quick note

Here is Aaron sanding...the old blue doesn't look too bad compared with the new green....

Margaret sanding...

Charlottte Claire having ice cream in her car seat...shh. Mirielle and I took her with us on our errands yesterday.....I applied for a passport, and she got a renewal on hers, since it is going to expire next May when she is in Norway. And she had to have it expidited, which costs way more, since she is leaving for England in a month.....it took a long time...
Here is the new green paint...I can't decide whether to keep it or return it....

It is fresh and clean and new, but it is just so GREEN!....beige would clash with the couch, white is out, blue is so BEEN THERE...I don't know what to choose.

...we started painting the living room. And I hate the color. Just hate it. We have always had a blue living room. I liked it. The last time we repainted it, it was an awful shade of blue....now this time, it was time to try a green. With the wood floors and beige and red furniture, green seemed like a good choice. It is way to lime-y. Not dusty enough, but the dustier greens looked to depressing....Oh, I don't know what to do...we can take it back and start again, but several teenagers who are doing this project might just hate me....

monday monday...

Monday morning. Just that combination of words conjures up quite an unhappy image. But this is the day that the Lord has made. I am saying that by faith. Camille is coming down with a cold. She woke up no less than 20 times last night. Each and every time I got up out of my cozy bed and picked her up and hugged her and put her back in. I told her to go to sleep, not to keep getting up. She would lie down happily...only to wake again in a little while. Ouch. It felt like torture. So, I got up this morning, got the puppy-doggy out of her cage and out the door, cleaned up the inevitable dribbling of pee, as Rosie is so excited to see me in the morning, and started to make some coffee.....as I looked around the house, I second guessed my brilliant plan: to have the older kids spackle and paint the living room and kitchen, and stairway and hall. What was I thinking? Since they operate on a different schedule than the younger kids and I, they did most of it after I was in bed last night....all the furniture is moved from the walls, there are spackle spots all over the walls...and the floors where the furniture was moved.....pennies, dust, hair ponies....the desk in the kitchen has not been moved in - hmm - years? Two years? Anyway, it looks awful in here....all the curtains down and pictures off the walls, piled on a couch and on the kitchen tables....the thing is, just yesterday I decided I need to do more around here, I am the mom, I am NOT on vacation, I need to just plain do more. But today that doesn't show at all.......

We did have a good day yesterday.....Mirielle picked blueberries with four of the little girls. Then we had a rainy afternoon Starbucks party. Suze took orders, we could choose from two different iced coffees, or two hot drinks. I chose the hot chocolate. Because Mirielle was the "barrista" and she makes a wicked hot chocolate. Aaron was running the espresso machine, steaming milk....we had real whipped cream....it was very nice....we also went around the table and said what we were thankful for....here is Mirielle (she might kill me for this, so if you never hear from me again, that is what happened).... Aaron, (standing), and Evelyn, Kathryn, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, Sonja, and Suzanne on the other side of the table near Aaron....

I did not take this picture...I am guessing that Evelyn did....it is her, and Suzanne in the background...

This picture is for my Joseph, who is far far away in Norway. Isn't Rosie getting huge? She is chewing on a monkey toy....

My baby, Camille, with Suzanne. Camille is 21 months already. I love her to pieces....

She also loves me. She loves me way too much sometimes. The others try to do something for her like, say, change her diaper, and she says, "No, Mommy do it!"....I am flattered, but I am a bit busy right now, do I HAVE to do it? I had to sneak out the door to go for my walk yesterday...Yay for me, two days in a row. It is a pathetic walk, one mile, but in my defense, one hilly mile! I seriously felt like I had run the marathon when I got back....Sam went with me, and we had a plan...he went in the front door and got my bathing suit, I met him around back and changed downstairs...and sneaked into the pool. Without Camille finding out. After I skimmed the bugs and cooled down, some of the kids started finding me, and soon the pool was full of kids. Including Camille and Charlotte Claire....the water was chilly, so we wimpily warmed up in the hot tub, which almost put me to sleep, then it was in the house to make dinner.....I did a different kinds of dinner. I took out some leftover hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, rice, meatballs, and had the kids get a plate, choose their food, and I microwaved it for them and brought it to the table......I also served green beans.....just to be healthy.

Well, I need to move it move it. The puppy is in here again. She seems like a herd of elephants sometimes. She is tired though, and is resting comfortably on the floor with her head on ONE OF MY COUCH PILLOWS! She is a brat.

I need to move, really. I am supposed to go apply for a passport today...yes, I might be going on a trip!!! And Mirielle is applying for a visa...she has big plans, too.....but it is going to be 90 degrees.....it is already oppressively warm in here......my poor body does not want to comply today.....should I take all of the kids in the big white non-air-conditioned van and maybe make a stop at a park with a swimming area? hmm. I love unplanned adventures....I just have to wake up the older kids and see what the consensus is.....

takin' a break

The signifigance of this picture? Two empty laundry baskets! And yes, they do have toys....

The good thing is that the clothes that were in these baskets got put away, the girls didn't just dump them.....We do still have several others that we haven't gotten to yet. I just am not so motivated. But, I did go for a walk today. A mile. A long, hilly mile. Oh, am I out of shape. How did I stop going for my walks? When? Why??? Oh well....I went today, and I am going tomorrow. When I got back, feeling like I had run like ten miles, although I honestly don't know what that feels like, I went in the pool, which was very chilly and felt wonderful. I had enough of being in there pretty quickly, but the kids had found me. They did not have enough. So, I took the cover off the hot tub and got in there...and was joined by a few of them. The water was 96, just right....now it is time for dinner, Mirielle is starting it....the kids are husking corn, we are grilling chicken, and having rice and fajitas. With peppers. I am so hungry, I only had a smoothie and some pretzels for lunch today. And, some of Camille's donut. Good and healthy. ha.

Time now to get that dinner on the table. We have been on such a summery schedule lately, last night dinner was at 8:30! The kids went to bed by eleven....I read a bit and went to bed after midnight, then the older kids watched a movie, starting it at 1 am. No wonder they are sleeping in 'til noon everyday!

Well, Kathryn's digital camera got run over by the lawnmower. Poor Kap. And Rosie-The-Bad-Puppy popped two of the three new floaties today. She attacks them, and they are dead on the first bite.....

Well, I am refreshed and relaxed and right about now I wish I had a maid and a cook, and someone would just serve me my dinner. But it ain't gonna happen, I need to get up and move.....

bonus day!!!

Today is a bonus day, a gift. Because I thought it was Sunday...I was planning on reading the Sunday paper, going to church...then I realized at some point that WAIT, it is SATURDAY! YAY! The weekend didn't go by as fast as I thought it did.....

We went to the grocery store yesterday. Mirielle was co-pilot, and having a 19 year old daughter that likes grocery shopping on a Friday afternoon with her mama is pretty nice! We took Sonja K., Jonathan, and Charlotte Claire. And we went in the mini-van, which is so nice to drive compared to the big van. And, it has air-conditioning.

We got so much good stuff....I do like that feeling of having good food in the house. We bought watermelon, and peaches, plums, carrots, boneless chicken, hot sausage, butter, cheese, tortillas, milk, cat food, dog food, ice-cream, toilet paper, paper towels, bagels, and toothpaste. Over $200 worth. Oh, and lots and lots of frozen veges, only .89 cents a lb. bag, and lots of cans of green beans and corn. Oh, and donuts. The evil donuts. I was only going to buy a few for us, but hey, six are cheaper....then I realized that I could get six more for only $2 more...so, I got a dozen. I will have to cut them up, but they will enjoy them.

The kids I took to the store did not behave very well. They danced and twirled and tried to carry Charlotte Claire on their backs. They suggested lots of things, but didn't actually beg for them. Then Charlotte Claire had a fit when I tried to buckle her into her carseat, as she wanted to do it herself.....Jon and Sonja were arguing about something, and I told them they better quiet down or the police would come. Yeah, I do that sometimes....by the time we got to Blockbuster, they were so repentant and full of promises that they would be SO good if I let them come in and not stay in the van with Mirielle.....

Well, sad to say I have not even began to put away the several laundry baskets full of clothes. Mirielle convinced me that today would be rainy (not) so we should start today. Wonder if we will get to it or put it off 'til tomorrow. The kids are starting to learn which basket has the undies, which the play clothes...uh-oh! And, there is a new pile of clothes on the couch, growing daily.....

I did sweep and mop both the kitchen and livingroom yesterday, the girls cleaned up and shined the counters and it looked pretty fine in here. Then with all the lawn mowing that went on yesterday, the floors are all grassy now.....And add to that the bags of groceries that aren't put away yet, lots of canned stuff.....and rats, I don't feel like cleaning on Saturday. I just don't really like the monotony of housework. Just the impermanence of it. If that is a word. I DO like a clean house though. Good thing. Not that I have one, but I have some long range goals. ha.

I might just go in the big pool today, if Paul puts the ladder on. The kids can jump in without it just fine, but it wouldn't be pretty for me to try. I would be stuck in there forever.....

I haven't posted pictures in a while because it takes so long to download them, and I seem to be blogging in these hurried little increments. Camille is in the chair with me right now because I just took a chocolate cookie from her....for some reason the kids thought cookies and licorice were okay to have this morning, nah. Cereal. I mean, the cereal is as good as cookies, Cap'n Crunch, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms. I had the oat cereal with strawberries. A few kids are wanting eggs...that means I have to get up and put this away.....

one of those moms...

Sometimes I find myself wishing I was one of those moms.....who takes pictures of every birthday party and puts the pictures in an album....maybe even one album for each child with pics from each birthday, with other milestones in between....instead, I take pictures of some of the birthdays, and if I ever get around to getting them printed, they land in a drawer.....that is IF we have a birthday party. Right now, I owe one to Margaret, from last Dec. 22nd, and one to Kathryn, March 23, and Samuel James, August 2nd. Not too bad. But Evelyn's is creeping up, so I should do the owed ones first. Or be a huge cheater and have a 4-way party. ha. Sam would hate that.

Mali, who is 15, and Aaron, who is 16, are good friends. They are going on a bike ride today, 4 miles to town for Aaron to drop off a job application, and then on to their grandparents' house, a few more miles down the highway, for a visit. I gave them money to stop for ice cream. I wonder if they realize how nice it is to have such a good friend as a brother/sister. I could tell Aaron missed her when he got back from Norway and she was still in France. They love their adventures. It is not so easy for me to let them go, but at the same time, I love that they like to such simple things.

They want to go to the Adirondacks. We aren't thinking to go this year as a family. It is expensive (not just the campsite, but the tire of the camper that needs replacing, gas to haul a 35 ft. camper behind a 15 passenger van, ect.), and it takes so much work to pack....and the unpacking....yuck. So a few of the older ones might go up for a weekend. Hey, maybe we should all just go tenting..and forget the camper. Nah. We did try that. When Emily and Abigail were little, we tented up there for a week. Abigail did not sleep. We went home vowing never to do that again....but I think now that we just didn't have the right equipment. The ground was too hard, we had no camp stove, so we had to make a fire even for coffee.....the smoke was tiring....anyway, we got a pop-up camper the next year. I remember the night we decided we needed to graduate to a bigger camper. We had 5 kids. Emily, the oldest, was seven. Abigail was 5. Benjamin was three, Mariel 2, and Joseph was one year old. I newly pregnant for Aaron. After we tucked them into bed, we went outside, since the camper was packed with sleeping kids. We sat under the teeny-tiny awning (this was a very small camper), in the rain, trying to read the paper with a Coleman lantern....we talked about getting something bigger....so, the next year, we had Aaron, and bought a nice big camper.

Anyway, we just got home from staying in the camper, and it is kind of fun. One day some girls were in the camper while Paul and I were down at the grill. They were playing house, I think. They ran alot of water. Lots and lots. The grey water tank overflowed, right into the shower. Now, the hot water heater in our camper broke the first year we owned it, and we never replaced it, $$$, so we have only cold water. So, we do not take showers in there, which is fine, because putting the dirty clothes into the shower is nice for me. Anyway, the grey water tank overflowed and filled the shower stall with like 6 inches of water, making the clothes float. I was so stinkin' upset when I discovered this! It wasn't a big deal to empty the tank and rinse out the clothes....but again, vacation..... I slept with Camille the entire time....she just would not sleep in the nice little nest I made her on the floor. She refused. So, I took her into the nice comfy queen-sized bed with me. She rolled off the bed onto the floor the first two nights, so after that I put a laundry basket full of clothes along one side of the bed, and she stayed put. Sort of. She climbed up me, rolled into me, and kicked me. It was sort of sweet to sleep with her, but not so conducive to a good night's sleep. So, another "vacation"...hmm. I think we are just too tired!

The kids tried out the pool today. The filter is installed, we just have to get a little more water in there....and then put on the ladder. I stayed in the hot tub, set at 96, with crazy Camille, while they swam with Paul. Camille is giving me grey hair. She says, "I JUMP!"....and she hold her breath, and jumps right under. I grab her up each time, but she is determined. She knows to hold her breath, and she didn't cough and choke at all. When I try to grab her, she says, "No, No, Mamma, I jump!" and she says, "Watch!".....hmm, good idea.

The thing is, I have to go to the grocery store. We have no milk. At all. Camille went to bed with a bottle of apple juice. I know, I know, never put the child to bed with a bottle. Rules were made to be broken, I guess. And, I have a child who loves to go to bed. Who wouldn't want to be tucked in with a nice little bottle of strawberry or chocolate milk? Make bed time nice, that's what I think.

So, we need some things from the store. I might just pack up 5 or 6 kids and go to the closer store, it is 16 miles from here. Then I'll get home in less than 2 hours, compared to the 4 or 5 hours it takes me if I go to the Target and Price-chopper.....(but Target IS fun!)

Well, my blissful afternoon is marching on, Camille is sleeping, and Charlotte Claire is playing in her own little world in the little blue tent in the middle of the living room. The girls are having some afternoon tea, Mirielle went on a run. She has mowed the entire lawn. She uses the push mower to get excercise. She also likes to tan at the same time. (some of us just are having a hard time believing that tanning is evil)

Evelyn Joy just brought me the most delicious cup of afternoon coffee. We are out of milk, but Mirielle brought home some of the leftover heavy cream from the coffee bar at the conference center....which she has plans for, so she was not thrilled when Evelyn dumped a whole bunch in my coffee. Buy YUM, talk about good! I am glad we don't always have it, I couldn't resist it. I have to stay out of it though, Mirielle's plans probably include something chocolate, like her famous chocolate cake, which is so dense and rich and sinful......

Well, I have to go and get these kids ready for a shopping trip....just what I want to do on a nice afternoon. But I cannot complain. I have a van, a magic card (named such by Aaron and Mali), and stores with everything we need, want, and didn't know we needed or wanted....Now if I can just get up out of this comfy chair.....

is this really vacation?

Okay, our vacation was busy....but very nice, fun, exciting.....Paul is still off work today, so he is technically still on vacation. Technically.

After a few days of seemingly non-stop cooking and serving and activities and candy selling, the conference was over.....too quickly. But we were tired. So we stayed another day, just took care of the kids, relaxed...went down to the pools....and it was so funny, Camille and Charlotte Claire were tired, and they both broke down crying at once...so Paul and I were leaving the pool area with them, our chairs, a few of the other kids, and having some company down for lunch...on the way down the road, I met up with a friend....I told him that we were finally having a day off...he laughed his head off, and said, "You call this a day off?!!".......

I am not very good at the comment moderation thing yet...sometimes I lose a comment. sorry! I don't know why this happens. I only have it on to block a few specific comments, not to weed through and publish what I like....if one doesn't show up, it was accidental...

Yeah, we have to go to blockbuster....we somehow keep the movies way too long.....No More Late Fees is my friend, but there are still those re-stocking fees.....I returned "The Shaggy Dog" without the dvd....I still have to get that back...but I do not feel like going anywhere today. It is a beautiful sunny summer day....not too hot, not too humid...just perfect...maybe Mr. Vacation will get the pool filter hooked up and we can actually use the pool, on August seventh! Hey, I am not complaining...I am just looking forward to it....I really like swimming....and it is so nice to keep them busy, getting excercise and having fun and getting tired out. Yes, we moms like to tire out the kids....last night, I took them all in the hot tub. I made my usual deal with Paul: I will take them all in (seven of them, Kathryn on down) if he PROMISES to come get Camille after ten or fifteen minutes and brings her in and dresses her and gets her in to bed.....well, he did come get her...rather, he sent Margaret, who was home from the youth meeting by then...(Camille is very high maintenance in the hot tub. She likes to jump, she doesn't like to be held on to, she is just plain crazy.....after she gets out, it seems like a piece of cake to have the other six in there with me...even Charlotte Claire who swims from side to side and goes under water)....anyway, with the calm clear night with a full moon, it was wonderful out there....then - I brought Rosie in. She really wanted to get in with us, so I scooped her up and brought her in....I had put in some green-tea aromatherapy drops in, and the water smelled so good....Rosie loved it. I thought she would fuss and struggle and not like it, but she absolutely loved it. Rats.....she is going to bug us everytime now.....(she smells like green-tea now).....oh, it was funny to have her in there. She swam around....I didn't keep her in for too long though, because I don't know if it is good for her to be in 102 water for very long....

Camille just found a baggie of peanut butter cookies. She opened them. She dropped a few. She stepped on the ones she dropped. Yet still I sat here, writing about the hot tub....she ate some cookies...she got them slimy and her hands slimy. She tried to give me some. I ignored her....I really have to go now!

home, home again....

I like to be here when I can...(pink floyd).....yeah, we are home. But not settled in yet...the laundry we had was unbelievable!!! We came home today with so many bags of clothes that needed washing, I decided to go to the laundry mat and do it all at once. So I also added some bedding from here, and the couch covers....now it is half put away, half in the baskets....but it is all folded...hopefully it won't be wrinkled.

Our pool is finally full!!! But, the filter is not installed yet. One thing at a time. ha. More like ten things at a time, around here. The lawn needs mowing like crazy, and I still have lots of clothes to put away......but we got all the food we didn't use put away, and we had a nice dinner tonight. Fresh corn on the cob, grilled burgers and hot dogs, and tator tots. Oh, the corn is good. We got 3 dozen, and it still has to be rationed. I told them some night I would get more and we would just have corn, and they could have as much as they want........

Well, I have things to do, and things to check on, and kids to take care of....Miss Camille likes to remove her diaper, no way babe, and Charlotte Claire peed in her undies again.....why? And Rosie, who missed us like crazy, has been super hyper and she needs a bath. Ben was here with her all week, but he also had to go to work....anyway, she is glad to see us and I am glad to see her.....kind of....nah, I loves her. But.......

I have had a good week though. I have learned some things. It was a very busy time....we didn't have much family time because Paul was cooking at the grill, and I was helping sell candy and snow cones....it was fun meeting the kids and seeing everyone.......and I really saw how I need to be purified within. What good it it to do the good if I don't have a pure heart? I am thankful that God is near, and He is faithful to work with me...so that I can see how I am....well, diapers and pee pee undies are not going away on their own....