Pods In hand Peas removed Bowl slowly fills Mom’s garden harvest In her lap as she works Orange-red sunset outside Head falls forward [snore] then snaps up “I’m not sleeping — just resting my eyes!” Pods in hand, peas removed, bowl slowly fills
The W3 challenge this week was to write a Dectina Refrain in honor of Mother’s Day and be sure to include the word “mother” (or a variation of it).
The Dectina Refrain is a 10-line, unrhymed, syllabic poem with a precise structure:
Line 1: 1 syllable
Line 2: 2 syllables
Line 3: 3 syllables
Line 4: 4 syllables
Line 5: 5 syllables
Line 6: 6 syllables
Line 7: 7 syllables
Line 8: 8 syllables
Line 9: 9 syllables
Line 10 (Refrain): Combine the exact text of lines 1–4, in order, as a single closing line
Last night (and the night before) Laurel said to me as she went to bed, “I’m sorry if I come in.” Sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night with a bad dream and comes in our room.
“It’s okay,” I told her. “It’s in my job description.”
I probably should have looked the job description over a little more carefully before I signed on. Not that I ever really looked over any job description; I was usually just glad to have a job.
Like when I worked at the Baseball Hall of Fame, I think my job title was “Souvenir Girl” and that pretty much summed it up. I sold souvenirs and tickets. Maybe it specified that I wasn’t supposed to try to charge VIPs, like the time I was going to charge Bowie Kuhn admission, but I honestly never read through it.
But a Mom Job Description — whew! There’s a good one that I’ve seen: The Mom Job Description. (Click to see it.)
I actually think I could do it in five words.
and other duties as assigned
No matter how complete the list, it would still be incredibly incomplete.
I knew I would have sleepless nights. I imagined they would end when my children slept through the night. Not so. It’s not always Laurel waking me up. Sometimes I wake with a particular child on my mind and just pray for them.
Prayer is definitely somewhere in the job description. Under communication — with doctors, teachers, waitresses, and God. Yep.
Jacob getting a haircut a few years ago.
No one told me that when I became a mom, I would have to cut hair. But I have cut the boys’ hair for years. All my boys are now teenagers and beyond. I tell them to get their haircut by somebody who knows what they’re doing. And yet, what did I do the other day? Cut Jacob’s hair. And I still don’t know what I’m doing.
I knew when I became a mom that I would have to prepare meals. I was okay with that because I know how to read recipes. My creativity in the kitchen is pretty limited. But did I ever imagine that I would have to triple or quadruple every recipe every written? And kids think math skills aren’t that important…
And all those years of raising children are really just a warm-up for caring for parents, a job I’m now cowering from. Other duties as assigned.
It doesn’t seem to get any easier.
And I just seem to get tireder.
But Laurel can still wake me up any night of the week.
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 