quiet of the evening....

Quiet. What a lovely word. All I can hear right now is the fan in the kids' room down the hall. And the keys of the laptop. Rosie is sleeping in her cage, and all the kids in the family are in bed except for Benjamin, who should be coming in soon. And Emily, who is working the quiet dim halls of the big hospital in the big city. She said working nights is more relaxed and less busy, no doctors to deal with.

Phew. The day gets SO busy sometimes. Tonight Paul was gone to a meeting, Mirielle, Joseph, Aaron, Mali, Sam, and Margaret were gone, and I was home with the seven youngest. (how did I manage this with a baby?) I think partially the answer is to that - now I have Rosie-the-dog-with-more-energy-than-all-of-us-put-together. She likes to go outside and just run in circles. Anyway, it was an eventful evening. As I tucked Jonathan in, we discovered that his bedding needed changing, OH YEAH, now I remember this morning he needed a shower. And Sonja missed Aaron this evening, and somehow thought of some good reasons to get up and come out and see him when they got home. Evelyn stepped on a sharp toy, and Camille climbed out of her little green bed three times. Oh, and I washed up all the dinner pans while Evelyn swept, Sonja washed the tables, and Kathryn loaded the dishwasher. I also sneaked into the laundry room and put away some clothes. Kathryn made ice cream cones for all the kids, and I said, "No thank you,", like a good girl, then Camille didn't want hers. Oh well, it was good.

Anyway, after they are all in bed, I sit here enjoying the quiet, feeling guilty that I love quiet so much, and thinking how much better it could have gone. I want to pay more attention to Jonathan, and read him the two stories he wanted instead of the one...I DID go into their room to read the story though, to get away from "American Idol"....it is too interesting to me. Suzanne got a hair trim/cut from Mali, and was not happy because she wants it short like Sonja, and followed me around half the night begging me to cut her hair. Not tonight, Suze....that answer wasn't what she was looking for. I let them play, "Elefun", which usually gets a bit crazy, but Rosie was outside, so at least she wasn't eating the butterflies. One of the girls signed my name on one of their papers and her teacher recognized it wasn't my writing, and the child lied and said it was her mother that signed it....now she feels bad and wants me to write a note, no way, you have to write a note or tell herself. It is good to humble yourself, I told her. Everyone has that stuff in them, and to see it and to have others see it is painful, but to admit it and ask for forgiveness is beautiful...."God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble..."(James 4, v.6)......

Well, it is nighty night time...and I will continue to pray for Eva....I found her blog, 65redroses, and it is very sad...she is on a waiting list for a lung transplant and is very sick, she has cystic fibrosis. Charlotte Claire is praying her heart out for her. Jonathan too.