Snippets from my Weekend

At 8:45 a.m. on Saturday I was driving my 13 year old son to his baseball game (Hubs and the two brothers would join later). He says to me, “I think maybe I’ll join the Air Force because I can learn to fly and I want to fly long distances such as to Australia and also they will pay for college, right?”

I almost drove off the road. Quickly blinking back tears because of the reality that hit me in the face about having a son (who is in 8^th grade but four years ago was as clear as yesterday and so high school graduation will be around the corner) who actually uttered the words Air Force which means military which means grown up and danger and pride and a world unknown to us, I said that yes, that is a long way to fly. He has mentioned being a pilot before but I always thought it was due to us suggesting how he can fly us on vacation to the Islands. Six years later he is still talking about being a pilot. Or working in sports career.

When his game finished we were then watching our youngest son play his baseball game. I got a kick out of the following conversation of these 8 year old boys in the dugout about a girl playing on the opposing team. I have always seen girls here and there starting on the teams with ages 4 and 5 but never heard any conversations about them:

Player #1: Look, there’s a girl in the outfield on the other team.

Player #2: Well, the best girl player is named Avery (some other girl in league but not playing)

Player #3: Yeah, she is the best girl player.

Player #2 again: No, not the best girl player, she is the best baseball player.

Wow! What a compliment. Girl power. I’ve wondered what it would be like to have a daughter who loves baseball enough at age 5, 6, 7, or 8 to play with 95% boys.

Friday night I read the following book to my youngest son in 3^rd grade: 100 Things You Must Know about Gladiators. He shares a room with Middle Son so they both looked and listened. We all like non-fiction and sometimes I think I pick up these books so I can learn first and foremost. There was an illustration of a gladiator with his foot on top of a fallen, bloodied gladiator, who was holding up his hand and fingers. The standing one was looking at the crowd. Turns out, the crowd signals with their thumb whether he should live or die. The editor (the official trying to get elected again) wants to please the crowd so he signals according to the majority).

I break away from the book and say out loud to them, “Oh, what kind of a bedtime story am I reading? Maybe I shouldn’t be reading this. We’re reading about sword types and slaves getting killed and fighting with wild animals. This is violent.” No, they told me it’s OK, it's not too violent, they have seen the movie with Dad and then they acted out the scene for each other holding up a hand for mercy on the floor. (truth be told I couldn't get enough of the book and sneaked ahead reading more later).

The boys are getting more and more interested in dinners they enjoy and the time has come to increase the portions. Saturday night I made Mandarin Beef, which is where I put sliced beef into the wok, then add a mixture of hoisin and soy sauce, splash of OJ, cornstarch, ginger, sliced vegetables and canned mandarin oranges and serve over rice. Years ago they had no interest in a meal like this. The Oldest son raved. There was no food left even with one less kid as Middle Son was sleeping over at a friend’s house. That should have been my first clue to prepare more food in the future.

Sunday night everyone was really hungry and roaming the kitchen as I cooked pan-fried pork chops marinated in garlic and Italian salad dressing, real mashed potatoes, green beans from a can and fresh spinach for Hubs and me. How many times in the past have meat leftovers had to be thrown out? Well, they were clamoring for more of everything before I even had two bites. But there was only one pork chop left and the oldest really wanted it all but he split it with Middle Bro (who is the same size boy less maybe two pounds so it was only fair).

So we’ve had boys enjoying homecooking, lots of baseball, skateboarding for Middle Son, violent books, but I’m sure more violent scenes on the Play Station, getting me extra hormonal over career chitchat, friends over, bike riding, oh, and yes, there was homework. I’ll save that for the next post.