Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Soccer

After I had taught for a few years one day I had an interesting day helping the headmaster and his wife. They had 4 boys and 3 of them were in soccer and the headmaster had to be out of town. I had offered to help if they ever needed help. So I took one boy to soccer and then brought him back to my house until his mom came after his brothers were done with their soccer games. 2 boys had soccer near each other, but the youngest one in soccer was on a totally different field. His mom couldn't be 3 places at once.
I thought this would be easy, but I had no brothers and no experience ever doing anything like this. It was late fall and quite a cool day. I was completely bundled up in winter clothes, the boy had on shorts and his soccer shirt. I felt bad and offered to look in the car if I had warmer clothes and he looked at me like I was crazy before he answered that he was fine. When we got there the rest of the kids were dressed the same so I didn't feel so bad. I tried to tolerate the weather and cheered loud for him since his mom couldn't be there. I was just glad that it was a sport that I knew a little about, even if my experience was limited to what I learned in P.E. class.
When we got back to my house I offered to make hot chocolate. Again he looked at me like I was crazy, but said he would take it. After hot chocolate his mom came to get him so I didn't have to figure out what to do with a 7 year old boy.
Last week Ram was able to take the Lambs to soccer. I managed to get out of taking them the days that I was supposed to take them because it was canceled because of rain. Yesterday was my first day to take them. The forecast was sunny and looked great-so much for getting out of taking them to soccer this week. As soon as we parked at soccer it started pouring! There were other kids there but when it started raining they ran for their cars and left. Two other boys stayed. It wasn't lightening so I told the boys to stay for a little while. The mom of the other two boys offered to let Lamb 3 and I sit in her car and get out of the rain. She had a 2 year old boy sleeping in her car. So Lamb 3 and I got in her car and we had about an hour to chat.
I was imagining watching another soccer practice like I had watched for my headmaster's son several years ago. Lamb 3 fell asleep soon after we got in her car. We had a very nice chat about all kinds of topics.
I had known her from our early childhood group, but I didn't know her well. She's a strong Catholic so we talked about our churches. There was talk about our pregnancies, deliveries, nursing, and babies. I don't have any local friends so it was kind of fun to tell each other our stories about how things have gone for the last 7 years of being moms. It was a special treat to talk to another mom with 3 boys similar in age to mine. I was fascinated to meet a mom with boys close to my age to mine that was 5 years older than me. It seems like all the moms around here are much younger than I am. Soccer practice wasn't as bad as I had expected. And there will be a friend for me to talk to for the rest of soccer this week. Sometimes I really wonder why God gave me boys. I felt like God remembered me yesterday when he sent a friend for me during soccer.
After soccer the rain stopped so the Lambs were able to have swim lessons. Lamb 2 was especially exhausted after an hour of soccer in the rain and then an hour of swim lessons.

3 comments:

Karen said...

What a blessing to have met a new friend! Now you get time to visit with a friend while taking your child to an activity. Don't you love meeting one of your needs without having to squeeze it into your already overloaded day? I'm so happy for you.

Helpful Teacher said...

I'm so glad God sent you a similarly-minded mom to chat with! It's truly a blessing. Glad to hear that the weather was finally good enough to have soccer.

Dakotapam said...

I'm so glad you could find another boy mom to connect with. I know that is something that helped me so much when i had mostly little ones running around. And now, I have been blessed with other mom friends with big and little kids. God is so smart!