Next Generation

My 16 year old sister currently has this quote up on her blog,

"Parents have no idea what it's like growing up in this generation."

It's very weird for me to read this as I am somewhere in the middle of her generation and our parents. I totally get where she is coming from. I never felt like I was understood as a teenager, at least not by my mom, who was in charge of me - setting all those limits and inevitably teaching me to be a responsible adult. But man did I resent her for it at the time! (Sorry, Mom!)

I feel like I have been given some magic perspective goggles...if only they would work for my sisters. Now that I AM a reasonably responsible adult, I understand that while parents can be clueless about so much that seems important at the time, ultimately, the universal lessons remain the same generation after generation.

Be a good person. Be respectful to others, especially your elders. Take care of your family. Respect yourself by making choices you will be proud of (or can live with). Do well in school. See the bigger picture. Make an effort to make other people feel good. Do your chores whether you want to or not. Make your bed every morning. (Well...that last one probably isn't an important universal lesson...but I've already instilled in my 6 year old who has had to do it every day since he was 4...poor little guy.)

Reading this quote scares me a little, too. It makes me wonder what Liam and Finn will be like as teenagers. What will our relationships be like? Will I be totally clueless? Will we fight over making the beds? (inevitably!) Will I have earned their respect? Will they walk all over me? (Sort of like they do now...only with bigger, stinkier feet....)

Instead of fear, I will just have to remember to keep those perspective goggles handy. Mama knows best...

(I know what some of your are thinking - I have boys, it'll be different than the 'mother/daughter' thing I had going on. My friends, you are wrong. Liam and I have established a lovely mother/daughter relationship. We are as dramatic as they come - already!)

Anyway, here's to the future...

Not one photo

For the last few days I have had my dad, stepmom, and two sisters staying with us and I did not take one picture.

It frustrates me...but I also feel liberated. I HATE missing the moment because I am behind a camera taking a picture. Living in the moment is where I'd much rather be...but now they are gone and I don't have any pics to post or put in an album in three years when I get around to making an album for 2012.

So here are some shots I would have taken had I charged and used my camera in no particular order.

**Liam BARRELING across the lobby of his school with his arms out wide to give his grandpa a huge hug when he came to pick him up.

**Alie...getting hit by a stick in the woods flung by a careless Liam.

**My sister Jill's, long slender fingers caught, playfully, in Austin's jaws...and if I were recording you'd here her sweet laugh as she tenderly scolds him.

**Alie, her own long hair piled on top of her head, with her fingers intricately knotting and braiding mine...for the fourth time.

**My stepmom, Krissy, looking up from the train platform, waving and blowing good-bye kisses emphatically to Finny.

**The eight of us, nine if you include the dog, standing in 100+ year old graveyard, on a beautiful sunny day, appreciating the life and death all around us.

**My Dad, Krissy, sisters, and I huddled around a perfect coffee cake with plates and forks.

**Finn, in miniature bowling shoes, carrying a bowling ball more than half his weight, to push down the alley.

**Three sister in the kitchen washing/drying dishes and baking together.

You get the idea...there's my little photo album.