This Week's Tidbits

I have a few minutes of down time at work, (which doesn't happen very often), so I'm taking advantage by hopefully jotting down a few thoughts from this week. 

I finally took pictures of our dream tree, but....they're at home.  I will try to put them on tomorrow, maybe.  Since I have started working full time, Saturdays have turned into one of my least favorite days. *Gasp*  I know!  But there is always so much to do to make-up for what was missed during the week.  I mean, by Friday night my house looks somewhat like an image from "Hoarders,"  not quite as bad, but definitely not good.  Also, I try to look ahead to the next week and get some things done in preparation--to hopefully avoid the craziness and chaos that somehow always finds me.  Yes, at times it feels like a no win situation.  But strangely enough, it's helping me to see what is truly important and what is not.  There are some days that dishes can (and do) wait, because my children need me more--or I just need a break.  And that is O.k.

Tuesday afternoon I hurried over to Kelly's drama rehearsal to help with some French pronunciation.  As I mentioned before Kelly is the assistant director for their production of "The Secrets of Madame DeFarge," which is set during the time of the French Revolution.  I mentioned to Kelly that I had taken French in high school and college if she needed help.  It was kind of a revelatory conversation because she learned something new (and kind of cool) about me, and I realized how much we don't really know about people's lives.  I mean we spend a lot of time together, but our time these days is filled with busy work, just getting from day to day.  I need to make time to write some things down for my kids, or come up with a fun way to share experiences with each other.  I realize as my children grow and become more independent every day, it's easy to learn less and less about them and what they are doing and feeling on a regular basis.  Does that make sense?  I mean so much of our conversations are about homework, housework, and lessons on how we treat one another.  There's got to be time somewhere, somehow for some real bonding--right?

Anyway, I digress.  I just have to mention that I was so nervous when I actually stood up in front of that class of 7th and 8th graders.  I was furiously and silently praying that I would do well, make sense and say the words correctly.  I'm happy to say that it went pretty well.  I just couldn't believe how bad my heart was pounding at first.

Later that evening I tried to take my children to the high school soccer game where I work.  We rushed around trying to get some errands accomplished, and eat dinner too.  As I was struggling with them to finish eating, clean up, get socks and shoes on--o.k. I think Kenzie wasn't even dressed, I really began to question my determination to make this fun outing happen.  I mean it was around 7:30pm or so--what was I thinking?!  However, they knew about the game and they were genuinely interested in going and it just felt really important to get out of the house for a little while.  When we got to the school and jumped out of the car, the temperature had dropped pretty significantly and it was pretty clear that we weren't as prepared as we should be.  At that point we probably should have just gone home, but for some strange reason we were still determined to get there.

Kate insisted that she sit on my lap because the metal bench was freezing.  She kept calling it football, even though she knows it's soccer, which started a discussion about how in some countries it is called football.  Then she said, "I don't even like watching this.  I only like watching hockey."  At this point Kenzie (who was very happy and excited to be outside even though it was cold), felt adventurous enough to walk around and made her way down to the bottom of the bleachers.  I caught her just in time before she ran onto the track that surrounds the field.  She thought that was hilarious and for about the next 20 minutes or so we played the game of her running around trying to sneak past me onto the field while Kevin and Kate huddled underneath a borrowed blanket.  Kenzie was giggling the whole time and even now I can picture her little pink nose and bright blue eyes looking at me with a smile on her face saying things like, "Stop mom!  Go away.  Shoo Shoo!"  It was so funny.  Needless to say we didn't stay long.  And yes I was totally crazy to even go in the first place.  The way I look at it is this, it was fun crazy and we just haven't had a lot of that in our lives lately and we needed it.  I think we all could do well with a little fun crazy now and then.