Chin up, Chin up...

...everybody likes a smiling face.  Make it! Fake it! Let a little sun shine in! You'll be on the right side if you're on the bright side - up with your chinny-chin! Chin up!

Um, excuse me up there: you're not listening to me.  Which makes you exactly like most of my children (okay, all of my children).  Sigh.  I have been having one of those weeks.  Months.  Years? Okay, yes.  It's only February: years.  I look at one of my children (usual disclaimers apply: I love all of my children dearly, wouldn't trade them, etc.) and think to myself, "You are the child I always begged God not to give me." Brief explanation: growing up, I prayed that God would not make me deal with having a particular kind of child (because I had that sibling and I didn't know how my parents did it).  Understand, I'm not talking about a disability or anything like that.  Call it a personality type.  One that is particularly challenging when confronted with my own personality type.  Let's just say it was difficult to grow up with that child as a sibling.  It is infinitely more difficult to be raising that child (with the ghost of my sibling never far from my mind - I really am a therapist's dream).

Heh.  Therein lies the rub.  Someone has to be the grownup around here.  I have the unfortunate and distinct feeling that I am she.

I also have the unfortunate and distinct feeling that I have not been praying enough.  Or sacrificing enough.  I guess it's back to the drawing boards.  Still a week left in February.  And it's still Lent.  Of course, I'm still a pessimist, so we'll see how things go...