girls just wanna have fun...

Suzanne and I took a little walk yesterday afternoon, on this gloomy cloudy day. (Isn't Suze beautiful? She's my 12th child, #4 in the five-girls-in-a-row-in-five-years...just turned 18, graduating from high school this year...)

She went to the grocery store with me yesterday morning to get a few things for Joseph and Bethany. Beth fell while rock-climbing, broke her kneecap and damaged a tendon, very serious stuff. She had to have surgery this week, and Joseph didn't want to leave her to go get some of the things they needed. So Suze was a sport and went with me.

Then we had company, yesterday. William, Sebastian, and Linnea came to visit for a few hours while their mama was at a dr. app., they are going to have a new baby brother or sister in the fall! Anyway, I grilled them some hot dogs, and then we had an Easter egg hunt. My own kids have grown up and gotten all blahhh about Easter baskets, so I gave these children small chocolate bunnies and some treats...it's nice to see kids so excited about stuff.

After they left, my girls were antsy. Remember, Jonathan is in Norway, so it's just these four girls, Suzanne, Sonja K., Charlotte Claire, and Camille. They wanted to doooo somethiiiing. But what? I suggested we go to Moe's, but nah, a few would, a few wouldn't...a movie? Nothing good playing. Dumbo? Nah. Emily drove Evelyn home from work and stopped in for a little bit of dinner, and a visit...so a pleasant evening. We ended up watching an anime, "Arietty", which is based on "The Borrowers", which I read when I was young.

Today, we decided last night, we would Do Something. I suggested the Eastman Kodak museum in Rochester, that's quite interesting. Or the Corning Museum of Glass. Either would be nice...but I know they would rather go to the outlet mall, blah. It's warm here, finally, but oh so overcast and rain is coming. The ground is already so soggy. We need some sunshine, lots of it!

Camille is the baby of the family, she's now 11 and a half. She is SO funny. She misses Kathryn like crazy. Kap married Darius, and lives in Oregon. Cam says, "Kap used to do so many things with me, she was fun. Now, I'm just lonely." Lonely at home with only 3 or 4 sisters, yeah, I know. I feel the same way sometimes. Sometimes the house seems almost echo-y.

So today, we'll go do something fun. These girls of mine, they love each other, but do you know what they like to do? Insult each other. Mostly fooling around, but sometimes ouch. Then one will say something too sharp at the wrong moment, and one will get offended, someone will feel misunderstood...they "borrow" each other's stuff, but are also very quick to lend if one needs something. I try to stay out of their sneaking each other's stuff episodes. These end-of-the-line girls, these girls who have grown up without all the mess and chaos of lots of younger siblings and babies in the house, they are different than the older ones. Thrift store? harrumph. Yet they're not snobby, they just have been raised differently. They get out and about much much more, have gone out to eat much much more, they're just different. But one thing is for sure: they are growing up just as fast as the older ones did...there are times and seasons with each of them, and when it's their turn to be the older ones at home, I enjoy it as much as I can, because I KNOW they're not here forever. They're just passing through, just as we all are on this earth. I mean, it's traumatic, in a mini sort of way, to have a loved and cherished child grow up and leave home....but then it happens with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine...and OUCH! One, two at a time, they find their places in the world...it's a happy thing, of course, that they become responsible adults, but the void that's left at the dinner table, the extra spaces on the couches...

I still see all of my kids, except for Kathryn and Aaron and Sam, who all live far away, but the others, I see them often. And I'm not walking around all depressed that there are only six kids at home these days.

Anyway. Today we're doing something fun. Because life just marches by so quickly, and these kids of mine, they are just marching by too.