Possibilities

As a parent, and more specifically, as a mom, you spend the days you have with your children preparing them for the future--for all the many roles they will have as adults. You pray a lot, and you hope that what you do is enough.

They start to test their wings in short flights, and you applaud when they fly and sob when they have a few crash landings. Those who follow my blogging endeavors know that I have closely chronicled the test flights of my offspring. You have laughed and cried with me.

I just have to make a post to give the glory to God for all the blessings that He has brought about in my life and the lives of my family members. I cannot find the words to express how effortlessly the Lord has brought us to where we have prayed to go; nor can I find adequate expressions of thanks and praise to the Giver of all blessings.

Someone unique and special has come into our lives, and although I know that relationships come and go for young people, someone, someday, somewhere will have a keeper in this young lady. It's way too early to make any long-term predictions, and I would not presume to intrude into the early days of a new and exciting voyage, but I have really enjoyed learning a little about her.

I've always been impressed when I go to someone's blog, and the thoughts of their heart seem to mostly be focused on spiritual things instead of silly, worldly preoccupations. Everyone goofs off a little on blogs at times, but when the preponderance of thoughts expressed are worldly, likely, so is the person. "For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks."

Dan is not the only one impressed with this bubbly princess. And if you click off her Pleo page onto her myspace, you'll find that her spirituality doesn't end on Pleo. And you just might get a tear in your eye...

Yep, It's Broke Alright....

Stock photo---not Micah's actual foot! His actual foot is in a green cast(and it is the right foot!) Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose in image searches! :)

We have continued to have a busy August, and this Mom really is looking forward to the cool breezes of fall, and the less-hurried pace that autumn seems to bring. All of our friends seem to be in "Lets-hurry-up-and-get-this-one-more-activity-in" mode, and getting our kids to all these events has left us tired and in need of a child-free vacation! However, I don't see that coming any time soon! :) So, we sleep when possible and gather our energy each night to get through the next day.

Saturday was spent transporting Sam to and from a canoe trip. He could have driven himself, if his older brother had not commandeered his truck for his own trip over the state's southern border to see a special young lady and attend a Bible study. Dan's car, which is older and temperamental was down at his grandparents', so Dan coerced Sam into letting him borrow the truck for the weekend. That left "Ye Olde Parents' Taxi Service" to transport Sam to and from the river. As these things go, there is never very much communication as to when or where groups are gathering or what the basic "plan" is, so we pretty much felt our way through the day. We delivered him near the river at around noon, and drove an hour home. I did a few dishes and tidied up a little, and by then, it was nearing 3:30. We were told by the river guide that they expected the group back around 4:30, so being the good parents we are, we got back in the car and planned to meet the group at the dock as they returned. Problem was, they did not get back until the last possible moment before the tour place closed---which was at 6 p.m. By the time they got out of the river, took a group pic for posterity (61 people went!), dried off, and we got away, it was pushing 8 when we got home.

I am happy to report that Sam had a blast, came back uninjured, and is raring to go again next year. He fails to understand why I would not be excited about sitting in a steamy swamp for 6 hours, with snakes swimming by, and rowing until my arms fell off. I don't think my contacts would like swamp water, and my glasses would not last long. Until I can get Lasix and figure out how not to get skin cancer, maybe I will try something different!

I teach class on Sunday morning, and I was shocked at the collective sight of my 8 pupils at 8:30 on Sunday morning. They were so tired and worn out from the day before, that they could not even focus on the lesson. One little girl was so sick that she laid on the floor under the table. All attempts to get her to go to her mom failed. She did not seem in great distress, and she wanted to be there, so I just let her be. I normally don't let students out of their seats, but I was aware that these kids have just about reached their summer limits.

Meanwhile, Micah bemoaned the fact that his previous Sunday night's skating party after church had left him lame in one foot and ankle. He could not go on the canoe trip, which grieved him greatly. I tried to remind him that I did not recommend his going skating, because so many times, someone gets hurt, especially when he is not a good skater. He did indeed go down, and he has been on the couch every since, propped up with ice bags on the foot. All who ventured an opinion on it thought it was just a sprain. After giving his "sprain" time to heal, and after listening to his continued cries of discomfort daily, we carried him to the doctor today, and there IS a fracture at the growth plate level down by the ankle. So now, he is in a lovely green cast for the next 6 weeks! I feel better that we did go on to the doctor, and hopefully, it will heal fine, and no further treatment will be needed. Micah looks forward to having everyone sign his leg!

Daniel had a lovely weekend down South, and he got to spend some time with his newest friend of the opposite sex. They met at the preacher's house Friday night, and they got to stay 'til Sunday after morning church. I do believe there will be more visits between them. We are hoping that she can come up for the county fair in September. Fairs are the neatest places to take a date! He then drove home that afternoon in the aforementioned truck, and he did not know to check the oil, which had dropped dangerously low by the time he got here. (Step-dad put in 5 quarts!) We hope old "Blue" is going to make it. It was one oil-thirsty truck!

Today, Dan had a job interview for a position on the campus where he will be attending. He came away with the job, which is a great blessing in the continuous string of blessings we have had getting him into this college. Student workers in most positions get minimum wage, but his computer lab job pays more of a competitive wage, and he is fully encouraged to use the time to study when there is nothing to do helping other students. He has locked in his classes, which will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That will give him Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to work. I think he will do very well with this arrangement. The best part of all is that he will have to drive very little, and with gas prices constantly rising, that will be a wonderful thing. He can walk across my parents' neighbors' back yard and be at the campus in under five minutes! So if it snows, he won't have to take the car. However, it rains a lot in the fall here, so he may have to drive some on the worst days.

Sam, Hannah, Sarah and I got in a little time at the neighboring county's Goodwill store while Daniel did his interview. Sam found a pair of Tommy jeans and a pair of Dungarees and an Old Navy Shirt. The girls picked out their usual stash of treasures. In fact, at one point, Hannah had loaded the cart with books and toys, and I had to put them all back! I let them get a couple of treasures they did not have, a video and a few books. I found some more great homeschooling books for Sarah---mostly with practice pages in math and writing. She goes through them faster than I can supply them. I found poor Micah a book he might enjoy, and I picked up a couple of old (but newly printed) Nancy Drew books in great shape to start a collection for the girls. They are must-reads in my book! I hope the girls will like mysteries as much as I have. The bonus today was double stamps on my frequent shopper card and getting out of there for twenty dollars and change. You just can't beat it for an afternoon's entertainment!

Tim is busy building computers for the girls. They are tired of sharing with the bigger folks of the family, and we have enough parts lying around that he should be able to get this done for them....if we can quit running long enough.

I look forward to the days of fall, when our home schooling begins, and we gather in the den to work collectively on some subject. It's just the best when it is warm and toasty, and we snuggle into the sofa to collectively discover the wonders the day has to offer. Summer's hustle is over, the relentless heat gone, and refreshing winds blow outside. Sometimes, we raise the windows and let the glorious fall air inside. After the work is done, and sometimes when it isn't, we slip outside to take in the beauty of God's creation--to bask in the finally tolerable sunshine and play in the leaves, one of the great curiosities of little people. Little two-legged girls struggle to keep up with the quicker and surer four-legged puppy and kitties. I rock on the porch, most assuredly enjoying my coffee, purely enthralled at the scene playing out before me, feeling so richly blessed in the simplicity of it all. The "city folks" can have their hustle and bustle, their mentally and physically exhausted children, their full-price "fashion" stores, and the endless lines of people and traffic. I'll take my little piece of Paradise any day of the week.

The Eagle Has Landed....Again.....

Yes, I left off in mid-sentence, as it were. I am prone to do that. Life gets ahead of me, and it takes me a while to catch up at this altered pace that comes with the mid-40's.

We retrieved Daniel from KY with the greatest of ease, compared to the trip we had taking him up there. This time we were smarter. We realized that it did not take a 26-foot truck pulling a huge, long car carrier to get the boy home. Instead, we got a pull-behind trailer for the SUV and made Eagle-boy drive his car home! This time, no one got stuck in their cul-de-sac with the "unbackable" truck we had the last time!

At last report, Tony, Craig, and Jeremy (his roommates) were seen standing on the curb, crying and waving at Dan as he drove away. (NOT! I hear Dan is missed, but they are all holding up fairly well.)

I use the term "we" very accomodatively (Is that a word? It is late, and neither nouns nor adverbs come easily these days). I actually had no part in driving 5 hours up there, packing the trailer, and driving 5 hours home the same day with the men-folk of the family. Tim, Sam, and Micah did an awesome job of making the move look like child's play while I spent the day going to the cardiologist with Mom and Dad and Hannah. Of course, after chasing Hannah around the doctor's office for over 3 hours until all lights had been turned out and everyone went home, I wished I had gone to Kentucky. The child has some energy. The parents got detained waiting for the doctor who got detained, and Mom failed to come out and tell me why there was no one in the building but us. I was convinced they had forgotten I was with them and left me in the two minutes it took me to change a diaper in the restroom. But all was well, and their minds are better than mine, and I was not abandoned.

Sarah had a lovely sidetrip with her cousins, aunt and uncle the same day to see the local Egyptian exhibit in town for a while. As fate would have it, they finished at the museum just as we were finishing up at Saint Thomas with the dr. appt. and just as my moving men were crossing back over into the Volunteer State. So we decided, after much cell phone calling between cars, to meet at an approaching Cracker Barrel and make the servers find a table for 16. We had a lovely time and all left in near- diabetic-coma-like states. It was hard to finish the drive another hour and a half south when we had all had such a lonnnnnnggggg day.
When we all got back to the Mom and Dad "Hotel," we spent a day or two there just relaxing, playing in the pool a little, and putting the finishing touches on getting Dan enrolled in college. Since we can walk to the campus from their house, we did just that and finalized his schedule and picked up the last of the paperwork to do.

Right now, it is looking like he will carry 15 hours his first semester, which I think is a pretty good balance for him, especially if he will also be working 20-30 hours a week. He has an interview for his first choice in jobs on Tuesday (more about that when it is more of a sure thing), and so we will see how that goes.

Meanwhile, curriculums are being spied out for the fall semester for the younger kids here. Sam is going to have an interesting year, because he has finished a lot of the things you usually are scraping to do in your senior year, but he has things he should have finished that the wonderful private school did not attend to like they should have when they had him. So he may have to double up in some areas to finish on time. I am not worried about Micah and Sarah, because they are coming along nicely.

I had a wonderful birthday, as you read below. I went into the day with no expectations for myself because we had the Relay for Life thing to do, but the family pulled it all together and managed to bring all of my favorite things into one fun-filled day. I did not get to be with all the usual family members because some of them had managed to contract the dreaded Puke Virus! I was SO AFRAID that we would end up getting it, because we had been in the same town, handling germy dollar bills (in the roadblock for Relay for Life) from strangers who were probably on their way to buy Gatorade. However, my fears were unfounded, and we, for once, came through unscathed.

The kids have been doing their usual summer fun things. Micah and Sam went to a skating party after church Sunday night, and Micah fell and did a number on his ankle. I don't think it is broken, but he won't be able to limp to the canoe trip they have planned tomorrow. Meanwhile, Eaglet #1 has flown off for the weekend again to the great state of Alabama, where he is meeting his newest "somebody special" and attending a Bible study with other young Eagles. I just can't keep that one in the nest for anything.

My 16 weeks of teaching on Sunday morning AND the summer are about to come to an end. I will miss teaching. I won't miss this unbearable heat which has pretty much caused the scrapping a lot of our summer plans.

For those who know my dad and have kept up with his progress, he has had a better couple of weeks. Finally, after 3 separate fluid pills, he lost 24 pounds of water! He is back to being able to sleep in a bed, and he even got in the pool a day or two ago and exercised a while. We are encouraged by this. Thanks to all who pray fervently for those they do not even know.

One note of interest....Tim's brother Billy was in NYC on 9/11, just a small distance away from the towers. Currently, he is on a holiday in England, due to fly back to the States today or tomorrow, I think. It seems he just has an uncanny ability to be where he should not be, but he is a lucky guy, I'd say. He won't be flying from England. He'll find another route home.

So, that's the update. Have a good weekend, stay safe, and be good!

How to have a nearly perfect 44th Birthday!

First....

Take your three sons and dart in and out of traffic

for 3 hours in a crazy intersection collecting money for a great cause:

(and raise over $1000 for the American Cancer Society---Waaaahoooo! :)

Then add....

(My most favorite food in the whole wide world, done with Daddy's own barbecue sauce)

(yep, ice cream cake....drooooool)

Being with Family

(well, those who did not have the summer vomiting virus)

Shopping sans kids at Half-price day at

An Awesome Birthday #