An Overabundance of Responsibility

I just printed out my quarterlies and letter to the school district. Lots of changes this year. Most notable is the lack of a quarterly report for Marina. Not that I'm unhappy to be back to writing two quarterlies instead of three. It's just very different. My first reality check that she is growing beyond me. This is more significant to me than the checks from her first job. I'm no longer responsible for reporting her. I know it probably sounds silly, but this is the first responsibility that has dropped away from me since I started down this crazy path of marriage and parenthood. And I've felt a bit overwhelmed with responsibilities for a while now.

A funny thing happened when I was preparing the letter to my school district. I realized that all of the letters I sent last year listed Marina in ninth grade and Chase in sixth grade. They were in tenth and seventh grades. No one noticed. How odd. Maybe they thought I purposely held my children back a year. Maybe they thought the crazy homeschooler doesn't even know what grade her kids are in. I know, some of you are thinking, "They probably never even read the letter or quarterlies." But I always hope. I'm a writer. I like to be read.

This is shaping up to be another of those years. Hopefully not a four funeral school year(like we had last year), but definitely packed already. Chase is going to be making Confirmation, so I have to make sure he gets in his service hours and writes a paper on his saint, which he hasn't picked yet. He also wants his second degree black belt, which means he has to create a poomse (series of movements), write an essay about where he wants to go from here, and earn patches for completing pretests. He should have been doing the pretests all along, but he insists they didn't tell him. I tried to explain that sometimes you have to track down this information on your own. I think it has to do with "responsibility." There's that word again!

Not to be outdone, Sierra will be making first Reconciliation and first Communion this year. That means I get to go to every meeting the religious education program has to offer. Can you feel my excitement? And then the big days come on May 1 and May 15 (Marina's birthday). That's right! Birthday month! Because of this, I opted to not let Sierra do the dance recital, which will be on May 20 (Chase's birthday). I'm assuming by the end of May I will singing "They're Coming to Take Me Away, HaHa!"

I would love to be irresponsible for one day, but there is too much I'm supposed to do. I've been reading quick and funny books to cope with the overwhelming urge to hide from my life. I found a wonderful series by Julie Kenner about "The Secret Life of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom." The first book is Carpe Demon, although I liked the second book, California Demon, much better. I wrote a review of it that can be viewed here. It helps to laugh. And maybe I'll have less responsibilities next year.