First, we are coming to the close of a long, season of daily and intense practices for multiple boys. This has been our life for so many years it is hard to remember summer/autumn any other way. Much as I balk at the driving and fatigue and schedule rearrangements, there is nothing quite like the old-school style passion and pride on the sidelines.
Living here is a throw back to my own high school years. At least until the halftime performances which have required some interpretation for us having been out of country nearly half a dozen years.
Now watch me whip….now watch me nae nae…
The big idea?
There was a difficult season many, many years ago when our first set of kids were young. And a handful. Several handfuls. (Hands full?) Basically our hands WERE full to the point things were dropping, spilling out and over and down.
A dear neighbor who was well-versed in large family matters shared a buzz word with me, a catch phrase really that I have kept in my heart and shared over and over:
SAME TEAM
We are all on the same team. We have the same goal in mind. Our battles are not with each other but with all those outside forces which stand in the way of our ultimate victory. Our human nature tempts us to challenge the coach and blame the other players which is lose-lose all around. When that happens now, we try to cut it off with that reminder…same team.
The kids have it drilled into their heads that before they can be an effective player on any other team they have to be putting forth their best effort on this team. We remind each other there are bad games, even bad seasons, but that doesn't mean you pull out of the league. We regroup, train smarter, pull together.
No matter what, you always support your home team.
Then it happened. Before I even thought (because I have become frightfully good at speaking before thinking) my head started thinking (out loud) of ways to do it faster and 'better' with the printer and laminator and….
She looks up at me puzzled and there is a moment to pause and start over.
"That's wonderful. You are so creative. I really like how you drew the ribbons and the puff sleeves."
People never change, if we are to believe the ever authoritative memes in circulation. Thank Heaven, literally, that Jesus didn't have Pinterest and wasn't aware of this "truth" when He descended into Matthew's dark corner of thievery and corruption and plucked him right up and out of it. Matthew never forgot who he had been nor how he was never to be that again.
The grace of God was greater than the gravitational pull of human nature.
Our rabbit trail this morning took us to these places:
Khan Academy video about the symbolism in Caravaggio's Call of St Matthew here (if you are my son and you miss the backroom bar analogy or where "the point" comes from then you might have to re-watch. ; ))
May we have the grace to say the same unequivocal, "Yes!" to God and the call to higher things.
Starting very early when the phone rings in the bedroom. It is Teen Son confirming we have his 6am practice on the radar and one of us is in fact coming down to drive him there. "Of course!" I say as I come to and negotiate with husband.
Clearly my rock-paper-scissors skills need some work because here I am at "6 o'clock Lights." It's like Friday Night Lights except you know, 6am. Sheesh. Tired. Upside was seeing the moon over the canyon just before sunrise.
Home for breakfast. I drink green lemonade channeling my best High Desert Susan except I am not tall and lean and blonde but short and vein-y and age spotty but hey. I am drinking vegs for breakfast and there should be points for that right?
After feeding folks and passing them to a big person I drive Moira to work. On the way there I politely listen as the Civil Wars wail or Taylor Swift sings about her boyfriends. Then I pull out of her workplace drive and hit 80s on 8…
It gets loud. When I am alone in the car I am this guy y'all. Totally.
So by the time I hit the house again I am caffeinated and have cleared my lungs by singing at the top of them. Jumped, shouted, and let it all out. Inside of my head I am now 16 and feeling the noise, thinking about dancing at the rec center on Friday nights with this boy I ended up marrying. 80s. Hair bands. Sigh. And then giggle. Because I have this flashback to Dana Carvey spoofing our favorite bands. So I walk in the house and download this and make the teens listen. After trying to explain who Dana Carvey is. Was. Sigh again.
I apologize for the ear worm : ) So anyway. I move back to grown up mode and we spend the mornings doing lessons. Here they are very psyched about new binders and new books.
We have a new bag of library books. I took a picture because the base library has no online computer system for us to track them. It's a little twilight zone-y since it's so much like it was when we lived here in the 90s and hasn't been since.
This is my new read…
And we have a new piano teacher who is all kinds of awesome. She worked with us to alternate girl and boy lessons each week. It saves us money and frankly it gives me extra time to ensure everyone has mastered their homework pieces before the next lesson.
She also has a beautifully landscaped yard full of raised bed gardens which were overflowing. After we got Tess all settled she handed Abbie and I baskets and gave us the tour telling us to please thin out the veggies. This is pretty fabulous considering my garden now finally has exactly two tomatoes and three tiny rock hard green peppers. Not my forte. As in, if we had to live on what I could grow our little clan would have died of starvation long ago. BUT we have piano teacher/gardener extraordinaire now so we bag enough tomatoes to make a vat of salsa.
Or rather, hand off the tomatoes for Alannah to make salsa. Me? I am surfing for this…
…because it is game time for two boys. One is a home game, one meets the bus, and a third comes to a game in practice gear to be dropped off to his team at halftime.
A glance at the dining room recently. Because dinner happens. Sometimes super late. It's the one constant. Besides my singing in the car.
More often than not the doorbell will ring just after dinner and they will run around with the neighbor girl for "just a couple minutes please!" I asked if Archie could run with them instead of tipping the garbage can over while we do dishes. They say sure. He can be "it." Wanna bet who wins?
This day ends with rosary on the deck and the smoke from a distant fire. (sorry, couldn't resist. Still tuned into oldies radio) There is a lot on my goals list not happening lately. I stopped looking at the list because pretty much if it doesn't start with school, football, food, or work/carpool it probably isn't going to happen just yet so there's no point. Trying not to stress over that. (too much) The kids are happy and the stuff will get done eventually. If you come to my house I will feed you salsa while sticking to this story should you notice my growing list.
Ok super late again. I will regret this tomorrow but wanted to snapshot life right now. What does life look like right now in your world? If you do a phone snap day do link!
“ To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.”
– Clara Ortega
This picture popped up when I was uploading and spoke to me immediately. It wasn't the best of the lot, technically. It's grainy and the children are wild haired and breathless and held still for about the two seconds it took to snap this. And yet in those seconds it caught that deep peace and devotion between them. That absolute adoration.
I needed that today. We tend to evaluate our progress from one increment in time to another. Sometimes we have pretty good reason to feel like the whole thing is going awry. What we are building here, though, is bigger than our days - the good and the bad ones.
Because I want a picture. I need to freeze this in my mind. Because like two minutes ago your Dad was walking, walking, walking his swollen wife up and down hot Texas sidewalks hoping labor would start before Gramma's plane took off again. Then a few seconds later I was telling you about how to twist those brand new stud earrings so they didn't close over. And right after that you rode past the window on a big bay gelding, hair flying behind you. It had to be a minute later you grabbed the keys to drive to work. And I just need a picture of this.
Starry Sky Journal 