Aaron update, Mama, Trace

After having spent his time in isolation, Aaron is possibly returning home today. He had to endure only five days in his room, but that was enough for him to miss the entirety of the class he traveled to take. He will need to reschedule that class in the future. As for his travel home, that all depends on the flight he is booked on. Whether or not the flight will actually take off this evening is the million-dollar question. With the amazing number of flights being cancelled recently, it is up in the air – no pun intended – as to whether or not his will actually take off as scheduled. He is now asymptomatic and should have no issue health wise. It is only a question of whether a flight will be available. He is anxious to get home and Maggie and the kids are anxious to have him home.

Mama got to her destination easily and had a lot of fun with the ladies that were in attendance for the conference last night. They played some type of game of chance with their two-sies as the chance items to be gained or lost. Mama really enjoyed the game and may use it for a live party. She is fairly idle through the day today with events happening largely in the evening, but there is plenty of company to enjoy until this evening. I am happy she elected to go. It is always an encouragement to be around like-minded people. It is a benefit for Mama to get their ideas, their contact strategies, and their marketing or recruiting ideas. How she applies that information once back on her own will be up to her, but she has been putting into practice many of the ideas that have been shared with her lately - with noticeable results.

Mama took with her some gifts for her upline and some crafts she has recently made to be given out as she determines through the weekend. She had some cute items in her basket. Most were small and a large portion were wood burned crafts. Encouraging sayings, funny expressions and clever puns adorned many of the plaques. She is getting quite creative with her crafting. Mostly, her creations are simple, homey, and tasteful but she has done some elaborate little placards as well. One specific gift was for a Canadian friend whose last name is Hello. Mama found a wooden cutout of that word and did a makeover of the cutout to be given specifically to her new friend. It is fun to see her achieving a balance between Color Street – where I am encouraging her to focus – and her craft enterprise. Between the two, she is filling her days productively even as the house bulges with the materials for making her craft items.

We are on our third vacuum cleaner is as many weeks with the arrival yesterday of the newest purchase. It is still not the one I was looking for, but Mama and Victoria seem well pleased with this model, so we will probably keep it for a while. One of our errant purchases has been returned and the second will be returned early next week so I have not lost money on the experiment. It is just a bit frustrating to me to repeat the purchasing and returning cycle. Fortunately, Mama and Victoria are not as bother by making the required returns. I think Mama sees it as earning the money back, but in most cases, it is a break-even proposition for me because the reimbursement is generally spent right away on something else. More often that not, something more expensive than the amount received in the refund.

As for Trace, he will have the rental house completely emptied by Saturday evening. It has been a huge task to sort through a houseful of items and decide what warranted keeping and what needed to be junked. He has made three trips to the local dump to empty a trailer load of discarded items in each trip. His car is being repaired after being towed to a shop late Wednesday night. That part of the upset in his life will be completed soon. A renewed focus on the future will take the forefront of his attention as he moves past what has been an enormous challenge in getting the rental house ready for surrender to the landlord in a clean, vacant state. If you could have seen the condition of the property before he stared, you would be as impressed as I am with the amount of work he has put into this chore.

For the weekend, I will be stabbing a frost-proof spigot into the wellhouse at the house. The yard hydrant we have been using at that location is leaking so badly at the faucet packing that I am loathe to use it and we will need access to water in a big way in the coming months as we plant and tend to our garden. That single chore will take several hours, and I will make repairs to the well tank in the process. Assuming I am successful, I will dig up and remove the hydrant in the Spring. Other than that, normal cores will occupy most of my time.

We love living on our little constantly-in-need-of-attention farm.