Can you feel the love tonight?

I am a planner.  I like to know what is going to happen when and who will be there when it does.  If we are going to a movie, God forbid we decide to go on a picnic instead.  I consider this a personality flaw and work very hard on being more flexible. 

I think it goes hand in hand with my impatience and terrible habit of trying to live too many hours ahead of days.

Every once in a while something slows us down.  Even though time moves slowly in the face of a tragedy, in the long run it does force us to slow down and take inventory of what is important.  And then there are those blissfully happy moments in life that almost happen in slow motion and not only slow us down, but leave us wishing time would stop all together. 

Times like when we say "I do", see the face of the baby we have carried so close to our heart for ten months or achieve a milestone.  One of those amazing moments happened this week and stopped me in my tracks.  Our six year old graduated from kindergarten.  If you have seen the Pixar movie "The Incredibles", right now you are thinking of Bob's conversation with Helen that goes like this:

Helen: I can't believe you don't want to go to your own son's graduation.

Bob: It's not a graduation. He is moving from the 4th grade to the 5th grade.
Helen: It's a ceremony!
Bob: It's psychotic! They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity, but if someone is genuinely exceptional...

I had the same thought, until it was graduation time and our little boy walked toward me, wearing his little red cap and gown, with this playing to his every step:

There's a calm surrender to the rush of day

When the heat of a rolling wind can be turned away
An enchanted moment, and it sees me through
It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you

And can you feel the love tonight
It is where we are
It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer
That we got this far

And can you feel the love tonight

How it's laid to rest
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds
Believe the very best

There's a time for everyone if they only learn

That the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn
There's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours

Yes, leave it to Elton John to make my little boy grow up right before my teary eyes. 

You see, my children are not good sleepers.  I, on the other hand, love to sleep.  I used to be really good at it.  I don't get enough of it and I always want more of it. 

As a result of this, I find myself wishing we could just move on to a stage with the boys where everyone would soundly sleep all night in their own room.  I tell myself this time will come when our three year old is six and our six year old is nine.  I have no real justification for this theory; it's just what I am planning on. 

I will never wish for this stage to end again.  I am certain I will long for this time in our lives someday and I refuse to wish away ever again.  All it took was a kindergarten graduation that celebrated 20 exceptional children moving on to first grade (and maybe a help from Elton).  I looked at my baby boy that, I swear, it feels like was just born yesterday and saw the next 20 years flash before my eyes.  Time moved so quickly in that instant and it made me want to make it stop.  But time stops for no one and we can’t go back, so we have to enjoy where we are when we are there.

Congratulations to all of the graduates out there, young and old!

Mystery reader ...

Tomorrow, in a classroom full of unsuspecting kindergartners, my husband will debut as a mystery reader. He has selected "Hand, Hands, Fingers, Thumb" and plans to take a drum from home as a prop.

In his efforts to be "the cool dad", he enlisted my help for additional goodies. Tonight I will be custom designing 25 darling little drums from plastic bowls to be used with colorful, sturdy colored straws for drumsticks.

These, followed by the stash of Smarties he will have to pass out at the end of the story should be a real bang! dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum

Me, I'm only seeing stars

Last night just before bed, my husband, our two little boys and Jake the cat all stepped out onto the deck to stargaze for a moment and say goodnight to the moon.  From this sentence you will learn that in my home, I am grossly outnumbered by males.  On occasion, this results in me feeling like a princess. But most of the time my life feels more like Cinderella.  Not to say that I don't frequent the ball, but on a daily basis it's the balance of out of home work, in home work and oh yes, homework.

The magic happens in tiny moments like when our two-year-old giggles, or when our six-year-old hugs his little brother and speaks from his heart.  But last night was different. After a stressful work day, baseball practice and one two-year-old tantrum after another, who would have thought there would be magic?

I spotted the most fantastic shooting star burning across our night sky.  And as fate would have it, I was the only one to see it. It was, without doubt, the most amazing shooting star I have ever seen!   A trail of glitter raced to follow it.  I could almost hear the burning, crackling sound. My husband exclaimed "make a wish"!  Our six-year-old said "I know what mommy will wish for" and I curiously asked "what?"

"You wished that me and brother would be more thankful."  My heart melted. I am constantly telling the boys they are such lucky children and need to be thankful for everyone and everything they have. In this way, I have turned into my mother. I actually catch myself telling the boys about starving children, the children without homes and the children who have no one to love them. 

Last night I learned again, as I have so many times before,  to practice what I preach. My wise little boy reminded me that Cinderella is a princess, even when she may not feel like one. 

And on that star I wished to myself, "please help me to be more thankful for everything I have."

Today, I am starting my very own blog.  After all, I am a writer.  I have always been a writer. It is a part of me.  And now it is part of the glitter, that is chasing my star, across the universe.