Can you hear the laughing and fussing and encouraging? And can you see me smiling? My 3 girls and oldest granddaughter and oldest grandson are having a craft-y morning here at our house. They saw some "picture frames" at the Mistletoe Merchant Event in Memphis earalier this month and decided they could do that very thing for very little money.

And now Laurie is making a white chicken pizza for lunch, along w/ some sort of chocolate/peanut butter concoction that's already making my mouth water. I hear Katelee outside hammering on sheetmetal and they're still discussing the pros and cons of certain colors and decorations for the frames.

We all spent a few minutes congratulating Molly on a job well-done. Scores are in for teachers in the Desoto County school system and Southaven Middle School 6th graders scored very high marks. Out of 54 6th grade teachers county-wide, all six of the 6th grade teachers from last year scored in the top ten. And Molly is #5 overall. Yea! Molly! See..what you do matters for a lifetime.

We'll eat lunch and all go our separate ways - Katey to a State game, Laurie to Ole Miss, Molly to her in-laws, Katelee & Tucker to a fall party and me to the BBC Fall Festival - but it's been a wonderful morning. It's been a blessing to have all my girls here.

It's usually a riot at the Phillips Phamility abode. When you have six children and you homeschool, they're always there to provide entertainment. Laurie posted this on fb today:

My 3yo daughter asked my 4yo son, "Marcus, you think I pretty?" My son replies,"I guess so." My daughter tilts her head a little, smiles, and begins to bat her eyelashes. "Ok, Marcus...NOW you think I pretty?" He says, "Yeah Marlee...you're real pretty!" (He was sincere!). When I find out who taught this little "move"... to my daughter, I'm going to hurt you. Then lock her in her room until she's 30.

Reminds me of the saying... She's payin' for her raisin'.

Yesterday was Katelee's 12th birthday. Gracious! We went over last night for a pizza/cake/ice cream supper for friends and family. She's growing up fast, as are all our kidlesttes. Before you know it, Harris (almost 7 months old) will be crawling, then walking; and I won't have a lap baby anymore. Hey, MOLLY!!!

All the negative things I anticipated happening today didn't. I told Terry this morning that he was being mean to make me go to work, but it didn't sway him. He brought me right on up to the end of the sidewalk and told me to get out. Well, actually he said, "OK, I love you; bye-bye; have a good day," all in one breath. It's not that I don't like to work; I do. But I've been coming to the same place for 29 years next Tuesday and a body gets tired of the sameness. Or maybe I'm just tired of dealing with folks who don't appear to be grateful for a job in this stinking economy. And besides, what would I do at home by myself all day, every day? I'd last 2 weeks, max!

On a brighter note, we had a wonderful, unusual, beautifuly worship experience yesterday at Belden. One of our members is from Central America and some of her family, not conversant in English, has been visiting Belden. Yesterday when Bro. Jim got up to preach, Margie went to the pulpit with him. Hmmmm..what's going on? She stood right up there with a microphone and translated the entire sermon. You could tell it was an effort for both of them, but it was beautiful and not distracting at all. One of the men told the congregation, through Margie, that he could really feel the presence of God in that place. He was very appreciative of the love and acceptance he felt from our congregation. Looks like we have a mission field closer than we knew as our area has a large population of Hispanics and Latin Americans.

It's hard to believe, but Katelee will be 12 years old tomorrow. Seems like only yesterday we were welcoming a tiny 3lb/12oz girl into our lives. Now she sings at church and school and has started running cross-country. I wonder if Katey feels any older?

It's been a while - about 2 years - since I've posted here. First was the move to xanga; then the move to Facebook. fb is the fast-food of networking, but I've felt the need lately to write in more detail about my daily life. A few friends and family might be interested enough to read occasionally, but that's okay.

A lot has happened in 2 years. Terry & I have another grandson - Harris. He's our miracle baby and his mommy is a walking miracle, too, after a harrowing Easter Sunday afternoon birth. We're thankful every day to have both of them with us. Another momentous event (2 of them, actually) is reconnecting with dear friends from high school. We got together in October '09 and again in October this year. We're going to make it a more regular meeting and try to include some others.

One more thing that has happened, and probably the reason I feel the need to post here, is the rapid decrease in my visual acuity. Over the last 2 years I've lost more peripheral and central vision. And recently there have been several times when everything has gone very dim. It won't surprise you if I say this is scary. A friend asked me recently how I kept from getting mad about going blind. As I told her, I got over mad a long time ago; I can still throw a fairly dismal pity party from time to time, but I'm not mad. I believe God is sovereign, working in all events through His directive will or His permissive will. Blindness didn't happen to me without His permission so I have to believe He has lessons for me to learn through this. No, it's not a pleasant process, and I pray I'll continue to learn the lessons God has for me. And I'll continue to post here occasionally to vent, to praise God and to record what I'm going through.

Truth is, God has graced me with so many wonderful blessings, that it's hard to be mad about one little inconvenience.