Insanity Promised, Insanity Delivered

Today is Friday. A day that oozes anticipation for the coming sleeping late mornings of the weekend. Were I going to an office or "job" during the week now, I'd be soooo glad that today is today. But, I'm not. I have no use for what day of the week it is, except to get Stinkerbell off to school and The Mighty Hunter off to work on time.

When The Mighty Hunter's grandmother was still living - she passed Dec 2005 at 93 y-o - she taught me many things. Some of those things were not pleasant. That's a whole nother post. But one of the things I learned from her, as she aged and lost more and more of her independence and personality and awareness, is that if all you do is stay home (whether that actually be your home or a nursing facility or whatever) then you don't really need to keep up with whether it's Monday or Friday. The only difference between the days of the week is whether the wedding stories or baby stories were on tv or not.

I might as well be 93. Except I am the mutant, exception-t0-the-rule postpartum mom who is not obsessed with watching every birthing-related and baby-centric show on Discovery and TLC. I simply must watch my Y&R and even will occasionally enjoy a Days of Our Lives episode.

What is that nutty Sami going to do next?

As you should know as you've finished your required reading of my archives, Stinkerbell is in kindergarten. And our school year is about to end. And just to give us parents a little hint of what our summer will be like with our wild kids, our school district is taking advantage of the unused weather days by shortening the remaining 3 weeks. No more school on Fridays.

Do they not think they've tortured us enough by making us do homework already? COME ON!!! Homework in KINDERGARTEN???? And, really, isn't it enough that we'll spend the entire summer with our heathens darling children?

So, instead of only having Saturday and Sunday with Stinkerbell, she'll be home on Fridays also. Which is good, actually, cuz she really likes to sleep late and that makes for a happier, better-rested Mommy.

To inaugurate the insanity I promised you, Stinkerbell's friend Lauren came over this morning and will be here till lunch. Her mom is a home health care social worker and a wonderful friend. Stinkerbell and Lauren play together in a wonderful, invisible, don't-be-afraid-of-the-silence kind of way. Our house is situated a long way from our road and surrounded by barbed wire fence. (Yeah, we're that kind of redneck. The other side of the fence is a cattle pasture, sans cattle. anyhoo...) So, I feel "safe" allowing them to play outside unsupervised. Stinkerbell is a mature 6 and Lauren is 8. They are both smart girls and don't climb too high in the pear tree.

Lauren's mom was at the doctor with Lauren's older brother. He had a pin inserted into his hip joint because it had completely dislocated. (ouch!) She was talking about how she was thankful her kids didn't climb trees and risk the broken arms that usually come with that sort of thing.

um, yeah. except, um, no.

And she still lets Lauren come over and play. And, yes, I still let them climb the tree.

I think we're all insane now. I think our society has gone totally bonkers in over-protecting our children to the point of not allowing them to play tag! Not keeping score in teeball or soccer!

I played ball as a kid and we lost most of our games, but we still played and we had fun. It didn't kill my self-esteem. It didn't make me a meth-head. I finished high school with honors and graduated from a major university (Dean's list, thankyouverymuch.)

I played tag in recess. I played against boys. ::gasp:: And we played football. Tackle. And I got tackled. By boys. And one really chubby boy stepped on my head - which might explain a few things, actually. And I got right back up and knocked him on his butt.

And I climbed trees. But not very high. And I fell out. Without breaking my arm.

My brother broke my arm. Playing kickball. On the next-to-last-day of school. And I didn't get to go swimming for 6 weeks that summer break!

I'll go out on a limb here and say that my self-esteem issues are much more complex than simply playing on a crappy softball team. And that climbing trees and tackle football at recess made me adventurous and less fearful than I might have been otherwise.

Nevertheless, I hate to see Stinkerbell disappointed and injured. I do love her. I do want her to succeed and be happy. I just want her to learn the "painful" lessons early while the pain can be relieved by a hug from Mommy.

And since this is Friday, and will be a particularly busy one, I'm preparing her for a new adventure.

This afternoon, she and The Mighty Hunter will continue their attempts at domination of the Every Game's a Tie teeball league. (Gosh! That irks me. I will just have to keep score myself!)

And then immediately after the game, we will rush off to dress rehearsal for her recital tomorrow. The performing arts school where she takes voice lessons rents the local civic auditorium/basketball court for this annual event. I really hope the spotlight is bright enough to keep her from seeing the 1200ish people they expect to attend.

Cause if I had to sing for 1200 people, I'd crap my pants.

I will video her rehearsal and try to post it for y'all.

Cuz you REALLY need to witness the CUTENESS!!!

Have a great Friday, y'all.