All nine kids made it here and Kevin's mom was here as well. It was a lovely day. It was way less work than I had even five years ago since I didn't have any tiny people running around wreaking adorable havoc.
I even read a whole book yesterday!
All nine kids made it here and Kevin's mom was here as well. It was a lovely day. It was way less work than I had even five years ago since I didn't have any tiny people running around wreaking adorable havoc.
I even read a whole book yesterday!
I am not going to blog about Christmas right now, though it was great. But the days before Christmas were exciting too!
We will probably have a white Christmas for the first time in many years. It is also going to be the storm of the decade in the next few days -- not because of snow, but because of cold and wind.
My parents, who live north of us, are getting a TON of snow. Like more than a foot. But we will only get 2 to 3 inches.
However, we will have gusts up to 50 miles per hour plus temperatures plunging below zero. So that is nasty.
Thankfully we didn't have to go to the grocery store today because of course it was packed.
Right now it is 43 degrees but in 12 hours it'll be close to 0. Ick.
I mentioned in a previous blog post that I was worried about our little cat Opal, who was afraid of neighbor dogs and our cats and was generally not a happy camper. I asked Naomi and Lydia to take her in, which they kindly did. She has adjusted well to their apartment.
The youngest two kids were sad about Opal leaving, and Rose said at some point that she "wanted another kitten." I said, airily, that she could pray about a kitten showing up if she wanted another kitten.
Seriously, why do I do this kind of thing to myself??? :-)
Meet Cocoa! We get lots of strays that show up at our front door since we live out on the country and there are barn cats and feral cats and all like that. We provide food and we let the strays eat and if we can catch them, we get them fixed.
But Cocoa shows every sign of being someone's indoor pet. She is very affectionate and likes people a lot. She doesn't even mind other cats very much.
I took her to the vet yesterday and she has no microchip and is not fixed. They estimate she is between 6 and 12 months old.
That means she is old enough to get pregnant, which we don't want, so we have arranged to have her fixed in a couple of weeks.
So yes, she is a beautiful little cat and very sweet and I didn't really want another little cat but the kids did and God answered so ... yeah.
She is very sweet.
I don't know if I have ever said this before...
content warning! I am going to talk about actual murders!
Not graphically but I just wanted to say if that kind of thing is too upsetting, don't read further!
So I watched a bunch of episodes of a New Zealand show called Forensics, which is about murders in that country which were solved largely through scientific methods.
I find forensics interesting, and I also love New Zealand accents.
So anyway, I did find the episodes interesting, but it was depressing how incredibly stupid many of the criminals were.
Murder is wrong. That is just...so so so obvious. You shouldn't murder anyone. Being a soldier in war, or a policeman, or someone in authority is a different matter because I believe there can be justified killing but I'm not talking about that -- I am talking someone gets mad or wants to steal someone's else's stuff and murders one or more people in the process.
Now if you are evil enough to plot to kill someone, then it seems obvious to me that you'd want to do it in a way which would keep you out of prison for most or all of the rest of your life. That just seems basic sense, right?
Of course murder is terrible. I'm just saying, from a self preservation point of view, it would be sensible not to murder someone if it is almost certain that you will be caught.
Several of the murderers in question on this show (all were convicted) were stupid, but one of them was particularly idiotic.
He was the ex boyfriend of a woman and was mad that she had broken up, so he decided to murder her. (First degree -- it was planned.) So he snuck into her house, killed her, stole her phone, and started sending out bunch of messages supposedly from her claiming that she was afraid of a stalker at work.
Ok, yeah, that sounds kind of sneaky. The idea, obviously, was it to look like she was sending messages about a stalker, and then when she was found dead, the police would go after the hypothetical stalker.
But.
He was not a strong speller and when he wrote the text messages, he included numerous spelling errors that the woman would never make.
He made a big deal about how she had told him about the stalker and that he was at her work place, but no one at work knew anything about a stalker. Furthermore, she was very happy at work. Furthermore, her ex boyfriend HAD been stalking her and her coworkers knew that and told the police. He had also sent her threatening messages.
So the police were all over that, of course -- they were like, ex boyfriend is probably the culprit.
And then they found a bloody fingerprint on her door, and it matched his fingerprint.
Like. Wow.
Like, dude you are so so so stupid! You concoct this moderately elaborate plan to murder this innocent woman and LEAVE A BLOODY FINGERPRINT!
Sigh.
Of course I am very glad he was caught and convicted. Horrible man.
But it is kind, I don't know, scary -- yes, scary, that there are idiotic people out there who will commit crimes and apparently genuinely think they will get away with it in spite of all of modern technology pointing their way?
Maybe the smart criminals don't get caught.
We had the whole gang here for Thanksgiving, which was fun. Naomi and Lydia are adults living their own lives and while we see them fairly often, it is rare they are both here at the same time.
It was a wonderful meal and I am very thankful for many things: Jesus, salvation through his blood, my husband, my children, my house, my health...
We are blessed.
One of the oddball things about having SO many children is how they have different interests and I keep having fun when I connect with one of them about something.
The big boys are watching lots of movies now; they are 18 and 19 and mature enough for some heavier stuff. So far they seem to like the same movies that I like, which is fun. I am super picky about movies. I am annoyingly picky about movies. I dislike 10 movies for every one I love. So yeah.
I hope for their sake they aren't quite as picky, but it is fun saying, Hey, how about THAT movie and they watch it and like it. That has been happening a lot.
A week ago or so Miriam told me she was watching a youtube episode about a scientist who tried to fake finding a high atomic number element. I thought that sounded interesting so, with her help, looked it up and watched it all. The man making the program calls himself BobbyBroccoli for some reason.
It. Was. Awesome!
https://scontent.fosu2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/315192508_6006143696103425_3742779650931083566_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p160x160&_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dbeb18&_nc_ohc=JNjjXsKnSx8AX-LwFTa&_nc_ht=scontent.fosu2-2.fna&oh=00_AfDYQCErXJdBGf3tboAvtFWoaEgbvv_tdq9dcQYgFQmK1A&oe=63701EA8
That's the link, if you care. It was sciency, but it was also psychological, and historical and WOW! So so so cool!
BobbyBroccoli also made an elaborate program about a man named Schon who almost won a Nobel Prize on totally faked research!!!!!!!!
Like, recently! 20 years ago!! WOW!!!!!!!
BobbiBroccoli has a great narrator voice and his images explaining the science are awesome.
It was so fun geeking out, and especially geeking out with Miriam! I learned quite a bit about nuclear reactions. You would think I would know all that but honestly, I don't; as a materials scientist, I know more than most about the nucleus of atoms, but I know a LOT about electrons and bonding. That's my jam.
Anyway, I have lots in common with the kids, and lots of differences. I am not an artist, unlike the six girls, but they can, at least, talk to each other!
I can talk about introversion and cats with Naomi, kids and cats and hair dye with Lydia, movies with the boys, and so on and so forth.
It is a blessing!