Excuses

Well. Here comes the litany of excuses for my inattentiveness here. You might as well sit back and have the popcorn ready to hand.

It's summertime--the slack season when I get much less written. My teenagers are home making noise and needing the stiff end of my boot to do anything beyond watching movies and playing video games. For some strange reason, several wasp's nests are daunting enough to them that they feel unable to spend any more than about 2 1/2 minutes cleaning the shed.

So I've been doing battle with said nests with some kitchen tongs and a flyswatter. To date I've stomped two nests and am needing to find the Mother Ship. The busy little stingers try to inhabit all my bird houses too. Stinky wasps. At any rate, I am hoping my example of fearless persistence has been enough to shake the offspring from their torpor.

Right.

Less amusing: on the day of my daughter's promotion, my eldest son's arm began to turn purple. It would have been a lovely color if it hadn't been so alarming. I immediately thought of blood clot but couldn't imagine a person so young getting one. So I had him moving it around and massaging it to no avail. After the promotion I called my hubby who turned out to be on his way home anyway. Lon took Perry in and it did indeed turn out that he had a blood clot in his shoulder.

So while I went to my second son's high school graduation, Lon sat in the ER with Perry. Two days later Perry got out and is now on blood thinners. The strange thing is that I wasn't worried. I know the Lord has a plan and this may have been His way of giving Perry a little honorable reprieve before Perry's mission for our church. Now he needs to go get another job to help pay for it all.

Hunter graduated from high school. His grades weren't stellar but he was quite busy with many good things ie. 3 choirs, several plays, a musical, swim team, and finishing his Eagle project. That last month was chuck full of concerts, awards nights, and parties. I'm so glad he wasn't out getting drunk or stoned or laid. He's a fantastic boy with loads of talent.

Courtney and Jessa play cello and violin in the Tucson Jr. strings and their school orchestras, meaning they had 4 performances. Barret plays tenor sax and he shared one of Jessa's performances. Plus there were rehearsals to take them to. The lovely thing is listening to all that good music. They're finally getting out of the lower symphonias which are much less pleasant to listen to.

Jessa had her Nat'l. Jr. Honor Society awards assembly too. She worked quite hard this year and got wonderful grades. We're so proud of her. It definitely makes up for the many times she brained the boys with their toy trucks. Who'd have thunk it?

We spent hours and hours helping Hunter work on his Eagle Project. He made gates and a fence for Colossal Cave Nat'l. Monument (at least I think it's a monument). I'm so glad that project is done as it is over ten miles away. There were several set-backs and hitches but we were blessed with kind donors and a great amount of help (you reap what you sow). Now he can say to his grandkids, "Look! I built that fence and those gates! (If, that is, they don't get wrecked by having kids swing on them.)

Last but not the least of my excuses, I have been trying to be a good example by not using the computer so much so we can save money. Since it's harder for me to write when my children are awake, I've been spending more time on my manuscripts in the morning and less time here. I have two MS in Beta testing as I write this.

That, my friends, is the whiny set of reasons why my posts have been sparse of late. I shall endeavor to do better. It doesn't look like things will let up any time soon. I know I've forgotten things too. I was supposed to go to cub camp in there somewhere but nobody let me know when, so I think I missed it. Bad dog, no biscuit.

Life is a roller coaster. Sometimes you barf over the side and hope it doesn't hit you on the loop-the-loop. Wheeeeeeee!