This skinny little boy walks out of the house with a backpack weighted down with books and a computer and he's carrying a duffle bag full of sports stuff. I can't even imagine carrying that load day after day and then working out for two hours after school but he does. Yes, he has a locker at school but he doesn't use it. He says that he doesn't even know where it is although he has the combination for it so he carries all his stuff with him throughout the day. This goes on for a couple weeks before the first meet of the season for school wrestling. The day arrives and he comes downstairs in a sweatshirt that he's swimming in however it is his wrestling uniform. He's so excited. Three other schools show up to the meet at the border. I look around at the kids and realize the incredible difference in weight. They call the first weight class, 80 to 100 pounds. Job has weighed in at 75 pounds. He doesn't even qualify for the lowest weight class but it turns out that there are two other kids from his school that weigh just about the same weight as him. These three make their way down to the announcer's table anyway. Will he get a match? I hope. How can he go to meet after meet without even 1 qualifying match? I am hoping that this doesn't make him lose interest, constantly wondering if he has an opponent. I wait anxiously in the stands with John, wondering. He comes back to the bleachers. Not this round but the next round, which means that all weight classes wrestle and then they pair up kids again for another round. Finally it's Job's turn and he heads down to the mat with his opponent. Even though they asked parents to stay in the stands, I went down to the mat. I figured that if I didn't interfere and kept taking photos they wouldn't say anything to me. He walked out to the mat and they placed their colored bands around their ankles, shook hands and assumed neutral position. That means they start facing each other. The clock is set to a minute and a half. A minute and a half to test his strength against his opponent by forcing his shoulders to touch the mat. It is extremely tiring. He lasted through the first period and they reset the clock to another minute and a half. Again, he pitted his strength against his opponent. It was close to the end when he just couldn't quite keep from getting pinned. Exhausted he shook hands with his opponent and then with opposing coach before he came over to the bleachers to sit down. He let out a sigh and asked for food. Can't deny him that, especially after wrestling. 
I slowly mozey over to the couch with a cup of coffee in hand and plop down. Plop is definitely the correct word, meaning to sit, fall or drop heavily and then there is the word mozey' meaning to move slowly or in a leisurely manner. Both of these words to me have the connotation of being cozy and wrapped with warmth and familiarity. In a formal setting you really don't plop or mozey but I want to be able to do that in my house. I open a book about photography, knitting or being domestic, maybe my bible, a devotional, a library book or a favorite magazine. I grab the quilt that is draped over the back of the couch and pull it over me so that it covers my legs. The dog saunters into the room with his chew bone and squeezes his body between the trunk and the couch. He groans as he lays down and puts his head between his outstretched paws. The sun slowly rises and light starts to fill the room. The silence of the morning surrounds the house and invades every nook and cranny we have. The stillness soaks into my body and I sit content and quiet. I lean over and pick up my coffee cup to take a sip and I drink in my surroundings. Pinterest is full of tips to make a cozy home, a redecorated home, an instyle home but I realize that my home is full of what makes it all that and a bag of chips. It can't be found on Pinterest. I can't Google it. It isn't tangible. It is the quiet moments in the morning or loud laughter and the bantering around the dinner table. It's the moments when one of my boys walks up to me and gives me a hug and the sigh that comes out when I wrap my arms around them. It is the piano music floating out of the family room as my daughter practices or the times her face lights up when she's telling me a story. It's the friends that walk through the door without knocking because they know they are family. It's the opening of the fridge from adolescent boys. It's the swing in the front tree in motion from neighborhood kids regardless of the presence of my kids. It's the moment my husband walks through the front door, giving me a kiss as I put my head on his chest. There will always be a new style, a new pinterest definition of coziness but I think that I've found it in my home.
Last month, I was in bed when Isaac walked through the front door. It was late and I was tired. He climbed the stairs and knocked on the door. He walked in with some hardware. He placed 7th in Division 2 for state individual. He was excited. Then he launched into an explanation of some of his games and the conversation between John and Isaac quickly went over my head. Later on in the month, his chess coach called and asked if I would be a floor monitor for the Chess tournament that the Ferndale Chess club hosts. Seriously? I barely know how the pieces move. All I really needed to do was walk around and circle the winner of each match. It was a whole day thing. I was with the elementary kids which ended around 2:45. I then walked over to the high school area only to find Isaac and Ben (his best friend) playing each other. They go back and forth on who wins. This friendship started as enemies on the same soccer team. I remember one time that Isaac became so frustrated with Ben during a soccer practice that he jumped on Ben's back and tried to pummel him. I'm not sure when they started hanging out but it got to the point that Ben just walks right in to the house. When they lived in our neighborhood, he would spend more time at our house than his house. We've taken him to Canada to go swimming and he tells the border guards that he practically lives with us. When he's over, they play chess, modern warfare, hearthstone and sometimes minecraft. After this chess match, Isaac and Ben went over the moves of the game. They have to write down each move and so they analyzed it to see where Isaac went wrong and how Ben beat him. I'm glad Isaac no longer feels the urge to try and take Ben down physically but with chess it is still fairly competitive.
