Milestones

Have you ever just had a moment where you all of a sudden feel very grown-up? And then you wonder when and how that happened?

Today was one of those days. Somewhere midst the buckling and unbuckling of children in the backseat and running errands today, I made it to The Music Rack, our local music store, to browse through fun Christmas sheet music and see if the choir music I ordered had come in yet. I had my 11-month-old on my left hip while herding my 3-year-old with my right arm around the narrow aisles of the rooms in the cute old house-converted-to-store, followed by smiles and knowing and understanding glances from kindly employees and other customers. My kids are, after all, very adorable and hard to resist... most of the time. After several attempts getting Anna to leave the fun music pencils and piano-shaped pencil sharpeners down, looking through the fun Sesame Street Christmas songbook at all of the muppets, taking care to not knock over displays of sheet music in our path, we made our way to the checkout counter to pick up the choir piece for the ward choir which, happily, arrived earlier than expected and in time for this Sunday's choir rehearsal.

There must have been something about carrying the paper bag with the 30 copies of the "Peace, Peace" Christmas song out to the car that just had a wave flow over me causing me to feel all grown-up. You see, I grew up watching my mother herd small children around stores, often Bert Murdock or Summerhays music stores. I would stand next to her at the counter while she purchased 30+ copies of some beautiful choir music for the choir to learn and sing in Sacrament Meeting. Mom has been a ward choir accompanist and/or director for as long as I can remember, so she has spent countless hours and browsing sessions in the music store. I am now the choir accompanist in our new ward we moved into this year, and I find myself smiling thinking how I am following Mom's footsteps. And that's why I felt so grown-up tonight, loading up my 2 little ones after toting them through the store, with choir music in hand. A little thing, but kind of a nice milestone to make me feel like I am really finally doing this adult thing. As if moving out and going to college, getting married, having 2 children, and moving halfway across the country weren't enough to help me feel like an adult. All it took was buying music for the ward choir.