The Difference a Year Makes

It's amazing the difference a year makes.

While these particular pictures aren't the best at showing how much he's grown, on the left is Fred at the end of 7th grade after the National Jr. Honor Society Induction. On the right was last week, end of 8th grade as he received his pin for NJHS. (I still think parents should at least get a sticker for planning and providing all transportation for the 15 hours of community service.)

As he walked across the stage a mom in front of me commented, "He looks ready for high school. He'll fit in; he's the right size."

She's right. He's ready. And amazingly I am too.

I read a post the other day about a mom wanting to freeze time and stop her kids from getting any bigger because time is moving way too fast. I agree that at times it does move way too fast. I miss squeezing those chubby legs and hearing peals of giggles while playing chase. I also teared up the other day in Target when I saw the graduation supplies and realized we were only 4 short years from that milestone. However, these two years of middle school have also been precious. I love watching Fred grow physically and mature in all ways. Oh, I've worried myself silly and annoyed my friends with endless conversations on the subject of "what in the world are we going to do with Fred?" But I've been blessed that those same worries led me to prayer and granted me God's blessed answers to those prayers. Sometimes we get a glimpse that he does listen to us. We do help form his life and choices. As we as parents grow and release him to make some of his own choices, he makes good ones and gains confidence.

The general opinion in our area is that middle school is tough and once you get to high school it seems a little better. Fred came to me over that little bit of insight yesterday.

He said, "Mom, middle school has been great. I don't know why everyone worries about it. I was thinking on the bus today, that if I liked middle school, its the best school I've ever been in, maybe high school will be awful for me instead."

There's my positive thinker. I assured him that life was only going to get better. I pray it does only get better. I'm going to continue to enjoy his growth. I'll always have me sweet memories of a little boy with a big belly laugh, but I don't want to miss any of the new things to come.

Longest Week Ever

I just want to state for the record that last week was the longest short week of my life. Having a holiday for Memorial Day only seemed to make the rest of the week more hectic. Adding a barbeque for our Small Group on Monday might not have been the most relaxing way to spend an extra day off. Especially when I spent the first 2 hours stressed that I had not made enough baked beans or bought enough Diet Coke, and what would we do if we ran out of either? Should I send Hon, who was busy entertaining everyone with bocce ball to the store for more? Oh, the dilemna!

You'll be happy to know that the Diet Coke drinkers happily switched to my preferred Diet Pepsi, and we did run out of beans just before the last person went through the buffet line - me. To be honest, I had probably tasted more than a serving's worth while making the woefully small amount of baked beans.

I spent the rest of the week wondering what day it was and why was it not Friday yet. We started swim team practices, tried to start tennis, had many rain outs, a National Junior Honor Society Pinning, and more basketball on top of our normal stuff. Why wonder I'm having trouble pulling myself out of bed before 7 am. I also had a major stand off with the school "powers to be" over the Dude's schedule for middle school.

I know the above paragraph may be boring, but its probably better than a post about each of those events. I'll save myself the time and trouble of long posts and sum up what I learned last week.

1. Always buy 3 2 liters of Diet Coke for our small group. They love the stuff.

2. Keep bandaids on hand for older teenage boys. Apparently bloody hands from using a splinter filled fence as home base is not enough for them to actually use the tree next to the fence instead. Bandaids are a mark of honor.

3. I must be an advocate for my children, even though I hate confrontation. Just because something is the right thing to do and makes sense, does not mean a school system will do it. Unfortunately, the squeaky wheel does get the attention. While that principle makes me steam, my children are well worth it.

4. It's a really good thing I'm already on blood pressure medicine, so I can handle situations like # 3.

5. Saving up all the laundry for a week is a great excuse to finish an excellent book. World Without End was almost as good as Pillars of the Earth. Good enough that I'm already saving up laundry for a re-read.