Quiet

It's awful quiet around here today...both of my kids are at school.  Around here we do staggered enrollment for kindergarten meaning that the kids come only one day for the first week.  Oren's day is today.  So, he'll be home with me the rest of the week and then next week we go back to normal of both at school every day.

  But for today, it is quiet here.  There's no one telling me a long, drawn-out story about what his gun built out of trios and tinkertoys can do.  There's no Scooby Doo or Phineas and Ferb in the background.  There's no drinks to pour, lunches to fix or fights to break up.  There's no swimming all day, no hugs and kisses, and smiling faces.  It's a glimpse at the next 13 years.

 
   I apparently surprised all of my family this morning by not shedding a tear.  I will miss my sweet kids who keep right on growing even when I ask them to slow down.  But, I know that growing means going...  I only get to keep them with me for so long before they must go out into the world and build their own lives.  I like to think of school as the beginning of that process.  It's a chance for them to learn things other than what their Daddy and I teach them.  It's a chance to make friends in their own way and deal with situations.  School is a chance to learn that the world outside your front door isn't always as nice or as loving as inside, but it's full of great people and great opportunities, too.  And those not so nice people and experiences help you grow as well...Momma just doesn't like that part as much.  School is also a trial run for me too.  They're gone from me for 6 hours a day in a world I cannot control.  I can't stand behind them and help.  I can't fight their battles for them.  I can only wait to find out how it went and support them through it all.  Sooner than I will want, they'll be grown and making their own life, calling me for support hopefully, but making all of their own choices.  This is just the beginning.

   I am proud of the children my babies are becoming.  I am proud of their abilities and their choices.  I am proud that God gave them to me to teach all that I know and love as best as I can.  And that, might just have made me shed a tear.  As my own Momma always says "My cup runneth over."

P.S.  I got the idea for the chalkboard and photo shoot from Mandy.