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We live in an area where there are not  only panhandlers on the corners of most busy intersections, but also “mobile florists”.  Guys holding about a dozen bunches of roses in various colors strolling up and down the median while you wait for the light to change.

Coming home from a usual weekly appointment, at a light that last week contained a familiar woman with a “please help” sign, a man holds his arms toward my sweet hubby’s car.  We are in two cars since he meets me at the appointment.  I am waiting behind him in line.  I expect to have to shake my head “no” to the flower man as he moves on, but to my surprise, I see hubby put down his window!  He hands the bills to the man who looks at me and back at him.  He walks to me smiling.  I put my window down to “pick one”…

What a romantic surprise!

homework club

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The Stay-at-Home-Mom (SAHM) role is always loaded.  I mean that in both senses of the word.  Loaded with things to do and loaded with controversy.  Many people can’t imagine how we must be able to afford for me “not to work”.  Others simply state “It must be nice”!  Yeah, I sit at home and eat bonbons all day! Then in the newspaper recently, an article about how much “leisure time” moms have…  This included exercise and other things that are just time fillers…

Today, after my walking Shadow, I ate breakfast and dressed to go get James out of school for a dentist appointment.  It was the second trip to the dentist in a week, because the first time, when I took the younger two sibs, James had exams.  (The newspaper article says time in the car with kids counts as childcare.)

After the dentist and re-deposit at school, I came home for lunch and bonbon time.  I consider the early afternoon “down time” since when the kids get home starting around 3pm, I am hands on with work.  Back to bonbons.  I made my lunch on a tray and went to sit in my big comfy chair to catch up on recorded TV.  Two hours.  Including a slice of lemon meringue pie!  Hate me if you must.

The phone rings shortly thereafter.  A good friend ill and needs me to care for her young (almost 2yrs) one.  Of course I will.  The work begins.  As soon as I have her in and settling, James shows up from school with one of his buddies.  SO, zero to three in less than 30 minutes!  Snacks for the boys.  Toddler exploring and climbing.  Less than an hour later, buddy leaves and the revolving front door shoves in Kate and Alexander from the school bus.  More snacks this time including Toddler.  Maybe 30 minutes later, Toddler’s big Sis comes over to “help”.  Can you say “bonbons”?

Dinner time is fast approaching.  I set them all around the table to snack and do homework.  Not much focused work gets done, but I snapped the pic above.  The homework is merely an excuse to contain the mayhem so I can get the chicken and brocoli chopped and the pasta water to boil.   Ill momma calls feeling somewhat better after her rest.   I pack up two girls; one in and one pushing the stroller and send them on their way home.  Fifteen minutes later, dinner is almost done and hubby is walking in that revolving door to his three happy kids and wife hugging as a group.

We share dinner, some silly banter, quick kitchen clean up,and hop into the van for church.  We actually made it there on time!

Home again and marching orders are issued for PJs and teeth brushing and bedtime.

One hour later.  I sit.  Full from all my bonbons.

Before the performance

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Kate performed her winter concert with band and chorus last night.  She was nervous, but she had fun.  It was hard to get pix of her behind the music stand playing… the room was full!

This was the first performance of clarinet for her.  The squeeking has moved on to notes already.

We all have them.

I guess it was my turn.

Plumbing–Homework–Sickness–Broken Car…

We have had a long standing plumbing problem that finally got fixed yesterday.  The county has snaked our drain about every 6 months for a few years now.  Then they took down the tree that was causing root interference.  Then dug up our front yard to replace the pipe.  Our drain was still backing up!  The plumber snaked out our main basement drain and our tub.  Now I can do laundry without having a flood…

The afternoon brought with it grumpy kids.  James is sick.   Kate and I had communication breakdown.  Homework help turned into tears…

Leaving the house  for dance class  I was not “feeling the love”. We have all been there—distracted and emotional.  It led to me sideswiping our (open) van door into our friends’ car.  Now it won’t close all the way…

Yep!  I broke the car.

Humbled, I explained to Rich.

We wait to see if a salvage replacement door can be found.  The whole situation reminded us of this video.

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At church today the band, Levite, was praising God with songs like “Hosanna” and “By Faith”.

These pix are the only ones I took…I don’t really like taking pictures during church.  I feel like I am distracting to others–even if I don’t use a flash.  But in this auditorium with very poor lighting…flash is required and pix are still dark!

Rich, Rich, Scott, Fran, and Katy sounded fantastic and I enjoy singing along!  Thanks for the worship!

There is a lot that can go wrong when you have a kid with FAS…  The long break from school is one of those things.  For most kids, it’s a welcome fun time.  No homework.  No pressure.  No structure.  All a disaster for my little man!

He wanders around the house like he’s lost.  His imitation “skill” becomes obsessive.  We all wonder if he has original thoughts.  Then have to laugh as his original thoughts come out only to be labeled as “Random Thoughts, by Alexander” (ah la Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy)

Now that break is over, and school started back, it’s another transition.  He skipped out yesterday with joy professing how much he likes school.  But evening homework was filled with tears and worn out erasers…  Writing and erasing and writing over and over–looking for validation that his perfectly formed letters “look good”.

Morning comes too quickly and he’s up at 6:30 saying that the bedroom door was open all night and that he thought someone never went to bed.  So nobody shut the door last night–there goes our normal routine.  He tries to “be good”,while I get big brother out the door, by working more on his homework.  Perfectionist mode kicks in with the eraser.  Then he picks up a coloring book that causes him to proclaim “I am terrible at coloring!”, rip out the page, and start another saying, “In like four months it will look pretty.”

I get him to stop and get ready for school.  Breakfast.  Backpack.  Get dressed.

I say “Go get your tennis shoes.”

He asks “What day is it?”   That’s because he doesn’t know where his tennis shoes are and figures he only needs them if it’s his gym day at school.  He stumbles thru the days of the week.  Comes up with Tuesday. Disappears into his room–presumably to get his shoes.

Comes out in tears–frustration–no verbalization as to what the problem is.   I need to be in tune with the whinning so I can know that he can’t find his tennis shoes.  I know he didn’t look but only stood in the room– lost. I go help him find them.  He’s calm again.

Using our new visual and audible timer, he successfully leaves for the bus before “times up”.

I sigh in the silence.

The new year brings with it a certain sense of anticipation for what is to come.  We have a blank slate mentality.  Chalk boards do still exist…in my mind!

We’ve all heard the phrase “I am nothing without God”.  Living as if He is with me is something else!  This passage makes me see that in a new way:

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (The Message)

^11-12Because we know that this extraordinary day is just ahead, we pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he’s called you to be, pray that he’ll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. If your life honors the name of Jesus, he will honor you. Grace is behind and through all of this, our God giving himself freely, the Master, Jesus Christ, giving himself freely.

Pray for and expect extraordinary things this year.

God will give freely– I could use something for free!