Excerpt - Note to Sister

This is an excerpt from a note I sent to my sister, usually we just chat on the phone,

but this time I was sending her something else too and I found myself rambling on.

I really liked what I said, it's kind of like a journal entry and I want to remember it so

here it goes on the ol' blog. Hope you enjoy!

my boys who I love so dearly

***************

      How've you been? I saw that J got hurt the other night. Poor baby.


      Things are good with us, our washing machine is broken so I have been using that little one in the basement, which means that clothing is kind of scarse. It take 3 loads to equal one load in the bigger one. I find myself mostly washing underwear and socks.  Laundry is slow going, and getting it all done when I have a machine with a huge capacity was never one of my strong points so you can imagine how bad things are now.

      Chad smashed his finger while fixing the washing machine and I'm still not sure if I should have made him get stitches. It's kind of a borderline cut. He insisted that superglue and butterfly bandages would suffice, but at work that night it kept breaking open. I hope now that he's sleeping that it gets to heal shut better.

      James just got home from 5 1/2 days at scout camp. He missed me. He tried to be brave but he almost cried when I hugged him as he walked in the door. So sweet :-) He loved camp though. He had his first spiritual experience that made him cry. There is really nothing like good friends, church leaders and camp to bring out the best in kids when they get to his age. He also found out that he is allergic to spray deodorant (so he says). I guess one kid in his tent decided to squirt him down with it. He probably really stunk, but I'm guessing that it was probably a skink-fest with all those boys there. Why are boys so gross? Maybe this will teach him that he does need to shower more. He also caught a fish, cleaned it, cooked it up and ate it. Yikes! I don't know if I could do that, I'm kind of squeamish when it comes to guts. The fish would just not taste good to me anymore. His favorite activities were archery and going to the 22 range. Sounds like 5 days of living a boys dream. I am grateful that he can have these experiences. I believe that a boy cannot grow into a great man unless he is very much a boy.

**** On a side note (this was not in the letter) Here is one of my favorite quotes about boys.****

**** Back to the letter ****

      Ben has been an amazing help with fixing up the trailer. But I will probably rue the day I taught him how to use a staple gun, I foresee him getting some "ideas" that will end up as disasters in the future. He is such a hard worker and he is so eager to learn and help. He's very much like Chad how he can look at something and figure out how it works and what needs to be done. I was hanging something and I couldn't get it right, he said "Wait a minute mom!" and he ran off. He came back a few seconds later with an attachment to the drill which made what I was trying to do so much easier. He's awesome.

      Clint has been experimenting with electricity. I'm pretty sure he has taken the 9v batteries out of our smoke detecters. I'd better write "batteries" on my shopping list while I'm thinking about it. He found some electric wire and he rigged up a little propeller and he can change the way it spins by switching around the wires. It's kind of scary how smart these kids get.

      Todd is just sweet, cute Todd. He has taken over management of the garden. He has pretty much pulverized the carrot patch, but I think that most of them have ended up in his belly. He's great at checking the vegetables and picking the ripe zucchini's, peas and tomatoes. He pulls the weeds too! He did accidentally pull a tomato plant, but that's ok, it was kind of a puny one and I have 7 others.

Thanks!