Tail-less... among other things.

You've heard of  'Toothless the Dragon'...

We have 'Tail-less the Magpie'.

Remember my blog entry about the magpies getting caught in the chicken pen?  Well, the one that got away hasn't moved too far away.  He lives in the woods just off from the front of the house.  I see him out in the yard on a daily basis.  I've been trying to get his picture for quite a while, but he always seems to notice me before I can snap one and he flies off.  It still amazes me that he can fly so well without that tail.  I got this picture because he was a long way off, so it's not the most clear picture.  He has a stubby little tail now.  I wonder if he's growing one back?  Can they do that?  I think he's trying to steal the cat food from the front porch when I'm not looking.  That's probably how he's getting by.

In other news...

I'll warn you, this will be long - so don't feel like you have to read it.

I don't usually share too much personal emotion on this blog, because it's our family blog, but I'm a Mom, and I feel like I need to shake some things off my 'apron strings'.  It sure is amazing what a difference a little over a week can make.  I look back and a little over a week ago I was raving about my second-born and his buddies, my other sons, and all the wonderful plans they had coming up after graduation.  It seems those plans have changed for all of them.  Every one of those boys, my real-born son included, have decided to sign up to work for some security company in Virginia this summer selling security systems, door-to-door.  No real thought to how to get there, how to keep in touch with home, how to provide for themselves (beyond what the company is 'promising' them), none of them own a car... I could go on and on and on.  They are really cutting the apron strings, so to speak.  They sign their contracts tomorrow night.

I've really been thinking long and hard about this.  I've come to a lot of conclusions.  One of them is that it is true that 'What goes around comes around'.  I remember doing some things to my parents when I was 18 that I am not proud of.  One of those things involve an opportunity for a college education that I walked away from.  I don't know how much my parent's had invested in that financially, but I DO know they had a LOT invested emotionally.  I say DO, because I didn't know it then, but I DO know it now.  Although what we are going through is not the exact scenario, not quite as severe, it's still hard.  We have been been assured that he will make it back in time to get his sign-ups done and tests taken to be admitted to WSU, but Virginia is a long way away, and it's really expensive to fly back and forth for that kind of thing.  I don't think he realizes that.  He's just a kid, what does he know?

Another conclusion I've come to is that I really do have to cut the apron strings.  I've been lucky with Preston, so far, in that he's been able to stretch his wings while under my wings.  It's been a real comfort to me.  But with Keaton, I need to just let it be.  He's 18, he want's to make his mark, let him make his own mistakes and hopefully learn from them.  And maybe he'll really be able to do something really good out there.  We raised him right, he'll figure the rest out.  But I will still keep praying that the Lord will send something better his way, (maybe divert his attention to something else?), but of course 'Thy will be done'.  Maybe this is the Lord's will, I just have to have faith.

Anyway,  the rant of a sad Mama.

It's hard seeing your kids make choices that you wouldn't choose for them.  It's also hard letting them go.