There's nothing wrong

...but I feel lonely and a little down. Today feels like an empty nest day, one of those days for which I started this blog. The gray weather doesn't help. Actually, I am alone today--the kids are all in their respective places, and G. is also gone on a 9-day trip. My house guest left a few hours ago, so it is just me and the cat. Lots of times I actually like being alone because then I have no responsibilities to keep anyone else happy, and I can use my time as I like. But sometimes if no one is around I lose my focus: I can't decide what to do, I know I should do certain things but I don't feel like it, etc. For instance, I should go shopping, but the thought of doing that repels me, so I decide I can wait another day. I am doing the laundry and getting winter clothes out of storage.

Maybe it is because I just talked to my mom and she can't come for Christmas, Andrew can't come for Christmas, David says he might not come for Christmas. I'm thinking we might just skip Christmas this year. I read a book by that title a couple years ago, and it was actually a good book. I hear then made it into a movie, I wonder if it is any good?

Yeah, it is one of those days where I can't even find any topics on my favorite online forum that I feel like commenting on. It might be one of those days where I eat popcorn and drink diet coke all day long. Why cook if there's no one here to eat it?

No, there's nothing wrong, I just feel a little down. A friend did give me a science fiction book a couple days ago called Ender's Game. I've started it and it is good, so maybe I'll go read. Unfortunately, reading lightweight books in the middle of the day makes me feel guilty for wasting my time--that's pretty stupid, huh? Earlier today I started teaching myself about Powerpoint, but had to stop because I knew I would end up doing Rachel's homework for her if I kept it up, and that's not good.

No, there's nothing wrong...and that's good.

Update

I can't think of a clever title, nor do I have anything earth shattering to post.

We are proud of D. who has gotten his first invitation to interview for medical school, at Baylor in Houston. And he also got a second invitation to interview for the accompanying Ph.D. program. He's bought his ticket to fly to Houston and will stop by Dallas for less than one day to visit us on his way back home. Speaking of D., he had a little cyst or something surgically removed from near his eye socket last Monday. He had to drive himself to the hospital and back, mommy wasn't there to take him. :-( He was grouchy and groggy after the surgery (done with local anesthetic), but next day he was back to his cheerful self. :-)

R. is in the midst of probably the hardest part of the semester, with a huge project due tomorrow, a draft of a 20-page paper due next Tuesday, and her big standardized test the Saturday after that. But, this time she seems to be handling the stress pretty well, and we are proud of her persistence to keep going. I continue to ask God to help her, and seek my friends to pray for her also.

News from Ethiopia seems good too. A. got his official Ethiopia drivers license, and now he just has to get something to drive. He is off on a trip south tomorrow to Awassa where he hopes to secure the permissions needed to start one of his projects. He got some official papers in the mail recently, one signed by Colin Powell, that he needs for some reason or another. He's learning about paperwork in the third world.

G. is off tomorrow for nine days. We leave for DFW at 4:30am--ugh. First he goes to Fresno, then to Phoenix. This is a business trip, but we have a supporter in Fresno whom he will also see, and his parents live in Sun City, near Phoenix, so he'll see them too.

A stack of Bibles

No, I didn't swear on them. (I did wonder if one could swear on a stack of Bibles written in foreign languages.) Today there was a stack of four Bibles on my boss's desk. These were Bibles published sometime during the past six months.

• A medium-sized one with a hardback green cover. It was a diglot New Testament translation in Limos Kalinga and Ilokano from the Philippines. Population = 20,000


• A big black one with a plastic cover and red edges. This one was a full Bible in a language of Mexico called Nahuatl de la Huasteca Occidental. Population = 400,000


• A black one in an exotic script, non-roman. This one is a whole Bible in the Northern Khmer language of Thailand. Population = 1,000,000


• A small black compact book with gilt edges and thumbcuts to mark the different books. I recognized the word "Allah" on the cover. This is a diglot New Testament in the Abun and Bahasa Indonesia languages of Indonesia. Population = 3,000

1,423,000 more people have scriptures in their mother tongue.