How many jobs does a mommy have? November 30, 2011

After the wild things were born, people told me all about the jobs a mother has.  All the different things you have to do to keep up with the kids and the house and life. I am an environmental engineer (in my paying job).  All day I tell people how to interpret complex federal and state rules.  When I finally leave work at the end of the day, I start my mommy job.  Tonight I realized that old joke of I am a driver, nurse, warden, psychologist, etc is so true.

I left the office and headed straight to The Swim School where I met the babysitter to pick the boys up from swim lessons.  I start my job as personal driver at the point.  In the car, I am the mediator of arguments and a teacher as we start spelling words, sight words, and nightly required reading.  We arrive at activity number two for the evening.  It’s time for tae kwon do.  But before it starts Thing 2 has decided it would be great to knock over all the air shields and then blame big brother and best friend.  I am know the judge, jury, attorney for the prosecution, and warden all in one.  I state the case, hand out the punishment, and enforce said punishment.

Finally it is time to start the drive home.  Now I spend the 30 minute drive home on the phone with 2 other moms arranging this weekend’s playdate/movie date so that all the wild things can get together and have a wild time.  I am…an event planner.  A darn good one too!

Another fight issues in the car requiring the mediator to step back in.  Then we make it home.  It is now time for the chef to start the gourmet meal of grilled cheese and apples with cinnamon sugar.  After that, I am the game show host for what is this sight word, what is this letter.  I am the teacher explaining how to work math problems.

I transition from chef to maid as I start laundry and cleaning duties.  Then to zookeeper and plant nursery assignments.  Mom, the fish tanks need cleaning.  Mom, would you put water in my plant.  Then I am the personal spa service provider…bath, hair washing, teeth brushing.  Time for night-time medicines…Here comes the nurse.

Thing 2 is ready for bed.  Now it is time to be the audio version of all books about Spiderman.  Then the living teddy bear for cuddling.  I fight the monsters in the dark as well as any knight.  Thing 1 requires a little more warden to encourage finishing that math homework.

Both wild things are now in bed.  One snoring and happy, one can’t wind down.  But it is time for the maid and the chef to wrap up the chores.  Thing 1 doesn’t want sandwiches tomorrow night…he wants chicken.  Chicken is in the crock pot cooking all night to be reheated at dinner time. Rice is in the steamer to be reheated tomorrow night.  Can’t go to bed until rice is done and clothes are folded.

Wow.  When mommies think about all they have to do, it is a wonder how we get out of bed each day.  Then when they are asleep and cuddle so sweetly under the thick winter blankets with just a tuft of hair sticking out…we remember why we do get out of bed each day.

Life is too Short – Enjoy it while you can November 3, 2011

My dear friend Keasha sent this to me today.  I felt it was worth posting.

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven’t thought about it, don’t have it on their schedule, didn’t know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those people on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut
back. From then on, I’ve tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn’t suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word ‘refrigeration’ mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched ‘Jeopardy’ on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, ‘How about going to lunch in a half hour?’ She would gas up and stammer, ‘I can’t. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain’ And my personal favorite: ‘It’s Monday.’   She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches … We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We’ll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We’ll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet. We’ll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of ‘I’m going to,’ ‘I plan on,’ and ‘Someday, when things are settled down a bit.’

When anyone calls my ‘seize the moment’ friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you’re ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord..

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It’s just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a
spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now …. go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to… not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say?  And why are you waiting?

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry-go-round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ‘How are you?’ Do you hear the reply? Have you ever rode a motorcycle through the country on a twisty road on a cool bright day ?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, ‘We’ll do it tomorrow.’ And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say ‘Hi’?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift … Thrown away … Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

‘Life may not be the party we hoped for… but while we are here we might as well dance!’

Enjoy this day.  I plan to!

Stages of Motherhood – Part 2 October 12, 2011

The next stage is the Toddler Mom.  Up until now you could contain Thing 1, but now Thing 1 is mobile!

Oh yes, Thing 1 is on the move.  And you better get to a gym because now you are going to be moving more than you ever have before.  But, it will be fun.  Thing 1 is becoming more independent.  This is when the realty that Thing 1 will leave you one day hits…or at least it hit me.  That’s when I realized…I better have a life that doesn’t revolve around baby.

Now you have traded bottles for sippy cups, high chairs for booster seats, rear facing baby seats for forward facing.  Lots of changes…

Then the babbling starts and that leads to talking.  And it is so sweet Ma Ma, Da Da…that is when you realize that 1. you better watch your language, 2. you better watch how you talk about others.

There is nothing funny (to other mothers) or humiliating (to you) than when your precious little Thing 1 babbles babbles babbles and then says S!@#.  Oh yes!  Those of us it has happened to give you a little sympathetic smile, then giggle all the way to the car leaving Wal-Mart because we remember it happening to us.   My advice, if Thing 2 says the ugly word in public, turn to Thing 1 and say I can’t believe you taught him that.  My Thing 1 has taken the fall many a time for that!  He is catching on that he is helping mom out of an embarrassing situation and I believe he will expect payment for that soon.

Or…how about when your adorable Thing 1 looks at someone and starts babbling, but the only clear words Thing 1 says sounds like….mama said your mean, or have bad hair, or what ever ugly comment you made in anger and wish you could take back for saying in front of Thing 1.  If you have a Thing 1 and 2, that is a hard one to blame on Thing 1 when Thing 2 says it.

So that covers the mobility and talking.  The big milestones.

It’s time for Thing 1 to move to the toddler bed or twin bed or whatever bed you move him to, just out of the crib.  You tuck cutie pie into the big kid bed, read fifteen stories, read Goodnight Moon for the 1 millionth time, snuggle Thing 1, say the good night prayers, finish the 1 1/2 hour bed time routine of trying to get Thing 1 to stay in the big kid bed all night.  You finally get to fall into your bed and sometime around midnight… you realize some how there are hands and feet in your face and back.  It takes another hour to realize that Thing 1 is mobile and can now make it to your bed any time he wants.  Oh yes!  Thing 1 can’t get from the living room to kitchen without knocking over everything on the coffee table and end table, but he can operate in stealth mode at midnight.

And even as you snuggle in close to Thing 1 because you know he won’t do this forever…you think about how tired you are going to be at work tomorrow…and sore from the knees in the back!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month October 2, 2011

This month kicks of Breast Cancer Awareness month.  A few post back I talked about taking care of ourselves better.  We moms seem to put our needs on the back burner for everyone else.  But this month we need to focus on keeping our self healthy.

In 1991, my aunt had breast cancer at the age of 35.  My family has always had a positive outlook on everything we concur so it never occurred to me that she wouldn’t survive.  She did survive and is still thriving 20 years later.

In 1997, my mother discovered a lump in her breast after having had precancerous cells in the opposite breast a year or so earlier.  We knew it was cancer before she even went for the biopsy.  We just knew.  We had done this once before and we just knew this was different from other lumps she had found.  We fought the cancer just like we had done 6 years earlier…just with more advanced treatment options in that short amount of time.  She too survived.

For each of their stories there are so many women who didn’t make it.  But each day researchers are learning more and more about how to treat this cancer.  They are discovering more and more options for after treatment to keep the cancer from coming back.

But…what can we do?

Start here!

http://ww5.komen.org/uploadedFiles/Content_Binaries/31Days_NBCAM2011.pdf

Luckily the Susan G. Komen For The Cure website has great ideas for the month of October.

What else?

Get screened.  Go to your annual checkups.  Perform your monthly breast exams.  Make sure you have mammograms at the recommended ages. Join a Race for the Cure.  Talk to your girlfriends, your daughters, your sisters, your mother, your mother-in-law, your cousins, all the women in your life about taking care of themselves. Donate towards research for the cure.

Take care of yourself.  Remember we only have this life.  Let’s make the most out of it…and don’t cut it short!  Just think of what these two beautiful women would have missed if they had not been diligent in their health care.

BetterMe Coaching Tool September 18, 2011

The Go Red BetterMe Coaching Tool is the perfect companion to the Go Red BetterU 12-week program. Every day, you’ll get tips, reminders, and more sent directly to your tool. You’ll also be able to chat directly with other members of the program on the “Wall” share tips, motivational quotes, and work through barriers with others. You can also access and edit your journal entries directly from the tool.

via BetterMe Coaching Tool.