rare quiet

Suzanne is home from school today, as she had a headache all last evening, and said she still had it this morning. Well, headache or not, she is taking over with Jonathan this morning. They have already painted pictures, counted money, read stories.....Camille and Charlotte Claire are still sleeping, and the other kids are all at school or work.....and here I sit.

We had a very nice dinner last night. The turkey was about the best I've had. I guess because it was fresh, not frozen. We also had mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, and cranberry sauce. Everyone was here for dinner except M. Camille sits in her highchair and has dinner with us each night.....she has progressed from sitting on my lap, or being passed around.....I usually feed her the messier stuff, and put things on her tray for in between. But since her highchair is parked between Charlotte Claire and I at dinner, C.C. thinks it's great fun to help feed her. Last night, she put mounds of mashed potatoes on Camille's tray....oh, what a mess. I think I will have to move Camille down to between two of the older kids.....

I am glad for this: tonight, I have no what-to-make-for-dinner-dillemma. Because I have a considerable sized bowl of turkey and gravy in the refridgerator. I may make soup out of it, as I have some fresh potatoes and carrots.....and I have some biscuits to go with it. See, if I ALWAYS knew what was for dinner, it wouldn't be as nice and comforting as it is today.

And: I also know what's for dinner tomorrow! I have all that pizza dough, and I have cheese, pepperoni, bacon, peppers, onions......so yes, pizza on Saturday night. The kids really like helping spread out the dough and putting on the toppings. I like everything done just so, so I have to almost sit on my hands.......and keep my mouth shut.....

Paul, Joseph, and Aaron are going to a Brother's conference this weekend. And this is the logical weekend to cut down a tree. Yes, we kill a tree every year. Paul usually takes a bunch of the kids and heads up towards Lake Ontario, where things grow so nicely, and cuts down a nice big fragrant fresh tree. This year, I think Emily is going to take a few kids and do it. So, Sunday when we get our tree, Benjamin is going to bring home some pizzas and wings from work, to make it special.....(wow, I know what's for dinner for the next 3 days! I am on top of the world!) And: we are going to try to take a family picture. Everyone will be home. It seems so much easier than trying to make an appointment somewhere and dragging all eighteen of us somewhere......with the older kids work, and school......

What I am thankful for this morning:

1. Random quiet times.

2. The warm electric blanket I heisted from the present pile.

3. God's grace over my life. That He helps me during the day.....

4. My older kids who are normal, funny, happy kids, who are being apprehended by the Gospel, and learning to walk on the way Jesus made......they are getting victory over impatience, judging, criticizing, talking back, discouragement....and countless other things. As a mother, to see my kids give their hearts to God and take His word seriously, it just totally humbles me. The thankfulness when one of them testifies at a meeting just makes me cry.

5. General Thunder and Kitten Force, the two kitties, are such a joy to have around, even though they do this chase-each-other-like-crazy thing in the early morning hours, and they are on the prowl for Mali and Aaron's new fish. They are cuddly and they just purr and snuggle. If I don't have a child to sit on my lap, I can scoop up a kitty....


I was thinking last night, when I was up with Camille during the night, about the time Benjamin almost died when he was 10 years old. I may have written about this before, I don't remember. Benjamin is our only child so far who isn't along in our church. There is a big contrast between him and our other kids. He smokes, he has a girlfriend, (who is a very nice girl, her name is Grace), he is rarely home. He has a restless spirit. But he has a very tender heart. I am praying and praying for him....these days, when a kid is out there in the world, there are so many things for them to sow into that can be totally destructive, like drugs, alcohol, violence......so far, he has been okay, but I really worry about him.....anyway, I know God's hand is on him...this is what happened when he was ten years old:

We were expecting our eleventh child within a month. Emily was fourteen, Abigail was 12, .....it was July. Paul and Benjamin went for a boys' campout weekend up in the Adirondacks. When they were leaving, I had a very bad feeling, I got scared, and told them to be careful....then as they drove away, I watched the truck go down the road, and I thought, "I am never going to see them again..."...I had to really battle against those thoughts, but I was for some reason worried.....in the meantime, we were packing. We grocery shopped and packed the camper for our family camping trip, which was to start on Monday morning. We worked like crazy, and got everything done by Saturday.....(I must have had more energy then than I have now, that's for sure)....anyway, on Saturday night, I got a phone call. Remember, cell phones just weren't in use then like they are now....so a phone call meant bad news. It was Paul calling from the hospital in Saranac Lake. All he said was that Ben fell off the boat and hit the propeller, and was in surgery. I asked if he was going to be all right, and Paul just said, "I don't know. I'll call you when he's out of surgery".....that was all he said. I turned to jelly. I called some people and told them to pray. I told the kids. Aaron was crying and sobbing. I told him it would be all right. He said, "Now we can't go camping, sob....sob..." He was only 5 years old.....I let all the kids sleep in the living room that night....they just did not want to separate and go into their own rooms. I finally went to bed, and took the phone with me. I cried, and sobbed, and prayed.....I pictured Ben dead, I pictured Ben (my active, wild , crazy boy) sitting in a wheelchair watching his brothers play basketball....I just was in agony.....Then I just prayed for peace.....and peace came. It covered me like a warm blanket. I was totally at rest that God was in control, and I actually fell asleep. The ringing phone woke me up.

Paul called and said he was okay, for now.....

Okay. He had angels watching over him, for sure. What happened: they had rented a party boat. Ben and a few boys were foolishly roughhousing near the front of the boat. Ben fell off. Went under the middle of the boat, underneath....hit the motor. The guy who was driving the boat kept right on going, didn't know he fell in. My nephew jumped in and pulled him out....he was covered with blood. The propeller had hit his hip, and his back......his hip bone was ....never mind.....anyway, they got him into a smaller boat, crossed the lake, found a camp with a phone....they were all the way down at the end of a lake that is seriously called Long Lake. They met the ambulance at the dock in town.....took him into surgery, he had 106 stitches....he developed a fever from the lake water.....but he survived. His hip will never be the same. That wonderful surgeon (a woman!) fixed him up best she could.......the thing is, if that propeller had not hit his hip bone, he would have been dead in the water....if it had hit his vital organs....or even his spine....it was almost, in retrospect, like he got hurt as badly as possible without getting ....

I will save the story of his 4-wheeler accident for another time, but he almost died in that one, too......


Charlotte Claire is up, my quiet is over....