Monday Meanderings

It's an unusual Monday morning today--I'm letting everyone sleep in, and the baby, God bless him, is joining the crowd! I actually made coffee and read my Lenten devotional without any little companions; I even cleared everything off the "catchall" desk in my bedroom so I'd have a nice place to sit down with my coffee. I'll admit--it all went into a laundry basket on the floor, but at least I could dust off my desk and, for the first time in weeks, my laptop is now in contact with the desk surface instead of being precariously balanced on top of a pile of books and papers.

I don't think we're doing school today. We had a whirlwind weekend with the final two performances, the unofficial "Cast Party," and the official "Strike Party" all in a 48 hour period. My mom was here for it all, and while babysitting during the first performance, she scrubbed the sink, the stove, the cluttered area behind the espresso maker, my children, and the shower shelves. She attended the second performance, on Saturday afternoon, and went out to dinner with my in-laws and some of their friends while we struck the set and attended the Cast Party. (Isn't that cool? My parents and Papa Rooster's parents have become good friends since our marriage. They've even spent a week at each other's houses. Before my in-laws moved to our area, they lived near New York City, so my parents got to do NYC with the natives!)

The Cast Party included, this time, a sleepover for the girls--and we let Blondechick 13 go on her first ever sleepover. We've had a "no sleepover" policy for years, which has been hard for her to accept. Since my husband is clergy, and because we both used to be very involved in healing ministry, we've just heard too many stories--the kind you don't want to hear and can hardly believe, yet here is the victim, years later, telling you how he or she is still dealing with the effects of the sin of that best friend's uncle or older brother. Our policy has also saved us endless weekends of driving kids all over the county and dealing with overtired kids, headed off many discussions of why you can stay overnight there but not there, and also given us a great excuse when our kids have been invited to stay overnight with total strangers (as our kids who have spent any time in public school have been). To all this, we just say, "Sorry--we don't do sleepovers."

Blondechick has too-verbally opposed this decision, however, and last August we stated that if, in acceptance of our rule, she would not mention the s-word ("sleepover") until she had completed 7th grade this June, we would consider loosening our policy after that. She's been good about it, and this seemed like a worthy exception. It turned out to be a great time, as some of the older girls led the group in a time of worship and sharing what God is doing in their lives--more like a Christian retreat than any of us expected. So it was not just silliness, although there was plenty of that and not much sleeping, of course! She says she's glad that her first sleepover was such a special time.

So naturally I'm letting her--and everyone else--sleep in. But Bitty Bantam and Chicklet are now awake. Naturally.

[Six hours later]

Just wanted to add that the Strike Party, too, was a great time of praising the Lord and recognizing all the hard work the parents put in on the play. Best Actor and Actress and many other awards were given out to the kids, including the award for most Christlike (the only award the kids vote on, which went to one of the girls who led the worship at the sleepover). It was great to see the kids cheering just as enthusiastically for their parents as they did for each other! One of the things this organization does so well is foster a spirit of encouragement and appreciation.

So today, we've been straightening up the mess created by rushing out and running back in and dropping everything and scrambling to run back out again...AND working on Bantam 10.75's audition for the next show--which is Friday night! Yeah, there just isn't time for a break, if the spring play is to finish up before school is out and all the kids go eighty different directions for the summer. We should be working on Blondechick 13's too, but she's in bed with the flu--the same achy thing our homeschooling partners are sick with. The girls were all at the sleepover together of course...so I wonder how many other girls are too sick today to go to school or work on their auditions. We're just praying that Bantam 10.75 can stay well--or get over it before Friday.

I've been thinking I should cook a nicer dinner, for the first time since Dress Rehearsals, except that I'd rather spend the time furthering my cleaning efforts--(or distracting myself by writing this). But Papa Rooster just called and said since he has to write a sermon for Sunday, he'd like to get our Date Night out of the way by doing it tonight, so he can concentrate on sermon prep for the rest of the week.

Okay, my paraphrase--he was more tactful, and since that idea fits so beautifully with my lack of interest in cooking tonight, I don't mind in the least. Plus I love connecting with my husband without 6 kids around to interrupt every few sentences! We used to try to go out alone together every week or two, and we completely stopped when he lost his job for six months. We're still on the austerity plan, but we are barely seeing each other these days, between his long days with an hour commute each way, and me being out with the kids all these nights with the play.
I dreamed the other night that I was expecting, but I wasn't sure it was his baby! I couldn't think of anyone else's it could be, however. Phew. So my emotional landscape is healthy...just missing my other half, I think.

His new job is going very well, by the way--he likes the people and the work--and last week in Las Vegas he gave a presentation that everyone was raving about. He's such a good speaker. The only downside is that he is gone sooooo much, without much likelihood of that changing any time soon.

But he's home now!