Momma Hen

While having lunch with a friend at the local park: “Want to go play on the equipment?” Me: “Not really.” Friend: “Oh, that’s right, you don’t do things like that. You’re boring now.” Me: “I play with the kids when I bring them. But there’s a family with five kids over there and it’s their time.”

I am boring. He was so right in making that comment. And it was about three weeks later before it slapped me on the other side of my face. Yeah, I turned my cheek and got it from the other direction. It was just delayed.

Life got all to serious for me in 2006. And in 2007. And even more so in 2008. And in the process… I lost the “young” me… and life aged me. And I feel old. And boring.

And so the task begins for me to refind the “fun” me. The “let’s be spontaneous” me. The side of me that laughed almost daily until I nearly cried or wet my pants. The side of me that isn’t worried about anything because I know God provides all that my family needs. And the side of me that doesn’t worry if others think I’m being ridiculous and foolish, so long as I’m not abandoning respectability and decent sensability.

Last night was the beginning of that venture. X-man and I went to see the Harlem Globetrotters and we had an absolute blast. They were taking volunteers to participate and after coaching X-man to participate for one of the activities, he pushed me up on the floor for the next one. I couldn’t very well tell him no after I had been pep talking him on how he should “just have fun and don’t worry about anyone else.” If I had kept myself planted in the seat for fear of looking ridiculous, I would have been a hypocrit to my son, and that’s something I strive not to be. So I felt my body shaking all over because I was so nervous and paranoid. So I hardly grasped the directions for the game because when I get nervous I get scatterbrained and forgetful and can’t seem to absorb new information. So what if I had a Globetrotter psyching me out and I was supposed to pretend to be some coordinated basketball free-throw shooter. So what. WE HAD FUN!

X-man had a blast, and I was so thankful for that. He had been unsure of what we were going to, or just exactly what to expect. But at the end of the night he was super excited about autographs and he knew exactly who he wanted to sign his basketball. He knew precisely which points of the program were his favorites, and he remembered the show from start to finish. That tells me it kept his attention and he was entertained, because if you know my dear X-man in real life you know that he isn’t an overly exciteable child unless something REALLY peaks his interest.

We’ve been having a lot more game nights at the house. We usually try to have one a week at least (that’d be DH, X-man and myself). But in the last few weeks we’ve been trying to have them a couple of nights a week. Game night=Family time. It’s great. Some nights I’m too tired for a real elaborate game, but we have so many to choose from we can usually find something that will make everyone happy, even if it’s only 30 minutes.

And I can hardly wait for Disney this summer with X-man. This year is going to consist of me acting like the biggest kid ever with him, because that’s what we do.