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.  

Small Succes Thursday at Catholic Mom!

Even if you're not Catholic or a mom, come count your blessings today. 
Today I'm writing over at Catholic Mom! Come join me at Small Success Thursday!

Educate Me

I was in such a good mood today.  I'd received a call from my sister-in-law about a treat for one of my sons, a visit with a long lost college roommate via the wonders of Facebook, I'd tidied up the upstairs, done all the wash except for the girls downstairs, and played blocks with my toddlers. My mom had called and I'd written 400 words on my WIP (work in progress) with an idea of where I was going. Yes, things were going very well until I clicked on a favorite blog to see the comment:

"If studies show (as I believe they do) that a grammar school teacher's effectiveness is decreased proportionally for each child added to her class of 20 students, why should we not conclude the same is true for parenting? Educate me."

Now my reaction is two-fold, Pastoral and Parental.  As the Parent, mama bear wanted to come out, maul the commenter, stomp around a bit, growl threateningly, and then ask the person which of my children shouldn't be.   

It hurt because it isn't like we don't spend much of our parenting energy trying to make sure to the extent humanly possible, they know solidly, that we love love love love love love love them all, and that we would crawl over broken glass for each and every one of them and fight off sharks and scale tall buildings and work until we are bones to provide them with what they need to live, to thrive, to know beauty, to know truth, and to have a deep faith and solid education.  

That being said, it's damn hard work and we don't always hit the mark.  Sometimes I don't have all the supplies we need, or the homework gets lost in the shuffle, maybe I could have read to this one more or we could have done more enrichment with that one. I probably shouldn't ever blow off Cub scouts, we've lost library books a lot of times, and yes we're often late and frazzled when we get there. I can continue the litany of self flagellation but you get the point.  The comment hits bone and blood of my heart.  

It is a constant prayer, because it is clear, doing this sometimes feel really feels forever impossible.  I ask God every day for serious help.  

Pastorally, I want to (as the person asked), educate.   How do I educate someone on the value of the infinite?

How many sunsets are too many?
How many flowers should cover a field?
How many stars should there be in the universe?
How many drops in the ocean?
How many smiles in a lifetime?
How many hugs?
How many birthdays do you want to celebrate?
How much do you want to love?
How much do you want to be loved?
How much do you want to serve?  
What would you give to love forever?
How many souls do you hope to love in Heaven?
How many souls do you want to love on Earth?
What is the limit of your capacity to love?
Can you love for more than a sprint, more than a million marathons? 
Are you willing to try?
Do you want someone to love you that much?   
These are my answers.  

If you're grading on if we have Ivy League bound and academic superstars, Olympic athletes and senators...not yet by the world's standard, but who knows what the future holds?  We do know we have smart talented beautiful people who care about each other, who think, who know how to serve, who know how to share, who know what sacrifice means, and who help each other out.  Some play musical instruments, some paint, some run, some do plays, some play softball, some read, some write, some are still discovering their talents.  They are children.  I can't explain except to say, love is not the same as education.  Love multiplies.  It never subtracts.  The grade is Heaven or not.  Love or not.  Not A's or not.  

And then I thought about each of them.

My oldest intends to become a teacher. Perhaps because he has been part of a family of many, he understands the degree of diversity in learning better than most. He's lived it.

My next oldest is deeply driven to excel.  We have never helicoptered. It is all her and she knows it.

My next oldest holds a gentleness that I marvel at, and credit with her having to open and reopen and reopen her heart, to share her family with her siblings.

My next oldest said his favorite family memories are when we all play together --football or races or something outside, but everyone, even the sister he normally likes to tease.  So even the seemingly lone wolf of the family, defines the happiness of his family, as all of it.

The fifth loves beauty. She holds regular salons for the younger girls, doing their hair, painting nails, and all come back inside all smiles. Hers is a nurturing sparkling spirit.

The sixth is a gentleman. He loves books and games and randomly compliments his siblings and family out of the blue, leaving the rest of us bemused, pleased and slightly puzzled as to what we did to merit anything.  He also shepherds his younger brother with a kind heart that echoes his father.

The seventh is a bright sunny smile almost all the time. She wants everyone around, and everything is a celebration.

The eighth is quieter, but fiercer in spirit.  She comes to me and gives great hugs when she senses I am stressed.

The ninth holds my heart tightly.  His smile is widest when he runs arms spread out to me from the bus.  It's a one tenth of a mile from the street up our driveway to the house, so it's a dramatic scene that brings a smile to everyone's faces, the busdriver and the attendant love it.  It is a favorite time of the day for me.

And the tenth, she is the exclamation point. She is fiery, she is funny, she guides her older brother and brings him along. He speaks more now that she is speaking.  They are best friends.  It is a special gift to him, for her to be here.

This is not to say there aren't dozy fights or colds that seem to hold on forever as they jump from kid to kid or messy rooms or lost books or forgotten assignments or endless laundry or bills. I sure wouldn't have said, I'd like to have to change diapers and pay college tuitions for 22 years each, but I do know, this is the genius of God, to give us a community to love and pull us out of ourselves beyond what we would have imagined.

Considering each of them as an island, they would benefit it is true if they had been the sole focus with respect to academics or athletics or whatever the specialized interest might be, but they are a nation, the whole of them, and what affects one, affects all.  They are family. They protect and love each other fiercely.  They don't always appreciate each other. (What sibling does?).   But when one is sick or one is hurt or one is struggling, there is a surge of alliance in the others.  They all sing full throttle at a birthday, even the ones who don't like the pink cake or the choice in frosting.  They go to each other's games and plays and they read each other's stories and celebrate each other's victories.  

I wondered if it sounded like self justification, except it isn't.  I know their talents are their own. Maybe they'd be more polished if there were fewer of them, but I wouldn't want the absence of any of them for more polished versions of the others.  

These are my children.  They are like my fingers.  I love and need them all.