I’m sitting here at the Play Station right now; just finished editing some photos while the boys and two of their friends are running off some energy. For one of the boys, this is his first time here and though he might come across as a tough kid from the hood, he is running around, climbing through the tubes, laughing and having a good time.

I like where I’m at… not necessarily this noisy play house, but I mean “Brice’s mom’”. And “Trent’s mom” and “Nevan’s mom”. I was recently helping out at an event over at Polk that some Johnson kids came to as well and as kids flooded into the gym I smiled and waved and high fived all the kidos who called out to me… “Hey Brice’s mom”. “Hi Trent’s mom”. “Hey, it’s Nevan’s mom”.

When the kids first started going to Johnson/Polk I wanted to be the house where kids came because I wasn’t comfortable allowing my babies to go ANYWHERE. That hasn’t exactly changed, but I have discovered that I love being the house where kids come and hang out and sleep over… I mean hey, why not, what’s a few more. Seriously though, I do still love the highschool age, but I’m discovering that younger kids can be pretty cool too. And that they need love and Jesus just as much. And that having a house full of them is so much more natural, since they are friends of our children and all. And that there are just as many of them wondering around in our neighborhood as there are teens, and that they are much easier to please.

The school year is about halfway done, and yes we have had a few issues. We had to learn some hard lessons about bullying and that kids aren’t always kind as well as lessons about standing up for what is right regardless of what others might be saying or doing. But all in all this is turning out to be a good experience and I just think to myself how silly I was to have stressed out so much over sending them to school.

I may not have known what it would be like, but it’s OK. You may never have pictured me as a PTA, minivan driving, classroom helper of a mommy, but I guess that’s who I am. And I like it.