There are lots of places in and around Lafayette that are beautiful.
This is the portion of Wildcat Creek that runs through the Clegg Foundation Botanical Gardens. It was such a beautiful day today and fall is really starting to peak through.
The place is a unique blend, going from thick woods to an oak savanna with few trees, to riverside life. One of my very favorite places and just outside Lafayette!
Then there’s this place:
Prophetstown State Park.
Prophetstown mainly has prairie with two great hiking trails, a historic farm, and the beginnings of a reconstructed Native American village. It’s a wonderful place to learn about local history and what life was like back around 1920.
The pigs are awfully friendly. 
Yep, he’s eating my foot. 
There are barn cats all over the place.
Milking time!
I thought the nesting boxes were pretty clever. Now if only the chickens would use them…
Gladys and I both love the bike trail there.
The Chief’s home on a moody day on the prairie.
Some of my favorite books are the Betsy-Tacy series. In Betsy’s junior year of high school, told in the book Betsy was a Junior, she created a sorority, went out with the handsomest guy in school, and generally had a blast. My junior year of college is turning out to be much different than Betsy’s. Instead of creating a sorority, I am spending my time writing twenty page weekly care plans, memorizing medications, and wading through all of the legal issues, mostly confidentiality, that go along with nursing.
The upside of this year is that I get to live in a cute little house, which I have finally taken pictures of (just for you, mom!)
The front of the house. On sunny, warm days I take up residence with my computer and books on the front porch. It’s pretty fun sitting there because it’s pretty likely that at least one person will get ticketed in the space of two hours. Good thing we have parking in the back. :) 
Andrew and I decided that our door looked like a Hobbit hole, what with the all its roundness.
These mums are my constant companion. I didn’t like mums until this year when I decided to plant them, but there is something really nice about having flowers on the front porch.
The fireplace even works! We are piling up Exponent’s for fuel this winter.
Living at The Bakery has been really fantastic so far. Not only is it only a few blocks from campus, making my morning bike ride only about 5 minutes, but all of us girls get along really well. We eat dinner together four nights a week, and tomorrow for the first time we are having company.
This afternoon, after I got back from class, I was on the lawn reading a book when one of my neighbors came home. I had yet to meet this neighbor, John. He just moved in last week from the Dominican Republic. John was a bit surprised to see me reading on the lawn, he told me. “I saw the sign that said it was a Bakery and got really excited! I love bakeries!” So we took them cookies this evening and invited them all to dinner tomorrow. “Cookies are such a great way to end the day.”
We all agree.
I am so happy to be back in school, happy, but already tired.
This year I am living in a neat little house about 100 years old (hereafter known as the Bakery) with three other sweet girls. So far we have already managed to (almost) overflow the utility sink and break the rotten wood on one of the dining room windows.
The sink happened because the washer drains into the utility sink (who knew!) and it was clogged with old soap scum and lint. Yuck! And if that ever happens to you, the answer is a plunger.
The window happened because we were trying to take advantage of the beautiful weather by opening up and it fell apart in our hands. Ooops. Good thing we have maintenance to call. :-)
My classes are going to be rigorous, but I’m looking forward to at least some of them. Today, for example, one of my professors came to class in a body bag on a gurney. Gotta love the sense of humor of forensic scientists! One of my other professors, the prof. for Medical-surgical and clinical, will have to miss class on Friday because she will be radioactive (for thyroid cancer. Please pray for her as she fights it. She’s my Christian professor and I am really hoping and praying that she will be well enough to continue teaching this semester.)
Also, despite having 17 credit hours, I have Wednesdays off! Wahoo! An entire day devoted to studying, and study breaking (exploring the trails, biking and hiking, around Lafayette.) Tomorrow: Prophetstown State Park bike trail!
“It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting for this is the end of all mankind and the living will lay it to heart.”
Ecclesiastes 7:2
I’ve been reading through Ecclesiastes this week and I came upon this verse.
A few years ago, I remember reading this verse and wondering where the house of mourning was. I know now. Any nursing home or extended care facility is full of mourners; mostly, it holds those who are mourning their loss of independence and complete dependence on the staff, but occasionally family visits who are mourning the impending loss of a loved one.
Today was my last day of clinical for the semester. As I went around to all of the residents I have taken care of over the semester, one thing stuck out at me. They all remembered something specific about me, something different, even if I hadn’t taken care of them since January, but they also all remembered me specifically, even if they didn’t remember the other girls who were with me and also took care of them I started wondering why that was and realized that it was probably because I invested my time in getting to know them. I spent time with all of them, talking about their lives, what they have learned through their lives, their stories, and with some of them, reading the Psalms and singing hymns.
There were days when I came home so emotionally and physically exhausted that I crashed at noon and slept for hours. But there were other days that God used the residents to encourage me. Today was one of those days, and I thank God for it. All of my patients are dying, some closer than others, and they are all thinking about and reflecting on the meaning of life. Several have become angry, masking their fear. Others become sweeter and sweeter, leaning on Christ to carry them through this last period of suffering. All of them have taught me something, and I will lay it in my heart. At the end of school I will probably not remember their names, but I will always remember their stories and how God used both them and me to show His glory in that nursing home this semester.
The pigs are awfully friendly. 
Yep, he’s eating my foot. 
I thought the nesting boxes were pretty clever. Now if only the chickens would use them…
