Memories in Music

So today we have all been greeted by the cold weather with sickness. So me and my two girls have been cuddled up all day inside the house watching a marathon of Christmas movies. For those of you who know me, I am not a huge t.v. person so the accomplishment of watching 5 full movies today is a big deal. So after our fifth movie, I decided to download some new music for my ipod. I have quite different taste in all sorts of music. So I started with some christmas tunes because I am one of those annoying people that start listening to it before Halloween. Then I moved in to some christian gospel and finished with classic artists like George Jones.

He (George Jones) is a favorite for our family and as I played the songs, a flood of childhood memories came to my mind. Now mind you, my mama loves George Jones, but did not have a love of various music like me and my daddy. So as the song of his played, all I could think about was me and my daddy riding in his old yellow ford pick-up truck on the way to ball practice (back when he was my coach) and him singing some of these songs to and from practice. He was a smoker then, so I could almost remember smelling the smoke in the truck and hearing his voice sing the lyrics to the songs. For those of you who know me, I love to talk, but during these times, I would just sing along. Trust me if you would ask either one of us we were as good as any other person singing at the Grand Ole Opry. So our singing would be loud and confident for all to hear. No matter how bad the day was or what was going on, the singing would take over and for those brief moments things were happy and stress free.

I always get amazed at the power of music. The words you sing, hear, and the rhythms that can make any still bottom move are so powerful. Maybe it is because I am a mother, woman, or wife, but it is not uncommon for me to be emotional while riding in a car and hearing various music. One minute I am laughing. The next minute, I am crying. My kids often look at me like you are really losing it now mom, but for me it is those moments my day becomes carefree and my soul searching begins.

I hope my children reflect on the music memories they have with me whether it is us dancing together in the kitchen, our songs of praise in worship service, singing in the shower, or singing while driving in the car. That music is really about life and depending on what note you are on, it will continue to move you.

"Mama, I didn't know you could throw like that."

So the other day I picked the kids up from school and we walked home. It was a half day and usually I dread those days because the time lapse just seems to drag on and on. Especially when you are home with two children by yourself. This day though things were a little different.

As we dropped off one of Grace's friends at her house, I noticed another girl on our street out throwing the ball with her brother. Now her mom and I have talked several times about her daughter and all of the skills and talent that she has (which honestly, she is pretty good) in softball. Knowing that I use to play in high school and that I got a college softball scholarship we often talk about the sport and keeping her young daughter focused on her dreams. She is a young 12 year old girl with a lot of talent and this day I decided to take the time to watch her throw the ball. Seeing her brother keep dropping every ball thrown to him, really started to pain me. So I asked if I could catch and throw with her. By this time, my children took a seat on the curb and began watching us throw the ball around. Now mind you it has been a while since I have caught a ball or even thrown one, so naturally I dropped the ball the first time it was thrown at me. Like all good athletes do, I blamed it on the glare of the sun and repositioned ourselves to keep throwing. ;) So as we began throwing a flood of memories came back to me. The many days of practicing my favorite game, the friends that I made over the years of playing, and some of my best games all flashed in my mind as I threw the ball. At the time I could of sworn I smelled the fresh cut grass off the ball field, the orange dirt and chalk that lined the bases. With all these memories in my mind, time just floated and before I knew it we ended up throwing for about 20 minutes.

After returning the glove and walking away with my children I began thinking about choices I made and how I left the game behind me and chose a new path for me. Over the years I have thought about these choices and if it was a good one or not. But as I held my little ones hand we began walking home, she looks at me says "mama I did not know you could throw a ball like that" and I said well softball is a game I love and enjoy playing and played for many years, but now I have you and I enjoy spending my extra time with you, sister and daddy. Then she smiled real big and said " but you could teach me" and my heart beamed. Never have I been the type of parent to push my interests on my kids, so I was thrilled to hear she had an interest. I told her I would be proud to teach her anything about the sport and what I knew about it if she wanted me too. It was that moment that all of my past doubts slipped away because I now know it was the BEST choice I ever made.

So for that day, I had a glimpse of my past and the reassurance that I could still throw a ball as good as the next girl, but what mattered most is what I have learned from the game itself and the future that I have with my children and being able to pass those things on to them.

Look, My Boots Are Awesome

So today I went shopping with my four year old. As many mothers know, this could only end in two ways a really bad way or a really good way. Our purpose for going out was to buy new cowgirl boots for everyone to wear in our upcoming family photo shoot on Saturday. Since my oldest already had a pair thanks to her GiGi, the only two needing them were me and my sweet Caroline. So off we went on our little adventure. The first stopping place was Target. Since we were on a time crunch we made a straight line right to the shoe department and there we saw a row of little cowgirl boots in 3 colors brown, black, and pink. To my surprise Caroline did not immediately jump to which ones caught her eye. She carefully screened the sizes and announced to me and anyone else listening that she wore a size 8 and proceeded to choose her color based on her size. I thought this to be pretty intuitive to just be four, but we proceeded forward. Finally the choice came and she picked the pink ones. Of course, you may think, but truly the girl's favorite color is purple. So pink is not always too popular with her. She slipped those little boots on and said they would do and lets buy them. I agreed and happy with the short trip we grabbed a few more things and headed out to our next destination. At Boot World, is where I found my perfect cowgirl boots. Honestly, I have not had a pair of shoes that I thought I looked that good in in a very long time. I picked them up tried them and really studied them and with the new found confidence, I decided to pay for them. Caroline agreed they were perfect. So again, another fast shopping purchase and we were out the door. The last stop we made was to a Walmart and then we went to lunch with some friends and home. Mind you all the way to and from these stores Miss Caroline held on to her little boots in her lap.

As we got home, she was very eager to empty out all of our purchases in the middle of the floor. We had quite a few things out and she zeroed right in to finding the scissors and cutting off her tags on her boots. Once she got those off, the boots went right on her little feet. She walked down the hallway and back and proudly announced "mama my boots look awesome!". Her face lit up the whole foyer and all I could see were those sweet dimples shining through. Truly she was tickled pink. Then she says " mama put your boots on". I thought about it and decided to do it. Then she said " mama now your looking awesome in your boots". And for that moment I felt like I looked awesome and that made me smile. Then the two of us made our way around with our fancy little boots before deciding to put them away until picture day.

As I put away the things from today I could not help but to reflect on her little smile and compliment. It has been a long time since I twirled around with my kids and played dress-up. But for a brief moment today she made me feel like a cowgirl /princess and I knew I was awesome in my four year olds eyes and that is all that truly matters.