I Got Told

When everyone was chanting about it taking a village to raise a child, I just knew they were talking about my family. My family is a village. We have a big house, but there are eight of us here on a normal day & that can go up to twenty if anyone is sick, graduating, getting married/divorced or is pregnant. We have tribal councils about everything. The men in our family get nervous when the women group up for a chat. They think that we might be having a meeting about one of them (and, usually, they're right).

But I ramble.

Thing is, we're not a family so much as we are a brood of loved ones. On one of those normal days I mentioned, there are five adults and three kids. (One of the adults & one of the kids is not blood, but they are still family.)

Sorry. Still rambling.

Anyway, one of the kids is my nephew Devon. Devon is in the second grade & has the attention span of someone stuck in a boring church service. Everyone around here is always reminding Devon to focus. The other day, I had a serious talk with Devon to explain why it's important to stay focused. I told him that when he's not focused, he wastes time trying to finish homework or chores. Ten minutes later, when Devon was supposed to be doing his homework, he got distracted, lost his pencil and forgot if his worksheet was in his backpack or in another room...

"Devon! You have got to learn to focus," I told him (yet again). "We just had that talk, baby."

Devon rounded up all his stuff and finished his work.

Later that evening, I was fixing dinner and realized I didn't have onions and bell peppers for the spaghetti sauce. I figured I'd just run up to the store. Then I couldn't find my purse. Devon found my purse for me. (It was in the hall closet. I don't know why.) Then I couldn't find my shoes. Devon found my shoes. (They were in the garage instead of on the shoe rack in the house. I don't know why.) Then I couldn't find the car keys. Devon helped me look everywhere until he gave up and decided to get some juice. Devon found the keys. (They were in the refrigerator. I don't know why.)

Finally, I got to the store, got back and started back on making dinner. No garlic cloves. Devon was watching while I substituted garlic powder. People in our village expect cloves.

Everybody got in from work, we sat down to eat and I apologized for the sauce, saying I'd had a crappy day, lost my purse and shoes and keys, blah, blah, blah...

"Yeah," Devon told them. "She needs to learn to focus."