and and and

Samuel James, my little sweetie. He is no longer a cuddly little toddler, however. He is 18 years old, and almost finished with high school. He is already enlisted in the U.S. Army, and will leave for boot camp sometime after January 2014.

If I could go back in time, I would care even less than I did then, about the house. I have no fond memories of my clean floors or getting the clothes out of the dryer before they got wrinkled, but I certainly remember rocking those babies and reading Richard Scarry books to the little ones. I do remember, sadly, times of frustration, as I tried to get a small baby to be content in a swing, so I could finish up dishes or sweep a floor. It was a lot to balance, but my point is that...the house is still here, those babies have morphed into these big kids...not that I don't love them even more now.

Today was another busy one. I wrote up my homeschool instruction plans, got them printed at Staples (our printers never live long!), dropped them off at the school, returned some brakes to Advance Auto, that Paul thought that the truck needed but didn't, filled the minivan with gas, waited while Mirielle picked up some medical forms from her dr. office, stopped for iced coffee at Tim Horten's (no-sugar rasberry with half and half...yum), picked up a copy of Benjamin and Ashley's marriage certificate from the town in which they filed it, to prove to the Army that they are indeed married and eligible for the married couple housing allowance, shopped at Target for birthday gifts for a party that Jonathan and Sonja are going to on Friday night, helped Mirielle pick out a new phone (she got the Galaxy s4), went to Price Chopper to get some things for the soccer weekend grill and of course some things for home like bread and milk and bananas and yogurt and chicken, went to B.J.'s, a warehouse club store, for the rest of the things for the grill, and a few more things for here like tortillas and candy. Then to the bank, to Tim Horten's again for a hot coffee, one dollar, then home. Ahh, home.

Home to put it all away.

Samuel can drive now, so he drove that minivan out to soccer practice, all full of things for the grill to be put away.

Mirielle and Margaret and Aaron left soon after to go to choir practice and cleaning.

Home alone with the princesses for a while, helped them do homework and cuddled, and heard about their day.

Guess what? I am ready for bed.