Raising Children

I really need to get to those garden boxes.  They need to be cleaned out and planted by this weekend.  There have been a few surprises - the onions that I left in their beds last year are already thriving, and two chard plants that were gnawed down to nothing by a groundhog last year have come back to life as well.  A friend gave me some tomato plants and zucchini, so I am definitely looking forward to planting - knowing full well that groundhog will most likely be back and feasting in no time.

These are my hopes anyway - not about the groundhog, but the plans for planting.  The truth may very well be different.  This weekend is ballet recital, and baseball practice, and celebrating my husband's birthday.  Adding into that mix the general raising of children and keeping of home and, well, if anything additional happens it will be a small miracle.

My neighbors likely know me as the woman living in a shoe - kids all over the place and I scarcely know where to begin.  We're loud, too - I'm hollering out the window for the big ones to mind Peter and shouting over the roar of the mower to Ben that he missed a spot.  The kids shriek while running around the yard, swinging on swings, doing those kid things that they do.  I admire the bouquets of dandilions brought to me, push kids higher and higher and yes, even higher on the swings, and sip water out of a mason jar in the evenings when they dash about the yard, playing ball with their Dad.  The truth is, I'm raising kids here - a bumper crop, too.

It can all result in me feeling pulled in multiple directions at once.  When I'm outside, my inside jobs don't get done.  When I'm inside, the little ones are begging to be taken out!  Striking a balance between both worlds can be a struggle.  Spread so thinly, all areas are less than they could be if I had just a little more time, a little less laundry.  So I zero in on what matters the very most - the raising of people.  It's my main job, after all.

So my garden will pale in comparison to most everyone else's.  The weeds will sprout big and tall, growing right along side those 6 kids of mine.  Anything that manages to grow despite the groundhog's best efforts will be gobbled by children without seeing so much as a dinner plate.  And I'll be overseeing it all in the way that I do - baby on my back, surveying the scene of a messy yard and 5 madcap little ones racing all over.

My primary job is in the raising of children.  And that's precisely what I plan to do.


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