My MVP's on the Sidelines

Well, I never got around to blogging yesterday. But I guess that was the perfect day to take a break; after all, it was Sunday: Our Lord's day, and a day of rest.

Even if I'd had time to blog, it would have been difficult. First of all, I had limited success getting my laptop hooked up to the Internet while we were in VA; and besides, yesterday was quite a busy day, because mid-morning we drove two-and-a-half hours to watch sons #3 and #4 play in a men's "semi-pro" lacrosse game. So with game time and the long drive back, that event took up pretty much the whole day. Son #4 had to go to work afterward (he works a night shift, the poor guy!), and then my husband and I took son #3 out to dinner, where we joined up with our niece and her fiancee. That was delightful. And then we visited with my husband's sister and her husband, who'd been kind enough to open their house up to us while we were visiting our boys, until about midnight--which may not have been the wisest thing to do, given our 3:45 wake-up time this morning!

Since we fly using stand-by/space available passes (courtesy of my husband's airline job), we always have to try for the earliest flights out of anywhere; then if we get bumped, we have other options as the day goes on. But today, everything went like clockwork and we were able to get an early flight into Atlanta and then a connecting flight to Boston. It's good to be back home, but I'm feeling a little teary-eyed and blah today. That's partly because I'm exhausted; it's also partly due to the sadness I always feel when these trips come to an end and we know that we won't see our far-flung sons, our daughter-in-law, and our twin granddaughters again for months. (And to quote Lloyd Christmas, "I hate good-byes." I'm not good at them.)

So here's an unsolicited piece of advice--a pearl of wisdom, if you will--for any young mothers out there who might be reading my humble little "String of Pearls": enjoy every minute while your kiddos are living under your roof; because to quote that timeworn cliche, time flies. It really does. Like a tracker jacker chasing Katniss Everdeen. (See, I can be topical.) Like a supersonic jet. Like a meteor, even.

I tell you, it seems like only yesterday that my husband and I were watching sons #3 and #4 playing high school football together. (Lacrosse, too.) They probably preferred it when I tried to get action shots, but I used to love to catch them standing side-by-side on the sidelines and snap away. Now, their high school glory days are long gone; so it was very special having the opportunity to see them on the field together again yesterday. I was able to get another one of those sideline shots that I love so much--and they were standing in just the same spots they were in the football picture from long ago! It was like deja vu, all over again. Some of the guys who play with "the Herd" lacrosse team are young bucks fresh out of college and some are in their mid-twenties, like my boys. But some of them are thirty- and forty-something husbands and fathers. I'm afraid to blink my eyes, because next thing you know, my boys will be playing in "old-timer" leagues. (Actually, son #3 plays lacrosse with a bunch of older guys already--along with playing on this team with his younger brother--and he's thoroughly enjoying that.)

Anyway, I've gone on much longer than I meant to. When I started out, I was going to just post these two photos of my beloved sons, Mom's MVP's no matter what team they're on, with brief captions under them. I thought I was too down in the dumps to write much of anything. But I think blogging is cathartic for me!