100 Things We Learned the Hard Way

The last time I added to these was a year ago. My, how time flies! (Numbers 1-70 can be found here.)

71. If you need to mow the lawn, it will rain; if you need the lawn watered, it won't rain.

72. The ceramic terra cotta tiles you were so proud to have installed in the mid '90s will not be a selling point in the early 2000s.

73. The level of restless persnicketiness of any group of small children will always be in precise inverse proportion to the level of listless irritability of the caretaker.

74. Cheap Vacuum Cleaners Suck. (Well, actually, they should, but they don't. )

75. St. Joseph and St. Thomas Aquinas are sitting at the heavenly workbench just waiting to be called on to help with "guy projects" like plumbing and car mechanics. St. Martha, St. Zita, and St. Anne are always hovering around the kitchen. If we don't get their help, it's our own fault for not asking.

76. A bar of soap clogging the toilet will eventually dissolve.

77. Standing on the sidelines watching our oldest child preparing to graduate from college and get married is less like watching a dive off the cliffs in Acapulco than it is watching a ship being launched into a harbor.

78. But... one child's experience never determines another's.

Sometimes launchings are more like this:



79. Painful but worthwhile practices: double-digging a new garden plot, seasonal closet cleaning, dentist appointments, any kind of cleansing diet, potty training, piano lessons, Lent.

80. Life is like my mother's made-from-scratch soups. It pays to trust the creator; just dig in without expectations and don't ask questions. Some of the ingredients might be mysterious, but they almost always blend together marvelously, and there is no doubt that it's all good for you.