Pathways

All over the blogs and overheard here and there..

"Thank Heavens, school starts next week."

I never said or felt this..

I felt "oh no, the kids are going back to school."

I will miss them so much and will miss moments in their lives.

I was always parked in the afternoon lot 15 minutes earlier

than the other Moms to grab the closest spot,

and eagerly searched for those sweet faces coming up the path,

over the rise at the end of their days.

I had initiated a 2 question routine to garner every tidbit of their days.

"What is the best thing that happened today?" followed by

"What is the worst thing that happened today?"

a sure fire winner to get the kiddies talking.

Because I did not have a car when my kids were very young,

(an economic factor to enable me to stay home)

we spent 90% of our days at home playing,

and 10% walking to the market or the library.

I was very selective about quantity and quality of tv viewing.

Only select shows and I watched with them. (no moral or

religious reasoning, I just didn't want their

sweet little heads filled with junk)

Most of the day was spent building with massive

wooden block sets, Legos etc, creating tent cities

all over the house or crafting. No video games until Junior High

(and they still whine about how deprived they were).

We borrowed and bought hundreds upon hundreds of books.

We painted and drew on reams upon reams of paper,

and should have owned stock in Crayola.

No pushing in any direction from their folks,

we just provided all the supplies to stir the imagination,

and waited to see where the paths led.

It didn't hurt that Daddy was an artist, and Mommy read

about ten books a week and crafted in between.

With all the hours of building I believed

Ben might be headed to engineering.

For about seven years we were convinced it would be music,

after the renting of five different instruments and lessons.

Hannah spun and twirled, would she be a dancer?

A physician was a possibility

as she spent hours "doctoring" her dolls and pets.

The blessing for me; I was there at home watching it unfold every day;

seeing the light in their eyes as they discovered and created

and yelled, " Mama, look at this!" I do know it was a blessing.

We bought a very inexpensive home, shared a car,

stuck to a very tight budget, and vacationed only at relatives homes

for many, many years. I cleaned houses where I could take

the baby with me and he/she napped while I scrubbed.

It was no less a word than Heaven.

Dearest Son taught himself to read and entered kindergarten

reading at about a fourth grade level, he is a writer today.

Darling Daughter won the first painting contest in Kindergarten,

she is an artist today.

They've chosen wonderful paths. Mom and Dad are very proud.

Suzan