but they are all written in my heart and my mind.

My very beautiful sister and myself on the morning that she and her family left to go back to Virginia.  We may be geographically apart but I found out that we are as close as sisters should be in heart and mind.  I love you Suzanne.

My neice Cati packing up to leave for home.

My crazy, quirky, loving nephew Nicholas.  What an incredible guy he is.

Amanda, the latest addition to the family, holding Isaac another new addition to the family on the night that she and Josh announced that there would be yet another new member to the family in July.  Amanda, you couldn’t fit better if you were custom made.

My grand-nephew Isaac.

Josh, Dad and Adam around the table talking about “guy stuff.”  It did my heart good to listen to them together.

Another grand-nephew Lane.  What’s up tough guy?

Family gathered around the table, eating pizza and talking about anything and everything.

Little Princess DT.  Have you ever seen a more beautiful little girl, neither have I.

My nephew Colin’s wife Sarah.  An incredible woman and the best of mother’s.  I love you Sarah and I am proud to call you neice.

My youngest brother Matthew in a pose that I have held in my mind for many a year.  The men-folk of this family make some damn fine jazz.

Uncle Steve, my oldest brother and organizer of the whole event.

Emily making music for her beloved grandpa.  A sweeter girl you will not find anywhere.

“Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sister.”  Abby and Sarah precious neices that I have had the honor and pleasure of getting better acquainted with on my trips south.  Thanks Abby for the green peanut MnM’s!

A rare shot of my nephew Andrew.  He is actually sitting still. 

Massimo doing what Massimo does best, entertaining the ladies. 

My grand-neice Taylor.  I could just drown in those eyes.

I think that the looks on their faces says it all.  My nephew Greg, brother Chris, his wife Sharon, (Greg’s mom) and my mother.

My dad, the reason for all of us being together and getting together for this big shindig.

Uncle John, possibly the goofiest man that God ever put on this planet.  One of the most loving too.

Abby and Princess DT and cousin Claire in the background.

My neice Kati and my sister holding her grandson Ethan.

Sarah.

Megan.

My sister-in-law Sharon holding her granddaughter Taylor.  Sharon, if you had been born my sister I couldn’t love you more.

This is just a small sampling of the pictures taken and of all the people that were there.  My parents have 54 grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren with two on the way along with their own 8 children plus 6 daughters in-law and 2 sons in-law.  That is one big family and growing each year.

Outside my window……..it is a wet and rainy day.  Sort of appropriate for the day after you get home from a fun week spent with family.  A day meant to keep you inside and at the task of unpacking, doing laundry and cleaning house.

I am thinking…….about all of the family members that I met in the past week.  Some I have never met and others I am getting to know again.  How people change and the adjustment that I have to make in my mind for who they are now.

I am thankful for……..the family that I have been with for the last week and more so for the family that I have come home to.  There truly is no place like home.

I am wearing……jeans and a light green long sleeved tee shirt that my neice Jenn gave me this past week.

I am going…….to stay home all day today.  Not so much because there is a lot to do but more because there is a certain feeling of contentment in being here in my home.  I have absolutely no desire to leave this place.

I am reading………Heaven’s Song by Christopher West  Happily it was waiting for me when I got home.

From the schoolroom…….Matthew and I will be back in the swing of things this week.  We have only two weeks left in this semester and I’d like to have it over before Christmas. 

From the kitchen………that’s a good question.  It has been a week since I did any kind of cooking.  Maybe I have forgotten how.  Perhaps a pot of soup to go with a nice loaf of bread.  Sounds good on this damp and rainy day.

Around the house…….my wonderful husband trimmed up the kitchen arches and sealed them up nice and tight.  Perhaps I can talk him into painting them too.  Laundry is going and the dusting is done.  I’m putting off the floors as long as I can.

One of my favorite things……..the start of this holy and glorious season of Advent.  I am looking forward to it especially this year.  Can’t exactly explain why but it is deeply in my heart and I feel a profound need to delve into the meaning of the incarnation more this year than ever before.

A few plans for the rest of the week……back into the swing of my “normal” routine.  Holy hours, mass, religion classes and teaching Matthew.  Perhaps we will begin the season off with an evening spent watching my favorite movie, A Christmas Carol.

A picture thought that I am sharing with you……….

My dad on Thanksgiving day.  This is how I want to remember him always, standing on the lawn of the church hall enjoying his grandchildren.  The love that was in his eyes was so visible and profound you could reach out and touch it. 

It’s the first Thanksgiving that I have ever spent away from home.  Away from my husband and the hustle and bustle of having to prepare Thanksgiving dinner.  It is the first time in my life that I have jumped on a plane and traveled anywhere to spend a holiday away from the small burg where I was “hatched, matched, and probabley will be dispatched.”  But this is the first Thanksgiving that I am truly thankful.  This Thanksgiving I am learning the lesson of what it means to give thanks.

I am here in South Carolina with the bulk of my family to be with my father for this holiday season.  My father is sick, dying of cancer.  But my gratitude today doesn’t extend to being here for the day or necessarily being able to see family that I haven’t seen for many years.  My gratitude is for the lessons that he has taught me over the years of my life that I am learning, finally, as I watch him live out his last days.

There are those who talk about their family member’s “battle with cancer”, but that isn’t what I am witnessing here.  Nor am I seeing the opposite, my father succombing to the disease either.  Rather I am seeing a man who is submitting to the will of the God that he has loved and sought to serve all of his life.

I see and hear him humbly sharing the inner taming of his will as he turns it toward the will of God.  I witness the outward peace that he gives off and shares with those around him as he, either consciously or unconsciously, assures us that he is at peace with what has been dealt him and thus we should be as well.  And that peace and ordering of himself spills over into the hearts of his children and grandchildren and can be seen in the love that shines from their faces as they listen to his stories and jokes and the everyday conversation that flows around them.

My gratitude springs from the realization that it truly is about the journey and how you travel it, not about the successes.  My father is living proof that your success are not for you to catalogue.  They are not even to be catalogued while you are around to witness it.  It is not about success, it is about integrity and struggle and realizing that the one who does the cataloguing will know what is in you heart and will tally accurately because He is the author of integrity.

My gratitude springs from the humor that is the hallmark of the man who is my father.  The ability to laugh at himself and to make light of a situation that needs lightning.  He has taught me that the things of this world are what we laugh at and save the seriousness for what matters, eternity. 

My gratitude is for the man who teaches by a touch and an often toothless grin that love is something that is fierce, loyal, warm, and often mushy but it is something that should be freely given for that is the only way that you can have more. 

Thank you dad.

Outside my window………it is dark.  Too early for the sun to be up.  But they tell me it is always darkest just before you turn on the lights so I expect that it will get lighter any time now.

I am thinking……..about each individual person in this family and each precious happening.  Also my mind is crowded with details of things I need to get done before our flight leaves tomorrow morning.

I am thankful for………an understanding husband who works hard to make this a harmonious home. 

I am wearing…….long johns.  Haven’t thought about what to wear today or getting a shower yet.

I am going…….nowhere! Too much to do.

I am reading………Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge (again) and Friends of God by Josemaria Escriva

I am hoping……..that Doug gets a call today? about the job.  It would be so nice to go away knowing for sure that he has it or not.

From the schoolroom…….no book work this week.  Matthew will spend the week learning about family relationships firsthand.  He will be meeting relatives that he has never seen.

From the kitchen……..I’m not sure, it will have to be something hearty since Doug is doing a tiling job today.  He will be outside digging in the dirt and spreading mulch.  Perhaps a nice pot of Pasta e Fagioli

Around the house……..I must accomplish two days worth of work in one.  Today’s and tomorrow’s laundry.  Today’s and tomorrow’s cleaning.  It all has to be done today. 

One of my favorite things……..listening to morning sounds.  Ian preparing and eating his breakfast, Doug and Ian chatting about what needs doing today, the dogs snoring in the livingroom.

A few plans for the rest of the week………get today’s work done, pick up MK from school, pack, then get a good night’s sleep and fly out to South Carolina tomorrow.

Here is a picture thought that I am sharing with you…….

Don’t mess with this girl when she is doing Chemistry.  If looks could kill I would be six feet under and pushing up daisies!

Matthew spent yesterday happily making himself a new pair of pants and a jacket.  Gotta love a man who can make his own clothes.

Hat threw down the glove and I am taking it up.  Here is my list of things that I have done for pay.  Not comprehensive by any means but interesting, I think.

1. arranging flowers.  An old lady gave me $1 for arranging flowers in a vase for her when I was a little girl.

2.  milking cows.  That was my work study when I was in college.  I was a nursing major and that was all they had.  Go figure.

3.  babysitting.  I have babysat more kids than I care to count.

4.  short order cook, the title has nothing to do with my actual stature.  I worked at a lunch counter preparing lunches for guys on the day shift in a factory near us.  It was one of the crappiest jobs I have ever had.

5.  dead heading flowers in an old ladies flower bed.  A neighbor lady paid me $5 and a glass of lemonade to pull all the dead blooms from her flowers.  Hot sweaty work.

6.  boning chicken for huge amounts of chicken salad, it took a long time before I would look at a cooked chicken.  I helped my grandmother with this job and she gave me $3 from her pay.  I must have been about 12 at the time.

7.  tutoring mentally challenged kids to read.  This was a lucrative job.  I made $20/hr.   The kids were great but the parents were pains.

8.  changing beds in a nursing home, there were 150 beds in that place and all I did every day was to strip all of them and remake them.  I can make a bed faster than any person I know.

9.  Ironing shirts for a restaurant owner.  I ironed 75 shirts twice a week for this man a $1.00/shirt.

10.  Cleaning houses.  I found that people who can hire their house cleaned have no regard for the hard work of others.

11.  house sitting and cat sitting while a couple went to Cancun  The perks of that job was that I got to drive their Jaguuar while they were gone.

12.  Waitressing cocktail parties for executives in the homes of local business owners.  I was a teenager in high school and thought it was cool to wear the short black skirt and frilly white apron.  It was even cooler to bring home $300 and $400 in tips per night.

13.  mend mens underwear.  (a bachelor near here found out I could sew and brought me his tattered boxers to fix rather than buy new ones)

14.  Make bedding for doll beds   Sounds strange but I got paid some serious money when the American Girl Doll craze started.  People wanted accessories and didn’t want to send away for them or they wanted things that matched their little girl’s rooms. 

15.  Alter a wedding dress while the bride was waiting to walk up the aisle.  She gained a little weight and busted out of a seam.  It put some new meaning to the term “crunch time” and I charged overtime and double time.

16.  Make a complete baptismal set for a child in utero that wasn’t going to survive it’s birth only to have it survive.  He is now 6 years old.

17.  Alter a wedding dress for a bride who never wore it.  She left the guy at the altar.  I made $250

18.  Acting as a vet for a pig who was having it’s first litter of piglets.  Did I mention that I am not licensed to be a vet?  The farmer was so grateful that he insisted on paying me for having hands small enough to help the little ones out.  The old guy gave me $15.

19.  For taking pictures of a neighbors little kids.  The grandmother was so impressed with the pics I took of the little ones that she hired me to take some candids of the two older girls.  She gave me $10 for each picture.

20.  Testing milk for excess white cells.  My father-in-law gave me $20 for standing on the barn floor during milking to test every quarter of every cow for mastitis.  He hated to do that job.

21.  I was paid by a neighbor for helping to unload a load of oat seed while he stood by and talked to my husband.  My son and I got the load done so fast that he couldn’t believe that I was that strong and paid me $20 for doing the job.

22.  I once made $500 for making a quilt for a woman who wanted to attract a man.  She gave it to him as a birthday gift and he thanked her but married another girl.  Quite an expensive bribe.

23.  Picking strawberries in the rain.  This job I didn’t get paid in money though.  I brought home one quart for every quart that I picked.  The unusual thing about this one is that I am allergic to strawberries.  I was making jam for my family.

24.  Picking tomatoes.  I loved this job.  I would take the truck out loaded with empty boxes, an MP3 player and a jug of water and spend my day in heaven.  I could eat all the tomatoes I can hold, sing as loud as I liked and I picked faster and harder than anyone that the owners had ever hired before.  It was a plummy job.

25.  Picking squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins and washing them.  This was not my favorite job.  It was hot, dirty and scratchy.  But the owners paid well.  And I got paid in all the produce I could bring home to my family.

Friday afternoon we picked up MK from school and drove up to LaFayette to see the farm where the job is that Doug applied for.  He was interviewed by the woman who owns the farm and we got to look around the house that we may be living in.

Doug should hear sometime early this week whether he has the job.  They told him there were two more to be interviewed first before they made a decision about who got the job.  Since then we have been making tentative plans for moving should he get the job.  I have been walking around here seeing things that I have seen everyday for 26+years for the first time.  Savoring Ian in the shop working on his truck and talking about his plans for the farm when it is his.

Spending precious time with Doug as he goes about his daily tasks of getting caught up on the chores that mean home to us.  If he gets the job our time together will be at a premium again and the past few years will be only a memory.  The mornings that I have enjoyed waking in his arms instead of hours after he has been to work will be a dream instead of a reality.  The quiet and peaceful times of unhurried afternoon and evening walks will be moments that I take out to consol myself with when I miss his presence.

Watching Matthew doing his schoolwork and realizing, maybe for the first time, that his time here with me at home is growing short, dangerously so.

Jolly and carefree times out in the crisp fall nights laughing together and simply enjoying each other’s company.

Time spent with dear friends who are no longer friends but more like members of the family.  These times that are all familiar and yet have become so new to me.  New because of the urgency that seems to dominate our lives at this time.  Urgency to find out about this job, urgency to move and get settled.  Urgency to move on to the next phase in life.  And the greatest urgency of all, to hang on to the here and now, and knowing that it cannot be done.  This urgency is the most painful of all because we know it cannot be accomplished so we try to wring out all the pleasure and memories and joy and love from every second before they flee from us in a puff of smoke and ash.

1.  That I only have to take one math course to get my degree.

2.  That none of my sons are overseas this holiday season.

3.  For having gotten to see my dad.

4.  For the chance to go back to school.

5.  For the life I live.

6.  For the cold beer that waits in my refrigerator when I get home.

7.  For the fact that my husband finally got the Blazer fixed so he can stop driving my car and adjusting the seat.

8.  Did I mention that I am thankful for only having to take only one math course?

9.  For all the people who have volunteered to tutor me in math, maybe.

10.  For the fact that I am not a turkey at this time of the year.

11.  That my husband has a decent job offer.

12.  For health.

13.  For good friends around me and on Xanga.

14.  For the talents that I have been given.

15.  For the fact that we haven’t had any measurable snow so far.

16.  For the fact that it hasn’t even really been all that cold yet.

17.  For the wood that fills our basement and it stacked in our garage just promising to keep us warm this winter when it comes.  And it will come!

18.  For good friends who share their little people with me.

19.  For the great kids in both of my classes.

20.  For the wonderful people that I teach with at both churches.  I couldn’t do it without you.

21.  For my daughter.

22.  For my sons, all five of them.  They are blessings that are too great to express.

23.  For the husband who inspires me daily to try to be the wife, mother, and woman that God intends.

24. For the fact that math is only one course out of all the great courses that I have to take to get my degree.

25.  For my life.

By the way, there are some divisibility rules that can help you find the numbers to divide by. There are many divisibility rules, but the simplest to use are these:

If the number is even, then it’s divisible by 2.
If the number’s digits sum to a number that’s divisible by 3, then the number itself is divisible by 3.
If the number ends with a 0 or a 5, then it’s divisible by 5.

Of course, if the number is divisible twice by 2, then it’s divisible by 4; if it’s divisible by 2 and by 3, then it’s divisible by 6; and if it’s divisible twice by 3 (or if the sum of the digits is divisible by 9), then it’s divisible by 9. But since you’re finding the prime factorization, you don’t really care about these non-prime divisibility rules. There is a rule for divisibility by 7, but it’s complicated enough that it’s probably easier to just do the division on your calculator and see if it comes out even.

If you run out of small primes and you’re not done factoring, then keep trying bigger and bigger primes (11, 13, 17, 19, 23, et ) il you find something that works — or until you reach primes whose squares are bigger than what you’re dividing into. Why? If your prime doesn’t divide in, then the only potential divisors are bigger primes. Since the square of your prime is bigger than the number, then a bigger prime must have as its remainder a smaller number than your prime. The only smaller number left, since all the smaller primes have been eliminated, is 1. So the number left must be prime, and you’re done.

My husband has a job prospect.  It’s working on a farm milking cows and doing other chores.  Just what he enjoys and has done for all of his life.  The pay is decent, who can fuss in today’s economy or when you have been out of work so long?  There is one thing that is making it difficult for him to just come out and say “yes!”  One thing that requires prayer and a bit of thought before the decision can be made.  The job would require that we move. 

My husband has lived in this house for all his life.  This land is his heritage that he literally suffered and sweated upon for his whole life.  This move wouldn’t mean that we would have to give up our farm, although we are selling it to the older boys.  But it means that we won’t be living on this farm.  We won’t get to wake each day and look out on the fields and trees that have been their for all of his waking up.  It means that when changes take place or work is done on this farm it will be without him.

Don’t get me wrong, my husband is not a controlling man, not by any means.  But he is an involved man. 

The farm that he would be working on is about an hour away from here.  That is a bit excessive for him to commute twice a day.  He has a health consideration that should keep him from doing too much driving, especially after working hard all day long.  Remember farmers put in 14-16 hour days.  He brought up the possibility of him living in the tenant house six days and then coming home to be with us on the seventh.  He was voted down.  What a way to separate the family, and totally unnecessary.

The house is offered with the job so that isn’t the issue.  I guess the issue is just making the decision to move than doing it.  But what a decision!  And so the rest of us try to put the face of adventure on everything so that he doesn’t sense the turmoil that is inside.  We try to lightly brush off the things that we would have to give up should we move, as if they are inconsequential.  In short, we try to encourage the man and help this decision to be as unencumbered by our emotions and angst as possible.

St. Joseph, help this man to make a decision that is pleasing to God.  Give him guidance and love as he embarks on a new adventure in his life.   Amen.