By Susan Dromey Heeter
Joyful Musings
Today I muse joyfully on those moms who cook, who have snack drawers, who dutifully make their children their lunches, their beds, their scrapbooks.
I am not one of those moms; I aspire to be but suspect I’ll not achieve that status in this lifetime. Last Saturday I looked at some pictures my niece showed me from her prom.
They were gorgeous, all taken surrounding a pristine pool, the girls in their beautiful dresses threw beach balls into the air in one shot, in another, they each held a letter announcing the name of their school and the prom. It was astonishingly beautiful – so put together, so organized, so pristine.
Susan Dromey Heeter
One mom had ordered these props, taken these pictures, orchestrated this photo op. I’m amazed when people get pictures like this – all so organized, so put together, so amazingly orchestrated.
I still haven’t put my wedding pictures into an album; my husband and I celebrated twenty years this month. I figure there is time.
And baby books? I’ll wait until my girls each turn thirty. What’s the rush? But some moms just have it together. Their spoons align in the drawers – one perfectly place on top of another. They have clean towels – separate ones for their pools, their bathrooms.
The utensil drawers in my house have a variety of spoons – all different, all unique. Sure, there are some from the same family, the same design, but most are pretty eclectic.
A friend told me the other day of a guy she’s dating who dumped the utensil holder from his dishwasher directly into the utensil drawer. Brilliant, I thought. One less step.
As I continued talking to my niece about her prom, I asked her about her friends’ moms who seemingly have their lives and their children’s lives so put together, so organized, so intact.
She told me of one mom who has a snack drawer – and, amazingly, it’s filled with granola bars, name brand crackers, fruit bars. I asked her if her mother, my sister, has a snack drawer. I recalled seeing one a while back.
“We do,” she said, “but it’s just filled with cracker crumbs and empty boxes.” Hmmm. I can relate. I think I still don’t understand how my kids can announce, “There is nothing to eat here!”
And as it’s the end of yet another school year, I realize I’ve not made one lunch for my children to take to school. At all. Not once.
Maybe I’ll make something spectacular for the last week – filled with a wonderful salad, hand cut veggies, some fabulous dessert. Or not.
As I work on this column, my daughter has two friends over for a sleepover. The teenagers are still asleep.
I contemplate the thought of making pancakes, having these cherubs arise to the delightful aroma of a lovely breakfast. Or not.
The Sunday Boston Globe beckons; I type this outside, listening and watching my bird friends. I think cereal is good, bagels even better.
But I do have the thought, the idea of being “that Mom.” I believe the bottom line is I probably never will be that mom who serves pancakes, whose home always boasts fresh flowers and clean towels, who has a snack drawer filled.
And my kids and world will be all the better for it. But as I listen to my bird friends, they delight in the fresh seed and simple little bird houses I’ve placed around the yard. And, like my children, they have enough.
May you muse joyfully on all you do – especially if you’re a mom trudging toward the end of another school year. And if you’ve made lunches all along?
Bravo, I’ll take a BLT with salt and vinegar chips and a Diet Coke. But for now I’ll snack on those crumbs in my snack drawer from 1999 and muse joyfully on today’s Sunday Globe.
Susan Dromey Heeter, a writer from Dover who recently let her hair go au natural white, debuts her new column “Joyful Musings” at InDepthNH.org. Dromey Heeter is a secondary Spanish Teacher at Dover High School and the mother of two teenage daughters. Writing has been her passion since her English majoring days at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Dromey Heeter has lived in The Netherlands, Alaska and currently basks in all things New England, including the frigid winters. An avid swimmer, Dromey Heeter’s great passion is to bring back body surfing as most children have no idea how to ride waves without ridiculous boogie boards. She also writes about thrift shopping and all things frugal in a column called “Budget Vogue” for the New Hampshire Union Leader.