Reading Is My Super Power

1004 West 11th Street

Do you remember memorizing your phone number and address when you were in first grade? Well, I can't remember my phone number from that time, but I do remember our address. We lived in this house about 6 years. I remember my mother liking the house, but not liking living in town. She grew up on a farm in northern Minnesota. She had loved our house in Arcadia on the dirt/gravel road.

I probably picked up on her feelings about living in town, and I, too, missed having all of my animals and the freedom from neighborhood mean boys. We had a ton of mean boys on our street. And the girls weren't much better. In fact while living on this street: my brand new bicycle was stolen, my birthstone ring my grandmother gave to me was stolen (knew who did it, couldn't prove it,) my brother was hit in the head with a hammer (yeah, true story--he lived and recovered, amazingly,) I stepped on a sharp bone that went clear through my foot and got blood poisoning,a drunk neighbor man tried to scare and hurt us while we played in the yard (my dad went down to talk to him--let's just say he never bothered us again, but boy, was I scared!), fights occurred frequently, people screamed and hit each other, my dog was sent to exile, a man tried to get into our car (mom locked the doors with automatic locks and tromped on the gas,)and we and this house survived the Palm Sunday tornado, but some of our neighbors and their homes did not.

I want to remember something good about this place. It was such a nice house, with a big, fenced in yard. We were nice kids, with a nice mom and had a grape arbor, apple trees, peach trees, a cherry tree, a vegetable garden and a good stand of rhubarb. Mom made all kinds of treats from all of our bounty--even grape juice and grape jelly. We had our very own swingset and played on it daily. We had adventures in the yard and wore our dad's army uniforms.

I had my own room. We got to have an inside dog (a short-haired chihuahua named PeeWee.) I do remember that we lived within minutes from our pediatrician because it is what saved my brother's life. He was stung by a bumblebee and swelled so fast, that by the time mom got us into the car and into the waiting room of the doctor, he had stopped breathing--but the doc had the instant cure and he soon was pinked up and no longer turning blue! Now, that's a gift of Providence to have lived close enough.

But it just wasn't a place where we liked living. I've never liked living in town. Just a country girl, I guess. I used to want to go back to our old house, or better yet, move to Tennessee, I would ache (and sometimes cry.) I guess it is true that home is where your heart is. If we knew how wonderful our heavenly home really is, I think we would feel that way about heaven, too.


1000 GIFTS continued....
29. sinus pills and ibuprofen--OTCs that work!
30. boys home and content
31. cold water right from the tap
32. hymns
33. Sunday newspapers and color comics
34. football!
35. "da" Bears!
36. memories
37. memories not as painful as when they happened (fading or disappearing pain--a gift)
38. lots of trees
39. singing birds
40. scampering squirrels
41. mooing cows
42. the babble of the creek going over stones and logs
43. internet that works and brings friends to my email box
44. crushed ice
45. raspberry peach iced tea
46. homemade biscuits!
47. fried chicken
48. my humorous husband
49. laughing
50. teen boys who still kiss me goodnight
51. ironing (the only chore I actually like--I get to think while accomplishing a task)
52. Amazon Shorts!
53. books that come right to my door
54. choices of books
55. a comfy bed with down comforter on a cold night
56. Sharing humor in the Bible with my boys

What gifts can you count today?