Puzzles

A few things that I just don't know WHAT to think about...

*****In the US News Career Guide, teaching is listed as one of the 13 "Most Overrated Careers"

*****I have a huge yard that I would like to make nice, but I have no idea where to start. Is it possible to have a passably nice yard without an incredible amount of effort? I'm willing to put in a lot of work up front, but then I don't want to have to do a lot of maintenance. Maybe I could do one job outside every day? 30 minutes or so? Does anyone want to make up a plan for me? Every time I go outside to work I end up overwhelmed. I know I could do it if I knew what to do.

*****Anna asked her Grammy Joan to teach her how to read on Saturday. She recognizes 4 words plus her name now. I hadn't even been working very much on the alphabet. She knows 11 letters, I checked tonight as we were playing with sidewalk chalk.

It set me again to thinking--what do I want for her? What do we REALLY want for our children? It's easy to think sometimes that she's a super-genius, but I know that's just proud mama-ness. But honestly, would I want her to be a super-genius? Sometimes I think that I just want her to be happy, and that super-genii don't seem to be very happy. It's a circle I go through over and over in my head. Do I want a "great" "important" life for her, or a regular one? I don't want to do anything particularly important with my life, I just want to enjoy it as much as I can, and love people as best I can. Are the "important" people happy? It doesn't seem like it. But how can I say I'd have Anna aspire to mediocrity? And then there's the issue of God to muddy the waters further. Perhaps I shouldn't want her to be happy or important, but to be devoted. That seems easy enough, but is tricksy too. Lots of amazing people weren't particularly happy, and how can a Mama want anything less?

I suppose it doesn't really matter what I want for her, she'll have to figure it out on her own, but it's been swimming around my head since she was tiny.