My parental 'titles'

I wonder if I'll miss being called "The One with Two Sets of Twins" someday (and yes, it feels like it's said with capital letters), once our kids are grown and away and it's not immediately apparent that we have two sets of twins. I've been introduced as "you know, the one with two sets of twins" to someone who did not immediately know who I was. Which received a "oh, yeah, that's you" response.

Because it often happens that in a small town people don't actually have to know you to know about you.

The two sets of twins thing was so not in the plans. The first set was a complete surprise and who in the heck would even think it could or would happen again? Not me! But it is our family's blessing and it is still my somewhat stupefied joy to have had two sets of beautiful girl twins.

I wonder, too, if I'll ever get tired of seeing the surprise on some faces when I respond "five" to "how many kids do you have?" That surprise often translates into my other parenting title, "The Mom Who Handles Things Well" (see an earlier post about that!).

Having a big family was not initially in the plans for us. Jim and I used to joke (back when we were first in 'deep like' with each other and thought we might get married some day) that we'd have 720 kids. That came from a silly, lovely story that Jim thought up about us that somehow started in Spanish class, I believe, when we had the same teacher for different levels of Spanish.

Anyway, I digress.

When we were first married, two seemed like the number we'd go for. Moriah and Susannah jumped that number, thank you very much. And, having been a fairly efficient pregnant lady, my next pregnancy resulted in another jump to five kids and here we are, to the surprise and (puzzling) admiration of many who meet us and know us. And I'll reiterate what I said in that earlier post, that it's nothing amazing that I (we, really, because I need to include Jim, even though this post is from my perspective) do. Our family is our unspeakably blessed gift and we use the gift as well as we possibly can.

Yet those two titles don't motivate me as a mom. You want to know the title that I yearn for the most? The title that drives my parenting? The title I want more than any other is "The Mom Whose Kids Love and Serve God" because really, that's incredibly more important than being known for having twins or lots of kids.

That's the title I want to be known for.

More than a little pissed off

I'm horrified along with the rest of the world at the damage the oil is doing to the Gulf and elsewhere. I can't look at pictures of mucked up animals without feeling physically ill. I want BP to be treated as an individual (as per the recent Supreme Court ruling on political donations) and have all of the management arrested and tried for this travesty.

But I can't help thinking about the relatively recent Supreme Court case that reduced Exxon's payout for the Prince William Sound mess to so much less than should have been paid. I know that the situations are different, but to me, both involve negligence and both require financial restitution.

I sure hope BP will be made to pay.

Vampires!

I finally watched New Moon tonight. You know, the movie about vampires and werewolves.

And young love.

Completely enjoyable movie, and it got my mind set for the next one in the series, Eclipse. The release date is June 30, I believe, so a trip to the theater may be in my future.

Alice could tell me for sure, right?

So real

I had an incredibly detailed dream this morning. Something that often happens to me if I fall back to sleep in the morning. The girls had an early babysitting gig and needed Mom to get them up and out. Crawling back into bed was the best only option at 7:35 a.m.

I woke up thinking "I have to blog about this!" But 'this' wasn't the dream. It was whatever I dreamt about. Now, sadly, for the life of me, I cannot remember at all what happened in my dream and, indeed, the dream slipped away within moments. But I still have this vague awareness of something momentous happening and my thinking "WOW" and wanting to share whatever it was. And, of course, the dream wasn't real; whatever it was that was so important didn't even exist.

Maybe my subconscious is looking for things to blog about. ??

How do I do it?

Tonight someone said to me, echoing what I've heard from many others, "I don't know how you do it" (it=the juggling I do with family and work and school and friends and volunteering, etc.). I never quite know what to say to that, because as anyone else with lots on his or her plate will agree, you just do 'it'. There isn't usually an option to not do 'it'.

I am always flattered and not a little embarrassed when this is said to me, because 1. I have a great partner in Jim who helps make my life a joy and 2. I don't always do 'it' very well.

Let's look at #1. My amazing husband is truly an equal partner in all of 'it'. He is with the kids as much as I am. He does cooking and cleaning and garbage duty and laundry. He pays bills. He supports me and encourages me and is, basically, a selfless, generous man. I am absurdly blessed in my marriage and I should probably thank God a little more often for His wondrous gift of Jim.

Now, on to #2. I feel like I'm somewhat like Holly Golightly (I think she's the right movie character), who emerges from a messy apartment looking totally put together. That's my house and my appearance. I may look mostly put together, but it probably took some panicked searching and extra minutes moving piles and staying up too late to get things done.

Yes, I seem to hold 'it' together, but it's often with string and duct tape.

Peace,