7 Quick Takes, and day 5 of 7 Posts

Lots of 7's today!

5th day of a week of 7 posts! Whoo hoo!

And, as it is Friday, it is also 7 Quick Takes!

And both are thanks to Jen at Conversion Diary.

here we go:

ONE:

I have not been writing for a while. I felt like I needed to take time off and relax and pay attention to my kids and not worry about "Will I ever make it as a writer?"
I don't even know how to answer that question anyways. Yes, I am published. No, nothing in the past few years. So, what does that mean? No one is breaking down my door to get me to pen fabulous words that will dazzle and delight, so what does that say? Shouldn't I want to write no matter if anyone ever sees it?
Waiting, seeing, wondering . . .


TWO

My boys are arguing about farts downstairs. And cooking and eating fish. I can hear them. Sigh.

Boys are very, very weird. My life as an adult has been totally shaped by them. I never thought I would have all boys, and the fact of having all boys has made my Life of Parenthood very different. No one ever wants to go shopping, get a manicure, watch sappy movies. Like any good human, I have adapted.
My daily ablutions are short and to the point. There is a point-of-no-return with boys - leave 'em alone for too long and you may find very bad things happening, or very weird things. Or nothing. They keep you guessing.

THREE

VBS just ended at our church. Well, I suppose it is ending today. We have 2 sessions at St. Gabriel's: a morning session that runs Monday-Friday mornings and an evening session that runs Sunday evening-Thursday evening. You only attend one. We prefer the evening, because it is smaller, close-knit and we have our days free. Only we are very, very tired at the end of the week.

This year was Romeo's first year to volunteer as a teen helper. The Young Adult and Cookie Boy both are seasoned vets, but Romeo was nervous and excited to be a real helper. He had a great time and fell in love with all those little kids. He loved helping, but he also came home with crafts. He is 11, that funny age between little kid and teen. Love it.
That left the Monkey as my only attendee! I remember the days when I would go volunteer with VBS and NONE of my kids were old enough to attend.
I feel old. . .

FOUR

 . . . which leads me to the contemplation that my birthday is only 3 weeks away. The Big One - 4.0.

FIVE

Which I will celebrate with my husband's entire family at a beach in Delaware. We have added a gazillion more people to the family since our last beach vacation 8 years ago. It should be very interesting!
Nothing I love better than turning a Big (kind of traumatic) Birthday at a BEACH, which means swimsuits.

SIX

My battle with my weight over the past 7 years is ridiculous. No amount of changing my eating habits or exercise seems to make a difference. I lose a little, and it creeps back on. and on. and on.

While going to the beach sounds fun, in theory, having to hang out in my bathing suit is making me cringe. I bought a second one - a swim shirt and shorts - so that helps. But, still.

it will do nothing for my self-esteem.

And before you tell me not to care, let me tell you - I do care. Very much. But I will still have fun.


SEVEN

 August is less than a week away. I am flipping out, I tell you! August may still technically be summer, it is already full! Okay, yes, I get to go to the beach, and that will help. But I have lots of paperwork to finish up for my new preschool music teacher job, plus lesson planning for that, plus regular homeschool lesson planning, plus finishing up paperwork from the last school year (bet that helps make you feel like a better parent now, doesn't it?), plus First Lego League team planning, plus trying to figure out how to haul my kids all over creation for classes and manage to feed us every night (which is kind of hard to do when you are NOT HOME!), plus all the regular stuff.
eek!

Have a great weekend!

7-in-7,day 4: Dirty Little House Secrets

My house is a mess.

I wonder how many blog posts I have begun that way. But it is true, so there it is.

I have analyzed many, many times WHY the house is so messy. The most obvious answer is: my family! Romeo is the only one of my men who shows any concern about cleaning. The Monkey does help, but he is young yet.

I have this dream (nightmare or fantasy? I am not sure.) that I go away for a while - not sure where. Let's imagine Hawaii or Salzburg - somewhere fabulous. Anyway, I am gone for a month or two. I return to a scene of horror.
My men are lounging around the house in dirty clothes. Piles of toys, books, junk and trash litter the living room, stairs and bedrooms. Dirty dishes piled in the sink. Message light blinking frantically on the phone, because either a) no one thought to check and see if there were messages or b) no one remembered how to get them off, in spite of the hand-written instructions I have on the wall. A 5-inch layer of dust coats everything. The kitchen floor has clearly not been mopped and maybe not even swept while I was away. The bathrooms are downright scary.
A look of horror washes over my face. My men jump up to exclaim, "We were were going to clean up! You just got home an hour early! Honest!"

Yeah. This is a very likely scenario of what would happen were I to be gone for a month or two.

I have tried many systems of getting the family clean and/or organized, but to no avail. I have limited cleaning time myself, but I do what I can.

In the process, things get neglected. And that is where we are today. Neglected.

My big summer plan to clean and organize the house has not happened, due to illnesses and fun.

But today, that begins to change. My neighbors have a 16-year-old son who needs money AND likes to organize. He is coming over this afternoon to help me get a handle on the whole thing. Only problem is, he will SEE our dysfunction. It will probably scar him for life!

(This) Woman's Best Friend

Over the past several years, I have changed my eating habits substantially.

Brown rice, quinoa, beans, real whole wheat bread stock my pantry. Chocolate Covered Katie and Skinny Ms. are bookmarked on the computer and Kindle. My vegetarian cookbook sits on my counter, because I use it so frequently. Cauliflower - cauliflower, for heaven's sake - sits in my fridge (this, coming from a girl who does not like vegetables, should tell you have far I have come).

Yet, there are times in this woman's life (about once a month) when she just needs chocolate. Ice cream. Ice cream that screams, "This is chocolate"!

That time was recent in our house. I sent my husband out with one mission - "As chocolate as you can get".

This is what he came home with. I did not know this existed. It was Chocolate.

Should just come with the label, "For that special time of the month"!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

7-in-7, Day 2 - So Much Internet Goodness

My, oh my! This post is late today (see #4 for the reason why)

There is SO MUCH internet goodness today. Friends are posting stuff left and right on fb that has me happy, thoughtful and saying, "coooool"!

1) First up - this cool blog from Hannah at The Art in Life, "My Husband is not my soul mate". We hear lots of things about God and marriage, one of them being, "God has someone out there for you". The truth is, there are probably lots of someones out there for you. God gave us free will and we use it. Every choice we make takes us a different direction (just like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, which I LOVE... I mean, LOVED!). Marriage is a choice - one person, for life. And that gets made day after day after day. Love in marriage cannot rest on a feeling, because when the feeling goes, what is the point of the marriage? But when love is a choice - a choice of an exercise of our free will, then love becomes a daily offering.
Ursula Le Guin, a great science fiction writer, said this: "Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new."
Not that God does not care who we marry. It just is not written in permanent ink from the day of our birth. 

2) Numero dos - this very cool poem called "We Need Saints". On fb today, it is making the rounds as something said by Pope Francis at World Youth Day, and maybe he quoted it. However, it is a poem, apparently inspired by JPII. I am really not sure of the exact origin, but I love the poem. Thanks to Mario St. Francis for this translation from the Portuguese on his site.

                                    

We Need Saints
We need saints without veil or cassock.
We need saints who wear jeans and sneakers.
We need saints who go to the movies,
listen to music and hang out with friends.

We need saints who put God in first place,
but who let go of their power.

We need saints who have time everyday to pray
and who know how to date in purity and chastity,
or who consecrate their chastity.

We need modern saints, Saints of the 21st century
with a spirituality that is part of our time.

We need saints committed to the poor
and the necessary social changes.

We need saints who live in the world and who are sanctified in the world,
who are not afraid to live in the world.

We need saints who drink Coke and eat hot dogs, who wear jeans,
who are Internet-savvy, who listen to CDs.

We need saints who passionately love the Eucharist
and who are not ashamed to drink a soda or eat pizza on weekends with friends.

We need saints who like movies, the theater, music, dance, sports.

We need saints who are social, open, normal,
friendly, happy and who are good companions.

We need saints who are in the world
and know how to taste the pure and nice things of the world
but who aren’t of the world.

3. A really cool video celebrating geeky girls! I did not ever think of myself as a geek when I was younger. But now I realize, it was there all along. I have always loved Star Trek NG and I got my first gaming system when I was 9. I learned computer programming on an old TI. As a Big Girl now, I love Avengers, comic books, sci fi movies, video games and I coach robotics and engineering team. I am PROUD to be a geeky girl!

4.  Our first official off-season First Lego League meeting today. This is the 4th season for Storm System, and the boys are super excited over the theme for this year, Nature's Fury. We have the game mat and the pieces, but we do not have building instructions yet. 

Our new parent banner!

The challenge release date is August 27, which seems a long, long time away. However, I know it will get here much faster than I imagine, and before I know it, I will be howling about competition time!

I made them play Pictionary to begin the meeting. That announcement was met with howls of dismay and protest. Sigh. Some had never played it, some did not know how to play it, and some were "really horrible at it - I can't do it - I will really stink at it". Just like a real FLL meeting!
Cruel coach that I am, I made them play anyway. And - gasp! - they had fun. Imagine that! They were much better at it than they thought. Plus, there is teamwork, cooperation and lots of opportunities for encouragement (hence the coach in me went, "Hmmmm, perfect! They will have fun AND learn at the same time. Mwah haaah haaaah haaah!").

"Log Cabin"

"Rain Forest"

The figure in the middle clearly demonstrates that this is a drawing of a pirate! Not sure if he has devil horns or huge ears or what is on his head!

The game came down to the last draw. It was a close one! Good thing we are a robotics and engineering team, and not a fine arts team!

7-in-7, Day 1: Anxiety

So, I am taking on the 7-blogs-in-7-days challenge from Jen over at Conversion Diary. Although it was thanks to Casey at My Love Is Too Little that I decided to tackle this. So, thanks, Casey! (I think. . .)

It is a good challenge, as I have (obviously) not been posting much, at all! So - deep breath - time to flex those writing muscles and dive in!

Yesterday was "Martha Sunday". I kind of dread it every year: the day the gospel reading turns to Luke 10:38-42 - the Martha and Mary story.
We all know it: Jesus visits Martha and Mary. Martha works, Mary listens. Martha=bad, Mary=good. Or so it always seems to go.

I have written about Martha before.

And Mary.

Yesterday I heard three different homilies on these women. Three different perspectives. At least this year each homily pointed out that Martha is not "bad". 

I heard it in a new way this year (and I am pretty sure I know the reason why!). There was one verse that practically leaped out and danced around me, waving its arms and chanting, "hear this".

"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things."

We all have different gifts. Martha's was pretty clearly running the household. We never really know what Mary's gifts are, but we know one thing: Mary learned the art of not being anxious or worried.

Jesus did not get on to Martha for her work, but for her attitude in her work. She served, but it was with a burdened heart.  Did Martha enjoy Jesus being there at all? Not, did she like him visiting, but did she have moments of getting to enjoy his visit. Did she sit and listen at all, or was she constantly working, increasingly mad at doing it all herself?

We never hear the whole story. Did Mary help at all? Or was this just a moment when Mary had decided to sit and listen to words of wisdom from the Master, and Martha happened to notice it just when she was feeling most overwhelmed?
I love this about the Bible - there is such a lack of nitty-gritty details, so we get to kind of set the scene, over and over and over. Imagining it in different ways.

Right now, I am about out of my mind with anxiety and worry. My schedule is over-run. I cannot figure out how to fit things together. I am still not caught up on paperwork for the last homeschool year. One child still has not finished his science. I am low on money and need to order books for the next year. I am starting a new part-time job and I am scared to death of how it will affect me and my family, not to mention fear of failure. My constant stress over not losing weight and still gaining it slowly, in spite of eating pretty well and exercising. Running a house without a lot of help, with occupants that will only work when ordered to (multiple times). Life in general.

"You are anxious and worried about many things."

I hear you, Jesus!

This week, I will try to seek the better portion, even in the midst of the craziness.

Summer Plans

Summer - so close!

The past few years, by June 2, all I want to do is shut myself in my air-conditioned house and sleep for 3 months.

This year, triple-digit heat has not reared its head yet. It has barely made it into the 90's. A refreshing change from recent history. The cooler temperatures has made me feel quite ambitious. I have learned to exercise caution when I have some free time on my hands AND I feel frisky. Last time that happened, I ended up forming and coaching a First Lego League team! Not that this is a bad thing, I just kind of tend to get myself into huge commitments.

Anyway . . .

With one week left of (home)school, I am looking forward to my summer. This spring, our summer was full. Almost completely full by February. We had three unscheduled weeks in July, and that was it. That is sad. I actually had a mini-breakdown with our busy schedule. That lil' breather helped me to see that a Super Busy Summer was going to do no one good. So, Art Guy and I talked and axed several plans, and suddenly, we have breathing space! Yee haw!

So, what do I want to do this summer?????

1. TV - yeah, that is SO not creative. It is not going to get me a bunch of followers on Pinterest, nor will it win me accolades of any Super Moms out there. But, we are so busy in the school year, there is not time to watch much tv or movies (not a bad thing, but still. . .). We ditched our satellite last December, and oddly enough, without easy-tv, there is even more I want to watch. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu - my watch list is piling up. I am going to do some serious vegging!
2. Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere! Summer will be my usual time to get the house back into some kind of working order. My Big Plan this summer is to clear out! Time to get rid of a lot of stuff that has accumulated in the house. I am feeling increasingly crushed by the weight of things. Time to lighten the load.
3. Cook, and get a plan. Every year of the 15 years of parenthood has been different. However, we have definitely entered the Super Busy phase. Between homeschooling, sports, robotics and creative activities, cooking has become a luxury. Getting dinner on the table is a daily challenge. I have learned a lot of tricks, but I need more. 3 or 4 days out of the week, in the school year, I am not home in the afternoon or evening, so I can't cook. The slow cooker is my friend. But, summer is the time I can get myself re-organized. And maybe it is time to get those boys cooking . . .
4. Of course, there is the usual - clean up from last school year and prepare for the next. sad face. 
5. Be creative. Time to get out the crochet needles and see if I remember what I learned last summer.
6. Be kid creative. The Monkey gets the short end of the Mommy stick. He is alone out there, a 5 year old in a sea of big people. Let's face it, the older 3 boys got a much more fun, less run-down mother. So, this summer, I hope to reach deep and find that More Fun Mother. Time to hit up Pinterest, I guess!

And so much more.

Sadly, the summer will pass quickly. Before I know it, I will be staring school in the face.

But for now, time for summer dreaming!

End of the School Year

One. More. Week.

Usually, I poop out at the beginning of May. This year, with a high schooler, I stuck to our schedule a little better. But, Lord Almighty, it is JUNE tomorrow.

I am SO done!

This funny blog post from Jen Hatmaker has been making the facebook rounds today. Very, very funny. She bemoans being a bad end-of-the-school-year-mom.  I can totally relate.

Which is sad.

'Cause we homeschool.

Yes indeedy. Officially, we finish next Friday. Except the Young Adult. He enrolled in the "Slow Science Biology Course", apparently.

Meanwhile, my house looks like a pit. Junk piled everywhere, dust accumulating. Every day, multiple times a day, as I go up and down the stairs, I pass a suitcase on the landing, still packed from the past day of homeschool coop (which was in April). I feel a little guilt every time I see it. Yet, there it remains.  I chant to myself, "As soon as school is done. As soon as school is done."

I have visions of lazy days, swimming pool trips, air-conditioned movies, days of actually getting the laundry done, and having time to cook.

One. More. Week.