Ordinary Time

(E) A few days ago it was time to sit down and work on the checkbook and pay some bills. This is never my favorite thing to do and usually the children give me a wide berth while I am doing this. I was feeling grumpier than usual about the bills this time. I haven't taught any piano lessons all summer and because of all of our travelling, J. hasn't been doing any over-load teaching. All combined, it makes for a slightly slimmer paycheck than we usually have. So I started thinking about that and the fact that the property tax bill which was higher than I was anticipating and the recent discovery that 5 out of the 6 children need both sneakers and dress shoes and the eye appointments which will undoubtedly lead to new lenses and the orthodontist....well, you get the idea. So money was seeming to be a very scarce commodity. I often read about people who receive checks in the mail just when they need it, but I couldn't think why we would be getting money from anyone. To...

(E) We just returned from a weekend spent with J's aunt and uncle at their beach house along with J's sister and her family. We always have a wonderful time when we are there, but this past weekend was particularly joyful. It is joy to see T.M. follow along with his brothers and sisters and not just watch them. It is joy to hear T.M. laugh... a lot. These are not the little laughs that never touched his eyes in Vietnam. These are great belly laughs that radiate happiness from every facial feature. It is joy to watch T.M. and D. holding hands as they follow A. out into the water. It is joy to be roused from sleep at 5 am by two little boys who had come to find Mommy and Daddy together. It is joy to see D.'s exuberant personality returning after the trauma of Mommy and Daddy leaving for 3 weeks and bringing home a rival for the toys. (Admittedly, this took the form of D. running upstairs where no less than 7 children were sleeping and shouting "Boo!") It i...

[J] So... A. and P. have discovered that they can tease M.'s pet African Clawed Frog by holding a finger up against the tank where the frog can see it and then wiggling the finger. This makes the frog leap about trying to catch what it thinks is a worm. Who would've thought that on otherwise mostly inert aquatic pet could be so much fun? M., of course, protests strongly against such teasing of her beloved frog. (Or one of her beloved frogs.)

(E) I'm feeling just a bit giddy over the number of appointments we have this month with various medical professionals...pediatricians, orthodontists, dentists, opthamalogists, etc. It is a result of having put off various appointments because we were a little distracted earlier this summer, the appointments we already had, plus the new child who needs to be checked out. And since I want to get them all done in August so we can avoid September's own unique nuttiness, it makes one feel slightly light-headed. I will admit that keeping track of and going to all of the necessary doctor's appointments is a downside to a large family. There is something to be said, though, for office staff knowing who one is. Visiting often makes one a real person and not just a name on a file, which is particularly nice if one needs to phone in a question. On the other hand, each visit seems to offer the doctors a new opportunity to squeeze a bit more income from the Currys. And, although we...

[J] So, now we're back home again. -- Five days after our return from Vietnam, we had to pack up the whole family for a quick trip to Wisconsin, where J. was scheduled to teach an Elderhostel class for a week. Normally, this trip is an excellent (and free) five-day vacation for the whole family. J. teaches his class for a couple of hours each day, and the rest of the time, we are free to swim, boat, take walks, hang out, play games... with room and board provided as part of the remuneration for teaching. (And our eldest son loves the fact that the dining is all buffet-style, so that he can eat as much as he likes.) We really enjoy it. But this year, coming on the heels of our return from Vietnam, it was a little overwhelming. Poor Minh was baffled by yet another round of travel to yet another inexplicable place. Seeing suitcases makes him a bit jumpy. It's hard to develop a stable sense of home when one is moved from place to place so rapidly. -- Nevertheless, he did well this ...

(E) When D. was a small baby, I would rock and nurse him in the rocking chair in his room. Many times while doing this, a sadness would come over me for a little boy somewhere, who wasn't being rocked by his mother. I didn't know who or where this boy was. It was not much after this that we seriously began to look into adoption. So now, Minh and I sit and rock in that same chair. He doesn't like to nap, but needs some quiet time and he only slows down when he is being held, and so we rock. Not that he is always on board with this plan. But after the raging comes calmness. The raging, I might add, is a mere shadow of the rage we saw that first week in Danang. Minh also loves to be sung to as he falls asleep. My lullaby repetoire is somewhat limited, so I sing the old standard hymns which I memorized long ago. (I hope that I'm not building some Pavlovian response that causes him to immediately fall asleep in church everytime Amazing Grace is sung.) As I sing, I...

[J] For a while there, it looked as if American Airlines might succeed in keeping us from making it back. We've done a lot more flying in the last few weeks than we usually do, and our experiences on most of those flights were quite good... Vietnam Airlines and Cathay Pacific were excellent. However, American Airlines seemed determined to botch our attempts to travel between LA and Chicago both ways. Faithful reader, you will recall our initial attempt to get out of Chicago and fly to LA, which was stymied by American Airlines first delaying the flight several times and then finally cancelling it altogether (when the captain apparently did not show up). Well, our return flight took us from Hong Kong to LA, where we were to connect to a flight to Chicago on American. Our original itinerary allowed for more than two hours for that connection, but the flight from Hong Kong was a bit delayed, and then customs took a long time, and so we found ourselves with only 30 minutes to get ...