Seasons Change

I am sitting in my kitchen, staring out the picture window into the backyard. As a rule, I don't care for windows that don't open, but it's a rainy day. I don't like to let the dampness into the house anyway. The rain is filling up my kids' sandbox; they left the lid off of it again.

I'm often surprised by the way the seasons get all mixed up in Florida. I mean, just last week, we had three nights in a row where the temperature was below freezing. My little orange tree is drooping, and my lemon tree lost about half of its leaves. And, yesterday? It was eighty degrees. My neighbor's peach trees are in bloom, and I spied a tiny yellow butterfly flitting around the blossoms. The dry winter has given a way to wet spring in one week? Not really, no. Tomorrow night, the low will be 35 degrees. It's all so strange to me.

And yet, our life seasons can be that way, too. I'm two years away from the dreaded forty, so I guess that puts me right on the brink of the Autumn of my years. I have half a lifetime of experience, wisdom, joy, and sorrow. I think I've seen it all, and nothing can surprise me anymore. I'm full of good advice and stern direction. The leaves seem to all be falling and crunching under my feet. And then I'll be surprised, now and again, to find a blooming in my soul--something new, something unexpected will begin to blossom.

Perhaps I'm too introspective. Discovering I like fish after years of hating it isn't really such a big deal, right? It's not like I learned a new language, or took up skydiving. And it's not even that I always want to live in the spring. I love autumn--the stiking beauty, the brilliant colors, the simplicity, the contrast. It's the season I was made for. But, every now and again, it's nice to see a daffodil pushing up through the dirt.

The problem with raising kids in Florida...

...is all of the cold and flu germs don't die from cold. I mean, sure we get a little bit of cold weather here and there, but only for a few days. I am so sick of picking up used snot rags and being sneezed on. Sarah has been sick twice just this month, Jacob is on his second cold, and Chuck has been sick nonstop for two weeks...Yuck! I actually threatened my son today. I told him that if he sneezes in my face one more time, I'm dipping his head in the toilet so he can see how it feels to be grossly covered in germs. Okay, so I'd never really do it, and he knows it's an empty threat. Yet, somehow I'm able to take one giant step back from teetering on the edge of madness just from having said it.

So now you realize I'm not one of those perfect mommies, right? It's okay. I'm kind of an iconoclast, and I don't mind destroying your illusions. When people hear that I stay at home and homeschool my kids, they act in one of two ways. Either they're offended and make remarks along the lines of, "It must be nice to be able to afford to live on one income, " or something really rude, that insinuates I'm too lazy to work outside of the home. Conversely, others think I'm some kind of supermom-saint, but who is possibly shielding her kids from the real world.

I'm neither lazy, wealthy, nor endued with superhuman powers, I assure you. I am a Christian, but I don't homeschool for religious reasons, and my kids probably know more about the world than I did at their ages. We live in suburbia, but our neighborhood is zoned for a very poorly performing school in the inner-city. I don't want my kids having to compete for the teacher's attention with 28 other kids who have problems ranging from ADHD, and fetal alcohol syndrome, to just plain neglect from their crack-addicted parents. And, believe me: my heart goes out to these kids. But, I just want to know my kids are getting a good, quality education. We are enrolled in a publicly funded virtual school, so I have a teacher to communicate with when we need help, and a school to keep track of grades and records for me. Sometimes, I do a really crappy job of keeping us on task, and Jacob has to work really hard for weeks to catch up. Sarah's not in school yet, so we just work with her at her leisure. Next year, I may put them in school and use my mother-in-law's address (she's zoned for a good school). Then again, I may try to figure out how to homeschool two kids at once. Then, I'll really be on the edge!

As we reach the end of January, I'm really hoping for a reprieve from the flu and cold germs. I'm tired of scrubbing and disinfecting. Today, I did nothing constructive in terms of housework, because I just feel like everytime I take one step forward, I have to take two steps back. Chuck can't stand for me to clean around him under normal circumstances, but he really hates it when he's sick and just wants to rest. The man is going through soda like there's no tomorrow. You should see our recycling bin...overflowing. But, he went to work today, so I'm hoping he's finally on the upswing. Jacob is in his room coughing and sneezing all over himself...better on him than on me.

Well, thrilling as all of this must surely be, I think I'm out of words...