MOM! SOMETHING FELL OUT OF THE TRUNK!

I absolutely love our Suburban. I wish we had it years ago. The kids love it. They are not on top of each other in the car anymore. We still have room for strollers and baseball equipment when all six of us are in the car. The trunk doubles as a rain cover when open and we can actually give other people a ride somewhere now! It has been a wonderful addition to our family. That being said, it has taught me a little lesson about patience and humor. So here goes.

Now that we have all this "additional space" in the trunk, there is a TON of "stuff" always in our trunk. I am okay with this. I mean we have four kids, so of course we need to carry a lot around, right!? We just finished up baseball season....Correction......it is always baseball season around here! Needless to say for the past few months, there has been an extensive collection of tennis balls, bats, base plates, gloves, cleats, etc in the trunk. Better to keep it close than not have it when you need it is MacGyver's motto I think. None of this bothers me....the trunk is definitely big enough for everyone's stuff! But there is one thing that tickles me about this "junk in the trunk". One of the staples in our trunk lately has been tennis balls which apparently are great for baseball practice.

The first time it happened was in December at the hospital parking lot. I was taking Sparkler to her pre-op appointment, it was pouring down rain and the stroller was in the trunk. I hopped out, excited to get the stroller from the fancy rain protected trunk, opened the door and POW! Out tumbled AT LEAST 30 tennis balls! They scattered all over the parking deck floor- no joke. I about passed out. I had 5 minutes to get where I needed to go, was a nervous wreck about Sparkler's surgery and frankly not too excited to pick up all the lost tennis balls. Then I laughed. This had to be God using his sense of humor to calm me and bring me back to the focus of what was really important. So I collected all the balls from the ground, making numerous trips back and forth (in case you don't know, tennis balls falling from a 3 foot ledge roll far!), and reorganized things in the trunk so it would not happen again. And yes, I did recognize all the passerby's laughing and/or gawking at my charade.

This has happened more times than I can remember ever since. Most of the time the kids are with me and love to let me know MOM! SOMETHING FELL OUT OF THE TRUNK! as if I was unaware of the spewing! I used to collect every single ball that fell out of the car ( in case you are wondering, MacGyver keeps the tennis balls in a crate....but due to my talented driving, I can knock the crate over going around corners at 45mph! just kidding...kind of!). I have learned to laugh about this now. Of course it tends to happen in the most "worst case" places. I am certain this is all an intention to teach me a lesson to slow down, enjoy life and not let things upset me that really don't matter. I have even learned to share from this experience. If I am somewhere with other kids around such as a park or school, I don't take initiative to collect the balls. Instead I leave them for others to enjoy! Crazy or courteous.....you choose! I know now that one day soon enough there will not be any "stuff" in my trunk and I will miss the days when balls flew out by the dozen! I'll miss chasing the balls around the parking lots under the concerned glare of passerbys! Thanks God for teaching me about patience, humility and humor in a not-so-traditional way!