Quote for the Day 7/14/2008

Grant, on the phone, calling home: Are you up and around?

Me: Yes. (Why did he ask? It was 3:00 p. m. Oh yeah. Sometimes I take a nap.)

Grant: Would you get one of those Pepsi's in the fridge and put it in the freezer?

Me: Whatever for?

Grant: So it's nice and slushy when I get home.

When I visualized what I might do on my Sabbatical, I never thought to put on my list Put Pepsi in freezer so it gets nice and slushy for Grant. I didn't even know we had Pepsi in the fridge. But, since I'm a pushover in some ways, I found it (after first grabbing a Coke by mistake--didn't know that was there either) and put it in the freezer, thereby adding credence to the maxim: Work always expands to fill the available time.

Further evidences:
1. I Frenched the green beans when I cleaned and prepared them for supper. (Usually snapping them is good enough. I also stir-fried them with fresh ginger and soy sauce--wonderful with toasted sesame seeds over it all.)
2. I not only did all Shane's laundry last week, I dried and hung up a big batch of Joel's good clothes today. (They usually do their own laundry.)
3. I dead-headed the Cannas, Moonflowers and Geraniums in front of the house.
4. I took my Felco pruners and snipped off at the base some of the most obnoxious and overgrown weeds lurking among the flowers south of the house. (Usually Grant reaches his weed tolerance limit before I reach mine, and "fells" them.)
5. I mailed a personal letter I had written on Saturday. (Usually emails is as ambitious as I get.)
6. I cleaned out the broom closet on Friday, and Marian helped me clean the pantry and two cupboards.
7. I watered the houseplants. (I'm way more hit or miss here at home with watering plants than I ever let the students be at school when my plants lived there.)
8. Online, I researched Fragile X, a genetic condition I read about for the first time in the July 7 Time magazine.
9. I spent at least 45 minutes on an editing project for Hiromi. I promised him 15 minutes a day several weeks ago, and usually it's a struggle to do even that.
10. I checked out the Miller directory for the recent reunion and learned that in this group of people, there are at least 15 doctors or nurses, 15 current or career teachers or school administrators, 16 homeschool moms, at least 11 pastors, missionaries, church planters, or Bible translators (in addition to at least 5 entire families on the mission field), 5 software or systems developers or administrators, 5 travel agents, 15 in some type of agriculture, several in finance or insurance, several in real estate investment and development, about 14 in construction, 2 counselors, and one of each of the following: nursing home administrator, copy editor, social worker, child therapist, attorney, architect, watch maker, restaurant owner, aquatic biologist, commodities broker, logger, musician, and plumber. There were also many homemakers and students, and I'm sure I missed some others.
I'll blame this last project partly on Aunt Fannie, who said out loud at the reunion that she wonders how many in this group are in the medical field. Among her children, there is a pediatrician, a nurse-midwife, and an RN who performs kidney dialysis and trains people to use home units. She could hardly be blamed if she thought there were probably more in this field than any other. But I thought to myself that there are probably as many in education as in medicine, and now I've proved it as well as is possible with a cursory assessment. Agriculture and construction have similar numbers.
Among my siblings and their spouses, quite a few are or have been teachers, and many are homeschool parents, but only two are or have been nurses. My father was also a certified teacher at one time. But because they are not currently employed as teachers, I did not include most of my family in the teacher count--only Caleb and myself, and I barely count.

So now you know. If you ask me what I'm doing on my Sabbatical, I probably won't know what to say. But time is not hanging heavy on my hands, and sometimes I am even able to use it productively and pleasurably. I'm not sure where banal posts like this one fit in. Not in the productive category, I'm afraid, but probably as productive as putting Pepsi into the freezer for Grant.