Moms Having Fun

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Midway through the summer I think I'm losing it just a little bit. My 13 year-old's hobby of tormenting his younger brother keeps our family riled up much of the time these days.  

At any rate, I continue to try to come up with things to make our "stay-cation" interesting, but at this point I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel.  Last night I briefly considered taking them to see the World's Largest Frying Pan, which is located 30 minutes north of where we live.  (I am not making this up.)

What gets a bit lost at these times is any consideration of MOM FUN.  Now that we moms who are in our late 40s have children who are getting a little more self-sufficient (at least in theory), I notice a certain break out trend towards moms having some fun.  An example:  A mom we know whose older son just got his driver's license went out and bought a sporty little car with a manual transmission FOR HERSELF, and gave her son the MomMobile.  So now she is jetting around in a cute little two door sports car (sorry--no room for groceries or the soccer team!!), and her son is the one who has to brush stale Goldfish crackers off the seat before he goes anywhere.  I love it.

I am embarrassed to admit what I did in the mom fun category, it is so unreasonable.  One thing you would have to know about me to understand my kind of mom fun is that I am a teacher whose limited salary goes mainly for two things:  Kid expenses, and payments on the 10 acres that makes up most of our humble place in the country.  (It's not just an investment, it's an opportunity to mow and kill fire ant mounds for hours every week!)  But there you have it, I love living in the country, partly because I like having a lot of animals.  Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth (aka, before I had kids), I used to teach riding lessons and train horses.

Well, proving once again that I should never be left alone on Craigslist, I found a Thoroughbred (abbreviated "TB" in the horse world) horse that had been abandoned by his owner at a barn in South Carolina.  The barn owner was selling him at rock bottom, just to try to recoup some of the board money she was owed.  

Now, I have no business getting a 5 year-old TB, especially now that I have responsibilities and I don't bounce when I hit the ground anymore.  Yet... what did I do but hook up my trailer, drive down to SC, and buy this beautiful but neglected horse. He cost less than my average monthly electric bill.  He is still dead lame from lack of proper nutrition and hoof care, but I knew going into this that it will probably take 10 months or a year for him to recover completely.  I have lots of pasture space for him, but more importantly I also have time.  After all, if I'm going to be foolish and grab at the brass ring of mom fun at 48, I might as well do the same at 49!