Adventures in Parenting Your Grown Children

Grown-up kids are great. They are smart, care about their money (and yours, at least while they're still in college), are doing amazing things, and are living good, productive lives. It does a mom's heart good.

My grown-up kids are all those things, except that they live anywhere from 1800-4800 miles away, so I don't always get all the details of those good lives they are living. I have to remember to ask about the details because it's just not a habit for them to share everything that's going on. I get that, but sometimes I do shake my head a little. Moms want to know some stuff, you know?

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Simple Things

I can't seem to make a regular blog post anymore, but here are some photos at least.

Sometimes simple things make such happy memories. Like accompanying toddling twins (and their mom) to the Maryland Science Center. They weren't still for long enough to get any great photos, but oh, was it some fun times to follow them around the children's room and watch them explore.

And seeing the sun over the harbor on a morning that wasn't freezing cold: 

And finally seeing the first daffodil. They are about 2 weeks later than usual: 

And having somebody acknowledge a lot of years of your life: 

13 seasons of wrestling are over. 

And knowing how much those years meant to your kids:

Thanks for looking. 

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Pen and Paper...and Pictures (of course)

I have been doing a LOT of writing lately.  Just none of it here. I thought I'd better remedy that. For various reasons I've been writing mostly with Pen and Paper. I know. So old fashioned. In spite of how much I love this little space and how much I love knowing that people care enough to read this, I really think I'll always have a paper journal. The act of writing is so important to me. It helps me unwind my constant tangle of thoughts into something useable, so it is necessary for me.  I have been loving carrying this around with me all the time. It is the exact opposite of cute or fashionable, but it has everything I need. And though I'm not currently using one,  I do love those slim Moleskines, and this just makes me want to click "add to cart." And oh yes, you must try this.

So anyway, why all the handwritten journalling? Part winter, part mental funkiness over some things that have been happening in the family,  part being less busy for the last month than I have in a while, and a fairly big part as a result of some online art journaling classes I've been taking. I do like thumbing through journals, feeling that particular crispness of the pages, or seeing the art I've created.

My various journals, both written and altered, among my mom's
african violets, my heart rocks and,
in the middle, a plant I just received from a friend.
We were visiting her home while at the
cabin, mentioned how beautiful the plants were
and she just gave them away to any who
wanted one.  I will treasure that plant.
Luckily, it's supposed to be easy to grow. :o) 

All in all, everything is peachy. The wrestling season is almost over, with me now chunking through the processing of many thousands of photos for the guys and trying to get them put up on facebook. I do love it when one of those wrestlers makes one of my photos his profile picture. I love seeing my work on facebook sprinkled among my friends. It makes me happy and satisfied with my work to make an image that someone feels good about using to represent who they are.

This is not Ev, but one of his teammates.
It was one of the best moments of the season, though,
and one of my favorite wrestling photos ever. 

The last weekend of January was The Beloved Weekend at the Cabin. I write about it every year and this year was exactly the same, which is awesome, and different in many ways, which is also awesome. I got to see and hear and talk to friends that I don't see very often. Pure sweetness.  We had more special times with our Amish friends, which included watershed moments of singing songs in a one-room-schoolhouse and being sung to in return by 28 gorgeous kids. Whew, I'll never forget that. I'm almost glad we can't take photos of those good people because I really try to see the moments and remember the details. Oh it was a precious time.

Here we are. Some have been coming for twenty years. 

It's been a creative and productive winter so far, and I've enjoyed the mild weather we've had. I even did a little work in the garden. I'm preparing to sprout some late seeds on my beautiful seed starting stand that Eric made for me a few years ago. I've been going through lots of boxes and deciding that if something is worth keeping, I want to enjoy it. So, pictures have been hung, photos have been framed and I'm happy for the daily reminders of good times and precious relationships.

A selection of my boys' tiny glasses from when they were small.
Some of them are nearly destroyed, but I like seeing how used
and real they are.  These little objects were a major part of my
 life as a mom. 

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Wrestling

Tonight was the wrestling banquet for Evan's high school team. It was such a great event, with good food shared, comradarie enjoyed, kind words spoken, funny stories remembered, and a general nice feeling. The other parents are so nice-even though I'm not so outgoing at things like this, I do like helping and being useful, mostly because it is such a good icebreaker and I can get over my shyness and get to know people. In addition, there are strong boys on the team and hardworking guys doing the coaching, and my boys have all benefitted from the rigorous program at our school.  Evan had a tough first season, but he came out of it fully invested in the team, ready for more and having learned that losing is not the end of the world.  Here is another of my big projects of late-I was the team photographer and sorted through the more than 1200 photos I took during the season to come up with this:

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