More on the countdown. Finals are in full swing. Trails of last minute projects run upstairs, through the storage rooms, veer spatteringly into the bathroom, and end at the front door. (Finish the projects over the weekend? Haha!)

I’ve not raised four perfect children. Heck, I’ve not even raised one-half of an organized child. They are busy and happy, and they operate under the motto that if one pile of papers is tolerable, five or six must be downright desirable. They love to learn, but this is not always reflected in their grades. They don’t always get along with one another. (Opinionated and stubborn are not just basenji traits.) These kids have strong feelings about everything from politics to video games, and sometimes they clash. They are good humans, though. In a long-ago speech I heard (at church maybe?), the speaker’s general point was that many parents try to raise their children to be happy, while many others try to raise them to be successful, and although these are fine goals, what about raising them to be good? I had two babies at the time. I didn’t know what was ahead. But I liked the concept. I still do. Raise them to work hard, yes. Try hard to keep the home filled with peace and happiness, yes. But worry more about compassion, mercy, kindness, justice, gentleness – where else will they learn these?

Too bad they don’t have a “mercy” category on the report card.

My third story for Odyssey is not going well. After ten or twelve false starts, I have a reasonably coherent plot and an opening paragraph that doesn’t tempt me to toss the keyboard out the window. I’d call the main character wooden, but that would imply a degree of solidity that certainly he does not possess. So a lot of work left there. I think what I need to do is let the story jell for a day or two more and let my brain pick at it and figure out what is going wrong. Of course, I only have a few more days left before I leave. Panic panic!

In driving news, we’re still at 0 accidents and 0 tickets. As far as I know. The results are a little skewed, though, as Daniel still has only driven once. Aaron continues to fabricate reasons to drive. As I’m lugging in groceries, he says: “forget anything? Need me to go back to the store for you?” Having an eager errand-runner around is coming in handy this week.