Today, for about the fifth time in the last three years, my mother attempted to show me how to cut out a pattern for an Easter dress for JoJo. When I look at those patterns, it’s like a foreign language to me. I don’t understand it. I can read music, write software, speak a little French, and do math in my head, but why can’t I understand what all of those symbols on that one sheet of paper mean? It’s so frustrating!
Enter: the irony of it all. On any given day, JoJo can recite the full lyrics for just about any song on the radio, especially country music and Disney. Side note – she wails them out when you least expect it, such as “long tall cold beer never broke my heart” by Luke Combs as we’re leaving church. It keeps us on our toes. I’ve said to her many times, “if you can learn everyone’s part in Frozen, why can’t you tell me what 10 + 10 is?” Actually, some days she can tell me and some days, well, 10 + 10 = 3, or 4, or something else completely wrong. It’s so frustrating!
I came to the reality today in my sewing lesson that everything is not for everybody. Don’t get me wrong – I’m going to make that dress if I have to pay someone to come over here and fix my mistakes because I can’t stand defeat. It may never be my forte (probably WILL never by my forte), and I really need to evaluate whether it’s good for my mental health to continue down the sewing road. On the other hand, I think I missed the bigger picture with JoJo on this one. She can recite long lyrics to just about any song! That’s HUGE! So what if 10 + 10 = 3.
Here’s where I left it today: I’m proud of that girl. She knows her limits and whether I acknowledge it or not, she tries very hard on everything all of the time. Hopefully, she’ll say the same thing about me when she sees her home-sewn Easter dress.
By the way – if you see her on Easter and she’s not wearing a pretty blue dress, you’ll know I bailed on my project and went to Old Navy. Know your limits, know your limits, know your limits. Ah… it sounds so easy.
