It happened, Nathan almost died today

I had planned to get on here and write a post about the PROJECT.  It has been turned in as of Sunday.  This is a huge relief!

However, I have to write about what happened to Nathan today.

Teenagers, especially those reaching driving age, but without a license as of yet, are requiring more freedom than younger teens and kids.  I have tried to give Nathan more leave to do the things he wants to do with independence.  One of the things I regularly did during the summer and continue to do now is to pack up his birding stuff and then drop him off at some location where he can spend time birding.  He had mentioned that he wanted me to bring his muck boots so that he could "muck around" at the mudflats behind the county park near our house.  He wanted to look for rare migrating sparrows.  I thought this was a great idea (whew! bad mom moment).

I dropped Nathan off this afternoon before hurriedly taking some of the kids home and then Sariah back to East Lansing for her choir session.  I told him I'd be back at 5:25.  I pulled in right about that time and soon saw him coming down the trail.  When he got to the van I could see that he was carrying one of his boots.  When he opened the van door, I could see that the other boot was nowhere to be seen.

As it turns out, Nathan sank in the mud up to his waist and one of his boots is forever lost in the mud.  We are lucky that he didn't end up in a sinkhole and that he has a great presence of mind and was able to free himself from the mud.  He was really shaky and upset when he got to the van.  I think he recouperated pretty well because he showered and was ready to go out to an organized birding event tonight before his choir session.  However, he does say that he will be avoiding mud from now on.  I'm wondering if there's a class we can take somewhere that teaches safety for people who want to "muck around?"  Gotta look into that.

This was really scary.  True to my promise, I did tell him that it was "so cool" that he almost died.  I think I maybe should have waited until tomorrow to say that.  Glad he's safe and home in his bed tonight and learned that I need to work on my good mom skills a little more!