rollercoaster

This week has been a parenting roller coaster.

Let’s start with this:

This is the car that Punk was a passenger in on Thursday. He was in Minneapolis, at a theater show with some friends. He called at 12:30 to tell us they were going out to eat. He called again at 12:37 with this news.

“We’re fine, everybody’s fine, completely fine, but we’ve been in an accident.” Experience has taught him to lead with the “fine” part and to follow up at  least twice more to make sure I can process the rest of what he’s saying. Everyone in his car was ok, one person in the other car was transported by ambulance for minor injuries, but they are ok too. There was no alcohol involved, not even distracted driving, just a construction area, and an unclear intersection. 12 inches less, no accident. 12 inches more, it wouldn't have been “fine”. 

He followed up with, “It’s probably your worst nightmare. The car is pretty bad, it could have been really bad.” It wasn’t my worst nightmare - but only because of the “fine” part. 

This is why I never want my kids out of my sight.

But then on Friday there was this:

Kooka was crowned an Ambassador of our town, something she’s been dreaming of since Punk had his turn as a junior “prince” in 2007. If you’re not familiar with how this works, here’s a quick rundown:

The girls and guys running for this position spend the majority of their summer volunteering with various groups in the region, they also participate in casual and business interviews with judges, etiquette classes, luncheons and events with the committee. At the end of all this, they participate in an evening program (which is basically a pageant), where they are judged on their speech/public speaking, poise, grace, sick dance moves etc., etc., and the winners are crowned.

She’ll be riding in floats, attending regional events and parades, volunteering throughout the state and various other things that basically make her feel like a low-key Disney princess. At the end of her term she’ll receive a scholarship. She’s especially excited because one of her best friends from Lee school was also crowned and they’ll be serving together. They spent the night at a celebratory dance, meeting other “royal ambassadors”, taking hundreds of photos, eating cake and trying to keep those crowns balanced in their heads.

We we were so happy for her, but even more happy that we were all there to see it.

Today Tiny spearheaded 100 Kind Deeds For The Earth Day. She asked her Instagram followers to help her do 100 good things for the environment. A late afternoon rainstorm almost made it impossible, but at 10:47 pm, they hit the 100 mark. Tiny worked to clean up three parks, wrote letters to corporations asking them to reconsider their use of certain plastics, rescued some monarchs, scootered to the library instead of driving, gave up meat and various other tasks. Her followers pitched in with things like using a line to dry their laundry, walking to work, refusing plastic bags, switching to LED bulbs, and turning off the A/C.  She was pretty surprised by the amount of garbage people left all over the place.  She was more surprised at how difficult it was to convince people to help. Cleaning up the world is tough. She decided that it’s sort of like her room - easier to just not mess it up in the first place.

Punk heads back to school in a week. 

Kooka began her common ap for next year’s college adventure.

Tiny finished her shopping for fourth grade. 

I’m so done.

It’s Monday and I’m already done.