new day, new week..

I am not sure where this birthday hat came from, but I thought it would look nice on Camille, and I was right. She wanted it off though....but we had to take a picture first....I am not too mean, I hope....Kathryn's birthday is coming up. She will be eleven years old, my tenth child. I was telling her about when she was born......Emily was 13, Abigail 11, Benjamin 9, Mirielle 8, Joseph 6, Aaron 5, Mali 4, Samuel 2, and Margaret, 15 months and one day. How did I manage to have 10 kids with the oldest one 13, and just turned thirteen, at that.....I remember having an awful headache after she was born, and asking the nurse to take her for a while....I over heard her say to the other nurses, as she wheeled the nice little bed out into the hall, "I don't know what she's going to do when she gets home....ten kids!".....Well, it is fuzzy now what did happen when I got home, but I guess I just took things one at a time, and loved my baby......Margaret was a very sweet little toddler, I do remember that. And Sam....two and a half, with blond curls....oh, I have been a lucky lady....I am sure it wasn't easy, but I know that I believed then what I still believed, and will continue to trust in, that God causes all things to work for our good, and never gives us more than we can handle. I just have to re-adjust my thinking during the day, in the trials, and realize that my goals sometimes have to be given up. And still believe Him. I mean, I can think with all my heart that it is GOOD to get this load of dishes done. And be so frustrated, because someone is crying....but maybe I need to just sit down and read a story....

All nine of the school kids made it out the door and on to the bus this morning. But: the second trip didn't leave yet and the nurse called, Mali isn't feeling well at school, can someone come get her? Which is easier said than done, by the way....Jon, Charlotte Claire, Camille still in bed....Mirielle was nice enough to go and get her on her way, not, to college. She will be a little late for her class. She wasn't too thrilled with Mali, but she went to pick her up anyway. I am glad she did, or I would have had to wake up all the little ones and put them in the van.....

I didn't go on the treadmill this morning because it is another beautiful day, and I would rather take my walk outside today. It is sort of a gamble, not knowing how the day will unwind....

Camille was awful last night. She seems to be going backwards with her sleep. She stands there in her new little green bed, yelling for Me-Me.....and when I pick her up, she pats my back, and says, "shhh, shhh"....last night, she was up five times. Five times. I was sitting there nursing her, the big overgrown baby that she is, and thinking about how I could manage to get her out of my room. In my experience, when you get a child/baby that age into their own room, they learn pretty quickly that night is for sleeping......it takes a little bit crying, as much me as them....but not too much.

My brain still feels all fuzzy and disconnected because of losing Billy, especially because it was so tragic, the way he died.....I feel like I have been on a distant planet for a while.....I am not in sync with the world yet. The elementary kids do a Parents As Reading Partners project, called PARP, each March. I hate PARP. We read with the kids anyway, but to have to log the minutes for each child, and bring the weekly sheet to school.....just another thing to keep track of....but they get a prize if they bring it in, so I comply. Well, it is the sixteenth day of March, and I have yet to even sign one page of a PARP pamphlet. I really need to get it together here....Sonja actually went to school today without her library book. oops.

Mali is home now, she has a temperature of 99.7, lowgrade, but she feels awful and dizzy, which Mirielle wanted to know why she didn't feel that way BEFORE she got on the bus...but I think the kids often feel lousy in the morning, and just go to school.....if they stayed home everytime they felt yucky, they would be home all the time.

Charlotte Claire is up now, and Mali has taken up the couch. I wonder who will get this one.....no, I will not be anxious for tomorrow. I will take each moment, just each moment, and be faithful in it.