"You've got to admit, they are getting better."

This is a quote from one of my all time favorite movies: Disney's "Robin Hood", the animated version. In the scene, Robin Hood is exclaiming to Little John that the Sheriff's posse is getting to be a bit better at hitting the mark with their bows and arrows. In this case, I mean that things are looking a bit better around here. Thank you for all your prayers and words of encouragement. Who knows where I'll be in the battle next week, but right now, I'm ok.

Good things going right now:

- A childhood friend of mine just moved to New Hampshire and is living less than an hour away from me!
- Jonathon, as Brandon mentioned on his blog, has been just about as wonderful as can be lately. Washing dishes, kissing and hugging regularly, helping with chores, paying attention to his little brothers and sister, and just being basically pleasant. This is especially great, since some of my family can attest that the weeks before, he was quite a royal bear! SOme of this I think was the recovery from Lyme disease, but some was just plain ornery! (sp?) Anyway, he's been great.
- Even though we are planning to move to another residence here at Fairwood soon, the move has been postponed until at least the first of the year, so I don't have to think about packing up! Whooo hooo!
- James is the one child who doesn't mind taking care of his own issues in the middle of the night. I'm glad one of them can handle it.
- Jeff is still struggling with his fettish for playing in water, but it does seem to be getting better. I actually got through two days this week without going through every dish rag in the drawer to mop up puddles.
- Rachel is getting better about her fear of bugs. Thanks to Brandon's efforts and training, she has gone from being deathly afraid of grass slivers that resembled bugs to letting a beetle crawl on her arm! She actually was caught seeking bugs out the other day!
- Joseph has learned to laugh and suck his fingers. He has chosen the two middle fingers on the left hand, just like Jeff.
- So, all in all, God continues to meet our needs. I'll just say that last week was a hard week in many ways, not the least of which involved one of our children attempting to express love to another one of our children by strangling them. No one is dead, thankfully, but I'm glad we aren't dealing with quite as many emotionally traumatizing issues right now. I think the vacation to the lake did a world of good. Many thanks to the Randall family for the use of their cabin and lake property, as well as hamburgers and hotdogs for Sunday lunch and for dinner two nights. They are some pretty awesome friends! We might could have had a better time, but I'm not sure how!
-Ok, now I'm off to prepare for company coming tomorrow. Good Evening to you all.