getting up in the morning...

All of you people who get up and go to work every morning all year round, shh, let me vent anyway, lame as it is: It's SO hard to get up in the morning when summer ends!! School mornings, ugh. I don't even go to school, but the least I can do is get up and see the two high school girls off, in case they need anything signed, and to, shh again, make sure they are dressed properly. (this isn't usually an issue, but there have been occasional sending back to change episodes, which are just lovely in the morning ha).

Anyway, yawn. The girls are really tired, they enjoyed summer right to the last drop. Homework started right away too, so their free time is about nil.

I need to get up for the homeschool kids anyway, they are on an early schedule so they can get done earlier. Anne came over yesterday too, and Lydia is here.

Last night, I woke in the night and could NOT fall back to sleep. The harder I tried to think about nothing, the more good ideas I had. For one, we are soon replacing our kitchen tile floor, which is bittersweet for me, my brother Billy installed it for us...the brother who died, who killed himself, who shot himself. There is seriously so much denial in my brain about my brother, about how he died, and how I don't allow myself to think about it, because I can't even process it. So tile floor - Billy - thoughts, wonderings, ect. The tile floor is, btw, very nice, but lots of the tiles have cracked, maybe due to inadequate subflooring, but the sharp little cracked pieces are not safe, and look terrible. The smooth uncracked pieces are beautiful, and I absolutely love the tile floor, and we did consider replacing the broken ones, but they'll probs just crack again.

So I have been doing my research, and am thinking of waterproof vinyl planking that looks like wood. The reviews are good, it looks nice, it's sturdy, and it's not too expensive, plus it's easy to install...the hard part will be to rip out the existing tile. Some people have installed it over tile, but with ours cracked, ect, that wouldn't be smart.

The problem is, it's very close to what we have in the living room, but not exact, the living room is wood-like laminate, and I don't want the floors to clash. There are two large doorways connecting the two rooms. If we went with a totally different color wood, like a white with gray, that would be different, but I like the warmth of the medium colored wood...

So you can see how many things I have to think about in the night.

Plus, Evelyn started a new job yesterday.
Suzanne has an important placement test today.
Sam has lots of things he is sorting through in his life.
Our minivan is in the shop again, the rear brakes were smoking.
I have to make autumn themed rice krispie treats for a church bake sale, before Saturday.
Sunday is the wedding shower for Bethany, who is marrying Joseph, and I have food to prepare.

As I sit here blissfully blogging, I get a call from Mali, oh no, she's fine, but she got into a car accident...car's not doing so well, but she's okay. On her way home from a 12 hour night shift at the hospital, a pretty bad fender bender. I was on one phone with her, and the home phone was ringing, it was Sam, and I was like, "OH NO!", but he had only forgotten his lunch, which he actually hadn't forgotten, it was in his car, and he texted me when he found it.

I'm glad she's okay. I'm glad Sam found his lunch.

It's kind of funny, because on snowy mornings, my grown "children" drive to and from work, and I pray, and I am thankful when I get a text saying, "I made it!", but this morning, out of the blue...but I'm glad she's okay. Traumatized a bit, but okay. (And glad Lydia is here with us!)

So today's agenda: teach social studies and biology and go over some math problems and do writing assignments...clean the house, go to the store later for more chlorine tablets for the pool, because I want to keep it open for as long as possible:)

When I jumped up to answer the home phone (Sam calling to see if he left his lunch here anywhere) while on the cell phone with Mali, I forgot my coffee mug, half full, was sitting between my thigh and the armrest of the chair, will I ever learn? Oh yeah, coffee everywhere, chair soaked, wah. Was the cup half empty or half full? DEFINITELY HALF FULL.

Since we have a van in the shop, I will be driving Kathryn to work today. I hope Mali's car isn't damaged too badly, she'll be getting a rental, but...

One thing I know is that I cannot stress about my grown kids' troubles. I can listen, I can pray, and I can help as much as I can, but I can't let things weigh my soul down. The older I get, the more I see and believe that God HAS all of this. He sees the big picture, and knows what He's trying to accomplish. We see trials and hassles and aches and pains, He sees how we need to have opportunities to overcome, opportunities to come to mercy, to learn patience, and how to humble ourselves. It's easy to trust God when the sun is shining and my coffee is sitting here next to me, but when it spills and the troubles roll in...?

Well now the morning is ebbing away and there are things to do and kids to teach...