We have finally been able to swim at the local outdoor pool. That is because it has gotten over 60 degrees for the past week. Heaven. Such a different kind of heat than Texas. Last week, after we got out of the pool and started to head home, Luke said, "Mom, I am getting dry." You never dry out in Texas :)
Last year, I guess there was a huge problem with contagious "bugs" in the Utah swimming pools. It got so bad, I hear, that all public pools were closed and they also recommended private ones also be closed. Our local pools is taking many safety precautions this year. One of the precautions is that everyone has to get out of the pool the first five minutes of every hour. This is to encourage potty breaks.
These five minutes seem magical to me, for some reason. The previously loud and crazy pool is so still. So very still. No one seems to talk (or go the bathroom.) They just all sit on the side of the pool with their eyes riveted on the lifeguards waiting for the sign to get back in the water.
I love to watch my kids during those five minutes of each hour. I can just see them thinking, planning, plotting what they will do with the next 55 minutes of their life. These five minutes are the only time I have ever seen them so still at the same time.
My kids are at such pivotal ages.
Ali is trying to become a young woman and find her place in her church and school family as well as her family here at home. She needs more space, more freedom (to get A-s), more choices and more allowance. Her musical ability astounds me. Sometimes I forget how good she is cause I hear her practice everyday. It takes her playing in public and hearing other's feedback to remind me she is musically gifted. Her mind is one of a kind. She can even seem to justify those A-s she got this past term :) Speaking of terms, she will take life on her own terms. I hope and pray she keeps that self esteem in tacked at she heads into these horrible teen years. I also pray that I can be the mother she needs to help her through those times. I also hope, as I fall short, that those other adults around her will help keep her steady and pointed toward her goals.
Kat is in a crazy in between age. Not quite a young lady but not a child any more. Kat has wisdom well beyond her years. She amazes me daily. And keeps me in line, daily. She is in a very impressionable stage. She soaks up everything around her. We have to be so careful to keep good influences around her. Her wit and quick thinking will take her far in life.
And Luke. He has always been my baby. Well, he is growing out of being a Mamma's boy. At the exact moment that it breaks my heart, it excites me to see glimpses of what he will become. He is crazy good at math. I think that makes him good at so many other things in his life. Like baseball. He has NEVER overthrown a ball. I think he sees the world mathematically. He can calculate distances and and make great throws each time. He can calculate change before the cashier can. He is always the banker in Life and Monopoly. He gets baptized this year. That will be a bitter sweet day for me. After that, all my precious children will be baptized.
Can you believe I think all of this in a five minute swimming break? I love my children dearly.
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