One of Number 4’s favorite things to do down here in North Carolina is look for sea glass and small stones that have washed up on the beach.

I’ve been thinking about needing to spend more one-on-one time with each of the kids, and today when we got to the beach it was low tide. The perfect time to look for shells.

There is a pier on the beach down here. My parents condo is a couple hundred yards south of it. That’s where we always park ourselves. In front of their condo.

But on the north side of the pier is where cars can drive down the beach and park.

That’s where I like to go for runs, and the other morning on my way back, I picked up a few stones and some sea glass for Number 4.

So today I asked my parents if they’d watch the other kids for a little while, and Number 4 and I could take a walk north of the pier.

Since lots of people drive down that way and camp out for the day, there seems to be more sea glass down there. There’s a lot of beer drinking north of the pier.

Number 4 was excited about looking for stones and having some alone time with me.

We did a lot of talking.

She told me how excited she is for this upcoming school year and how she can’t wait for middle school to start.

She told me all about her plans to be organized and start her middle school career off on the right foot.

We talked about expectations and that turned to talking about college which turned to talking about earning money.

That led to her asking if the tooth fairy was real.

We recently had a little talk about being honest when she got caught for lying to me. I really wanted to get across to her how important it is that I be able to trust her.

So I couldn’t very well lie about the tooth fairy. I told her the truth.

That led to the Easter Bunny, and while part of me wanted to come clean, I really didn’t want to because she isn’t quite ready to not believe, and she still believes in Santa, and I just want to keep that alive for her for at least one more year.

Plus I know as soon as she finds out, she’s gonna blow it for Number 5, 6 and 7.

So I was somehow able to redirect the conversation back to earning money.

Number 4 really wants to make her own money, but she’s not quite sure how to go about doing it.

We talked about different things she could do, and I explained to her that she could start her own business.

I told her about Etsy, and we discussed things she could make and sell.

We talked about knitting and she got very excited about that.

And then I told her she could probably make some decent money if she could find a way to turn the sea glass and cool stones she’s found into quality jewelry.

That got her super excited.

We talked and talked and walked and walked and kind of lost track of time.

When we realized how far we had gone, we turned around and headed back toward where my parents were with the other kids.

I didn’t have my phone with me, so I had no idea how long we’d been gone, but we were pretty far north of the pier.

We kept walking and talking, Number 4 getting more and more excited about the prospect of starting her own little business.

“This was really fun, Mom,” she said to me. “Thanks for walking with me. I wish we could do this more often.”

We were still looking for stones.

“We walked pretty far. We should probably hurry up.”

Awwww. She didn’t want my parents to worry.

“Because I really have to take a dump.”

And that wrapped up our quality mother/daughter bonding time today.

 

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