All In A Day

I love day-to-day memories.  The big moments are ones we never forget, but the day-to-day stuff is the heart of what makes us a family, and those are the memories I don't want to lose.  When our oldest three children were younger, I kept a family journal.  We still laugh at some of the stories...all moments that would have been filed away in the "lost" memory cabinet if they hadn't been written down.  (Trust me...my "lost" category is huge.)  And they're the stories that have become legends...kind of our own family folklore.

Several years ago when I started blogging, the blog became our new family journal.  So many things in the past year has made blogging a lower priority, but as I see the day-to-day lives unfolding in our now teen world, I know one day we'll forget most of it and want to look back and laugh at and celebrate (hopefully) this strange new world we've come to know as "Planet Teen."  

And since blogging has been low on my priority list this past year, I decided I needed a fresh start to inspire me, hence the new blog.

But back to the day-to-day...  Today was crazybusy (as is every day here on Planet Teen), and at the end of that crazybusy  day, we had tickets to a Michael McLean concert (awesome, by the way).  Visions of a fun-filled, love-filled family night filled my mind (insert sound of snickering teens).

The concert went great...mostly, although I'm sure our row provided some of the entertainment.  There was even some memory sharing on the way home...at least a little bit...mostly between arguments.  (The teen crowd votes we get a bigger car...  Apparently the seven seater is too cramped for a family of seven.)

When we finally got home, Megan was exhausted, and in the blink of an eye it took for me to get from the car to the front door with the keys, she had laid down on the front porch and closed her eyes.  I was carrying a bottle of water...  Couldn't resist...  In my defense, I was tired too, and the water came out a lot faster than I anticipated...all over her back.

I know...not my best parenting moment.  I have a lot of those.  And what makes it even worse is that I actually tried to explain why it was funny as she was running away (like that would make her come running back to embrace me).  Sometimes I wish I came with my very own "undo" button.

Solitude when you need it in a family of seven is kind of hard to come by, but one night several months ago, Megan figured out she could climb from the shed on the side of the house onto the roof if she needed to get away and cool off...

Which is where she was tonight.

And even though I suspected that, I wasn't sure, and as the minutes ticked by, the mom panic worry got the best of me...

While I was changing a load of laundry, Nate and Jeran were in and out of the laundry room talking to me.  I asked both of them at different times (hoping they'd catch my hint and go look for her)...  "Do you think she's on the roof?" 

No hint catching (sometimes teens can be good that way) so I went to Tim, who was in bed, ready to fall asleep.  I sent out another hint of my mom panic concern, not sure if he'd catch on or not.  A few minutes later, I was in another room when I heard the front door open and close.  I went to check, but Megan wasn't home...

And Tim was gone...

And the dogs were standing at the front door staring at it, as if they were expecting it to open up...

So I went outside and found Tim in the driveway with a ladder, getting ready to climb up on the roof to be with Megan.  Sometimes he's the mercy to my justice, and tonight he was the mercy to my stupidity. How many dads do you know who would get out of bed, get dressed and climb a ladder to talk to their daughters?  (He's awesome like that.)

As I walked in the house, that self-conscious-what-do-the-neighbors-think part of me wondered...

A kid on roof...

Tim climbing on the roof at 11:00 at night...

But in our world it was all so normal.  (Although for the neighbor who likes to call the police, I'm sure it was highly suspect.)

And that thought made me smile a little, and made me want to write it down so we don't forget what might someday become known as: that one night when Mom had an impulse control failure and Dad climbed a ladder to sit with Megan on the roof.

But really, it's all in a day here on Planet Teen.