We're now in the fourth day without the older children. They're all away at the worldview camp they go to every year, though this is the first time they are all away together. Nothing makes us happier that they are together. They all love it so much, too, and have mentioned already how it makes it so much better to be there at the same time.
Meanwhile, I'm cooking less, cleaning less, doing less laundry, less driving.....less everything! Those older ones demand a lot more than I realized!
And, while I'm on the topic of doing all sorts of work for my older kids, why is no one giving me an award for all the driving I did this summer?!!! Why? I ask you! This past Saturday marked the last day of all my driving to MarineLand. I honestly don't know how I did it except that I was being prayed for all the time. But I have to say, I really ended up loving it. My oldest son is by far one of the funniest people I know, so we had such a great time each day, laughing all the time. I'm sure I gained weight, too, because in addition to the gas he contributed each week, I made him take me out for coffee each time I picked him up. "Give me your money," I would snidely say and he would hand it over knowing he had NO choice. Ha ha ha. That's a great feeling when you have rich kids, spending their money. Loved that.
We marveled on that last drive in and back at what a wonderful summer it had been and how we had been so protected the whole summer. Not one accident. Not one delay. Going into Niagara in the summer is typically a nightmare. If you go too late in the day you will inevitably hit hours of traffic, but we didn't. His shift always started at just the right time to miss it all. I was also in awe of the fact I was kept safe and that the car didn't have a single issue for all the driving I did. Not to mention that we were somehow able to fill up the gas tank time and time again.
It also seemed to help the kids who were left at home to rise up and do more than usual. For the first few days of all the driving I would come back and nothing had been done. I would feel so frustrated. I thought to myself, I better make a list, something they can see so they'll know, not just guess, what they should be doing while I'm gone. So that's what I did. Each morning I would write a monster list of all that should be done such as laundry, dishes, feeding kids/animals, vacuuming, etc. To my amazement, it was usually all done by the time I came home. They had to become responsible kids and they did it!
To top it all off, my son got his performance review and he did great. They'll gladly hire him next summer where he hopes to work with the dolphins - yet another dream job.
RM and I had set some goals for the summer - pretty basic ones - get the puppies sold and clean up the farm by selling some of the broken down vehicles like our van, and get rid of the final bull. The bull was caught and slaughtered a couple of weeks ago. I now have, no joke, 500 lbs of beef in my freezer - 10 huge boxes of beef. That should last me a good long while. Meanwhile the other goals were accomplished last weekend in one fell swoop.
We had listed our old 12 passenger van for a very low price because it wasn't working. Who would buy it, we wondered. Amazingly, some guy who runs his own mechanics shop offered us a decent price - sold, just like that. A tow truck came in and picked it up.
While we were waiting for the tow truck to come, an older couple came to look at the final two puppies. They immediately picked one. While they were picking their puppy, an e-transfer came through for the last puppy! That was when the tow truck came and took the van....all within minutes of each other. Talk about accomplishing the goals in a short time frame. When things like that happen, it feels like God is smiling down on us. Those had been huge prayer requests for us. We were in awe. Now we just have half a million kittens to list.....
I'm sitting here with what feels like a Florida summer breeze off the ocean. It has been the hottest summer ever and we had no air conditioning, but I can honestly say I didn't need it once. I loved the heat so much. We had a constant breeze. I think a lot of people wondered how we did it, but we were thinking, "How did people use air conditioning?" If we went somewhere that had air my kids would say, "It's so cold in here!" I always feel healthier without the air, so I'm so grateful for where we live. I read we're going to have a very cold winter....I won't think about that just yet......I'm hanging on to the warm breezes for a little while longer.......
aLLL I CAN SAY IS p t l WITH YOU OXOXOXOXOX
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