Save Some For Me!

I am the mother of one son (and 5 daughters). I remember my son's appetite from about age 6 or 7 on up through his teen years. However, when you are faced with 5 growing boys with appetites to match, having only one son pales in comparison.

My #3 daugher just had her 6th child yesterday, as you will note if you read my blog. After 5 boys, they finally had a girl. The boys range in age from "almost" 5 up to age 11. Sitting at the dinner table with them these past couple of days has been an eye-opener. I can barely get the food on the table, till they're asking for seconds, and I haven't even sat down to eat yet! Last night one of my daughter's friends brought over two Papa Murphy's pizza for our dinner. The 9 year-old had his first piece eaten by the time we had handed out a piece to each of his brothers. This one ended up eating 5 pieces. I think the other boys each had 4. Their dad & I probably had 3 each. At this rate, someone may have to get a second job just to feed these boys.

Mothers of sons are to be admired, I'm discovering. And I think it takes a special person to have a lot of sons. Someone with patience to withstand all the rowdiness and wrestling, dirt and grime, and their appetites. The mothers of lots of sons that I know have had an incredible amount of patience for their rowdy boys. They don't seem to mind when one of the boys tosses a ball through a window, breaks things when wrestling or playing catch in the livingroom. They tolerate the snakes, frogs and other bugs brought home by their sons. They clean up the muddy footprints on the floor with extreme tolerance, as they do the sink and bathtub and dirty dishes.
Yes, mothers of sons have a lot of patience. Either that, or they're just too hungry to argue with them!

Bryony Nora

Our newest granddaughter made a safe arrival this morning at 4:40 a.m. She wasn't due until June 10th, but decided she wanted to see what all the racket was about, so decided to come now. That's okay, since she was healthy and did minimal damage to her mother, although she completely shot all of our Memorial Day weekend plans down the drain. But her grandpa is now not the only one in our extended family with a May birthday, so it's cool.

Bryony weighed in at 6 lbs 15 oz (15 1/2 oz, actually--I keep forgetting that half an ounce). If she had been on time she'd have been a moose. She has lots of dark hair and is a pretty little thing. Some of her older brothers (5 of them) seem quite taken with her. Some seem a little afraid of her. Her life will be interesting. She will either be one tough little girl, or spoiled and well-protected by her big brothers.

Welcome to our world, Bryony!

Public Transportation

I don't know why, but to me there's something empowering about taking public transportation. It gives me feelings of being able to take care of myself without help from anyone, and yet you'd think the opposite would be true. After all, the bus rider is dependent on the bus driver to get him/her to their destination and back again. So if someone can explain to me why riding the bus would make me feel all-powerful, I'd appreciate it.

This is the weekend of our Regional Sweet Adelines competition, and this year it's here in town. Rather than deal with parking and paying an arm and a leg for it, or hoping to find a parking place on the street and then going out to feed the meter every so often, I opted to take the bus. I caught the bus to downtown shortly after 7 a.m. The Regional breakfast was at 8, and I needed to get there early enough to walk the few blocks to the Hilton Hotel and get my registration packet. I was there in plenty of time, the ride was pleasant and not crowded, the bus driver was friendly and informative. He told me where to catch the bus for my ride home, although I had forgotten exactly what he said so I ended up walking a few extra blocks to catch it on Evergreen & Broadway anyway. I was at the Hilton by 7:45, including the couple block walk from the bus stop. Coming home, I was in the door by 12:30 p.m., having caught the bus about 11:55. Including the walk home from the bus stop.

Now had I driven my car, I would have been in the downtown area in 15 minutes, but then how long would it have taken me to find a parking place or parking lot, then walk however many blocks to the hotel. I surmise that I would not have made any better time driving than I did on the bus. And for a whole lot less money, factoring in gas at $3.67 gallon and whatever parking would have cost me.

I could give up my car and get around very nicely, for the most part. And some day, I just might do that.

A Steel Magnolias Moment

Saturday night I had what I term a "Steel Magnolias moment" with 3 of my 5 daughters. I don't know why I am thinking of it as a such, since we really didn't resemble what I remember of the movie very much, except it was a gathering of women who shared moments in their lives. Never mind that the women in the movie weren't all related to each other as my daughters and I, but I think it was more because we sat around dd2's dining room table and talked for about an hour as we waited for dd3's dh to pick her up. We talked about a variety of topics, from events during childhood to events as adults, politics, why we like or dislike Hilary or Obama or McCain, among other things.

DD3 is expecting baby 6 next month. She is the mother of 5 active little boys, ages 5 to 11. The new baby is reported to be a girl, which has all of us excited as there are only 3 granddaughters, against 7 grandsons. DD3 and her family live out of town, but came into town Saturday to do a little shopping, and consequently DD2 decided a baby shower was in order. She invited mostly family, but also invited a couple of friends from dd3's teen years who saw her through some of those typical teen-aged angst-moments. We all arrived around 6 p.m. Saturday evening. DSIL took their 3 kids off somewhere, leaving us women to enjoy an evening together, those of us who have had babies reminiscing about those wonderful moments of motherhood. And the fact that this shower took place the evening before Mothers Day was special, too.

The shower part was fun. Lots of visiting, remembering dd3 and her youth, remembering what mothering was like in years gone by and how things were different nowadays. Catching up on what was going on in our families, typical women-type talk. The two friends of dd3, plus dsis-in-law and dd's4 & 5 left shortly after the fun activities and present-opening ended. That left myself and the 3 older dd's still there. DD3's hubby was supposed to pick her up at 8, but was late, so we sat around the dining table and talked and talked and talked. It gave me a greater appreciation for my daughters and who they are. They are all great mothers, and great women. I'm proud to be somewhat responsible for bringing them into the world, for raising them to be who they have become. They were wonderful as children, and have become even moreso as adults.

It was a wonderful prelude to a wonderful Mothers Day.
Code: DD = dear daughter, the number following "dd" is their birth order.