A Little Thanks Goes A Long Ways

I think at some point every Mom wonders whether her kids will ever truly appreciate everything that we do for them.  And by appreciate I mean....at some point in the waaaaaay distance future.  Maybe when they have kids of their own.  Well I wonder if I might actually be seeing that distance on the horizon.  I keep getting little, tiny glimpses of it every now and then with my 15 year old.  Don't get me wrong - there are still LOTS and LOTS of times he takes us completely for granted.  Is incredibly self-centered.  Can't be bothered to listen to what we have to say.  But every once in a while itty bitty bits of gratitude show up.  Just when I least expect it.  (heck, maybe he's just trying to throw me off my game!).

Every morning I get up before the crack of dawn to make breakfast, pack lunch & prepare a water cooler bottle for Sam.  I then wake him up, wait for him to get ready, then take him to marching band practice while it's still dark outside.  Most days I don't complain.  I really don't mind it too much - and it's a good time for me to have quiet conversation with him on the ride (before he has time to get all the teen angst goin').  Yesterday when I dropped him off, he just casually threw out a "Thanks for doin' this every day, Mom."  Then he slammed the car door and was off before I even had a chance to recover and verify that I had indeed heard what I THOUGHT I heard.  This was no mere, off-the-cuff "thanks."  This was a verbatim "Thanks for doin' this every day, Mom."  And at that point I thought, oh my goodness.....he actually gets it.  He actually realizes that I'm going out of my way every day to do stuff like this for him.  It was nothing, really....but really something (if you know what I mean).