Oops

Day 49

I messed up.

I’d misread my friend’s email and got our meeting time completely mixed up.  She showed up at my house to carpool down to the FreeStore at exactly the time I was 30 minutes away Christmas shopping with another friend. 

She was gracious and understanding about my brain snafu.  She even picked up the food that the boys and I collected and dropped it for us.    

I am looking for redemption.  If you cause an inconvenience to someone it only seems right to make someone else’s life more convenient.  Let’s call it balancing out the universe.   

My oldest plays basketball.  His team practices on Saturday afternoons until the season starts in December.  A friend’s son plays on the same team but he misses Saturday practices since it’s during his baby sister’s naptime. 

I text her.  “Does James want to go to practice?  I can swing by and pick him up.” 

She responds immediately.  “Great!” 

As a mom of three boys, I’m a huge proponent of team sports.  Team sports teach boys to work together for a common goal.  They learn that losing gracefully is equally as important as winning.  Sports help develop coordination and bolster self-confidence. Plus, boys need to run around and work off some of that energy.

My friend’s son is absolutely no trouble and I am happy that he didn’t miss out on practice time.  The boys scrimmage another team and are soundly stomped. 

My son enjoys an after-game play-by-play.  “Where was my best play?” he asks seriously.  I tell him he did a great job dribbling and passing. 

“But do you think I can do better?”  This is a tough question.  I don’t know enough about basketball to give any honest tips and I don’t want to discourage.  I also don’t think this question only refers to basketball.  

I think of my friend and my screw-up this morning, the first on a list for the day. 

“Honey, we can all do better.”