Sometimes, They Pay Off

Most of the time I'm in a frenzied state of motherhood.  Am I doing the right things?  Why did I let those turkeys go outside and play when their bedrooms look like this?  Am I pushing something that shouldn't be pushed?  Am I not pushing them enough?  Am I doing too much?  Not enough?

Are they going to turn out all right?

Tonight I was granted three wishes by a magic genie...maybe there wasn't a genie involved.  But it felt like magic. 

Mark's on trial for swim team...Thursday is the day of reckoning and if his side breathing isn't better, he's being tossed to the curb.  I had already signed him up for a few private lessons to work on his swimming.  In the many swim lesson sessions Mark has had in the past, he has learned exactly nothing.  The instructor learns his name within the first five minutes and repeatedly calls for Mark to come up from under the water where he's bobbing around and not paying attention.  And that's about all that happens.

I thought a private lesson would work better.

1st wish granted.  Mark worked harder than I've ever seen him work in a pool.  He still doesn't have it down and I'm not sure he'll make the cut but I couldn't be happier about his effort.  He worked hard.  He's progressing.  It thrilled me.

Emma is the quintessential introvert.  She starts to get agitated (like her mother) without small doses of alone time.  She never strayed inches away from me when she was a toddler and we were in social settings.  She's not exactly comfortable with strangers.  Ever.

Tonight she wanted to go to a writing group she heard about at the library.  I was fully intending to rescue her if I needed to.  We found the room at the library.  The fellow bookish looking kids greeted her in a friendly way and I retreated to the main part of the library.

2nd wish granted.  She emerged 90 minutes later with her glowing face that told me before I could ask that she'd had a marvelous time.  It seems like she connected with kindred spirits at the Mukilteo Library.  I think she was too happy to remember to be shy.

Braeden eats like a teenager.  He's occasionally sassy like a teenager.  He's always opinionated and pushy.  He's pretty sure he's smarter than Adam and me put together.

Tonight when I was waiting at the library for Emma, I was cold in the overly-air-conditioned-though-I-don't-know-why-it-needs-to-be space.  I went out to the van to see if I could find something else to put on.  I found Braeden's hooded Seahawks sweatshirt.  I slipped it over my head, snuggling into the roomy, warm-from-the-car softness.

3rd wish granted.  It's marvelous to have a teen-aged son whose sweatshirt fits, who will help me sync my bluetooth with my cell phone and who will carry heavy things.

I'm a happy mother tonight.

I'll keep all those unsettling questions about what on earth I'm doing with these children at bay.

And just enjoy.