welcome weekend...

I've become the Hunter's Wife. He is in the midst of bow-hunting season here in rural New York state. Benjamin's new house comes with a small bit of land, but Ben made friends with the farmer who owns the property out back, and voila! They all get to hunt on those acres. Jonathan is hunting with Benjamin today, and Paul is getting out of work early to join them.

(Paul and Jonathan)

Here's why I don't mind:

For years and years, we were both up to our elbows in small children. Paul used to hunt and fish when I first met him, then for the first few years of our marriage...then, life got so busy. He was too responsible and kind to just go off and leave me with all the babies. I honestly feel really bad for Ben, because when HE was ten years old, he had eight younger siblings, so he didn't really get much time with his dad for those things, although he did go on a camping trip with him when he was ten, and managed to fall off the front of that party boat and get hit by the propeller, but that's a whole 'nother story, which has already been told.

Anyway. Fast forward to now, and Jonathan AND Ben go hunting with their dad.

This is from the trail-cam Paul installed at Ben's place. Makes them so hopeful, ha.

So hunting season. I really don't mind. The bin of hunting clothes, the muddy boots, the going to bed so early to get up so early. I don't really like venison, but I am trying to be open minded. We did have some not-too-bad roasts last year, marinated and seasoned just right.

The thing is, when do we get to do the multitude of projects that need doing around here? I won't list them, everyone has them, but ha, we can't do inside projects in the summer! And fall, that's hunting season! Winter, well, we might get something done then. Let's just hope.

Yesterday, we had oven roasted chicken, roasted squash and potato cubes (tossed in some olive oil, salt and pepper, oh yummers!), and a nice big salad for dinner. Lydia went home, and today, we have no small children here, for the first time in a while. With Joe gone, Ev at work, Kap in Oregon, the two high schoolers in school, Jon hunting with Ben, it's just the two little girls and me, here at home. How's THAT for rattling around like peas in a pod? It's like echo-y in here!

And, we have plans! Oh yes, we are going to have fun, just the three of us! Not sure what we're doing yet, but we ARE doing!

It's also a church conference weekend, so staying in the camper, yay!

Ah well, there are seasons in life.

Here's what we did the other day:



My baby, my Miss Cammy, Camille Anaya. She didn't want me taking her picture, and I was like, "Oh no, don't you go all teenager on me!"

The girls are still sleeping, and the dogs are snoring, so do you want to hear a story? Okay, good, because I have one to tell. It's disturbing and sad, but here goes...

My mother passed away in 2006, when Charlotte Claire was just a little baby. She had been on kidney dialysis for 9 years, three times a week for nine years. She had breast cancer in her forties (two radical mastectomies, lymph nodes taken too). Then a heart attack in her fifties, followed by a triple-bypass that damaged those kidneys. So she was in the hospital a lot.

So one time she was in the hospital, she was hysterical, claimed someone had come into her room and sexually assaulted her. She described it to me in detail, said it happened, someone came in and did these things to her. The nurse said she had been saying those things and that she was imagining it, bad reaction to morphine. There was a guard posted at her door, because she was so upset, and they had restrained her to the bed before we had gotten there. She seemed fine and lucid to me, and asked me to find the restraints they had used, they were in the closet, and hide them, so they wouldn't use them again. She INSISTED someone had assaulted her. Now, she was 66, 67, 68, something like that when this happened. I don't know the actual date, or remember what she was in the hospital for at this time. But we didn't believe her. We thought it was ridiculous.

Then, yesterday, I read the local news. A man was arrested for grabbing a 70 year old woman's butt in a store. He had a lengthy history of arrests for sexual assault, including...assaulting a 67 year old woman, a patient, in St. Joseph's hospital in Syracuse, back in 2005. He was walking the halls of the hospital, going into rooms, and he was caught assaulting someone. That was the hospital my mother was in, and she turned 68 that year. So now I have questions but I don't want to know the answers. Why was there a guard outside her door? What did they cover up? Was it true? She could easily have been a victim of this, and if they knew this was going on, why didn't they give some credence to what she was saying? Why, oh why did I not read the news that summer? if I had known it was happening, I would have believed my own mother! I cannot tell you the depth of grief I am feeling for my mom. If we told her it was just a bad dream, and she started to believe it was just a bad dream, is that almost as good as if we had believed her? I don't know. I know this: you cannot change the past. And I don't want to drudge things up, what good would it do? I truly believe there was foul play, as far as the hospital not taking her allegations seriously, but then, neither did we. But then, we didn't KNOW this person was arrested for this, didn't know it was going on.

The only thing I can take from this is: if you are so lucky to still have a mom, give her a hug, be kind to her, cherish the days with her. If you don't, then transfer that love, affection, appreciation to your spouse, your kids, your friends. We don't always know what people are going through, and goodness is never a bad idea. And excuse me while I go have another good cry.