Are you allowed to do Jen’s Seven Quick Takes this early in the week? Could we call this the Zone 1 Pre-board Special? Basically, I’m taking advantage of the the house being quiet (always disconcerting, even though I should just deep exhale and embrace the zen), and that I’ve got some stuff to say.

1. First off, this morning in my Google Reader (the one I hear is going away and I bet I should come up with a new plan?) — well everything in my reader today was simply fascinating and link-worthy. I was all “Oh I MUST share this with people” and “wow! Brilliant! Bookmark, POST HASTE.” This is what we call “surfing the web after your morning run.” Also known as “I love you ALL.”

2. Check out this awesome Pinterest page, “My Imaginary Well-Dressed Toddler Daughter.” Hysterical.

3. Changing gears, Betty Duffy is getting rid of 50 percent of her belongings. Could you do that? I’m sure gonna try. But what if…what, what??? I worry that I might eventually need that third cosmetic bag. What if I suddenly start wanting those Mexican-themed mylar plates? (I love those things, even if I use them just once a year). How do you decide what to jettison? How do you overcome the fear of possibly needing some of this random stuff at some point in the future?

4. Ain’t gonna lie. Me and Paul are feeling real sad about James Gandolfini.

5. Today I was equal parts embarrassed and on cloud nine to discover that the joy in my heart was fueled primarily from a) my house being professionally (and not exclusively by me) cleaned the night before;  b) finding Henry’s missing goggles in the pool’s lost and found and c) all the upstairs beds being made before we left for swim team practice.

6.

7. In real life news, two of the boys are at Scout Camp this week: our oldest (moving closer to his Eagle Scout status) and Boy No. Four (his first grand adventure away). My sources tell me things are going well and I gotta tell you, it’s been a very peaceful week back at home. Life with only four kids is so very easy. Everyone out there with four kids or less has it SO EASY. Har. Hardy har.

Full disclosure: I’m writing to post to prove to myself that I can still write. Can I do it? We shall see. I have a deadline tomorrow and turns out I have not been writing much at all lately so I need to get the rust chipped away of Ye Ol Brain Cells.

One graph down. So far so good.

Every morning my friend Kelly has an insightful little post up at her place about swim team and such, things I’m doing right along side her. And I’m like “how did she DO that?” Because I was there, witnessing and toting and get us from hither to yon and then I turn around and she’s written all about it. What’s my deal?

Let’s talk about that.

Honestly, the biggest challenge I have in the summertime is the lack of quiet. As you might imagine. I’m sure this is a universal issue for moms the world over, but somehow, I suspect, there are those among us who can push through the noise to find their inner self. And then there’s us weaklings.

Last night I climbed into bed before Paul. He and the boys were finishing watching a game so I grabbed my shower and read a few Psalms and sat and thought (I would say meditated but I don’t want to sound braggy). And I felt so…centered.

Man, am I a hippie or what?

But that’s the truth — I have to get those moments of silence or I’m just not myself. And there’s no time for anything without that. If I feel out-of-sorts inside, I am doubly stirred up with the externals. Dealing with opinionated children, with tired toddlers and the chaos of six children? I do great if I’m quieting myself here and there, before the storms of the day. So quiet time is imperative. It helps all this other stuff fall into place.

Enough nazel gaving.

Next week we’re filming another season of The Gist! Hooray! So this week I’m doing weird stuff like trying on nice clothes and taking selfies to make sure things will look okay on camera. I might even get mah nails did. We shall see.

This year’s high school graduation was particularly emotional for me. In the weeks preceding, my mailbox presented invitation after invitation of sweet little babies far too young to be graduating from high school. The pictures included were indeed the faces of young ladies and men moving toward adulthood, but all I could see were the faces of toddlers I knew who were born just last week.

But of course, they were not. They were born enough years ago to now be graduating from high school and heading into some of the most exciting years of their life. I keep telling myself that because it helps me feel less weepy. What I’m inclined to focus on, what my heart keeps realizing, is that time moves so fast and babies don’t keep. You don’t believe it’s true until it is.

At the small school my boys attend — the alma mater of their father and me, too — we have a tradition of parents each getting to quickly honor their child at the graduation ceremony. It works because our school has an average class size of about 15.

It’s a beautiful thing to sit and listen to parents talk about their child, this baby who is now a young man or young woman about to leave the nest. Oh it can indeed be emotional — the acknowledgment of challenges overcome, the reality of how fast time moves. The child who just barely started kindergarten is now done with her senior year. How is that even possible?

Of this year’s parents, the first to share were two of our very best friends. When they called the names of the graduate, and then her parents, the lump in my throat swelled to capacity. Because I graduated with this mom, my friend, and it just wasn’t all that long ago. And how can it be that her daughter — a girl I so clearly remember being born! — is already done with this season of her life?

A few graduates later, two more of our dear friends shared about their daughter. More beautiful sentiments, more gratitude to God for the gift of their child. More tears from me (and maybe a few from Paul!) because we realize not just what an honor and treasure it is to be a parent, but that it won’t be long before we’re in this same position. In just a few years, we will be there sharing about our firstborn. And after that, I hear it all starts to move really, really fast.

One thing my friend Susie mentioned, as she shared about her precious daughter, was that she was excited for all that is to come. These next few years will be some of the most exciting and life-changing of her daughter’s life, and for the rest of these students. What an adventure! What an amazing new season!

Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that graduation is also the end of something. Change can sometimes be hard (for the mama anyway!). It’s hard letting go of a certain season, of a time when this young man or young lady was just your tiny little bird, content to stay in your nest.

But nestlings grow up and need more space. I think, I don’t want to cling so much to the past, to not wanting to let go, that I’m unable to give my little birds the space they need when the time comes. Change is hard, but it’s also exciting and wonderful. What is to come, we wonder? What plans does the Lord have for each of our children?

Last weekend at our diocesan ordinations, two of the young men ordained graduated high school from my boys’ school. They are fellow alumni and I wonder what each of their parents thought the day they stood up and shared about their son. Did they know what God had in store for their boy? Do any of us know what God has in store?

And that is why I rejoice, and I look ahead with joy and excitement (and yes, a few tears, because I’m a mama). Behold the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Behold!

This originally appeared in The Southern Cross.

First up: we had the most glorious time today. Up the street was a giant brunch celebration for two little boys from our community who were ordained priests yesterday for the Diocese of Savannah! Hooray, huzzah, thank you Jesus for holy men! Of course, the boys aren’t really little but there you go. They are boys who grew up around here and answered God’s call and what a blessing. It’s such a beautiful thing.

Also, today was the Feast of Corpus Christi and Henry was very inspired by the march through church this morning with the Blessed Sacrament. It was one of those beautiful, unexpected moments where at the end of Mass Father announced what they were about to do. I was so glad I didn’t leave — I had been tempted because Isabel was a little worked up, not too bad but I was wanting to just go wait for everyone in the van. The next thing I knew Charlie and Ethan (our altar servers today) were leading the procession around the church.

Henry was quite mesmerized by the whole thing. I was kneeling in the back with Isa and was able to watch him watching the procession.

Later that day, he asked me to take a picture of him:

and then asked if I’d send it to “Fr. John…or Father…you know, who was holding the golden thing.”

Our priests name is Fr. Jacek, so I am giving Henry a pass. Of course, one of our favorite priests is named Fr. John, so maybe he thinks they are all named Fr. John? Except Fr. Tim… anyway, it was a sweet little moment, just a flash, in the midst of people wrestling and sorting hot wheels cars and of course, seeing who could clear a room with their toots. So, God is with us, in the midst of all the crazy.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG: my sister Jojo, she who is moving HOME next weekend and I’m so excited I can’t hardly stand it, or as we say down here in the South: I cain’t hardleee staind it, she sent me this video.

“I wonder if mom might want to try this?” she asked.

My mom is getting her strength back after battling cancer the last year and a half and she is working on building her strength and stamina. Mom, this might just be the exercise regime for you:

Finally:

I think Isabel has secretly been reading Grace’s blog. Maybe she’s trying to tell me I should take it up a notch around here? Or perhaps she is going to start her own blog, one with fashion posts like her (obviously) kindred spirit:

Exhibit A (shamelessly stolen from Grace’s blog):

Exhibit B:

What do you think? Maybe it’s time I let Isabel take over this space? A little WIWS (What I Wore Sunday), and WIWTTP (What I Wore To The Pool)…she’s got the look, y’all. Might be just the thing we need…