19 Years of Geneva Melody

Today, on the 100th Anniversary of Fatima, we also celebrated 19 years of Geneva Melody, our resident composer-piano/ukulele player-rapper-drummer-vocalist-music-producer-writer-comedienne.  Yeah, she’s crazy talented, low key, and awesome and we love her to bits; but more than that, we are blessed by her love and quiet service every single day. What a privilege it is to see her grow in the Lord, in faithful service to her family, to His Church and the mission to which she has been called at St. Vincent de Paul. “No greater joy can I have than this, to hear that my children follow the truth.” — 3 John 1:4

Our day was relaxed, we just did some chores and shopping, and let Geneva off of all her normal chores so she could boogie around doing whatever she fancied – going to the mall was on her agenda, I know.

Paul and I had our usual Saturday lunch date, wherein we update each other on the week, plan and strategize for the next week, and sometimes vent about all the imponderables with which we are faced. Today I vented about all the things I hate in dealing with traditional schools, and the fact that despite my loathing of all the hoops I’m forced to jump through, I can’t just pull Efrain out and home-school him because darn it, he’s doing well there at SSJ. It’s not about me, it’s about him. As long as it’s good for him, I’ll keep jumping through the dad-gum hoops.

After lunch, I took Megan, Laurent and the younger kids (sans Ruben, who stayed home under the watchful care of Jacob and Daddy) to Cabela’s. I needed to get some decent shoes for Natalie, and the rest of them came along just to look at the animals and fishies. I might not have made it out of the store without picking up some salt-water taffy for the kids.

Ran the kiddo’s home to drop them off, then took Laurent along to the neighborhood Wal-Market to pick up the fixings for our taco salad fiesta.

I picked up some flowers for my mama to celebrate mother’s day – and when we got home, discovered there were also some roses and balloons Geneva had received for her birthday, so our table was very beautifully decorated for the party!

I am always so overcome with thankfulness when I have the whole family smushed around our too small table, with extra chairs pulled up around the ends next to the long benches. The air is filled with raucous hilarity, colorful banter, screams of laughter and nonstop teasing, talking over each other and constant reprimands to stop racing around the table/pulling your sister’s hair/eating your brother’s food/spilling your water/throwing things across the table/spitting/passing things around the long way just to be obnoxious/sitting on your knees instead of your backside etc. etc. etc. It’s completely over-the-top out-of-control, and as much as I try to reign it in and inculcate some small measure of manners, it always devolves toward chaos. But it’s a chaos of love, and therein lies my thankfulness.

Pics of my crazies below – along with some pretty floral studies, thanks to the lovely bouquets.