No, none of the kids ran away from home. Yet. Well, OK, maybe one of them did, but I was with her. So I guess I ran away from home, too. It was just one.of.those.days. I'm blaming it on summer. Staying up late. Skipping naps. Spending hours frolicking in the pool. But never quite getting the amount of sleep they need to compensate for all the frolicking. Oh, you can get away with it for a while. Until you can't. As I told a friend the other day when she asked how our summer was going, I'm really ...
N and I were in the car the other day when she asked me to turn up the radio. Be one of our first two hundred callers, and your child can have a chance to be on the Disney channel. Agents will be in your area this weekend... I quickly changed the station and started talking about nothing inparticular, hoping I could distract her. "Mom, can you call that number?" I make a mental note to disable the car radio. We were pulling into the bank parking lot as I considered my options. I could just say no, a...
I am now convinced that the biggestarea of conflictin marriages is not sex, or money, or communication, as the research would have you believe. No, in fact, the biggest issue is how the vacuum cord is rolled up--or not--before it goes back into the closet. The second biggest issue is whether or not the vacuum goes back into the closet at all. And the third, of course, is how long is an acceptable length of time to lock one's spouse in the closet with the vacuum. Other potentially explosive marita...
So I have been thinking recently about taking a little blogging break. The problem is, every time I thinkabout takinga break, something pops into my head that I have to write about. I mean, I have to write about it. When things don't make sense in my head--which is often--it usually starts to make a little more sense when I write it down. And when my head feels like it's going toexplode from all those thoughts rolling around in there not making any sense, I can remember the funny parts of somethingand ...
I don't watch the news anymore. Iused to be a news junkie, but then I had kids. Obviously, I can't have the news on when they're around. Today is another example of that. Another mass shooting, again in Colorado. This timethe victims werein a movie theater. They were there to see aBatman movie, though from the pictures of the trailer that's now being shown everywhere you look, Batman isn't quite what he usedto be. It looked..explosive. Coincidence that this is where a gunman chose to kill 12 people and ...
Finally....a cart for three. During shopping trips like these, someone usually tells me that I have my hands full. Sometimes they smile. Sometimes they shake their head. Sometimes they give an obvioussigh of relief that their own hands aren't quite as full. And I'm reminded to be grateful that mine are. Because I remember when they weren't.
Lately, when I have been ready to lose my mind because someone is not listening, or talking back, or throwing things yet again, I try to remind myself that these are all potentially teachable moments. I have a choice.I can lose it. Or I can stay calm, and seize the opportunity to teach. Most of the time, I still lose it. Sometimes, though, I am able to work thought it and do things the "right" way--whatever the heck that means. I used to think I knew what the right thing to do--or at least one of the r...
So, I'm not really ambitious. At least not by most people's standards. Ambitious for me is trying to do laundry with three kidswho are simultaneously and repeatedlycalling my name, hanging onto my legs,and throwing things at me. Ambitious is trying to unload the dishwasher without a certain two-year-old getting to the plates before I can, and smashing them on the floor. Ambitious is trying to take a shower. By myself. And actually getting to rinse the conditioner out of my hair beforethey findme. Bu...
Today I took NBO to a Sam's Club. I hate taking them to Sam's Club. Three kids and a cart that's made for two kids leads to fighting and/or whining the whole time. Yes, I agree that this should be a non issue since at least one of my children is too old to be in a cart at all. Tell that to her. Then there's the issue of where I'm actually supposed to put the items I came for--most of which are in large boxes--since there are two children in the cart. So, inevitably, I end up piling boxes on top of boxe...
I love seeing my kids first thing in the morning. I particularly love getting up and walking quietly into their rooms to watch them while they're still sleeping, before I sneak downstairs for a cup of coffee in silence. Of course, I haven't actually had a morning like that since 2007. But I would love it. Instead, most days begin like yesterday did. I wake to realize that morning has come a little sooner than I would have liked, and that there is a small elbow/foot/head pressing into my back. Eventuall...
