Can someone tell me the secret to slowing time? I'm pretty sure summer just started, and yet here it is school time again. I do remember some individual days here and there, but maybe they are all jumbled in with the "I'm bored, what can I do?" days and the "It's so hot-I'm melting!" months.
Regardless of the reasons, I'm staring at the front end of September as it is peeking around the corner. (Yes, I am one of the dying breed who waits until after Labor Day to start school. Okay, well not totally- as the Jane Austen Wanna Be, Bookworm and Clown would testify since they started doing some of next year's schoolwork already. But, I really got tired of them having too much time loafing around and couldn't get them to do more housework so I could loaf around!) But, this summer I was wanting to put the brakes on, just a bit. I'm surrendering the Jane Austen Wanna Be to college classes this year. And, I truly am proud like a strutting rooster, but I'm also apprehensive like a mother hen. (By the way, did you ever notice apprehensive has the word "hen" in it? Of course it also has the word "app" in it, which will be what the Jane Austen Wanna Be will be wishing she would have - an app for "reassuring mom that I am doing okay.")
I did have in mind building some neat memories for the family this summer since we are entering a new chapter in life. Somehow between high gas prices and the oldest off to various babysitting jobs, I lost track of time. I didn't even get in a good stay-cation!
Wait, before I start throwing a pity party, I did get a lot of laughs in this summer and since you've hung in reading this far, I'm going to share my latest. Don't stop reading now, it is a cute, little laugh.
As the Jane Austen Wanna Be, Bookworm and I were driving to the gym, we were listening to one of our favorite, okay only, NPR radio shows, Car Talk. This show, Click and Clack were listing the top 5 professions that have the most car wrecks. Our minds were flying trying to see if we could guess the correct answers- and some of them we had correct. The top profession that has car wrecks is students (Who said this is a profession?!? I must have missed many years of paychecks when I was in school!) The number 2 profession is medical doctors (Sure glad the operate better than they drive!) Number 3 is lawyers (insert your own joke here_____________________). Number 5 is real estate agents- makes sense- eyes on the houses, not the road.
Yes, I know, I skipped number 4- here is where the joke on me comes in. I mentioned in the last blog how the sense of hearing has been slipping- and hitting 45, I mean 40, is probably not going to help this. Anyway, the 4th profession for having the most accidents is "Unknown." Yet, deaf me hears "A Gnome." As I swerve to avoid the ditch, due to my laughing and wondering "Gnomes?!? - of course they would have car accidents- can't see over the steering wheel!" My kids, suddenly aware of the importance of seat belts, inform me of the real category- which, by they way is not, N-O-T as funny as gnomes!
How does this tie into apron strings? We'll I'm unloosing the Jane Austen Wanna Be to make the drive to the community college (60 miles round trip) all by herself. You parents know- it's not the child you don't trust, it's everyone else's driving that concerns you! No, really, she'll be fine; I've already made sure she knows the route and have sent her on various errands with guinea pig siblings to get the new driver impulses under her belt. BUT, it is really about me coming to accept that my baby is growing up. And I'm not sure how it slipped by me so quickly. Was it the endless days of changing diapers to tying shoes to glasses, to braces, to schooling, schooling, schooling. . . ? Sigh.
Why didn't someone tell me to just stop more often and forget about what I thought was so pressing and important to finish and just enjoy? Pause time? Breathe it all in? Hold it in my heart?
Believe me, experiencing these feelings with the oldest one will make me appreciate and enjoy the time I have with the other ones- of course they probably will get tired of Mom giving them a "goofy- I love you look" and they probably won't welcome the bricks I'm going to place on their heads to slow growth- Oh, who said I was going to accept all this easily? But they will know that their mother is treasuring them and thanking God for the blessing He gave me in choosing me to be their mother.
So, the knot in the apron is starting to slip a little. And next week I'll put on my happy face while I send my baby off to school (One thing I LOVE about homeschooling- I was able to put off the separation of the first day of school from age 5 to age 16!!) and then I'll retreat back to the house, go down on my knees and pray that my heavenly Father will protect my child's body, heart, and soul~
Oh, and that He will also keep all the gnomes off the road!!
Painfully Surviving Myself,
Mary
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