The World Series of baseball is as American as apple pie!  Being a resident of Southern California, most people here have Los Angeles Dodger fever right now!  Even those of us who are actually Angels fans during the regular season!  Sitting in a bar for Happy Hour with my co-workers last night, the whole restaurant erupted in applause whenever the Dodgers made a good play!  They ended up fighting their way back to win 3-2 after 18 innings!  A record breaking 18 innings!

When you are raising young children, parenting can feel like 18 innings!  I was telling a dad that has twin 3 year old boys and a 5 year old son how he should “cherish these years!”   This is advice that people with grown children will often give, with good intentions of course!  He reminded me that it isn’t easy when you are living it!  By the time he gets home from work, gets dinner, baths, and the kids to bed, it’s time to wake up and do it all over again!  Then another friend of mine who has a Kindergartner, 4th grader and 6th grader reminded me that when you add in the after school activities and homework, it gets really crazy!    It’s funny how I can gloss over those parts in my mind now, kind of like forgetting the pains of child birth.   I do remember it isn’t easy and it is physically exhausting!  But little do you know at the time, the physical exhaustion is far easier than the mental exhaustion you will face when they get to the teen years!!   You spend time thinking you can’t wait for them to get older so it will be easier!  But what I recall is that it doesn’t really get easier, just different!  Then there are other challenges:  driver’s license, first dates, college prep!

Parenting can sometimes feel like that old Abbot and Costello comedy routine of “Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know’s on third!”  It is definitely a juggling routine!  And it is the hardest job I have ever had, but also the best job I have ever had.  With all of the challenges, the blessings far outweigh the difficulties.  I still look back with nostalgia -even to the middle school years!   Those times get really tricky though because they sprinkle in raging hormones – just to keep things interesting.   Then to add insult to injury, I started early menopause!   So we were all raging!!!  God really does have a sense of humor!

I guess we kind of grow with our children.  We learn as they learn.  And along the way we get prepared for each new step in their lives.  My youngest daughter just got engaged!  I cannot express the absolute joy I feel during this wonderful part of her life.  Her happiness is intoxicating!  And she has found a wonderful man and her perfect match!  These are the moments that are pure love and such a gift as a parent!

Parenting is a journey well worth the ride!  But I still can’t help but wish I had stopped to play ball a little bit more when they were small.  My friend Mary Faley had a poem on her refrigerator and I can’t remember the entire thing, but it said something like this:

My house may not be perfect, things may be a mess.

But while my kids are small, we are out playing ball.

Play Ball!