Baseball - the meaning of life?

Crafting has been seriously put on hold the past few weeks. My life has been at the baseball field. I really am one of those baseball moms. I travel from ball field to ball field and yell like hell for my kids - good, bad, ugly. The picture above is Cody getting ready to hit his third home run. 2nd for the season. So far this Spring season he has hit 4 whoppers over the fence. It is great - but not the be all end all for me. I think I feel so much more proud of him - in the dugout - on the bench getting his teammate riled up for the inning.

We have been trying to instill the feeling of leadership, sportsmanship, and love of the game in him rather than just being that kid who can go out and knock one over the fence (although - let's be honest, I am sure it feels pretty awesome. I think he is starting to get it. What it means to be a positive force on the bench. Bring your teammates up - not down. Jonathan is just starting to get into baseball - all the other baseball moms call him smiley. Jon doesn't care if he gets a hit, doesn't care if he crosses home plate - for him it is the little things. Getting his bat on the ball - no matter that it went foul and counts as a strike. When he makes contact, the smile on his face truly brings tears to my eyes.

I have only missed like one or two games in my kids baseball careers. I am the scorekeeper for both teams and I wouldn't change anything about it. I love it! I love it! I love it!

Do you remember the first time your child looked at you with pure joy and pride in their eyes? I do and I get choked up when I think about it. For Cody - he was about 3 1/2 and we were at the mall. They had one of those indoor playgrounds. His baby brother was about a month old and we had gone to grandma and grandpa's for a little break. Grandpa and I were at the mall watching Cody play on the giant pieces of fruit! The huge slice of watermelon was the one piece that Cody couldn't get up. He struggled and struggled and kept falling off. He never gave up! Finally after about 3o minutes of trying he finally pulled his chubby little legs up and stood on top of that watermelon - like he had just climed Mt. Everest. He looked at me with that look - and said "I did it Momma, I did it!"

For Jon - it was during his first flag football season. Jon is more about "fellowship" that being that star athlete. Coach found a good spot for him - he played center. He could be part of the action - but didn't need to be so intense. Well, toward the end of the season he was on defense and ran down the ball holder and finally got a hold of the flag. I will never, never forget the light shining from my son's face. It was like the heavens opened and God sent a sunbeam to little Jon. I can tell you that I was not the only one in the stand with tears in their eyes. If you looked up joy and pride in the dictionary - his face was there beaming. As he ran by he asked - "did you see me mom?"