let's be real....

 I'm getting old, or why would I be so tickled to solve the Wordle so rapidly?

I was also tickled when I was looking at the strange weather forecast yesterday, and said, "Sunny, sunny, sunny!", and this sweetheart looked up at me and tilted her head.

Then I found an old picture from when Cheryl and I went camping by ourselves for a week.  I've told this before, but it's my blog, so I can tell it again, ha.  We had a week reserved, and I had either nine or ten kids, as I'm not sure if I was pregnant for Kathryn or if I already had her...(I told you I'm old).  Cheryl had her seven daughters, and we brought one of our brother's little girls "to help":). (she was about 14).   So that's about 17 kids altogether.  Cheryl had her own camper and her own campsite, but my campsite was right on the beach, so we spent most of our time there.  

One night, we had a campfire, and you can imagine all those kids gathered around the fire...my sister and I were both kind of strict about safety, we taught the kids to stay put and if they wanted to get up, they walked BEHIND the chairs, so no one fell into the fire.  anyway.  We had to sing the George of The Jungle song several times for Sam, and there was a lot of fun and silliness, which must have triggered the rangers to come see what was going on.  Cheryl had just kiddingly said We're running low on firewood, we'll have to go purloin some more..., when out of the shadows two rangers appeared, on either side of our circle.  What's going on here? , they wanted to know.  My sister stammered, Oh, my sister and I are here without our husbands.  We're just here camping with our kids...  The officer told us to keep it down a little, then they left.  Cheryl and I looked at each other and just died laughing...We're here without our husbands!  Oh my goodness.  We laughed about that for years.  It just sounded so...flirty?  oh my goodness.  

Anyway.  I'm sure that was a challenging week, but I only remember how much fun it was.  

It's the price we pay to be parents though.  We do the hard things so the kids can have fun. 

I am so thankful that I had my sister Cheryl as a partner in crime, although I say that jokingly, we would never actually steal firewood or anything else.  We liked to have fun with our kids though, and were willing to suffer to do so.   She was always up for a last minute outing.  She would pack up her girls and bring them over here, and they would play in the woods or play the screaming game downstairs or put on plays, play dollhouse with my kids...we went strawberry picking and to the beach and to playgrounds.  

Memories.  Yes, I'm getting old.  If I could go back in time and do it all over again, I would.  The lack of sleep, the crazy busy mornings, the exhausted bed times...oh, the times I tucked them in with my heart not in it because I was so focused on getting them all to bed, how I would love to go back and say prayers with them and listen to all those things small children think of to say when it's tucking in time.  

Happy Halloween, to those who celebrate it.  We're going to Jon and Rosi's house this afternoon, and giving out a ton of candy.  The grandkids will go trick or treating, and some of us will stay at the house with the babies...Kaia might go trick or treating, but Emilia and Bridget and newborn Jovi won't.  We'll have pizzas and I'm bringing bbq'd meatballs.  There will be snacks and drinks and lots of fun.  

I might dress up....we'll see...what??!  I have time!  Have a good day!