Zeke is spending his summer in the deep South. He is living and working in the heart of West Jackson, Mississippi. (Fred, isn't that the part of town you warned him to stay out of?) I think he is loving it!

He is working as an intern at Voice of Calvary Ministries, helping with their Summer Youth Program. They do school work enrichment and also take field trips and fun stuff. After work every day the kids insist he play football with them, so this soccer player plays football in the deepest Mississippi heat and goes home hot and drenched in sweat and happy.

He's living in a house with 5 other interns. They have no internet service and often spend their evenings sitting on the front porch. They are getting to know their neighbors and he says all the neighborhood kids from 5 to 20 years old come on over to inspect the white kids living in their midst. The little kids all want to feel his soft blond curls and he lets them... gets a kick out of it.

One Friday in mid-June he drove 9 hours to be in a friend's wedding, then turned around and drove back Sunday morning. Angus and I met up with him on Saturday just in time to see him all decked out in a fancy tux, he had not gotten his hair cut, but it was so good to see him.

He was a Groomsmen, also played guitar and sang. It was a lovely wedding and we visited with him a bit at the reception but there was so little time!It had only been a month since I had seen him but he had already changed and grown. A friend once told me when your child goes away to college it's like getting to know someone new every time you meet up again. She was right. It seems they change as much as they did when they were babies, only now it is in a less predictable pattern but every bit as fascinating!

Saturday was Zeke's birthday and I spread the word among his friends and relatives. Having a summer birthday, he's spent many of them away from home on family vacations , at Camp Galilee, at a soccer tourney in Minnesota and at the Sonshine Festival. But always he'd been with people who knew it was his birthday. I doubted if he'd even care if no one knew about it but I thought it would be cool if he got a bunch of cards on his day.

He did! He called on the Friday before and asked me if I think he is 7 years old? I laughed as I could hear the pleasure and joy in his voice behind the mock disgust. He'd already gotten the gift we sent and several cards, one with five bucks in it. (Remember when it was a thrill to get $5?)

He had to work Saturday morning at a Youth Rally in the park. It was his second one and he already knew it would be a fun day. A TV crew showed up and was taping and he made it on the WLBT TV News that evening!

His GrammaJo ordered a cheese cake at the Broad Street Bakery in Jackson(found on the internet) and all he had to do was go pick it up. He's not much for cake so we always have cheesecake on his birthday. Bet he didn't expect it this year. Surprise! He shared it with his new friends that evening.

A good kid. A good day. A good life.

Zeke turned 21 today. He also got his cast off. It was a real gift but not as good a one as he'd hoped. They took the cast off and x-rayed the hand and the put a brace back on. He still can't move the dang thing... still no guitar playing. The brace limits as much as the cast did! (see the smiley face drawn on his fingers? he's been bored.)

He's handling the disappointment well. He has definitely learned patience and an appreciation for things taken for granted before. He'll have surgery tomorrow to get the pins out... thanks to a nurse who finagled an appointment at he Surgery Center because Zeke will be out of town next week and she didn't want him to have to wait another week.

We took him out to lunch on the way home. Not much of a birthday celebration. Most of his friends and his brother, Beau, are at the Sonshine Festival in Minnesota. He didn't go because of his appointment with the surgeon.

A couple of friends did stop by to wish him Happy Birthday this evening... just in time for birthday cheesecake!

The message light was blinking as I entered the dark house. I’d been at church leading the Jr. High portion of the evening Youth Bible Study groups. I’d stayed for the Praise Worship but had slipped out quietly as it was winding down.

I flipped on a light and hit the “play” button to listen while I hung up my jacket. I recognized Beau’s voice. “Hey, Mama, this is for you!” he said gleefully as 30 kids sang “Happy Birthday To You” into his cell phone. A perfect ending to a good day. He told everyone I was 35.……. BACKWARDS! Ha, ha, ha.

I stuck birthday candles in a watermelon and brought it out at midnight. Zeke's friends had been coming and going all evening and these that were left were staying up all night. They were leaving at 4:30 in the morning for the Sonshine Festival in Minnesota... so why sleep? Sleep on the bus! This is the thinking of a just-turned-20 young man who would spend his birthday traveling on a church bus with 20 other kids for 9 hours.

They'd been shooting the leftover fireworks and were in the process of building the "sparkler bomb" and the sparkler "flame thrower". These homemade incindiary devices are common among the youth of our community and not without their danger. Last week a hometown boy, a teammate of Zeke's on the soccer team, tried to put a can over the top of his sparker bomb and it blew up with his face above it. It looks as if he will not lose his eye afterall... and with still have some sight in one of his eyes. This after plastic surgery, of course.

What is it about boys? The powers that be outlawed the M-80s and Cherry Bombs of our youth but the ingenuity of kids will prevail. They must have their big bangs! When I use the boy above as an example of why not to build a sparkler bomb I am met with a look of disgust. "Mom, he was stupid." Everyone knows when the bomb is lighted you run like crazy! It's a bomb for heaven's sake!

Just blowing up a sparkler bomb is not enough though. They've all done that. They need to blow up stuff. Beau dug around and found some stuffed animals that they had won in one of those machines where you drop in a quarter and try to grab a toy with a crane. Off they went 2 miles down to the end of this secluded road. The nearest house was a half mile from their destination. They left with instructions for me to listen and see if I could hear it. I told them I'd better not have the sheriff at my door... or an ambulance racing down the road.

You might be wondering how could I let them go off and do that? If you are, then you probably have not raised four sons. There is alot of praying involved. Among these highschool and college boys were 2 valedictorians, 7 honor roll students, 4 members of the National Honor Society. They are smart kids, not out drinking or carousing or vandalizing. Sometimes one just has to trust them and trust God. (Besides, I had seen their bomb and knew they had used less than half the sparklers my oldest son and friend used while experimenting with their bombs 8 years ago when Sparkler bombs were the new thing.)

I sat in my rocking chair on the deck, said a little prayer for their safety and for them to use those good brains and awaited their return. Yes, I heard the blast. It was not loud but one of those barely perceptible booms that sound far off but you know something big just happened somewhere. I waited...and waited...

They tumbled out of the cars, laughing with delight as they all spoke at once and could hardly wait to show me the video. They brought back the bunny...or what was left of him.

I made them show me that they all still had all 10 digits on their hands and then we watched the video. At some point I realized someone (okay, it was Beau) had brought a little bottle of gasoline to douse the dolly with. I watched in horror. Zeke was cautioning but it was still frightening to watch. The group went way down the road to watch. I heard one boy tell Zeke to get closer with the video and he infromed him that he could see it just fine. The torch lighters ran toward the others like their pants were on fire.

There is no doubt, the Lord was with them on Zeke's 20th birthday.

PS~ Yes, I made them listen to me lecture them on the danger of lighting gasoline and the fumes.

One filled with joy preaches without preaching.
~ Mother Theresa

Today is my 52nd birthday and, OH! How I wish... and hope... and pray that I can be that person.

My "Baby" Turns 16!

Beau is 16 today and he is off with his Dad and brothers on a guys-only road trip. It is quiet here. I'm quite sure that these kind of quiet times will come much more often once he is independently mobile. He can hardly wait to get his driver's license! I'm not really sure he is ready. We have been so busy in the last year... and 4 of our 5 ancient vehicles are stick shifts, which he couldn't drive. I just don't feel as if he has had enough time behind the wheel. He still is so easily distracted! I didn't feel this way about the other 3 boys. When they went for their licenses I was pretty confident that they were pretty good drivers and had been well-trained.

Angus thinks I'm nuts and that Beau will do just fine. He has learned to drive a stick shift and so he is driving much more frequently now...but still mostly in the confines of our small town and rural areas. It will be nice to have him be able to get to church and school activities on his own though. I have been overwhelmed with transporting the boy everywhere since Zeke left for school. It is the first time since 1997, when CJ first got his driver's license, that I have had to do most of the errands and hauling kids to their many and varied destinations. There has always been a brother around to do the job! Anyway, I suppose the driving lessons will continue and there won't be any trips to the city alone until we are more confident in his skills with merging and traffic, etc.

Most of my friends who are Empty-Nesters tell me how hard that first year is when it is just the family's original couple alone in the house again. I am having trouble seeing that as being difficult for me. My goal as a parent has always been to raise my kids to be independent and kind adults that will stick to their values and contribute to the betterment of the world (or at least their world). I'm really hoping that I at least get the "independent" part right. ☺

I love my kids as much as everyone else loves theirs, I'm certain. I must just look at it differently. I have always been able to maintain my own identity and interests separate from my kids and husband, although at times it has been difficult. I have often had to put mine on the back burner but I never let go of them.

There is no doubt, though, it will hard for me when this last one goes on out into the world. Having 3 older brothers he has learned more from them than he has from Angus and I and he may just be the better for it!

He has learned to cope easily with teasing and takes it well, or with a grain of salt depending on the intent of the tease. He has learned that he doesn't always come first and that everybody's needs need to be considered when making decisions. He has learned how to get along with anybody even if they are different (or difficult). He can be very annoying as only a little brother can but knows how to make everyone laugh in the end.

He has had the best of both worlds, perhaps neglected a bit when he was little...no time for lots of playing with him and reading to him... we were on the go with soccer games and school and church functions. He learned to go with the flow, take life as it happens and make friends wherever he ends up.

Now that the other boys are out on their own for the most part...now he is getting the attention that he always had to share before. We can finally afford eating out occasionally and going to fun evernts because we aren't taking 6-10 people out and having to pay $100+ every time we do anything!

And he talks! The brothers always found his yammering along annoying ("don't you ever shut up?") but I assure you, it is rare when a teenage boy will actually converse to his parents! He comes home from school and wants to tell me every funny little thing that happened! None of that "What did you do at school today?" "nuthin"-response from him!

He sings all the time at the top of his lungs. ..and often off key. One can't help but loveit while you're hating it. You can't miss the joy! ...and Yes, he can be moody but he will outgrow that and I think he may just end up being the most likely to live happily-ever-after of all the kids. Keep your fingers crossed and keep praying for him!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEAU!

We were running late for my neice's birthday party. Zeke had borrowed my car earlier and informed me as we hurried to the vehicle that the gas light had come on earlier and he had put $5 worth of gas in it....not much gas at $2.39 a gallon. Sure enough, on the way into the city, the light came on again. I'd get more on the way home.

They were resurfacing the highway of the Northbound lanes and traffic was backed up for miles. It was nearly 6 p.m. so I supposed that some of it was left over rush hour traffice. I was grateful that we were headed South and was just wondering if I should phone my husband, Angus, and advise him to take another route home when Zeke pointed over to the Northbound lanes and said, "Hey, there's Dad." Too late. He'd be suffering too since it was still 90° out and his old pickup doesn't have airconditioning. Zeke called himto let him know what he was in for and Angus said he had just come up on it and was already at a stand still. Of course, there had been no signs warning of the construction.

We arrived at the party and there were still a few hotdogs left and the cake had not yet been cut. Lexi was shy at first with all eyes upon her but at 2 she soon forgot the audience and was happily ripping into her gifts. Zeke's present of a small drum set was a hit with her but much less so with her parents. My sister (Lexi's mom) looked over at me and said, "ah, payback time." We smiled.

When we headed home it was after 9 p.m. and I decide that we had enough gas to get back to town and I could get it where I knew they'd take my check. I hate to put it on the credit card. I had completely forgotten about the road repairs as we chatted about the party. The road crew must've been working throught the night because we hit the long line of slow moving cars. The traffic was mo better than it had been earlier in the evening. I eyed the gas guage and thought we'd be okay. There was not choice now anyway. We were in it, no more exits. We waited; stop, crawl, stop again. Zeke pointed to tracks in the grass where somebody had decide to make his own short cut over to the gravel road that ran along side the highway. On we went as I watched the little red arm on the gas guage sink lower. We passed a car in the median with the hood up. I watched the arrow touch the big E and realized we were still several miles from the next gas station and wondered if we would be in that situation soon. Zeke again pointed to the gravel road and suggested that we make a getaway. It was completely dark by now and I worried that there might be something lurking in the grass that was hidden...like a huge ditch or something. We crawled forward and the guage dipped lower. Zeke finally said, "Mom, this is our last chance. That road turns up here." Sure enough, we were coming to a little overpass over the little Fishing River. The gravel road was still running parallel to the highway but it was way up a hill now. Okay, now I was worried. Which would be riskier? My option was fading fast. At the last possible moment I made my escape! Up the steep hill I went gunning it for momentum. There were no ditches or even bumps but it was very steep and the car stpped about 5 feet from the top. I eased my Jeep Cherokee back down the hill and put it into 4 wheel drive and tried again. The time it was easy. He cimbed right up and ove. As soon as I crested the hill I hit the brakes. There in front of the car was guard rail! I couldn't get onto the road here. I couldn't back up or I'd be going back down that hill but there was just enough room to turn and pull forward along the rail. The I started backing up along the ridge of the hill for about 20 feet to the end of the guardrail and tehn I was able to pull onto the road. Woohoo! My son reached over and honked a "we're free!" signal to those down below who were surely entertained by our dilemma.

We had no idea where this road would take up but knew that it had to eventually hit one of the roads that run through town. It wound around a lot but finally did hit a paved road. Where were we? Zeke recognized it and turned me right onto the road though a new housing development. We were on the same road that the gas station is. We filled it up and I had had a gallon left? Plenty to get to town under normal conditions...but with all the idling and stop and go? I don't know. I know it wouldn't have been as much fun as our little off-road adventure!