Friday, April 21, 2023

The Morning Commute

Car doors open. We climb inside. Doors shut. Kacey Musgraves floats through the speakers. 


It’s quiet to begin with. The morning chaos is over and the three of us take a small breath of relief. 


Sometimes it stays quiet the whole ride. Sometimes there is a question about the day's plans or a curious thing they see. “Why can I see birds flying and then they turn and disappear for a few seconds and then I can see them again?” “Why do the trees shadows look like straight lines instead of tree-shaped shadows?” 

Other times there’s light discussion about something nerve-racking or exciting that is slated to happen at school. 

Mostly, it’s quiet. 

We pull up to the drop-off line and they both unbuckle and start gathering their things. Doors open. If I’m lucky, I get a quick “bye.” Some days it’s just a shutting of the door. I watch them go for half a second, wondering how my babies turned into teenagers. 

I let that thought linger for half a second more and pull forward. Don’t want to hold up the drop-off line. 

I turn right and head past the school. I send off silent good luck vibes and release them to the world. 

The woods are calling. My daily dose of peace and contemplation. As I head there, I watch as car after car passes with a teenager in the passenger seat. Some are sitting silently. Some have turned toward their parent and are chatting. Some are leaned back into the seat with their eyes closed. Some have hoods pulled over their head. Some have hair combed to perfection. Some have taken a more wild path. 

As I pass these people I have never met, I can’t help but think how similar our lives likely are. The struggles we face getting our teens out of bed in the morning or to bed in the evenings. The arguments. The emotional volatility. The quiet car rides. 

I think about this with the teens, too. In this drive to school, they are releasing the events of the morning and prepping for what’s to come. Important test. Did they study for it? Hard social situations. Will they be accepted or rejected today? Big game after school. Will they succeed or fail? Maybe they are excited. Anxious. Mad. Content. Whatever they are, for a few moments in the car, they are safe as they fortify themselves to take on another day of middle school. 

Whether the morning was filled with lively discussion, mutual explosions or quiet contemplation, those moments during the drive have an energy to them. A connectedness between parent and child that says I love you no matter what. I love you through tears and yelling and meanness. I love you through anxiety and frustration and incomprehensible behavior. I love you no matter what. Always. 

What a gift in that morning commute. 

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Stretching

 I’m struggling. I have been for awhile now. 

I knew this would happen. When I was holding hands with my three-year-old girls as we took a walk. When they climbed into our bed and snuggled under the covers each morning. When I was brushing the tangles out of their freshly washed hair. When they begged me to watch a movie with them. Or paint with them. Or play ponies with them. 










I knew a time would come when they stretched the umbilical cord long enough that they no longer wanted to snuggle or hold hands (or even go on a walk with me). When they wanted to be alone or with friends before they wanted me. 


But, dang, it hurts. 


From the moment I realized there wouldn’t be any more family walks in the woods, I’ve been trying to come to terms with this stretching. I’ve been trying to find a way for it to hurt less. I’ve tried ignoring it and I’ve tried sitting in it. It still lurks in the background of every scene. 


When they are sad and I want to wrap my arms around them like I used to, but they push me away instead. When I lean in for a kiss on their forehead and they pull back. When I plan a family activity and it’s met with groans. 


It’s even there during the rare tender moments. Move slowly. Don’t scare them off. No lessons. No lectures. Act cool. Like this isn’t the most precious moment you’ve had in months. 


It’s there and then it’s gone. I’m left trying to survive the disappointment without letting on how hard it is for me. Left to try to find peace, joy and purpose without them hand delivering it in giggles and kisses. 


I knew it would happen. It still hurts. And hang on heart of mine, there's still more to come. 




Sunday, September 11, 2022

TOP 20 REASONS WHY DOGS ARE BETTER THAN CATS

By Claire Seel 

Hi again, my mom wrote a blog back in 2010 called "Top 10 Reasons Why Cats Are Better Than Dogs" and i'm here to prove her wrong 

Dogs will wake you up if the house is on fire. Cats will sleep through it.


                                                              Can A Cat Do This? Boom! 

  1. You have to have their poop smell in your house (they poop in a box that's weird) 
  2. They help you stay active because they just want to have fun, with my cats I can just sit and watch tv but with dogs you have to go outside and smell the fresh air 
  3. You can train dogs to do pretty much whatever you want (Like putting away their toys)
  4. Dogs respond to their name unlike most cats who just ignore you  
  5. Dogs kisses don't feel like sandpaper
  6. Dogs are super social
  7. Their eager to please 
  8. You can play fetch, frisbee, or even hide and seek with cats it's just the hide and "sleep" 
  9. Most dogs enjoy car rides 
  10. No hairballs 
  11. Dogs can sense when your feeling down and try to help 
  12. Dogs will swim and get wet with you 
  13. Dogs will let you bathe them 
  14. Dogs will enjoy going anywhere you want (as long as it's not the vet *wink) 
  15. Dogs don't bring you unwanted gifts 
    "it's fine if you catch em just don't bring em back"
  16. Dogs save people's lives 
  17. Dogs wake you up in the morning with happiness cats wake you up with claws and teeth 
  18. Dogs always turns back to make sure your still there 
  19. Dogs love making friends 
  20. and lastly who can resist this 

     


Saturday, September 10, 2022

My Best Friends

 By Claire 

Hey guys, I just read my moms blog post about cousins "Unbreakable Bonds" and she's right my cousins are my everything I have... hold on one second let me count... 10 cousins (2 more came after my moms blog) and those are just the ones that I see all the time when we used to have family dinners, Fourth of July, bonfires, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, school, activities outside of school, anybodies school activities, and sleepovers exc, the point is that see them a lot.

 






Although some of them I might see less and less like my oldest cousin, Bella is in college, and has friends, and a boyfriend, and school stuff, my two cousins, Charlie and Alice moved to Lincoln, I can't see Zander and Ellie because Grandma is sick, so the only cousin I really get to see is my bestest friend in the whole world, (I don't care if bestest isn't a word, i'm still going to use it.) The person I can look to if I am sad, or mad, or need to vent, Cambri, she's in middle school now just like me, and that's great. With our family the cousins have groups of people that they play with Charlie, Henry, Reece, Ellie, and Jackson,(6,7,7,5,4) Me and Cambri,(12,11) Bella and Grace,(18,12) and Alice and Zander (2, infant) are kinda on their own for right now, these are usually who hangs with who at family, dinners, Christmases, Easters, Thanksgivings sleepovers, or any other family event. Here are a few quotes that made me think of us 

         "God gave us cousins because he knew our moms couldn't handle us as siblings."

         "A cousin is a little bit of childhood that can never be forgotten"

         "Cousins are connected heart to heart, distance and time cant break em apart"

         and my personal favorite "Cousins are like stars, you may not be able to see them but you know their there"


Thank you, family for bringing my best friends into this world without them I would be lost, see you next time 

P.S. I'm trying to convince my mom to write more, so don't worry, the funny mom stories will be coming soon

 

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Our First Job

 By: Claire 

Hey its me again I know i've been posting a lot but here is a post about me and graces first job. We knew we had wanted to do babysitting for a while we just never got around to doing it but finally we got the courage to design our own posters. So after that we posted it on Facebook and got a couple of bites but never ones that actually came through, after a while of waiting we finally got a offer from the UU church to watch the little ones in the nursery if there happen to be little ones there that day. We just had our first day last Sunday and it was a little boring because there were no kids but on days that there are kids its gonna be really fun. Here are what our posters look like 














Kitten Updates!

 By: Claire 

I love, love, love our kittens there, like our babies, our pride and joy, but sometimes they can be a bit of a handful, like today I came upstairs, and the kittens were sitting on the counter -even though they know they are not supposed to be- with the most innocent look on their faces. I walked over to the counter and there was shredded tissues all over the counter. sometimes they'll do small things like my kitten (Sparky) got on the rim of the toilet and fell in, or when Grace's kitten (Asher) falls over when he's tired, or when Henry's cat (Crookshanks) jumped from the upstairs landing through the bars and landed on the downstairs landing. here are some adorable kitten pictures:




Monday, August 1, 2022

You Gotta Be Kitten Me

 By Claire 

I love dogs more than anything in the entire world, but Mom hates dogs so I thought I could change her mind by writing a two page essay on why I deserve to get a dog. after I finished reading my essay to them with a finished picture slide show as well mom started crying. She said she loved it but then told me all the reasons why I couldn't get a dog. she asked me if a kitten would " scratch my itch" of getting a pet and I told her that it would be like a mosquito bite you can itch it and will help a little but never fix it all the way. 




After that she told me to look on FaceBook to see if I could find any kittens, I found some kittens but they were all longhaired Maine Coone kittens and mom didn't like long haired animals so I looked on the animal shelters website and I found a litter of four kittens Eenie, Meeine, Miney, and Mo. Grace fell in love with Miney as soon as she saw him,  the runt of the litter, and mom said that she would think about it! that was the closest we've ever got to a pet of our own. 

after school the next day I looked on the website again and it showed maybe six orange kittens fitting our criteria. when I showed them to mom she told me  "I will die without those kittens" I had never seen her be so excited about any animal that i had offered her so she called the shelter and asked if those kittens were ready and the lady on the phone said we could come look at them and just like that, we were getting in the car and heading for the shelter. when we walked into the cat room I knew that this was the right cat for me so Mom called Dad and Henry to come meet us at the shelter to see if Henry liked the other orange kitten, but before he got there another family walked in they had a little boy so i started talking to mom [a little louder than what was needed] "Mommy I want this one" and grace worked on the other orange kitten and just then the little boy told his mom 'I want the orange one" but his mom got what we were laying down and left. 


when we finished the application the lady told us the kittens would either be ready by Wednesday or Thursday. On Wednesday we were at Joanns buying fabric for me to make blankets and mom called I had just brought my hopes down that we were not getting kittens today and then she called and told us that the animal shelter didn't call us, she had to call them, so Mom and Henry brought the cat carrier and we got to get our two orange kittens, but grace was still wanting Miney from a different litter but we had just learned that Miney wasn't going to be ready for another week because she was still in a foster home. so in conclusion Grace had to watch us play with our kittens before she got hers. keep watching for more kittens updates.