Hey there.
I'm here. I'm working hard. My life this summer is wrapped around the two C's. Life skills galore. Their camps and activities. Each day brings with it some aha moment like when I learn about patience from putting cream on my heels or good, better, best moment watching my son help a blind man up out of a chair, how my laments on not having a good camera/video camera is eased by the caricatures of my family by a dear friend.
T is rocking it at work. Now is the HR Director over HR, Travel, Compliance, and Front Desk/Reception. I've never in the 18 yrs I've known him ever seen him this happy at a job. This is truly his dream job. I get choked up when I think about it a lot. There is no one who deserves it more.
I hope that C looks back and remembers this summer. He has done some impressive things for scouts. He just earned his star badge. He's currently on a 6 day scout camp and is senior patrol leader. He gave all the boys their "chores" for camp and since there's an odd # of boys, one of them had to have latrine duty twice. I glanced at the sheet after C had left and there was his own name signed up twice. Good leader. Never ask anyone to do something you're not willing to do and more. 6 summers until he graduates. 6 chunks of time where he's with me, left. I have him work hard and I allow him to play hard when he finishes.
I am teaching him elocution, life skills, how to be more self reliant. His dad is working him hard in the yard spending time teaching him how to work. They are fishing together and C takes his buddies to the lake early mornings sometimes hrs before I get up to teach them how to fish. They catch a few too. I've been really trusting him in his activities. This neighborhood is amazing to be a kid in. It almost reminds me of some of my own growing up. The lazy summer evening bike rides, the night games of capture the flag, getting together a bunch of change and heading to 7-11 or to get a pizza. He's stretching his wings, making more choices (which is really really hard for me, but it has paid off in spades) We are trying to provide opportunities for him to succeed, and not set him up to fail. He and T go shooting and he will be getting his hunter's safety so the two of them can go hunting this fall. I've given a lot of the reigns to T to teach this kid how to be a man. I can't do that. I can love and nurture and instruct, but this is T's arena and I love seeing their relationship.
Little C. Miss social. Almost all of her friends are older. I try to find happy mediums for this phenoma. It's been hard. Drama in girl world. Sometimes I get involved, sometimes I bite my tongue. I remind her to not have a best friend. That God is her best friend. Her family are her best friends. She can have a bunch of friends, but none of this getting jerked around, one day friends, one day not. We talk about her being a "free agent" not having to get caught up in all of that. I know that's just my own story coming out. I've been hurt before so I just chose that for my own philosophy. In actuality, I love all of her friends. I feel so blessed. I love all of both my kids' friends. She spends time putting on shows, writing invites for all the neighbors, started a band with a couple of pals called "CCM Beat" They do covers of Taylor Swift songs-she dreams of playing guitar and wants to be a singer. She's funny. She has a gigantic temper in which she threatens to run away and shares her disdain of us very loudly, more often than I'm comfortable with. She's braver than I was at her age. She has a good relationship with her dad, which I never had, so I wonder what that will mean for her. More self confidence surely. She also isn't moving around every other year.
I often wonder what just those two changes in my life would have meant for me? Oh well. It doesn't matter, does it? I am who I am because of those things and I wouldn't change who I am or where my life is and my trials have gotten me here, so let's just go with it.
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