summer 2011

summer 2011

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012
family

Monday, November 14, 2022

...and then one day you find...ten years have gone behind you...

 Pink Floyd?  Anyone?   The other day I was talking about how life was twenty years ago...how about we go back ten years, just for a few minutes?  

Emily and Abigail were finished with college, Emily was an RN working in a big hospital, Abigail working in accounting.  These kids were still in school...

High school and middle school, Samuel 17, Margaret 15, Kathryn14,  Evelyn 13, Suzanne 11, and Sonja 10.  (Can you tell how thrilled they were to have me take a picture?)(Molly 18, graduated early, and started nursing school)
Then our college students...Aaron, Joseph, Mariel...(age order would Mariel, Joe, Aaron) (All nursing school students...although Joseph only lasted one semester...he aced the pre-recs, was on the Dean's List, but did not like nursing school...)
Eleven of the kids in the Adirondacks...
The first day of school for these little rascals, the youngest three...Camille, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire...Jon homeschooled after that, the girls a few years later.
Meanwhile at home, for the first and only year home with no kids, me, the crazy cat lady...
Camille...too cute.
And, that fall, Benjamin came home from Afghanistan, safe and sound, at least physically.  I don't think anyone who goes off to war comes back the same, and since he was the medic for his little fob out in the middle of nowhere, and one day his Sgt. stepped on a landmine, and he had to put him back together while they waited for the helicopter, and one day there was a little boy around Jonny's age who was hit, and and and...but, as with most veterans:  the other guys suffered more, I have nothing to complain about, he said.  But living there in the heat and the fear, day after day, how can it not affect you?  

Anyway. This fine morning we had a dusting of snow, no snow day, despite Charlotte's pleas that we pray for one,  amidst Sonja's pleas that we DON'T pray for one, as she has to commute...I sided with Sonja, as she commutes in MY car!

Yesterday afternoon, we had plenty of family here...Emily, Mariel, Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, (Sonja, Char, Cam), and grandkids Wulf and Tennyson, and Achilles and Rhys, and of course Paul and I.  There was pulled pork, oven roasted pork chops with stuffing, baked applesauce, roasted squash and veggies.  

I had baked chocolate chip cookies, and Margaret brought molasses cookies and pumpkin bread.

This fine morning, Wulf and Tennyson are here, as their mama (Margaret) is training for a different job position, and needs a little help with them. I honestly don't know how she works full time AND watches the boys. 
Wulf and Sunny....Sunny catches the snowballs, the boys think it's hilarious!  I know, they have no coats or mittens, we went out for five minutes, in their jammies, just to see the snow...


 They played for a bit, then we came in for warm chocolate milk...

Life is good...


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good morning Della 👋

Such great memories in those pictures! And I love the 2 little boys out in the snow in their jammies ……… I see they had hats on though!! 🤣🤣🤣 Tennyson wouldn’t even remember snow I think. We have lots actually. I hope Sonja made it ok. The first snow is always the scariest 🥶🥶Everyone has forgotten how to drive in it.

I’m glad you had a lovely day with your girls and friends. Laughter is the best medicine, isn’t it?

You must have been so happy and relieved when Ben came home for good. War is so awful. My dad was a medic in the Second World War and he was stationed in New Guinea just north of Australia…….. fighting the Japanese. He saw some atrocities of which he would never speak…..…….these poor young men!!

Marilyn from Canada 🇨🇦

Terri D said...

Life is good, indeed!! That was a fun look-back!! You have so many great photos to share!! xo