The Glass is Half-Full

Imagine with me for a minute that you walk into a room and spy a glass on a table that contains some milk in it.  Actually the glass contains half the required amount of milk to bring it to the brim.  Traditionally, this image will lead you to describe the glass in one of two ways.  Either the glass is half-full or the glass is half-empty.  That is, unless you are my sweet husband, then you would say, "Who drank half my milk and where are my cookies?"  I, on the other hand, would say, "The glass is half-full ... and isn't that nice that you get to have any milk at all?"  I am an optimist through and through.  (Or at least 98.9% of the time ... we all have those days ...)

So, when I think about the phrase, "What I lack...", I am brought face to face with my Polly-Anna perspective, again.  Along with my enduring sense of humor.  God has hot-wired me in such a way that when I see a situation, you can almost count on me to put a positive spin on the situation.  Or at least have a good laugh about it later!  I'm a girl that prefers to take my walks, "on the sunny side of the street".  In light of this perky and positive personality, as I pondered the question about "what I lack", I couldn't help but see this through my "rose colored glasses", too.  Did I mention that they are also clown glasses?  I guess I just can't help myself!

What I lack ...

• Boredom ~ With our houseful of kids and pets, you can bet that I don't wander around looking for something to do.  It used to be that I would watch the clock and wonder, "When, oh when, will it be five?  When will Brett get home?  I'm so bored!"  Not so much anymore.  Now I blaze through my day and am often surprised that it's the end of the day ... where did the afternoon go?!  But then, Brett's home ... so I'm happy!
• Time ~ This is a bit related to the entry above.  I don't know where the time goes, but wherever it goes, it goes super-duper fast!  I often find myself with several items on my "To Do" list still left to do at the end of the day.  I'm sure that if I stopped running long enough to look at a clock, it would be a scene out of Loony Tunes with the hands on the face speeding around the numbers!  I figure  I enjoy quite a lot of job security ... I have plenty of work to accomplish and no one else really wants this job!
• Space ~ I frequently find myself surrounded by my children.  Actually, not so much "surrounded by" as "encroached upon".  In any given moment, I will have all four of my children within toe's reach and I can almost guaranteed that one will actually be sitting on me.  Let me give you an example ... the other day I was working on the computer and all my kids were there.  Ashley and Lydia were actually sitting under the desk (on my feet) waiting for the paper to come out of the printer.  And they weren't necessarily waiting happily.  There was a little tussling in that one foot by two foot space, each of them jockeying for printer-position.  Norah was hanging over the bannister to my left trying to get a good view of the computer screen and blocking my view about 78% ... because I didn't need to see what I was doing.  Aaron was standing on the back of my chair and grabbed my shoulders a few times when he lost his balance.  Needless to say, I sent them away to do some jobs and to give me some space.  I got parts of my house clean and a chance to breath my own air.  Lovely.
• Monotony ~ Life here at the circus guarantees a high level of entertainment at all hours of the day. Or night.  As you know, kids say and do some funny things!  As a result of having four of these clowns living under our roof, we are frequently laughing about something someone said or did.  Most recently, we got a good chuckle about Lydia and her "I'll roll my eyes up into my head and look at you through my bangs" face.  When she's in trouble, she is supposed to "look me in the eye".  I'd like to see you try to not laugh when she points her nose to the ground and attempts to look at you through her own forehead.  Or Ashley and her excitement in sharing with Daddy what she had learned that day, "We had to figure out the number that came at the first and the number that came at the end."  "Oh, you were doing math?"  "No.  We were spelling words!"  "Aahhh ... letters ... completely different."  Chalk one up for Mommy the Teacher. :)
• The Dusting Gene ~ This is one aspect of house-keeping that eludes me.  I have the supplies, but I just don't have the drive!  Only when the kids start drawing pictures in the dust do I feel the need to get busy.  There are so many other demands on my time ... this one just doesn't make the list.  I could also add to this, "The Ironing Gene" ... also completely lacking from my DNA.
• Svelteness ~ I inherited my body type from "my people", as my mother would say.  And "my people" were apparently short, round and a little bit squishy.  When I looked up the definition of svelte, here is what Merriam-Webster had to say:   slender, slim, graceful, elegant, willowy, sylphlike.  Yep ... lacking.  I am okay with being petite.  I have come to (better) terms with my curves.  But, I would still like to be a little less smooshy.  I fear it might be a bit of my vanity coming into play, but I also would love to know that all those lunges, pliés, squats, pushups and crunches were worth the burn!
• Purge-ability ~ Recently we celebrated both Ashley and Aaron's birthdays.  In the days that followed their celebrations, we were faced with new toys and gizmos and gadgets to find homes for. While it makes perfect sense that need to cycle out some of our old toys to make room for the new ones, the actual act of purging is a challenge.  I am fully able to toss out things that have no value for me (i.e. half-made crafts, semi-demolished mementos, headless Disney princesses), but I have more trouble parting with items of sentimental value (i.e favorite stuffies, much-read board books and well-loved toys).  Then, seeing as the kids want to hang on to all the "lovely" items I mentioned previously, and I don't want to get rid of my favorite kid things ... we're left with finding homes for everything.  This also goes for the kids papers that come home from school.  I can usually narrow down their tree-worth of papers to just a few, but multiply that by 12 years and 4 kids and suddenly you have a lot of papers to store.  Periodically, I go through my frantic purge-a-rama stage and I get rid of tons.  Just a few weeks ago I moved five bags of toys, books, and gadgets out of the house ... liberating!  Those are the days Brett wonders what I trashed that he might actually need.  If only we could maintain that constant order, organization and purge-ness ... sigh ...
• Hours to Write ~ Even as I look over this post ... the post I intended to be more list-like and less paragraphy ... I find my mind full of words, but I have a limited amount of time to process them and get them on paper.  Just yesterday on our way home from school I had two different ideas pop into my head and I would have loved to come home and put my fingers to the keyboard.  But, alas.  Writing is only allowed to occupy a few minutes of my day for right now.  Someday, maybe I'll have an opportunity to actually write for a living.  Until then, I'll take advantage of the moments I have to write ... and keep my notebook handy for jotting down thoughts and inspirations.  

And now ... if you'll excuse me.  My writing time is up.  And the kids are calling for me.  Actually ... they are smooshed up against me trying to get in my lap and talking as if they had my full attention.  That's one think I don't lack in ... being needed (and loved) by someone! :)

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Prompt #3