"I have been blessed with so much more than I deserve ..."

I love you too, Emilie. :-)

-----

Jimmy came through the door last night, with excitement in his voice ... haven't heard that in a long while. He is being sent to Texas for a 1-night stay this week. Poor man has been home for a month almost. Think of the agony!!!

-----

Patti sent me an e-mail this morning, the subject of which has been on my mind for months ...

I became a mother when I was barely grown myself ... some people have told me that I was nowhere NEAR grown at the time ... and I used to think that if I could just get past the point where they would sleep through the night, everything would settle down and get back to normal. Later I would think that once they could walk on their own ... my life would be so much easier. And surely after they started school, life would calm down a bit. About 10 years ago, I'd observe people whose children had reached young adulthood, off to college or living on their own, and think, "Wow. Now THAT must be when a parent can finally relax. "

Are you seeing the pattern of delusional thinking here?

Maybe because I started the whole thing so young, I never really grasped the concept that it's never going to be "the way it was before". I spent YEARS of my life thinking that the passage of time would make parenting easier.

As Daddy always used to say, "Too soon old, too late smart!" I think I get it now. It ain't gonna be gettin' easy. Not now. Not ever.

Now here's the timely e-mail I got this morning from Ms. Patti:

-----

Somebody said, "It takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've had a baby."
Somebody doesn't know that, once you're a Mother, "normal" is history.

Somebody said, "You learn how to be a Mother by instinct."
Somebody never took a three-year-old shopping.

Somebody said, "Being a Mother is boring."
Somebody never rode in a car being driven by a teenager with a Learner's Permit.

Somebody said, "If you're a good Mother, your child will turn out 'good'."
Somebody thinks that a child comes with directions and a guarantee.

Somebody said, "Good mothers never raise their voices."
Somebody never came out the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through the neighbor's kitchen window.

Somebody said, "You don't need an education to be a Mother."
Somebody never helped her fourth-grader with math.

Somebody said, "You can't love the fifth child as much as the first."
Somebody doesn't have five children.

Somebody said, "A Mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in the books."
Somebody never had a child stuff beans up his nose or in his ears.
(Or swallow a refrigerator magnet. Right Emilie?)

Somebody said, "The hardest part of being a Mother is labor and delivery."
Somebody never watched her 'baby' get on the bus for the fist day of kindergarten ...

... or a plane headed for military boot camp.

Somebody said, "A good Mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind her back."
Somebody never organized four giggling Brownies to sell cookies.

Somebody said, "A Mother can stop worrying after her child gets married."
Somebody doesn't know that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a Mother's heartstrings.


Somebody said, "A Mother's job is done when her last child leaves home."

Somebody never had Grandchildren.

Somebody said, "Your Mother knows you love her, so you don't need to tell her."
Somebody isn't a Mother.

-----

Thanks Patti! :-)