Sunday, August 15th musings

Sundays are quickly becoming my wrap it up day either for the week behind or the week ahead. Here's what I know on this Sunday afternoon.

Emma would rather eat oatmeal standing up in the kitchen than sit down to Ragu with her family. That's how repulsed she is by rotini noodles, meat, and Ragu sauce.....ridiculous.

Olivia is recovering from her wisdom teeth removal quite nicely and she's been waited on hand and foot for 2 solid days which prompted her to state last night, "This must be how Grandma feels all the time." Truly spoken by her. She, Olivia not Grandma, has been living in Percoset land since Friday and she's been as loopy as a loon for most of it. She's been in my bed, since there's a TV to watch and as she would drift in and out of consciousness, she would mumble something unintelligible, "MMMMM MMM MMM," fully expecting me to know what she meant. However amusing it's been to see, I'm not fluent in mmm mmm speak. It's also been funny to watch as she's laid there stretched out with her eyes closed trying to participate in a conversation as much as possible only to drift off and "leave the building" due to narcotics. I think it's time to put the Percoset in the cabinet. We'll find out this week if Caitlin will be doing the wisdom teeth dance during Christmas break. Lord, please, please, please, NO!

I love to see Charlotte Humphrey at church. She's one of my favorite people ever.

I've missed Dottie this week and I wish she were here.

Addy could stand to have another sister but it's not going to happen which causes stress in all our lives especially Rosie's. A Grandma Golden Retriever is not interested in playing with a sassy 3 year old cheeky mutt. Poor Rosie.

John and Owen are going fishing this afternoon. They'll be paddling through Chenerie Lake. I can't imagine how this could be appealing since it's 100 degrees outside. I'm picturing them like veggies in a steamer at the end of 10 minutes.

Owen starts real high school tomorrow morning as one of about 800 kids. He's never been more than 1 of 55 students until now. He's always had an aunt, a close friend or his mom as his teacher. In all my ideas of how my kids would be educated, public high school was never in the plan. And even though I have peace about him going, it's not completely easy to watch it happen. It's never been easy for me to watch my kids take another grown up step in their lives. It's part of the process of letting them go but even so, doing it is the most difficult thing I've ever done.

And next week, Olivia starts real college. She's never been more than 1 of 55 kids and she's soon to be 1 of about 8,000. Jesus help me. Growing pains for parents are just as painful as for the children. She's ready and prepared and I get a front row seat to watch her take off and become what God wants her to be. It's gonna be good.

And as my kids grow up and out of my reach, this past week a little girl named Ella started kindergarten. And now it's her turn to begin to take the world by storm. I bet she excels at it. Godspeed to Ella and peace to her parents. It's gonna be great.

In the last year, since I've gone back to being a stay at home mom, it's reaffirmed to me that my true calling in this life has been and will continue to be a mother. I can name about 25 things that I try to do but have little confidence in accomplishing well ......but not my mom job. It's what I'm good at and what I was born to do. That's not supposed to sound arrogant or self serving, it's just what I know. In the almost 22 years I've been a mother, I've made thousands of mistakes and I've apologized to my kids for as many as I can think of, but even with the mistakes made, it's the one thing that comes natural to me. I love my job.

I went to a wedding of a friend's daughter yesterday. The bride and groom wrote their own vows and as I sat and listened, I couldn't help but think, "Aww how sweet." But after 25 years of marriage, it amuses me that on wedding days around the world, couples are all cutesy and lovey dovey on their day and then at some point, the real world comes knocking. And no matter how much you try as a couple to keep the world at bay, you will both be affected by money and broken down cars and school for your kids and plumbing and wisdom teeth and ALL the CRAP that comes with living life. It's part of it. You just have to hang on to the commitment made on a day in a year when you both decided to get married and stick it out til death do you part. And somedays, it's just not easy because a spouse can be become an "unfavorite" quicker than you can imagine. Here's an example....about a week ago, John came home from work and I was sitting on the couch doing something when he walked in. He used some incendiary speech such as, "What's for supper?" And BOOM! It set me off in 1 whole second and I could tell by the look on his face he was thinking, "I'm sorry I mistook the rattle snake sitting on the couch for my wife." And as fast as his feet could carry him into the living room, he retreated, hoping to survive the bite and get a better result later. I now have no idea what caused the venom to spew but it passed and he lived to tell about it. Crankiness cuts both ways and we've learned to let crankiness go....most of the time. Marriage is the bloody mother of all marathons and not for the faint of heart. Lovey dovey don't last long.

A young friend of mine is moving to Boston this week. Lord take care of him as he goes and please cover stupid.

And lastly my story about me and the shoes. So many years ago I have no idea, I got dressed one day. It was cool out. I was wearing pants. The lights in my bedroom were on. There are no excuses. It was morning when I got dressed for the day. I have no idea what I did after I left the house. I don't know how many places I went or how many errands were run. But at some point MANY hours later, I went to Lowe's to look at flowers. I was standing in the nursery outside and stepped in a puddle of water which caused me to look down at my feet. And when I did, I discovered something extraordinary. I was totally dumbfounded when I saw that I had on 2 completely different kinds of shoes. Both were slip on, but that's where the similarities ended. One was leather. One was wool fabric. I stood there in utter shock and disbelief trying to figure out how this had happened? Who had done this to me? Who had somehow removed one of my shoes and changed it for the wrong one? How many people had noticed? How had John made this happen?

I still double check now.
It's a fundamental of dressing one's self.
So far, it's only happened the one time.
Stay tuned.