Over at Aleteia Today

Hope you're having a happy 4th of July. 

Date nights are like little Sundays, retreats for your marriage. Schedule a date with your spouse this week, and the next. You won't be sorry.

Over at Aleteia Today

On Thursday, I called my husband and told him the weekend schedule. It included an audition at 9:10 in the morning on Saturday and a 3:15 basketball game on Sunday followed by a pizza party and a 6 o'clock meeting for me on Sunday night.  

Thinking about all that chopping up of the day, I had only one solution.  We needed a date night.
So my husband got us tickets to the FolgerTheatre's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream! 

I'd have to take the metro,which might make things iffy for an 8 o'clock curtain so I left at six.  Arriving with plenty of time, the Folgers' theatre is one block from the Supreme Court.

The line on the sidewalk opposite the show stretched for three blocks.  "Someone should write a story about all the people coming here to pay their respects."  Armed with a marker and my Lenten Magnificat, I walked the line to ask people about why they came, what the Supreme Court Justice meant to them.  The result?

People came from all over to say thank you and good bye to Justice Antonin Scalia.

Oh, and if you can go to this years' production of the bard's play, it's awesome.  If I could play any part in a Bard play, it would be Puck.  It's my favorite favorite play.  Man it was fun.We had a great time.

7 Quick Takes

1.  One week until Helen is due and I am a nervous wreck. I don't know if we'll make it on time. Editing and formatting take time.  I am hopeful.  But I tend to always feel like Charlie Brown about to kick the football, except I just KNOW that she's going to swipe the thing away when I get to the point of actually kicking.   I am excited. I'm proud. I'm also working on Penelope and so I'm ready to see people enjoying Helen.  I also want to see how she all comes together. I've been editing her in pieces so I want to see the whole thing, to read it from cover to cover and experience her as if I'd discovered this book instead of written it.  

2.  There are so many movies I want to see. I've seen Iron Man 3 before, we're going to Into the Darkness tonight (Can't wait can't wait can't wait!) and then there's Now You See Me. That one looks slick and cool. 

3.  I am also considering three new viewing addictions that currently are popular.  Downtown Abby, Game of Thrones...and Dr. Who.  Yes. I'm aware that they are cult phenomena, every one of them. Yes I'm aware I'm late to the party. What I'd like to know is which one should I sink my teeth into next and why.  Sell me. Give me the pitch of why I should watch whichever one you think worth watching.  

4.  Next week, I go to the reunion at Saint Mary's. I hope to walk to Notre Dame and light a candle at the grotto. I'll get to see two of my favorite teachers for lunch on Friday.  It stuns me that this was my life, my whole life only 25 years ago.  The passage of time seems like nothing, and yet there is so much that has been crammed into these past many years.  It leaves me winded. 

5.  Does anyone else feel like the razor of the world is cutting deeper these days?  For me, the news has become a daily assault on my peace and sensibilities.  I think it is why the Church gave us Pope Francis, because his exhortations to be more than a museum piece Catholic, to go out and be salt and light to the world, well we knew this, but it is so heartening, so warming to be invited.  

6.  Two kids are done with school, one has exams next week.  Then we have two weeks before everyone gets out! SUMMER!!!!!!!!I believe I love it even more than they....and I hate their summer math books more too.  I was going to equivocate on that last bit but it's true. I hate those books. Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate them.  I don't care that they are good for boosting math skills. They are evil and ruin summer that should be spent grilling, swimming, reading book after book after book, catching frogs and fireflies (not at the same time) and playing cards with your parents.   You know what's not on that list?  Math books.  There. I said it.  Bleah.

7.  There's a new post over on Facebook page for The Book of Helen.  It is an open page so anyone on Facebook can go over and read it. I would ask if you haven't yet, to please please please like the page.  My goal this week is to break 100 likes.  Next week, we'll work on getting to 200. 

7 Quick Takes Friday

1.  Circle of Life...

Wednesday, there was a bunny in our garage. I didn't mind it, it's cute, it's not a pet and no one is going to be fearful of going out to get a bike or a diet coke with a long eared baby ball of fluff hopping around.  

Thursday, there is a four foot long black rat snake in our garage hunting.  

Friday.  Since there was no mongoose lurking outside my door, I called the exterminators. 

2.  Because Life isn't Thrilling Enough

I also had to call 911 yesterday when I smelled gas in the kitchen. I'd relit the pilot lights, run the fans and after 15 minutes to clear the air and still having it, two huge (made my 12 passenger van look puny) fire trucks pull up and check everything out.  Everything is fine. No worries.  But it did mean the evening was semi-shot.

3.  Bummed...Bummed...Bummed. 

May was supposed to be the big movie month with Iron Man 3 and StarTrek II.  We didn't make it last week and somehow, some of the steam for going has been lost, and the reviews for the second flight of Abrams' Enterprise crew has left me feeling like it might not be worth the thirty bucks.  Has anyone seen Iron Man 3? Is it a good flick for a date night? Need to discover something to obsess over until the next season of BBC's Sherlock Holmes comes out.

4.  Facebook asks what's on my mind? Apparently too much. Paul's teacher said, "I bet you're looking forward to Sunday?" and my brain when completely into panic mode ...like What DID I FORGET? IS THERE SOMETHING ON THE SCHEDULE THAT I FORGOT TO WRITE UP? AHHHHH   and she looked at me, "It's your day...Mother's day?" 

Ohhhhhh. Yeah. You meant me. I'm better now.

5.  What do you want to do for Mother's day?

Now that I think of it, I want to assemble the grill, have brisket or ribs or steaks, and set a plan for painting and re caulking the bathrooms.   If any of my children are reading this, I'd also like a gym membership. 

6.  Homeland Security

No, I'm not doing a political post. It's just I'm having to stand guard outside Paul's room to make sure lights go out.  It isn't just him though, my other kids have become accustomed to bedtime extensions that have become the bedtime expectations.  8 has become 8:30 has become 9 has become....after nine.  After nine, I am not interested in parenting. 

So after multiple attempts and parental warnings, my husband employed a tactic to get all of the children's attention. He turned off the power to the upstairs.  Suddenly, beds looked MUCH more attractive.  I'm hoping any child that reads this blog didn't make it this far but dutifully left after #5 to go hold a meeting with their fellow siblings about Mother's day so they don't find out what their father did. 

7.  File under A...for Annoying.

My children put out the trash and recycling. Sometimes they get to it the evening before, sometimes it is last minute the morning of...today was one of those "the morning of" moments.  I go out to run  the kids to school and find an orange paper slapped on my recycling bin at 7:30, the contents within still not picked up.  The note explained that the recycling was not picked up because it was not curbside by 7 o'clock a.m.  So someone works for the county to leave notes to those who don't put out their stuff before 7 after the truck goes by?  I admit, I felt tempted (out of annoyance) to put said recyclables in the trash in response.  I didn't, but are we really saving the Earth if we have a person paid to drive around leaving notes on why recycling didn't get picked up?  

Small Success Thursday

It's Thursday and today, we take stock of the past week; of the small things we did that were in fact, big victories.  Motherhood is replete with these sorts of victories, over pounds, laundry, bills, homework, splinters and drawings on the wall.  If we do not recognize that these small daily things reveal sacrifice, devotion and love, we will succumb to the despair brought on by dull joyless dutiful grunt work.  All service must be love, or it exhausts more than the body.  But the trick is, we have to be mindful of what we do if we are to serve out of love; absent that mindfulness, we can turn what is supposed to be a gift into drudgery.  We don't always, but it's an easy slip I know for me.   

With that in mind, today we celebrate the little things we did with great love.  Please join in and visit the others who participate.  Use Mr. Linky and on your own blog, list three or more ways in which this week, by grace, humor, determination and love, you were victorious over minutia, dust bunnies, errands and the demands of modern life.  Then leave a comment.

This week I:

1) Took four kids to get hair cuts.

2) did a one on one shopping (Borders) with my daughter that probably is most hungry for this sort of time. Told her to ask me to do it again. She beamed.

3) Visited with my sister and we promised to go to adoration in our separate towns. (I made it last night!) The best description I have for being in front of the Blessed Sacrament, is Oasis.  You don't realize how thirsty  you are until you drink.

4) Thought the reading with kids would get derailed by last week's vacation (it was great by the way), but we picked back up and I can't wait for them to find out what happened to Eustance on Dragon Island tomorrow. 

5) Will meet this morning with my daughter's teachers to discuss learning styles and teaching strategies. 

6) Let a few go to see Harry Potter on their own, they loved it. --though oldest son said when Voldemort hugs Malfoy --most awkward hug ever.  (Three rows behind him snorted their sodas). We're going tonight. (Date Night).

7) Didn't gain weight on vacation --a victory of not going backwards.

Now it's your turn.

*****ARGH! Mr. Linky failed me.  :P
Here's Mr. Linky. 





I'll put all the blogs who commented onto Mr. Linky. Thanks!
(Had a morning meeting and a 12:00 appt. so I couldn't check the blog until 2 or I would have corrected this sooner). 

Family and Faith Live!

http://www.faithandfamilylive.com/features/a_little_bit_of_romance/

Let's Go to the Movies!

Back when I was merely in charge of five younglings, the Two Towers came out.
Man we wanted to see that movie. However, we were in between babysitters.

Sheer numbers required that we use adults at that point, I mean, who in this day and age had five kids? Most sentient beings over the age of 18 however, wanted extraordinary funding in return for doing what I did for free daily. Those who agreed, we used until they wizened up. I don’t think my kids were that difficult. She really wanted to go back home to Nepal. That's what she said in the letter anyway. The next babysitter who had lived in the town home across from us, suddenly enrolled in the community college and got very very busy. Then her phone stopped working altogether.

Our third sitter opted for a slightly less dramatic exit; she got married and had her own kids before moving out of the country. Having no grandparents within less than a six hour drive, we were going to miss out on Peter Jackson's second installment until it came out on DVD. Then we hit upon what seemed to us, a brilliant idea.

The late show. We'd wait an excruciating four weeks, when the crowds had significantly ebbed, and then, with the youngest dressed in sweatpants that could double as pj's, we'd take them to the movies and they'd fall asleep while we watched. Genius. Pure Genius!

The day arrived and willingly, we forked over what would have been the equivalent of a baby sitter's fee in kids’ tickets, and even more for the obligatory popcorn.

We were savvy enough to make sure no one got caffeine. We were punting on the parent screening of suitable material with respect to imaginary monsters, violence, scope, but we weren't so stupid as to pump them up with sugary guaranteed keep up until two o'clock am juice.

The last showing for the Two Towers was at 10:10. All of our ducklings tended to drop off at 8:30. They wouldn't last past the previews we told ourselves. Those couples who had managed to get a date night out sans kids looked slightly askance in our direction. We smiled weakly back and hoped our kids would be snoring silently soon.

Delusional. If NFL color commentators were able to screen our actions, they'd have explained to the audience what a mistake it was to start this project so late in the evening. The better play would have been to go to the movie at 8:30 proper, so natural fatigue would set in and do the job. Telling the kids they were going to a show and then postponing it past bed time by a good hour and half, we had missed the open window between natural sleepiness and getting that third wind.

The kids were actually reasonably good, only getting scared when say, there were lots of orcs in the scenes. One climbed into my lap and covered her eyes. Another made good use of his Dad's arm. The other three sat immersed in the film, including one I would have preferred to have seen a bit scared. I caught the eye of a woman sitting with her husband; she gave me a tsking look that said, "You should have known..." I resisted the urge to offer her the opportunity to babysit.

Since then, we haven't tried that plan. In fact, we've only made it to a few movies since the trilogy ended. One of them was Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I remember it vividly because sitting next to me was a family including four small kids and I spent much of the whole movie mentally wondering what possessed this mother to bring her young children on a Friday night to see a PG-13 movie and at the same time forcing myself not to give the tsking look. The woman must have sensed my struggle as she stopped to mention, "My babysitter quit on me and moved to France."

Now that I have teenagers, it's possible for us to return to the movies with a clean conscience, but I get text messages from my oldest two. "M& P had a fight. No one was hurt. When r u coming home?"

Paying my son for eating pizza with his friends and watching his siblings who had already gone to bed felt vaguely like extortion but my husband viewed it as an investment. "We're guaranteed if we keep having him babysit, he'll leave home."

He might even go abroad.
"Hey honey, what's showing this weekend?"