A happy Mother’s day tale as coordinated by Leagan Jameson Sharp.
We must first start with… we bought a boat last month, we launched it into Lick Creek last weekend. That adventure is a whole other tale, but that is the back story needed.
On Saturday morning, we successfully finished installing our new trolling motor since the boat did not have one. It took a while, so the boys did some dock and bank fishing while waiting. The water was nice and high, so I only occasionally had to get them unstuck. Ellis pulled out a Bluegill to everyone’s surprise on his fifth cast.
Everyone got hangry as the trolling motor job wrapped up so I went and made everyone a sandwich. Leaving I let a skink that was hanging at the storm door in. I can’t find him. It’s still not yet known if he will return to our story. (Update we scared one each time we used the door, and we assume it’s him) We ate our first boat lunch in the boat house.
At last it was time to go fishing!
So we drove out to the middle of the creek and deployed the motor. I almost launched Ellis and I off the boat with the trolling motor when I figured out the go button…
Once I get it sorta figured out, I start getting us going along the edge, we only almost hit one boat house and have to push off. 😆
So I’m driving the trolling motor with the remote. The boys fish, soon Andrew’s setting up the third lure of the outing per child…
The fishing chairs are pretty high for both boys and the front ones are close to the edge. So we took out the poles and they got floor seats. This was one of a few errors.
Boys are fishing the front, Andrew is fishing the back. We’re not close to anything trolling wise so I’m in the middle bending over to shove the mess that immediately manifested into our many storage compartments.
When I feel something…
Leagan’s treble hook rooster tail has one of its’ hooks in my forehead above my left brow at my hairline. My years of hooks anxiety realized. Thank God I was Momming and bent over.
Him sitting in the chair at floor level probably made it easier for him to nab me.
So I freak out, Andrew’s looking at it, Leagan starts crying, Ellis starts crying and asks if it’s in my brain.
I still have the trolling remote, so I keep asking if we need to steer it… while Andrew sees if there is anything he can try…
We do that for a bit, I’m head down eyes closed “Mom talking” for them to be still. We decide it’s time to motor up back to the cabin. Boys are crying, still freaked out. I’m holding Leagan’s trembling hand tight.
We get back. The van is at the boat house, the keys, of course, are somewhere in the cabin, Andrew goes to find them. I remember my anxiety cheatsheet of emergency services on the fridge and google the Urgent Care 20 min away. At this point, it’s almost 5, and they, by some miracle, don’t close til 6.
I register on the way and I’m number one in line 😆 We get there, not a car in the lot from our perspective, but behold a receptionist peeking her head out from behind the 15 flyers on the window.
We wait a bit. I go back.
The Dr. lidocaines me up and tries a few times but ends up suggesting the ER 30 min away in Lexington.
So they clean me up, put a bandaid over it so the kids can’t see it, and off we go to Henderson County hospital. Not sure how far back it went, but it sure seemed smaller than my primary care in Nashville.
I get registered with them. Urgent care did call ahead, I get my first “Bless your heart” from a nurse. Then wait some more. Boys are squirmy worms and keep touching their faces. Finally, at 7, I get to go back.
ER doc comes in with a tackle organizer of tools, numbs me back up and uses some needle nose pliers to get it out.
He shows it to me and asks if I want to keep it. I reply most definitely to “torment my child indefinitely,” so I now have a urine sample container with a hook and Mother’s Day 2025 on it. Everyone was very super nice at the tiny hospital. My TDAP from Ellis was still good, so no sore arm today, just a tender head.
At 7:30 I’m discharged and I still get to have my favorite cheap Mexican, Mi Pueblito back in Parsons. I thought for sure we weren’t gonna make it but they were open til 9:30 which is midnight by small town standards 😆
We get back to the cabin. Leagan and I snuggle together. I definitely earned picking what we watch so I make everyone start Because of Winn-Dixie.
Today, it’s not too tender, it seems. Fortunately, a zillion years of thickhair ponytails made my hairline not too sensitive.
Today to the boys are dock fishing a safe distance from each other, and I’m safely 300 ft away with my coffee. Today’s random weirdness is that I caught a weevil trying to take a sip of my coffee.
Mother’s Day 2025 is a year to remember when all Leagan caught was momma.
Update: We went out for 3.5 hrs, learned how to autopilot the trolling motor and the boys got to fish a little very carefully. I got nice rosy sunburn.
Tomorrow, my Mother’s Day treat is to see one of my lifetime favorite authors speak, Fredrik Backman. Perhaps I need to go back over this tale and add all the Backman like things I was thinking. It seems I’ve missed creative writing 🤔