We had no idea we were about to get clobbered this week.  Allen came home late Sat. and had taken off Monday to catch up. The kids had washed the horses this wknd and you can see by the sky it was clouding up. We had run to the feed store and bookmobile early afternoon. On the way back it began to rain, which is generally a good thing out here. The boys were trying to corral the goats when we pulled in. It was all hands on deck for that and trying to convince the horses it was indeed time to come in. HOW they always know what time it is is beyond me but they were a tough sell two hrs before their dinner time.

We just got everyone in when this bizarre yellow cloud of something started to roll over the hill.  We were wondering what it could be when it hit – literally.  It was a huge ball of dust  that was as large as the horizon – which is saying a lot if you have ever seen this horizon.  It hit like a wall of dirt and we pulled our shirt collars up over our faces and headed for the general direction of the house getting pelted the whole way. 

Once inside the power was out and the rain hit. The trees were bent and it looked like it was raining mud.  It actually was raining mud for a minute or two while that big dust cloud was washed out of the sky.  The sky was such an odd color Allen ran to the nearest car to try to listen to the radio. That confirmed there was a tornado in the little town near us. Fortunately it was heading north and missed us. We were just seeing the edges. 

We spent the early evening hrs listening to the kids play all their new piano pieces for Allen until the power came back on and we could start a late dinner.  Tuesday morning we had good friends visit to watch us milk and get ideas for their upcoming goat purchase. Blogging time has been short all around but I had a couple fun things to share so am trying to sneak in a couple posts. 

…. and sometimes the worst of times.  And now it’s over.  Zach had his athletic awards at the high school last night.  Though he has always been homeschooled he has played at the local high school for the past three years.  He has played ball SOMEplace or another for as long as we can remember. In fact it’s hard to remember a time his life didn’t revolve around the sport. 

Zach began playing ball in early elementary school.  In one of those first games he was so overwhelmed by the noise and motion that the one time he did get the ball he ran down the court – the wrong direction. He quickly got the hang of it though and before long he was eating and drinking and breathing basketball.  I am pretty sure that when he went to bed at night he dreamed about it too. He memorized all the moves, all the stats, all the players.  And the shoes.  The shoes would take a post all it’s own!

Basketball filled our days and nights for so many years. We had our worst tangles over practice versus homework. We had some of our best times hanging on the edge of our seats through the last minutes of a close game.  He made some terrible mistakes, some incredibly masterful shots, and also what his coach called "the best play he ever saw in high school basketball". 

As we entered the high school years and the debate over public school sports, coupled with the difficulty of juggling school work with the intense practice schedules there were times we prayed for this whole thing to be done.  And now it is.  And now, I cry.  All the emotion pent up for a decade now.  All that defined this child.  All of that came to head last night watching the powerpoint his coach’s wife put together for the senior boys. 

I think about the kids we have come to know.  Kids I really didn’t WANT to know but ended up caring about a great deal.  Like the sweet boy from the group home who has been bounced around 4 different homes his senior year as he struggles to make a place for himself as a new legal adult.  About the girls from the girls’ team who supported them, who always kept up on me during Allen’s deployment, and who send me emails of congratulations about the new baby.  About the boy who told Zach how lucky he was to have his dad in the stands no matter how they were getting along that night.  And he should know.  His father died several years ago and never saw a single game.  We will miss you.

We will miss his young sincere Christian coach who set set the bar high for these young men.  He had strict policy against profanity and drinking. He modelled same with his creative Southern (always G rated) expletives. ; )  He supported us as parents and ran a tight ship with the boys helping them understand that this was not just about scorekeeping.  It was about being a team.  A team with integrity. We can only hope these boys remember that critical lesson as they move on.

It’s been a wild ride from his sorely uncoordinated dribbling as a gawky little boy to his beautiful plays as a teen.  He went from stumbling down the court to being a third year letterman.  As this chapter in your life closes my love, I think of the words in the Green Day song played in your senior video last night:

So take the photographs
and still frames in your mind.

Hang it on a shelf
In good health and good time.

I hope you had the time of your life.

Ok technically not, since I am an only child and even mom couldn’t see all this coming.<g>   Life is rarely on *slow* here.   Allen is in Baltimore this week.  We have tripled our milk intake.  Older sons are in the throes of college transfers and graduation and new jobs.  And morning sickness has settled in with a vengeance.  Some days you just want a *pause* button!

A friend and I were discussing the temptation to doubt God and His promise to be faithful, to fill the gaps, to give us strength equal to our tasks. There are days when you think, "No offense, God, but there seems to have been some kind of Divine miscalculation. I am not equal to this after all!"  However 20 years of mothering and living through disasters large and small have done a great deal to bolster my gut feeling that these days also pass.  I try not to give too much attention to those worry words.  They don’t help.

There is a certain steadiness that comes with weathering these days year in and year out.  While at times you stagger under the weight of a particular trial, you do bounce back.  Eight kids require a person to continue to press on and throw yourself into the daily rhythm of cooking, cleaning, teaching, driving, counseling, cuddling and that is a blessing indeed.  It keeps you from indulging in negativity – there is no time for that!

All that to say perhaps God DID know what He was doing giving us this load. While it is formidable at times, it also has likely strengthened us in ways we could not have imagined and protected us in unforeseen ways. So thank you God for days like these.  We may not have seen them coming but I don’t doubt that they were designed perfectly from all time to be exactly what we need.

Z and Brendan hanging out.