Where have I been? I have no idea. And, I have virtually nothing to say, so why am I even back? I'm chock full-o-questions -- no answers.
Remember the movie "The Money Pit"? It's no wonder that movie called to me long before I owned a home, since I've spent most of my adult life re-living some version of it. However, my favorite line from it comes when Shelly Long's character is rushing into orchestra rehearsal. The lady in the chair next to her, with a very proper British accent, is apalled:
"Where have you been? You were almost late!!"
To which Shelley Long repeats a phrase I have used to my husband on more than one occasion: "In this country we have an expression for almost late. We call it "on time."
Troy lives by the philosophy, "If you're early, you're on time; if you're on time, you're late." I live by the philosophy, "I'm here, aren't I?" It has taken some years to reach a happy medium about such. Thankfully, however, our children seem to have inherited their father's sense of punctuality. They're doing a great job of getting themselves to school on time so far.
Not only do Kendra and I share a classroom and all those kids, but our oldest children both started middle school this year. Kendra was asking me how it was going for Ashley and commented that the most interesting story she has heard from middle school has been the kid who got in a fight and then ran away from the teachers and climbed a tree. I figured surely Ashley had missed this excitement at middle school since I hadn't heard anything about it. So, I asked Ashley about "climb-a-tree" boy and she said, "Yeah, I saw it. I told you about it, but you were being 'supermom'."
"What does THAT mean?"
"You were doing 12 different things and weren't really listening."
Obviously, the label of 'supermom' combined with "you weren't listening to me" is my proudest moment as a mother. Really.
I'm hoping to post pictures of what happens when you force an intelligent child to step away from all electronic devices with screens and they find an extra stash of pencils and mix in some army men with their pencil-town-landscape. You, too, should force your child to turn off all electronic devices with screens and see what they come up with. You'll be amazed.
