i have no clue...

No clue whatsoever, what to write about today. I could mention that I went with Emily to look at a few houses yesterday. Or that I did indeed take my walk this morning. (for some reason, it still seems like a monumental accomplishment to get out the door of this house, alone, and be reasonably certain it isn't going to fall apart without me)(I do carry my phone with me. This morning I reminded Sonja K. that I have it, but please only call me if you need to. She is always the one who calls me when I am out and about to ask important things like, "where are you?", and "did you get me anything?")

I could write about how Suri has a split personality...sometimes she is a tail-wagging sweetie who rolls over to have her tummy rubbed, sometimes she is inhabited by a furniture chewing, paper ripping, toy destroying demon.

I could write about how the door slamming and laughing continued on for hours after I put my weary head on my pillow last night.

I will say that today Samuel James is seventeen years old. He is our eighth child, Emily-The-Oldest was ten when Sam was born. Abigail was 8, Benjamin was 6, Mirielle 5, Joseph 4, Aaron 2, and Mali was seventeen months. Yeah, five kids five and under. How did I ever manage? He was 8 days old when we went to the Summer Conference at church that year. Well, Sam has grown up into an amazing kid. He works this summer at the school, doing landscaping and weed-eating. The boy who struggled to get up in the morning to get on that school bus has miraculously been able to get up at "0-dark-thirty", as Emily says, to ride his bike five miles to work.

The weather here in central New York state is brilliant. Sunny and warm, breezy, mid-seventies, going up to the nineties today. I need to pack because we are leaving tomorrow for four-five days.(and tomorrow is another Grill shopping day) Food, clothes, bedding...Sam and Aaron still have to go to work next week, as does Paul, so they will only be there for the weekend. The two little girls are the most excited, they pack these backpacks full of Barbies and coloring books...and they have these huge fluffy robes they inherited from their sisters, they want to bring them in case we have a campfire and they get cold. Right.

My sister-in-law Kim has been in the hospital for the third time in the last month or so, with her daughter Carrie, who has recurring kidney infections and some other complications. She is only 17...but she had a bone marrow transplant when she was two...and her health has never been good. When a child is diagnosed with cancer, and goes into remission, and the years pass...the "C" word is never far from the parents' minds. Every little ache and pain that comes along can bring the questions...so pray for my brother Tom, and Kim, and Carrie and the other kids (there are twelve).