Vaguely newsy summing up of life in these parts

 Fiona spots my phone, grabs it and presses it to her ear.

"WOE!" she says.

Things are not so bad.

A lot is ducky, actually. Here we are, the Jeffery clan (somewhat truncated), at the University of Idaho. Ben and I get to be students again. We have a low-maintenance little dwelling on Sweet Street (just, wow) we call Lavender Flat for the fragrant bushes out back. Jess and Luke are with us, Ruby...well, she's in L.A., but only a text away, and Serendel is down the grassy hill in another apartment with her hubby and two-year-old Fio.

My classes--this is embarassing--they are easy. Not because I'm a genius but because they are freshman-level. Little nuggets of learning I so far had passed by on the road to education. Oh, but important nuggets, so here I am faithfully picking them up and storing them in my backpack. My math class is Math 123.  I enjoy that fact. Actually, it's been fun: we just finished a unit on methods of fair division, stuff every playground child ought to know for those troublesome three-friends-two-cookies occasions. But also helpful for inheritances.

Right now I am heading off for a study session for the geology lab midterm. Rock and mineral identification. Twice now I've mistaken chalcopyrite for pyrite on a quiz, rrr.

Yesterday in speech class we gave impromptu speeches. I was prepared to be serious and succint. What topic did I get? "Pretend you are a mad scientist. Tell us about your latest invention."

So I did.  :)

We do have our troubles.  There's the "missing you" issue I talked about before. Some of Ben's and Seri's tests have been tough, the timed computer science ones. Probably the main hurdle, though, has been finding work, which is going more slowly than we'd hoped. My best bet is the Campus Dining program--lots of food-related venues on campus, from the food court in the commons, to the bagel shop, to the campus Denny's. I shall keep bugging them till they hire me. And learn more about faith vs.worry in the meantime.

All in all, I guess we have our hands full.....

...but that's not so bad!