Re: Silence

From Joel in the comments box below:

Homie! It's been two months! Where are you?

Good question. Facing the facts, I suppose. The chief of which are these. We have an almost-two-year-old toddler with developmental delays, to which difficulties she has recently added the quite age-appropriate Super Tantrums, with the interesting twist of preferring to bang her face savagely into the floor as she screams, resulting in bruises, cuts, and bloodied nose and lip. On the other end, a child in the throes of adolescence, who needs a surprising amount of parenting time for someone who so often just wants to be left alone in her room to sulk. And then the middle child--who I am striving not to neglect utterly, both emotionally and educationally, as the continuing daily drama unfolds with her two sisters.

To be frank, I no longer have time to blog. And haven't for some time, even when I was blogging regardless. A conversation in the confessional a few months back went essentially like this:

Her Opinionated Self: ... also, I've neglected my regular prayers, especially in the evenings...
Father Direct: Why?
HOS: Oh, you know, there's so much housework, and caring for the children, and all....
Fr. D: Can't your husband give you a little time in the evening?
HOS: Well truthfully he does, really he makes sure to give me at least half an hour to myself.
Fr. D: And you do what in that time?
HOS: Um ... I blog, sometimes? And I read other people's blogs ... and such ... you know.
Fr. D: Oh yes, I know. Looks like we've found some prayer time for you then, have we?

So. Actual prayer--not the kind silently offered on the fly, but with a quiet heart and settled mind, has been more frequent as blogging and blog-reading have been less so; and I'm reading more actual books, too. And spending more evening time with Eudoxus, with no computer screen diverting my attention. It's been nice.

If I had a 'real' job, the kind where they're required by law to give you a lunch break and a chance to go to the bathroom without someone flinging themselves against the door shrieking while you pee, I might squeeze in some blogging. But I don't.

Is this goodbye? I think so. I'm toying, however, with trading in the bloggage for a website: less of the fleeting thoughts of the moment, daily flung into the cyberpit, and more of a permanent edifice, added onto on occasion. Still focused on homeschooling, and Catholica, and Catholic homeschooling, and other things of interest, modeled perhaps on the late Gerard Serafin's Praise of Glory site, which grew continuously and wonderfully, forestlike. If, when, such a thing has been successfully planted and seems likely to grow, I will provide a link to it from here.

Thank you and goodnight.