gloomy lovely morning...

Evelyn missed the bus. She was in the bathroom. She is now home, because I am not going to drive her to school. I consider it an unexpected bonus, why would I drive that to school?

She doesn't mind either. She has been telling me about a team at school that recently won a huge competition, and how she has found herself really jealous of them, but she doesn't want to be jealous. I told her to really endure in that hatred of jealousy, to hold fast to the "I don't want to be like this" part. It is really encouraging to me because lately, I have really noticed much of that in myself. There is such a tendency in us to pick and criticize when we are in fact jealous. I HATE that in myself, and am so thankful for God's grace over me, that I can be free from things that divide and create strife. It makes my heart just sing that one of my children can be so awake and aware of her own sin.

Mirielle has a dentist appointment, and doesn't want to go alone. So I will wash my long tangly hair and get Charlotte Claire and Camille dressed in cute little clothes, and I will go with Mirielle. Going out and about is more fun than staying home. Besides, all the work I did around here yesterday is a moot point today anyway...I swept and vacuumed and mopped and shined and Mirielle washed clothes and hung them on the deck and cleaned the stovetop and the counters.....

I ordered a new filter for the refridgerator last night, which means that in a week or so we might be having crushed ice again, yay!

Mirielle was up pretty late last night baking strawberry and banana muffins for the girls' trip. They smelled heavenly and it was hard for Benjamin and Joseph and Aaron to smell those muffins. When I got up this morning, there was a plate of chocolate chip ones, and a note that everyone could have one. What a good girl. Needless to say, they are delicious.

I cannot import pictures onto my computer right now, a setting is changed that I cannot figure out. I took some cute ones this morning. I saw Jonathan sitting there at the table with his milk and his muffin, he was saying it isn't fair the girls get to skip school more than he does....he is so adorably sweet, with his ears and his serious expression about the whole thing. I just wanted to tell him to stay home today. There are only 14 and a half days of school left, yay! Anyway, I took a few pictures of him, and some of the four of them all dressed for school...Evelyn got her hair cut to her shoulders, and she looks so sweet. It is much more managable for her now, especially because swimming tangles hair so much.

Benjamin has submitted his medical records for the Army, and is waiting for a job that is to his liking to open up. He is still thinking "Medic". He had to submit these records because he has so many scars. He had a terrible accident when he was ten years old..I have written about this before, so if you have read it, skip it.....

It was July, 1999. I was expecting my eleventh child, (Evelyn...evelyn, eleven..anyway...)I was eight months pregnant. Emily was 14 years old, Abigail 12, Ben 10, Mirielle 9, Joseph 8, Aaron 6, Mali 5, Samuel almost 4, Margaret 2, and Kathryn 16 months. Paul and Benjamin went away for a boys' camping weekend up in the Adirondacks, with the intention that we at home would have the camper all packed to go for a family camping trip when they returned from their weekend. So we worked hard, and had that camper set to go. The strange thing is, that when Paul and Benjamin drove away in the little red Toyota pickup, I waved to them 'til they were out of sight, then the thought barged into my head, "I'll never see them again." That freaked me out, and I drove it away. My intuition that something was going to go wrong was in high gear, I told them to be careful like a hundred times as they prepared to leave. It could be because I was pregnant, but.....

They were camped on a lake, and had rented a party boat. Some of the boys were fooling around on the boat. Benjamin got pushed in, off the front of the boat. He went right under the middle of the boat, and hit the motor. The boys started yelling, Benjamin was screaming bloody murder (did anyone else's mother used to use that expression, "bloody murder"? it is horrible!)....anyway, the guy driving the boat did not believe the kids to stop the boat, he thought they had hit a turtle...he finally got it that he needed to stop, two boys dove in and grabbed Benjamin....it was pretty awful. Paul still will not speak of it, he was in shock, I think. Benjamin was totally covered in blood, and these guys were on the other side of a remote lake....they got in a smaller boat and headed to the other side, stopped a camp and called the ambulance, sped down the lake to meet the ambulance at the dock in town....meanwhile, Ben was wrapped in a sheet.....Paul called me from the hospital that night and said the following: "Benjamin fell off the boat. He is in surgery." What????? Is he okay? Is he going to be okay? " "I don't know, he hit the motor. I will call you when he comes out." And that was that. I called my parents, and told the kids. Aaron cried his eyes out because he KNEW we wouldn't be able to go camping. I let the kids sleep in the living room, I took the phone with me to bed. And I suffered. Oh my goodness, I imagined the worst. I literally physically suffered agony, crying out to God to spare him and heal him....then, seriously, I heard God speak to me, He told me Ben would be okay. I thought of the verse, "After you have suffered a little while, may the God of all grace, who called us th His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you." (1 Peter 5, v 10).....I felt peace like a blanket cover me that night, and I actually fell asleep before Paul called back.

Benjamin had 106 stitches, the propeller blade hacked up his back and did a number on his hip, but we quickly realized how "lucky" he was that it hit his hip bone instead of his spine or his tummy, with all those important organs in there....I will spare the details of the surgery, but his scars are pretty gruesome. He developed an infection from the lake water, but healed enough to come home on Wednesday. I think they let him out sooner because the hospital was 5 hours away, up in the mountains, and the surgeon there knew our friend, a pediatric surgeon, who came over every day or two to take the stitches out a few at a time, mostly she supervised Ben taking them out on his own. He had a walker for a week or so, but he healed up and has some awesome scars to tell stories about. I know he told one teacher he was attacked by a bear, then pulled his shirt up and she just about shrieked. (He WAS only ten years old....)

And that is the story of his boat accident. His four wheeler accident was a few years later, as the kids say, "Ben has ruined TWO vacations...."

So my soul has suffered with my dear Benjamin...and now the thought of him in the Army....I cannot even express my trepidition.