Together Again (June 2024)

 

Right after the shower, while I was making something for supper, I looked out the window and saw some of my favorite people sitting in the sunshine. Obviously, they noticed me trying to sneak up on them to take a picture. 

After Corynn left, the guys puzzled their way through the baby shower games. I know they're both smart men, but let's just say they wouldn't have won any prizes and leave it at that.  (And, Henry, I KNOW your immediate drawled retort to that sentence would be, "Well, that's just fine because we wouldn't have wanted those womanly prizes, anyway." 😂)

A Last First Taste of Solid Food (June 2024)

Mallory was just about six months old the weekend of Annika's shower, so right before the girls left (truly, they were heading out the door), I snatched the opportunity to feed Mallory solid food for the first time. It may be silly, but this little ritual has been part of their lives for every other sibling, and I was happy that they could be a part of it for Mallory, too.

I think it's safe to say that Mallory liked her first taste.

She was probably ready for steak by the next week. 

 

Piper Turns Sweet-- & Sassy--16! (June 2024)

 

On the first day of June, this lovely Sugarplum Nut Berry turned 16. It seemed so strange at the time, but what's stranger yet is that she's 18 now!  We were proud of her then, and we're proud of her now, of who she is and who she's becoming-- the perfect blend of sweet and sassy, just like always. 

Poof! Maybe she wished to be 18, because that happened awfully fast...

Aidan Finally Gets His Cake (June 2024)

I don't know why we waited until the first week of June to have Aidan's birthday supper and dessert, but we did. (Probably because his birthday fell four days after Mildred's wedding, and all I could manage was his birthday breakfast.) He ended up getting brownies and ice cream on his actual birthday and then a layered ice cream cake ten days later, and he doesn't look too sad about it. 

Piper Gets Pierced (June 2024)

 

When each of the older three girls turned 16, Grandma took them to the mall for a ritual that involved picking out pretty earrings and getting holes punched in their earlobes, which, though it sounds barbaric (and kind of is), was a special time for them to share and a sweet memory for the girls. 

When Piper turned 16, though, Grandma had been undergoing constant treatment for leukemia, and she was frequently exhausted. We didn't get see her much because she was often too weak to come to our house with Dude, and filling up her already full house with the amount of people our family holds immediately ramped up the noise and chaos to levels that we worried might be stressful for her system at a time when she needed all the strength she had. 

She and I texted about Piper getting her ears pierced, but I was pretty sure that she wouldn't be able to be there, and I prepared Piper for that possibility. Well, the morning Piper was supposed to get her ears pierced, Grandma texted about where she and Dude should meet us in the mall. Hurrah! All of us were so happy to see her, and it was wonderful to spend some time with her. 

After Piper got her ears pierced, we walked around the mall with Grandma and Grandpa for a bit, during which time Grandma learned that not one of the younger children had ever eaten anything from Auntie Anne's. Why would they? The only reason the older girls had the experience was because Grandma had taken them to the mall when they were younger! Well, the horror of knowing her poor, sheltered grandchildren might never taste the deliciousness that is Auntie Anne's various pretzel bites and mini pretzel-wrapped hot dogs was more than The McGamma could handle. They ended up staying in the mall with us for a while, and Grandma bought the children pizza AND Auntie Anne's pretzel bites. It made me very happy that Grandma indulged the younger kids with the same sort of ridiculous, unessential, overpriced snacks the mall has to offer, because I know it made her happy to spoil them so. 

And now they aren't poor, sheltered kiddos who've never tasted Auntie Anne's pretzel bites. 

Thank you, Grandma, for all the memories you made sure these children would have with you. 💜

A Night of Culture (June 2024)

Titi, Deirdre, and Caleb's choir had a concert. 

We went and listened to beautiful singing!

We walked in and saw some Terry cousins!

I phound these photos on my phone. 

The End. 

 

Grief Is Only Love That's Got No Place to Go* (May 2024)

 

Maybe someday I'll be able to blog again without sadness rising. Maybe once I get over the hump of the past and into the present, and I start taking more pictures of the children still at home. Maybe? Everyone hopes.

Until then, you get more maudlin posts and a big ol' weepy baby on the other side. 
Sorry, girls. <3

Yours truly,
A Landlubber Still Afloat in the Sea of Blind Cartography  

*Stephen Wilson, Jr. hits another one out of the park. POW.

May 2024

 

October of 2023 began scrawling a line of demarcation, and May of 2024 finished it off with a flourish.

May-- the month of Mildred's marriage! Everything from May 1st to May 31st orbited around her wedding day, which was a beautiful, head-spinning event. It's been over two years, and John and I now have three grandbabies here on earth, two we'll meet one day in heaven, and one soon to hold, Lord willing. 

Talk about head-spinning! And we have many more children to grow and move away, with more change and lines of demarcation 'til the page is full. I don't think my head will rest solid on my body until I get a glorified one.