Contentment

Contentment is an elusive thing - but sometimes it just creeps up on you - and then you must grab it and hold it close.

 Our world doesn't encourage (at all!) contentment.  If things are "good" we either begin striving for something more or fearing the loss of what we have.  I'm not sure that this is a purely modern reality - after all the Greeks wrote about hubris - warning that if you were too smug about your situation the gods would surely smack you down.  Perhaps this is why complaint is more common than contentment, even among the well-off.  Well, I mean, after all, surely there's always something to complain about, right?And I am as guilty as most.

Only right now, I'm experiencing contentment.  Jobs are going well for both DH and me.  The offspring are generally doing well - see below.  Prince 83 is not completely recovered from his lengthy illness but is improving.  And there is a little money to do some much needed and long awaited repairs and improvements to the house.

With five kids, Catholic school/and college tuitions and many years as a SAHM, I'm used to sorting through what I/we NEED from what I/we want.  And I'm far enough down the road not to lay awake at night dreaming of designer purses/clothes/shoes that I can't afford.  Heck, I don't even lay awake longing for stuff I can't buy at Target! But my desire for certain amenities, long deferred, like drapes on the front windows or a matching patio set has only been on hold, not eliminated. I'd like to think that my contentment is not contingent upon finances.  I am sad to report that it appears to be - quite contingent.  Working on that.

Living Vicariously

In general, I don't BELIEVE in living vicariously through one's children.  At least not in a serious fashion.  Nevertheless, I am currently enjoying a bit of vicarious pleasure in the upcoming summer plans of several of our kids.  The most exciting plans are those of the princess.  She'll be traveling in Europe for three months, visiting Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, France, England, Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar.  Whew.  In each of those locations she will be with a different friend - several of them natives of the country visited.  In a couple of instances, she will be with an American friend who is also visiting Europe.  But most of the time she will be staying in the family home of her European friends.  So cool.  She'll end her trip by attending World Youth Day with a million or so other Catholic youth in Gibraltar/Madrid - along with her two younger brothers whom she will meet up with in Gibraltar. (Meanwhile, they will have arrived in Gibraltar after a 6 day tour of Rome and Assisi) She'll return home (traveling with Prince 94)  in time for her cousin's wedding  in Napa and go directly from Napa to her MFA program beginning on the last Monday of August.  Again - whew.  Meanwhile, Prince 91 will remain in Europe, traveling for two weeks from Madrid to Dublin by a yet undetermined route - probably via Barcelona and France - accompanied by one or two other CUA students also on their way from WYD to a semester abroad program in Europe.  He'll be attending an exchange program at Trinity in Dublin and will intern at Irish Parliament as part of his program.  That compels a third WHEW!  I am so happy for them to have such an amazing summer.