Time with family

My dear one, 

I am away from home for a bit, soaking up some quality time with my family in Florida. My parents, grandparents, my college-age brother, and a visiting uncle and aunt have had a wonderful few days of fellowship!

My uncle (my mom's brother) and I are on the same wavelength, and I have a feeling you would get along with him famously. He and his wife recently bought an old fixer-upper farmhouse and acquired some goats and chickens. Their interests range from politics and theology to soap-making and gardening. They are active in their small church and are true servants of Christ! I really wish I could spend more time with them. They had to take their leave of us yesterday, and are traveling by train back to their northern abode.

So now it is just the six of us. My brother has one semester of college remaining. It's hard for me to fathom that he now owns his first car and will be living off-campus this fall. He is keeping busy this summer with an online class and his summer job (aide at an assisted-living facility), but he and I fall into a nice routine when we're both here at Mom & Dad's. Our mutual love of coffee, combined with some cooking adventures and watching a few Wimbledon tennis matches on TV, have made for some quality time together.

Mom & Dad's apartment, only 600 sq. ft., does not really have space for more than the two of them. But my grandparents, residing but two doors down from Mom & Dad, have a spare bedroom for my brother when he is home from college, and I am comfortable claiming the couch in the sunroom. I confess it is a bit strange to have to live out of a suitcase in order to be with my family, but I knew it would be the case when my parents moved to Florida. Here, sadly, I do not have a childhood room to sleep in, local friends to call on, favorite haunts to run back to.

I wonder if you, my dear one, are far removed from your family home. Will you be able to takes to the town where you grew up? I would love to know how you lived as a small boy.

I don't know what you would think of my family here in Florida. My mother and grandmother have very particular ways of doing things, almost to the point of OCD, though I know them to be quite rational in their choices. If you were ever to visit either of their apartments (it would not have to be for very long, dear!), you would need to follow specific instructions such as hand-washing and shoe-removal upon arrival, and only sitting in chairs that are prepared for "dirty clothes" (read "germs from outside the home"). They didn't have quite as strict a protocol before moving here, so even I get confused by it all sometimes.

Don't worry, I'm not as hard to live with, and have no problem being around those with different habits, though I am much more observant than most regarding cleanliness habits. One example, lest you fear I'm crazy: you would probably understand if I told you that public door handles are home to many bacteria... So could you perhaps comprehend that it would be prudent to sanitize hands after grasping said door handles, especially when approaching food or those with compromised immune systems? For the same reasons, a wallet, purse, or set of keys that has been all over town would be best kept off of kitchen tables and counters.

The standard of cleanliness I have adopted now that I'm able to keep my own home is quite simple and straightforward. From a young age, I was taught to wash my hands after dealing with money, door handles, and the like. I grew up understanding that shoes can't help but track dirt through the house. I learned how to handle the preparation of raw meat without contaminating the entire kitchen. I became adept in keeping the bathroom sparkling clean. My recent forays into the world of essential oils and natural cleaning methods have yielded some non-toxic options for keeping a clean home, so I'm not as keen on Lysol and bleach as my mother and grandmother are!

And if you are to offer up the reminder that it is good to be exposed to germs, I'd agree... to some extent. God has indeed given us immune systems which need to be exercised on occasion. And of course bacteria can be a very good thing - everyone's stomach will assent to that! But there is such thing as needless exposure to the worst of the worst. (My brother and mother, with their work with the elderly, could tell countless stories about why hand-washing is important!)

But enough about the quirks of my family and its habits... I'm sure you will teach me about yours! And we'll smile knowingly, all too aware that some compromise is in order as we begin our life together.

Yours, waiting and hopeful, 
Me