Wowwee remember this game? It's been five years since the last time I did it and ten since the last, last time. I said I would do it every five years, and here we are. I was looking back at five years ago, and am yet again confused how it all went so fast. We have changed so much!
I don't even know who that family was from ten years ago. Some lady with two babies and a dog living in the desert.
So here we go. Ten facts about me, currently. Because it turns out these facts actually change. I have changed. I will change.
1. I feel like I just barely did this in November didn't I? So I don't even know if these will be actual "facts" so much as just "thoughts" and stuff.
Tonight Jim is gone, so I was doing bed time solo.
Bed time isn't really the big chore it used to be; the kids pretty much do everything on their own. Except tonight was crazy for some reason. The kids were just being crazy? No it was more like they all needed something from me at the exact same time.
Plus Evan and Avery kept jumping out and scaring each other, which led to fighting and screaming.
Screaming/yelling is their favorite thing to do even though we get mad at them 100% of the time they scream/yell in our ear.
I was all: "oh did the rule change about screaming in the house? suddenly I love it and I won't be mad about it? after 10 years?"
Andrew was in the bathtub and I was scraping at his scalp with a comb because he has that gunky build up and it was gross. Then I was washing his bum because he just barely learned to wipe himself, and it was a VERY dirty bum, so I was grossed out and had to lecture him about wiping better.
I KNOW he didn't even TRY to wipe because I saw the nugget in the toilet and there was no accompanying toilet paper in there.
Then Evan said he was going to bed, but he ended up needing neosporin on some sores he has.
Then Andrew was drying off (crouched down in a ball with the towel around him) and I hear him exclaim, "ooh speaking of money, I'm gonna save this for the coin drive" and he picks up a random coin off the carpet. (haha that actually made me chuckle).
So then the boys got in bed and I went to tuck Avery in, and she asked for a foot massage.
Suuure. Smiley face.
Of course I will sit with my middle schooler and listen to her tell me actual things.
She told me about how Mr. Higgens taught them something new in math today and he said "does everyone understand all that? If I gave you a pop quiz you would pass it?"
and they all sat there without any questions, so he said "ok, pop quiz"
and they had a quiz and she did ok on it, especially the last question which was "what's your favorite kind of pop?"
4. That all counted as about 3 facts, and I'm 40 years old now, so I can do what I want.
5. I want to talk about our "annual meeting" for young womens last night. (that's what they call it now instead of "New Beginnings/Young Women in Excellence").
So, starting in December, we had the girls begin painting this mystery mosaic. They didn't know what the big picture was gonna be, they just painted each dot a color with a q tip. It was like a paint by letter. Each letter was a color.
It took two of our Wednesday activities to finish. The girls grumbled about it. It was tedious and a BIG undertaking that they couldn't really see a reason for. We assured them they would eventually get to see it.
Here you can see up close that they were a bit sloppy in parts. Sometimes you couldn't help it though because the dots aren't very big. So we were nervous and wondered if we would have to redo some of it? or touch it up?
We found the most efficient way to work was to assign each girl a color/letter, and have them paint that letter until their little fingers were sore.
One day just the leaders got together to finish it up.
Then we lay them in order just to see if this would actually work...
And as the picture started to reveal itself, we were a bit in awe.
There was this HUGE feeling in the room.
"OH!"
I said: "This. This feeling is exactly what the girls need to experience".
Then we all started talking about all the things.
Like: it didn't matter how sloppy an individual was, because the whole was all you see.
The perspective. The panning out. The unity in purpose.
Us adults got it and it was profound.
But would the girls get it? Without us pointing out the metaphor and the lesson, would they get it?
Joe made a wooden backing and gridded it, then put double stick tape on it.
And cut to last night.
We handed the girls the painted mosaic tiles randomly, and they put them up while Brinn played the piano.
And slowly the picture emerged.
And then they sat there and stared at it and they were so quiet and it was so powerful.
They experienced that same thing that us leaders had.
"OH!"
Brinn led them in the discussion.
What are your thoughts?
(Because at one point us adults talked about spoon feeding them the metaphors, but then realized quickly: nope. let them figure it out. let them tell US their meaning.)
And they were fabulous!
Avery was the first to make a comment (which is so brave!) and she mentioned lots of things, then said, "it just makes me have lots of feelings".
Then most of the girls commented. Things like:
When I was painting, I had an ugly brown color and I was sick of it, but now I see how important my paint color was.
Even though up close it is a mess, it doesn't matter because when you stand back, it's beautiful.
Individually it doesn't make sense, but as a whole, it is a work of art.
It was hard and I hated doing it, but now I see it was worth it.
and on and on.
When us leaders first put it together to see if it worked - I said "It's a good thing whoever did His face took their time, because that is an important, detailed part."
But then we looked up close at that tile and it was actually one of the sloppiest! We didn't even know. He makes up for all the imperfection.
It was awesome.
And it came right in time too, because I have been feeling like a failure at this lately.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Youth are difficult to please.
This was the win we all needed.
That counts as at least 4 facts.
10. The other night me Jim Joe and Lisa were at Starbucks gathered round the table. Jim said Lisa has big feet. I said they are the same size as mine in length, but the width is about half of my foot.
Long story short, we ended up pressing our feet up against each other to compare, and while they were similar in size, my foot was that of a gnarly witch, and hers was a silken flower petal.
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