or join our email list for the latest schedules at www. arkansascraftschool.org. Now is the time to support your favorite arts and cultural organizations, like the Arkansas Craft School. Thank you for being part of our creative family. Questions can be directed to arkcraftschool@gmail.com.
Newport www.facebook.com/newportarchamber Foster Recruitment Team Meeting. The Arkansas Department of Human Services invites everyone to come together to share ideas and resources to help recruit more foster parents. For more information call Brandy Jones (870) 217-1072 or email brandy.jones@dhs. arkansas.gov. If you don’t see your community represented here, please send us any upcoming event information and we will be happy to share with our other communities eyeonjoseph@gmail.com. N
Tales of a Transplanted Fashionista Keep Me In The Moment
Leigh Keller is a high school guidance counselor at Batesville High School and the director of the BHS Glass Slipper Project. She lives in Batesville with her son, Cole, and a pack of dogs.
She is clothed in strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future. -Proverbs 31:25 There’s something to be said for contentment in your skin, in where you are right now in your life, and knowing that getting to this point wasn’t easy or simple. Cole is secure enough, in knowing who he is, to go meet new people (anywhere we go) and be who God created him to be, as his own goofy person. Cole, my mom and me made our annual trip to Peebles Farm over the weekend, and I watched families from my perch in that rocking chair. How lucky am I to be at this stage of mommin where I can contentedly watch my child, from a few feet away laugh and chat with another child he just met? As a mama of a ten year old, it hasn’t always been that way. We have been through all of the phases, the baby phase, where he was dependent on us for everything, the chubby, smiling toddler stage, where everything is new every day, and now here we are, at the stage where I can breathe, but I simply don’t want to take my eyes off of him. I see him growing into the person he will be, with his sense of humor and undying loyalty to his friends. I know that someday very soon, he won’t always think I’m funny, he won’t always want to have kitchen dancing parties and cook with me. So I
am committed to living in the moment with my sweet boy, right now. I watched families with screaming tiny children who were so tired; I always feel like I need to smile at those mamas, and tell them that one day soon they will get to sit a bit away and breathe a little easier too. I watched families in super coordinated cute outfits, who seemed so stressed out about how dirty the pumpkin patch was (PS I am loving the cute fall hat trend, but I have a huge head and I would just look like some kind of park ranger in those hats, not a good look for me). While I am a sucker for a good family photo shoot, my favorite pictures are the candid ones of me and Cole just being a little family. Hang in there, mamas of littles. One day your child can be your photographer at the pumpkin patch, and you can just follow him through the corn maze, because you (and the several grown men behind you with their families) trust his map skills more than yours. One day you will be able to eat your barbecue nachos at the pumpkin patch while they’re still hot, and enjoy people watching from your perch. But be sure not to wish your baby and toddler phase away just yet, time goes so very fast. N
eyeonmag.com
eyeonjoseph@eyeonmag.com
November 2020
15
