The kids have jumped right in with their new grade level and stay busy studying and hanging with friends and playing sports. Still, we are together every night for dinner (even on the nights Firstborn has volleyball, then her tutoring job...we save her a plate and she makes it home in time for the tail end of dinner.) We try to gather most nights for family devotions and a short prayer before bed. The weather is turning colder, which is so nice.
Also, we let Big Ben and Miss Middler join a Saturday morning soccer league. They have enjoyed getting to play games on Saturday mornings. I told CC I would be responsible to take them so he could still keep his Saturday morning free. This week he was up at 5:45 to ride 25km on his bike, get home in time to go to soccer, and see the kids play, saying, "I'm not missing their soccer game."
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I tried to clear our weekdays because our weekends will be so full this semester. My oldest started flute lessons (I'm absolutely tickled as a former band director), we have Awana, our son is playing baseball for the first time, the girls have their regular ballet cast as well as practices for The Nutcracker with Ballet AR, and all three are in the children's choir at church working on the Christmas musical. Schooling is going well. I'm also co-teaching a ladies class at church and loving that opportunity. And, we're waiting to see if we get orders...
Oh my! You asked a loaded question . . . Ha.
You know how we always said I was just slightly ahead of you raising our children? Meaning I am a dozen or so years older . . . Something like that. Let me give you a heads up . . .
Then again, what plagues one doesn't necessarily plague another. Going around the bush to get at the thing that keeps me busiest is learning the art of letting go . . . Letting the kids grow up and launch on their on without Mom's intervention. Learning to trust God that they will make it. Very much like the Moma bird letting her chicks leave the nest.
My heads up comes in the form of boys versus girls. They are different. (Duh) On top of that I have two boys flying at once while I am smack dab in the middle of my fifties and all that emotionally entails.
I couldn't be prouder of my sons but unlike their sisters who gently eased out from under my wings, they are more like, "Outta my way, Mom. I've got places to go and things to do."
This process may not affect you like it has me, and some of it certainly is my age, but it has been quite a lesson. I have also been very pleased, on the other hand, to see my boys' manhood blooming through this ordeal. I am very proud of the character I see in them. They must make their way in this world in a totally different way than their sisters.
So, there you gave it . . . Without the juicy details (ha), what has been keeping me more than busy.
Signed:
Tired Mom aka Mel
Thanks for the comments! Tara, wish we could get together one of these summers....
Mel, that is SO interesting. I see so many differences in boys vs. girls, but have not thought about the whole leaving the nest. I'll be your age when it happens..hang around, I'll need advice!!!
Sara, my mother promises me it is an age thing or else, she says, I would be taking it all in stride as I did when I was younger.
Looking back, and looking presently at the hot mess this time of life makes out of you, I tend to agree with her.
That still doesn't change anything. Your hope lies in the fact we are all different and it may not affect you the same. For your sake I hope not. :)
BUT, should you reach that time and find yourself reeling from the process . . . I have found the best thing was to just let go and trust God. (Closing your eyes and not watching also helps, haha.)
Just to give you an idea . . . My youngest graduated from high school and 17 hours later boarded a train for Virginia with a job waiting on him . . . A job he got on his own while living at home. Six weeks later he had enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and met a lovely C. girl. He made arrangements to purchase a new truck. Two months later he was sworn in and he leaves for boot camp, still further away, in eight more weeks.
His plans are to be an AST, or rescue swimmer . . . You know, jumping out of helicopters into the deep blue (emphasis on deep) ocean during hurricanes and storms.
How can a parent object to such a goal? But it has left me reeling, I tell you. :)
I am proud of Matt and how he has handled it all. He just dived headlong into life, with his mother still attached! Ha.
Oh, and that doesn't count the other son, at the same time . . . Yet another story. :)
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