Forehead Kiss

Some small children have rituals to allow them to go to bed: bed time stories, bath times, maybe a special blanket of stuffed animal. My fourteen year old still has one ritual which I will saddly miss when it ends. Every evening before she goes to bed, I still have to give her a forehead kiss. This simple act can mean forgiveness for a difficult teen / mom day. It can be the affirmation of a day of working together. It can be the symbol of solidarity when times are tough. Just because our kids grow up we should not stop these simple, perhaps childish forms of affection. If you don't have a ritual, maybe it is time you make one up.

Homecoming Dance Update

We successfully found a beautiful dress in record time. . . I should have known that trouble was brewing. The principal of the high school called to Friday around lunchtime to get emergency numbers and confirm that DD was "enrolled in high school". . . I should have never called back! I should have been a rotten mom and not tried to make sure that they had emergency information, but whoops, my rule abiding side made me call. . . what a mistake.

After two calls with the principal and one with the vice principal, DD was banned from the dance. She was 13 and not "enrolled" in their school. At first it was just her age, but when I challenged them that they would have 13 year olds in attendance i.e. Freshman with birthdays in November and December, they then added the phrase "and enrolled in their school". I've got to tell you as a person who pays my taxes in this district but does not use the school system, this answer burned my butt!

So she was super beautiful with nowhere to go, but she handled it like a champ. Even I would have to admit that at her age, I would have slammed the door, flooped on my bed, and cried. She put her earings, necklace, and heals on and danced to music downstairs. She even encouraged her "date" to go without her. As she said, this was his first homecoming and he should make sure that he went.

What did we learn out of the deal:
- she is taller than me when she wears heals.
- we emphasized the reason that we homeschool . . . the ability to make decision on an individual basis and not by "policy"
- that DD really is growing up not just physically but in maturity too
- Mom's kisses can't make everything better anymore

Confirmation

For those of you that were concerned about dd being confirmed in “Her Church”, the house hasn’t sold yet and so we signed her up on Sunday. We got special dispensation from the Reverend to allow her to take the class a year early and so she will start on the first Wednesday of October.

Song for you Funeral

Today on the radio, Courtney of 95.7FM was asking what song you wanted played at your funeral. She would only accept funny answers of she would hang up.

Later in the day as the kids and I were driving around checking out towns, "I am a warrior" by Scandal came on the radio. DD delcared, "Mom, here's your funeral song." I personally took it as a complement and gave her a high five.

My own choice would have been "Spirit in the Sky". It may no reach Courtney's funny factor, but I love its high spiritedness.

Do you have a song that you would like . . .not the traditional hymns, but one that would be a little funny?

Slumber Party

DD is at a sleepover tonight. It is her BFF’s birthday party. They were going to Laser Tag and having a pool party with boys and girls. Then just the girls were sleeping over. My DD is growing up. It wasn’t too long ago she was able to go her first sleepover – period. Slumber Parties are a rite of passage for girls. They have their good points and there propensity for problems – does truth and dare sound familiar? And my baby girl (I’m sure that she will hate that term, but all you mom’s understand the feeling) has passed through this cusp. It just reminds me how few years we have left before she won’t be sleeping under our roof period. Parenthood is such a fleeting period of our life. It can seem like forever when you are getting up for the third feeding in a night and it may seem never-ending when you are shuttling them to and from all their social activities. But truthfully, it is just a blink in our lives.

Hopefully DD will have a wonderful and relatively uneventful overnight. I’m sure she’ll have lots to tell us about – especially the part about boys tomorrow.

By, D