{"id":405,"date":"2015-10-27T00:20:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T00:20:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=405"},"modified":"2015-10-27T00:22:09","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T00:22:09","slug":"its-hard-to-part-with-my-toe-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=405","title":{"rendered":"It’s hard to part with my toe ring"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer, my three girls and I got toe rings.\u00a0 I know, it’s not really that radical, but it was fun.\u00a0We\u00a0picked them out together and showed them off wearing cute sandals. \u00a0It\u00a0became exciting when others expressed their surprise that we would do such a thing. \u00a0I know, such rebels. \u00a0I wonder what they would have said if\u00a0we’d gotten tattoos or piercings?\u00a0 Maybe next year…\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Summer is over now, even here in the\u00a0South.\u00a0 My girls have already taken off their rings, but\u00a0I still have mine on, though I haven’t worn sandals for several weeks.\u00a0 I just can’t bring myself to take it off\u00a0yet.\u00a0 I know it’s just a\u00a0silly toe ring, but I find that I’m not ready to part\u00a0with it.<\/p>\n

You see, our kids are growing up. \u00a0That’s what they do.\u00a0 Soon they will be moving out, going to separate colleges, and only coming home for holidays and the occasional visit.\u00a0 That’s how it should be.\u00a0 They are starting a new phase of their lives\u00a0by joining their older sister in becoming adults.\u00a0 I’m proud of the people they’ve become and am excited for the adventures that await them.<\/p>\n

But I’m also sad.<\/p>\n

I know I will always be their mom and we will have fun, special times together in the future, but it will be different.\u00a0 I will no longer be a part of their day to day lives.\u00a0 Deep thoughts and feelings will be shared with close friends and new loves.\u00a0 Fun new adventures, like new\u00a0toe rings, will be experienced without me.\u00a0 That’s as it should be; it’s their turn to create their own stories.<\/p>\n

Knowing, doesn’t make it easy.\u00a0\u00a0I’m being challenged in\u00a0new ways as a mom; I’m learning to let go.\u00a0\u00a0Some days I do okay.\u00a0 Other days I find myself reminiscing and grieving.\u00a0 So I keep the toe ring on because I’m not quite ready to say good bye…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This summer, my three girls and I got toe rings.\u00a0 I know, it’s not really that radical, but it was fun.\u00a0We\u00a0picked them out together and showed them off wearing cute sandals. \u00a0It\u00a0became exciting when others expressed their surprise that we … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/image7.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions\/414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}