Life from behind my ‘I’s

If this were ‘B’ week, I’d remind you that I live in a nest of B’s.  As in boys – four of ’em plus their dad.  I’m awash in a sea of the big ‘T’ – testosterone, clinging to my scrap of bark (pink, of course), paddling hard and trying to maintain some feminine sanity in the midst of the male-driven hullabaloo.

I’d talk some big ‘G’s with you if this were the week for that letter, but it’s not.  Which means I won’t mention the groceries we blow through or how food just evaporates around here.  As I’ve said before, “They’re not really boys.  They’re just food furnaces thinly disguised as boys.”  I’m only half joking.

Too bad it’s not the week for ‘R,’ ’cause then I could share, after I clamber back up from my prostrate position on the kitchen floor, exactly why we need a revolving door on the back of the house.  All I have strength to muster, though, is a weak, “One leaves for the Dominican.  He returns.  Two leave for junior high summer camp.  Two return.  First one leaves again for senior high camp.  He returns.  Mother collapses.  Offspring continue making sandwiches around her prone body.”

I’d love to mention that, but it’s not the week for it.

If we could talk ‘H’s, I’d commentate on how harried I am; how humid it’s been; how the heat plays havoc with my long and curly hair.  Can’t do it.  Can’t mention those inner hyenas, either, that just drop and roll at the least little thing.  I’d explain how it’s this inherited condition, hyenamegaly, that’s increased the kids’ life expectancy.  They know if Mom gets to laughin’, they’ve got some good years left and they’ll live to see their next birthday.

I’d remind you – well, I’d do more than that.  I’d go for broke and invite you over, and I’d share one of my passions with you.  Which would be fresh-ground coffee lightened with cream and sweetened with natural sugar.

Rats, that’s a ‘C’ though, so I can’t tip a cup with you this week.  Maybe next time.

If you were here, however, we’d talk about one of my other passions, books, and I’d say, “What are you reading right now?”  And you’d say, “So what’s on your list?” and we’d have a lively conversation about that and about life and about what God’s doing and about where we’re winning and how we’re struggling, and we’d laugh a lot and cry some and we’d both feel better afterwards.

That’s what we’d do if this were the week for ‘B’ as in books and ‘T’ as in talking and ‘L’ for laughing and ‘C’ for crying.  Oh, and ‘SMH’ for sharing my heart.

I sure wish it was the week for that, don’t you?