Aprons, Heels, and Yoga Pants

I need to be careful to not focus on only one age group of my children when writing. However…..sometimes there are stages in life with each child, which lead to constant comedic entertainment for their mother. That stage currently falls on my 15 and 16 year olds, Lily and Luke. Not a surprise since 13- 16 tends to be the most changing, exasperating, hilarious time of a parent’s life. Well, at least it is in my home.

Not to generalize – but it seems there are approximately 8 stages of childhood….

1. Innocent (infant-6)
2. adorable (7-10)
3. stinky (11-12)
4. awkward (13-14)
5. cranky/funny (15-17)
6. know everything (18-22)
7. know more than you (23-25)
8. Thank you and apologize for #7 (have children of their own)

In my home I currently have a #2, 4, and two 5’s. Yes – I said two 5’s. Pray for me.

Thankfully the funny has outweighed the crankiness around here. Cranky shows up mainly in not wanting to get out of bed and go to school. My son is tired. All. The. Time. He slept until well after lunch today. At noon I asked my younger son to please go peek at Luke so I know he is definitely in the house. Good to know.

My 16 year old daughter is a “go getter” and wakes herself up easily on school mornings. She wouldn’t dare risk being late or going without eyeshadow.

We are currently on spring break this week and loving it. I am disappointed to have woken up with a nasty cough and sore throat, but at least we don’t have to run anywhere. To me, the worst part of school is having to follow someone else’s schedule. Homeschooling spoiled this mama in that way. I can’t tell you how many times I heard through the years, ” how do you do it?” At the same time I was thinking, ” How do you do it?” If we wanted a day off we took it. My rebellious spirit still struggles with the lack of freedom conventional school creates.

Back to Luke – he is growing on salad and Fruity Pebbles. I am not sure how that is going to turn out. I am also not sure about his desire to eat healthy and his choice in cereal.

Lily, (age 16), on the other hand, is the queen of leftovers. We adopted her when she was 6 years old. She spent her first 6 years in China, and I am certain she never saw a sandwich. Pretty sure she is still silently judging me when I serve her anything cold. She recently brought a thermos of leftover mashed potatoes to school for lunch, rather than taking a ham and mayo sandwich on squishy white bread like the other children. I seriously worried she would be sitting all alone at lunch, because kids can be cruel and she’s a bit nerdy with what she chooses to pack. I am not a mean mom. It’s just that I was a teenager once. The lunchroom can be the judgement seat. But that’s Lily – she doesn’t really care what others think….and she thinks cold food is stupid.

So, driver’s ed – it’s coming.

I don’t wanna. Seriously, much to my son’s disapproval, I have been putting it off as long as I can. It isn’t offered at their school so I have to make it happen. Rather than disrupt the school year with a month of four nights a week, (yes 4 nights!), I decided to wait until the summer and put both teenagers in at the same time. It will take up the entire month of June. See….I am not good at this scheduled stuff.

Besides the 4 nights a week for the month of June, I will be responsible for training them behind the wheel. Two at the same time! What on earth? Dear God, my blood pressure. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. I can’t talk about this anymore. I am literally taking deep breaths as I write this.

Oh motherhood….if it’s not one thing it’s another.

Sometimes I can’t believe I am here. First of all, why am I so blessed to have 6 amazing humans in my life? Second of all, how can I be this responsible? I’m pretty sure I am not actually! I am so totally winging this stuff. You kind of just get thrown into motherhood. You would think after 6 children, I’d confidently say….” I’ve got this stuff down. Stand in line and I’ll give you all free advice.” Yeah, no.

I heard something recently that will stick with me. It was a quote, and I wish I could remember where it came from. It said…”Stop asking children what they will be when they grow up. They are being right now.” I really love that.

I have some big goals I am working toward right now in life. My big goals are not more important than my children’s current goals. They are in life right now also. Their goals don’t matter less because they seem smaller to a grown up. This is their life. My teenagers have a goal to drive. It will take a lot of my time and cause me a ton of anxiety and worry. That time might interfere with my goals a bit. But we are here for each other. If I am not feeling well and need to go to bed, they help me out. If I need to finish some writing, they clean up dinner. They are precious. We are in this thing together, and I couldn’t ask for better cranky, funny, adorable, awkward partners.