Epiphanies: Part Two

So, the weekend continued. So did my learning experiences.

Saturday we all went to our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. After the actual hunt was over, Cole, Jack and I danced to the great tunes coming from the loudspeakers out on the field. Now when I say danced, I mean really danced. No swaying in time to the music. This was full fledged all parts of our body in motion dancing to the music. On the ground, arms above our heads, running in circles type dancing. Trey watched and smiled at us as we boogied on down. I am happy to report that our dancing attracted many curious looks, but I didn't care. Wait! Stop! Yes, let me repeat...I didn't care who was looking or what they thought about me or my kids.

Later that night, I sat in bed wondering why at that moment in time did I shed all of my issues in regards to being 'out of place'. I am not sure I ever came to a good answer, but I knew that I liked how it made me feel and it was a heck of a lot better than worrying the day away analyzing why we got some funny stares.

It felt liberating to just let the music flow and have primitive-type fun letting our bodies react to the rhythm. Bravo to myself!!! Or so I thought.

Sunday morning came and we donned the requisite Easter regalia: Madras. We looked fairly ridiculous, but again it was too much fun to care. We arrived at church extremely early as Easter is a notorious holiday that if you aren't there early you will be standing. Standing is not an option with the two goons. As it was, there was no church nursery this week so Jack was going to have to sit through mass with us...do you understand the pain involved in an hour of mass with a 2 year old and a 5year old? And, oh yeah, by the way, our priest in Irish....so, mass is more like 1.5hours. Lovely, but long with a toddler.

We found a seat situated at the very end of a pew in the very back of the church: good escape capabilities. It seems that other families with children around the ages of ours also thought that it would be a good idea to sit together so that if a large din suddenly arose from our part of the church, it would be more difficult to pinpoint the small offender.

The processional music started and the church filled with song. My oldest goon included. However, he took it one step further. He picked up a hymnal, opened it wide and held it up to the sky while singing and swaying in a very charismatic fashion. You would have thought that he was part of the priest's procession.

The older boys next to him started laughing and pointing...and you know what I did...me the person from the day before who was also jamming to the proverbial groove...the person who had spent the night before revelling in our lightness of heart and innocence ...I became utterly embarrassed.

Epiphany #3: I have a lot of growing up to do.

Cole is teaching me to not care what other people think. He does this everyday because he truly doesn't care. He is his own person. I know that I will appreciate this when he is a teenager and refuses to jump off the blasted bridge where all his friends are taking swan dives. Now, I worry entirely too much about his acceptance by his peers. This is my issue. I don't want my issues to affect my children.

Cole told me later: "I know you and daddy love me. I don't worry so much about anyone else."

Profound lesson for a mother to learn from her five year old.

Epiphany #4: There are some chores that will never get done no matter how long I let them go thinking Trey may do it because he can obviously see it needs to be done: unload the dishwasher, take out the trash (it is amazing what we both fit into one bag this weekend because we both hate this job), put new toilet paper on the holder (I believe this ultimately ends up falling on us women b/c we require it more often).