With all my heart

I purchased a new phone yesterday, which was a long-over-due upgrade. This miraculous piece of technological advancement has a heart rate sensor on it, which can be used to track various aspects of one's health. One of the promised assessments on the included app, is a Stress Meter. I thought that this particular measurement could prove to be a fascinating diversion, so I've taken to measuring my stress via the heart rate monitor at various times throughout my day. According to this remarkable gadget, I am operating at a very low stress level, indeed. Can you imagine my surprise and delight to be informed that I am apparently blithely wafting through the turbulence that is my life, with nary a spike in my pulse?
Or, perhaps you are unaware of the pressure cooker in which I live and move and have my being. The suggestion that I am, in fact, not under stress is a laughable consideration.

My eldest is freshly out of prison. Praise the Lord for small mercies! In truth, we can't afford to finance another child through a stint in any level of incarceration. Prison is less costly than the county jail, though. If your son or daughter must do time, pray that it's a felony, and not a misdemeanor. Not that either is as expensive as an old fashioned college education, but higher learning does seem to offer a favorable return on one's investment. I can't complain too much, as we've seen good result. Our boy had a wake-up-call of the highest order, and is now embracing life with a gratitude and gusto which warms the cockles of my heart. But, the stress meter is not reading this reality in the pitter-pater of my cardiac rhythms.

The normal stressors of parenting three teens and a 20 are mundane for the most part. Threat of probation, relapse, and emotional instability just don't usually factor in to such a scenario.Nor can I detail for you the most interesting and varied of my daily confrontations. I'm most interested to see how the new phone app rates me as the days go by. I shall try to pop in from time to time so as to keep your curiosity satisfied. No doubt you are already feeling the strain of anticipation.