In our world of anything and everything, I think maybe we are ending up, more often than not, with nothing. Many of us have so much. In fact, we have everything; we do everything; we “are” everything and yet it just isn’t enough. We take good things and sprinkle them with the illusion that more is always better. We seek bigger, better, faster, and wonder why we are exhausted.

Happy new year! I hope your Christmas was truly a time of joy. I marvel at the excitement we have, regardless of our age, for the holidays and the “something special” of Christmas. We, as Christians, know that the true something special is the reconciliation, peace, and hope that baby Jesus gifted us that first Christmas.

As of today, Thanksgiving, leftover turkey, and Black Friday are distant memories. Thanksgiving at the Shrader house was a time of family, many, many blessings, and too much food. Although Thanksgiving and Tom’s November birthday are bittersweet reminders of how much we miss Tom, God continues to love, bless, and guide us as His children. All Praise be to God!

Can you believe it is November already? It seems as if November came immediately after the longest summer ever. And, well, now Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and commotion, expectations, and stress!

Tom loved to teach. Even in his last few months, when he could hardly walk and mostly slept through the day, Tom looked forward to teaching Priority Living or the occasional Sunday. As Tom walked up to the podium to share God’s word, he would transform into a younger man and his pain became nearly non-existent. Teaching God’s word put him on the mountain top and, oh, how God used Tom in extraordinary ways! 

How long has it been since you shook up your daily routines?

Tom was a creature of habit. He liked to do the same thing over and over again. He would wake up and have a set routine each day, each week, each season. Tom called it “mastering the mundane”.

Happy 4th of July! I’ve been in Arizona for 15 years and it still seems surreal that humans can actually live in the desert, especially when temps surpass 115 degrees before July 1. Thank goodness for air conditioning, siestas and fudgesicles.

Three months ago, I installed a doggy door. Although Finley goes in and out the doggy door quite a few times each day, he won’t go in or out without my prompting. In my mind, the purpose of the doggy door is for Finley to go inside or outside whenever he wants.

This Easter as we celebrate Christ’s victory over sin and death, I am reminded of past Easters growing up in the Midwest. For me, Easter marked the end of the winter thaw, or more positively, the beginning of Spring. Even if there still was snow on the ground or blustery weather, Easter brought hope of a new season - a season of flowers, sunshine, and warmth.

Last week Serena Williams lost to Naomi Osaka in the semifinals of the Australia Open. In and of itself, this is not extraordinary news. Simply noting the ages of the players – Osaka, 23 and Williams, 39 – Osaka was favored for the win. Yet, Williams is tough and an amazing athlete by all standards - why let a thing like age get in the way of a win? Here’s what is extraordinary – Williams lost and summed up the competition in this way, “It was a big error day for me today.”  

I’ve been reminded of this quote from Tom a lot lately, likely because there just seems to be a whole bunch of people out there that are not happy these days. I am not going to even begin to extrapolate “why”, but I am sure it has to do with this extended period of social distancing, masks, politics, social tensions, remote working, and the general malaise that most of us feel after months and months of stress and disruption.

Happy New Year! Several years ago, for our anniversary, Tom and I went to our favorite steakhouse to commemorate God’s blessings in our marriage. As we sat down, the waitress said, “Are we celebrating a special occasion?” Tom responded, “I’ll have iced tea.” After she walked away, Tom remarked how unfriendly she had been. You see, at that particular point in time, Tom’s hearing was almost non-existent. Unable to hear, Tom filled in the script with his own version of what was happening. Yet, the reality was very different. As I did my best to explain what had happened, (Tom couldn’t hear me either – LOL) we had a good laugh. 

The holiday season is here! For our family, the kickoff is turkey, stuffing, and way too much food. The following days are full of Christmas decorations, hot cocoa, peppermint, chocolate chip cookies, pine fragrance, and eventually an extra-special day that begins with BOSA donuts, Velveeta cheese queso, ballpark pretzels, Sonic burgers, and junk food – LOTS of junk food -- November 28 -- Tom's birthday.

It is time to get back to the basics. As a former kindergarten teacher, I am a huge proponent of fundamentals – the ABC’s, basic math, please and thank you. John Wooden wrote, “I believe in the basics: attention to, and perfection of, tiny details that might be overlooked. They may seem trivial, perhaps even laughable to those who do not understand, but they aren’t. They are fundamental to your progress in basketball, business and life.”

My heart hurts. It’s not from the normal wear and tear of life, but rather from what I am seeing around me.  Constant bickering, complaining, and arguing.  As Tom would say, “Even the Cooking Channel has Cupcake Wars these days.”

If this were a normal year, my letter would be all about the Hawkeyes and the start of college football.

But 2020 is anything but normal – right? 

Each Fall, beginning this week, Tom would wake up early Saturday morning and hang his Hawkeye flag outside, waiting anxiously for College GameDay to begin. He would proceed to watch any and every game until the Hawkeyes played for the week.  

I am bored. 

I am ready for schools and businesses to open and for things to get back to normal. 

Do you remember the movie Groundhog Day, with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell? One day follows another and it is the same thing over and over. For us, the long, hot summer drags on. The waiting continues.  

The other day I was doing my morning workout which involves a little run around the block.   In the past, I REALLY ran – marathons, races, and anything that had a start and a finish.  But not anymore.  I just simply run around the block and I am pretty sure that the grandkids could walk it faster than I run.  But, shh! I don’t want to embarrass myself.

The world has changed.  Our way of working, our trends, our hobbies, our communities, and our daily rhythms are different.  We are living in a paradigm that is unprecedented and so sudden it feels surreal and there is no date when we go back to the way it used to be.  For many of us this evokes concern, anxiety, and fear. And, then, the news – the unfathomable acts of injustice, the protests, the anger, the blame, and disunity.  This is not good, and it feels like it is getting worse.