Bittersweet Moments!

I had the notion that my post tonight would show some of the beautiful blooms in my garden right now!  However, I have had a hard blow of reality this week that I feel I must get off my chest!  It started out with this. . .

THAT. . .is my baby!! He will be 14 in a couple of weeks. 

THIS. . .is his first "real"job, where he has had to work for someone other than us

Even though it is just my dad!

He has been at my folk's helping with harvest since last Thursday.  He is helping to haul hay and has been driving the grain cart (and single-handedly emptying out Grandma's refrigerator--brings back memories, eh??).  He told me last Friday night "Mom, you would be proud of me if you saw me. .I have to drive along side the combine and they don't even STOP when they unload the grain."  Gulp, gulp, SNIFF!

When I talked to Grandma this morning, our conversation went a little like this:

"Has he broke anything yet?"   "Nope"

"Has he pissed anybody off yet??"   "Nope"

"Ok good, I'll just send you child support."    "Uh, nope!"

Dev sure misses him!!  And Grant thinks he should stay another week or maybe a month.  Cami is just indifferent!  We'll go pick him up this weekend, and hang with the cousins for a couple days--I'm sure he will be anxious to go to the pool as I imagine all this work hasn't been good for checkin' out chicks!!  At least any chicks that he isn't related to!

So with T out of the house, the other two have been doing lots of 4-H work in preparation of the fair.

Dev and I worked on his geology display Saturday--the quietest geology work EVER!! (helps that it was just him and I).  Here he is looking all grown up (with his wristwatch--not sure where he got it, and haven't seen it on since, and shades aka: goggles-so we can be safe :-)) chipping off a piece of hematite for his box (a mineral, for all those non-geolgist people wonderin' "what-up?")

Grant and his dad started, and completed his woodworking project last weekend (to be aired in a future post!)  Our idea was that he would build a couple small side tables for the chair sets on my decks.  However, while eating supper al fresca a couple weeks ago we came up with another idea (or as J would put it--what's this WE crap).  The lattice on the north side of our deck is falling off, and the flower bed there is HORRIFIC!  We have been discussing how to remedy the problems.  Our patio set has a large hexagon table and 6 chairs.  It takes up the whole end of the deck and no one could get through to the other side if they wanted to. .say go down a new set of stairs hooking the deck on to the back gardens.  Hmmmm. .At that moment, the light bulb flashed on, and Grant had a new 4-H project. . .a long dining table.  He was pumped about it.  We chose cedar, just to have something different. .and because he didn't want to paint--he wanted to stain something.  So they planned in their heads how to build, and then built, an 8 foot long cedar dining table and one bench to go with it (we will recycle my chairs to use on one side as well).  And, as any proud mama might say "It ROCKS!!" Can't wait to show it off!  He really seems to like working with wood, and that is exciting to me!  But, alas, more evidence of growing children, sigh.

Sunday, Grant made this poppy seed all by his lonesome little self, while Dev helped me make a jello salad for a church friend who broke her leg last week.  I really need them to learn the value of giving of their personal selves and their personal time to reach out to help others--and I am trying hard to help them find those opportunites in life--yes, the kitchen would have been much cleaner and quieter, and the job done much faster had I done it myself--but I would have robbed them of an incredible experience in the meantime!

But this, THIS was the last straw this week. . .when I got home from work today, Grant had tried one of the recipes flagged by me as fair entry possibilities.  He even staged and took the pictures (for this blog, no doubt!) Pass the kleenex please. . .For the last 14 years, I have been waiting--even begging at times to hurry up and move out of my life in the ant den, and into a life where my kids were more self-sufficient and not so much work, trouble, hassle, irritating--you know--all those bad things that lots of children will make you feel at times.  But the closer that I get to that stage in life, the more anxious I become.  I'm NOT old enough for this!!  I'm NOT ready for this (today).  They grow; that is what they were designed to do, and that is what they do, like it or not!  So it has come to be, and so it IS!! We continue our toils day after day because we are called to!!  Here is the verse that brought me comfort tonight!! 
                                                             Ecclesiastes 3: 1-14

 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,  a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,  a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,  a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,  a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,  a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.  What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

And yes, it IS a blessing that they grow and fly!

Uh, gardening pictures in a few days :-)