running out of teenagers...

There are only three left here.  The last child, the baby of the family, will be sixteen years old next week.  I started blogging that summer before she was born.  I do wish I had started way before that, even before the internet was invented.  Tangent:  my kids, especially the younger ones, know how old I am when I talk about looking up numbers in the phone book, calling to place orders from a catalog, using encyclopedias to find out about things.  Ha, I remember having "Mister Roger's Neighborhood" on, with one ear open for when he visited the Crayola factory or a violin maker, I loved seeing how things were made, and I'd be glued to it...once it was the Hedsrtom factory, they made those inflated play balls.  So cool!  Now, you just google the heck out of anything you want....

Anyway.  Time passes, we grow old, we realize more and more what's important in life, and what's just fluff and glitter.  People are simply tricked into investing their time and money and hearts and souls into things that will just pass away.  

It's a work to keep our hearts soft though.  Those sneaky little critical thoughts can easily build up, and next thing you know, you have a solid grudge!  Against someone who is probably totally unaware.  Against someone who was also made and formed by God.  It's tragic.  If we wake up and take a dose of humility, we'll see very plainly that perhaps, just possibly...we might not be so perfect. 

Yesterday, after the pool, I came home and vacuumed, cleaned up a little.  Then Margaret came over with Wulf and Tennyson and baby Blythe.  Kathryn came a bit later with Achilles, Rhys, and Jamison.  Then Sam came in, followed by Jonathan and his friends, Woutar, Oskar, and Linus.  Paul and I, Sonja, Char, and Camille were here too.   Paul had ground up some venison and made a pot of chili, and two bacon wrapped venison/sausage meatloafs.  I made a pot of beef stew in the crockpot, with almost six pounds of meat.  There was a lot of food, and the boys especially enjoyed tasting it.  They are Dutch and Norwegian, and I guess they enjoy trying the wild game.  (The beef stew was probably not necessary, but shh, I liked it so much better!)

Jon and his friends went out to a barbecue place the other night...

That's Kathryn's husband Darius...

The banana bread, it had a streusel topping....they said it was good.

Wulf took this pic of Tennyson, Charlotte Claire, and Achilles.  :)

This fine morning, I have to get moving.  We are having an Activity Club party that all the families are invited to, not just the kids.  There will be games and snacks and coffee and fun.  

There are plenty more things to say today, but time is ticking on.  Be thankful for your day.  :)