2. Rosary Catch up. I'm trying to do one a day. Some days, it's all I can do to get through the Apostle's Creed. Prayer some days is easy, other days hard. It's like parenting. Often, we get more out of it when it's hard, but like parenting when it's hard, we think we hate it while we're in the midst of the tough stuff. Just when I think about stopping, someone asks me to pray for someone or something. So today, I'm through a decade...yes I'll do another when I finish posting this...I promise.
3. I fell off the Wii Fit wagon and I haven't gotten up. I know, I just need to step back on, but if I go downstairs, I'm going to have to clean. So I've been in full avoidance mode. I don't want to be lectured by a machine.
4. My oldest started college. We are now on day three. I suddenly understand why 18 years ago, my parents drew breath sharply when three days in I said, "I met a guy," dated him for the next six years and then married him. Ten children later....it's surreal to see one's first start adulthood. I tell myself I'm ready for him to be ready to start life away from us...but the heart tugs hard.
5. Paul is almost three. In two weeks, we will celebrate his birthday. I can't tell you how much joy he brings because every day, there is more. I am learning more from him about life than I did in graduate school when I studied Trisomy 21 while earning a master's in Special Education. Paul teaches me hands on, how boundless love can be. It reaches out beyond speech. It reaches out beyond age --he charms every one of his brothers and sisters, even the surly teen girl who pretends that she doesn't belong to this motley noisy messy lot. It's hard to remember how frightened I was for him, it's hard to remember how sad I felt that he would have Down Syndrome, because very little about his life evokes those feelings now.
6. I'm reading a book on Anxiety. It's a bit funny because most of the time, I'm not anxious, but it's teaching me how someone who is anxious responds to things as versus me. My main problem with any books like "The Hyper-Active Child" and "Your Over Sensitive Kid" and the like is that I can fit almost all of my square peg kids into the round holes that are presented; I can find examples of everything from their lives making them a mish mash of every psychological condition ever devised. If there's a lable for kids who spend afternoons running around the main floor in a giant circle pushing a doll carriage while having a conga line and screaming, they have that too. It makes applying the techniques for dealing with any condition theoretically universally applicable; it also means those same techniques are in my family's case, universally ignored.
7. Podcasts: I'm considering adding them to this blog. Like blogging, I know nothing about podcasts at the moment when I'm considering this addition other than it's verbal, it's me talking, and it might be fun. The questions would be: Why? and Would Anyone Listen? My why is, there's something more intimate about talking than writing; it also would be a bit different. In addition, spelling wouldn't matter. I could finish sentences with dangling prepositions. Humor that could not be fleshed into a full fledged column could still be conveyed. Why not is: Could I actually pull it off in this house without interruptions that would mar the listening experience?(piano playing, fights over the last piece of pie, tv, computer and radio background noise, babies and toddlers requiring attention etc).
Final Note: Faith &Family September Issue is coming out and my piece on homework will be in it.
You can hear a bit about it here: Back to School Podcast. It's my first magazine piece and yes I'm psyched psyched psyched!
