Full Circle

Many, many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away....oh, wait!! Wrong story.

Many years ago, when I was eleven, a "Surprise!!" baby was born into the Anzalone house. He was a darling thing all pinchable cheeks and chubby legs, brown sparkling eyes and wispy hair. And did I mention that he was a light sleeper? At the time, my 'older,younger brother', Joey was sharing a room with said cherub, Mikey. But every time Joey rolled over or made any noise, it would wake up the baby. Anyone want to guess what my Mom thought about these nocturnal interruptions? You guessed it. Something had to go. And in this case, it was Joey.

My mother's solution was to move Joey into the room I shared with our 5 year old sister, Marianna. After all, the basement was not finished, and Mom must have sleep, to keep her household running. So into our tiny room came this nine year old boy, and we hardly had room to walk between our bunk bed and Joey's bed to get to the closet. Needless to say, it was tight!

After several months, I was so desperate to get out of that tiny, crowded room, that I moved to the basement. My room was windowless, had no door, and cool concrete floors...and it was HEAVEN! I painted it "Road Stripe Yellow" to off-set the lack of windows (as if!), and filled it with white furniture and all things pre-teen. I still go straight back to late nights reading in my haven, every time I hear Lionel Richie croon "You are once, twice, three times a lady..." - egads!! YOU know those lyrics too?!? Wow, we are sooo old!

Anyway, that bedroom was always the BEST room to sleep in because in the hot Georgia summers, in an un-airconditioned house, it was always so cool! It was also always so very DARK, being windowless and all, and to this day, if you need to really get some zzzz's at my Mom and Dad's, that is the room to sleep in. By the way, it has a door now. And carpet. Oh, and it's not scary yellow either.

Fast forward, oh, 40 years or so and you will find me living in Georgia once again, after a long stint in Colorado. I now have an almost eleven year old of my own, along with soon to be seven and eight year olds and guess what?! I also have a basement room with NO windows!

This morning I went looking for said children. It was after 9 am and we needed to get a move on! I went down to the play room (aka the Tornado room, because the lack of windows makes it a GREAT place to hang out during storms) to waken the slumbering ones, and found them in the complete darkness of the play room, door closed, snoring away after their weekly "slumber party".

Like I said. Full circle. Only this time, there is no Lionel Richie.

Brakes!!!

According to family lore, I was walking at 6 months, running soon after, and I have not stopped since. No snuggling in Grandpa's lap for me. I had things to do and people to see...and for the last forty something years, that is how I have lived my life. Full throttle, get-out-of-my-way, let's get moving!

If you were one of the unfortunate ones who got run over, please accept my sincere apology.

Now it seems, I have come to a place in my life where God is telling me to be still...literally and in other ways too. I have been in bed, flat on my back for the last eight days - culprit? The disk between my L4& L5 vertebrae. It seems that this particular disk has had enough of the abuse I have piled on it, and has decided to vacate the premises. Problem is, I still need said disk, so the struggle that is going on between us "Get back where you belong!" "No way, I am outta here!", is proving to be a painful one.

So now, until I can have a consult with an orthopedic surgeon, I am stuck here, praying that a stray cough or sneeze is not the trigger that sends me to the hospital for emergency back surgery.

I have also learned that the phrase "In my humble, true opinion" is not a very good way to live life. Yes, I, like many others, have preferred ways for doing things...trouble is, I have tended to think that my way is the only way. Again, my sincere apology...I don't mean to be bossy. I just figured I would save you the trouble of learning the hard way what does not work....arrogance at it's worst. I really am sorry.

Brakes. God is good at applying them at the right time. Even when we don't see it that way. I pray that I will continue to see what I need to see during this forced still time. And I covet your prayers as well.

BUSTED!

My son...there are two, and it's not the usual one...just came upstairs from quiet time with red teeth, red lips and a red tongue. When I asked him what he had been eating, he actually had the nerve to say "nothing". I guess he did not stop to look in a mirror on his way upstairs! I marched his fanny downstairs to discover that he has been ingesting the red and green sugar cookie sprinkles and the white nonpareils (the little white bean bag filler looking decorations) that I store in a basement pantry under the stairs. Oh my land of mercy!! Seriously, I am just glad it wasn't the OTHER son, the one who turns into a monster when he eats food coloring!

Success?

Success...how do you measure success in schooling? 100's on papers, complete mastery of a subject, a college scholarship or maybe the praise of someone whose opinion you value?

For me, success in our homeschool journey looks a little different. When I see the things we are studying coming out of my kids in all different kinds of ways, then I count that as success. When E comes in with eyes shining and all excited about a couple of old bike wheels, because he sees that he is one step closer to creating a "real" glider, or when AJ uses his God given gift with numbers to help his brother or sister answer a math question, or when L arranges an elaborate adventure for the other kids outside, with elements of the great books she reads, then I count our homeschooling journey thus far as a success.

When I hear the kids talk to their Daddy about what we are reading about, and he asks them questions and they answer them...even when it might not be exactly what we talked about, but they were able to pull from the knowledge that we are pouring into them...then that is success.

I even count it as success when they are eating lunch and they are taking bites out of their nachos to make them into the shapes of the states we have been studying, and they get the name AND the shape right - that is success - and quite a lot of fun besides!

I am so thankful that I am able to educate our children at home. There is really nothing that I would rather be doing right now...even when we go through tough times like the last few weeks, when it seems that every step forward also involves 10 steps back. I think it is being able to savor each step, good or bad, knowing that we are doing our best to equip our children to live the lives that God created them to live. They had a rough start, my three sweet babies....but by God's grace, they will finish this race and hear: "Well done, my good and faithful servant" when they get to the end of their road...that my friends is true success!