Don't Mess With Your Mom

Okay, remember that letter I mentioned the other day? It was a letter from the high school my son will attend in the fall inviting us to an informational. I began talking to my son like he was going. He almost immediately said, "Oh, that's just for parents! Students aren't supposed to go." A certain amount of stiffness entered my body,  but I ignored it.  I ignored it because the 8th graders would take a "field trip" to the high school. While there they would take a tour,... So I didn't think too much about him not going with us that night.


Finally, it's the night of meeting. My husband and I get there and look around at wall-to-wall kids which of course led me to think,  "What the heck?" We were duped. He didn't want to come for whatever reason and I bought it.  I decided to go the front of the auditorium, before things started, to reintroduce myself and my husband to the principal.  I knew her from last year where she was the principal at the middle school.  It was an awesome year.  She's very "open door policy" kind of principal so I decide to go to her asking if kids were supposed to come.  She said,"Yes." I said, "Oh." I found a seat and texted my son. 


                Me:    "Kids were supposed to come to this."
                Son:   "Oh, GGTB!" 
(**GGTB= got to go bye)


We got back home and I decide to have some fun. He's having fun with me and now it's my turn. 


               Me:     "There was an elective fair there and since you made the decision not to go I went ahead and picked a couple of electives for you."
  
                                  (His eyes were getting big at this point.) 


               Me:     "I thought you might enjoy Interior Design as your first choice."
              Son:     "No, mom.  You didn't do that.  Say you didn't do that."
              Me:     "Come on! I think you would really like it once you got in there."


I let him marinate in that for a while and then told him the truth.  It was fun while it lasted and a reminder not to mess with the bull or you get the horns. 

Reverent

Today my intention is to be reverent, to see God in everything.

Intentions Change

My intention for this day was to be nice to everyone.  Ooops!  I already blew it with my daughter this morning as she was getting ready for school.  She was stuck in TV land, not paying attention to me when I asked what she wanted for breakfast.  She responded to a question she thought I had asked but it wasn't the question I asked. I sure moms and wives can relate. When that happened I lost it.  

                          "Shelby, that answer doesn't make any sense.  Please quit watching TV, turn around and talk to me.  It's rude not to pay attention to someone when they are talking to you.  On top of that,  when your mouth is facing the opposite direction of my ears I can't hear what you are saying.  Now what do you want for breakfast?"


Maybe I had better change my intention to breathing more and saying "I'm sorry" more often.  

Intention

                             Start the day off right.

                         Set your thoughts on the right path.  

                 Decide what your intention is for this day. 

                My intention for today is not to struggle. 

                What is yours?

It's Getting Closer!

Yesterday I received a letter from Cherokee High School regarding fall enrollment.  My son is in the 8th grade.  This fall he will be in high school.  High school?  Seriously?  I just don't understand what happened.  Writing this and reading it back to myself it seems impossible, absolutely impossible, that he will be in high school.  It's probably harder on my digestion than it is my son's. 

2005

Now let's break that down.  What we will be dealing with are the 3 Ds;  Dating, driving and declaration of independence.  I would also like to throw another D in  for good measure, damage control.  I can remember doing a little bit of that while in that 8-10 year learning curve.  Of course I'm still in a learning curve only it doesn't seem to be so big, damage control isn't the focus of my life anymore. 


Dating is first on the list because I can almost feel that "dating" will happen any day now.  What's up with "dating" these days?  I thought dating was reserved for those around 16 who can actually drive their date to their destination.  If you can't drive yet, where are you going to go on a date unless someone  takes you there?  "Back in the day," the only dates we had at that age involved going to school dances  once or twice a year. We didn't call it dating.  When we were 14 or 15 there was no going to the movies with your girlfriend or boyfriend, or to the mall or anywhere else for that matter.  

2008

Driving is next on the list.  Who is going to teach him? Even though I'm use to it, others are scared when they are in the car with my husband so if he's teaching our son I don't even want to know about it.  I say I'm all for driver's training.  They don't offer it in school but that's okay with me.  I will pay someone to teach him. Something about being in the same car with someone learning to operate 2 tons of metal is a little scary.  Thank goodness I still have a couple of years to forget about him getting behind the wheel.  Right now he talks incessantly about what type of car would make a cool first car.   Well, he'll be driving a bike to school unless he steps it up in the savings department.  His other options are I drive him or he takes the bus. I'm sure that would go over well.  

2011

Last of all,  at least he's taking it slow on his declaration of independence. Okay, first I had to let go of the school work and now this.  What's next?  Am I going to have to let him make up his own mind about a career, marriage, ...  That is a lot to wrap my brain around. So far I think I'm doing fairly well.  I'm trying to remember I'm just along for the ride.  I'm along for the ride until I find out that he needs steering in a different direction. 

Growing Into Her Own

I can't wait to see the woman my daughter will grow into someday. She is passionate about her views.   She is passionate about helping people and  helping animals.  She is also is passionate about doing her best in whatever she does and she isn't afraid to try.

She cracks me up sometimes with her own sense of style and her sense of being okay in her own skin. She's 10. I'm trying not to squash this although sometimes its hard not to when she comes downstairs as if it were mismatched day at school. After letting her know, as gently as I could, what she had on didn't really go together, she decided to start asking me if "this matches."

I say that I can't wait,  and I can't,  but  I'm truly enjoying the time I have with her now.

Who Did You Vote For? An Innocent Question

It's very interesting how teenagers perceive how the world works.  Many times if your opinion is going against the opinion of others in a group you are considered not normal so I could see how this could hamper a teenagers freedom of speech.  This in a sense is true for adults too.  As the cliche goes, what exactly is normal and who should really care.  


My daughter posed a question directed to me. 

                            "Who did you vote for?"

To which I replied, "What do you mean?"  "Are you talking about the presidential election?"

  

                            She said, "Yes". "Did you vote for Obama?"  

At this point in the conversation my 14 year-old son couldn't hold back a comment so felt compelled to jump into the conversation while my snickering husband was left in the background.

                            "Yes."  


 My son, in his vast life experiences at 14, says 
                           "Oh, well look where that has gotten us."                               


I bet you might be able to guess how the conversation further played out
.
                           "What do you mean by that?" 
                           "Obama and this health care mess we are in."
                           "Please explain."
                           "Well, you know.  First it's global warming and now it's health care."
                           "Oh really, I'm sorry you feel that it is all President Obama's fault."  I actually wanted to say, "What the heck are you talking about?  Seriously!!"  "What don't we throw in the economy along with anything else you can think of."  "Just who have you been talking to?"  


                     "You know, it's pretty incredible he did all of this by himself and in such a short amount of time."


He understood my point.  It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't just one person. Not only that, a lot of the mess we are in has nothing to do with anything except greed. We need more of it right now and the bigger the better. If we reverse that thought the world might even be able to recover.


 I also let him know that he might be pretty surprised how many of his friends may have voted the way I did if they had a chance.  Some teenagers, as well as some adults, do not feel comfortable voicing their opinion on a subject if it may create controversy and ultimately a good ribbing or worse.  It's hard enough to be true to yourself in given situations as an adult let alone during your teenage years.  


My hope is that we could all just recognize that it's okay if we all don't think alike and don't share the same opinion.  Imagine what the world would be like if we did.