lovely monday morning....

This morning's walk was worthy of framing, if one could frame an experience. Like that song, "Time In A Bottle", I would like to bottle up and save this glorious weather. The trees swaying in the breeze, the birds singing, the squirrels flitting across the roads and into the underbrush. The coolness of the morning with the promise of the warm day as the sun peeks through the clouds...

Yes, a gorgeous day.

Life isn't all sunshine and rainbows, but the more I seek God, and believe that ALL things work together for my good, then the better my days go.

Samuel James called last evening. He had finished with a six day "camp-out" in the 90+degree weather, in full gear. He said, "You know how when you are at the beach all day and you're all sandy and all you want is a shower? Well imagine that for six days with only one uniform change, and no shower." He got through that, but sprained his hand somehow. And, today is a very important PT test. Sam has to do push-ups on a sprained hand. Talk about Life Isn't Fair! He has to! No choice! If he fails today, he gets cycled out of the Army! I told him not to listen to his hand, just to drown out the pain and do those push-ups. All his hard work and determination come down to one PT test! He says the Army is downsizing right now, so they are more indiscriminate about who they fail and who they put through.

Of course this is torture for my soul. I cannot bear it, cannot bear the thought of my Sam not making it, not being able to do what he has been so driven to do for so long. But. Like it or not, it might happen. And I am preparing myself to be a help to him by realizing and acknowledging that there is a higher power at work here, and no matter what happens, we need to trust Him.

I need to encourage him to hope for the future, there is a place for him in this world, and perhaps it isn't where he wanted to be, but it WILL work out. In order to do that, I have to believe it myself.

Then there's Caring What Other People Think. In theory, who cares? But in reality, it can be a battle to not care.

And of course, it may happen that he passes that PT test. He can still run, and do his sit-ups, and perhaps the drill sgt. will have mercy on him and overlook sloppy push ups.

Maybe I am putting the cart before the horse.

See, my kids aren't all little anymore, needing sippy cups and diaper changes, but oh dear it can be exhausting just being Mommy.

I want what's best for them, of course, but the very best thing is that come what may, they learn to trust God. Because those who trust in Him will never be put to shame.

So that is one part of what's been going on in my life. There are other things, other trials, then there are the good things....

Our pool is open!!! It isn't clear yet, but it's getting there. I spent a lot of time in there yesterday scooping leaves from the bottom:), then when I felt like complaining about it, I realized that duh, that's not actually a horrible job....

We had an excellent weekend here. Friday we went to the park, Saturday I took Evelyn Joy to her music solo early in the morning. She had to be there before nine. I waited in the truck for her, with a good book and a mug of coffee, poor me. Then I took her to buy a binder for a school project, so we went to the dollar store. I bought myself two shirts in there, from Target, for a dollar each. :) Then to BigLots, three of "needed" earbuds, funny how that happened, earbuds became a "need". Anyway, home for a nice day in the sunshine.

We had fires in our firepit both Friday and Saturday night, with marshmallows of course. Only one for me.

Jon, Char, Cam.

Yesterday we went to our friends' house for a few hours to celebrate a 60th birthday. It was a lovely afternoon for a party, warm but not hot, sunny but pleasant in the shade. Their children and grandchildren were there too. It was hard for me to leave my kids to go there, my kids were not invited, and when I was there I really wanted to get home to them. We are so busy here, I don't get to see them as much as I would like to, especially to ones who go to school.

Summer vacation is coming, and I seriously cannot wait.