Eventful Spring

It's almost Mother's Day and I'm feeling all nostalgic. My mom turned 80 this year and had a fall that landed her in the hospital and now rehab facility to get her strength back. I'm so grateful that it wasn't more serious and relieved that there's hope she'll be able to return to her home with help. This is a woman who was meant to be a mom...my mom. She's a perfect fit for me. I can't say more than that. 

This spring has also marked some eventful happy passages in our family. My youngest, Ben, turned 16 and now stands 5' 10". I'm sure he still has some growing to do, but passing his older sister was a minor goal of his and he did...now his goal is to pass his dad at 6'1"...I guess we'll see about that one!

It's weird to remember that when I was 16, I started dating his dad and that, by the end of our first summer together, we'd be planning our future together. Now we're here 32 years later with a nearly grown son and a daughter graduating from college. Crazy how fast time flies, am I right? But how lucky was I to find him so soon and to be able to celebrate 25 years of marriage.

Here's the pic of her grad cap that she decorated with my craft supplies, did you spot the Stickles in silver and purple? My favorite supply, bar none, is Stickles! 

The quote is from Hamilton, the musical, that both my kids are obsessed with right now. It is catchy and they've got me and the hubby hooked too. Here's a little snippet from PBS if you want to know more. The writer and star of the show, Lin-Manuel Miranda, took all kinds of dryly-told facts from a biography and turned them into an amazing musical that keeps you glued to the story until the tragic end.

This is my newly-minted 16-year-old in his first musical, which just closed last weekend. He's in the front on the far left and is a Victorian Scrooge ghost ancestor in The Addams Family Musical. They did a great job overall and he did a fab job dancing and acting for the first time ever. Especially since he said the first day of dance rehearsal, "Turns out I can't dance."

Handsome, ain't he?! Hee, hee.

And here's one of my ridiculously grown-up daughter who stole a friend's trench coat to dress up and pretend to be Alexander Hamilton...I wasn't there but I'm betting there was singing involved during this little episode.

So there you go, all tied up in a neat little package of Hamilton and musicals and kids and rites of passages, in which I realize I'm too young to be this old :)

I'm actually enjoying watching these kids grow and become and reach and achieve and learn and just be. It's a privilege.

Happy Mother's Day to all, and if you're not technically a mother, I'm guessing you've mothered someone at sometime in their life, it's kinda what women do. We love. And that sums up mothers in my book.

And this is where I'd put a video of Sunrise, Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof if I didn't think it'd make me all melancholy...but feel free to sing it to yourselves. I'm laying bets the husband will be singing it at graduation, just to be ornery.

Happy Friday!

Chark