Rambling thoughts

I haven't posted anything for a week.  Well, ah've bin bizzy. 

It has been a good week, but there has just been a lot of "life" going on.  Last week I crammed a church fellowship dinner, Super Bowl gathering at my home, one son's eye exam, another midweek fellowship, four sons' haircuts, my own haircut, 4 sons' physical checkups (and immunizations), a birthday, a breakfast out with a friend, lunch at Pizza Hut, roller skating, a youth lock-in and AWANA Bible quizzing into 7 days.  I have to admit to being glad we got a bit of snow and I was able to re-schedule some fun for this week instead!

But this week we are back to normal, or at least "normal as it appears here". Yesterday was Valentine's Day, for anyone who didn't know that! Nevin brought me some beautiful roses

He also brought me a box of chocolate covered strawberries (he said he knew I was trying to eat healthy, and those are healthier than the box of chocolates I usually get from him - so thoughtful!).  I'd post a picture of those, but the box is just about empty, and not terribly pretty right now! 

Two of my sons made me cards.  Joe's says, "My mom's the best cook ever," and has pictures of Doritos and Snicker bars taped to it.  Not quite sure what to make of that, but I am going with the sentiment!  Even my mom got me a card, and a pretty-wrapped Hershey bar.  I ate the Hershey bar.  I think I was supposed to eat it in little bites, but as I spent a large chunk of my afternoon on the phone with the Department of Revenue, discussing sales tax laws, I just put my head on the desk and swallowed it whole. 

The birthday was nice - my 2nd son Ben is 11 now

Here he is with his Chocolate Covered Oreo Cookie cake, surrounded by homemade Oreo truffles.  I think he had a good day.  He ended up getting a lot of attention last week, as he also competed in the AWANA Bible Quizzing

He and his teammate tied for 4th place this year.  It was VERY nice not to have to be at AWANA an hour early for quizzing practice Sunday - but in just a few weeks the practice will start for his older brother Tony's quizzing! 

Today it is a glorious sunny day, supposed to get up to 55 degrees.  We are going to do a bit of school, then we have friends coming over to watch West Side Story.  This week we are going to Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis for one of their educational concerts, and they will be playing excerpts from Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story.  So, today we will have popcorn and soda and hang out and watch the movie.  My yard is a muddy bog right now, so hopefully that will help when the boys start begging to quit watching the movie and go outside.  We'll see how this plays out.  Probably end up with the guys outside and the ladies and girls inside watching.  Oh well, more popcorn for me!

Other than that, just a basic week.  Some bookwork school, some "living life" school, midweek fellowship, probably hit some outside activities later in the week, and then a dinner out with grown-ups this Saturday night.  So many things to look forward to. 

This morning my 3rd son Joe was sitting with me in my chair (as he does most mornings - we are the early-risers here)

and we were discussing how to tell time, and watching the minute hand move from 7:00 a.m. to 7:01 a.m.  I told him that time goes by so fast you don't even see it.  He told me time was flying, and pretended to reach up and grab numbers as they flew past us. 

Yep, time is flying, and sometimes in all the busy - even the really fun busy - I have to remind myself to stop and enjoy it, to focus on what God is doing all around us, and not to be frantically grabbing at the imaginary numbers as they fly by.

But right now I need to go feed people and educate them and pick up the house and feed the chickens!  Praise God!