And the third? Coming soon. 😉
*****
I liked this quote:
“I never saw my mother sleep. In fact, she only sat down during dinner and later for about three minutes in the tub of our one bathroom. Although Mom was perennially pregnant, she was always on the move–a blurry blue Sears housedress topped by a wavy blond perm and supported by two sturdy speed-walking legs. She had bulging varicose veins that grew with each child, and I was always worried they were going to pop, but they didn’t.
“On any given day, Mom could be found in one of two places: the outside landing, where she hung the laundry, or the kitchen, where she jogged between the ironing board and the oven. It seemed my mother could do a hundred things at once, all the while keeping at least one of her blue eyes on her ten children.
“‘Watch yourself, Eddie!’ she’d shout down from the landing to my oldest brother in the side yard. ‘Remember, you’re a born leader and all the boys are watching you!’ Then she’d vroom down the fourteen wooden steps, hip the laundry basket through the banging screen door into the kitchen, and dump it onto the table.
“‘You’re the absolute best helper, Ellen,’ she’d say as my eager sister did the folding, ‘You’re going to make a wonderful mother!’
“Shortly after noon, Mom would begin preparations for dinner, served nightly at six o’clock sharp, ‘Barbara Ann!’ she’d yell down the basement stairs as she peeled potatoes. ‘Come on up here and take Florence, Tommy, and Mary Jean. They need some entertainment and if you’re going to be a star, you’ll need to practice.’
“And that was my mother’s genius. She kept her house going by putting her finger on the special gift she saw in each of her children, and making each and every one of us believe that that gift was uniquely ours. Whether it was true or not, we all believed it.”
~Barbara Corcoran, in her book Use What You’ve Got
Good to be Home 
I love that! And great pics! Christina
What a great quote!!! So great, in fact, that I’ve ordered her book. I enjoy her on Shark Tank. Now I can’t wait to read all about the lessons her mother has instilled.
We’ve been watching Shark Tank a lot lately and she’s always so wise. I listened to a podcast episode where they interviewed her a few months ago and enjoyed her story there, too. I hope you like the book!
Are these your caterpillars in your aquarium already hatching?
I love the excerpt you posted. What wise advice. I would imagine it’s hard to carry out with even one child, let alone 10! There is so much I’d love to say about this, but I’ll just say that I think what this woman did for her children was so important to life-long self confidence…letting her children know they are valued for who they uniquely are, and also helping them to figure out who they are as they grow up. So important to becoming a healthy adult.
Parents are human. Parenthood is ‘on-the-job’ training. That said, one of the things I’ve noticed reading your blog all these years is how you value the qualities in each of your 7 children. I love that. You might think it’s a no-brainer for a parent, but for someone who grew up in another family in a different generation where children were to be seen and not heard…I so appreciate this in you as a parent.
That is encouraging to hear and you’re so right about it being “on the job” training! I thank you for understanding!
The butterflies were not ones that I had collected. They came to my flower beds yesterday, first just the one and then a mate. I was stunned to see the female take off and fly across the yard with the male still hanging off her. :O
In my aquarium, I have two chrysalis and about 10 tiny caterpillars.