The Caboose...

It's been a pretty busy day.  I've walked five miles, and ridden 21.  Planted four more mums. Shopped for a training brunch I am hosting Saturday morning for 25 people.  Made a salad to feed 20 people at the church Trunk or Treat. It's 4:19 and I haven't posted to my blog.  But I'm trying to be true to a commitment that I made to myself that I would post daily, no matter what.

Age 2

Today the Sweet Fringe Benefit of age 49 is my 14 year old daughter.  I've been running around a little crazy since she got home from school.  When I realized she was done with her homework, I asked if she would help me.  She has brought groceries in the house and put them away.  Folded laundry. And I just couldn't imagine life without her.  She is real-life, refreshing, comforting and grounding to me. Caboose children have a tough lot.  (My Mom used to say, "Mother's are a sorry lot"...that's for another day I guess.)  Their siblings leave them to reside alone with their parents.  They don't have siblings around to attend all their games and concerts like they were dragged to.  They don't have anyone to commiserate with about how unfair and irritating parents are.  They go on vacations with "old people". And they become the absolute adoration and life of their parents. Until they move away too....

I watched my little brother seven years younger than me be the true joy of my parents lives.  My mother was 65 years old and still attending high school football games for her own child!  He was, and still is, an absolute gem.  If we enjoy our last child at home, even through the age of notoriously frustrating adolescence, we can savor the "what seemed to be never-ending, but gone too quick" job of Mother and Father.  Not that we ever stop being a Mom and Dad, but on a daily basis, it changes forever when they leave home at 18.  Wow, I got all that just from her being willing to help.  This is why I've loved blogging.  It's become a gratitude journal of some sort, and being in such a public domain, it forces me to see the good daily.  I hope it's doing the same for some of you.

Like I said, it's been a busy day.  I had to get dressed real quick after my ride to head out to Costco.  This was the quickest thing I came up with.  Sorry if it disappoints...but I think it deserves a few pointers.  The great thing about cooler weather is the jacket/coat.  This is my pleather jacket that I talked about last week (click here).  Underneath I have a Target navy blue long sleeve t-shirt, The Limited 317 Skinny Jeans, Hunter Boots and a fake pashmina scarf.  If you have a great scarf, and a jacket...it doesn't really matter what's underneath.

My daughter wants to go buy a unicorn costume for Trunk or Treat.  Yikes, I gotta go....

Nanette