Halloween is Next Week...

I love dressing up for Halloween.  It is my favorite part of the holiday. (I know you thought it was the chocolate, but honestly, I've always loved the dressing up part.  Besides, the chocolate at Halloween is usually 90% Milky Ways...which are underachieving Snickers bars and if I'm going to eat cheap chocolate, it's going to be at least satisfying).  

However, I never like to repeat myself.  In recent years, I've felt less than inspired, mostly because I'm usually putting together all my kids' costumes or helping them come up with creative ideas.  This year, we've got it already set and ready to go, so I had the luxury of reflecting on the matter before shipping and handling would render the prospect of a costume cost prohibitive.  

Costumes can be tricky, since many of those crafted for women fail to account for anyone over a size four, and tend to involve in many cases, life choices with respect to wardrobe that no one should respect.  In the past, I've been Helen of Troy, A  professor from Hogwarts, Supergirl, Jesse from Team Rocket, a crewmember from Star Trek and a hobbit. The Geek power in me wins over almost every time.   I wanted to do something different.

Dressing up is supposed to allow you to play out some part of your psyche you tend not to allow out into the world, so I have to wonder...what am I saying when I've opted for this:  

I'm guessing it says, I have many teenagers in my home and sometimes, snark is a coping mechanism.  I will say, my daughters laughed and said, "I'm too nice to be Mother Gothel." 

 

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. It's been a while since I did this exercise and I don't have a piece ready to go because this week has been so crazy so I  figured it was time.  Plus, I happened to catch Jennifer Fulwiler on EWTN's new Register Radio show.  Now that school started, I'm trying to return to writing more seriously.  Here's hoping!

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!

I Have a Birth Plan, Does She have an Exit Strategy?

Every pregnancy, I've known if it was a boy or a girl intuitively.  Sometimes I've had dreams which revealed the gender, but the most obvious indicator has been the behavioral changes in my attitude/energy level or capacity to handle things has indicated the persona within that is asserting his or herself.  In this respect, my body has become attuned to the child before they are born, illustrating a sneak preview of the coming attraction, a teaser if you will.

For example, with one pregnancy which resulted in an extremely artistic and sensitive girl, I found I would be moved to tears by commercials like that Maxwell coffee one with the kid returning home or the McDonald's one about a daughter and her mom.  I also wore pink (I hate pink) and found myself buying flowers just for the heck of it. Some of it I liked, but being easily moved to tears by schmaltz, ugh.  It got so bad I had to swear off visual media for the remainder of the nine months to avoid being in a permanent emotive state.  The proof of my theory is my daughter, a permanent romantic in temperament and interests.  (She wants a rainbow room with animals, sort of a snow white motif but with the more stylized illustrations found in Sleeping beauty).  We're going to the Renaissance festival this weekend, she may never recover from the realization that people actually dress this way in real life.

My high energy son was better than three red bulls and a chocolate bar.  While he gestated, I could organize anything and never got tired ever.   Regrettably for me, he remains in this permanent wired state that also desires order.   But he took that capacity to act and the conceptual skill of eliminating chaos from the environment with him when he left the womb.   

Lest you think that only two examples does not a maxim make, I know I was more mellow with my third, ate almost exclusively cheeseburgers with my first (his favorite meal of all times),  and followed baseball with an untold of before or since interest when my sixth was in utero.  I've been a jock who hit the gym religiously five days a week and once (with my second) a disciplined reader, and a laid back nothing gets to me persona over the years.  People watching me closely would ascribe multiple personality disorder to my behaviors if there hadn't been a pregnancy to explain things.

This latest one I think however, is a planner. 

Just this week, the upstairs got cleaned out of things that don't fit. I mailed three thank yous and two birthday cards ahead of time and I've been proactively taking on the schedule before we get to it so things don't become overwhelming.   The kids are thriving with her subtle takeover of her mother. They get planned meals with real vegetables and decent sides, they get to school on time and other activities as well.  At this point, I'm thinking Thanksgiving and Christmas should be a breeze but come January, when the child shows up....well, I hope she plans for that contingency when all this capacity to anticipate leaves me and everyone is left with just me.