The Thick of It

There's an old Backyardigans episode where they keep singing, "Into the thick of it! Into the thick of it! Into the thick of it! ... But we can't see where we're going."

It's been on a catchy-little repeat in my head lately.

Mike and I were discussing this--the thick of it (specifically the thick of parenting) just the other night. 

"You know," I'd mused. "I really felt like those years when we had so many kids that were all so little was really the thick of parenting. But I don't know. Maybe we are more in the thick of it now. I mean so many little kids was really physically and emotionally exhausting. But in this stage there are just ... so many things! Older kids who are somewhat independent but still need help, grappling with decisions our kids make that we no longer fully control, kids wrecking cars, kids on our car insurance, younger kids still demanding so much, ..." and I went on for quite some time listing things that currently fall into the wide scope of our parenting.

It certainly wasn't nothing. 

And I don't really know if we were more "in the thick of it" when we had four kids under age five (and six others to boot) or more in the thick of it now. Perhaps it's just a different thick of it. But we are certainly in something. (Which I suppose should come as no surprise having opted to have 10 children. And yet ... I continue to be surprised. And to wonder a wee bit over all the information the Lord chooses to keep to Himself when He initially asks us to do certain things! Ha!)

Anywho. ...

A few bits of things:

Daisy, Goldie and I chanced upon a group of birders (birders!!!) (complete with their long lenses and binoculars) the other day! They were responding to reports (from whatever their birding sources might be) of a rare bird in the area, and they were kind enough to humor me bringing up our love of the Merlin Bird app and to even agree that the unusual bird it recently suggested I was hearing might truly have been that bird (as, according to one particularly friendly birder, it was migratory season and therefore a more likely time for rare birds to be passing through). 

I refrained from asking them if they were familiar with the "Costco Grackle"--a bird seen, from what I can tell, exclusively in the Costco parking lot.

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Jesse attempted to ride Pig the other day. I don't know what possessed him to do it, and, from what I could gather, he failed miserably, but I was proud of his prowess!

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Mette is determined to win "The Great American Award" in school this year. She's already memorized the Preamble to the Constitution, all 50 states, and the Gettysburg Address. (Isn't the Gettysburg address one of the most inspirational speeches ever given? It makes me want to weep wondering if we will ever again have presidents capable of such noble thought!)

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I mentioned car troubles in my paragraphs on "the thick of parenting" above. We have had just a ridiculous spate of them! It seems we cannot go so much as a week without someone denting something or breaking the AC, or getting a flat tire; and we've had numerous cars in the shop. This all seemed to culminate in my totaling our van a few weeks ago. (I also totaled another man's truck in the process. All my fault. Just turned right into someone I somehow didn't see.)

It was a very rattling experience. And I'm so glad everyone was OK! But ... I'm awfully sad about the van. For now we found an incredibly cheap 8-passenger vehicle that will do for the time being (though we have to take two cars even to church on Sunday as we often still have 9 of us together), but I miss being able to so freely fit all of us and all of our stuff! We have had this van since Jesse was a baby!

At least Shannon sent us consolation cookies afterwards. (Perhaps that is how we can account for Starling recently praying, "We thank thee that we had a good time in our car accident."?

Summersby:

Cute little stinkers on a Sunday morning:

A trip to AutoZone:

Twinning:

Loaded up with straw from Uncle Lynn:

Hans with Ellie. (At the start of the past several school years Hans has had to bring a bag filled with things that tell about him. He always includes this picture of the stuffed animal he's had since he was born.):

Starling seems to be loving school, but she also seems to be worn out and incredibly emotional. On the night of Abe's wedding for example, she began deeply sobbing on the drive home from the reception over the thought that maybe her car would be covered in shaving cream and what not (just like Abe and Kenya's was) someday. When we tried to reassure her that she didn't need to ever have that happen to her car, she wept, "But I want it to! It's beautiful but you guys won't like it!" She also sobbed piteously when we went to check on the house progress recently and saw that they had put mismatched windows in several bedrooms. She felt a) we should love the windows as they were and b) we were being mean to the workers by not loving them done incorrectly. 

Dear little soul:

Me and my into-the-thick-of-it partner:

Sheetrock going up and these two enjoying the view:

A sweet little picture Abe took of Hans after he'd given him his first pocketknife the other day: