The ABC's

Will has been practicing his ABC's

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO poo.... pee QRSTUVWXY and Z, now I know my numbers!

And he says this with all seriousness.  I guess I should probably work on that with him, huh?

The Tooth Fairy

I was just wondering.  Who invented the whole Tooth Fairy thing?  I'm certain that it wasn't someone with children.  You see, I have six children, and each of those six children have many teeth.  Santa comes once a year...the Easter Bunny comes once a year, but the Tooth Fairy...oh my goodness! 

I came home from school on Wednesday, and Chloe is waiting at the door, pointing to the new hole in her mouth.  How exciting.... now I have to remember the darn dollar!  I woke up on Thursday morning at 6:00 a.m. and what was the first thing that popped into my brain, "Oh my gosh!  I forgot!"  So now I have a dilemma.  It's almost time for them to wake up.  Do I go up there and try to sneak it under the pillow, or do I just tell her that the Tooth Fairy forgot.... again.  Well, I definitely don't want her to think the Tooth Fairy is unreliable, so I sneak up the stairs.  I trip over something lying on the floor, well actually, I trip over multiple things lying on the floor, but only one made a very loud clanging sound.  I'm almost there... I reach under the pillow and...2 heads pop up!  Quick, take the tooth, throw the dollar, get out of there as fast as you can.  It was dark.  I can only hope I won't get any puzzled looks in about an hour when it's time for them to wake up. 

Sure enough, I'm getting ready for work, and Chloe comes in.  "Mom... I felt a hand when the Tooth Fairy came, and I never felt a hand before."  I'm thinking up a good lie, but first I'm going to wait to see how suspicious she really is...."Well, Chloe, what do you mean?"  "I felt a hand".  "Did you get any money?"  "Yes."  "Was the tooth gone?"  "Yes."  As you can see I'm not getting much, so it's obvious I'm going to have to tell a lie.... "Well, Chloe, I know what you are talking about...I realized that you never showed me your lost tooth, and I really wanted to see it, so I went upstairs to take a peek, but the Tooth Fairy already came, so I never got to see it!"  She laughs and walks away.  "Pheww!"

I Honor You

These are the words that a priest shared with me in confession this weekend.  Sometimes, when I tell the priest of my sins, I find myself sharing my struggles.  Without going into much detail, I will tell you that I told him that I have been struggling with the duties of my daily life... having six children and a full time job.  And it often makes me feel like I am failing in all of these.  I don't have the time to fully devote to being the "best" teacher, and I don't want my own children to lose out, so I try to force myself to let things go at home (I have a messy car, a messy house, a messy garage, and I'm backlogged on laundry).  Does this drive me crazy?  Yes... but I try to let it go, because my children need me.  And then I am so impatient and critical with those that I love the most because I'm tired and overwhelmed.

What the priest did next, really surprised me.  I wasn't expecting it at all.  He said, "First of all, I honor you, for bringing life into this world.  You are the mother of six children.  I honor you."

No one has ever honored me for being a mother.  I began to cry.  I couldn't stop.  My grandmother once told me that being a mother is the most important job I will ever have in this world.  And I don't want to fail at it.  I can't tell you the number of times I have been laughed at for having so many children, or have been told by complete strangers that I "must not have figured out how that happens".  But to be honored...  I was deeply moved.