Not quite what the Bangles sang about, but now that they are all grown-up, married/divorced, and moms, I am SURE they are picking up what I'm putting down.
The thing about busy days, especially Saturdays when my husband is gone, is that one current member of our household simply is not satisfied unless she is the center of attention. Attention seeking even to her own detriment, but on days like today, she has to try even harder to gain the attention her frenetic mind craves.
She almost pulled me into the fray, but nope. I win. Again.
So over dwelling on that unchanging mess, though, so let's talk about the day that I can proudly say we survived in good humor!
The gauntlet started around 5:00 when our sitter arrived. So thankful she could come, especially on such short notice. She is such a nice girl, though, that I knew she'd be manipulated the entire time--I was right. C'est la vie.
I drove M1 to her friend's house as the parents of her friend had agreed to take her when they drove said friend to a Halloween party both girls had been invited to this week. I then drove to a local rec center for a parent/player meeting for the basketball program M2 has joined this year. After the hour-long meeting, we had to size and order her gear for the season. Each piece was reasonably priced, but with all the pieces, it became pricey! So thankful that my Scentsy month last month netted me the 5% commission bonus because that really helped take the sting completely off the check writing. I would much rather shell out Scentsy money for something like this than our upcoming gigantic legal bills, but it is what it is.
Once the meeting and gear ordering were complete, the girls could go swim in the rec center's very nice pool for about 90 minutes. M2 took advantage of every minute. She showered off a little then changed and we left. I stopped for a quick dinner on the way home which she ate in the car. She needed to be home and showered to meet her friend for an overnight. They were to pick her up at 9:00. We made it with time to spare.
At 9:30, I left to pick up M1 and her friend from the party and deliver her friend to her house. We were home by 10:30 or so. What a whirlwind day!
M2 thanked me for the weekend--she liked Thursday's outing, she enjoyed yesterday's Girl Scout field trip and then our time together today. She can be very sweet when she puts her mind to it. It was nice to see her relaxed and to see her looking forward to things to come with the new basketball season.
I am looking forward to a time, I hope very soon, where these little glimpses of my baby girl are the norm rather than the exception--like they used to be. I trust that we will be able to return to some sort of normalcy. I don't expect it to be a seamless transition for the kids (although I know for myself it will be fine), but I trust they can regroup with whatever help we can provide them and will be stronger people for it. Lots of lessons to be learned in all this--mainly: unconditional love does not mean anything goes. It isn't unconditional love to keep someone in a situation where they cannot have a chance of healing or being a better person. That's selfish. Love isn't selfish. Being able to love someone enough to realize they are above your pay grade and they need more than you can give is a love more caring than the white knuckled, unyielding grip kind.
Two years ago, we really thought we knew what our future held. We had made decisions we thought would put us where we desired our family to go.
Now? Not so much. Some doors we thought we'd opened have slammed shut--that's okay. Doors that we though were closed forever are creaking open a little--also okay.
I'm interested to see where we are two years from now.
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