Moms of Boys

I guess it's about time for an update from me since I haven't written since March.  I like to have you ladies post on the messge board and share and support one another without a lot of comment from me. It's YOUR board, and I don't want to delete any of the posts because I think the older ones can be helpful. Oh, check out my facebook link on the home page of this site to see updated family photos. Technology is not my thing, so reposting them to this site is more than I can fathom right now.

So, let's see. My oldest son is beginning his sophomore year in college, my middle one is a junior in high school, and my youngest is in 4th grade. The oldest just told me he wants to join a fraternity!  A fraternity! Of course, images of Animal House immediately filled my mind. This fraternity is very grade-conscious and GPAs are monitored -- plus they have four community service projects per year -- thus, I guess all fraternities are not like the ones on Animal House. Still, I have to wonder why my son would need to go to a frat house when he could get a similar experience at home -- after all, with his two brothers and dad at home, OUR house has a frat house atmosphere pretty much all the time. 

My middle son has been dating a very nice girl for about 10 months now, and it is nice when she hangs around our house because I have another female to help balance things out. Sometimes in the midst of all the chaos, she and I will look at each other and roll our eyes and shake our heads.  So good to have someone who understands!  This son, David, is gearing up for the SAT, finishing up his Eagle Scout rank requirements, playing summer/fall/high school baseball, and high school basketball, and of course is studying like crazy to keep his grades up.  He has a lot on his plate.  So much to juggle. And I'm going nuts trying to quiz him on SAT vocabulary words -- a lot of them I have never heard before, and if you use them, I doubt anyone would even know what you are talking about -- so what's the point.  

My little guy is playing football -- flag football -- this is his last year to be young enough to play flag, and so I finally signed him up.  I'd been talking him out of it every year because his eczema and allergies makes playing in the heat pretty tough for him. However, I'd rather do it now than having his first experience be tackle ball somewhere down the road. He is actually pretty good - He will block and play some quarterback too (his older brother taught him to throw the perfect spiral).  He's really enjoying it, except for the first practice when he almost passed out due to the 105 degree day we had.  Sure hope it will be cooling off soon!  My youngest, Jason, is also in Scouts and taking some swim lessons, so he keeps us busy when the middle one is not. 

Most of this summer, I've been busy worrying about my dad who has been battling pneumonia. After 2 months of being really sick (he's 86, so pneumonia was really hard on him), he finally started improving in early August. He has been so active all of his life, and it really hurt to see him so sick and frail. 

I now plan to spend some more time writing in addition to teaching writing classes as I did for 8 years previously. Things get so busy that it is easy to put things on the backburner, and I can't do it any more! 

 I will also be going on a girls' beach weekend away the second weekend of Sept. with two of my best college buddies! Can't wait!  We went last year and had a blast and decided to try to make this an annual tradition. I will miss my sons' football and baseball games, but sometimes you have to miss something, ya know?

Take care, ladies and take some time for yourself. 

Sharon