People Are Annoying

God love em, people are annoying.  It has recently occurred to me that the old saying, "God doesn't give what you want but what you need" applies to people as well.  

I have always wondered why my babies were up through the night and others weren't, why my husband never changed a nappy and others did (okay, he'd argue that he changed a few), why my sister died at 17 yrs of age and my parents divorced when I was only 12, why my other sister and I don't even talk anymore, why other families seem so much happier etc. etc. etc.  I think everyone wonders these things though their circumstances are different.  I have learned something for each of these people and from each situation and these things have made me into the person I am today.

Lately I have been wondering why I can't seem to like the one guy down the dock who is friendly enough but just full of himself in my opinion.  He has an overbearing personality, is abrupt and openly tells my kids to disobey me - the latest was to shoot seagulls with their paintball guns after I had told him they are not allowed.

It hit me then that I am just supposed to learn from everyone!  God deliberately puts these people in our lives for us to learn to love.  I mean learn to love because sometimes, lets face it, it is work!  Some people are really hard to even like let alone love.   I  have a lot of trouble not judging others.  Sure I don't gossip about them but my heart is filled with contempt towards some people sometimes and it ain't pretty.  Regular confession is helping me greatly. God is working on me and teaching me so much.  Like, what right do I have really.  I am a very annoying person myself I am sure to some people - though I can't imagine who. I try not to offend but probably have more times than I know about.  How do we love them or begin to even like them?  I think the answer is praying for them.  When we pray for them, or at least in my experience, we begin to see them as Christ does, as a beautiful person made in God's image.  Oh it isn't a one off prayer but sometimes many prayers before we start to feel anything for a person we have trouble liking.

Mother Theresa said once that we cannot help or love all of the people in the world, only the one's God puts in our path.

I have nothing really to offer a reader on the internet from my own musings but I can share what I don't know which is an awful lot!

Too hot for school and kittens are evil!

Wow, it is too hot! We have spent this week muddling through as much work as we can for school but mostly we just lay about and read books in this heat.

Aaron is still stuggling through with his times tables and Abi is rebelling against her Church books this week. All the more reason she needs it in my opinion.

On top of the usual spelling and boatschool that we do we have been taking care of Justin who has cat scratch fever. It is more than just a song. It is an awful bacterial illness. Most people have a bit of a headache and low fever with it for a few days and then swollen lymph nodes for a few months. It would seem that Justin is not "most" people. He is the 1-5% that have a severe reaction. He got some antibiotics from the doctor which are helping finally but is still full of fever and ache. Thankfully his fever broke after more than a week. I was so worried as he was often spiking up to the 104 mark and higher. Now he is back down to around 100 on average, keeping it below 103 with Tylenol. He is an awful patient. Not nearly as compliant as the kids. Bless him, he feels rotten. I have never seen him look so poorly. His lymph nodes in his right armpit and rt inner elbow (it was his right hand that was bitten by a kitten) are extremely swollen and sore. It didn't help when the nurse put a blood pressure cuff on that arm and squeezed it. He also has an inner ear infection which is completely unrelated that we are supposed to be putting antibiotic drops in 3 to 4 times a day. Well, we did that once. He swears I put too much in and now can't face it again.

I think he is on the mend but apparently it will be 4 to 6 months before his lymph nodes are back to normal. Poor man. The kids were quite sweet helping with fresh cold cloths for Daddy when his fever was so high.

I am supposed to be confirmed in the Church end of October. I am really excited about it. The process of becoming Catholic has been really great. You don't just "join up" - they have a Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) that is quite involved. There's much delving into the scripture and much discussion. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. There are many things that I was completely wrong about regarding Catholic beliefs. I had no idea that most of my beliefs were Catholic, so for me it really sort of a coming home. We have met some wonderful new friends at the church and it certainly makes living here much nicer! Typical as we are nearly ready to go.

We got the corian countertops we ordered for Yebo today. They are blueish. Looking forward to moving aboard soon!