Monthly Archives: May 2003

Garage sale

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Yesterday was an incredibly busy day, as Michele helped to manage a garage sale at our house while I attended commencement as part of Taylor’s faculty in the a.m. and did some work in the garden in the p.m. The garage sale proceeds all go to MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). Michele is on the leadership team for the local group. The sale netted about $365, which was really good. Fortunately Taylor’s commencement was held outside in the stadium, rather than in the unairconditioned gym. It was a beautiful, although windy, day. I got a good sunburn on my face, sitting there for hours. Taylor graduated more people (over 400) this year than any other year in its 157 year history. The keynote speaker was Ravi Zacharias, one of my favorite Christian apologists. His son, Nathan, was graduating this year from Taylor. I was really pleased to get many things planted in the vegetable garden, including bush beans, two different kinds of tomato (Goliath and Beefeater), red and yellow pepper plants, and jalapeno and habanero peppers. I have cucumber plants to put in today or tomorrow, plus I hope to put in some corn and some other things. I also planted some nice hollyhocks on the side of the garden shed that faces the house. They should be really pretty when in bloom later this summer. Unfortunately, Brinley got pretty sick last night after being outside all day yesterday. We think she may have the croup, although we hope it isn’t something worse. Michele hardly got any sleep last night because she was listening to Brinley’s breathing, which was labored at times. We heard yesterday that my sister-in-law, Linda, was able to go home from the hospital, which is good news. She is very weak and is still experiencing some bleeding but otherwise is better. One other piece of good news is that someone who stopped at our garage sale took one of the four remaining kittens.

Feral kittens

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Well, our family has grown by four. I discovered that a feral cat had a litter of six kittens in our garden shed. As of this afternoon she was nowhere to be seen and two of the kittens had disappeared, so we made the difficult decision to take the remaining four inside and try to raise them. They are about three weeks old at most, and barely have their eyes open. One is all black, two are brown tabby in color, and one is black with white markings. Michele and I are both allergic to cats so are we insane, stupid…you name it? Go figure. Now we’ve got four kittens to feed every three to four hours. Gluttons for punishment, that’s what we are. We heard good news today about my sister-in-law, Linda. I spoke with her husband, my brother, Tim, this evening. He said she’s doing better. The baby is ok although located near the cervix rather than near the top of the womb as it should be. I saw a new bird at the bird feeders, a gray catbird. That was kind of exciting. I didn’t sleep much last night so am pretty tired and hoping tonight will be different.

Gardening projects

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I was feeling better yesterday so decided to tackled some gardening projects. It was a bit of a mistake as I feel worse today, but oh well. I finally got the area around the bushes in the front of our house cleaned up and tilled. I also tilled the perennial bed that has been in the works for umpteen months, although the ground was really too wet still. We went to Menard’s and Meijer’s last night to get a load of mulch as well as flats of impatiens and lobelia to plant in the front around the bushes. It should look really nice when we’re done. I love gardening and am happy to have been able to get some of it done even in spite of the wet weather. I only hope there will be a dry spell soon so that I can till the large ground in the far back of our yard where we want to plant vegetables. It makes me envious that others of our neighbors have already planted and their vegetables are sprouting. One of the tensions to having little children is that there isn’t a lot of time to do some of these things without overburdening Michele with caring for them, which she does most of the time. She is an outstanding mother. This a.m. by some miracle, all of the children are still in bed and it’s after 9a!!!! Hallelujah, long may it last ;-) Wait a minute, I rejoice too soon…I hear Tristan’s voice on the stairs…Sigh. I don’t think we’ll be going to church for yet another week because Tristan has been sick and my cold has devolved into a bad cough. I don’t want to miss any more work. This afternoon we need to make room in the garage for garage sale items that others are bringing over for next weekend’s garage sale.

Sick sister-in-law

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Word from my mother this a.m. is good in that my sister-in-law, Linda, is doing a bit better than last night, even though she is still in tremendous pain. She has a very low blood count and has had four units of blood. I’m feeling better than yesterday, when I basically slept most of the day. Tristan still has a fever this a.m. but it is lower than before. It’s a rather cloudy day outside — looks like it’s going to rain, again. Michele and I need to clean the garage because we’re hosting a garage sale next Saturday, for which the profits will be donated to MOPS. I’ll not be able to help next Saturday with the garage sale as that is graduation day for Taylor and I have to participate in the faculty march. Every morning I continue to enjoy watching the birds at the feeders. This morning I identified a new sparrow that I hadn’t known about, a song sparrow. It’s very common but I hadn’t identified it before. I’m waiting for the goldfinches to feed at the special feeder hanging from the overhang next to the patio door. I don’t think they’ve noticed that it’s full of thistle seed yet. I need to fill up the hummingbird feeder and hang it. Today is also the day when Keegan’s school has its annual carnival and Keegan really wants to go. We’ll see.

Teaching an online course

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Today is a sad and troubling day because Michele and I heard from my mom that my sister-in-law, Linda, is very sick again and hospitalized for intense pain in her stomach region. She spent two weeks in hospital about four months ago for similar pain and had an operation to clear up intestinal adhesions. Now we wonder if that really is the problem or not. She is in surgery as I write this and we are praying for her and my brother Tim, as well as their children. Fortunately Linda’s parents are over here from Great Britain and staying with them right now. I’m regressing into feeling worse again with this cold or whatever it is, and it looks like Tristan has come down with it, too, judging by his runny nose and general crabbiness. Today I accepted an offer to teach a course this fall as an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate School of Library and Information Science in their distance education curriculum, known as LEEP. It’ll be a great experience but it scares me to death as I’ve never done something like this before. Just the thought of developing a syllabus is awfully intimidating!

Kid news

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Last night I was able to get the lawn mowed after several days’ delay, which was a good feeling. Keegan had his first try at driving the lawnmower and had fun with that. He did a good job of mowing a couple of rows! He discovered a couple of small bird’s eggs which I’m sure came from the mourning dove nest in one of our trees. Unfortunately I think the high winds and stormy weather destroyed the nest completely because there is no sign of it anywhere. I have this a.m. off from work because I am planning to work the reference desk at the library tonight. I had hoped to rent a garden tiller to till our garden but there simply hasn’t been time, plus I only have the minivan and most tillers are too big to fit into the back of it. Looks like more rain is on the way [sigh]. Keegan’s year-end band concert is tonight and Michele and I are not certain how she will be able to go with both kids. I can’t go because I have to work, which I really regret. We both really want to go to see Keegan perform and do not want to disappoint him. He has improved a lot this past year in his ability to play the saxophone. He is also a very good reader now — a huge improvement over a few years ago. He read the third Harry Potter book from cover to cover in just a few days. Tristan was playing outside while Michele and Keegan were weeding some of the front garden beds alongside the driveway, when he hurt himself by trying to ride Keegan’s skateboard. He scraped his upper lip and nose pretty badly after it banged into his face. Brinley is starting to make concerted efforts to “go places” under her own steam. She just started this within the past week and she’s already progressing a lot. I think she’ll be crawling soon, and then nothing will be safe anymore!

Bird feeders

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Yesterday I mentioned that we had put in some more bird feeders. Already I’m having to chase away a squirrel who thinks he (or she) has found the mother lode of easy pickings ;-) I’m enjoying the variety of birds I’ve seen feeding at the birdfeeders thus far, including the following: red-winged blackbird, common starling, common grackle, cardinal, chipping sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, house sparrow, house finch, brown-headed cowbird, mourning dove, and goldfinch. In addition I’ve done an inventory of trees in our yard and have identified three thriving robin’s nests with chicks, as well as a mourning dove’s nest. Today has dawned bright and sunshiny which tends to lift one’s spirits after the stormy, gloomy weather of the past several days. Although Brinley was awake a lot during the night and got up for good around 6a, I’ve managed to get her to fall asleep in her high chair while Tristan sleeps soundly in our bed with Michele. That means that now is a very precious quiet time when I can enjoy drinking my coffee and watch the birds at the birdfeeder undisturbed. For work, I have to go this afternoon to yet another training session to learn about our new integrated library system. So much to do! So little time.

Starting (and stopping) a new diet

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I have been feeling unwell for a few days and woke up feeling a bit worse, so I stayed home for the day. Michele and I started, then stopped, a diet today. I think that’s the shortest time I’ve ever been on a diet! The weather here has been incredibly violent and stormy, with severe thunderstorms every night for the past four days, and some tornados in the area as well. Fortunately the high winds that started Saturday night have subsided, but it is still gray and cool out. We recently added some more bird feeders on the patio and I’m enjoying seeing lots of birds come. The small pond we have with a water fountain is especially attractive to birds. Life in general in the Oberg household remains, as always, total chaos. Tristan is very difficult to deal with right now, screaming a lot, being very sassy, and completely disregarding anything we tell him. On top of that, Keegan is acting already as if he’s a moody teenager at times. Brinley is getting more active and demanding more attention.