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Apr
26
M
y favorite coach.
My favorite player. 
We spent the day, the ENTIRE DAY, at the baseball tournament. We’re all sunburnt, tired and sore. Actually that’s just me and I sat in my comfy chair all day. Being a spectator is such hard work. I’ll definitely need a nap tomorrow.
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Apr
25
Something happened at my house that rarely never happens. We turned off the TV! It was a struggle, you know how hard it is to give up quality Cartoon Network reruns, but after much discussion I was able to force convince my sons to turn it off for a short time.
After several minutes of griping, my youngest grabbed a book, oldest settled in with his iPod, and my husband worked on a crossword puzzle.
What did I do? I basked in the quiet, the stillness. There were a few instances where the sound of my oldest sons breathing extremely agitated his brother, which is certainly understandable, so we had a few outbursts of “be quiet”, but after that, it was lovely. I really just laid there and soaked it in, my little family. My little quiet family.
I want more evenings like that. I don’t watch much television, so I admit it’s easier for me to give it up. But we’re going to work toward electronic free nights, or maybe start with an electronic free hour and work up to longer periods of time. It’s like giving up caffeine, best not to try cold turkey. But I think we can do this.
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Apr
23
Considering that my last post was about prioritizing my time, this is quite timely.
I took my oldest to his youth group meeting tonight, in a hurry of course. He asked why I was in such a rush, I not so calmly explained that I was hurrying because I had so much to do when I got back home.
What did my very wise young man say to that? “Do less”.
It’s worth repeating. Do Less.
Most people I know are in a constant state of frenzy, rushing to the next place, working as fast as they can to move up the ladder. I’m definitely guilty of that. Life is a roller coaster racing at top speed. The only problem with that, at top speed you can’t enjoy the scenery. You can’t even see it, because everything is a blur.
Slowing down, doing less, doesn’t mean stop working, or be lazy. It means take a breath now and then, look around, truly see and enjoy what’s around you. Walk instead of run. Play more, laugh more, live more.
Thank you, son, for showing me the way.
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Apr
23
It’s that time of year at my house. The time where we’re running as fast as we can and still not coming close to getting everything done. My boys are so tired, it’s pitiful. Baseball games twice a week, practice on nights when there’s no game, getting ready for State music competition and band performances, and trying to squeeze in karate on the rare free night. And there’s still homework!
I don’t feel like my kids are overscheduled, we limit their activities but it just gets so busy in the spring. We are all counting down the days til summer.
I have a hard time prioritizing my time. I’m kind of a workaholic, and while I have a very flexible job, I tend to over schedule myself. Then, I find myself making excuses finding reasons why I can’t be at the baseball game, or can’t get them to karate. In my mind I have valid reasons why I must work at the same time as the game, and really, there are more games to go to, so I’ll just wait for the next one. That’s my whole mindset.
This drives my husband crazy. He never gets confused about what’s important, ever. He chooses to be very involved in our sons activities, he’s a baseball coach and Scout leader. These responsibilities only add to the crazy factor of our lives, but he absolutely loves doing it. He refuses to let me off the hook with my “I really need to work” excuse. I tried it with him the other night, right before the game, and he said “Look, 10 year old baseball, it doesn’t get any better than this”. And he’s right.
I recently realized that alot of my kids memories of me would be of me not being somewhere, or leaving early, because I was working. That really makes my heart ache, so I’m trying very hard to take each day and focus on what’s truly important.
I know for sure that what’s truly important is never work, or laundry, or cleaning, or running errands. What’s most important is seeing their faces light up when I show up at the game.
It really doesn’t get any better than that.
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Apr
19
There is something you should know. Sleepovers do NOT make for happy children. In fact, sleepovers make normally happy children turn into vicious creatures who cannot function at all the next day. This makes PMS look like a day at the park.
My youngest son had a friend sleep over, the oldest stayed over at his friends house. So they both were exhausted and cranky. ALL DAY.
And what kind of insane parent would let them do that, knowing from past experience that the day after a sleepover they will revert back to whiny helpless toddlers? Oh yeah, that would be me.
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Apr
19
I love to read, love love love it. Always have. I’ve got many favorite authors, but lately I’ve been branching out, trying different authors, different genres. I just finished a book by Anne Lamont, and it was brilliant. I laughed and cried. Funny, touching, just lovely. Now I’m on a mission to read her other books. It’s like an insatiable hunger, wanting to devour more of her words.
Right now I’m especially drawn to similar books, about faith, searching for faith, finding your own faith. Really speaks to my heart.
I’m always looking for book recommendations, feel free to send them my way.
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Apr
17
My oldest son is almost 13. Unbelievable, 13. It’s wrong on so many levels, that I have a boy that old, and that he’s taller than me. Wrong. But real.
I remember the preteen years and it was hell, for my parents. I remember the vicious mood swings, crying jags for no reason, and my know it all attitude. It was rough.
But somehow I thought all those things only happened to girls, so I congratulated myself on only having boys. I knew we’d just sail through these preteen/teen years with no problems. My son is quiet, kind and we get along great, so I wasn’t worried at all.
Well. How do I say this? Ok, I was completely and totally WRONG! Mood swings, not just for girls. Bad attitudes, not just for girls. I can see now that I was just being blind to what was coming, for my own sanity I didn’t want to admit it. But now it’s here. And I’m curled up in fetal position with my blankie.
Ok, I don’t want to exaggerate. It hasn’t been too bad so far. I have definitely noticed a change, there are some mood fluctuations going on, there has been an attitude shift, because once you’re 12 you really do know it all. Mom is not so cool anymore. It just completely took me by surprise.
You know those “What to Expect” books? Where is the one for teenagers? Cause when I was pregnant, even without the books I expected alot of stuff, poop, vomit, crying nonstop, sleepless nights. But this, I didn’t expect it. And I wasn’t ready for it.
Please, share your teenage son or daughter stories with me. We need our own support group!
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Apr
15
Finally.
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Apr
14
This is Coach, our beloved Lab mix rescue dog. He’s a sweetie, lazy but sweet.
This is a dog that sleeps all day long, he only wakes up when the boys get home from school, then he does some major tail wagging before falling asleep again. The same thing happens when my husband gets home, major tail wagging, then more exhaustion. It’s a rough life.
For about the past week, he has been waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to go outside. I usually work until close to midnight, so at any point up til then he could wake up and go out outside without disturbing anyone. Instead, he waits til around 1:30am, usually the time I’m dozing off, and starts crying to go out. He doesn’t do this to my husband, just me. He plops right next to me on the bed, cries and snorts, or stands by the bed wagging his 30 pound tail hard enough to knock everything off the night stand.
To make it worse, he won’t go out for just a few minutes then come back, nooo that would be too easy. If I try to call him back in, he just sits and stares at me. I don’t like to leave him out in the cold, so I wait up for him. Sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes 20, all while he sits there, surveying his domain. All while I’m silently calling him every bad word that I know.
See, I have a sleeping problem. My problem is, I don’t get enough of it. I work late, I have trouble falling asleep, so if he wakes me up it’s another 30-45 minutes before I fall asleep again. Then my day starts 4 hours later, and I’m exhausted. I’ve always had this problem but the dog issue is really exacerbating it.
I’ve started leaving him out all day, so far that hasn’t made a difference. At this point I’m desperate to sleep through the night.
Anyone want a big, loveable, annoying dog?
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Apr
13
This weekend my son and I went to visit some friends of ours who recently moved a couple hours away. We went out to dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant, so it was a real treat, good friends and good food.
We had an hour wait at the restaurant, time for visiting and people watching. After watching for a bit, I mentioned to my friend that I was feeling a bit underdressed, to say the least. That’s not even the right word for it, I felt underdressed, under made up, under maintained. My son didn’t hear me say it, but a little while later he leaned over and told me that we were way out of our league here. We both laughed, but it got me thinking.
I’m very low maintenance, almost to a fault. I work at home, so my wardrobe consists of things like sweatpants and sweatshirts, or shorts and t-shirts for summer. I do dress up occasionally, but for me that’s capri pants and maybe a sweater. Most of my clothes are basic styles that I’ve had for several years, they’re not out of style really, but certainly not trendy. I get my hair done very rarely, and I’m not a makeup girl, I wear the minimum.
I’ve always been low maintenance, but I think I’ve kind of gotten worse about taking care of myself. When the kids were little there was no time, then I started working at home so I can literally go days without seeing anyone but my family. I don’t mind that, in fact I like it, but I don’t like feeling frumpy. Of course if I never leave the house I won’t know I’m frumpy, so that’s the answer!
Except, is it a problem when your husband tells you to go shopping? Your frugal, money saving husband? Hmm, he did tell me that I need to get myself some new things. I guess I was so shocked at him actually suggesting that I spend money, I ignored the real message – woman, you’ve let yourself go!
So, I guess I’m going shopping, something which appeals to me about as much as, oh, having dental work done without anesthesia. Are there really women out there who enjoy shopping? Women who are my age? Women who are just maybe still trying to lose the baby weight, never mind that the “baby” is almost 11 years old?
Wish me luck.
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