This is all I got from the Carowinds Adventure, Oh Evvy!

"That is so...'80's"

I asked the prima donna, if she was going to wear jeans to Carowinds today. The look was astonishing. You are kidding me? She returns. I am so below doing that. I have my stuff together. Okay, I say.
Yesterday she took an order of dinner to bring it up to my room, in a Chinese accent and never helped me one bit. She is so passive-aggressive, I just love it. She never does what I tell her to do, or ask her to do, but she always jokes at me back so hard that I don't remember that she didn't do it until I am doing it, myself. She pretends slavery to me and gets a fan, when she see the smallest persperation on my brow, from my "flashes". Then she jokes about how we danced in the 80's by moving her neck a certain way that puts me in stitches. I hope she has a good time. I feel like I have Jo with me, in her. I still miss you anyway, Jo.

I just love the last weeks of school!

Every one of our schoolage younguns has Spring fever. Thank God for the women, Elyse and Emily, who help and concern themselves with the fallout from the Spring fever.
Not one pair of pants fits Ezra from the beginning of the year. Every morning is a scurry to find the one pair that still fit him. Yesterday, I didn't see him until I was out the door and I had put the pair of pants on him that were a part of the painting the outside bench incident. Needless to say it was attrocious. He didn't mind.
He and Ethan are on a mission with Elyse to finish every living CS Lewis book there is. More power to them. They gabble and talk about how they have to read this one before that one and then, now, Ethan is up to "The Final Battle" while Ezra is just cracking the first book Prince Caspian. I read 4 chapters mommy. What is the rush? I say, tongue in cheek. You are only in first grade. They did get some of my genes, I am refreshed to think that. Elyse is the moderator of the discussions and the unreading teenagers taunt from the sidelines that they cannot understand what all of the hullaballoo is about. They have no time for anything with finals at hand.
Algebra is kicking my Enoch's pants. I have never seen him so out of breath studying before. Dad used to say, I want to see you studying around the house. Now, I know what he meant. I find studying teenagers around my house, in every position there is. The lay on the floor and they lay on my bed and they have books and are sprawled with their eyes glassy. I did most of my studying on the train, between Queens and Brooklyn, so most of my brain is stuck in the subway somewhere between 179 St and 99St. En said, I really misjudged Algebra and miscalculated how much I needed to put into it. Needless to say, I talked about it every other week. Now, He is warning me that he didn't do his best. That is alright, you will take it again, I hope. He probably didn't fail, but now the beginning portions of the class are coming clear to him and he obviously wasn't paying attention to the Spring classes. We will see.
For Evvy, all eyes are on the class trip to Carowinds, an amusement park. She is walking around and imagining what she and her girls will do. I love that look in her eyes. This year, there is no fluting contest there, for her. She's given up on the music interest, to my complete dismay. Leaving us with bills to pay for the flute, left. Help us, Holy Spirit. She will just go to Carowinds and have fun. What else is there?
School days, School Days?

Remembering my baby Enoch!

O safe to the Rock that is higher than I,
My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly;
So sinful, so weary, Thine, Thine would I be;
Thou blest "Rock of Ages," I'm hiding in Thee.

Refrain:
Hiding in Thee, Hiding in Thee,
Thou blest "Rock of Ages,"
I'm hiding in Thee.

In the calm of the noontide, in sorrow's lone hour,
In times when temptation casts o'er me its pow'r;
In the tempests of life, on its wide, heaving sea,
Thou blest "Rock of Ages," I'm hiding in Thee.

How oft in the conflict, when pressed by the foe,
I have fled to my Refuge and breathed out my woe;
How often, when trials like seabillows roll,
Have I hidden in Thee, O Thou Rock of my soul.

I spent the first weeks of his life, pinching him, to hear him cry. Checking his color regularly, that he wasn't turning blue. I was a burdensome mother. Are you alright? All of the boys, to this day, when they fall or hurt themselves, reflexively, say "I am alright, mom!" He especially shows deference to his mother's emotions.
My baby was put to sleep with this hymn. He had the shortest babytime of everybody, because Evvy came right after him. I had tactics for keeping the 2 of them still to feed him. Reading and singing this hymn was the first choice at night time.
I miss those baby days. But I am pleased at the 16 year old who has grown out of some of the severe naughtiness that I thought would never pass. The precocious toddler has turned into a pretty reliable, young man. Thank to God. I am grateful for his watchful eye, even when it costs me my vegetable garden, as his sensitivity

One visit to the nursing home aunt Ra-Ra, said, look at Sonny, up under Mu? She saw the sweet relationship that we have. I couldn't appreciate it at the time. I do now.

They said, uncle Sonny would come home to check up on Mu, wherever they went. He couldn't enjoy himself, if he didn't know that Mu was okay. I thought that was sweet. I couldn't imagine a big man like that being so close. Not a Momma's boy, exactly, just very concerned.

Featuring my Prima Ballerina tree, I call her. I just love how she is flourishing in my yard 1 month later.

She piroettes in my garden
Everytime I look at her, I hear the song...Almighty Infinite FatherYou are the one that we praise, You are the one we adore, You give the healing and grace our, hearts always hunger for...
Faithfully loving your own...
Here in our weakness you find us...
Falling before your throne...

My Grandma appreciated every day that she had with that great grand baby.

It was about 3 weeks that she had enjoying Muffy. Muff was a ray of sunshine, that diminished her pain. I remember the look on her face, when she would talk about that baby. We all loved that season and Gram seemed like she was trying to hang on to make it to my wedding. She missed it by a couple of days. I looked in her eyes and I said, Grandma, I want to sing a song for you. I was thinking about Wind beneath my Wings She said sing me a hymn, Jayne. I said Grandma, I don't know any hymns, by heart. She and Uncle, both laughed at me. How can you be a Christian and not know any hymns. Uncle got on the Organ and they pulled out Abide with Me and I learned that hymn. I was really sad that she didn't let me tell her how much I loved her. We were crying and singing.
But because of that, I learned every hymn that I could.
Even 27 years lated, I am brought to tears when they sing Abide with me. We sang that together and she taught it to me.

Isn't he adorable? By the way...who is 16 tomorrow!isn't He?

"You are smelling yourself?"

How many times did mommy say that to us? It meant you just said something fresh, out of line, or disrespectful. I don't know how we understood that derivation. Perhaps a smack or spank, after the reproof, brought enlightenment to the meaning. I am in a season where most of my house is trying their wings and "dissing" is rampant. How do I translate into their language..."the smack" and the sentiment of the cliche' that we grew up with.
You are going to have some very disrespectful grown men, if you don't take them in hand now, I was told yesterday. Well, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. Would they be more disrespectful than you are to tell me that they will be disrespectful. Disrespect is not an issue in Walkerdom. Ineptitude in labor is. You don't know what you are doing and you didn't do as you were told, is a greater reproof.
It is true that I haven't gotten around to really giving a specific job to the little guys. At 10 and 6 they walk around like babies, having things completed for them and with people picking up after them.
I have accepted the reproofs of my grown daughters and am trying to think of what would be appropriate and consistent chores for those fellows to groom them for life. I know that this is late in life for these fellows to take up the challenge of participation in the family way, but it was an oversight.
I am often too tired, after work and before work to follow after them for their irresponsibility. My women and teen helpers have challenged me to get up and aim my younger fellows in the right way.
With the help of God, I will. I will not be too proud to accept the rebuke and be more consistent with my babies. "Moss, don't grow on a rolling stone?" to quote Grandma Ruth.

It is a sunny day after a couple of rainy days, down here in the Charlotte area.

We are not used to this cool down. I, for one am grateful for the relief from the oppressing heat. My okra bed is grateful and my eggplant bed is grateful. My thumb is not green yet and my garden is exposed to the elements, mainly my children.
I set out 2 beds of veggies, with the help of a good neighbor and my Enoch decided to steal some of the dirt from my veggie bed. (I get no respect);) The dog went into my bed and dug up something, first. I have to buy a little fence to protect my garden. I intend to grow some eggplant and my seedlings are coming up, but there is always the element of children and teens to contend with. I love them, but they are an enemy to my garden. In that we will have to fight about it. STAY OUT OF MY GARDEN! LEAVE MY DIRT ALONE, I SAID!
I don't know if my strawberry plant will survive.:(

I missed the recent CS Lewis wave in the house.

Hot items fly through the family and you either ride the wave, or you miss it. Ethan discovered CS Lewis and flew through his books in the time of about a month. We have watched the movies as a family, but, this was different. Can I read it to you mommy? I am sorry honey...I am busy, I am working, I am tired. Now it is over. We read exactly 1 chapter together. I am not so enamored with the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or the series. Elyse had her season, about the same age as Ethan is now and the other children are movie watchers. But to catch the light in the eyes of Ethan, was a right of passage as a mother for me.
That was the first book that aroused fear in me, mommy. I could really feel it. I looked into his eyes and saw the grown man developing from the little fellow that I knew. It was like a graduation and so silent a transition. As though, CS Lewis had opened a part of his brain that he will never be able to close. Now, I will love the series, just for doing that to my son. I saw that in Elyse, but I thought it an individual thing, this time, I missed the bus, but I see the growth of my baby's mind and I am blessed to see that.

Sarah Palin came to NC.

She was full of redneck jokes and spoke to the population of NC in the way that they love to hear. We sat around the computer to watch her on the News. She is sooooo pretty and confident, no matter what kinds of stuff she says or what mistakes people catch her in. I like my children to see those kinds of examples of public speakers.
Evvy is our Sarah Palin imitator and after the watching season, she made up the funniest monologue about her. Imitating her. We were doubled over laughing. Sarah was speaking to the National Rifle Association. Evvy said what else is there to do in Alaska except killing the moose. She said, "I wake up every morning to my alarm clock which is the sound of the moose honking and 2 shots and quiet." The right to bare arms is in the constitution and Sarah was really good talking to the people of NC, for whom that is a very important right.
We are learning about the country and the dynamics of America.