happy happy birthday!

 

Jonathan Robert is 18 years old today!  Can you believe it?  He has been the biggest blessing, all of his life.  From my perspective, it's hard to explain just how amazing it's been to have Jonny....

You all know by now, as I repeat it often enough, that Jonathan was born less than eleven months after we lost baby Robert.  I knew I was having another boy, but I didn't actually believe it.  I didn't believe it until he was born, and he was actually breathing.  He was crying, I was crying, he was perfect.

Last year Jonathan climbed a mountain with his sister Evelyn...

When he was younger, birthday on the deck...

He was always a cutie...

Homeschooling fun...(the little guy is Davian)

Our dear Kathryn and husband Darius and little Achilles and Rhys are leaving today, so we have to go to the airport soon...

Baby Rhys wanted that ice cream, but she didn't get it.  I didn't either, I had one the other night, and yum.  Soft ice cream, mmm, but I have to say no sometimes...:)

Kathryn with Achilles...

Camille!

Look who got into the puffs!

Achilles and Sunny...

Their visit has been too short, but shh, I'm getting on a plane on Monday morning and going out to see THEM!  It's so funny, we booked our tickets before they booked theirs...Suzanne and I are going, it's going to be fun fun fun...although I hate leaving home.  I'll be homesick.

When I get back home, the busyness continues.  Sonja is turning 20 this week, and when I get home, it'll be Charlotte Claire's sweet 16, and on her birthday, Camille Anaya is finally having her knee surgery...

It's beautiful today, some sunshine on the deck...

pool time and being grandma...

 I did get up and go to my water aerobics this morning, it's like magic...I hem and haw and the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak, but when I get my rear in gear and go, it's totally worth it...I feel so much better after moving in that water.

Last evening was activity club...

We spent some time in the gym, Auntie Margaret with Achilles...

Auntie Emily and Tennyson...

Yesterday, Kathryn and I went to Aldi with Rhys and Achilles, and met Molly there with Ophelia...

Margaret and Adrian and Wulf and Tennyson are coming over...Lydia was here with Ophelia yesterday...busy Grandma days!

just wait!

 Just wait 'til they're teenagers.  See, way back when, a long many years ago, I had a tie-breaker baby.  Yes, we had four boys and four girls. (Emily, Abigail, Mariel, Molly)(Benjamin, Joseph, Aaron, Samuel)...then came Margaret, the girls were in the lead!  Little did we know, Margaret was to be the first of the five-girls-in-a-row, in five years!   (We actually had stillborn baby Robert when Margaret was still in Kindergarten, then Jonathan was born eleven months later, but that's another story for another day)

Anyway...those five girls were little and sweet and I got to dress them all alike, I got to hear how awful it was going to be when they were all teenagers.  

Truth:  There were days.  I remember the feeling of relief when I realized we were all on the same monthly schedule...because that explained a few things, we just weren't all coming down with rabies.  yes, there was some snarling.  Girls are besties but oh dear sometimes those claws would come out.  They loved to share but also didn't love when someone helped themselves, so we had our dramas.  The days are long but the years are short, so now we find ourselves looking back on those teenage years, as the youngest of them is turning twenty next week.  They'll be 25, 24, 23, 21, and 20. (Robert would be 19, Jonathan is turning 18, Charlotte Claire is turning 16 in May, and Camille will be 15 in November).  So when Sonja turns 20, I'll only have three teenagers in the house!  

With Kathryn in town, they decided to all get together last night, the five-in-a-row...

Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, Sonja, and Suzanne...(Ev holding Kathryn's baby Rhys) (Sonja and Suzanne should switch places, but Wulf took the picture, he did a good job!)

I spent a good part of the day at Ben and Ashley's yesterday with Anya and Elise.  I made them oatmeal for brekky, we played two huge games of UNO!, we played Paw Patrol, and I danced with Elise while Anya read "Anne of Green Gables".  We painted a wood pizza, and went outside and played pirates.  Their mama and papa and baby brother came home, and I got to hold baby Declan!

He's big and small at the same time.  I would have stayed all day and snuggled him, but his mama needs her rest.  I said my goodbyes to the sweet little girls and headed home...

Molly and Josh came for a visit with their chocolate Lab pup, and Lydia and Ophelia.  We had the little pools on the deck, and the sandbox open, so they joined in the fun...

Achilles in the pool...

Give kids a hose on a warm day, they'll be set.  

We had instant pot beef roast with gravy, potatoes, carrots...I've found if I put the carrots in there on top, whole, and the potatoes too, they get so tender yet don't fall apart and turn to total mush.  

It's a cooler rainy day today, after two brilliantly sunny and warm days, but that's okay.  We certainly enjoyed the warmth.  

This fine morning, Kathryn and I are going to pack up Achilles and Rhys and go to Aldi, we need bread and orange juice and coffee cream, and diapers.  Molly wants to come too...

The years of raising small children are already blurry in retrospect, but it does come back to me with the grandchildren.  I want to support and encourage the mamas, it's hard work!  Just being available, on duty, 24/7, responsible for these precious little ones straight from heaven, who have strong wills and more energy than mamas ever have...it's amazing but tiring.  

I'm so thankful for my lot in life.  So very, extremely thankful.  My kids have grown up to be my friends.  

Update:  Paul's foot is going to be okay...he did go to Urgent Care yesterday and have it fixed up, it was too late for stitches, but they cleaned and bandaged it.  Never a dull one, I tell you...

sunny funny days...with pics...

 

Tennyson and Sunny...

Paul and our son-in-law Darius with his little Rhys, and Wulf...

Cousins!  Wulf and Rhys

Four sisters:  Evelyn, Margaret, Kathryn, Sonja, Marg holding Ten, Kathryn holding her Rhys

Wulf

Aunt Sonja with Tenny

Jonathan, Margaret with Wulf, Darius holding Rhys and Achilles, Sonja with Tenny, Evelyn

Darius with Rhys and Achilles 

Swingset time...Evelyn with her glass of wine...

Jon looking off the deck....

Auntie Sonja with Ten and Rhys, little cousins...they are actually double cousins, because Kathryn and Margaret are married to brothers...

Me with Orange Guy...on a fine sunny morning.

Emily, then Kathryn with Achilles in the back, with Sonja and Ten, Evelyn Joy, Mariel Joy, Abigail, Margaret, Adrian, Charlotte Claire, and Camille...

Mariel, Abigail, Margaret, Adrian...

So too much fun....and off I go...Paul just stepped on something and cut his foot...

Edited to add:  Paul walked through the living room with a bloody foot.(the front of his lower leg, top of the foot, he had shoes on)..and I mean bloody.  He said:  I wondered why my shoe felt all wet.  He was out putting something in the garbage can and cut himself on something under the deck...it was gaping and dripping, and shh, I so nicely suggested that Sonja, our nurse-in-training, take a look-see.  She said it needed a stitch.  Well, Paul cleaned it up, wrapped it up, and said it stopped bleeding.  ugh.  I busied myself cleaning up the blood...felt a bit woozy.  He is hobbling around, but is taking a class online and is busy with it tonight...said if it gets bad tomorrow he'll go to urgent care...he just had a tetanus shot when the dogs attacked, so he's good on that...never a dull moment. I'm in these old shorts, of course that wasn't my FIRST thought, but I did wonder if I would have time to change quick, if I had to take him in.   Hopefully it'll be okay....dang, never a dull one.

it's a blur...

 Life seems so important in the moment.  I worked hard to get the bathroom spackled, primed, painted, cleaned...Jon took down that hideous old medicine cabinet, Paul put up a nice new Hearth&Hand shelf I got half off from Target, and a nice black towel bar.  I had spray painted the shower curtain rod black matte, so we hung the new shower curtain, and it looks decent in there.  It always takes way longer than you think it will.

And, if you're old, it takes more of a toll than you think it will.  Standing on the side of the tub to do top edging, whoa Nellie, thought I was going to slip and fall.  I used muscles I didn't know I had, they ached mildly then screeched a little louder when I tried to sleep.  

Oh, I do exaggerate.  But it reminded me of when the kids were younger, and I would go into one of their bedrooms and do a seriously deep cleaning, along with sorting every little thing...the little ones would find so many fun things, then when we got that room all in order, looking spiffy, inevitably I'd walk into the living room and oh my goodness all the fun things they found, along with the work I didn't do in here:  mayhem.  I had let things slip in the rest of the house while doing this project, and dang, the floors still need daily sweeping, and mopping almost every day, with two Labs.  

No, I couldn't get ahead back then, I simply tread water day in day out.  It's a good thing there won't be a housework final exam to get into heaven, at least I hope there won't be.  I will say this though:  I DID tread the water, I didn't just float around on a floaty.  I tried.  I worked.  I hated sticky, and crumbs, and dirty floors.  The kids ate at the table and got washed up before getting down.  They looked clean and neat when we left the house.  

We did have a Couch Monster of clean clothes from the dryer, and we had the Laundry Mountain in the doorway of the laundry room.  But I did try.

I do get extra points for fun, because I did like to take those kids on adventures.  We liked picnics in the yard, and blanket forts and spontaneous trips to the beach.  

Anyway.  I found a lot of grumping and complaining as I did my little project.  I would tell myself be thankful.  Then I wondered if it was just a mantra, and if it were true, or I was just stopping the complaints but still being complain-y inside.  hmmm.  I wondered what would happen, right in the middle of the things I was furiously trying to finish, if I didn't get it done at all.  Would it be the end of the world?  um no, of course not.  But I really want to get it done!

And it's done.  The house is not as clean as I would like it, for having people come stay here, but I am sufficiently tired, and have reached the MEH point, where it's fine.

I will be heading to the pool soon, don't want to miss those water aerobics.  I really enjoy it, and it feels so nice to get in the water and move.  I can't move like that on land!

Clue of our visitors:  look at that little boy, my grandson from Oregon!  What a long trip across the country with a two year old and a ten month old (granddaughter Rhys).  Yes, Kathryn and Darius are coming this morning!  I'll get out of that pool this fine morning in a hurry, and speed towards that airport to pick them up!  Yay!  The hilarious thing is that when they leave, two days later Suzanne and I will be heading out to visit them!  When it rains it pours.  We had no idea they were coming when we booked our tickets.  They didn't, either.  Darius just had some time between jobs, so they started thinking about vacations...it was very spur of the moment, and I love it.

Ah well.  It's going to be 53 and sunny here in central NY.  We'll take it.  Sunday, it's 75 and partly sunny....not too shabby.  Have a good weekend!

snow in spring, and other normal things...

 

This is the verse I had on my heart the other night, when baby Declan was in the newborn intensive care nursery.  His oxygen had dropped quite a bit, his heart was racing, Ben was exhausted and scared...I remembered when Benjamin himself was the one I worried about, when he was in that horrible accident where he fell off the boat and was hit by the propeller.  He had lost so much blood and was in shock by the time he reached the hospital, deep in the Adirondacks...back then we didn't have cell phones, so I had only the one call from Paul, he was in shock too, gave me the basics...when I asked if Benjy, who was ten years old, was going to make it, he said:  I don't know.  It's pretty bad.  That night, I absolutely wrestled with fear.  I was terrified.  I imagined every scenario, from Benjamin's tombstone, to him sitting in a wheelchair watching his brothers and sisters run around and play.  I didn't know what was going to happen, but I begged and pleaded with God for rest, to trust Him.  Then....I fell asleep, and woke up to a phone call from Paul that Ben was out of surgery, and was stable.  This was the verse that came to me, and comforted me.  Anyway, this thing with baby D. was a trial for Ben and Ashley, but oh my goodness, the drs and nurses know their stuff, and took such good care of him.  He's doing well now, and might even come home today.  (Ben told me he how he felt when baby was whisked to the NICU, I told him I knew the feeling....)

Anyway....there is chocolate in the house...!  Thank you, Margaret and Evelyn!  Jonny brought home Smash, which is Norwegian chocolate covered Bugles.

This says "Grandma I love you, Elise"

This one is from Anya...

Snow in April...

Oh my goodness, so much has happened today!  I went to the pool for water aerobics, then came home and got the bottles and cans, returned those ($40!  That's a lot of seltzers!), then went to Walmart for paint rollers and a few pillows, and a throw rug. ( We're trying to paint/fix up the downstairs bathroom because we are having guests soon.   I am not sure if it's a secret who is coming, so I won't tell yet, but they're staying here.  The bathroom has been on our list for a while now.  The ceiling needs to be replaced because of a washing machine leak above it, but that's not happening before Friday.)

After Walmart was Lowe's, I like Sherwin Williams paint but only the exterior paint is on sale right now, and it's just so pricey...but I ended up paying $55 for one gallon of paint at Lowe's, with tax, ouch.  

We then went to Aldi quick...just a few things, oh man prices are going up.  $2.59 for one dozen of eggs.

Home, and no sitting and putting the feet up, no, I changed into my painting clothes and got busy.  Of course when I went to spackle, the spackle had been left open and was no good, so back into Bye-Bye clothes and off to the hardware store.  $40 later, I had my spackle, and some paint for the door, and a cute little roller, and two replacement rollers.  ugh.  

Jonathan took down a cabinet that's been there since we built the house.  It was oak, of course, but was chalk painted green a few years ago, and there's just no saving it.  I had bought a cute little Magnolia shelf a while ago from Target for half price, so that's where it'll go.  So many dings and holes in the walls, all spackled up...but it isn't dry yet.  So we primed and painted the door.  I wanted to get the whole room primed tonight, then painted tomorrow, but I'm not sure it'll be ready.  

I'm kind of excited about the finished room...I have a few new hand towels,a new shower curtain, a rug, a toilet cover, and trash can, and some candles that'll look nice in there, stuff I've been accumulating for when we fix it up.  That's the part I want to get to.  Oh, I did take the shower curtain pole out to the front yard and spray painted it matte black.  

Now, I'm waiting for the spackle to dry, and oops, I sat in my chair.  Muscles ache that I didn't even know I had.  

The good news here is this:  since I started this post this morning, baby Declan was released from the hospital!  He made progress by leaps and bounds, and is doing fine!  They are going to keep him safe and sound for a while, we can't visit yet, because there seem to be so many colds and sicknesses going around, which is SO HARD, but I get it.  

I will share the pics of his big sisters getting to meet him:

Isn't he just the sweetest?  I can't wait to meet him.  I am so very thankful for cell phone pics though!  

The kids talked me into ordering a pizza and some wings...it wasn't hard, there's no way I'm making dinner tonight.  I had planned to make chicken pot pie, but ha, when?  After painting and scrubbing and working and shopping and swimming?  um, nah.  I wish I had a hot tub, right about now.  But I don't, so I'll be thankful for my comfy chair, and that Jonathan is picking up the pizza, which I won't eat, but I will eat a few chicken wings.

Have a nice cozy evening!