gross, gross and well...gross

sometimes i do well with it and other times i just don't think i will get used to the grossness of living with kids. i have gotten used to the snot, the spit, the spit up, the throw up and anything else that comes up so to speak. i've found poop on the floor, under finger nails (that someone is asking to have kissed...thank you isaac) and other places that we just won't even talk about. i've had kids pee on the floor, the wall, on me, etc. but this has to take the cake. maryam (6) has lost two teeth in the past week and a half. the first one was carefully placed in a zip lock bag, and placed under her pillow for the tooth fairy. after that it has disappeared somewhere, that kind of creeps me out, but i haven't found it yet. the second tooth seemed to be much more elusive. for the first thing, she popped it out on her own during the middle of the day when i was doing something else so she "took care" of it all herself. so, we had lunch a little while later and i cleared off the table. an hour later she came to me asking where her tooth was. i said i didn't know, where did she leave it. well, we figured out she had left it on the table and i had cleared the table so in that case...it was in the trash. she fished it out and said she would put it away. i came into the dining room a short time later (to set the table for dinner) and found a tooth in a plastic bag in the middle of my dining room table again. i informed her that was not the place for it and that she would have to put it somewhere else for safe keeping. so, after i set the table i went to the living room to find my 11 month old chewing on a plastic baggy...WITH A TOOTH IN IT! obviously, the middle of the living room floor is a place for safe keeping according to a six year old girl. so she was promptly told to put it away again. we ate dinner, we cleaned up dinner, and then she asks, "where did my tooth go?" she received a resounding "i don't know" and was asked where she had it last. of course, where did she have it...at the dining room table. as a joke i said to my husband "wouldn't it be gross if you packed it away with the leftovers?" he went to the fridge and promptly brought out a baggy full of french fries...with a little girls tooth at the bottom. i thought i would throw up. but of course, my husband took the fries the next day in his lunch. eeeeeeew!

sadness

well, i know i usually write about the absurd, the bothersome and the downright hilarious but this week has been a rough one around here. as anybody knows, we had a school shooting just about 15 miles down the road this past monday at one of the amish schoolhouses. it was my birthday, so it's one of those things you know you'll remember forever. i, and most of the population here, are still just struggling to figure out why. it will always be the question i'm sure and it will never be answered. no one can and ever will figure out how someone could do something like that, especially to those who are so innocent. no one, until forced to do it themselves, can also understand the bravery that was shown that day by such young souls. i have no doubt that those little girls are basking in the eternal glory of our Lord face to face right now and that they are praying for their families to make it through. and day by day they will. they are a strong, faith filled and forgiving people. their beautiful, simple lives have been made a bit more complex by the world which they are surrounded, but they will pull through. that is their nature. anyway, if there could be a positive side to this, i believe it has made our community turn to prayer in an ever deeper way. in the face of tragedy, our Lord has made His presence abundantly clear. i know it has changed me. i no longer look at my children and take their simple smiles, their laughter and their soft mops of hair for granted. no longer do i shy away from hugs because i am too busy or from kisses from a chocolate or peanut butter covered face. i cherish every moment because it could be in the next moment that they are gone. my oldest daughter is six. some of the girls in that schoolhouse were six. i look into her eyes and i just cannot fathom it. i cannot fathom the pain, the fear. i cannot fathom the innocence lost, the lives forever changed. to children who do not even watch television or listen to the radio, what a horrible shock this must have been. please pray for their families and the family of the gunman. i cannot imagine the enormous hole which must have been left in their life also. may the Lord bless us, keep us and watch over us now and forever. Mother Mary, bring us safely to your Son.