“I was doing a lot of thinking last night, Full Speed, and I came to the conclusion if we need to sell our house to subsidize your Olympic shot-put aspirations, I’m willing to do it.”
To qualify in the shot-put at a middle school track meet you have to reach a minimum of 30 feet.
Full Speed’s record is 16.
16!
I asked him point-blank, “Do they award points for style?”
Okay, so maybe not the shot-put. How about the 4 x 800 he helped run?
Considering his team (which is categorized ‘B’ team for a reason) came in 12th out of 14, maybe this won’t be his event either.
However, they did lap a team. Maybe there’s hope after all.
But wait, the team they lapped consisted of elementary school kids.
Looks like I just saved thousands of dollars in training fees.
A young Full Speed realizing traveling by foot may be his least productive option.
I was having a moment. I had been cruising through the week and then, I wasn’t. Mad Dog has been gone for over a week and won’t get back for a few more days.
I have no reason to complain. My boys are older and they are about a thousand percent easier to manage compared to when they were small. We also do lots of fun stuff together like special dinners out and movie marathons. It isn’t perfect but it works.
However, we all miss Mad Dog and after a while, this feeling of missing him creeps over us and then it’s harder to be our best selves.
Yesterday, as I tried to order Full Speed’s track uniform (yay! He made the track team! So what if all he had to do was show up, basically, he made the team at ‘hello’, still….he made the commitment to be on a team…woo-hoo!), I lost it. Why? Part of it was that it was about my one-hundredth action item of the day, and the other part was that Full Speed is one of the hardest kids in the world to find clothes that fit properly. I can’t explain it but he always seems to fall in between regular sizing. I had stared at the computer screen completely flummoxed as to what size to purchase when I finally pulled the trigger. As I printed out the receipt I realized after all that agonizing, I had ordered the wrong size! Yes, in the grand scheme of life it is no big deal, but it felt really big right then and I started to cry.
Full Speed came over to me, put his arm around my shoulders and said:
“It’s okay, Mom. Everyone makes mistakes. I just appreciate you buying the uniform for me. I know you miss, Dad, too. Because you miss him that’s probably really why you are upset. I understand.”
I had to admit, the kid made some good points.
Then, it dawned on me…I got ‘mommed’.
He basically said every exact thing I would say to him if the tables were turned.
I’m grateful he had the empathy to comfort me. Nice that some of what I say to him sticks.
Today was better.
Here I will share a photographic art installation which symbolizes how well I am managing.
It’s hard to believe, but another year is drawing to a close. To date, this has been a year of tremendous change as Full Speed became a teenager (!) and T.Puzzle jumped more solidly into the double-digit realm. It’s not the age-number per say, 13 and 11 respectively, but the growth and maturation I’ve seen from them. It’s been a lot to process as I am seeing more clearly the young men they are becoming.
Full Speed is on the left, T.Puzzle on right
T.Puzzle continues to surprise us. He developed a love of distance running. How Mad Dog and I produced a distance runner is still a bit mystifying, but it is awesome that T.Puzzle is finding his own interests and pursuits. LEGO construction and playing video games remain firmly at the top of his list, but nice to know that he likes to get up and go sometimes, too.
Full Speed became a middle-schooler this year (it starts in seventh grade in our region) and he has adjusted beautifully. He shows leadership to his classmates willingly coaching them through Algebra assignments, and has a zest for presentations in class. A recent assignment in Civics had him debating school politics and he was in his zone. Leadership qualities and a passionate debater, hmmm…does that sound like anyone we might know? He also learned that not every dream is realized as he tried out for his school’s soccer team and didn’t make the cut. My favorite part about this life lesson was his genuine happiness for a long-time friend and classmate who did make the team this year. It’s not to say Full Speed’s given up on soccer forever, but oh my, isn’t there a wonderful world of possibilities out there waiting for him?
One of the very best parts of 2017 was the addition of our newest family member, Miss Lady. She is by no means a perfect dog, but she absolutely has been the perfect dog for our family. She keeps things lively here which I’m not so sure our senior resident (Little Guy) appreciates.
Little Guy’s shocked expression captures the essence of his disbelief at the amount of his new sister’s energy.
If you ever need to feel like you are the most amazing being alive, come on over and hang out at our house for a while, Miss Lady will not disappoint with her enthusiastic snuggles and love for you.
Miss Lady is as sweet as she looks.
Mad Dog continues to travel all over America and then some as the scope of the call centers he oversees grows and grows. As hard as it is to be away from him sometimes, I see how fulfilling his position is and know it is keeping him challenged and inspired. That’s truly all I want for all three of my boys, to be challenged and inspired.
As for me, I’ve made a little more space in my life for the things I enjoy. I continue to walk our dogs every day, have started a daily yoga routine and write as much as possible.
Life is short so whatever brings us joy is absolutely what we should pursue. It’s as simple as that.
Hope you had beauty-filled 2017 and that the lessons that lie ahead for all of us keep us growing in the direction of love.
I’m about to share with you a highly effective yet secret way you can stalk look-out for your seventh grader. It’s so top-secret that if your name is Full Speed, you must immediately stop reading this and step away from this blog post. I’m totally serious. You do not have a high enough security level clearance, and more importantly, you would be on to me. Walk away, Full Speed. Walk away.
Full Speed walking one of our highly-trained extremely adorable dogs
Part one of my secret plan is that you have to get a dog well in advance of your middle-schooler having to take the bus to school. I’m talking maybe a decade or so in advance. Trust me, this will help you seem credible when the chips are down. After you have secured your status as a dog owner, you have to start walking them religiously to the point you become well-known in your neighborhood as the ‘dog lady’ which, let’s hope, references your dog ownership and NOT your appearance. Anyway, you have to walk the same route day after day. You must casually interact with all the middle schoolers who hang out at the bus stop at the end of your subdivision. This part is actually pretty awesome because you get to bring some levity to their day and your dog will love the attention. If you want to be extra sneaky, get TWO dogs. I’m telling you, middle schoolers will love you for it. The more fluffy appreciation they receive to start their day, the more you fit in under the radar.
Once you have this routine solidly on lock-down, then it seems completely normalfor you to check-in on your own kid when the time arrives for him to join in the morning band of middle-schoolers. Again, it’s awesome to have your dogs bring so much happiness especially now that your own kid is included in the bunch. See? Stealth stalking supervision complete!
And, I will neither confirm or deny at this point because my plan is working so beautifully, but it’s possible my fluffy companions are robotic stunt dogs.
Writes for all Mommies 