BTI Babysitting, Day Three: Wednesday

The BTI crowd stumbled out of the house a little slower today. And it's only the third day! They're in trouble next week. :-)

The boys were fishing bright and early again. Everybody played outside for a while because it was nice and cool--a welcomed relief. Katie was thrilled to catch her first fish in a year or more. She caught two bluegill. I missed the first, but this is the second.



Sam & Isaac have been spending some time in the barn loft playing with the trains.



Day One with the kids was great, but by the end of the day it already felt like it would be good to GO somewhere the next day. So we did. It was great, but after going out it felt like we should STAY HOME today. Ha!

I was up way too late last night and ready for a nap by 9:00. Ha! By 9:30 Joe and Isaac had come to me and yanked their shirts up, showing me hundreds of little red bumps with white centers. You know my first thought, of course. “FLESH EATING BACTERIA FROM THE POND!!!” Ha! I’m sure it’s nothing that serious—and the cuts on their feet seem to be healing nicely. (I know because I felt strongly impressed to check them after seeing the bumps all over. Ha!) Sarah, too, has some strange thing going on with her feet. The balls of her feet are real red and tough and puffy and super sore. The poor girl hobbles around real slow every time she tries to walk. Poor kids. They’re growing all sorts of problems under my care! Joe was concerned that perhaps he and Isaac had developed chicken pox. I had to laugh, just imagining how fun the next week or two would be with seven kids if THAT were the case! Hahahahaha! I’m sure it’s not—doesn’t look like chicken pox. I did some research on it the red bumps this morning, which is sometimes a dangerous thing. You start looking symptoms up on the Internet and you could go a thousand different directions. The only thing that was a possibility (from what I was able to find) was Swimmers Itch. It is caught by being in water infected with some sort of bacteria that exists in some conditions where snails are present. It caught my attention because first thing this morning Aleah found a snail on the sidewalk and carried it around for a while.

Ravioli and Ramen were on the menu for lunch. Shortly after lunch I noticed red bumps on Lillie's neck, so I went from kid to kid checking them out. Sure enough the spots are on EVERYBODY now! Sam and Sara don't have it as bad as the others, but all seven kids have them. That sort of rules out the Swimmers Itch thing since none of the girls were in the pond but they have the same spots as the boys. None of the kids seem to be itching and (though Drama Queen Kate insists that she is) I've never seen any of the kids scratch at them, so that's good. The only thing we can think of that all of the kids have in common is the hot tub. We checked the chemicals and have added a few things to bring it up to the proper levels. Until then, nobody's getting in and we'll hope the spots clear up in the next day or two. What a great adventure this babysitting thing has become. I knew it would be, but the particulars are always a surprise. :-)

I forgot to write about Isaac's dread fear of the pond. The other night (just after the boys had been swimming) Jamey was putting him to bed and said something to him about the pond. I'm not sure how she worded it, but everything seemed fine when she left the room. A few minutes later Brother Dustin came downstairs after checking on the kids and asked Jamey what in the world she had done to their son. Isaac was in bed near a nervous breakdown. His Dad asked him what was wrong and Isaac said through sobs and quivering lips, "Mom said my legs are going to fall off because I was in the pond!" Hahahahahahaha! Poor Isaac. He has NO interest in swimming here again. Or anywhere. Maybe ever. Ha!

I worked on some laundry and ironing, but I seem to struggle accomplishing much. This afternoon the girls were hanging out in the den when “The Bad-Doers Gang” came barging in, scattering the bag of balloons, cackling, dancing, acting like weird-o’s and declaring the name of the gang and their purpose (“to do bad unto girls”) and informing us that they could go and fetch “the mild-mannered Joe, Sam and Isaac” if we wanted them to clean up the mess. Here they are, wreaking their havok.




I caught them on their way out of the house and they were more than happy to pose for the camera.

After the boys put their gang apparel (ha!) away, they all came back into the house escorting Grandma Sam. :-)

I let the kids watch “Up” this afternoon. Sarah laughed and laughed. She is sooooo cute and funny. What a sweet girl. I really, really like her. :-) It feels so good to relax and have a "quiet time." ~Aaaaahhhhh~ Mom tells me that I'm working hard, but I'm pretty sure she's wrong. Watching 7 kids has felt soooooo much better than working myself to death on the Monstrosity! I guess either one is a lot of work, but this is different work--and homemakers work--and it is so nice and refreshing! I'm sure (I hope?) I'll be ready to get back to work on the house once we get home, but for now I am sooooooo enjoying my "time off" babysitting all the kids and cooking and cleaning (though not much) and doing laundry and ironing. And blogging. And going to fantastic services and seeing BTI PEOPLE and talking and praying with old friends and fellowshipping and laughing... ~sigh~ Yes, it definitely feels like a week "off" with all of the things that feel so refreshing to me--and with the complete absense of paint, wallpaper, and glue in my workday. :-)

I did a little more laundry and ironing in the afternoon, then raced to get the kids ready for church. Joe went with Mom & Dad, but Kate and Sam went along with me to eat dinner with the Hays. While we were at the restaurant we noticed some people staring at us rather strangely. Then it occurred to us. Brother Dustin was sitting there in his white shirt and tie, with two women and a whole crowd of kids. Mormons??? We had some good laughs about the particulars of that. James REALLY should be here!!!

I so enjoyed church service. But then, you knew that, right? I just feel blessed, so blessed, to be here. ~sigh~ Brother Horton was on to preach, but never got a chance. The Holy Ghost really blessed and moved during the song service, then again when the O'Dell family was singing a song--that turned into an altar call. Brother Dustin took of running with Brother Hawkins right on his heels, nearly colliding (but of course didn't) with John Harper coming the opposite direction. I love it when the guys get all happy and take off like that. :-) I hated to miss out on hearing the message , but was blessed by the opportunity to spend time in prayer. We heard they had an unbelievable service over at South Side. Chris T. received the Holy Ghost (how many years has it been???), and Zack Baldwin and Kody nearly did, too. I was sorry to have missed it. I had been praying for Kody throughout the service at Zion Hill and kept looking for him but never could find him. Then it occurred to me, "Where's Brother Chris? And the other Chris? And Aaron and the Baldwin boys??? Those jerks skipped service!" Ha! It was only a few seconds before I realized they must've gone to South Side. I'm glad they did. They would have had to hear about it when they got home, otherwise. ;-)

We got home and had some Blue Bell and visited, and visited, and visited some more. Can I say it again...

I LOVE BEING HERE!!!! I’m savoring every moment. Every song service and prayer and message, every opportunity to pray in the altar, every second of precious fellowship, the church discussions, and—of course—all of the laughs. I’ve thought this week of several verses that are so simple, but I feel like I’m consciously experiencing them. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine…” (Prov. 17:22). “Happy is that people whose God is the Lord…” (Psa. 144:15). And this one, “Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD…” (Deut. 33:19). I had some needs I wasn’t even aware of, but since being here I can FEEL that I’ve had some hefty doses of “medicine” and it has been so good for my soul. When I ache because of laughing I know that all is well. :-) So many things about the Church are so much more real to me than they’ve ever been before. In the past year God has been strengthening and clarifying my vision of the Church, but also my love and understanding and appreciation of it (even in the little things) and what an undeserved honor it is to be a part of it. There are riches and blessings to be found here—even in “light” things like fellowship—that simply cannot be experienced in the same sweetness and depth anywhere else. The bond of theocracy and oneness that comes from being in the Body of Christ, accepting and embracing and loving the doctrine and practices that God has given to His people ("walking by the same rule" and "minding the same thing" --Phil. 4:9)--there is just nothing to compare to it this side of heaven. Like the verse in Deuteronomy says, God’s people are HAPPY and “who is like unto thee?” No one. No one is like God’s people. For years now I’ve been overwhelmed by that realiztion at each General Assembly. It seems to grow stronger and stronger as time goes by. ~sigh~ I'm so blessed to know God, to know His Church, to be IN it, and to know His people and be bound to Him and them by covenant. And... I’m soooooooo happy to be here!!!