Late bloomer

Gold star for me and put a stamp in my now-I-am-an-adult passport.  I went on a choir trip, my first time ever chaperoning a school field trip! When you homeschool, you are late to the game on the normal mom stuff.

I was anxious about it.  This introvert does not love new experiences with people she doesn't know and then there are the teenage girls.

(Emma does not help this anxiety.)

Awhile ago, she informed me that I had been awkward with the Young Women in our ward.  (Which is surprising to exactly no one.)

I said, "I'm sorry if I embarrass you."

She said, "It's not so much that you embarrass me, as you embarrass yourself."

(I hope someday she has a whole fleet of snarky teenage girls.)

Anyway, I felt anxiety.

But it wasn't bad.  I walked into the choir room first thing in the morning to hear their angelic voices warming up.  I could listen to those kids all day.  Emma's eyes lit up when she saw me and she smiled at me across the room. (See? She's not a bad kid.)  I was assigned to bus one.  I took roll and the kids were very nice on bus one.  While we drove to Salt Lake City, I chatted with the choir teacher about our sons.  His son Micah, who is Braeden's friend, is serving a mission in Portland.  It's still surreal to be so surrounded by Mormons but it's a good kind of surreal.

We went to the Festival of Trees and one of Emma's friends was feeling faint so I took care of her and felt like I was really getting my money's worth for the chaperone experience.  While we were backstage and the kids performed, I talked with the other moms.  One of the other mothers is in the process of adopting 5 children who are siblings and have been in foster care.  She gave birth to three kids and adopted another so is currently mothering 9 children.  "So how many kids do you have?" she asked.

Um...three.

I felt a little sheepish.

After they performed, I bought Emma and her friends a snack and we walked around looking at the trees and letting Vanessa rest periodically because she still wasn't feeling well.  I enjoyed being with the girls.  Teenage girls aren't really as intimidating in practice as they seem to be in theory to me.  (Teenage boys don't intimidate me at all.  You pretty much just need to feed them and they are on your side for life.)

Mr. Wilcock thanked me profusely when we got back to the school.  (I had after all, taken roll again when we loaded up to return.  My job was quite vital!)

As I was driving up the hill to my house in the sunshine, with snowy Mt. Timpanogas filling my view, I reflected that it really is a pretty good life.

Performing arts make me happy.  The kids that perform make me happy.

Maybe I'll sign up for another field trip sometime.  I feel like I'm practically a grown up.