Mary Angel

(11/2017) Here we are at the beginning of November and I once again find myself counting my blessings. There are always many things I am thankful for but this year I am hyper focused on something silly. Never before have I had two children go through the awkward klutzy phase at the same time, until now. The past few weeks, my girls have been more klutzy than the boys ever were. So it is on my mind constantly.

It all started fairly simple. One of them would trip over their own feet or run into a wall. Then it was your basic kid stuff. They would be playing basketball and one of them would get a ball to the head or ankle. Someone would come in screaming that the other had wrecked their bike. Luckily these were all fairly basic childhood injuries. There was a little blood, a lot of tears and more than the required bandaging (mainly because it stopped the tears). Often times, there wasn’t even a mark on them, just a frightened little girl or girls.

Then the clumsiness got worse. My youngest daughter came running with a terrified look on her face. Apparently her sister was trying to impress her with some amazing gymnastics skills and pulled a groin muscle. There was also some question as to whether or not she was stuck in a split position. Everything ended alright; she wasn’t stuck and her pulled muscle was much better in just under a week. However, this wasn’t the end of the mishaps. A day went by with nothing to report and amazingly I got excited. The following day was unfortunately not so lucky. On that day my youngest fell out of bed trying to get up to use the potty in the middle of the night. Besides a few bumps and bruises she was fine. I was beginning to wonder if we were all going to survive.

The following week wasn’t much better. The good news was that not all clumsiness ends in injury; the bad news is that it can still be costly. While at a craft store one of the girls was swinging her arms at her side and knocked over a rooster figurine that was hanging off of a shelf. The store was extremely kind and did not make us purchase the rooster, even though I offered. The next day ended fairly uneventfully with one girl falling off her chair and the other tripping over her feet in the hall and smacking into the wall.

Sometimes the girls take turns. For example one week my oldest was all about being clumsy and the next she took a break and let her little sister be the clumsy one. During the 13 year old’s week she fell down the basement steps and dented the wall at the bottom, caught a huge bottle of lotion with her nose, and ran into the sliding glass patio door with her entire body (although face first). In her defense she had asked her sister to hand her the lotion not toss it to her and we had just cleaned the sliding door and it was extremely clear. As for the steps and the dented wall I have no excuse to give except clumsiness. The 10 year old’s clumsy week was more like a two day extravaganza. We went to a pumpkin patch where she proceeded to bang her head and get a splinter. Upon arriving home she went to tell her Meme about her troubles and closed the door on the back of her foot, removing a bit of skin and causing a bruise. The next day we went on a homeschool field trip to the zoo and she "chose" one of the few gravel covered spots to trip and fall on her knees and palms. There was a little blood, a lot of tears, and much less skin.

The other day the girls and I were discussing their clumsy phase and the youngest asked if it really was a phase. When I asked her to explain her reasoning she shocked me with her answer. She explained that I have had more than 9 concussions in my life (true fact) and that if she understood correctly they weren’t all when I was young. So she drew the conclusion that maybe it wasn’t a phase but just who we are, a clumsy family. WOW, I couldn’t argue with that logic. Between being almost knocked unconscious playing racquetball for the first time, a few car accidents, a plate glass window to the head, getting a Dremel wound up in my hair and running into a piece of wobbling rebar with my head, I guess my phase is still going on. I was very proud of my 10 year old for taking all of these family stories and drawing such an accurate conclusion. I hope for my girl’s sake that theirs is just a phase.

I am really not sure when this phase will pass, but for now I am just thankful when we have a day without a fall or an accident. I am also extremely thankful when my girls are not hurt badly by their accidents. I am also thankful that the girls seem to be toughening up from all of the mishaps. A fall or a bang on the head doesn’t always bring tears now, sometimes they even laugh at the fact that there are so many accidents. I am thankful so many more blessings than just these but for right now this is where we are in this season of life. Make sure in this month of being thankful that you are counting your blessings. Even if those blessings are as simple as having a day without a clumsy incident.

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