My girls and NannyOgg’s 5 youngest kids were fast friends, and loved being together. 4 of the kids are below, sweetly running along the beach with salt marsh grass, foliage, and sand – what more would you want in a picture? Well, there are 25 great pics of the kids having fun together.

I have been so grateful to many, many friends in the time I’ve been mothering, and have both helped and been helped by those friends. I love opportunities to show support, because everyone needs a bit of help along the way!

There is a raffle happening now to support the family of a woman named Colleen, who passed away recently. Suzanne of And They Lived Happily Ever After wrote a bit about Colleen and the raffle. If you knit, know someone who knits, or have a baby in cloth diapers, you want to check it out – there’s some amazing stuff there!

My friend Suzanne donated this gorgeous set, which makes me yearn for a little baby to dote over! All the little wool sets!

The raffle runs Oct 28 – Nov 4, and is definitely worth a look. If you would be buying yarn or baby stuff anyway, it’s always lovely to support a person rather than a conglomerate.

Today was a fabulous day. We left early to go to a special church service, which was incredibly wonderful and inspiring. To make it even better, we had some great conversation with the couple who gave us a ride, and enjoyed our morning so much. i could save this post for when I have dealt with the pictures, or post now – so pictures will follow, I took a lot!

When we got home, we changed out of our church clothes and into our play clothes, and then our friends were there! The girls played their friends for a bit in the yard (they loved playing with the downed tree limb from last night’s winds!) while NannyOgg and I found a nearby cache for Geocaching, then we bundled all 8 kids and 1 puppy into the car.

We walked through the salt marsh to go Geocaching, and of course ended up with feet covered in mud. Squelch, squerch, squelch, squerch! Then we were in a field, running, and then scrambling through brambles to find the cache. After we found the cache, the kids played on a beach we had never discovered before! To avoid the mud we swish, swash, swish, swash walked through some salt marsh grasses getting back to the van.

We ran a quick errand to get the dogs & cat food (fussy critters!), and some snacks for the kidlets, then to beach #2 of the day for my kids, #3 of the day for the rest of the kids. The private beach has a lot of sand, more salt marsh grasses, and plenty of shells, rocks, and other things to keep puppies and children very happy. It was wonderful watching the sun start to set over the water as I chatted with a friend and my kids played happily.

We ended up with tired kids, a tired puppy, and at least one tired mama! NannyOgg headed back before full dark, we didn’t need our flashlights this visit! Tomorrow they are getting their puppy to raise for the guide dog folks, so a day with Ra was great practice.

Today was our town’s annual trick-or-treat downtown at various shops. We went with some friends and did the “non-food” option, because of food allergies. It’s growing every year, and the awareness is wonderful. It’s so great to be able to keep everything, rather than dumping 2/3 of it because of allergies.

BG is a ghost (who has lived in the same house for 1,000 years and is trying to get rid of some people who just moved in…. she loves stories with her costumes!)
MG is a devil, and she has really enjoyed that pitchfork! Thank goodness she agreed to the smaller one.
LG is an angel, and included one of her stuffed dogs as her dog-angel. The whining about her halo and wings getting knocked about wasn’t very angelic though.
I dressed up as Sarah Palin, but sadly no pictures this time.
The giant clam is the town mascot.

I am strong. I can do what I need to do for my girls and my family. I can take care of those I love, and do what is right, even when it isn’t easy.

I wish life was easier, more fair, etc. But I can’t change that. All I can change is how I react to the things that happen in life. I can pray for strength, and I can believe that I will make it through this time and come out the other side stronger and happier.

I also have the most awesome friends in the world. Not only my friends in the computer who have brightened my days with comments, emails, and IMs, but also my friends outside the computer.

My friend Nanny Ogg came down for a visit last Saturday, and took us geocaching for the first time ever. It was a fun time. Unfortunately we had misjudged time, so we had 3 adults, 6 kids, and our puppy Ra out in the dark wandering through woods. I know Nanny Ogg well enough to know to pack flashlights if we’re going geocaching with her – her stories always seem to end with “and then it got dark and we had to find our way back to the car”!

Now I’m finding myself surrounded by love and friendship. One friend is enroute now to help us with some shopping, another friend is coming tomorrow to bring us to the in-town trick-or-treat, then my long-time friend (since 3rd grade!) is coming to visit with her mom for a bit. Sunday has church and more visits from friends, and then on Monday my mom & step-dad return from a visit with my brother. Phew!

Life is full right now, and the past few days have been much better than expected. We are strong.

It’s funny how life takes its twists and turns.

If you had told me I would be where I am now 25, 20, 10, or even 5 years ago I would never have believed you.

Never say never is one of my mottos. I’m living that motto right now.

I would never be in a problematic marriage. I would never be married with someone who wasn’t respectful of me and the girls. I would never be worried for me and the girls.

I would have been equally surprised about religion. I would never feel a draw to Christianity. I would never believe in God and Jesus Christ or go to a Christian church. I would never spend time reading scriptures. I would never pray to Heavenly Father for help and support while I struggle.

I believe that my new feeling of faith came to me at the right time, to help me through these problems. I need love and support right now, and prayer helps. I am working on a “what happens next” plan, and wishing none of this needed to happen. I am hoping we can work things out. This isn’t what any of us want.

(I am in a very sensitive place right now, please no negative comments)

One is silver and the other gold”

Those lines have been stuck in my head lately, as the new friends we made last fall become deep, close friendships, and as friendships from a few years ago have been revived and become stronger.

It also makes me think of the girls, with their neighborhood kid friendships, their love for the friends we made last fall, and for the friendships that have withstood the test of time.

As our lives change, we find new experiences, new friends, new ways of opening our hearts to people. But, rather than displacing old friends, this is strengthening the old bonds. It feels good to have your heart touched by the love of good friends.

We’ve been going through some trials – financial, transportation, spiritual, and marital. Knowing that I have support of so many loving, wonderful friends helps me daily. Knowing the girls have that support too makes me so happy.

My girls are amazingly creative. I am always astounded with what they come up with! Their ingenuity and imagination consistently surprises me – the have such amazing minds!

Our school work is revolving around the ancient people and the nomads and first cities. We’re also reading some Old Testament Bible stories to go along with it. They love it and are pretending to be hunter/gatherers, or making “stew” out of random foods they’ve found.

Meanwhile, MG is our entrepreneur, and so of course she has to invent something something new and different to sell. This time she is creating fake chocolate bars. They are cardboard fake chocolate wrapped in a white label and then they have the description and the price on them. Our friend who is teaching in Japan will probably get a few mailed to her in her care package. Cardboard is lighter than real candy!

A little more creativity from our wonderful friend JadenKale, who has a new design up for voting now at Threadless! Hot Night Out is a lot of fun, and it’s easy to vote: just create an account, click on “I’d buy this as a Tshirt”, and then click on the number 5. No need to buy anything, even. JadenKale has sent a couple care packages here, including one with an autographed shirt for BG. She’s lovely, and always makes such fun designs!

Two of our other friends have shirts up for voting at Threadless for one more day – check out those details, too!

I’m sure you all know the Warren Zevon song “Excitable Boy”. No? then go listen.

Today is Excitable Girl day, though – my advance is here!!! Of course it came after the banks closed for a 3 day weekend, but that’s minor in the grand scheme of things. I am soo happy and squeee! Now to buckle down and write more – got 10 pages done yesterday, more today.

girls are happy and excitable too

Amelia taking a rare break from activity with a nap. The red is from nail polish, independence can leave some marks.