The Coffee Monologues | #06
So I blinked and summer’s gone. SERIOUSLY. How is it possible for an entire season to just evaporate into thin air?
Mike started his regular fall work schedule this week, and the boys and I are watching the first day of FIRST GRADE race towards us. Oh right, and we’re having a BABY next month. Ready or not baby Micah is on. his. way.
I am so excited for what’s coming this Fall.
Boy’s Club
Mike started a new tradition this year with the boys. Once a month they have a “boys only” morning with my Dad that usually consists of breakfast and an easy activity they all can share (like Home Depot’s free Saturday morning projects). Mike preps the boys with questions to ask Papa (and himself) about life and they talk. This perhaps, is one of the boys favorite Saturdays of the month.
August’s Boy’s Club happened to be epic. Mike’s Dad was in town, so the boys were able to share the morning with both their Papas. I still can’t believe how amazing it is for the boys to get this kind of experience. Mike and I never had that kind of opportunity with our Grandpas – or our Grandmas for that matter. We’re looking forward to including uncles and even cousins in the months ahead.
These are the kind of moments that lasting family memories are made of and we are so incredibly blessed.
Camping Out
We’ve never taken the boys camping before and when our friends suggested an overnight-boys-only-backyard-camping trip at their house we were all pretty excited. My friend Kim and I hung out and worked, while Mike and Mark and the three boys did really manly outdoorsy kinds of things.
There was fishing and swimming and sleeping outside in a tent under the cool August sky. There were s’mores and laughter and memories added to a bank that’s already full of many, many good things.
Mike and I have known Mark and Kim for the past 18+ years, and it made this momma’s heart so thankful that our boys have begun to create such a special bond. It’s not often you get this puzzle-piece type of familiarity and friendship between everyone in a family, and it’s certainly not something we want to take for granted.
Being the Difference
For the past several years we’ve trekked our way to Bourbonnais for Bears Camp. Being so close to the end of pregnancy we thought it would be better to stick closer to home and instead opted to head over to Soldier Field for Family Fest.
We may never do that again.
Our love for the Chicago Bears runs deep so I won’t get into all the specifics, but I will say that leaving the parking lot at the end of the event was the coup de grace of a very frustrating day. After sitting for over 40 minutes in the exact same place in line (about three feet outside of our original parking spot), I took over the wheel and Mike took a walk to the lot’s exit to see what was going on.
It wasn’t long before we slowly started creeping forward. As we made our way closer to the exit I called Mike to find out where he was and jokingly asked if he was directing traffic.
HE WAS.
The first thought that entered my pregnant mind was borderline rage. HOW DARE it be that my husband have to direct traffic at SOLDIER FIELD when we PAID MONEY to park our car!!
And then Jesus came to bring me perspective and I realized there was an incredible teaching moment in this infuriating situation.
We can ALWAYS choose to be the difference.
Everyone else in the parking lot was stuck. Everyone else was upset and frustrated. But Mike (and two other fans) were the only ones to actually get out of their cars and do something productive about it, and traffic moved because of it.
There are SO MANY times in life, it’s just easier to sit on the sidelines and point fingers and complain. But that never amounts to more than skyrocketing blood pressure and aggravation. I want to be the kind of person that’s capable of setting aside long days and inconvenient stressful situations to see how I can be an agent of change. Not a passive aggressor.
Mike reminded me so practically it’s always an option to be the difference. It’s always a choice I can make.