I am a tidy person, deep in my heart of hearts. I crave order. Little delights me more than looking for an item where it belongs, and finding it there. A place for every item and every item in its place. And while we're on the topic, let's just say that the fewer items, the better. It is at this point that anyone who's ever visited my house or, say, someone who LIVES IN MY HOUSE will start to laugh hysterically. Because the state of my house... ahhhh... how shall we put it... well, the state of my house doesn't exactly reflect my heart of hearts right now. Or ever. Details. And so this...
It's incredibly hard to type while you're dancing. Especially when you're doing a little jig. And believe you me, I am doing a jig right now. I'm busting a move the way only a woman in an empty house can, because today is THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. (Dun dun dun!) There's absolutely nothing else like the first day of a new school year. The excitement; the inability to sleep the night before (them AND me); the carefully thought-out lunches (unlike the ones I'll throw together in a hurry, later this year); the planned outfits; and---of course---the new shoes. First day of school = new sneakers....
School starts tomorrow. (And all of God's people said "AMEN." And possibly "Thank you, Jesus!" And maybe even "I love you so much, now GET OUT OF MY HOUSE.") Last year, we were new, and the school the kids' attend was somewhat in flux for a variety of reasons that aren't important or particularly interesting. And the amount of information we---as a new family, having no idea what the heck was going on---were given was... well, I won't say they gave us NO information, but it was... LACKING, is all I'm saying. We did find out about back-to-school night, at least. But we were never given a bus...
It has come to my attention that I may have inadvertently managed to bias my readers, a little bit, when it comes to the presentation of my darling children. Although it should go without saying that I find the two of them equally charming, there are some factors, perhaps, which may cause my representations of them here to be a bit... distorted. Some have said that I often post about Chickadee's transgressions but rarely about Monkey's, leading some to believe that Chickadee is a hoodlum-in-training and Monkey is a tiny, male Mary Poppins---practically perfect in every way. This is patently...
My job, right now, is to keep things as normal as possible 'round here, for the kids, and try not to let on that I'm exhausted and stressed out and worried and generally not at all interested in cooking or working or listening to the story of how that one Pokemon totally defeated that other one. Some days this is easier than others. Today I decided that maybe if I sandwiched together a bunch of errands it would 1) take up most of the day and 2) make it less obvious to the children that I was making sure we all have outfits appropriate for wearing to a funeral. Maybe I just think Monkey needs...
Oh, there's so much else I'd rather talk about. Like how we're having company for dinner tonight, which I love, because it means I get to show off my dining room (but I'm TOTALLY SUBTLE about it, you know, just saying offhand things like "Tell me the plaster is pretty or I'll cry") and also that I get to experiment with new recipes. Sure, I could do new recipes just for my family. And I DO, sometimes. But on a Monday I'm not terribly likely to start planning dinner at 9:00 in the morning unless we're having company. SUE ME. Nevertheless: Maple-lime glazed salmon! Basil-lime sorbet! Let's...
Parenting 101, Intro to Parenting: Feed, diaper, soothe, burp. My grade: B My feeling: Relief that we all survived. Parenting 201, Continued Topics in Parenting: Teach, read, watch, shape. My grade: B+ My feeling: Mostly amnesia, with a vague sense of accomplishment. Parenting 301, Discipline in Parenting: Expectations, rules, consequences. My grade: C My feeling: A on homework, D on tests. More work needed. Parenting 399, Advanced Discipline Practicum -- Family Vacation Lab: "Last warning: If you don't stop, we are going home RIGHT NOW." My grade: A+ My feeling: Is this what success feels...
Okay, so, I mentioned in passing that after deciding to get the kids a real piano that I thought I'd had the situation taken care of, and then there was a little snafu. But I didn't tell you the whole sordid tale. And CLEARLY, you need the whole story. Because my life is JUST THAT FASCINATING. To recap: The kids started taking piano lessons a year ago, and all we had here for them to practice on was a small keyboard. This keyboard not only lacks some of the keys they needed, it doesn't have hammer-action (weighted) keys, and so according to the piano teacher, forcing my children to use this...
The children are home! The children are home! The children are DONE TRAVELING for the summer! AND ALL GOD'S PEOPLE SAID AMEN! Hey, it's nice that I don't have any strong feelings about whether or not the kids are around, dontcha think? It really enables me to just go with the flow and relax. I can just totally enjoy the time while the kids are gone... ... biting my nails down to the knuckle and crying on their pillows. Anyway! They're home! They appear to be more or less in one piece! They are quite huggable and kissable and---as we discovered last night in the pool---throwable! And very...
