summer 2011

summer 2011

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012
family

Monday, November 23, 2009

it is after midnight, and I should be in bed...

Oh, the things that happen each day. Not that anything monumental happened today. But it was a good day.

We had our Thanksgiving feast at church, ham and turkey and stuffing and potatoes and gravy, and vegetables and rolls with butter....and coffee and pumpkin and apple pie with ice cream....and fellowship and encouragement and music, just as I imagined.

And my dear friend Gwen was there. She is not doing well at all. She was born in 1924, and she has cancer now. She is English, and grew up in India, her father was a railroad man. As a child, she had servants who fanned them in the heat, and helped her get dressed. She was in the English army during World War Two. She has so many interesting stories to tell. She is getting very weak, though. She didn't even have the strength to pick up her fork and eat her pie on her own. Her mind is still so sharp and she still has her humor, but her body is failing quickly now. She is very thin, and being there at the feast today was exhausting for her, even in the wheelchair. I know she has had a good life, and I know she'll be glad to meet up with her sister, Joy, who passed away three years ago last June. But I am not ready to say goodbye to her yet. She is old, but after talking to her for 2 minutes, one forgets that. She is funny and clever and very encouraging. She is thoughtful and kind, and takes her calling seriously. She is humble and dear and good, and heaven will be glad to receive her!

After the feast some of us (Abigail, Mirielle, Aaron, Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, and I) went over to my niece Susan and her husband Thomas' house for their son William's first birthday party. He is the cutest sweetest thing! Margaret has pictures on her camera, maybe she will let me steal some. He is so cute. Jonathan was helping him walk around, and the girls and Jon were playing on the floor with him with his new toys. After we sang the birthday song to him, he got a huge piece of chocolate cake, and he just poked it curiously at first, and he squealed with delight before discovering how much fun it was to squish and squeeze it. My kids just loved watching him. They are telling me again how much they need a little brother.

Everyone has gone to bed now, and the house is quiet. I need to get Rosie into her cage and get to bed myself. I am tired, but it is oh, sooo nice to sit here in the quiet. Because I know that tomorrow will be busy....I need to:

Take Benjamin some places. Help him get some things taken care of. By the way, please consider praying for this son of mine. He is a lost soul, he is lonely and depressed, his girlfriend of 4 years broke up with him, which I have no comment about, but he is taking it hard. He just can't seem to get out of his nice little hole he has dug...we are trying to help him get back on his feet and find his way in it. No, it is not the little ones who give me gray hair...but of course I love him, and would do anything to help him.

I need to go tanning. Well, I suppose that is wrong to call it a "need". As I told Paul, I don't want to burn as easily in Jamaica, so I need a base tan. And I want to look good in my bathing suit. He just looked at me. Well, I said, I don't want to cause anyone to stumble...ha.

I need to return the new foot pedal for the sewing machine, it doesn't fit. AArrrgg. I am doomed in the sewing department!!! It is one thing after another, and this time it is almost not funny, because Mirlelle and Margaret are trying to make these sweet little princessy stockings for the bazaar.

Oh, and I need to clean up the house a bit better. Ha, "a bit better"....more like lots. Weekends tend to be relaxing around here, and it shows....although I did match a whole basket of socks last night, and do a few loads of laundry today. (a whole basket of clean matched socks makes me happy).....

And here I sit, still....goodnight!

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