Slipping Through My Fingers and Yellow Days

I saw the movie Mamma Mia! on Tuesday night for Moms' Night Out with my mom's club. It was a silly, but good, movie. A great chick flick. I like ABBA, but didn't know all of the songs in the movie. One of them is Slipping Through My Fingers, and it was sung while the mom helped the daughter get dressed for her wedding.

Oh. My. Gosh. Seriously? You know I've been emotional about Katie starting school, and missing her so much every day. This song - and the scene of the mom helping the bride - made me cry. And it could have turned into that kind of cry that my aunt calls the "sup-sups" because that's the sound of someone trying to catch a breath while sobbing. (I think others also call it the Ugly Cry.) But I held it together as best as possible and didn't sup-sup, although I felt it coming on at one point. Just the first line of the song got me: "School bag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning." Oh, for the love! My girl is growing up, slipping through my fingers every minute. The song has kept playing in my head these last few days, reminding me to hold on tight to her and love her deeply. It won't keep her from slipping through my fingers, but it'll keep me from having regrets!

On a side note, yesterday was a sad day for Katie. She had a "yellow" day at school. All the kids follow a discipline system of green, yellow and red. The teacher moves them to yellow or red if they have not been listening or acting out or whatnot. When Katie came home yesterday, she said, "I might have had a little yellow today." I said, "Oh, no! Katie, what happened?" and she immediately burst into tears. I held her while she cried, then asked her what happened again. She wouldn't tell me, and made me read the note from her teacher on her daily report. It said Katie was disruptive and was banging her pencil box along with others. Katie told me a boy at her table was banging his box, then another boy joined in, then a girl and then Katie. We talked about why that was a bad choice, and discussed punishment of not having a special surprise that I had planned for her yesterday (I bought her two new books). We talked about the choices she could have made instead, and then she asked if I was mad at her. I said I wasn't mad, just very disappointed. And then she asked if I still love her. (Oh!) I said I will always love her, no matter if she's green or yellow or red. Then we cuddled with a few tears in both our eyes. It was so sweet to see how upset she was (does that sound weird?) because I know that she knows that she shouldn't have done it. And, truly, it doesn't matter as much how I feel about bad choices. What matters is that she knows right from wrong, and that her heart reflects that and leads her down the correct paths. Isn't that our job as parents?

I kind of had a yellow day yesterday too. After a trip to the mall, I was leaving and found my tire was FLAT. Ugh. Luckily my friend Beth was with me, so she entertained Jackson and her two boys in her air conditioned car while I tried to change the tire. I had to ask for help from strangers (I couldn't loosen the lug nuts myself), then Dan had to miss a work meeting to come help me finish the job. But, thankfully, the tire got patched and all is well. I was just telling my neighbor Sheryl the other day about how my parents insisted I change a tire on the car by myself before they would let me get my license. Thanks, Mom & Dad!

We're heading out this evening for a trip to the lake with our friends. I am looking forward to it, and can't wait to just hang out and take it easy. Have a good weekend, y'all!