Bucket Filling - My Cup Runneth Over

This is a topic I’ve probably mentioned before but I can’t help repeating it, especially after the other day. Friday morning Zach’s school had an assembly that parents were permitted to attend. The assembly was about a concept in the school called “Bucket Filling.” According to the concept, our hearts are like buckets and they get filled by people saying and doing nice things to and for us. When someone says something negative to us or does something bad to us, our buckets become empty again. Anyway, Kara and I went to the assembly since her youngest son, Little Boy (LB), goes to the same school. We were sitting on the bleachers as the classes all filed in to the gymnasium and sat in lines in front of their teachers.

I always love seeing my kids as part of their classes whether just sitting in the classroom reading a story or being part of a school production. This assembly was just an educational piece for the kids but it was still nice seeing Zach sitting with his class listening and cheering along with the other three hundred children. As one teacher discussed the “Bucket Filling” concept with the audience, he mentioned that King Bucket Filler would be arriving soon. Seconds later the principal came walking into the gym wearing a giant foil-covered bucket and a foil crown – King Bucket Filler.

Watching all the kids cheering and laughing at him just swelled my heart to the point that I teared up sitting right there. Kara started to say something to me and noticed the tears in my eyes. She asked if I was getting emotional and, when I said ‘yes’ she laughed and said she was also. The two of us sat there laughing at ourselves; laughing so hard that our tears actually fell but looked, to anyone watching us, like tears of laughter, not the tears of overly-sentimental mommies getting choked up by a man wearing a bucket and crown.

That always happens to me, though. It doesn’t matter what the event is when it comes to them at school. They haven’t really participated in any extracurricular activities so school is all I’ve dealt with so far. But I always get emotional, in a good way, when I see their little faces enjoying whatever the program may be that day. I take videos of their school performances (so far just Holiday concerts) and I put them on youtube.com. I can watch those videos over and over and I always get teary because the original emotions come flooding back while I watch them. Zach loves to watch me while I watch the videos. He thinks it’s cool that I get so happy that I cry.

I don’t know what it is; I’m just really emotional over simple things like that. I cry during movies, commercials, songs I hear on the radio…and things my kids do. I’m sure I’m not the only mother that does that; and I know it for a fact since I saw Kara like that only a day ago. Maybe we’re the only two mothers, but I doubt it. I believe Tracy said she’s like that too. Saturday there will be a Halloween parade through town here. The kids get to wear their costumes and there’s a party afterward. I’ll bet money that I’ll cry when I see them dressed in their costumes, marching along with everyone else. I may look like an idiot but I don’t care.

I just can’t help getting so excited for them, imagining their pride and joy in the situation, and feeling an overwhelming sense of pride in myself because of them. I know it might sound stupid but it’s just the way I am. I can only imagine how I’ll embarrass them when they’re older. I’ll be sitting in the audience during a junior high or high school event crying like a baby as they stand on stage doing something for which they’ve been selected. They’ll probably ask me not to come to any more school functions within the next couple of years simply because they don’t want people to know we’re related. “Mom, please stay home. You cry so much over stuff that we don’t want anyone to know you’re our mom.” Mom’s cry over happy stuff, some of us cry a little too much, but that’s just the way it is. At least it tells the kids we’re pleased with them; I’m sure they’ll understand when they have kids of their own even if they don’t understand it now. Maybe by the time they reach college I’ll be out of tears. I doubt it, though; they’ll always be my babies, I’ll always be proud of them, and I’ll always cry at joyful events. My kids and their happiness are the things that fill my bucket.

Until next time…peace to all.