Mother's Day Musings

First of all:

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Happy Mother's Day to all you magnificent moms out there!

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Being a mother is one of the greatest joys in my life. It's also been one of my greatest challenges, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

That said, today, on the day we celebrate moms, I have thought a bit about how the whole mom routine has really shaped my life this week.

To start with, for the last forty-eight hours I spent most of my time in the car hauling my son all across the Inland Northwest to the various locations of the Idaho State Scholastic Shooting Sports Competition. My boy is on a competitive shotgun shooting team, and this weekend was the culmination of the past year's shooting practice and meets.

Friday was the sporting clays competition, and it was pretty cool to wander out into the woods north of Spokane, Washington and be surrounded by a couple hundred kids of all ages with shotguns. There were school buses and charter buses full of competitive marksmen, and many proud parents were in tow with their hand and eye coordinated spawn.

Me, I sat in the car and read books. Having a few quiet hours to oneself is a luxury, at least to yours truly.

Saturday was trap shooting day at the Hayden Skeet And Trap Club in Hayden, Idaho, it was there that we found out that my son had tied for third place in the entire state of Idaho for sporting clays.

The day he shot at state was the third time he had ever shot sporting clays. We both had a good giggle about the state of events, and I was a pretty proud ma in that moment.

We still don't know his trap placing in the competition, as we bolted from the range after he finished shooting his hundred rounds in the deluge at Hayden yesterday.

The weather has decided to do a throwback Thursday sort of fit throwing. My kiddo had to shoot in an absolute drenching scenario, complete with gallons of water flowing from the sky, hail, wind and oh yes, a blistering temperature of 43 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Once again, I hid in the car and read.

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Because there's not really much for one to do at a shoot. I mean, if it was a bit nicer I might have stood by and watched, but I have found it's sometimes nicer for my offspring to not have a parent lurking about when they compete in stuff.

Anyway, I am super proud of the boy and I'm glad he had fun, because to me the most important part of any extra curricular activity is that one enjoys doing the darn thing. There is far too much pressure to be an expert at something. There's joy to be found in just doing a thing and improving your own performance in it rather than being obsessed with being the best or getting a college scholarship in said extra curricular pursuit. So many parents get caught up in that nonsense and their children pay for it. I know so many kiddos who have the same level of burnout as a fortune 500 CEO from things like playing softball or cattle showing. But that's another post entirely.

At the same time my son and I were doing the whole shotgun competition thing, my daughter was getting ready to go to her Junior Prom. The weeks leading up to the prom were a whirlwind of accoutrement collection. Tickets, the dress, accessories, therapy for various friends, schedule collaboration. Phew, prom seemed a bit exhausting, but then again, I might just be getting old.

Or it might be that all these years of tending to growing and developing humans has put a bit of a wisdom and patience patina on my perception regarding said events. For I am never too tired to be there for my kids. Sometimes I grouse about being a bit on the exhausted side, but the raising part of children is a truly glorious marathon, a race that I am in the final stretch of.

It really does fly by, just like Veronica...

My two children are on the cusp of adulthood. And you know what, instead of feeling melancholy about that fact, wistfully grasping memories of the time when they needed me for everything, I am fully embracing the transition into the adult relationship with my two kids. I am truly blessed by the two people they are becoming, and after consecutively caring for children for the past thirty plus years, I am, to be completely honest, more than ready for the next stage of my life.

And what's great, is my two heathens will be around to enjoy whatever awesomeness that is with me.

The small blip in our timelines that our children are in our care while they are developing into their own people is a precious and joyous thing. The amazing (and sometimes painful reality) is that we all don't get the same experience in life. Some of us will never be parents (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!), some of us will have tragedy, some of us will have horrible upbringings, but at the end of the day we all have been born of a mother and we all get the amazing privilege of existing.

And not a single day goes by that I am not grateful for this wonderful, full, beautiful life that I have been gifted.

Thank you mom.

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And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's very well-traveled this past week and still slightly chilled from this May winter weather iPhone. The divider images were made in Canva