Monday Musings: Stop the World...I Want to Get Off

When I was a teen, my mom would take my sisters and me to visit my grandmother (mom's mom) in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where she lived. We'd go for 3 or 4 days, and one of the evenings would be spent on the boardwalk, eating ice cream, saltwater taffy, and French fries, buying t-shirts, and riding the rides in the arcade/amusement area. 

I remember one year we all climbed on to a spinning ride that went really fast forward and sideways and then stopped to go the same way backwards. I rode in the same car as my mom, and, to my mortification, she made the controller stop the ride so she could get off...which meant I got off, too. I was totally ungracious to her and remained embarrassed and a bit miffed that she couldn't stay on for a few more minutes for most of the rest of the evening.

It wasn't until years later that I rode on a ride (one I'd ridden many many times before) and suddenly understood the feeling of sheer panic that can run through you without any warning. It's nonsensical to those who don't understand. There's no rhyme or reason for it, but it takes over and consumes your reasoning until you have to change where you are or what you're doing to even get a tiny handle on sanity again. 

I blame it on hormones.

Funny, right? Not really. Not even slightly. It can be internally terrifying until you ground yourself again.

Fast forward to my own motherhood. I have often complained lamented mentioned in other posts on here that I feel like I'm barely hanging on to this ride called "Life" that sweeps the kids away into adulthood. I often occasionally wish that it would slow down (or even pause) to let me catch my breath. It's an odd sensation, not unlike my poor mom wanting to get off the ride that was terrifying her, making her feel dizzy.

I am dizzy.

I don't know if it's because the beginning of a child's life seems painfully slow that the race to the adulthood seems to speed up exponentially.

There's a saying many older parents use: The days are long, but the years are short.

So how is it that we are a less than three weeks away from graduating our youngest child...and our last homeschool student? How have we managed to finish this chapter so fast? Was it fast? Or is my perspective just skewed by living nearly 55 years of life? I don't remember the years flying by when I was a teenager. In fact, most of the time, they seemed to drag by with all of us anticipating the next phase with the common impatience of youth.

Stuart asked me the other day: "What's next for you?"

It was a hard question to answer...and one that was met with a lot of emotions.

What IS next? 

It's not something I really considered. I've been a stay-at-home mom for so long now, I don't really know how to redefine myself yet.

I guess I wish the wasn't "the end" of our homeschool journey, not because I want to hold back our son...but because I have so much more I want to learn with him.

The days are long, but not long enough, and the years are most certainly too short.

Sigh.

The Beginning of the End

We are beginning the end of "at-home" firsts with our youngest kid, which is always an exciting y(et numbing) feeling, I think. 

Ethan had requested to get his learner's permit after his birthday last September, but life -- as it does that time of year -- got crazy busy. So after getting the medical portion of the paperwork signed off by our doctor on Monday, we made a plan to go and get it today, which we did.

.....

We probably picked the wrong time and day to go. It felt like the DMV scene in Zootopia. You know the one where the sloths do all the paperwork?

THREE hours later, and we were celebrating! He passed with flying colors.

We have another driver-in-the-making in our family. The last one to get his first permit. We celebrated with ice cream!

Worded Wednesday

From Ethan's "2012 Art Collection."

Friday Funnies

Having a younger child in the house certainly keeps us laughing. He always manages to say the darndest things. But that's the fun of having kids, right?

Some Ethanisms for your reading pleasure:

Ethan needed the potty while we were at the beach last month. Since there weren't any bathrooms nearby, we suggested going deeper in the water and tinkling there. He looked shocked. We asked if he wanted to be like fishies, and he said, "No. They have different personalities."


After saying something that made us laugh, Ethan said, "I always come up with a plan to spice things up."


The kids like to play "Punch Prius" in the same way my sisters and I would play "Punch Buggie." The idea was to tap someone when you saw a VW Bug...only they do it with Priuses. On a car trip, Ethan yelled, "Punch Prius" in the car. His siblings looked around and couldn't see one so they challenged him. Not wanting to back down and be wrong, Ethan said, "I sensed a Prius."


What funny things have your kids said?

Tuesday Tip

Here's your (non)helpful Tip o' the Day from Ethan at age 4 or 5:

S-s-s-s-seven!

How did we get here? I'm not sure, but today is the day...

...and Ethan Samuel is officially...

7!!

 

Happiest of Birthdays to our fun and precious "caboose,"

the "baby toe" on our Foote, our Ethster Bunny.

 

We love you so very very much!

Wordless Wednesday

A Labor of Love

Looking back, I can see that it's been awhile...a LOOOONG while.

So long, in fact, that the last thing I posted was about Edward's 14th birthday in....February.

Gulp.

SO much has happened. Good, bad, easy, fun, hard. My brain has nearly popped with it all.

I'm good at giving out advice about savoring the moments, slowing down, yadda, yadda.... But it's hard to take your own advice, huh?

So here's a quick recap. I'll post more with photos after this. I think I just need to unload my brain.

Since February...

Edward had his first Keystone Exam. Emily was accepted to Albright College and won a Shirk Scholarship. We coached Ethan's Spring U8 soccer team. Both older kids went with friends to the prom. Emily graduated from high school. Edward finished 9th grade. Emily got her first good job (after a failed first bad job complete with an office full of e-cigarettes). We renewed her permit, and Emily started learning to drive in earnest. We switched Edward to 21st Century Cyber School. He started 10th grade. Emily developed a type of seizure similar to epilepsy. (We're still investigating.) Edward started school and his second year of high school soccer. We moved Emily into....college! (Eeek!) Ethan finished 2nd grade. And Stuart was accepted into the continuing education program at Albright College to finish his bachelor's of science degree.

Now, everyone is completely and utterly....overwhelmed!

It's amazing. We did manage to squeeze in a trip to Knoebel's with my parents, an overnight trip to Chincoteague/Assateague Islands, and our annual day of Camp Woohoohaha! But it was a tight squeeze. (And despite the millions of bites we all sustained while visiting the islands, all three kids were trying to figure out how to move down there. *wink-grin*)

So there you have it. A recap of months and months of events in one or two paragraphs.

And there it is....my brain unloaded...I think.

Until I remember that a week from today our youngest turns 7!!!

Saturday Sweethearts

My three sweethearts!

A blast from the past. This was from 2011 or 2012. It's amazing how much they've changed over the years. You think they do the most changing when they're babies, and they probably do. But during the years that follow there's a lot of change happening.

Here are a few more:

And most recently:

December 2014

Wordless Wednesday

Sweet Sunday

Back in December, we were treated again by 

our kids to the annual Foote Family Christmas Show. 

Here's Ethan (age 6) "singing" for us:

Throwback Thursday

I found this in the drafts on my blog...and it was slated to be published on December 18th...2008.

Wordless Wednesday

A Day in the Life

Or the life in a day?

Sometimes it feels as if we're living many lifetimes in one day. There's so much going on.

My brain tries to sort out our schedule and keep everything straight. Soccer at 3:30...drama at 6:30...dinner at 5:30...little-guy soccer at 6.....laundry, meals, cleaning, and, oh, that's right...I have a newspaper story due.

Still. The soccer season is nearly over. Drama rehearses for a short period of time during the autumn. All will end before I know it and life will slow down, if only a little.

Enjoy the moments as they come, I tell myself.

I got extremely nostalgic this past Sunday when we passed a mom and her young daughter walking on the sidewalk as we drove to church. Suddenly, I pined yearned longed for that time again. It seemed so much easier, simpler somehow. The kids got up and had breakfast. We got dressed. We did school. We had lunch with a couple of PBS shows and then read a story together. After that, it was playtime. The kids loved playing outside. They built "fairy houses" in the flowerbeds and washed rocks and ran around defending our house from "bad" guys. They were little, and I could carry them. My kisses were still magical and healed boo-boos. We colored together.

It was while I was thinking about this and admitting that I missed that time that our 6-year-old piped up, "But then you wouldn't have me."

My heart froze.

He was totally right. He's 11 years younger than Emily and 7.5 years younger than Edward. To go back in time 10 years would erase his existence.

Never.

Then I got to thinking about how much I enjoy the kids now. And while they don't play outside very often anymore...and school takes a bit more time than the morning (mostly due to concentration problems),..and they're not as much into PBS kids' shows anymore...and I can't carry them (they're 5'10" and 5'9" tall now...and even the "little" one is 4'6". Sigh.)...they still love to hug me...and my kisses still have magic of some sort in them because they are filled with love.


Enjoy the moments as they come, I remind myself.

One day I'll feel nostalgic when I see a mom and her teenagers walking along the sidewalk, chatting together.


Enjoy. The. Moment.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  

What makes you feel nostalgic?

Wordless Wednesday

Friday Funny

"See, Mommy? I have a 2-pack [of abs]!"

Love this kid!

Starting....

...second grade!

One day down...179 to go. Only kidding. It was an awesome day!

Oh, Happy Day!

What a difference six years makes, right?

From little to "big" in the blink of an eye. Today is Ethan's "Star Birthday," meaning his birthday actually landed on his actual day of birth.

We are so proud of this little guy! He woke up, and Edward asked him if he felt different. He said he felt taller...so we, of course, measured him, and he is actually an inch and a quarter taller.

Happiest 6th Birthday to our special "caboose," Ethan Samuel! We love you more than you'll ever know!

A couple of pics from today:

Saturday Sweethearts

Our favorite September "Birth-Month Buddies."

Come Fly Away with Me!

Ethan's special birthday adventure was to the National Air & Space Museum "Annex" (which, ironically, was the same place Edward went for his 6th birthday adventure). He wanted to see a Blackbird and a space shuttle. We saw both -- and more!

It was an awesome day!

Here's the link to the whole photo album.

Our favorite quote of the day:

The wisdom of a 5-nearly-6-year-old... Heard from Ethan in the car yesterday while we drove through D.C.: "I think the Secret Service is really dumb. Who ever heard of writing 'Secret Service' on a car. They're supposed to be SECRET, aren't they? I don't think that's very secret."