SENIOR MOMENTS

Hello friends,

I’ve been having some senior moments lately.  You see, it recently occurred to me that in less than 1 month I will have been a mother for 30 years. That’s because my oldest son Nathan is turning 30 in November. In telling you this, I will be dating myself dramatically, something I have trouble with, as I try to accept the fact that, with a 30 year old son, I am no longer the spring chicken I’d like to be.   But it seems like only yesterday that Nathan was a toddler, walking with me hand-in-hand exploring an old abandoned village in northern Italy.

But alas, he is now a father of two, with his own babies to take on walks.

As I reflect on the aging of my children, it gives me pause to think that not only have I been a mother for nearly 30 years, I have also had a child living in my home for 30 years.  And that’s not because I have adult children living at home. It’s because I had each one of my 3 boys seven years apart.  That makes my oldest son Nathan 14 years older than my youngest one, Austin.

It actually shocks me to realize that for nearly 30 years Brad and I have been raising kids.  I imagine that is not a very common circumstance.  But, in less than a year as Austin moves on to college, and after 30 years of child rearing, we will suddenly find ourselves empty nesters.  Having had a child at home for so many years, I think it may be a big adjustment, so at this point I’m working on wrapping my head around what will, before long, be the inevitable empty nest.

Where has the time gone? Now my youngest son Austin is a “senior” himself, a “senior in high school” that is. And he’s been having his own senior moments lately, one of which was the senior-year Homecoming Dance.  It will be the last homecoming he’ll experience as a Rim of the World High School student.  So it was a bittersweet afternoon last Saturday as I accompanied Austin and his posse of senior friends to the Lake Arrowhead Country Club where we took photos before the dance.

What could have been a sentimental and nostalgic time for me as a mother turned out to be anything but, as I attempted to digitally record the moment for posterity.  Try getting nine high school seniors to take picture-taking seriously. Looking into my camera lense was definitely not on the agenda…

as high heels got stuck in the putting green and silliness abounded.

Girls just gotta have fun…

and the boys were a bit perplexed by it all.

I never did find out what exactly was so funny, but they sure did have a good time.

At long last we did get one group shot worthy of the occasion…

and one of Austin and his date, Grace, that I thought was precious.

So there you have it:  SENIOR MOMENTS – Part One.  I warn you, there will be more “senior moments” to come, as I navigate my son’s senior year and my own, sad to say, advancing seniority.