King's Island Day

King's Island Day!  Most of the pictures are of Rose and Daniel and Sarah because Kevin and I spent most of the day with them. The older six were old enough to go off on their own, but not the three littles.

The gang is all here!  Yes, the weather was drizzly.  It rained and showered and drizzled as we drove to King's Island and for the first 2 hours AT King's Island. It was not very wonderful.  After lunch, it cleared up, thankfully!

Rose found the whole concept of 'waiting in line' to be quite a challenge.  Well, she hated it.  She lay down on the ground and howled indignantly more than once.  If I wasn't a very experienced mother, I would have been super embarrassed.  As it was, I sighed and talked her through it.

Anyway, she loved the swings. Short lines and fun.

Carousal

Tiny roller coaster.

Lunch was sponsored by my company, AND they had face paint artists.

Plus a magician.

This was also much enjoyed by the Rosie One.

There was a petting zoo!

Ok, I have to admit I had never been on this ride and I loved it!  It was very gentle (no hard bumps, which is good for my back) but also fun.

We went on the log ride.  Oh my.  I have been on it many times before and have never, ever gotten nearly this wet.  We were SOAKED.

Cute little ones.

Kevin was indeed here!  He took 99% of the pictures.

Chilly, Wet June Plus Philosophical Ramblings

Where is global warming when you want it?

It has been cool and wet.  This time of year, the high temps each day are generally in the low to mid 80's.  But we've had most days in the 70's lately. Last week, one day the high was in the 60's!

Cool is not a bad thing except where the pool is concerned. It crept up to 79 last week but now that we have several days ahead of us with rain and low temps, it'll drop.

I LIKE MY POOL REALLY WARM!

Not that I'm whining.

Ok, maybe I am.

Yesterday's was King's Island Day, when my company nobly sponsors a day at a local amusement park.  We ALL went yesterday, which is the first time all 11 of us have gone in a long time, maybe forever. I can't remember if we took Rose when she was a baby.

I will post pictures of King's Island Day in another post.  Kevin got a new camera and took a bunch of fine pics.

I'm feeling a little melancholy.  I think part of it is fatigue and that I was sick last week with some annoying virus that made my head, neck, and back hurt.  And I was super tired.

The other thing is that a guy I knew from work died a little more than a week ago. I didn't know him well -- he was in his 60's. He was a very friendly man, intelligent, honored and liked.  He just collapsed and died unexpectedly.

He came from a Hindu background.   The funeral was a few days ago and we were all invited, but I didn't attend, partially because of family needs here at home, partially because I was sick, but also partially because I didn't want to possibly participate in a funeral rite I wasn't comfortable with.

The latter was likely something I should NOT have worried about, but the message sent out did mention specific colors of clothing being appropriate for a Hindu funeral/ceremony.  (I am not sure if it was a funeral or a memorial service.)

Funerals are for the living and I didn't know his poor wife and family.  I feel so badly for them.  Most people I know who die were sick ahead of time and it isn't a total shock.  This was very sudden.

I am a Christian.  Hindus and Christians disagree profoundly on the fundamentals of reality.  I mean, both encourage kindness and some other positive traits but Hindus believe in reincarnation, and Christians do not.  Christians believe we need a Savior in the form of Jesus Christ, Hindus do not.

We can't both be right.  Hindus and Christians cannot BOTH be right.

I believe I'm right.  I know I'm right. So this fine man was wrong.

It makes me sad.

We are all sinners, and we all need to be saved by grace.

So yes, I just feel sad for this man and his family.  It's also a reminder that life is ... unexpected.  We may think we have many tomorrows when we don't.

I pray often that the Lord will give me many years so that I can be a good wife and mother.  I'll be honest that I do look forward to Heaven. I have at least 6 children waiting for me there who never survived long enough to be born.  JESUS IS THERE!!!

But I've got a wonderful husband and 9 beautiful children who need me.  So I want and desire a long life.

And yet, life can end so suddenly, as it did for the man at work.

Life With Pictures

Naomi has green hair!

Fat cat!

Daniel is 7.  Our little man is growing up!

Pretty flowers

NEW cat (Milkshake?  Seems like a nice name.)

Naomi and Rose with Fat Cat

Rose looking cute

Two pretty girls

Kevin and I have both been sick with some minor illness. I feel better today.   Mostly I've just been achy and tired with a massive headache (yesterday.)

The Dayton area was hit very hard with the tornadoes on Memorial Day.  It is still amazing the outbreak only resulted in one death.  Beavercreek, which is close to us, had massive tree damage and many houses and apartments were damaged as well. Kevin spent a few hours one day helping chop up tree limbs for someone from work.

I got a call from someone ELSE at work telling me that a high level person in our company died unexpectedly.  So very sad!  I didn't know him well but it is a shock. I think he was maybe early 60's.

We have eye appointments today for 3 kids and are picking up glasses for 3 more.  

I am thankful I feel better than yesterday.

Major Storms

Last night I was curled up in bed, happily reading my Kindle, when Kevin strode in and turned on the light.  It was 11 p.m. and he announced that there were tornado warnings for our area.

We woke up all the kids and trundled down to the basement, where our storage room is a very safe space from damaging storms.  It's made out of poured concrete and is wonderfully protected.

And we sat there for over half an hour.  Outside the rain poured down and the lightning flashed and the thunder roared, but we were safe.  We went back to bed around 11:45 or so, though I came down and sat in the family room until 12:45 a.m. because the tornado sirens kept howling.

We left the basement because the worst of the storm had passed us. We were fine.  Our irises were annoyed, but we had no other damage.

Only 10 miles away or so, a tornado touched down and destroyed an Aldi's, a pet supply store, and a Chik-Fil-A!  Kevin saw another area where a section of trees had been knocked down. So this was a very big storm, a very dangerous storm, and we are blessed and grateful that we didn't sustain damage or even lose electricity.

My heart goes out to those who were affected.  Many will be cleaning up for some time, there have been some injuries and one fatality, and some people probably lost their jobs with businesses being so damaged.

One curious reality is that during the storm, debris from damaged homes and businesses leaped into the air, cavorted in the currents, and eventually came down in our yard. We've found fiberglass insulation and building foam and a board or two. 

Again, big storm.

Thankful we are OK. 

Listening to the Bible in the Car

I am SUPER visual. Super visual.

I think one of the reasons I did so well in school is that I can learn information from books extremely well. 

My auditory skills haven't been the greatest, and they've gotten worse as our house got more and more full of noisy people. (I can be noisy too -- I'm not saying it is everyone else!)

In the first years of motherhood, I liked to listen to the Christian radio show Focus on the Family.  It is a great show and I learned from it and was encouraged by it. But then it got too noisy.  I'd be listening and screams would emanate from somewhere and I'd miss part of what was going on. So I gave up on the radio.

Fast forward many years, to like, now.  We have had the Bible on CD for many years and I used to play it for the kids OCCASIONALLY. But the same issues held -- it was noisy and people would miss what was going on in a passage.

I decided recently that even though I'm visual, and even though I get a lot from reading the Bible, it would be pleasant to listen to the Bible in the car when I am alone.  So I ripped the Bible CD's and put them on the thumb drive that I use for my music in the car.

And it has been really neat and to my surprise, I'm actually noticing things I have never noticed when reading. Or if I did notice them previously, but had forgotten.

I listened to the entire book of Esther in the last couple of days. Haman the Agagite plotted to destroy the Jews in the first month of the year in question, but when he cast the lots, the day to destroy the Jews fell in the 12th month.  Esther intervened, and the King had Haman exectued in the 3rd month, leaving 9 months for the Jews to organize to protect themselves.

So I found  that interesting. It wasn't an 11th hour salvation, so to speak. 

Also, Haman was executed and Mordecai was raised to the position of King Xerxes's right hand man, and yet some people still tried to kill the Jews in the 12th month. That seems...stupid. I don't know much about Persian culture, but people have been greedy, and violent, and racist for a very long time.

And why didn't Haman's sons get out of Susa?  Their father had been executed and yet 9 months after his death, they were still raring to go in attacking the Jews of the capital city. Again, that just seems stupid. But people are sometimes.  For sure.

Going off in another direction, we had a dinner discussion about Napoleon Bonaparte this week.  This dude was smart smart smart as a military commander, but his vaulting ambition resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of his own countrymen and soldiers of other countries as well.  So smart guy, very dubious morals. 

And Henry VIII?  REALLY?  Your wife doesn't bear you a son, and a mistress pressures you, so you divorce your loyal wife in favor of the mistress, marry the mistress, then have her executed a few years later on trumped up charges?

Some people are evil jerks.

Moving the Girls Around

With Naomi graduating, we decided to move the girls around.  Naomi is moving into our study on the main floor and will have the room to herself.

Lydia is moving in with Angela and Miriam.

Sarah and Rose are moving into the old "big girls' room".

So lots of things are moving around and the house is chaotic :-).

Naomi and Lydia's old room. It looks amazing...and empty.

Chaos.

More chaos!!

Naomi graduates from High School ... and Clark State University

Regrettably, I am super busy at this moment but I really wanted to throw this up. Naomi graduated from Clark State, and high school, yesterday!  She earned an associate's degree in New Media.  We are so proud of her.  She got honor cords with a grade point of average above 3.5.  Great job, Naomi!