...of a lovely lady...

So, I'm looking at my cover photo (my profile picture is one of the recent pics of Lyric) on Facebook, thinking about Mother's Day and shaking my head in wonder.

For over 10 years, I'd had an only child.  I'd made my uneasy peace with it, I'd always wanted more kids but then I'd also always wanted a solid, nurturing, amazing, family (and a husband who wanted to be a husband) and I didn't have that either.

And, now? Now, my kids number in the "several" department.  His, Mine and Ours (and Theirs- we're working on getting ALL the pronouns covered,) we have SIX - we're like some dysfunctional episode of The Brady Bunch.

(The summer after Oldest Child turned nine, I read him all seven of the Chronicles of Narnia. It took us the entire summer and he loved it.  From then on we had a joke that whenever he wanted something from me he had to call me "O Lady, whose beauty illuminates the universe." 

This comes from the beginning of the fifteenth chapter of the The Last Battle -  " ' Know, O Warlike Kings,'  said Emeth, ' and you, O Ladies whose beauty illuminates the universe that I am Emeth....' " -CS Lewis, The Last Battle.

  

He would roll his preteen eyes and then sarcastically spit out something along the lines of, "O Lady, whose beauty illuminates the universe, may I please play a little longer on my Game Boy?"  hahahaha  When he finally figured out to substitute "Old Lady" for "O Lady" then it really got interesting. :) 

Anyway, so my now 17 year-old son - he's officially a SENIOR in high school, egads - showed me his forearm today and said, "Happy Mother's Day."  

I have no idea how I'm SUPPOSED to feel about my teenage son getting another tattoo...but how I DO feel about him getting a "Mom" tattoo  is... <giggle.>  He says that reading the Narnia books (when the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  movie came out, oh man! I could only see it with him and I still cry at the beginning of it) was one of his favorite memories from his childhood. Lord knows, I screwed up enough in his childhood so, you know what?  I think I'll take the sentiment of this tattoo and I'll enjoy it.  :)  )

Last night I was snuggled up against my (2nd husband, Mr Wonderful, K-Man) hubby and feeling, well, sorta awkward. Awkward in a good way, if that's possible.  My brain was flooded with "happy" chemicals and it just didn't know what to do with those.  "Unhappy" and "anxiety" chemicals? Those, my brain has known intimately.  But "happy" is relatively new.  However, it has been around long enough now that my brain either has to rewire or explode.

I'm betting on rewire.

In fact, it's probably already rewired. Which is just an amazing thing. Really really amazing. Nothing is ever set in concrete. Nothing.

(PS Immigration got the money and we're back on track, again. Finally. Only a month behind <mutters to self  "...exactly where we're supposed to be..." >  See?  Nothing is ever set in concrete. :) )

‎"Life, we determined, is not about avoiding mistakes. 

If we had chosen to stay put and stifle our urge to change, 

we would have done so out of worry and fear. 

And these were not the stars we wanted as our guides."

–Frances de Pontes Peebles, The Great Escape