amazing breed….and this puppy is already a smart and good little friend.

It’s strange to have a young dog in our lives again….but I think that we’ve chosen a good one.

A member of the family….who saw that one coming when I saw the four puppies and all those goats in a field out on my mail route?

We rented our first porta potty today.

We didn’t do it just so that I could cross an item off my bucket list.

We did it because the leach field has failed and the tank is filling up and we desperately need an alternative to the pooh water being somewhere where the puppy can lick it.

That’s it….in a nutshell.

Surprisingly, it’s not that expensive to rent a porta potty.

It would be cheaper to rent it for a year than it would be to repair the septic system.

Hmmmmmmm……

Nah. It’s kind of unpleasant to go out in the rain and use the portable outhouse.

But…..it’s a lot less unpleasant to use the porta potty than it is to dig a cat hole in the woods.

That being said….I’m excited about having a pleasant place to….evacuate.

We found, too, that if you pay a little bit extra, you can experience what these good folks are experiencing in the video.

I hope that they don’t wake up the neighborhood when I have to go in the middle of the night.

I think that it’s money well spent, though.

The kids will never forget how entertaining it was to have a porta potty in the driveway.

,k mjcdxsza

Remember these dudes….out in the fields…planting.

That’s where our potatoes come from.

Not just mysteriously appearing at the store for us to buy.

There’s a big back story to the things we eat.

Unless you’re growing it all in your garden, there’s always a big back story.

Remember the farmer……

I cleaned up the mail Jeep yesterday, mostly just to make me feel better about using it all the time.

Funny how a veneer of cleanliness colors my viewpoint about the situation.

Of course, I could leave it dirty and it would be fine.

I’m an emissary for the United States Government, but no one said that I had to be clean.

Sometimes, it feels like the dirt is all that holds some of these vehicles together.

We took the new puppy up close to the ridge trail, and it seemed to enjoy being in its element.

The big woods is a lot more appealing than a relatively small side yard.

Raining here this morning after a hot and dry day yesterday.

Good weather for taking it easy.

PS….kidding about the condition of the Jeep….it didn’t snow….and the Jeep wasn’t quite that dirty. But….it might have been. Anyway, it’s a lot cleaner for the moment.