just do it!!!!

I spoiled myself, bought fresh cilantro....it makes an ordinary salad delightful.

Here's what I decided: Nike is right. Just do it. I can't wait until I WANT to go on a walk. Likewise, I can't wait until I DON'T want to eat candy. I want to, I JUST DON'T DO IT. My goals and my temptations are at odds with each other, ha.


Mali Rose is my seventh child...she is a keeper. She is Lydia's mommy, plus she works full time nights as an RN at a hospital in the city. She's a good mama, and Lydia is a happy girl.


She brought me these flowers on Easter.


Lydia with the Labs...can you tell she put her own coat on?

Yesterday I was rather set on staying home. Evelyn had homework to work on, even though it's spring break. Char and Cam have cousin Danielle here, and were planning a tea party. But Sonja, she said she didn't want to just stay home all vacation, she wanted to DO something. So Mom to the rescue, we went to the Burlington Coat Factory. She found a pair of jeans, I found a few things for Jonathan's birthday, which is coming up at the end of the month. We then went to the dreaded mall, and Old Navy was having a good sale...I had to put a few things back, but got the little girls a few shirts for .97 each, and a shirt for me for five dollars. Then we walked into Sears, because I really need new bras, but...they were $40, buy one get one half off...still, $60 for two bras? Nah. We walked back out...I wanted to get home, anyway. But not before a quick trip to Price Chopper for pork chops ($1.29 a pound!), and a few really nice sirloin beef steaks (3.77 a pound). And grapes, lettuces, tomatoes, cheese, coffee.

We had pizza for dinner, I rolled out the crusts and Sonja "decorated" them. Jonathan grilled the steaks, Suzanne made the salad, aand I made a keto pizza, the one with almond flour and mozzarella as crust. We didn't NEED to have steak with dinner, but it was SO good!!!

And I was glad I made so much food, because a car pulled into the driveway, and Emily and Mirielle were visiting! Yay for lots of dinner!

Today Lydia is spending the day here, and Jonathan is going to a friend's birthday celebration. I'll be taking the girls to gymnastics, then the older kids will all be leaving for the evening.

And tomorrow, bright and early, in fact SO bright and early that it won't even be bright yet, Evelyn and I are leaving for Washington D.C./Arlington Va., to pick up Samuel! This time for sure, I hope!

At the dinner table last evening, we were talking about coping mechanisms. Paul says listing things you're thankful for helps, even basics like running water and the washer and dryer. Also having a small amount of quiet time to clear your head and be consciously thankful. Reading Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search For Meaning" is a good thing too. (He said when you can't change life, you have to change yourself). We also discussed exercise, and how you need to Just Do It. And this I loved: one daughter said to another daughter, "You were wrong (about something or other)!", and the other one replied, "That's okay, I don't mind being wrong." That, is a beautiful thing. Without humility, getting along with each other is impossible.

The little girls are outside without Sunny, and she can't for the life of her understand why they didn't take her. She thinks they made a bad mistake. She is lying in her spot on the top of the back of the couch, watching them from the window, whining and making a sad face. So out she goes.

But life ain't all sunshine and roses. I worry about a few of the kids, and I don't always get the respect I find myself feeling I deserve, ha, and the housework is redundant and boring, and the pounds aren't coming off. Some of my kids do not agree with our homeschooling the younger kids, and of course just being a mom can feel like the most thankless job in the universe. The kids come and go and leave trails of destruction. Paul suggested I get a job, and I feel like I am already drowning in busyness sometimes. I only mention these things to clarify that no one gets an easy ride through life, we all have our trials. When I sit here and write, I don't always mention the frustration of standing on that bathroom scale and DANG it again, it just won't go down, or how someone threw a load of clean laundry on the couch so they could dry their own stuff, and it wasn't quite dry and it's all wrinkled. You know, the clogged drains and the egg pan left dirty on the stove (no one did it!), and and and. :)