Seven Quick Things that Have Been on my Mind

No pictures, because I broke my camera.  (Yes, again.  What?  It's perfectly normal for someone shuttling six kids around all day to have trouble keeping her grip on her camera.  It is! Have you been talking to my husband or something? )

1- I may have inadvertently solved the issue of the girls obsessing over this blog, because it has now been so long since I've updated that they have stopped checking for new posts.  I am thinking that I may forbid them from reading it, for the near future.  My plan has always been to let them read it when they are older (and removed from whatever situation is at hand,) so I may just stick to that and make them wait until the time is right.

2- We were blessed with something of a miracle a few weeks ago.  It has been 18 months since the birth of Ruth and the inability for the Dusty Camel (our beloved and filthy minivan) to fit our entire family.  This has made long trips very tricky and has in general been a huge nuisance.  The problem was - big old vans are kind of expensive, especially since we recently had to replace Chris' old car.....Well, heaven smiled down on us in the form of two families from our parish - one who noticed a 15 passenger van for sale and contacted us, the other who then sold it to us in ridiculously good condition for a ridiculously low price.  To illustrate what a big deal this van is to us and how excited the girls are about it:  Beth recently asked me if, in lieu of a birthday party at our house, I could pick up all of her friends with the new van and just drive them around.

3- Lucy has been insisting that we should refer to the new van as "The BUS."  It is imperative that you say it exactly as written - with major emphasis on "BUS."  I'm inclined to go along with this.

4- Now that it is Spring, the reality that Lucy will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall has really hit me.  I'm going to miss her a ton.  She is a hilarious companion these days, with her confidence and her straightforward pronouncements on life.  At the park the other day a little boy took a shine to Lu and began shadowing her every move.  She was intent on "ballerina training," which mostly means she swans around, doing twirls and fancy leaps off of the equipment.  Finally, in exasperation with the boy she turned to him and said, as gently as she could, "Look.  You need to find your own life."

5- Ruth, these days, is a quirky ball of trouble.  Her favorite activity is to run away from me : in stores, at the playground, dropping Lucy off at preschool...The moment she gets her chance, I will hear her giggles as she starts to run away as fast as she can.  Obviously, this is about as dangerous a pastime as a baby can have, especially when said baby has no fear whatsoever of passing cars.  I am glad for two things:  one, that Lucy is reliable enough to stand still whenever I have to rush off in a panic after Ruth, and two, that I am past the point of caring if people stare at me while Ruth, confined, screams bloody murder.  And believe me, she has the power to shriek like nothing I've ever encountered before.  It nice to be so liberated, mentally.  It's one of the great perks, I think, of being in your 30s.  (Maybe, as well, it is related to the 12+ years I've already spent hauling screaming kids out of stores.  So this one is louder.  Blah.  Who cares.)

6- Beth and Claire both recently had artwork selected to be displayed in a local art exhibit.  We were so proud of them!!!  I really enjoyed it, and there was a surprisingly large number of really great art (all from elementary through high school.)  Beth had her picture taken by a newspaper cameraman, so we are on the lookout to see if she makes it in!

7- I recently had my first comment from a stranger on the streak of grey hair I've got going on in front.  Should I be glad about this, or upset?  I hate the comments I get (especially from Katie's teachers etc.) on my age, as though I'm too young to take seriously....On the other hand, as the mother of an 18 month old I'm not exactly hoping to be taken as a grandmother quite yet.  I kind of like my streak of grey, I kind of like the fact that I am (I think) starting to look more like an adult and less like an overgrown baby.  I kind of did not like having a stranger comment on it, though!

Bonus #8 - We are doing a Walk for Wishes for the Make A Wish Foundation in two weeks.  This organization is so wonderful, and had such a profound effect on us after Abbie's ordeal that I can't even begin to do it justice.  I don't even like Disney, and yet our trip to Disney World was magical, carefree (which, when you are dealing with cancer or any serious illness in a kid cannot be overestimated) and, believe it or not, healing.   Not just for Abbie, but for our entire family.  And we were not - by far! - the worst-off family we encountered.  So many families are dealing with heavy, heavy burdens that consume every day and will never go away.  I don't know that there is anything they need more, really, than a chance to experience a little relief.  If you have any spare change, why don't you throw it their way?  Here's the link to our "Team Abbie" Make-A-Wish page.  I'm not much of a fundraiser, but these people are taking heartbreaking situations and infusing them with a little bit of joy.

Bonus#9 - Just for fun, here's a video the girls made my Mom for her birthday:

FYI, Jen over at Conversion Diary is where 7 Quick Takes comes from.  Her blog is hilarious and profound, and her posts about being an introvert have made me realize - hey!  I am also "An Introvert," not just a socially awkward semi-hermit who sometimes hides in the bathroom because I so desperately need to be alone.

7 Quick Takes, because I feel silly writing a post *just* about how I made a blanket

1:  I finished it!!!
 
Finally, after two years of toil and uncertainty, Lucy's quilt is finished!  It's not exactly perfect;  I ditched my original plan for the blanket and ended up cobbling together what I had already done with scraps from other abandoned projects.

2:  Now I have to do one for everybody
 
Notice the other waif in this picture, looking on with pathetic longing?  Suddenly, everyone is dying for their own blanket.  I don't know how I am going to handle this, draw straws?  Beth thinks I should pick based on age;  I think she's afraid that she will be grown and gone by the time I get around to her blanket.  I have promised a blanket to everyone sometime before they leave for college, but I have to say that I am a little daunted by the amount of time this is going to take.

3:  Here's a little slice of life with Ruth

She's pretty scattered, focus-wise.  Isn't it cute, though, how she waves to people out the window?  She does this all the time.  And Mom - she really likes the book!  It's significant that she keeps coming back to it.


4: The cooler weather is here to stay which means, ugh, the changing of the clothes

I want to curl up into a ball and die.
I wonder how other mothers with lots of kids do this.  Is the pain and suffering unavoidable?  Or is it avoidable, and I'm just doing it wrong?
I wish we could go back to only having one, two outfits at most.  It would be so much easier.


5:  Did you know that facial-recognition deficiency is, like, a thing?

It is!  I've recently read two separate accounts of people mentioning that they have trouble remembering faces.  It's a relief to know that I am not the only freak pretending to know who has just stopped them in the grocery store.

This is how bad it's become for me:  I was in Target last week, lugging Ruth in my arms and trying to navigate a cart overladen with two huge stools (which are working out great for our homework table!  I am a genius!)  I saw, over the stools, a glimpse of someone at the end of the aisle, looking directly at me.  I knew that her face was familiar somehow, but I ducked back behind the stool to give myself time.  I knew it was a familiar face, not just someone I see once in a while.  Still, though, I had no idea who she was or how I knew her.   Finally, near the end of the aisle myself, I sighed and came out from behind my hiding spot to face the music.

It was  mirror.  The face I had not recognized was my own face. 

All this is to say:  If I run in to you, and can't immediately remember who you are, please don't take it personally.  I really can't help it.

6:  The nights that Ruth does not sleep well teach me something

I really need sleep.  Babies should not try to play peek-a-boo at 3am, it's mean.  And Middle Schools should not open so early, some of us like to sleep in. 

7: I've been on an old movie kick and:  what's with all the scandalous behavior?!?!

How did I never notice before how so many of these old movies (like, 40s and early 50s) treat adultery like something that's just mildly amusing?  I can't believe how many meet-cute romances I've rewatched, not remembering that one or both of the main characters were married to other people at the start of the movie.

It's making me feel a little better about our current culture, at least.

Thanks to Jen at Conversion Diary!

Seven Quick Takes, before the storm

1- About the earthquake;  this may be something that is only understandable to my old Steubenville friends, but in retrospect I thought it was too funny not to share. When my bed began to shake, for a split second my first thought was Demons!?!  It wasn't until the whole room rumbled that I thought the until-now equally incomprehensible but less hysterical Earthquake!?!

2- My children were not afraid in the least.....until they heard me screaming for everyone to come downstairs.  Kids have an amazing ability to just accept things as they happen and not worry about them.  I, on the other hand, have watched too many apocalyptic movies for my own good.

3- I just turned 35!  Chris and the girls were unbelievably good to me this year:  Chris let me sleep in and had my favorite breakfast (bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon) ready for me, along with coffee from my favorite place.  Katie made a beautiful card and a big bunch of adorable earrings (her latest hobby), Claire and Abbie performed a comical song, Lucy did a dance ("I just made it up just now," she said , "And I didn't feel like making a card, okay?  I love you very, very much.") and Beth made a card that had me laughing for quite a while.  We went to a historic grain mill for a little tour, and we all really enjoyed it (along with the cornmeal cookies they gave us - surprisingly delicious!)  Then, later that night, Chris whipped up some swordfish and tomato-prosciutto bruschetta for dinner.  I have to love a man who can make a delicious bruschetta!!  All in all, it was a really great day and I went to sleep feeling very grateful for my wonderful family.  It was a good way to ring in 35 years of life! 

4- I have always thought of my age in terms of how it would sound were I killed in some manner that made the evening news.  When I turned 20, I remember thinking that I would probably make the shift from "a 19-year-old-girl was hit by a bus this morning," to "a 20-year-old-woman was stabbed to death at Dunkin' Donuts."  I think I have now passed the "what a tragedy!" phase and am somewhere between "oh, how sad" and "meh" depending on how the news story plays out.  I think I'll probably be in this category for a while, until I hit the "Whatever, she was probably going to die soon anyway" bracket.  Unless I die in Aruba, in which case how I look in a bikini would supersede how old I am.  (In other words, should I die in Aruba I will not be making the evening news.)

5- About Beth's card:  a few weeks ago she asked me if she could save some pistachio nut shells.  Beth has a bit of a problem with hoarding, so I said, "NO! Nuh-uh, no way!"  She actually already had an old stash of shells, and after realizing this I told her that unless she could think of a good use for them immediately, in the trash they would go.  She thought for a moment and then said, "I have a good use for them!"  Fast forward to yesterday morning, when I opened up her homemade birthday card to find.....pistachio nut shells glued on the inside. 

6- Ruth still refuses to say, "Mama."  She will mimic just about any sound you make to her (including a Donald Duck voice,) and I am pretty sure that she says "this" and "night-night."  Every time I try to get her to say "ma-ma-ma" though: nothing but laughs.  

7-I just had my first discussion with the doctor about the HPV shot for Katie.  I had all sorts of arguments prepared, but when the time came I ended up just saying, "No thanks."  At the end of the day I realized that there was no reason to justify the decision:  I felt confident in my judgment on this (and Katie and I did have a brief discussion about it) and I did not particularly care whether the doctor agreed with me or not.  (He is a lovely doctor and didn't push it.)  This is what I like best about being in my 30s - not caring so much about what other people think.  It's freeing, especially for someone chronically neurotic like myself.

Thanks to Jen at Conversion Diary for hosting Seven Quick Takes.  Now I'm off to make sure we have enough water and fireplace-cook-able foods in case of hurricane.  Good times!