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In order to give my sister space to sleep, I’ve put Link and Patch on a big airbed in the girls’ room. Gleek took one look at that cool new bed and demanded to sleep there as well. Getting them to settle down into sleep has been a bit tricky, but there is definite cuteness to offset the additional stress. Last night Gleek and Patch were laying on their pillows and talking to each other. They had this whole involved game in which they were special cloudland people who got to sleep on clouds. There has also been the inevitable tickling and giggling. Usually I have to haul at least one of the kids out of the bed so that the others can fall asleep. Some nights I have to let them go to bed one by one. But eventually they do fall asleep. Then I can go stand in one spot an look at my three airbed sleepers and Kiki sleeping in her own bed. It is a beautiful sight.

Poster

This is the back cover image from my book Hold on to Your Horses.  It is now available through our online store
as a poster if anyone wants to have one.

Having a toddler and a baby in the house have made me realize that none of my kids are little anymore. I knew this already, sort of, but today when I saw that Gleek towered over her cousin it seemed more real. Even Patches is all lanky and tall and sunbrowned. In fact he doesn’t really seem like a “Patches” anymore. Now he’s more of a “Patch.” Since changing his nickname from plural to singular also solves the problem of awkward possessives, I’ve decided to go ahead and do it. From now on Patches is Patch.

The growth of our business has enabled us to pay our bills. This is a good thing. As part of this growth the business takes up more space in our house. We used to have an office and a guest room. Then the guest room started doubling as a second office. Then the office took over and evicted the guest space. This is sad because I love having people come visit, but now I no longer have a space that I can just give to them. I loved being able to say “this space is yours for however long you need it.”

My sister and her two kids arrived today. In order to give them space, I evicted my two boys from their bedroom. The boys were not particularly pleased by this development. Bedtime was far from smooth as I tried to get three kids to all fall asleep in the same room. In the end I let my boys sleep on the couches downstairs rather than on the floor of their sisters’ room. More thought is necessary to make this run smoothly because we have another whole week of bedtimes to go. The good news is that the first night with visitors in the house is almost always chaotic. After that everyone seems to find a new rhythm. I’ve already got plans and getting to have my sister here is totally worth a little bit of disruption.

On the fun side, I got to snuggle a toddler nearly to sleep. My sister’s kids are adorable and very willing to snuggle right up to Aunt Sandra. The hug of a small child is a precious gift.

Last night was the Hope of America program. This is a huge event where 7000 elementary students either sing in a musical chorus or perform on the floor of a basketball stadium. Patriotism is the theme of the evening. It features songs about America, the constitution, the declaration of independence, Martin Luther King, Abe Lincoln, voting, and supporting our military. This program has run for over a decade now and is often broadcast to troops over seas. It is an amazing spectacle. So far all of my kids have had one or two chances to participate. I have mixed feelings about the program. I don’t personally enjoy attending major public spectacles with my children. It makes me anxious to keep track of my kids in huge crowds. Also the program does not vary much from year to year. After attending this event at least five times, I’ve seen the all the variations. Not only that, but I’ve participated in helping my kids learn all of the songs. And so I viewed attending this event with trepidation and an expectation of boredom which would only be tempered by the annoyance of trying to entertain children who were also bored. After which I got to drive home through a major traffic jam.

All the things I expected were there, and yet, somehow the program still touched my heart and I shed tears more than once. This year Gleek was our only performer. The other three all sat with me at the very top of the stadium. I listened to Kiki raving excitedly about every single number, reminiscing on performances that she’d participated for in past years. Link was a joyful audience to Kiki’s expert explanations. Patches was frequently bored, but even he was entralled by some of the numbers. There is something magic about a huge space full of children dancing and singing their hearts out. They were all down there, totally absorbed in messages of hope about the ideals of our country and dreams about what our country could be. When they get older, they’ll learn far more about the complexities of politics and racial tensions, but if they’ve learned the lesson this program intends, then they’ll face those challenges with hope that the world can be made a better place.

None of those children are perfect. Many of them made missteps in their dance numbers. Many of them come from dysfunctional homes. Some of them are serious discipline problems at school. Some of them steal. Some of them lie. And yet from all those imperfect pieces, a marvelous program was forged. As a whole, they radiated hope and joy. It occurs to me that this is very much like the conscious creation of our country. Yes we have our problems. Yes some things need to be fixed. But on the whole America is a glorious creation that has allowed more freedom and well being to more people than has ever existed before in the history of the world. I’m pleased to be a part of that creation, just as I was pleased to be part of the Hope of America show. Both involve some personal inconvenience and irritation, but both are ultimately worth the effort.

I used myself up yesterday and I didn’t even realize it. By bedtime I was very grouchy with the kids. Only when Howard came up and spent 15 minutes talking Patches through an upset did I realize that I was so focused on “these kids need to be asleep now” that I wasn’t seeing that they needed some extra time to talk and feel loved. Part of my drive to get them all into bed was because I hadn’t had a quiet minute all day long. I was focused on business things all day long until I got to the evening schedule. That was where I fizzled out.

I need to remember to stop in the afternoon. It feels wrong to pause for a break when there are so many things left to do, but if I don’t then the evening does not go well.

Today- May 3 Teraport Wars layout, open merchandise pre-orders, attend big concert thing for Gleek, clean house so it is baby safe, pick up my sister and her kids from the airport.

May 4- 10 Monitor merchandise pre-order, Teraport Wars layout, Teraport Wars copy editing, spend time with my sister, attend another evening event for Gleek, Howard packs and leaves for Leprecon, close pre-orders, drive to Idaho to visit more relatives.

May 11- 17 begin sorting and prepping for shipping merchandise, attend evening concert for Kiki, final layouts and edits for Teraport Wars, begin layout for Out From Under (the newly renamed next Schlock book), plan and execute a birthday party for Kiki, attend fundraiser dinner for Kiki’s summer girl’s camp.

May 18 – 24 Ship merchandise, layout for Out From Under, prepare for and attend Conduit in Salt Lake City.

May 25 – 31 lots of little end-of-school special events, Something from the weeks prior to this which didn’t actually happened during the intended week.

As of last Sunday, Howard and I started teaching a primary class at church. This means that each Sunday we are responsible for teaching a lesson to a group of five kids aged 9 & 10. So far the experience has been pleasant. The kids have been pretty well behaved, although there have been hints that they could get rowdy if we don’t handle things right. One important aspect of being a teacher is to earn the respect of your students. We’re willing to learn from people we respect. Howard and I already had a head start on these kids before we even walked in the door because some of them read Howard’s comic strip. But today after the lesson was over, but before it was time to move into the next section of meetings, Howard earned their awe. They were fidgety and so we decided to let them play Rock Paper Scissors. Howard systematically trounced all of them. They were playing two out of three, and only one time did a child win a round. When Howard was done, he stood back and said:
“So how did I do that?”
The kids all stared up at him, then one ventured “Because you can read our minds?”
Howard smiled. “Exactly.”

He then explained that he was predicting what they would throw next based on what they had already thrown. That was followed with a little bit of Rock Paper Scissors strategy theory. Then there were more games during which one of the kids managed to beat Howard. Then the kids wanted to see if Howard would beat me as well. I was pretty sure he would. He did. I just haven’t internalized enough strategy to really excel at high-speed Rock Paper Scissors.

So by the end of the day, we’d demonstrated that we’re smarter than the kids and that we can teach them cool stuff. I think the class is going to go really well. I know I’m looking forward to team teaching with Howard. I love teaching, he loves teaching. Teaching children is different than teaching adults, but I’m glad to find that some of the same emotional rewards are still there. This is a relief, because the last time I taught primary it was solo, and I felt like I was teaching to a brick wall.

Today my kids discovered the joy of having a mother with packing supplies. All day long they’ve been cutting sections off of my roll of packing paper to draw great big maps and game boards. It makes me glad to see. I remember similar creations during my own childhood.

It’s been a good day.