Tell me about your favorite charity, or better yet, head to PBN and post it there. If you are like me there is an organization that you hold near and dear to your heart. Maybe you know someone with cancer and you want to help in anyway you can so you donate to the American Cancer Society. Maybe you love animals and want to help out the local shelter. For me, it is a deeply personal reason that I donate to this one particular organization. They helped me out in so many ways during such a dire time in my life. A time that if they had not been there I would have probably remained broken for years to come if not forever. My life would not be what it is today nor would I. I was in an abyss with no way out and felt completely isolated and alone. The Domestic Violence Resource Center of South … [Read more...]
Backlash?
This recent entry in Newsweek's 'My Turn' section made me pause. Could it be that there is a backlash forming against 'extreme parenting'? Read the article before delving further into this post or it won't make much sense. Done reading? Ok, good. First, I would like to say that I could not agree more with what Ms. Friedman has to say regarding people backing off women's biological clocks. It is no one's business but the couple or the woman's. Stop asking that question people! Stop touching pregnant and not-pregnant belly's! I'm still amazed at how it's even done to us folks who have already reproduced. Maybe we want to hang out in the 'only child' club for a bit longer than others. And that's just fine. My uterus doesn't work well under pressure. No one's does. Second, Friedman talks … [Read more...]
Barbapapa Lives!
On YouTube. Anyone else watch this show as a kid? It was on a Canadian channel when I was growing up in N.E. If I didn't have the books to prove it no one would believe me when I talk about this show. It was a favorite of mine and T.D. loves the books despite them being ratty and almost thirty years old. … [Read more...]
House Flipper Fantasy
H and I flip houses. We find real estate a fascinating affair. It took me a bit, but I can get just as a excited as he can when it comes down to it. I love the idea of picking out cabinets, flooring, and paint for a house that I will never live in. Seeing how a putrid piece of property shakily standing on its last leg can almost overnight come together into something beautiful makes me proud. We really think of it as a service we are doing for the community not just a job. A beautification of sorts. Though sometimes we get obsessed. We talk about houses and various properties continuously. What's the deal with this one or that one? Have you heard back from the so and so. What custom home builder are we going with for such a major overhaul and so on. Sometimes we fear that we bit more … [Read more...]
Scary Even to Me
Sometimes life just gets to be too much. No amount of wine or cigarettes (I wish!) will do. A nap, a good book, or a time out just isn't sufficient. Pedicure? Yeah right.What you need is a good crying jag. Or a meltdown of such epic proportions that has built up for so long that you scare even yourself back into normalcy. Your kid? Well, I feel I have scarred mine for life now and spent a good half hour apologizing to a child who just looked up at me with huge eyes. How did this happen?1. Lack of sleep. Sleep has been positively elusive to me the last few days and now weeks. Each day it gets worse. (Do NOT suggest Tylenol PM or some natural remedy for sleep the do NOT work on this woman) That does not make for a totally sane Mommy. 2. Ongoing and unfinished house projects. Debris in … [Read more...]
The Good Ol’ Days
Back in the days when I was "with child", "preggo", had a "bun in the oven" or was just plain pregnant I had a lot of people say some pretty bizarre or just plain rude things to me. They feel it's perfectly ok to not even say 'hello!' or even smile at you, but just okey dokey to touch your belly or poke your button. It gets pretty damn annoying. Here are a few of my faves- AND- things I wish I would have said and sometimes did.-"Are you allowed to eat that?" as I chomped on a Brownie. "Uh.. yeah..Why not? Are they special Brownies? If they are special Brownies I'm eating the whole pan."-"Will you be breast-feeding?" Blurted out in the middle of a meeting. Asked by a man who I barely knew. Talk about creepy. I had no reply for that one and still don't. Just YICK!!! -Me in my office: … [Read more...]
In a Child’s Eye’s
Smiling Mom is on vacation. Here is my version for July's blog Exchange. In a child’s eyes she was more than the woman who could scarily flip her eyelids inside out she was the one and only person who I would eat Total cereal and unsalted potato chips for. In a child’s eyes she made ‘Mystery’ just as much fun to watch as ‘Love Boat’ and the Sunday night Disney movie. In a child’s eyes she made swinging on the porch the only way to spend an afternoon, going to the grocery store an adventure with special treats, and she instilled the fine art of French cooking even the dreaded Buche de Noel.In a child’s eyes she would play endless kiddie bits on the piano for a concert of one. In a child’s eyes it was all in good fun and not the glass ceiling breaking concert pianist that she actually … [Read more...]
Do You See What I See?
Welcome Smiling Mom to my site today for July's Blog Exchange.I thought a lot about July 1st's blog exchange topic, "In my child's eyes." The reality is my life is so busy and fast paced that I often don't slow down and allow myself the time to see, I mean really see, what is important to my kids. So I decided to hand my son a camera and let him take pictures of anything important to him.This is what he saw.Our dog Kayla, one of the most important things to him.His Sister, eClaire. They live to disagree, with moments of pure love and tender moments interspersed. What boy doesn't love his Mac truck? The racetrack. Oh the racetrack. The blanket, "It has big holes and little holes. It' s my blanket." This about sums up my son's favorite things. If his Grandpa was here, he'd of photographed … [Read more...]
In an Instant
While H, T.D. and I were enjoying a rather carefree Father's Day yesterday another section of my family was dealing with tragedy. As we strolled through the wetlands near our home taking photographs of birds and other assorted wildlife, an accident occurred that caused that branch of my family to lose a loved one. My mother sent me an email this morning detailing the awful event and while I probably only met this person a handful of times in my life I cried. It's just so damn awful. It breaks my heart. This accident, an ATV one, happened so fast that there was nothing anyone could do. I don't know how else to describe it all except to put in an excerpt of the email-I took out all names-Upon my brother's arrival, he could see that the victim was having great difficulty breathing and was in … [Read more...]
Ah! The Excitement of Youth
I was feeling sort of pissy today what with the oppressive humidity, lack of sleep (ambien? anyone?), and general feeling of doom I sometimes have (I blame it on the fact that I'm from New England and thus partly Puritan or that French gene in me -we piss on a lot simply because we're Frrrrenccch). ANYWAYS....Then, I got this email from my cousin. Her daughter is going into the big pond of middle school next year. When Mom asked her how it went this is what came out."AWESOME!! Their computers are soooo much better than ours and the teachers are all really nice and the principal Mrs. Shaver-Hood, is really cool too!! I can't wait to go there next year and the lunch room is set up really cool Mom, they have snack huts, but good snacks, like yogurt and nuts and cereal and some junkfood but … [Read more...]