A Road Less Travelled

I spent part of today feeling like I should feel like I was going insane. But I didn’t. I felt right.

A little history. Today I got up, made breakfast and then a list of what I wanted to do today. This list looked something like “Clean the Kitchen; clean the bathrooms; wash breakfast dishes; sewing.” But then Arianna looked out the window and noticed what a nice day it was. She looked at me with those big, brown eyes and said, “Could we go to the park today? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?” To buy some time I hedged and said maybe. Then I looked at my list and told myself of course I could not take them to the park; I had a list. But then I remembered nothing specific about everything I knw about life. It wasn’t even I remembered my mother telling me about how sometimes you need to forget the list. It was just this knowledge that right now I needed to go to the park with the kids and if I didn’t I was cheapening my life and theirs.

And then I asked myself what would make this trip to the park full of happiness for the kids. And naturally I thought of the Lansberrys. What is a lovely day and a trip to the park without a friend to share it with? So I called and Raquel and I planned a picnic at the park. Theresa would get a nap and Crystal, who wasn’t feeling well, could rest and we would have fun. Then I wondered who else might enjoy this picnic at the park. So I called Jon, a friend of ours who has been adopted into our Ben-Ezra-Lansberry clan, and asked if he wanted to come and hang out at the park with Raquel and I and nine kids. He said that it sounded like fun and I didn’t disabuse him of this pleasant idea. He came, Raquel and those chillens came and me and these chillens all piled out and headed to the park.

It was a wonderful time. The sky was blue and the sun was warm. The wind was blowing, but it was warm. It did enjoy playing with my clothing more than I liked, but I still liked the wind. We threw rocks into water and Jon pushed the kids on a tire swing. They got to see a catfish in the pond and Samuel Lansberry found three or four beads on the walk home.

When we finally got home I was tired. Everybody left and the kids sat down to watch their Friday movie. I did some sewing and went to look at my list. And I thought about what I had done today instead of all those things. And I felt good. I felt like I had done right. And I’m sitting here feeling very tired and the kitchen won’t get cleaned until Monday, but when Noah came down from his nap he had little strip on his face where he got a little burnt by the sun. And it was good and it was right and I was glad.

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I wrote this while we were driving across Kansas cornfields.

inefficient beauty

wide open spaces

where factories might stand

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So I was in the Kitchen helping Crystal with dinner and I thought, “I could go ask Arianna to set the table (normally my duty). I bet she’d enjoy that.” But by the time I got out to the dining room she had already put a table cloth on the table and was getting the candles she wanted. And then, with just a couple little nudges from me, she went on to set an elegant table. I am so proud of her. Maybe soon I will figure out how to put a picture in this post and ya’ll can see it.

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 Okay, so it took me a while to get to the point of writing a post today. I don’t know what was up with that–if it was me or hiccups with the site, but it finally worked. The funny thing is that I could sit here and list various small difficulties with blogpeoria, or how the particular template we chose (which happened to be the only one Gabrielle and I could agree on) messes with my haiku because of the huge first letter.

 But while all this would be true they would give entirely the wrong impression. I have only just begun to play around with the category possibilities and we already have ten categories. I know most of the posts aren’t categorized yet, but I’m working on that. I’m thinking of dividing up our links into categories, too. (Yes, Gabrielle, I was going to mention it to you first. Really I was.)

It’s also easier to save drafts of posts than it was on blogger–at least it seems easier to me. I’m not sure it’s verifiably accurate, but if anyone questions this statement just tell them you read it on the Internet and they’ll know it must be true.

 I remember when we first started a blog I was terrified that people would be reading what I wrote, and trying to convince Seth that yes, I really was excited about having a blog. I’m just very low-key when I’m excited, I tried to tell him. Now I have to admit that he was right. When I’m really excited I don’t sit there in a state of shock. I just get hyper in rambling and pointless blog post sort of way.
Now, what category does this fit into, I wonder…

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I wish I’d told you

but I don’t know

what 

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Watching Noah eat toast. Seriously, this little boy was enjoying his toast. He tore his peice up and had a bit in eat hand. He shoved this bit all the way into his mouth and then looked at the other bit in anticipation while he chewed.

Dancing on bubble wrap with Arianna. I don’t even know where the bubble wrap came from, but there it was, on the floor and Arianna was dancing on it. How could I resist?

Making Justice smile as I changed his diaper. He has the cutest smile I’ve seen in a long time. And when his blue eyes light up it’s like you’ve found what you want to look at for the rest of the day.

As soon as these things happened I knew that they would be my favorite things that happened this morning. It’s nice to have a list of favorites and not most hated.

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Well, here it is. My first post in our new home. Yep, this is exciting.

See, nothing’s really changed. I’m still sitting at our computer in our trashed library and I am still listening to His Majesty (Justice) express his displeasure with whomever it was that put him on the floor so he can learn to crawl. The boys are still being far to active and something is still thumping on the walls. Though I am not currently looking at the so very hideous orange Blogger favored. I suppose that’s something. Actually I am looking at a rather pleasant blue. Also BlogPeoria let me log in which it wasn’t doing yesterday. That’s something, too.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my first post in our new home. Maybe tomorrow I can tell you all about how picking a template went exactly how I thought it would. Until next time…

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I’m feeling slightly ADD this morning. The funny thing is it’s working for me. I put in my load of laundry, ran upstairs to put something away, found my pile of clothes that needed stain treatment, and decided hey, this would be a good time to start soaking those. After I took care of those I sat down to work on blog and e-mail stuff, but after a bit one of the children wanted to use the computer so I bopped up to put my clothes in the dryer, in the course of which I ended up taking Lansberry clothes out of the dryer and putting in a load of blankets to be washed.

I ended up in the kitchen putting away leftover oatmeal to be made into oatmeal cookies of some sort later, and as I planned this out in my head I thought maybe I should grind some flour. My philosophy of grinding flour is that if we keep wheat in the grinder then we’ll keep enough flour on hand for incedentals just by people walking past and giving the handle a turn or two. So I ground a few tablespoons of flour and thought if I took some Emergen-C then all those vitamins would give me even more energy to be running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off! Then I thought this would make a good first post on the new blog, but I can’t take long because there’s laundry to keep moving, and cleaning to do, and maybe I’ll even get to my mending pile in between whatever food preparation tasks come my way. Is this what they call multi-tasking?

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In my last post I mentioned taking role call. Now, Raquel in her graciousness did not post her mocking comment on this particular slip of the electronic lip, but she thought it was very amusing so she e-mailed it to me. So that everyone knows that I am not above mocking myself when no one else will I am posting Raquel’s comment. I hope you are amused. “Role call–this is when to check to see that the children are all filling the same roles as when we came. As we have so many roles to divide among the children (oldest child, middle child, crazy child, etc.) it would be too confusing if they switched halfway through, so we have to keep checking up on them.”

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Yesterday I found out I am insane. At least I had an insane idea. I thought, “This is the day of rest. So why don’t I round up three kids and Raquel round up five kids and we meet at the park?” I was about to go lie down and try to get my sanity back when I mentioned this idea to Seth and Crystal. They were far from thinking it was an insane idea. When I called James and talked to him about it he went so far as to say it was a brilliant idea. So they ate lunch and we ate lunch and then Raquel and I took eight children to the park. The sun was bright and warm and the sky was bright and blue. The kids ran and played and had a marvelous time. Raquel and I sat and talked and every now and then took roll call. I locked the keys in the van and James had to drive his convertible in the fabulous weather with the top down to rescue us. And I found out I was not insane. As I was sitting in the sun not being insane I mentioned to Raquel that we were at a playground with eight children in our care and we were both completely okay with this. I remember when we first moved here and I was in a house with two other young women and nine children. That is a one to three ratio and it was almost beyond my ability to cope. We moved a friend of ours a few weeks ago and I ended up with child duty. It was me in a house with ten children and I was completely unfazed. It is nice to see growth and change. It usually happens so slowly you can’t see it until you aren’t who you used to be. But sometimes to really see it you have to go and have insane/brilliant ideas.

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