Elena 
Anyone remember the Donkey from the Shreck Movies? I think in the first movie his eye starts twitching when he gets nervous and it’s pretty funny because you know how he’s feeling on the inside by the betrayal of his twitchy eye on the outside.
I mention this because my kids have been talking to me about it all week. You see, for almost a solid week, MY eye has been twitching, consistently, almost non-stop! Probably for similar reasons to that of my Donkey friend.
Being close to Christmas doesn’t help. The extra hustle and bustle as well as the extra outlay of money I imagine is enough to make everyone a little twitchier. I will say though that Christmas becomes proportionately less stressful financially when you don’t have a lot of money. Less money available means fewer gifts you are able to buy, which translates into fewer hours shopping and wrapping! It’s a blessing in its own way. Our kids are limited to 3 presents each because that’s all Baby Jesus got for Christmas. And they’re okay with that. In fact Noah had a hard time figuring out what his third present should be!
But my eye twitch is also from the increased typing workload I have this year. Actually it’s probaby the same amount of work, it’s just that these clients demand 24-hour turn around time (and one even has only a 12-hour turn around time) where before I had greater freedom in when the work had to be completed. That makes it harder.
I imagine as lovely as Baby Rosie is, she also produces a certain amount of stress. She’s basically very good natured, but she is only in the 20th percentile for her weight and 50th for her height. That freaks me out a little. All of my other children are in the 80th and 90th percentiles for height and weight. I asked her pediatrician about it this week and he says she looks good and she is healthy and meeting her milestones. She’s just small. Doesn’t it figure? I’m use to having these nice fat little babies with rolls of plumpness under their chins and thighs and God sends me a little peanut. My husband did remind me however, that out the 9 children in his family, all were very tall except for his one sister who is barely over 5 foot. And so apparently Rosie will be the petite one in my family. Of course every experienced mom knows what that means! It means that none of the clothes that I save from her older 90th percentile sister will ever fit her at the appropriate age. Sigh…
Oh yes, and my oldest is giving me a fair amount of twiching as well. First of all, he has his learner’s permit for driving, and he wants to drive everywhere. Mr. Pete NEVER lets him drive and so the the burden has fallen on me. The first few weeks were a little tense. You forget all the little skills as a driver that you have developed over (in my case) 30 years. Little things like letting the steering wheel go through your hands after a turn so you don’t run into another car. Stuff like that. How many times our guardian angels have helped out these past few weeks …I am very grateful. Before I teach any of my other sons though I might purchase a car from a driving school so that I can have a brake on my side of the car too!
Calvin is swimming successfully on the local swim team. That part is going well. However, while we were fighting last fall for his right to do so, it did not occur to me that success would mean nights and weekends away from his family so that he could participate in swim meets. I just hate not having my entire family under the same roof at night. I dropped him off yesterday for the bus at 1:00 p.m. and I won’t see him until tonight at 11:30 p.m. when the bus pulls in. In the interim he is swimming hopefully in at 3 meets. And while my actions are very supportive (buying him groceries for the trip, packing his clothes, making sure he has spending money) my inner mom is screaming, ” DON’T GO!!!” Of course I don’t because I do want him to swim and swim well. I want him to have a good time and have great success. And this works its way through my psyche and comes out as an irritating eye twitch.
My other kids are doing fine, although Noah was very concerned after he heard Kelly Ripa on “Hope and Faith” announce that there was no Santa Clause. Of course we just had St. Nicholas Day and he got a shoe full of candy for that, so he has his doubts about Ms. Ripa’s announcement. But gee whiz, you’d think a show on prime time would keep those kinds of announcements out of the script when little kids are still up.
But there is hope for my little nerve. The composition and American Lit classes that I take my kids to on Thursdays from 10:30 to 2:00 every Thursday is over for the year. YEAH. Piano lessons are almost done for the year as well. They don’t start up again until February because the teacher has to have some surgery. What will I do with my free time?
Now if I could just stay out of any blogisphere controversies until after New Year, I’ll be all set!