Wonders

The world's spent itself, telling us there is nothing new under the sun, that all things are equal, and that life is at its zenith, when we mindfully manage everything.  The phone and the algorithms of the interent want to assure us that we can always be in charge.  We set alarms. We link into schedules.  Everything is possible. 

Bleah. 

Anyone who ever fell in love should know better.  Our best moments aren't orchestrated.  When we catch our children playing together in absolute silliness, that's joy.  When a husband steals a kiss or an actual letter comes in the mail, that's fun.  When we look out the window and see the first snow of the season falling, that's lovely.  Life, the joyful moments, come in part by the unexpected, the arriving, and the willingness to enter into living, as opposed to managing one's life. 

We get "into" a game or a book or a movie, and we forget everything else.  We fall into painting or playing an instrument or even (don't get this one but I know it's true), exercising.  We don't even spend time thinking, "this is a great time" until we've finished. 

The joy of life is in wonder, in forgetting about schedules, in being present and in the moment.  So this week, when you're preparing the turkey and all the trimmings and worrying about what you have to do, remember the better portion and be present. 

Allow yourself the wonder of being with each other, rather than only doing for the event.  Hold onto that purpose, and the delights of the season will facilitate your discovering moments that afterward, you can know were great, but in the moment, will be a source of joy. 

It's Election Day and...

My children are discussing how soon it's legitimate to put on the all Christmas carols radio station. While the 24-7 Christmas cheese please music enjoys almost unhealthy popularity in my home, there are some who feel (quite strongly), it must wait until the day after Thanksgiving at the very least.  Normally, I side with the people with Christmas in their hearts, but Christmas creep has begun to weary even my spirit. Commercialism being the devouring beast that it is, determined this year's kick off on the local radio is November 17th. 

Some of my kids have access to Spotify, and thus the Whos start singing whenever the muse of Mariah Carey inspires. We've already had several impromptu concerts.  It's okay for a small shot, like an occasional ginger snap or hot cocoa before it's really cold, but the steady diet channels my inner curmudgeon and you know, if you complain or protest, it's almost seen as  a challenge...a dare...can I do this seemingly innocent/innocuous thing to the point of driving older siblings and my parents insane?

Answer...yes.  You can. You have. 

However, I promise you, if it is to be war between us, I shall win.  I have years of Christmas tradition to draw upon...to that end, I'm thinking...

1) matching Christmas sweaters with a mandatory photo, which I'll share on social media on their pages, twitter accounts...etc.

2) Technology is my friend...so I'm going to close out all but Christmas movies, paging Hallmark for an extra serving of sap and heart fluff from the cable package.   All their avatars shall be icons from classic films.  I'm doing it by pure randomness...so someone will get the Grinch, another Kris Kringle, another Herbie, and another Rudolph and Frosty. I'll also fix the ring tones. 

3) Christmas cleaning...because we have to make room in the inn, so everybody needs to clear things out... and I'll blast out the classical versions, the stuff that doesn't make it on the radio/hand selected play list...we shall out cheese them by singing along.   

4) Creating Christmas projects.  Yes, I'll ask the musical ones in my family to practice songs for performance purposes, to give to relatives.  They'll love it.  I'll ask the bakers to make cookies.  I'll make them peppermint and pumpkin everything until they beg for springtime fare like hot dogs and sugar cookies. 

5) Eggnog and fruitcake...and Christmas movies...I'm going to Thomas Kinkade the daylights out of these premature Christmas carolers in my home...until they cry uncle,

or at the very least,  want to go cold turkey. 

Happy Holidays! from the Christmas hearted not entirely evil genius parent they constantly underestimate.   Love, Mom. 

7 Quick Takes

1.  I am still a dancing fool.  Last night, the kid's elementary school held a family dance.  I ignored the protest of the cool eight grader and took the youngest six.  I let the cool 8th grader and his two older sisters order pizza.  He let me wear his black stetson.  I wore a stetson because my hair needs a visit with the hair salon and it hasn't made it yet.  Besides...

"Stetsons are cool." --11th Dr. Who

And 4 of the six of my kids danced.  Not with me mind you, but I danced anyway.  My 9 year old son sought to eat his weight in chips. Admittedly, he's not very heavy so it isn't as much as one might think, but still.  Eventually, he figured the best way to allow himself to get into the music was to be a big brother, so he swooped up his little sister and danced with her on his back half the evening.   I had Paul.  Paul doesn't need me to dance.  Paul doesn't need music to dance. Paul, like his mother, is a dancing fool.  However the joy on his face to see not just me, but people, lots of people moving, was awesome.  I know people took pictures, but I didn't because I was dancing.   

2.  I know the internet is a big thing and politics are important.  But I have come to the point that I have zero patience with those who either constantly flash their political ideology with all the subtly of a McDonald's commercial, or who damn and curse anyone who dares to think the side they don't like is anything less than Satan incarnate. 

So if you post me about how much you can't stand President Obama and how the Democrats are looting Fort Knox ala Goldfinger, creating taxes to be assessed on all the actual physical space you take up in a lifetime and beyond and editing classic books to eliminate any whiff of conflict, while sending subliminal messages through your cell phones, or how the GOP is killing puppies, stockpiling all the good things in life in secret mansions armed with bionic dragons that will erase your memory and purge your wallet all while each being also less evolved than Spongebob Squarepants or Patrick, I'm going to de-friend you because I'm just tired of being agitated as a matter of course.  

3.   Today the kids have off from school, all except the oldest two, who are staying at school until around 5 or 6.  I also have a mountain of laundry to do, to recover the couch that may or may not have been crushed as a result.   

4.  I'm still doing a poem a day, I just don't always collect them.   Here's today's entry...

Proof I'm a Mom...

Today, the words"Hey! Don't run with scissors."came out of my mouth in proper context.

5.  Halloween is coming.  I am not ready.  Halloween is coming.  I still have to throw a party for my 8 year old.  Halloween is coming and I just threw out a pumpkin we bought that rotted. Halloween is coming and I am scared.  I am stressed.

I have an anime character I don't know, a witch, a person who has no idea what he wants to wear except whatever it is, it's nothing I suggest or that he can think of, because he doesn't really want to dress up, a girl who wants to be Annabelle from the Percy Jackson series who is SURE everyone will know who she is, the 10th Doctor or the 11th, he's not sure yet, Pinky Pie, another witch, a Dinosaur and I'm not sure what the youngest will be, because she loves costumes, but she's also contrary by nature and every time she sees something scary or Halloween in nature, she crosses her arms and says, "No!"  She does love chocolate so that may be the key to her stubborn heart.  

Yes. I own this book.  Yes I ate the last of the Chocolate.  Why are you surprised? I said I was stressed. 

6. I signed up two of my kids for the Celtic Solstice 5 mile run in Baltimore. They will be running with their Aunt, Uncle and Cousin on December 15th.  It should be fun.  Now considering compounding the schedule by signing up two or three kids for basketball.  Why? Because I'm a light touch, a sucker for the vision of my kids being on the team, I love going to cheer them on even as I don't like practices.   As much as I want to be out in the world, I do love it when we have a free weekend with nothing on the books.   Both High schooler's plays end in three weeks, then it's college application forms and financial aid sheets until Thanksgiving.  We also have to start working out more as a family, the traditional Gorillas vs. Wolves football game on Thanksgiving has a 0-5 record.  This is our year.  Maybe.  

7. Yesterday I restarted Small Success Thursday over at Catholicmom.com and I'm SO glad I did. It allowed me to discover some new blogs, to feel refreshed in spirit, and then, there's this touch of loveliness over at a blog I'd never seen before, The Beautiful Music Challenge.  The sample she put out of their work for Advent is really gorgeous.  Go.  Listen. You won't be disappointed, except when it ends, that you can't go buy it now, and that Advent isn't yet.  

Of All the Holidays I'm Missing, I'll rue skipping Nov. 20th the most

Why? Because 11/20 is National Absurdity day and I think my life could be a poster child for such an event.  But I know me, I'll get to that  Sunday and the focus will be the birthday coming up. Thanksgiving overwhelms me and so nothing absurd will be done to recognize or celebrate this occasion. 

I will have missed my opportunity. 

Now while personally, I suspect this holiday is celebrated on an hourly basis 365 days a year, I had to wonder, what other important Festivus type feasts am I missing? What other celebratory moments have I failed to honor?

Here's a mere triffling of them.

January 3 is …Festival of Sleep Day (I'm definitely penciling this one in for 2012).
January 7 is …Old Rock Day  (What does this even mean?) Are we celebrating the Rolling Stones or fossils?
January 31 is … Child Labor Day (Is it the day we make our kids labor? If so, I'm saving the basement for the last day of the first month of the year, oh yeah!)

February 3 is … Cordova Ice Worm Day  (The Lobbyists for spanish frozen invertebrate life forms must be fierce!).
February 20 is … Hoodie Hoo Day (Now they're just messing with us).
February 29 is … National Surf and Turf Day --This holiday ought to come more than once every four years for crying out loud!

Two months in and I'm sensing a lack of focus.

March 3 is … I Want You To Be Happy Day
March 5 is … Multiple Personalities Day
March 8 is … Be Nasty Day
March 9 is … Panic Day
March 22 is … National Goof-off Day
March 23 is … National Organize Your Home Office Day 
March 30 is … I Am In Control Day

(Perhaps Multiple Personalities day should come at the end of the month given the rest of these options; it would explain a lot).

April 7 is … No Housework Day --Now we're talking!
April 13 is … Blame Somebody Else Day --the reason the house is a mess is because of April 7th, I promise!
April 30 is … National Honesty Day Nuts...I have to come clean about the cleaning....

May 3 is … Lumpy Rug Day --Okay, I'm racking my brain on this one and all I can say is "WHY?"
May 9 is … Lost Sock Memorial Day --ditto.
May 26 is … Grey Day --Who authorizes this stuff? 
May 29 is … End Of The Middle Ages Day --do we have a End of the Holy Roman Empire day?  No. Do we have an, End of the Industrial Revolution day? No.  What about a End of the Enlightenment? No.  So why are we commemorating the end of an age that no one misses or mourns except in a highly romaticized and innacurate version at Renaissance Festivals?
 
June 5 is … Festival Of Popular Delusions Day (Like what?)
June 8 is … Name Your Poison Day  --Shouldn't this celebration take place after June 18th?
June 18 is … International Panic Day  This may be a continuation of June 5th. 
June 22 is … National Chocolate Eclair Day --they're not all bad I guess.

July 13 is … Fool's Paradise Day --These two were in odd conjunction to each other.
July 14 is … National Nude Day
July 15 is … National Tapioca Pudding Day and Respect Canada Day (Make up your own joke here).
July 27 is … Take Your Pants For A Walk Day (Not to be confused with July 14th).
July 29 is … Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day (What is a Cheese Sacrifice?)

Midway through the year, I sense they are running out of inspiration....
August 6 is … Wiggle Your Toes Day (okay.....)
August 8 is … Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night (Forewarned...I'm armed).
August 9 is … National Polka Festival

I'm deliberately leaving out August 13th when it's Blame Someone Else Day, because we already had one back in April. I'm guessing we really didn't have to do two of these. 

August 18 is … Bad Poetry Day (Does this really need acknowledgement? Isn't its existence enough?)
August 24 is … Knife Day (How does one celebrate this in actuality?  For one thing, I guarantee, whatever you do, you aren't going on a flight that day).

September 2 is … National Beheading Day (Because Knife day wasn't satisfying enough).
September 20 is … National Punch Day (Either there's a lot of repressed anger over at the powers that be that denote celebrations wherever that is in our ever thoughtful government or we're partying over the fact that we can mix ginger ale with pineapple juice, ice and frozen concentrated o.j.  If it's the later, perhaps a few blows to the head might explain this). 
September 28 is … Ask A Stupid Question Day (Like why we have days like this?).
September 29 is … Poisoned Blackberries Day (Yikes! I'm not touching any food this day, these folks are mad).

October 3 is … Virus Appreciation Day (single not quite celled infections deserve our admiration...)
October 12 is … International Moment Of Frustration Scream Day (This has merit).
October 19 is … Evaluate Your Life Day (But then so does this).
October 28 is … National Chocolate Day  --I MISSED IT!  May have to celebrate posthumously or also consider celebrating October 19th if I don't.

November 1 is … Plan Your Epitaph Day --Done that, for my tombstone: "She Tried Hard..."
November 9 is … Chaos Never Dies Day --It doesn't even fade.
November 28 is … Make Your Own Head Day --I'm hoping there's a word missing here, like cheese, but if there isn't, it may be because of that Beheading fiasco on September 2nd. I think I'll pass on that one.

December 10 is … Festival For The Souls Of Dead Whales (Whales don't have souls. Just sayin).
December 18 is … National Roast Suckling Pig Day (Not that pigs have them, but why are their souls also not being mourned? Answer: Because they're really really yummy).
December 26 is … National Whiners Day (This sort of behavior, like beheading, probably doesn't need encouraging).
December 27 is … National Fruitcake Day (Again, this sort of thing shouldn't be encouraged).

Just so you know, I didn't even give you half of the offerings.  Having looked at them, first I promise not to pull a Julie/Julia type project where we try to call to mind each one each day.  If we did, we'd be exhausted. The whole calendar reads like a wierd hybrid of a kindergartener's inspirations and a passive agressive marketer for various frozen and ethnic foods.   We need ordinary time and non celebrated vegetables to be able to appreciate the brighter moments in life.   We need quiet and rest and everydayness that having a celebration every day can't bring.  Nevertheless, I can't wait until January 3rd.  Look it up!