It's a good kind of tired....

Or so this story goes…

 

So today I have been fervently working on painting the kitchen area of my home. This is to allow for more time to be spent cooking at my house while I’m finishing the living area portion of the house with my friends.

 

I feel accomplished and relieved to look at the 75% of my kitchen that is complete and know I did a terrific job painting despite the exhaustion it has caused me. *le sigh*  I’d call it a night but I really want to finish this last bit or at least prep it for the morning.

 

I have three posters coming in at Wal*Mart photography. These will be framed and hung up to help display some thoughts about how family should be in my opinion and how I will raise my children. Each is a photo, with a quote on it:

 

Quote one:

            Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. - Lao-Tzu

 

Quote two:

            When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.  ~Joyce Brothers

 

Quote Three:

            There is no cure for laziness but a large family helps.  ~Herbert Prochnov

 

I also have this fourth quote that I must have both in-laws and my family all croweded into a picture with my children smack dab in the middle:

            The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.  ~Dodie Smith

 

My mother fervently declares that this isn’t a suitable quote to hang on my wall. But me, and my extra quirky sense of humor disagree. I think it is both fitting and realistic for my family. Because I believe that no matter how good the intentions are, or how careful you’ll be… any teeneager (which dear god – they are ONLY 9 years short of!) would feel that a family that is as close knit as mine would resemble an octopus…. I know I felt that way from time to time.

 

In this small town there are the little news reels that the news of what your child has done will always beat them home. There will be no shortage of this when my children are growing up. They may hate me for it, but I’d rather be real and face the truth of my children’s behavior and work with it now, than wait until it’s too late to do anything about it.

 

I also hope that that quote will make them chuckle and remember some fondness of me – at least when they turn on my like spitting cobras with their hoods spread. I know that’s what it is going to be like… I just feel it in my bones.