A-Ha moment!

Some insurance company has an ad that uses that phrase. Today was that kind of day for us. It was a busy day at church. I woke with a migraine. The same stubborn one that has been in my life since Friday. Uck. The good news is it is not as debilitating as the last one so being good about giving up ice cream works. I could function. But still, I would like to not have migraines monthly. Guess I have to wait for my croning to happen though and that appears to be a "fur piece off" as my grandparents would jokingly say.

KC's church school class was scheduled to light the chalice at our church. I had told KC about this earlier in the week. He was a mix of excited and scared. Or deciding if he should be scared. I wasn't quite sure which. I reminded him how proud he has been watching his big brother light the chalice on different occasions and how excited I was that it was finally his turn. I promised to bring the digital camera to duly record the moment.

I could tell he still wasn't sure this a.m. when he cuddled with me, cried over nothing, and decided on comfy vs spiffy clothes for church. He is big on dressing up for church. Wearing something that felt like PJ's and looked only slightly more dressed up was a sure sign he was feeling insecure.

I always get to church early when the kids need to do something in the service. Gives a chance to chat with people and just take the nerves off a bit. So we did that. He chatted with his teacher and helped get his room ready for class. Then we went into the sanctuary. He had brought with him the headband with shamrocks attached via springs that he got at Big Lots yesterday. During the prelude he sat and colored quietly and just before his teacher (who was now sitting in the pew in front of us) turned around to tap him to go up with her to light the chalice. . . he slipped on the headband. ROFL The poor teacher was trying so hard to hold it togetehr and not crack up as he proudly got up, took her hand and went up to the front of the church. Little luridly green shamrocks bobbing merrily the whole time. In case someone is reading this who doesn't know me in real life, we are Unitarian Universalists so there was nothing disrespectful in what he did. It was just so very KC and so very cute. Meanwhile, there is Ooma in the pew trying to get a picture. I am so tech challenged I can't make the flash work on the stupid camera. So my son starts dwadling up there hoping I can get the promised picture! LOL Yup, this kid is going to wind up in performing arts, I just know it in my bones. One of the other kids in his class stepped in front of him to go down the steps of the altar right as the flash finally kicked in so I have a great picture of someone else's kid!

Then as if that wasn't a huge enough achievement for my usually clingy guy, but he walked right into his class room himself. I could just wave goodbye like all the other parents and he was off. Sniff. I was equal parts elated and a bit melancoly. My baby is growing up.

After church I had a meeting and KC and Rob played together w/ Robbies Nintendo DS while i was in the meeting. When I came out KC told me that he had "made a new pal" as he put it. He told me his name and that the little boy told him he needed a dream catcher because then it would hold all his bad dreams. Now I know about dream catchers and have made them with classes and with 2 of my other kids. Why did I not think of that? But I am thankful that the new friend mentioned it as we will now make one and thankful that KC was open enough to share in a safe environment so that resolution could be found.

And Rob had a great day as well. His class was making reverse masks. They did plaster castings a few weeks back of their faces. This week they were to decorate the outsides with symbols, art or sayings that would show the facets of their personalities that might ordinarily be hidden. Robbie made a list of things he felt strongly about and I went to a craft store and got some supplies he could choose from that might lend themselves to those types of interests or concerns. I tried to be fairly open ended in what i chose so that he would have to decide what the best representation was from a fairly wide source of media. For instance, he wrote nature, and i got artificial leaves, a thing that looked like a cut out of dune grass and a phrase about earth keeping. Any of them would work, but that way it was his vision. He doesn't like to try and choose in the stores; that gets overwhelming so it was sort of "shopping' from a smaller store the way I did it!

Anyway, his leader said that he came into the project with the clearest vision of anyone in the class and the most varied and interesting supplies. Supplies that he shared happily with friends so it was joy shared as well. I am just so glad that it went well for him. He doesn't really love art the way KC does. He didn't get enough chances as a young child to really nurture an imagination. And now at 12 there is lots of worry that his "art" doesn't look like real "art" whatever that is. LOL Having different mediums available so that drawing or painting didn't need to be part of the project made him really enjoy and own the experience which was hugely important to me.

So migraine notwithstanding, this was a standout day. And KC's steps toward independence help Lissa become closer to coming to church. I hope to start bringing her in April at the latest!