Ordinary Time

I posted on my Facebook wall that we had breakfast in Amsterdam, lunch in Brussels, and dinner in London. It sounds terribly world-traveler-ish, doesn't it? In terms of mileage, it is the equivalent of having driven from our house to the IL-IA border (our drive from Amsterdam to Brussels) and then taking a train from the border to Omaha (the train ride from Brussels to London). The European trip just crosses more international borders and bodies of water. It turns out that it was a very good thing we rented the car. For a brief moment yesterday, it seemed that the Amsterdam-Brussels train would go, though significantly delayed. This wouldn't have helped us as we would have missed our London train. Upon arrival to Brussels, we heard ticket agents repeat over and over that no trains were arriving from or departing to Amsterdam, so it looks as though the train didn't go after all. We are now in our hotel across from Heathrow Airport so we can catch our early flight home to...

The 2018-2019 Class Afloat year has ended with their commencement ceremony. We have been so impressed with the whole program. P. had an amazing, life changing experience, and is very sad for it to have co.e to an end. If we were wealthy, J. and I both agree we would pay for her to do the fall semester later this year. Alas, we are not. Here is a photo of the entire group... floated (what the students are called), teachers, and maritime crew. P. is on the right kind of hidden by the very right hand motarboard. (The reason some are in graduation gowns is that the program offers both high school and college classes. These students completed 12th grade on board.) I'm still typing on my phone, which is frustrating because I have so much tonshare and say. Brace yourselves for when I get workable internet.

So last I wrote on Monday night, I was feeling under the weather and didn't get a lot done that day. Had I only known what was in store. Yesterday, I was laid low. From pretty much 2pm onward, I was in bed with fever, chills, and the most excruciating headache. I can tell you, Monday looked darn productive in comparison. It was misery. I had a better night last night and work up this morning feeling better. Better, but I had no energy today. I wold walk across the room and do one thing and think, "Hmm... I think I need to sit down for a while." Needless to say, this was not a terribly productive day, either. But am I panicking? No, not yet. Even in all the misery, some things did get accomplished. The biggest item on the list I managed to do this afternoon. Make a list of menus and a grocery list for the next two weeks. It's a long list. I'm a little afraid to see what the total is at the store tomorrow. But, once done, the people at home should be all set. M....

I got to message back with forth with P. today because they had a surprise port in Kiel, Germany. The ship had just gone through the Kiel Canal which links the North Sea with the Baltic Sea. (I had to look it up. I had never heard of it nor was I entirely sure where it was. Following P.'s voyage has been good for my geography.) It's always nice to be able to chat with P., and more and more we talk about horses together. She really misses horses and riding and there aren't really any horse types on the ship. Since I am currently taking her riding lessons spot, she is familiar with the barn and horses and people. It makes it easy to discuss things since no explanation is needed. Yesterday, the trainer I'm working with right now strongly suggested I enter the next schooling show, doing both over (low) fences and on the flat. I was non-committal, both because of my own trepidation and because the show is the day before we leave for London. If I haven't mentioned it,...

I've started a few new projects today, even though I still have a few projects kicking around waiting to be finished. Sometimes you just need to start something new. Plus, my quilting class was cancelled this morning due to weather, so I didn't have that to work on. So, first the quilt, such as it is so far. These strips will eventually be made into this: Mine will be a darker version with dark blue batik instead of white. I also got my over-achiever quite to the same place. Here are the strips for it. It will be much brighter with the blue strips standing in for the white in the pattern cover. I also cut out some sewing projects. Girls have been after me to start sewing the things they have been asking for. First is a dress for G. That's a lovely green silk that was in some fabric a friend from church passed on to me. G. loved it and it will work well for this dress she picked out. First I had to trace the pattern, though, but I did get it cut out. ...

From the time P. was very little, this was the phrase I would hear all the time. She would follow me around and tell me she wanted to go somewhere. It was not something that I ever really stopped hearing. She wanted to go somewhere, though when asked, she was a little unsure of where that somewhere was. Well, it turns out that somewhere meant everywhere. We sent our want-to-be world traveler off to travel the world today. Here she is with her Class Afloat duffel (which is pretty heavy) and her Class Afloat t-shirt right before she and J. headed to the airport at 3:45 this morning. Notice Midnight, her cat, who definitely knew something was up and was not happy about it. We're all a little concerned about how he is going to fare with P. gone. So P. is off on her great adventure. We will have email contact when she is in port, but not much other than that. I'm dying just a little bit inside, and will be counting the days until May when we see her again. For those who...

Well, not really in search of the disease, more in search of the yellow fever vaccine. Because of where Class Afloat travels, proof of a yellow fever vaccine is required of all participants. We didn't start searching it out sooner because it didn't seem necessary. We had plenty of time to get P. in some where that does travel vaccinations and get the shot. Except, that there seems to be a country-wide shortage of yellow fever vaccine. In fact, there are no doses of the primary vaccine that is used, and the secondary vaccine is in very short supply. It looks as though we will be driving about an hour to one of the very few places in the area which still does have the vaccine. This also leads to vaguely disturbing conversations with the pharmacist as I was trying to track it down, leading me to say things such as, "So, you don't have yellow fever, but do you have any typhoid. We're also looking for typhoid." Happily, they pharmacist did have an extra dose of...

Today, P. and I went to the post office and sent a very large tuition check via certified mail to Canada. With that done, she will be officially setting sail in mid-January. Six months or so ago, when P. first discovered Class Afloat and expressed interest in going. All we could see were dollar signs. It is incredibly expensive, and being through a Canadian school meant that US financial aid was not going to help. I honestly had no idea how on earth we would afford it. It seemed impossible. We could tell that P. was extremely interested, and very much wanted a chance to do this, so we kept taking the next step. I also prayed more than one prayer that if she was going to be able to do it, God would really have to make the money appear somehow. And then J.'s job was eliminated, and he spent the summer between jobs. That did not seem as though it was going to help in getting P. on that ship. Yet we kept moving forward with doing what needed to be done. The end of summer saw J. e...