Thursday, May 7, 2009

ALLIGATORS


All right - it has been a few years since I had to wrestle with an alligator - oops - I mean a 3-year-old. I have been hanging out here in SoCal this week - being a mom to 4 boys. Yes, it has been awhile.

Let's see, boys are distracted easily, stinky, rough and tumbly. And when you think you will never get through, they suprise you with a tender sweet disposition. My boys are wonderful - I have 8 that I call mine, and then I have 4 SIL - which I will claim in a heartbeat if they will let me! So that is a total of 12 men in my life. I am pretty lucky.

I used to call about 10 other boys mine many years ago - but they all grew up and forgot how much I loved them, played with them, cared for them and prayed for them. Those were some of my nephews. I wish they could remember and understand how much my heart breaks when I see choices they make and how much my heart soars as I watch them progress in life. You never stop loving them, you just learn to refocus your love and attention to those who surround you.

Never did I imagine that my lot in life would be 5 daughters. I thought I would have boys - lots of them since I seemed to be surrounded by nephews - big ones, stinky ones, ones that teased unmercifully. But then I loved doing all the boy things - like digging in the dirt, playing ball, experimenting, exploring, discovering what the world was all about. My favorite book was "My Side of the Mountain." It was about a boy who ran away into the woods and survived by creating his own shelter, learned to eat from the land, etc. I would imagine my own world if I was left to my own devices and created in my mind a world that was magical (I still was a girl!).

Do I regret not having all those boys? No. However, I do have one son who loves to experiment, explore and discover what life is about. That really isn't much different than me!

Now I have 6 grandsons that will be experimenting, exploring and hopefully I will be a part of their lives as they discover what life is all about. But in the meantime, I still need to wrestle the alligator.

3 comments:

Bud & Kim said...

No the whole house isn't coming down. A lot of the foundation and framing will stay the same except where they are adding on to the house on the and side. But most of the drywall needed to be replaced because of some mold and because new electrical work will have to be done along with plumbing. Sorry the pictures won't show for you.

Unknown said...

looks like a load of fun.

No boys to wrestle around here.

I am going to have to read that book...One of my fav's was The Boxcar Children for the same adventurous theme.

Hang in there Grandma! :)

Adam and Jess said...

I was just catching up.. congrats on finishing up the semester well. I would love to take a sewing class again. I do agree that I've loved having boys, but I wouldn't mind a girl in the mix :) Maybe someday, right? My Mom says being a grandma is so much fun.. she wishes she'd made it that fun when she was a Mom.