another day of blessings and mayhem

Tonight was General Thunder's turn to be a devil. They also dressed Rosie up again. They put the strip of pink bubble wrap around her and tied it in the back and called her Breast Cancer Awareness Rosie. The kids have a small pop-up tent, maybe three foot by three foot. They can fit three kids in it, and Rosie, and a pumpkin.

Nice and Cozy.

Today has been good. I sorted clothes for a few hours this afternoon, blissfully aware that dinner was all ready to go in the oven. Evelyn had the idea to make a cake, and she looked up a recipe, but I did not want to stop the clothes sorting to help her follow it, so I suggested cake mix. She made chocolate cake in two tart pans. Then she needed frosting. She wanted me to make some because the only can in the cupboard was opened up with a fingerpath in it. I did not even try to find out who was the guilty one. I made frosting like this, because we had only a half bag of confectioner's sugar: melted a spoon of shortening with a half stick of butter, stirred in the sugar and some vanilla, and added some milk. I whisked it up, warmed it a bit in the microwave, and added a whole 5 ounce bar of German chocolate from Aldi. I stirred that until it was smooth, and poured it over the cakes....it was delectable. Evelyn put sprinkles on, and we enjoyed. There were 15 of us at the table, so the cake was gone quickly. I am thankful for that, it tasted so yummy it would have tortured me if there was any left. That is one really nice thing about having so many kids. There usually isn't much leftover.

Mirielle is back in Connecticut now. It was very nice to see her. I hugged her when she got home! This afternoon when I looked at the new Price-Chopper ad, I missed her. No one else cares that sourdough bread is $1, or that grapes are $1.28 a pound. Or that we have a $2.00 off a Pert shampoo coupon, and it is on sale for $4.99. Abigail is home now, and she is so sweet and fun. And she is nice to shop with, too. But Mirielle is my coupon cutter and she knows a good price when she sees one. I know they grow up but I don't have to like it.

We might go and visit our friend Gwen tomorrow, she is in her eighties and has cancer. If she is feeling up to it, we will go. She is an amazing woman.

cold and chilly.....

I cannot get warm, even sitting here under a blanket with a glass of wine. I am cold. I was outside for a good part of the day today. We were at a church conference, 14 of the kids and I. Paul couldn't go because he had to work today.

Charlotte Claire took a nap on my lap today during the afternoon meeting and it was sweet. Mali took Camille for me, so I got to sit and listen, which is a blessing. We heard about sufferings, how we need to endure in them. How we need to humble ourselves so we can be in God's grace. The Israelites in the desert complained and murmured, so they did not see the promised land. We get to choose during the day to believe God that all things work together for our good, or to harden our hearts and grumble. What a life we have been called to!

The older kids are still there at the youth meeting. There is a snack bar afterward, so they will be pretty late. I am sure they heard good things at the meeting, too. I brought the younger kids home tonight and Paul had gotten home and he made dinner for tomorrow night! He said he thought it would be nice to not have to make dinner tomorrow. Yay! I let the little girls sit at the picnic table that is still in the living room and have a popsicle. It is cold, but that is what they wanted. I wonder if they were thirsty, they did have pringles today. Anyway, it gives me at least three gray hairs to give Camille a popsicle. She makes such a mess! She drips and drops and gets her elbows in it. But she is so funny, when she was done, she read the joke on the stick. The funny part is that it wasn't a real Popsicle brand, and there was nothing written on the stick. But she remembered the other kids doing it when we had Popsicles.

They were pooped out (my mother used to say that, does anyone say that anymore?), so they went to bed so nicely tonight. And now it is just Paul and I...so - so long for now!!

almost midnight...

I went to activity club with the kids tonight because they needed me to drive the big white van. (Paul had to work). So I was the only old person there. The youth kids run it, have a meeting and sing sweet songs with the kids, and then divide into age groups and do crafts or activities. Tonight they carved pumpkins. Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, and Charlotte Claire brought one home. Jonathan was supposed to play dodge ball with the boys group, but he started to cry because he wanted to do pumpkins too, so he and his friend Toby got to stay with the girls and share a pumpkin. Since Jonathan was determined more likely to take it right, Toby got to take the pumpkin home. So I am going to buy Jon a nice big pumpkin one of these days. Last year, much to my shame, we, (meaning I), never got around to getting them some. Here are the kids in activity club. The kids are ages almost five to eleven.

This is Grace....she is so sweet and lovely. She did this pumpkin all by herself.

Sonja had the biggest pumpkin.

Suzanne did hers all by herself, too.




Charlotte Claire had some help from her cousin Claire. Doesn't it look just like her?

Rosie is a little devil. No, a big devil.

So a busy day and a busy evening, and the clothes are still in piles in the living room...and I am still alive.





Camille .....

Happy happy to be going bye bye...

Kathryn Grace...

Kitten Force is a little devil, too.

Or perhaps Aaron and Joseph are the devils...they enjoy bugging the kitties, but they also love them to pieces. Joseph made me buy this costume for one dollar today at the dollar store.

Oh, and this is our brand new septic tank!! Wow, we liked our old one fine, but this new one will be so nice to have. I am sort of glad the old one collapsed so we could get a clean new one. I am sure it will cost a few thousand dollars, but it is worth it!!! I am going to tell the kids not to flush so we can keep it clean and new.
We are getting silly now..Abigail. Mirielle, Joseph,Mali, and Margaret are all still up and we are laughing about everything. I need to get to bed....

the septic tank guy is coming over!

And who in their right mind would think the house would need to be picked up for that? Also, my brother is stopping over in a little while. I am embarrassed. Not so embarrassed that I am willing to forego this little habit of mine, but embarrassed none the less. Because, here is the story...

Once upon a time there was a lady. She did not live in a shoe, but she lived in a house with 16 other people. She had around 20 garbage bags full of clothes to sort and put away. She REALLY wanted to get it done. So, she worked at it. She had a small daughter who thought the clothes were all to try on. She had some older daughters who cheered and clapped their hands when they found something they had missed or forgotten about, and told this lady, "Mom, throw it here!", to which the lady replied, "Okay, dear, but make sure you put it away!" ha. So smaller piles were sprouting, althought the biggest pile was diminishing. The laundry room was slowly but surely getting filled back up with clean clothes. Then, the lady realized that it was approaching the dreaded dinner time! She asked one child to measure some water and some rice, and the short version is that it was unedibly burnt. She asked her 5 years old son to open the biscuits and put them on the pans. Oh, he likes to open pop and fresh biscuits. He thinks they should also be shaped just so....anyway, she took a break for dinner, helped clear the table, and got right back to the clothes sorting. Seven of the kids went out the door to the youth meeting, and the other kids were sort of helping her, sort of playing the new Princess game with Charlotte Claire and Camille. And doing their spelling. Anyway, this lady sorted clothes until the last bag was empty, not including the two smaller bags full of unmatched socks. And strangely enough, she was actually looking slightly forward to matching all these socks. She knew the rich and satisfied feeling that would come when it was finished. So, the lady took a little break to play with her puppy dog, and then took a shower and went to bed. The night was cold and her sleep was interrupted by intermittent whines and cries of the small child. The lady climbed out of bed four different times to cuddle and kiss the small child, only to be so awake she tossed and turned, and found herself waking to the whining of the small child again. It was during one of these times of sleeplessness that the lady realized with horror what the man who delivered the clothes had said to her," This is most of them. The rest will be done by next week".......

So. The lady sits on her computer as if her kitchen sink is not full of dishes, the counters aren't full of dishes, her tables don't have coloring stuff all over them, her entryway isn't covered with jackets that got knocked down as the bus arrived, and shoes that were worn yesterday and not replaced neatly on the shelf. She sits here with those things niggling at her mind, while her Charlotte Claire mauls the puppy, needing clean clothes and breakfast and attention. This lady knows she has to get up and clean up quickly, because what will her brother think of her messy house? And, what will the septic guy think?

interesting life...

Today, something happened to one of my kids, and I encouraged her to see the big picture. "Without a vision the people perish", proverbs 29, 18. Also that "God is oppposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble," 1st Peter, 5 v. 5. So the crushings can come, but" if God is for us, who can be against us?", Romans 8, v.31. He knows what we need. She has said I can tell what happened, Abigail got fired today from her nice new job. She was pretty shocked. She came home early, and I was alarmed. I knew something bad had happened, and to tell the truth, I was glad it was that instead of something worse. Because there are worse things. ( I do try not to worry about my kids, but even when they grow up, it is there) Anyway, they told her they thought she didn't seem to like the job very much, blah blah blah. She really has no idea why. It must hurt.

So I comforted and encouraged her. Then Paul came in from work and told me that the septic tank has collapsed. He called a guy who is coming to look at it tomorrow. I immediately thought of my own words. Because it seems like one thing after another. In fact, I started the day today with the thought, "Wonder what will happen today?" But God does not allow these things to happen to punish us, no, He wants us to be saved in the situations. To be cleansed and changed and be free from anxiety.

I have all the bags of clothes sorted now. But they are far from put away. There are piles and piles in the living room, on my short-lived-clothes-free-couch. But it feels nice to be making some progress. And I am not going to talk about clothes anymore.

This afternoon while I was busy sorting, I asked one of the girls to make some rice, and put something in the oven for me. When I thought the rice might be done, I asked someone specifically to turn it off. Oops, they heard me, but got sidetracked and forgot. It was so burnt we couldn't eat it. And we didn't notice it was burning because Mali was being sweet to Abigail, and baking her a lovely cake in the springform pans, which leaked all over my new oven, setting the smoke alarm off and scaring poor Jon, who spent at least a half hour hovering in the vicinity of the door, just in case we had to leave quick. Oh Jon, I tried to explain that it was okay, there was smoke, but no fire, the oven is new, it is okay. He insisted he ALREADY knew all this, he was just standing there in case. So dinner was sparse, but it seemed to go around, and the cake was heavenly. Even though they used granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar in the frosting. It was chocolate, and it sunk into the cake and was very good. Like I said, I am not a good judge, because I have never met a cake I didn't like.

So, when Abigail told me what happened, I said, "Oh good, you can help me with these clothes!", and she said she had thought I would say that very thing. I am not really glad, but hey, she can still help me....."A mans heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps", proverbs...Ab said that God must just have other plans for her.

Well, goodnight!

clothes clothes more clothes....moving mountains

The cleaning service washed this shirt for us. Does anyone want it? I am save-y, but NOT this save-y. And the last thing we need is a memoir of the dryer fire - Jon still says almost every day, if not twice, "It's a good thing Dad was here when the fire started! It would have burned the house down. Do you think it would have? I think it would have." And so on. So I started on the mountain of bags. I sit in the chair and sort. A box for Sean, who is younger than Jon, a basket for Charlotte Claire and Camille to grow into, things that go on hangers, pajamas for the girls, boys, a bag of stuff for Sam's friends who are all shorter and smaller than him. And piles of baby clothes (wah), and piles of undies. A basket of tights. It is getting done, slowly, but the rest of the house seems to be falling down around me. I need to ask these guys to pitch in a bit so I can put the piles away before they start jumping in them. (by "they", I mean Charlotte Claire and Camille. Especially Camille)....and in the middle of managing the little girls and working on this, I got ANOTHER dreaded school nurse phone call - this time for Suzanne. She just didn't feel well. hmm. I had to go pick her up. She seemed fine when she got home. Then, a nice surprise came! Rosie started barking at the mail-lady, I looked out, and she had two packages for us! They are from a very sweet and thoughtful friend who reads this. The kids were so excited! Suzanne took it out and took a picture....

Jonathan was in a hurry to find out what was in here....

It was a Nerf sword! He says now he can be a soldier for Halloween.

Charlotte Claire looks like a princess, Camille looks like a chubby little sweetie in princess clothes!

In this box was a Princess Bible. It is very beautiful, and sick Suzanne swooned when she saw it. So I let her have it and she said she will keep it nice in the box. When Sonja came home, she saw the box and I told her she could take special care of the books. And Evelyn asked for the pink bubble wrap. They are going to share it. There was also a gift card to Target to get something for the other kids. I must say, I was very pleased. What a nice surprise, and it came at just the right time.

I am taking this break finally, I am getting sick of the clothes thing, but I need to finish. I can clearly picture all of the bags sitting in the kitchen, ripped open, with the kids finding things as they need them. It could happen. I do not want it to happen. Paul has worked hard in the laundry room putting up shelves, so I do have a place to put things. In fact, he didn't even break for dinner until like 8 last night. There are clothes on the table, and all over the kitchen, so last night I had a great idea - bring in the Little Tikes picnic table!!! Kathryn and Evelyn went out in the dark and dried it off and carried it up the stairs into the living room. They had towels all over the floor in case it was dripping. Then some of them sat there, and a few other of them in little chairs, and I brought in their plates. We had the yummy roast beef and roasted potatoes and carrots for dinner in the living room while watching tv. It is funny, probably a lot of families eat in the living room all of the time, and occasionally eat in at the dining room table. Anyway, I think we'll keep the table in here for a while. It does not look beautiful, but our heat doesn't work yet,(and it went down to 29 degrees last night) and the kitchen tile is cold cold cold. The kids had a nice breakfast out here this morning. I am not sure how we will do dinner yet.

But one thing is for sure, we will do dinner. So that means I have to get moving. Camille is doing the "ba-ba" dance, she wants a ba-ba. Poor baby. Yes, I do know she is almost two. But she is my sweetie little baby. She puts her hands on my face and puts her nose right on mine and looks in my eyes and says, "MOMMY, MA MA!", with such sincere joy. She is a cuddler, and if she wants ba-ba's, then she will get ba-ba's. She also tells the cutest secrets. She has also changed her clothes about 10 times today. She keeps seeing things she likes better than what she has on. It doesn't matter if it is hers or Jon's or Kathryn's, she just puts it on. I have had to put lots of things in the hamper just from her wearing them around today. Oh well, she is cute. And her nap was cut short because Charlotte Claire missed her, and went in and woke her up. RRR. That's what I say about that.

pumpkin muffins and lots of clothes...

Yes, some of the clothes are back. I am not a comlaining woman, ha, but the guy said when they took these clothes away that they would come back on metal hangers. A few did, the ones that are on the table. But most of these were hanging clean in the laundry room. They threw away all the hangers they were on because they said they would come back on hangers. hmm. I wonder it is worth haggling over, or if I should just go to the dreaded Wallyworld and buy $40 worth of hangers. I have to do something soon. But first I am taking a break here.....Oh, and does anyone want to come over and help? Didn't think so....the guy who dropped them off had heard how many kids we had, and he thought he was so funny when he left and said, "Well have fun with it..." ha ha ha. Oh, and they didn't give me that stroller. That is my trusty double Emmaljunga. It is very handy, it folds up flat, not like a pram that has to be taken apart. But it has big bouncy wheels and rides so smoothly. I love it. And I really don't need it anymore, wah. I made mini pumpkin muffins today. I also made a 13by9 pan and a 9x9 pan.

These children, Camille, Charlotte Claire (lookin' spiffy in Jon's old shirt), and Jonathan...Jon was showing off his skill - he can peel a tangerine.

I decided to make it fun and opened a can of frosting. After mixing up the pumpkin muffins from scratch, I decided to open the can instead of mixing some homemade. They didn't care. They each got to stir the frosting. This is Charlotte Claire after I told her that her eyes were closed in the previous picture I took.

So much fun to sprinkle those little muffins.

I meant to put a picture of Camille too, but I guess I didn't. Before we got finished frosting these, I got one of the dreaded calls from the school nurse: come get Mali. But she wasn't throwing up, those are the most dreaded. Once I picked Suzanne up because she had been sick to her stomach at school, and she seemed fine. So I asked her if we could stop in the store for milk, really really quick. Poor child, she started looking green when we were checking out, and sure enough, as soon as we got in the van.....she...well, I won't spell it out. I felt pretty bad about that one. Anyway, Mali had a fever of 100, so I needed to pick her up, and she is not allowed back to school until her fever is gone for 24 hours. So I had to go pick her up. I left Camille in her jammies, put her coat on her and carried her, got the other two in their boots and coats and out the door...it wasn't too bad, but we were in the middle of having fun. At least they are nice and they will send the child out and not insist we get out and go in and sign her out.

Well, Camille is napping, so I should be trying to do something with these clothes....