sunday afternoon

Sixty degrees and sunny here in the northeast. Today, I got Camille in for a nice nap, made some bacon, eggs, and toast for a late breakfast (second breakfeast), then decided to leave the work and go outside. Sunshine on skin just feels good. Charlotte Claire can wander faster than I can run, and when she runs....uh-oh for me. She likes to play in the wagon, and be pushed in the baby swing....Jon likes his toy lawn-mower, and his Little Tikes car....Anyway, it was delicious outside, and our meeting (church) was at 1:00 today because of the boys' weekend....it was a tough decision to go. The girls had packed a wonderful picnic lunch, and were not thrilled that they had to get dressed and leave. So, we let them take the lunch with them and stay out on the playground at the meeting hall, and not go in at all. I didn't like being inside on such a day, it's a small price to pay for seeing my friends, and being encouraged to be faithful to God in my daily life.

One of the little girls sprayed her big sister's perfume, and even with the windows open, yuck. I can taste it.

I am missing my mom and dad. She died 2 years ago in July, and he one year ago January. How can you go from talking to people everyday all your life, and then adjust to never ever seeing them again? My parents really had few other friends than their 7 children and their spouses, and 40 something grandchildren.... No detail was to small to call them about. My mother was the kind of Gramma that knew all her grandchildren's birthdays, and gave them all presents...plus she always bought things for them (on clearance, of course), and she knew what they all liked and didn't like....she was the bookreading lapsitting huggy kind of Gramma. She has left behind 7 broken-hearted grown children, and a whole slew of grandkids who remember her with great fondness. My dad was a bit grouchy on the outside, sometimes REALLY grouchy, but he had a great big soft heart, and he did as much as he could for us kids. He always gave me money when I drove over to visit them, 45 minutes away from here. He bought groceries for all of us in a really excessive way. After my mother died, his grocery shopping habit really got out of control, then he got sicker with symptoms from his leukemia, and couldn't go to the store anymore...so he sent me one time to buy: 10 boxes of tissues, 2 crates of oranges, 4 bottles of disinfectant spray, 2 things of that germ killing handwash.....and he gave me the money for it, and the stuff was for me. The cashier thought I was expecting a plague. But see, my dad was afraid of germs with his illness, and the fear got a bit crazy in him. He was always a bit excessive/compulsive, but with my mom's death, and his cancer, he NEEDED order-his medicine and stuff had to be set out just so, and his hands were washed continuously.....when we came to visit, we could only be on the other side of the huge livingroom....he just thought he would catch something, and die. It was ironic that he died of a massive stroke. Not to mention extremely shocking and so, so sad. I spent alot of time on the phone with him after Gramma died, and I still miss that. I miss them both. They are buried right in town, 4 miles away on a windy hill, and I don't like to go there. I don't think of them as being in the cemetary....I can't really handle that.

Well, on a better note, spring is here: finally! Now all of the sudden, these little girls need new sandals. Too small, to rippy, to scuffy, only one to be found....hmm, should they all skip school for a day and go shopping?