Life has been fierce around here this week.
If you’re my Facebook friend, you saw the ferocious picture I posted of the kids on Sunday morning in Galveston. We headed down to the beach for the night, but we had to leave early Sunday morning to make it back to Houston for M to catch a flight.
Long story short, we missed church.
This both thrilled (Sam and Nate) and terrified (Catie and Elisabeth) the kids.
Catie feared we would make a habit of missing church. Elisabeth missed singing and learning about Jesus. Nate sees church as a very long exercise in sitting–never popular with three-year-olds. Sam liked missing church because he enjoys anything that feels risky and counter-culture.
He’s fierce like that.
Okay, so my point about missing church was the fierce picture. I posted a photo of the kids riding on our golf cart and flashing gang signs. I attributed their aggressiveness to missing church. Or being in Galveston and just a few miles from Ball High, my alma mater (and home to Crips and Bloods and what-not).
But sadly, this picture wasn’t a one-time occurrence. In every picture I’ve taken since, the kids have given me their fiercest look.
Case in point? The above gem.
When did my six-year-olds start posing for rap cover art?
I blame our schedule this month. We are full-swing into School Mode and it is intense around here.
Summer at our house is loosey-goosey, laissez-faire. Fall, however, runs by the strict schedule to the tune of GO-GO-GO-WE-ARE-LATE!-NOWWWWWW-SLEEP!
If summer is sand between our toes, bathing suits drying by the pool, and flip flops strewn across the kitchen, then fall is all about grueling spelling tests, nightly tutoring sessions, and red polo shirts on bedroom floors.
Seriously. Our kids are posing so fiercely because that’s how they’re feeling.
This whirlwind is not all bad, though. We needed this intense structure around our house. By summer’s end our house had begun to look more like a frat house than a family home. So, the busy-ness of fall is a welcome change.
Therefore, I will not complain about this (Oh My Goodness….really?) busyness. I won’t gripe about the constantly churning dishwasher and washing machine, the endless pick-ups and drop-offs to ballet, Tae Kwon Do, and volleyball, and the brutal homework. It is all a welcome season in our house.
Even if this schedule has my kids throwing gang signs and pouting rapper style.
At least they’re doing it in their bathing suits, right?
Wait. Don’t answer that.
