I used to dream, the way you do, of the day the last child left this house & all those hours & hours when I could do all those things that had been on hold for 30 odd years. It never works out quite that way, does it?
Now, when I hear young parents rhapsodize about their children starting school I giggle because I know, & you know, those hours that seem so endless & beckoning do not exist in the real world. I had far more time when we homeschooled.
So it has not surprised me to find that yes, I went back to school, but no, it wasn't to study archaeology. I so, so badly want to go & dig up Skara Brae though what The MOTH would have thought if I suddenly announced I was pulling up roots for a cold, damp hole off Scotland's wild & windy coast I cannot think. To say nothing of the children who already think I'm more than a little peculiar.
Besides, they left ~ but they have not taken all their goods & chattels because if something of theirs is here, well they have to come & get it, don't they? So last week we had 3/5s of them wandering about: the home from Chile girl because this is her home base & this is her long furlough ~ oh, & her computer is done & dusted for after 7 years on the mission field so she likes to snavel mine; ODD [other dear daughter] because she uses our internet for her other job & the music for her island students is here & because she forgets to make lunch & has to use our kitchen; the YOB [youngest of boys] because he left this morning for PNG for 10 days teaching & evangelism only he doesn't have internet or a printer & basically borrowed my computer [his doesn't have Word], my internet, the couch, the printer & most of a ream of paper & while it was lovely & they all get along they are BIG. Adults. I found myself running for a series of boats because they never seem able to co~ordinate everyone arriving or leaving on the same one.
Then ET [eldest Twin] had invited us to meet His newly arrived son & for the 2 hour drive each way add another hour to deal with boats & car parks.
What I am, is a mother & mothers run around after their kids ~ even their big kids. What I do is Pastor a church & this week I'm preaching. My penchant for procrastination occasionally has my co~pastor freaking out but as I tell her, I spent uni writing last minute essays & I am blessed to be able to do most of my pre~planning in my head. This means by the time I actually sit down to pull it all together it flows pretty quickly.
Knowing I had lost Wednesday to the YOB & Thursday to ET, Mondays are our day off from Church stuff when we do the business stuff that actually supports us & Tuesdays start early with prayer group followed by our study, I planned to pull my sermon together Friday.
By 9am I hoped all boats would be dealt with, my computer would be mine again, the MOTH would be on the mainland & the cats doing what cats do. Dream on!
First I had to take my computer of CG [Chile Girl]. Then, as I opened windows because one needs an inter~lineal bible & Google, & both Biblegateway & Biblehub & pottered about CG popped her head through the open window wanting Google Translate because she can think & write in either English or Spanish but translate from one to the other seems impossible to do. I suggested she use her father's computer as he wasn't here but, no. So much more fun to drive mummy crazy.
So here I sit like birds in the wilderness, my brain completely fried, wondering how I ever managed to survive all those years with so many people in one house.
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