It is Spring! This means new life, beautiful weather, green and colorful landscapes, and a two week break from school. In our home, however, Spring means that the sun is shining through the windows at all the dust that stayed hidden during the winter, that there are weeds that need to be pulled, and that it is a great time for the kids to get sick.
My kids like to wait until we are all on break to contract the most recent illness. This year, we were all ready for a family road trip to Arizona when the vomiting and fevers started. Sure, the illness has spared my husband and I nine hours of "family car time" each way, but now we are at home cleaning sheets and carpets that have inevitably intercepted the meals that did not settle very well in the stomachs of our four children. We have found that it is best to treat these "family illnesses" as patiently as possible. While we are living our own version of Outbreak, we have watched every Barbie movie ever made and have bought stock in saltine crackers, rice, and chicken broth.
The weeds will get pulled, and the spots and dust will be cleaned . . . eventually. It will all get done in just enough time for the next illness to filter through our family. Consider me crazy, but illness may be the only time I feel like I have an excuse to ignore the avalanche of laundry, toys, and dishes, and just watch predictable movies where a beautiful female tries to teach my children that women can be strong and independent in their own journeys - if they can talk to animals, maintain their hairstyles and figures, and find a handsome prince along the way. Thanks, Barbie. Sounds about as realistic as me finally having a vacation without sick kids.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Big Top
I have words and ideas running through my mind at a constant pace. This may be the result of working as a high school English teacher, but I think that it has more to do with the fact that I am a mother to four children, a wife to my best friend, and a full-time teacher.
Over time, my life has become a three ring circus. My circus embraces the organized chaos that comes with the kids, the family, and the job. But, I am the ring leader - or at least I try to be - or at least I try to keep up the impression that I am - or . . . who am I kidding? So, these thoughts that run through my mind just stay there and bounce around. Now I am choosing to write them down. They are the clowns, the tigers, the stunt performers of my circus. These thoughts are the daily happenings of my life that make we wonder, with an exhausted sigh, how I make it through the day. They are also all the things that make me realize that my life, as crazy as it is, is really one hell of a riot.
Somehow, with all the daily lessons, tribulations, and laughs - I have made it to the Big Top. Here it goes. . .
Over time, my life has become a three ring circus. My circus embraces the organized chaos that comes with the kids, the family, and the job. But, I am the ring leader - or at least I try to be - or at least I try to keep up the impression that I am - or . . . who am I kidding? So, these thoughts that run through my mind just stay there and bounce around. Now I am choosing to write them down. They are the clowns, the tigers, the stunt performers of my circus. These thoughts are the daily happenings of my life that make we wonder, with an exhausted sigh, how I make it through the day. They are also all the things that make me realize that my life, as crazy as it is, is really one hell of a riot.
Somehow, with all the daily lessons, tribulations, and laughs - I have made it to the Big Top. Here it goes. . .
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