North and South

Fred and I took off with the kiddos for a long weekend. We packed up Wednesday night and left Thursday morning and headed to North Carolina. Good friends of ours asked us to be the godparents of their second son so it was a perfect excuse to get away. If you read the last couple of posts I bet you never even guessed I was gone from my computer for a whole 4 days (except perhaps to think for a moment that I had grown very dull).

I have to tell you the weather was very cooperative being in the 80’s the entire visit. The trip would have been worth it for the temperature itself.But that was not the only benefit.Amazingly, our kids have always travelled well.Yes, really, I mean it.All of them. We pack a bunch of snacks and drinks, stop at the library for one or two books on tape, gas up and then we don’t stop until we hit our destination. Sometimes we are forced to make a pit stop for a bathroom break but that is only occasionally and it didn't happen this trip. We stayed in a Towne Place Suites down in Raleigh. It worked out just great for us all. 2 bedrooms and an open out couch ( a third bedroom) with a kitchen was more than doable even with such a large crew. We brought along one pack and play, and had the hotel set one up as well so we all had beds.Hooray!

I have so many nice things to say about Southern hospitality, warm climates, and good food BUT I do have to mention one major drawback. You know that whole Civil War thing? Fred and I are pretty sure at this point that we know the reason the South lost  and we're willing to bet it had a whole heck of  a lot to do with speed. My goodness people down south are S-L-O-W! To put a positive spin on it, nobody and I mean nobody is in a rush. Not in supermarkets, or shopping centers, or restaurants, or hotels or anywhere. Their racehorses all probably mosey on past the finish line. Being born and raised as a New Yorker, this will always be a problem for me. Fred and I thought the folks in Connecticut were slow when we lived there, (and compared to New York we were right) but the further down you go, the more the pace drops off. You have to wonder if Southerners ever really wake up. Maybe the reason they are all so hospitable is because they are still dreaming, having never been roused properly from their sleep.

I kind of think I have a lot of energy, and my husband, well he makes coffee tired; but we feel right at home in New York even if it has been ages since we lived there. Our children definitely do not get that pace from us and we are so sad they don’t know how to hustle but have long since given up trying to make them something they are not.

Ok, that is the worst part of our long weekend, hey- that's not so bad right?

Now, I also have a whole mess of pictures I can post to give visual aids to the blog. Fred thinks this part of posting is essential. He likes the pictures, I like the words. In fact I don’t think he’d ever bother to stop in here like all you good folks do unless I posted pictures, so pardon me if you think I post a few too many, I am trying to keep my marriage in tact. In fact I probably have enough pictures to post all week as I tell you about our little trip on and off. Below are just some teasers.

Perigee and Apogee

Just a quick reminder for all of you out there that tomorrow is Super Moon Saturday! It is also coincidentally St Joseph's day, a very special day in our family since St Joseph and Fred are old friends. We keep it as a pretty special family holiday each year, and also remind our children greatness doesn't always attach itself to elegance in words, but at times to simple deeds and hard work, as in the case of St Joseph the Silent.

In any case, back to the moon.What this Super Moon means is that the moon will appear larger since it is at its closest to the Earth that it has been in a long time. In fact its been 18 years since its been this close.It is called the Perigee. When it is furthest away it is conversely called its Apagee. I think that is pretty cool. Actually Fred and I wake the kids for eclipses, and meteor showers or other interesting things in the sky, as we both love the excitement. Turns out you can find out about all these neat phases of the moon and lunar activity online nowadays.

As an aside, many of you have probably heard there are strange happenings in human behavior and elsewhere due to the gravitational forces of the moon. I am sorry to report after much research that these occurences appear to scientists to be speculation.So, if you're inclined to believe people are more crazy, or wild, or intuitive near the full moon, looks like your on your own. You cannot blame the moon on your behavior or anyone else's.Hope you enjoy the moon tomorrow, and that you'll say a little prayer for Freddy that St Joseph will continue to hold both his hand and his hammer this upcoming year.

And, in case you miss the lunar excitement tomorrow- fear not, you can find out when it happens next by clicking here.

St. Patrick's Day Prayer

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me for ever.
By power of faith, Christ's incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan river;
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;*
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the cherubim;
The sweet 'well done' in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the Prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Pretty Is In My Heart

The last few weeks have afforded me some interesting conversations with my four year old daughter. They began one day when Sarah put on a really cute little dress and I told her how pretty she looked in gushing terms.

"Oh Sarah, you look so Beautiful!"

Sarah beamed and giggled and Mary chirped from the other side of the room- "Hey give me that dress, don't I look pretty???"

I stopped and turned to her realizing it was important that she not equate beauty simply with the clothes she wears or her looks. I know this can begin to happen even at a young age and want to at least try to discourage it when I see it coming.

So, my response went something like this : 

"You know Mary, you ARE pretty. You're not JUST pretty, you're beautiful. But it's not the clothes you wear that make you pretty you know."

 She cut her eyes to the side at me, and said "What?" a grin growing on her mouth.

I said again:

"That's right Mary, all your pretty isn't in your clothes, or your hair, or jewelry, pretty is really in your heart. It's there when you are sweet and kind and when you share. That's the best kind of pretty there is."

This seemed to please Mary infinitely. She hugged me afterwards with both arms and wouldn't let go for a little bit. It may have been a small first step, but I knew it was important and it was kind of nice to have that conversation after raising so many boys that never seemed to need to hear that particular talk.

So for the last couple of weeks Mary has more then a few times mentioned to me that 'pretty is in her heart'. And each time she does, I affirm that "Why, yes it is!" and she'll then go and tell Sarah she can have pretty in her heart too when she "bees nice to other people".

It would be such a sweet little story if it ended right there wouldn't it?

I know I'd smile sweetly and say "How nice" and be content by a short little blog post with a catchy title.

No such luck.

Today Mary approached me in the kitchen while I was cutting up potatoes for the dinner.  Heres what she asked me :

"Mom, Is COOL in my heart too?"

I was so taken aback I didn't know what to say at first. Collecting my thoughts I said "No Mary, COOL isn't in your heart."

And then finished putting the cabbage and carrots into the pot.

Which got me thinking for the rest of the afternoon where exactly COOL is?

Certainly it's not in our hearts- then where?

Is it in our heads? Nah.

Our face? Nope.

Our hands? unlikely.

Sometimes I think it's in our jeans ( not genes- I mean Levi's here.)

Sometimes its in our walk, or smile, or talk.

Sometimes COOL is in nothing you can touch at all isn't it?

Sometimes it's in what you say....or don't say.

And, yet...it's there.

Magically.

So tell me...what do you think?

Where do you keep your COOL?

And how on earth could a four year old  have so much of it?

The Graveyard Shift

My older cousin just had his second baby girl, well his wife did. I recently wrote asking her if she was getting any sleep. “Hee hee…sleep? What’s that?” came  the reply.

 I know exactly what she means. 

You see, all you nice folks out there think I am a hard working, homeschooling, busy mother of ten. You  probably picture my days filled with children running around with text books and toy guns, diaper changes interspersed between toting kids to parks and sports, while I stir huge pots  gruel on the stove and check the baby for Scarlett fever. Any woman foolish enough to have ten children must be struggling under the weight of all that laundry and mending! When does she ever get time to darn all those socks? Something about having a large family conjures up images of Little House on the Prairie for most people and has rocketed me backwards in time in their mind.

Actually, Scarlett fever isn’t much of a threat since penicillin came along, and I absolutely hate gruel, but I digress. What I was trying to get at was that while modern life has made it easier in many ways to have more children  (I have a killer front load washer and dryer and the microwave is also a handy little gadget to have for a busy Mom on the go.) But,  there are some hidden things about parenthood that make it a real challenge no matter what time you live in, or how many children you have.One of them is the graveyard shift.

You’d probably never guess what an active night life Fred and I have around here. I post pictures of sleeping children and bedtime stories, but what I don’t tell you is how often the little thump of feet announces itself in our house each night after bedtime.  We do try to run things spit spot for the most part, and so 8 pm is in fact the designated bedtime. Then Fred and I sit with the older kids and chat, or watch a show, or play a game to wind down from a long day.

We head off to bed late, around 11 or 12 most nights. Fred and I usually stay up talking at that point, until one or  the other can no longer laugh at a joke or hold our eyelids open another second. Then we drift off to a peaceful sleep…

 Until- the door gets flung open and in marches Mary Joan about 2 am. Like clockwork. Mary, being the kind of kid she is, thinks it necessary to bring all her bedding paraphernalia along with her or she won’t go back to bed at all. So she drags blankets, and pillows, and a few bears and dolls, and something silky to hold to soothe her back to sleep. If she drops any of this on her way in, Fred or I are made to fetch it. Then we set her up on the floor next to us. Approximately 3 minutes after she is settled, she decides she needs to use the bathroom. Up she gets and heads in. She closes and opens doors at full volume, and uses the lights of course to blind us both temporarily.We settle her back down and begin once again to drift off…

 Until about 3:30 am when Sarah comes skulking into the room. She also insists on carrying along her bedding and needs to be set up on the other side from where Mary has chosen.(Which depends entirely upon who is ahead in her parenting polls each day). Sarah is not potty trained yet so no she doesn’t march off to the bathroom. Instead she announces she needs a change ( I know, I know, a child who can announce the need for a change can also use the potty, but it doesn’t always happen  that way in real life, trust me, I’m working on it ). And then we drift off to sleep …

Unless of course Michael wakes up. Which he doesn't every night thankfully. Just some nights.  He also doesn’t wake up at the same time on those nights. Usually, it is his bladder that beckons him but he doesn’t always get up right away and so he may or may not need a change of clothing. If he doesn’t need a change of clothing he heads directly for the bathroom where he proceeds to pee over the entire room getting almost nothing into the actual bowl.  So we need to scrub the bathroom some nights at various hours. Then we proceed to try to bring him back to bed. And then he objects and wants to come to our room. And so we set him up as well on the side of the bed. Unless of course Mary and Sarah are already on the sides and then we’ll move him to the foot of the bed.

But of course all of us know that the foot of the bed is the least safe place on the floor, as all the monsters are naturally at the foot of the bed waiting to pounce on any children that might have had the unfortunate mishap of being laid down there. And so after we begin to drift Michael will slide in between us, and rather then fight we just grumble and shift and make sure he doesn’t steal any more of the blankets than absolutely necessary.And then we fall blissfully off to sleep…

Unless of course Sophie wakes too.You see, Michael isn’t the only one that gets up just some nights. So does Sophie. Not often but occasionally. And she always needs to be changed if she wakes. And usually she needs a bottle too. And so then after we visit the refrigerator and the cupboards off she goes. And we fall happily back to sleep…

Unless of course someone is sick, or scared, or heard a noise that was unidentifiable. And believe it or not that happens sometimes too. Not often, just sometimes. Like once every week or two. And then we begin to drift off to sleep until the alarm clock rings at 6 am and we both find someone has called in sick and as luck would have it we are both scheduled  for the day shift too.