Saturday, September 6th is the make up day!

Don't forget to go to school that day. What a different and interesting community it is here. No school for rain and a make up day on a Saturday. The rain caused much sludge or mud in lots of different places. Now, my lawn is green and Ginger and Snap perked up, as well as can be expected for transplants. We are all getting acclamated. I would wish to go to school with them on Saturday, but I think that I have to work.

Eighth grade is a curiosity!

Thanking God for a wonderful first couple of days of school. We are all grateful for the teachers who devote themselves to imparting wisdom and knowledge to the children.
I am grateful for the opportunity of getting to know this handsome young man in my home who is finishing out middleschool.
I was married when my brothers were this age, so I really don't know the joy and challenge of living with a middleschool boy.
He has become an encouragement and a provocation to excellence for me. I find him giving more and me recieving more from him. I don't know how to accept this verbal "help" sometimes. He is a prod to hang onto Jesus! He is a challenger to help me do the right thing when it comes to my husband. He watches everything that I do. When Aunt Jackie came to visit, he said, "You better thank your husband for everything he did to get ready for your sister's visit!" Yes sir! I didn't say. I did thank my husband. The children are working together, at this point to help us be what we want to be and do what we want to do which is treat eachother well. A forgotten part of marriage at 402 months.
The joys of working together to rear and raise a garden of children, sometimes makes you forget eachother.

Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him

Friends forever, were godly Enoch and God.
My son, Enoch is a friendly and funny young man with alot to say and sometimes a family that doesn't know how to listen.
Happy Eighth Grade year, My son!

Wake up and Smell the Oatmeal

The rain and the smell of fresh oatmeal in the microwave, mark Ezra's first day of Kindergarten and Ethan's second day of 4th grade. Ethan is very independent this year and hasn't needed a bit of help in getting to the bus as in former years. This gives us all the ability to focus on the man of the hour, this year, as Ezra debuts into the school scene. They seem to have good teachers and a beautiful school and a great neighborhood. Praise God! The Middle-schoolers and the High-school senior are in their own worlds and all the focus is on the Kindergartener's first day and year of school. What a beautiful teamwork they exhibit!

Refreshing rains

marked the first day of the new school year. My garden is dancing with delight. The grass is cut and Ginger and snap are getting acclimated to their new surroundings. Everybody's good spirits are freshened by the cool rains. We have a boy going to kindergarten.
Autumn is right around the corner. Cooler days, expected results, regular schedules are coming, I hope!

Must cut our grass today.

Teamwork to get the chores done and the life completed that God has placed in front of us. Truly, sufficient for the day is the concerns that we have to think about. 6 children are more than enough to fill your mind every waking and sleeping moment 24/7. It is nice to have a break at work to think about something else. Refreshments come, erelong. In the meantime, nose to the Blarneystone...

My Husband, My friend

Friendship means having to say you're sorry. My cantankerous attitude warrants a trip to the woodshed, so to speak and a profound apology. Tough times shouldn't mean insubordination. I am reproved, by the Word and my husband's kind continuance in duty, despite my crankiness.
I am so grateful that he is gentle with me and puts up with my nonsense. God help me, humble myself, again.

Next week school...

We really didn't do alot on the to do list, but we have a week to include the items that we forgot. I will need to begin with starting the bedtime routine for a Kindergartener. I keep telling myself that and I keep forgetting. Schedules have been completely cast aside, for pity sake. Tomorrow, I pick up the pieces and get back to the business of life prep and school prep.
We started the summer well and we did go through Ps. 119 and the Hebrew Alephbet. That is something. Everybody but Ezra has forehand, backhand and serve under the belt. What else is there? And God even threw in a swimming session. We are blessed!
School prep drills?
That is how I think! Take out my timer and my whistle and get those fellows doing their thing with a timer. We should have a ladder, so that they can challenge eachother as to who is the most efficient and thorough in their personal prep items and include other items into their day, before school.
Last year, everybody had exercise scheduled in for themselves and no one went all the way to the end of the school year having completed their intentions...To err is human...

More paddling pretty...

Paddling pretty

Getting ready for a visit

from Aunt Jackie. We are cleaning and getting ready. We are waiting and cleaning again. Aunt Jackie is coming down here to take her son to college. Elijah is the first BoddenII to go away, away to college and the first grandson. We are privileged to have them put us on their agenda on the way down to SC where he will be. We want to make it a special visit. Balloons and food and rejoicing, Cousins are great and first cousins are very special. It was just yesterday that we were all wrestling down the stairs and now we are grown people. WOW!

Up From Fear!

Saturday was a day of rejoicing for me, at seeing the development of my swimmers. Emily, especially has surprised me at the skill that she has developed over these years of swimming. She was the girl who screamed at the moment that her hand left the wall of the pool. That day, she was swimming to the bottom of the 8 foot and twirling around down there like a dolphin. This was a very large accomplishment for a 2nd generation aquaphobic family. I knew that I didn't want the children living in the bondage of my limitations on those issues and with classes and much cajoling and sometimes boxing of the ears, she made it to the point of stopping the screaming.
My vision could only see her getting away from the wall of the pool. Laps was the next step, if we could get into a program, but I could not see her swimming to the bottom of the pool, time after time for fun.
She has overcome that fear and she is empowered to overcome other fears, hopefully, as a result. A marked and measurable difference between her then and now.
Elyse was also aggressively taking on the water with triumph. She and Emily challenged eachother again and again to go beyond their self-inflicted limitations in the pool. That is what I like to see in my "sista-hood"!
"I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." applies to the pool also.
Because I have not yet overcome my fears, with regards to the water, completely, doesn't make it not true.

The Scent of Burning Ideas

wafted up the stairs to greet me in my tub. Something was definitely burning or brewing. I was tempted to run down the stairs, with or without my towel to put my maternal blanket over what I knew was the dangerous combination of minds interacting without supervision on the floor below me.
I mustered my composure and called them, at first, sweetly and then with more and more command in my voice and when no answers rallied, I became alarmed. Okay, you are in your towel. You are not even dry yet. Is this alarming enough to disturb hubby's prayertime? What a fool you will look like if it isn't. It took me a minute or two to decide to call him. He ran down the stairs and they were gone.
Both boys gone at 7 or so in the morning? Where could they have been?
Thank God, we live in a safe neighborhood, with caring neighbors around. That took alot of the fear and intensity out of the emotional upheaval. They could be anywhere!
By the time he came back up, for the third or fourth time I was just thawing out of the daze of shock that had overtaken me, searching my mind from stem to stern to see the possibilities of danger that they could be in. I was absolutely no help at all. Just grief stricken at the possibilities.
It took a few minutes... but they were in the car. I don't know how he found them, I just know that Ethan's expressions of crocodile tears at the possibility of being reproved intensely for causing us emotional disturbance was not sufficient to me.
They are found and I think that the time in instruction that Ben took with them was helpful to give them sensitivity to the emotional delicacy of their mother and possibly, their father.
Grief can unite or divide and often does both.
Kids today think in microwave speed compared to their parents, however will we keep up?

Summersoft

I enjoyed the time around the table last night. Each child had a tale or two or a wise anecdotal instruction to share. It is so interesting how they each find a way to contribute to the whole experience.
The 2 little fellows fell asleep before we got home, because I had confiscated the electronic gaming device that they were plugged into. There was no chapter in any of the parenting journals that I read about how to unplug electrically motivated children. I do not want the generation gap to be electrically charged, that would be tormenting to me. I would have nothing to talk to them about, if they continue on that gaming path. I will have to ponder my strategy concerning this device.
We enjoyed oneanothers company, those of us that braved it out through the meal and it is coming true, in our case that the family that prays together stays together.

We took a walk at the duck pond...

Friday night. A duck was enamoured at my notebook and came right up to greet me. when she saw that it was an inedible wonder of colorful curiosity, she went back to her sunbathing. I was really sorry I didn't carry the camera.
Our once unified family is splintering into the grown people, the teenagers and I really only have 2 who I have to keep both eyes on now. That should be comforting, but it is sad to see them not need me as much.
Sucking the last few drops out of a unified family unit is difficult and the children are only accomodating us, these days out of necessity. They would be making their own ways but limitations won't allow it.
Pizza at the FUEL Grill with a Tennis match on the Telly topped off the evening.
NC has alot to offer, we are starting to see.