I try

My mom and I often joke that on our headstones we want them to say........"I tried."  And boy did we!  Last night I was taking a walk with Nick when he started telling me about all the talents he, his dad and Jay all have.  When it became clear that he wasn't going to name one of my many talents (snicker, snicker) I asked Nick if I had any talents.  His response was, "Well sure mom you have talents."  I asked him what they were.  There was a long pause while Nick pondered my question.  Every second that went by I was wondering if it was really that hard for my 7 year old to think of a talent his mother had.  Finally Nick announced, "Mom, your talent is you are really good at trying!"  Truly this amounts a lot in my book.  When I have finished this long journey of parenting (is it really ever finished?) if my boys can say to each other that I gave it my all and I tried then I will be pleased with myself because really none of us are perfect.  In all honesty if they could say I loved Jesus, loved their father and loved them then by golly I will call this parenting journey a success!
On another note Jay asked me why I have "a whole bunch of parenting" books on my bookshelf - including books entitled, "Real Boys and Raising Boys."  Jay and his 11 year old self asked me, "Why do you have all these book about boys?"  Seriously Jay, really!  Then he proceeds to say to me (and I quote), "I don't know why you read all these mom books.  You are already a good mom and by reading all these books you are wasting about 10% of your time when you could be doing something else."  I just love the pre-teen years!  They are so "fun."  But gosh darnit I'll keeping trying.