Zen Mom

The last triathlon race of the season was Sunday. This is the time of year when we put triathlon on a back shelf for a little while and put more energy in other areas, mostly our kids. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty for not being a "Supermom". I’m not the kind of mom that is always at the school, volunteering for every party, field trip, class project, school fund raiser, etc. etc. I’m not a total slacker, but I pick and choose. I took a quiz on the internet – "What kind of mom are you?" And you know, internet quizzes are SO scientific. Anyway, I was labeled a "Zen Mom". That sounds good to me. Healthy attachment is slightly detached.

At school, I help in the library only because I love to read, and I love the Dewey Decimal System. My favorite job is putting the books back in order. Everything has it’s place. So therapeutic.

I also don’t like to drive on most field trips. I have a problem with field trips to the mall, or Starbucks, or the Imax theater. Yeah, my kids have been on all those. Really. Maybe I am getting old, but I hear myself saying "When I was a kid, we only had one field trip a year. And it was to a ‘field’". And we walked.

A field trip to Starbucks? When I was a kid we didn’t HAVE Starbucks.

All my kids play sports, but I’m not really into their sports that much. Braden is playing flag football, which I love to watch because they are just SO CUTE. But I don’t really know what is going on most of the time. Looks like to me they do a fair share of just standing around.

Payton has been working on a certain skill in gymnastics that has alluded her for TWO YEARS. I never ask about it, I’m sure she will tell me when she gets it. I look at it this way, what a great life lesson – she has been attempting something and failing for two years. But she won’t give up. In this day of instant gratification, there aren’t many opportunities to learn a lesson like that. Awesome. There I go again, sounding old.

Paige swims, but I couldn’t tell you her best times in any event, or if the were a "B" time or an "A" time, or whatever. I don’t understand why she occasionally gets DQ’d, I think that is just mean!I do know that she has fun, she looks beautiful, smooth, and elegant when she swims, and she loves the breaststroke the best. What else does a mom need to know?

I don’t like to micromanage my kids school work, either. We can look up their grades on the computer but I don’t unless they ask me to. When I was a kid, my parents didn’t ask about my grades. I guess they were OK or I would have heard about it. I don’t help with homework unless they really need it. If they ask me a question, I often tell them to "Google it".

When I was a kid we didn’t have Google.

Well, this week, I became "Supermom". And I have the pictures to prove it!

I volunteered in the lunch room at school. It didn’t quite look this bad. But I was so busy opening milk cartons, passing out trays and squirting ketchup that I couldn’t take a picture.
I watched Braden’s first flag football game. Serious standing around.
I took the girls to see the US Olympic Gymnastic Team put on a show at the convention center. Maybe that will encourage Payton to work hard on that devil of a skill.
I drove on a "field trip" to the zoo. At least it wasn't Starbucks. Here is Braden drawing a picture of a rhino.

I watched Paige’s swim meet. Here is a picture of her just after getting DQ’d for turning over too much as she touched the wall at the end of her 50 M backstroke race. I told you that is mean!

I went on a "mom and me" camp out with my son. 24 hours in the woods with a bunch of 8 year olds. Actually pretty fun, but my superpowers were starting to weaken.
We finished off the week with a birthday party for Paige and Payton. I am exhausted. One week of being a Supermom is enough. Zen mom is coming back. Just breathe.