The Making of a High School Mom/EDITED TO ADD

If you are a long-time reader here, you know by now that my children are my #1 priority in life. Pretty much every decision made is formulated on what's best for my kids. Thankfully, my husband shares the same value system, and raising our children is definitely a two-parent operation. This value system is not, however, shared by some others that I know, and that has caused friction. Friendships have been dissolved over this, but more mundanely, many hair appointments, lunch dates, and social engagements have been canceled because one or both of the progeny has a practice, a lesson, an obligation at school, or has fallen ill and had to miss school that day.

And I'm fine with that.

Let's back up for a moment, shall we? Many moons ago, when I was a young 18-year-old entering college, my dream was to become a singer doing chorus lines in Broadway shows while working hard on getting my rock band ready to "hit the big time." I entered music school with that dream firmly in my mind and implanted in my motivational drive. I pressed the accelerator and drove onward, believing I would be successful.

It didn't take long for me to realize that not only did I lack the talent to take this dream and make it come to fruition, I didn't really have the motivation to stick with the plan. So, I changed my dream to fit reality, and decided to become a writer.

Never once did my dreams include becoming a full-time, stay-at-home mom, and yet, here I am thirty years later, content in my life, and fully acknowledging that the most important thing I will ever do in this life is to be a mother to my children.

I found it humorous that just weeks before my daughter was to begin her high school career, my high school class held it's 30 year reunion. While she was looking forward, I was gazing backward, reminiscing with high school pals on Facebook about times past and smiling about past exploits while cringing at the mistakes.

How is it that I have now become the mother of the girl perched on the threshold of her future, contemplating how she will plot her course through high school in order to achieve her dreams? How does she lay the ground work in these four years in order to provide a springboard to launch her to the next level?

The future is set for no one. As technology grows and advances in ways that mere mortals cannot fathom, how do educators and parents help our kids become ready to seize opportunities and make them their own dreams and goals?

I don't know the answers, but the fun is in the trying. And the doing. And the failing. And in the perseverance. And we'll do it the old-fashioned way....with love, patience, support, and lots of laughter.

Best of luck to you, my baby songbird. May you become the best YOU you can be. I'll be here to catch you if you fall, and I'll be the first one to prop you back up. Go forth, and take the world by storm.

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****At the request of The Palm Springs Savant, I've added a track from our parish's Christmas CD of two years ago. The singer at the opening and the lead singer of the children's verse is my daughter, The Bonnie Lass. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, there is a video of my daughter filmed this past May of her singing the National Anthem. Enjoy. :) ***

My Life is a Snow Globe

You know how when you look at a snow globe everything is still and quiet? And then you shake the hell out of it, and chaos rains in the form of all the "snow" falling everywhere? Yeah, that's how I feel about now.

School started today. TODAY. And already I'm in a whirl. Actually, the maelstrom started weeks ago with twice nightly band practices, meetings every night for this committee or that, and tae kwon do four nights a week. I will be doing the school volunteer duty three times weekly again this year, and then there's the inevitable marching band parent duties and choir mom assignments. I had to give an emphatic "NO!" to the new officers of the grade school PTO when they asked me to chair another committee this year. When in the hell would I find the time?! As my husband said, our family budget no longer subsidize another unpaid activity on my part. ;)

It seems I'm always making excuses for not blogging, writing, or visiting your blogs, and I realize that my "excuses" do not explain my absences, but I just don't seem to have it in me anymore. I will say, however, that lately I've had a book idea germinating in my head, so perhaps soon......when I get the "time".........

Oh, and given that I no longer take daily photos as I used to in the "olden" days of blogging, I've included a gratuitous photo that I took back in Ohio. ;)

Did You Ever Get the Feeling......

......that you just didn't fit in anymore? That groups in which you used to fit like an egg in an egg carton no longer provide the cushion you had? That people with whom you used to laugh freely and talk at length no longer stimulate your conversational appetite?

It's disconcerting. And I don't like it.

I get invited to go out for drinks with friends, and no longer do I feel like their conversations engage me. I am surrounded by women with whom I no longer feel a connection; whose goals and values seem to........run opposite to mine.

Am I imagining it, or am I just getting older and pickier and more cynical, the way I was when I was a mere 19-year-old, no longer fascinated with the world around me and jaded before my time? Perhaps it's just because I prefer the company of my family............