A Little Bit of Absence....A Little Bit of Growth

Yes, I know I haven't been around here much lately. In fact, I've been so absent that I'm fairly certain most of you, upon seeing a new post pop up in your reader, are finding yourselves wondering just who the heck this Sports Mama person is. And if you DO remember me, you're most likely saying to yourself Oh thank goodness! I was afraid she'd been kidnapped by aliens or joined a cult where she had to give up everything and everyone! What a relief to see her here again!

Or not. But whatever. I'm here again. At least for today.

But! But! But!  It seems I've gone and surprised myself with a few things on these days I haven't been here. For instance, did any of you out there ever know what an amazingly awesome thing SLEEP is?? Or to be more specific, sleeping for more than 3-4 hours a night? Why didn't anyone ever tell me? Or perhaps more accurately, why didn't anyone ever shove a sleep aid down my throat and make a believer out of me before now?

I've also rediscovered what a great sitting-on-the-sofa-catching-up-on-all-our-favorite-shows-that-we-missed-during-baseball-season-and-cuddling sort of man my husband is.  (Don't worry. I didn't expect any of you to have already known that one.)

And......I've also rediscovered what an amazingly forgetful person I can be. Because I know that many, many times I've emerged from a situation or conversation, and thought AH! I need to remember to blog about that when I get back to a computer!. And then..... forgotten. (It's okay. If you already know this truth about me, there really wasn't anything you could have done to help avoid it. Unless you followed me around all day with a laptop, typing everything I say. Any volunteers for that job? The pay is ridiculously low, and there are no health benefits; but you'd get to see the inner workings of my mind. Not enough of an incentive? *sigh* Okay then.)

There are also some things happening in our little household that will most certainly create a shift in our lives as we know them, at the least.  Bug?  Is going into 7th grade. Where there are girls. That like like him. Girls that have prompted the question Mom, how do I talk to them? No, really....what, exactly, am I supposed to say after I say hello??

Jock? Have mercy; this boy is going to be a Senior in high school this fall. And (and this might be possibly the most surprising life-shift happening).... he is fairly certain that he does NOT want to play football this year. That's okay, you can go back and read that again. It was strange to us, too.  But as he and I sat on the track one night at about 11:30pm, between events at a decathlon he was participating in he looked at me and said Mom, I've fallen in love with track. With how good I am at it. With everything about it. With track, I can actually see myself going somewhere with it.

So that's where I've been. Sitting on my sofa, cuddling with my husband, trying to help one son figure out how to get where he wants to go, and praising the other for having enough character to not only recognize a new path in life, but the strength and confidence to take it.

And somewhere in there?  I'm learning how to let go of each of them a little bit more. It's a good thing I've rediscovered cuddling with Coach. It's giving me something to hold onto when my arms are feeling emptier.