Jan 19, 2011

Bifocals

It’s my birthday next week. To celebrate I had a visit with my eye doctor. For some reason the letters on that bottle of Tylenol had gotten much smaller since my last birthday. I twisted and turned the bottle in my hand, thinking that maybe with better light I would be able to read the dosage without a magnifying glass. It didn’t help. "I think it’s time…" Dr. Hardy smiled as he said the words, but the sting of "bifocals" hung in the air like the inversion and they stunk almost as bad.



You know, 46 is not that old! Yes, I am a grandma and I have been since I was 39, but I don’t feel old. In lots of ways I feel like a young mom just starting out. It’s easy to feel that way when you stare into the eyes of your newborn, only now I have to do it wearing bifocals!

The path I am currently on has been a long one. I was married at 18, a first-time mom at 19. Then the babies kept coming, every couple of years like clockwork. Other parts of life came and went, but the babies were constant. I finished my BA in English in 1986, had my second child in 1987. I finished my MA in 1988, had my third in 1989. 1991, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008, and now finally in 2010. That’s 12 if you are counting, and no, they aren’t cheaper by the dozen! With 8 girls and 4 boys we still clearly hold the two-thirds majority when it comes to voting rights even though our house is definitely NOT a democracy.

Our oldest is married with 2 little boys, 6 and 3. We have 3 in college, one in high school, two in middle school, two in elementary, and 3 pre-schoolers. Life is full of dance, basketball, scouts, homework, housework, laundry, diapers, doctors, and just plain living. I guess now I can add bifocals to that list. I’m excited to share my life with you. I’ve had so many people say "You should write a book…" Unfortunately, I don’t have time to write a book, but maybe if I blog it one page at a time…at least I’ll be able to read it and the Tylenol bottle. Darn bifocals.


3 comments:

Cher said...

SO cool that you are doing a blog!! I am looking forward to reading more. (did you know that you can make your blog a book? I have friends taht have done theirs yearly!)

Mom of 12 said...

I have seen the blog books. They are pretty cool. Since I don't have time to do any family history this seems to work. Thanks for reading it!

Meagan and John said...

I look forward to reading your blog, I think we have a lot in common--I too was born in a small town (ever heard of Fillmore, Ut--I am sure you have for some reason) and I started blogging to get people off my back about writing a book cause who has time? I too was married at 18, had my first child at 20, but unfortunately 12 kids just doesn't seem to be what God had in store for us, instead we have 11 animals, at the boy and that i where we get 12 (of course part of me thinks I am forgetting someone) anyhow, I am just getting back into blogging about our life (check out http://attheanimalhouse.blogspot.com/ if you get a chance) I had to take a year off and now have so much to get caught up on--can't wait to read more from you!!!