Hawaii Pictures from Lydia

Musings in the Afternoon Rain

I've had a crabby day. There are passages in the Bible, many of them, about taming the tongue.  I have matured over the years and I'm not someone who tends to be cranky with people habitually (or at least I don't think I am) but oh my, today I definitely needed the Holy Spirit to help me be calm.  In fact, it was one of those days where I had to remind myself to think once, then twice, then say something.

Anyway, here's hoping tomorrow is better. I'm a little sick with a virus, I'm hormonal, and I've had interrupted nights with Daniel having another bad cough.  Last night was better than the night before so here's hoping tonight is great.

After dinner, I retreated to the middle girls' room with Rose to escape the noise downstairs, while also easing Kevin's life by taking the Terror.  She is so cute, she really is, but she continues to be a nut.

I was sitting on Miriam's bed when the rain started to pour down.  It was surprisingly peaceful in the room with only one crazy toddler, not 9 children running around.  Rain is a contemplative thing, is it not?

A few thoughts that came to mind.

1. I am blessed to have nine healthy kids. I'm following the blog of a couple who just had their 9th child, but she has Trisomy 18.  It is usually fatal but she was born 2 weeks ago and is home now, and is doing fairly well.  Certainly she has health challenges but the doctors are hopeful she will live for some time.  The Santorums (a political family from Pennsylvania) have a Trisomy 18 daughter who is close to 10 now, so it CAN happen. But still, it is totally exhausting for them all. They are so overjoyed she lived through the birth but life is CRAZY for them right now.

2.  Kevin's mom had to have her precious dog put to sleep.  Sam was a good boy but his kidneys were failing. It is very hard.

3.    I have a new friend, a military mom who is pregnant with their 7th.  And her husband is leaving for training somewhere else for a couple of months.  Oh, but that sounds tough. I'm thankful Kevin never has to leave us for extended periods of time.

4.  I'm reading through a book called "Surprised by Oxford" by Carolyn Weber. I'm fairly certain the title is a play off of "Surprised by Joy", C. S. Lewis's autobiography.  Weber's book is about her conversion to Christianity while she was studying at Oxford in the mid 1990's.  There was a bit of a nostalgia trip reading about her intense intellectual gyrations, as I too was an intellectual powerhouse in my college years.  Though I was on the side of hard science, and she studied literature.  I never was terribly interested in old poems. I appreciate them as an art form, I guess you could say, but for all that I'm a big reader I've never been a Coleridge big reader.  Anyhow, she writes well and it was a good book to read while the rain poured down outside.

5.  I much prefer my life though.  I'd far rather be in my nice big house with my big family including my wonderful husband than studying in ancient libraries at Oxford.  It was a life shattering experience for her, in a good way.

6.  It is nice that spring has come.  We had 2 cold wet weeks but today and yesterday were warm.

Snow and Freezing Rain and Cold

Just a LITTLE freezing rain and snow, but still some.

This time of years we usually get one last cold snap before spring arrives.  And this has been the week.  My parents and Naomi and Lydia came home to temperatures in the high 20's, after 2 weeks in the 70's and 80's.

They are still adjusting to Ohio time, which is 6 hours off from Hawaii time (after Daylight Savings Time kicked in.  Hawaii doesn't have Daylight Savings Time, being close to the equator and all.)

It was great seeing the girls after 2 weeks. They had a good time.

I have not been sleeping superbly for some reason.  I keep waking up. So now I'm tired and am glad I can have a nap soon.

Daniel astounded me today. I was working on having Sarah read books out of a book (very simple words) and he read a word before she did. So I tested him. Yes, that boy has learned how to blend consonants and the "a" sound so he can read "mat", "cat", and "sat".  Maybe that doesn't sound too amazing but IT IS.  Learning to blend is a huge first step in the road to reading. He is just a couple of months short of 5!  I have had kids who read this early, but they weren't boys.  Our older boys learned to read later.  But Daniel is obviously picking things up early.

March

Naomi and Lydia get home on Tuesday!  They have had a good trip and we are excited they got to visit Hawaii with the grandparents, but oh I miss them!

They got to see feral chickens, stray dogs, seals, and whales!  They went snorkeling and Lydia went horseback riding. I presume they swam a fair amount.  All in all, a thrilling experience.

Here at home, we've been trucking along fairly normally, though we've all had to do additional work since Naomi and Lydia are usually heavy contributors to keeping the house running.

Here is a recent discussion with Daniel that I posted on Facebook.

Tonight when I was putting our 4 year old son to bed, we had quite the religious discussion. His first question was "Who is more powerful than God?" (Answer: no one.) Second question: "How can God get even more powerful?" (Answer: He can't. He is as powerful as he can be.) Third question: "Mom, does God have cats?" (Answer: Ummmm....)

Kevin told me later I should have told Daniel that "God owns the cats on a thousand hills."

Which is true.

We have new neighbors!  Our old ones were fantastic, a retired couple who became good friends. They have now moved to the American southwest to be closer to family. The new family is a homeschooling Christian family with 6 kids!  Seriously.  Totally fun and awesome. Their eldest is 17, their youngest is 1.  We haven't really talked to them much as they are insanely busy getting unpacked.  They are military and the military truck showed up on Friday and unloaded their stuff.  I know from experience that unpacking a house with a bunch of little kids bustling around is NOT easy.

I have been continuing to write Star Wars fan fiction. I really love to write, and as I probably said before, having a built in fan base for a story is very encouraging. It isn't just going out into the void, there are people who will actually read what I am writing.  I'm on my third story now.

I submitted my College Credit Plus application last week.  CCP is a public government entity which awards money to high school students to attend college.  Homeschoolers have been eligible for a couple of years. I tried to get funding for Naomi last year but loused up the application process. I hope I did better this year!

Naomi is planning to take a bunch of computer design courses at Clark State next year. It is a local community college. She's already taken freshman English there.

That's about it!

Uninspired

I just haven't felt like I have had much to say lately!  Life is trucking along, which is nice.

We have had another illness, which is not so nice.  Daniel and Rose both had croup, poor darlings.  Daniel, in particular, had the classic seal like bark, poor darling. He is improving.

You  know the boy isn't feeling his best when he is half asleep on the couch during the day. Usually it is run run jump jump twirl with this boy.

Rose is mostly better. She too had a horrible cough but is back to her sometimes cheerful, sometimes crabby self. 

The big news is that Naomi and Lydia are in Hawaii!!  My parents incredibly graciously paid for them to take a 2 week trip to Hawaii. After much anguish getting there (the flight plan had to be scrapped after a plane got hit by lightening, NOT while they were on it) they are finally in a lovely condo near the ocean on Kauai.  

Kevin loves the beach and the girls quite like it too! 

I am happy that 2/11ths of the family gets to be in the warm sun right now.

The weather is chilly this week with rain and snow and lots of wind.