the very best a mother could ask for....

Samuel, oh dear Sam. He didn't take his PT test on Monday because of his hand, so he has to wait until next Monday, the day we're leaving for Georgia. I can't even think about his situation without getting all anxious-y, yet I know that it doesn't help, it isn't good, I have to trust God...then I get this message from him last night when I got home from the baseball game....it said:

"All I know is that no matter what everything will work out for my best so I'm not worrying."

Now, what more could a mother ask for? A son who trusts God! He puts me to shame. Because I know it's not a magical thing, that he is automatically totally at rest about it. No, he is fighting the worry, and giving his life to God.

That is worth more than gold, it is worth more than being the most distinguished soldier in the whole Army.

It makes me happy.

I am not magically free from my anxieties, I just want to KNOW he is graduating, I am not very patient. But God sees what I need, what Sam needs, and we need these trials so we can be free from sin, and learn to trust Him.

So yesterday, ah yesterday, what a busy day! (Every so often I think of my friend saying, "Della does nothing!", and I want to scream, but it is rather funny.)

This is my sister's grandson William (my niece's little boy), with Jonathan and Charlotte Claire on Char's field trip to the science museum. I went along as a chaperone. Since there was no room on the bus, I drove and brought Jon and Will. What fun we had! We opted out of the IMAX movie, and instead explored the museum by ourselves. They had plenty of time to fly the in the simulated helicopter and airplane, and got to take their time exploring the toothpick sculptures and the anti-gravity bouncer thing-y. I am very science-y. ha.

We stopped at a different Walmart on the way home from the big city, and those kids were so good. We stopped at the 98 cent flip-flop bin to dig around for a pair for Jon, and William asked if he could have some too. Of course he could! He chose red ones. He is going into kindergarten next year, and there is going to be one lucky teacher. He wants to know everything.

Anyway, we got popsicles and new socks for the little girls so Joseph wouldn't have to match any next week when we're gone to Georgia. It does crack me up, thinking of Joseph putting those little girls on the bus...

I was home for long enough to put my feet up and have coffee and yogurt, wash up the sinkful of dishes and the bacon pan that a child I won't name left here, clean up the counters and give dinner instructions, then Joseph and I left for the baseball game. Our small city is struggling to get the attendance up at these games, and one of the things they do at the stadium is have One Dollar Thursdays. That means beer is $1,soda is $1, and hot dogs are $1. Our stand sold over 1400 beers and 544 hot dogs, plus lots of fried dough and chicken tender baskets and french fries. Busy busy busy. The good thing about Busy is that one can't remember how much one's knees ache from standing on that cement floor when one is Busy. phew. They hurt today.

I got home at 11:00, and since Mirielle didn't have to work last night, she was up, so yeah, I stayed up too late talking to her.

Paul is at the doctor today, his dreaded A-fib is back. He has an ablation done a few years back, and that rapid heart beat slowed right down to normal. Paul is one of those people who is totally fascinated with good health. He eats well, exercises, (he was doing Cross-fit before Cross-fit was cool. He used to drag that weighted tire down the road...). It's hard for anyone when things they cannot control pop up to mess up their lives.

The kids have half a day of school today, yay! The pool is struggling to get clean. Ha, that's impossible for a pool to struggle, but it is underneath too many poplar trees which grew up too fast, and dump those white cotton fluffies into it. And I mean DUMP. I go out and clean out the filter basket, scoop and skim the fluffies off the top of the water, and more float down as I do it. We need to cut a few trees down, but guess what? It isn't even on our imaginary list of Things We Should Do Someday.

Our garden is growing nicely though. Tomatoes and watermelon and peppers and radishes and lettuces and those pesky squash we didn't even plant. Our garden is haunted, it produces these hybrid squash that look like melons, but taste like summer squash. They aren't bad, but they are cropping up everywhere and we have to weed them out.

Duke was prancing around the tomato plants this morning, even though Paul put up a lovely fence with sticks and fishing line to keep the deer out. When I called him to come out of there, he snapped a few sticks. Good boy, Duke. rrrr. He came immediately when I called him, so I had to pat his stupid head and praise him. I do love him.:)

I have to buy the candy store candy this weekend, and set out school clothes for the little girls, and and and.

Paul talked to our son Benjamin and said Ben has to have some surgery done on his hip. A long long time ago, when he was 10 years old, and I was 8 months pregnant for Evelyn, he went on a boys' camping trip with Paul. Long story short, he fell of the front of the pontoon boat, went under the boat, and was hit by the boat motor. He could easily have died that day, the blade sliced him up good, but the fact that it hit his hip probably saved his life. His hip has never been the same since that day, it was pretty gruesome how he was patched up. He has had it checked out, and obviously to join the Army he was declared healthy and fit, but he had an MRI the other day which showed that something or other was severed, no wonder he has been in such pain. Anyway. Poor Ben, pain for almost 15 years.

Yes, they grow up, but it is still a full time job to worry about them all:)