Little Moments #4: You'll See...

We all have them. Those memories of our moms just being moms, and thinking I'll never be like this or I'll never do this to my own kids. Then at the drop of a hat, a snap of the fingers, a blink of an eye, you are like this and you do it to your own kids. Because that's what good moms do.

I had one of these classic moments last night and into this morning. My son, now a freshman in college (oy, I still can't believe it) and I exchanged texts last night. He reached out first to ask me about some things he needed for his dorm. Trying not to (s)mother him, I try to wait until I hear from him to ask a question I want to know the answer to. This time it was about food, of course. I wanted to make sure he was eating. I can't help it. Jewish mom, ya know. Here was the exchange:

This morning, I couldn't help myself. I knew my mom would be laughing out loud if she could be a fly on the wall, and who am I to rob her of such joy? I sent her this very screen shot (above) of my conversation with my son. This is what I got in return:

I love sharing this kind of laughter with my mom. We'll forever share the bond of being two links in the same parent-child chain of love. I know how much joy she gets hearing from me about what a good mom she is. And she is. Stellar. I'm proud to be like her in any way I am. 

I live for little moments like this.

Little Moments #3: The Best PB &J

Have you ever seen the movie St. Elmo's Fire? If you are a child of the 80's, and I am, you have likely seen it more times than you can count. I know I have. There's a scene in the second half of the movie, towards the end with Mare Winningham (Wendy) and Rob Lowe (Billy). They are in Wendy's new apartment and she's describing the almost euphoric feeling of having her own place for the first time. She tells Billy she hate woke up in the middle of the night and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She said it was the very best PB & J sandwich she ever had, because she made it there in her kitchen in her her very own apartment.

I was going to include a clip here, but the only one I can find of the scene is a poorly recorded video someone made on their phone, of the TV playing the movie.

This is how I felt eating fajitas with my husband on Sunday night, August 13, 2017. It was the first meal I cooked in my beautiful kitchen in my brand new house. I enjoyed cooking and even more, I enjoyed eating those fajitas at the dining room table, with my husband to my right, and my beautiful kitchen with my huge window looking out to the lake, all right in front of me. Best fajitas I ever had. I live for little moments like this.

A New Idea: Little Moments

Brad Paisley has a song called “Little Moments.” It’s a love song and the verses describe the every day moments we smile about, perhaps take for granted.  The lyrics of the chorus are, I live for little moments like that…

I’ve been on the road, getting my son ready for college, busy closing on my house and moving. I knew the next couple of weeks were going to be challenging, and difficult to keep up with writing. But I made a commitment to myself that I would write at least 3 times, and I’m running out of days! Yesterday, I had one of those little moments, and then I rememebered I had one of those little moments on the road too, and I got to thinking. If I jotted down some of these little moments I could accomplish a whole host of things; like keeping my commitment to write even if only a view words briefly and capturing these moments for possible future writing. Most importantly though, it would help me with gratitude, reminding me about the so many things in my life I can be grateful for.

Here are the first two of my (maybe new series?) little moments.

August 7, 2017 between 4:00 and 5:00 pm.

I was driving from Fort Myers to Orlando to spend two days at PACE Orange. My friends at Enterprise had given me a loaded Maxima, and it had great pick-up and a great stereo system. As usual, my iphone was plugged in for tunes, and I was jamming out. Across the sky in front of me there was a hazy mist. It was difficult to tell if it was fog or rain in the distance, but soon a faint rainbow started to appear. All of this, just as the song “Life in Color,” by One Republic came up in my shuffled playlist. It was just one of those moments.

Its hard to see, and now I can see it was actually a double rainbow! I was driving while I took this, shhh.

August 10, 2017 approximately 7:30 am.

My husband and I were talking amongst the cluttered living room. He had to meet the site manager at the house one last time before we went to the closing at 10. I was sitting on the love seat drinking my coffee, and Jacob came to the top of the stairs looking down over me with sleepy eyes. After we exchanged good mornings, he came down, plopped down on the loveseat next to me, and leaned over putting his head on my chest. He sat with me there for quite some time, like he did almost daily when he was little. These days it doesn’t happen very often. I get I love yous and hugs and even kisses, but cuddles are a bit of a rarity at this point. Shirtless from being in bed, I placed my arm around him and lightly rubbed the youthful soft skin on his back. It reminded me how quickly I went from Mommy to Mom. I love those flashback moments.