Master Cleasne 3--Day 2

Yesterday was as unexpectedly pleasant as today was unexpectedly UNPLEASANT (more on that later). We went to Eureka to see my dad yesterday, as it was the Sabbath day, and Robert wasn't trucking. The weather was fairly nice; we got the camper safely to the pavement by Kintyre without breaking out the back window in the van (driving 10 mph); and we found the apples as wonderful as usual.

I confess right now that I ate one. I'm on the part of the cleanse now where you don't eat ANY solid foods but drink the lemonade, or herbal teas, or kombucha continually. However, after we'd been picking awhile, Andrew reached down and picked a gorgeous specimen of an apple off the ground and began delighting his taste buds. I prayed a LOT right then and had perfect resolve to stand my ground. However, suddenly I just WANTED to mark the Sabbath day as more special than all others so I too helped myself to the abundant supply.

However, Jacob told me that when the Bartlett's young men were here for the shoot, Jonathan ate ALL of the apple. It reminded me of the NORY RYAN STORY which we listened to on talking books a few years ago about the Irish potato famine. In that story, an old woman and 2 children shared an old, wiggly apple and it was a FEAST. The ate all of it so I told myself, "OK Dawn, if you're going to eat an apple, you're going to eat all of it." I've tried this before but couldn't get down the stem. However, just in case anyone is interested, I lumped the stem in with the seeds and core and it went down just fine. I think that I may even have enjoyed it as much as that trio did in the NORY RYAN STORY.

Anyway, after we picked the apples and parked the camper in the shed again, I went in the house as dad had gotten out his rider mower to break up the leaves with. I got a great idea for his 80th birthday in December when I saw that my brother, Rick, had given him a photo album full of pictures of my parents with his family taken over the years.

While I was looking at the pictures, my dad came in and we started talking about BodyTalk--what a coincidence. He can't stand it that he can hardly walk so I offered him a session and he accepted. That's the part that was the unexpected pleasure. It was a great session and very bonding. I do believe that he'll be able to walk somewhat better from that session.

Then we went to Robert's folk's place and watched the men eat spaghetti with Marly. She gave us a very nice anniversary gift of some huge, blue towels; some neat hot pads; AND a wonderful plaque with words from the love chapter in the Bible. It is very attractive so my hug was true and not one of those, "How could you have?"

Marly gave us a special gift right before we left. I'll have to take a picture of it to post later. It was the nut cup that we used at our wedding on the head tables. The ones of ours that I had saved burnt in our house fire shortly after we got married, so this was truly special. She said that she still thinks about lightening her load of "Stuff" in case they have to move to Bismarck for health reasons. I was very happy that she shared that particular item with us although it wasn't very heavy as it was made out of Styrofoam, 2 plastic rings, and a plastic nut bowl.

We came home rather late but with the van smelling once again of the very best apples in the world. We did chores and I hit the pillow with a sigh of contentment. Dad is keeping the house clean; he only cried half of the time that we were there; and our van is full of wonderful apples. As Miss Jen would say, "SIGH."

Out to the barn. I'll try to write about today yet tonight but we'll see how tired I am. Today was a very trying day and I covet your prayers. Thanks a million for all of them for the trip to Eureka to go well--they really helped.

Blessings,

Dawn