Fire

For all who wondered if I've dropped off the planet... I have. My parents house was struck by lightening and set fire June 22 and I have been practically living in the trailer my parents are temporarily in helping with the mess.

They will be out of their house for 3 to 4 months, conservatively. The entire first floor has to be gutted back to the studs and all begun again. The downstairs and front porch have to be scrubbed and repainted. To say it was a mess is probably the biggest understatement of the year. We spent a solid week sorting through everything in a house my parents have lived in for 34 years. One pile for toss, one pile for the cleaners and one pile for the insurance claims. I've never smelled anything so gross or been dirtier.

But the worst is over, unless you count the part that my mom's home is gone as she knows it for half a year. And all of her things have to be taken from her. I know that they are just things and I'm glad they are physically okay, but it still doesn't change the fact that we no longer have a home to gather in.

We gather anyways and eat. Always eating, even if it's outside of a burned out house on a picnic table. God bless us for the rest of the year and hopefully we'll get a home back by Thanksgiving so we can gather together and eat some more.