a good, kind father...

 The Father's Day post might be a day late, but oh my goodness what a good daddy Paul has been...at Sonja and Oscar's wedding...

The dance with Miss Suzanne at her wedding...

He's a pretty good grandpa, too...with Ellis

Evelyn's wedding....(I don't have the official pics from Abigail's wedding yet!)

With Sonja...

With baby Blythe

Bugs Bunny cartoons with Tennyson, Achilles, and Wulf

When we had only four kids at home and I thought that wasn't enough!  Now Sonja and Jonathan are both married....just Miss Cam and Miss Char now...

Story time with Ruth and Rhys

A hug for little Ophelia

This picture, oh dear!  Twins?  Grant in those overalls, SO cute!

Achilles...

With Cam, Abigail, Char, Sonja, Evelyn...

Paul and our oldest son, Benjamin...

An old family picture...

The day we rented a boat on Cayuga Lake, Paul with Emily

This:  one night the girls were talking about Pepperidge Farms cake, which we call Heater Cake.  I don't know why, or who started it, but it's the ultimate.  Next thing we knew, he was coming back from the store!  (This was a few summers ago...Suri was still with us.)

With Kathryn right when she moved back from Oregon, with baby Rhys

With Elise when she was small

When five kids went to Disney with us...Suzanne, Jonathan, Sonja, and the little girls.

This fine day, I called my ortho office and left a message, did not get a call back.  Paul has been in contact with the advocate for our healthcare through his work.  Other than that, no news.  I hobble around and enjoy the heck out of life.   Char and Cam didn't work today, and we were deciding what to do.  I really wanted to stay home and get things done.  When you're a little on the lazy side, when you get these urges, you need to run with them.  

The hall closets got the business today.  The first one, the linen closet....I took every single thing out of it, donated a ton of stuff, washed a two loads of things, then cleaned the inside of the closet.  The other closet has been the game closet.  I so wish I had taken before and afters!  We are donating a whole pile of games, and I threw away so much random stuff.  I took the shelves out of there, and painted the inside of the closet, after wiping it down.  Then we switched closets, won't bore you with the details, but everything is neat and tidy and organized.  

I had to tell myself:  we do not NEED all these extra sheet sets!  I have my sheets, I tend to wash them and put them right back on, but have an extra set.  The girls have their own extra sets, and that's the lot of us.  I have some for the guest room, and some random ones if anyone sleeps on the couch or anything.  I already have my favorite camping sheets in the camper.  I decided to rough it and not wash them between last camping trip and next one, just leave them in there...

So a big pile of old towels and sheets went into the utility room for painting jobs, ect.  

I need to pare down the extra blankets again, too.  We used to need so many, seriously, especially when we had a washing machine that took all the live-long day to do a load, and the kids would blow through clean bedding like mad, especially when there was a bed-wetter, or we had the throw up bug.  Oh, fun times...fun years.  Fun DECADES, ha.

I feel like I've come out on the other side, and am taking that huge breath, still.  I lived to tell about it.   I did learn a thing or two along the way, namely:  I don't know anything.  Children are very unique, and as soon as you figure one out, the next one comes along and is totally different.  There are some basic ingredients to grow good children though:

1.  Patience.

2.  Goodness.

3.  Prayer.  Pray for patience and goodness, and for mercy.  I used to hold my hands straight up towards heaven, and ask God to bless them, that I would be only good with them.  

4. Firmness, kids need boundaries, and they need to be respectful.  (respect your children, and they might possibly respect you!  Treat them well!) (never forget they came straight from heaven!)

But yeah, they do need to learn that no means no.  :)

Anyway.  Life goes by so quickly, and each day is a gift.  Enjoy your evening...:)