Running in place…

True to my word, I’ll make no real appology for NOT blogging in simply forever…. Just busy with life.  Real busy!  Running as fast as I can and not really seeming to actually GET anywhere.

With a whole lot a  this..

Supervising these…

Driving to this….

And this…

I’ve actually been helping out my Lawyer Husband with a bit of this as well…

Plus Halloween, a couple of Birthdays….

THIS was the year that my youngest started 1st grade… that’s three in school FULL TIME, and me at HOME FULL TIME.  So, why hasn’t there been any extra time?  Just constantly running around, one thing after the next.  And, oh… I realized that I never put the Christmas wreaths away in the store area last year.  They’ve just been sitting in my studio for 11 months… so at least THOSE will be easy to find this year.

“…it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.  If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.” 

– The Red Queen – Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There   (Lewis Carroll)

I’m trying to  run fast… really, I am!

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I will do it by myself…

Every time I run across this letter, it amazes me and makes me giggle.  This year it is just a bit more hysterical, since I have my own 9-year-old girl.  I’m sure she probably thinks she can do it herself as well.  Thanks Mom, for saving things like these to remind me how completely insane I was as a child. 

You dont have to do any thing for me … 

… except help me with my obvious lack of punctuation, oh and my spelling…. maybe provide food, water, shelter, clothing.  Yea, just the basic necessities.

Oh and wash, dry and fold my clothes, make me breakfast, lunch, dinner & a few snacks, pick out my clothes, dry my hair, style my hair, help me with homework.  Take me places like the doctor and dentist, and to and from whatever lessons my little heart desires.  It would be cool if you, you know, paidfor those things too.  And maybe braces, summer dance camp, private school.  You can entertain me when I’m bored, cheer me up when I’m sad, and comfort me when my friends are mean.  You could buy me a car, pay for the insurance and gas.  Make sure I get home alive from each and every night out.  In the future, I might let you send me to college and law school.  Maybe even help me purchase my first house.  You can help me figure out how to raise my own kids, and pitch in and give me a hand when they are on my last nerve. 

Just a few things, but other than that…  I CAN DO STUFF MYSELF!

…. sorry Mom!

Why I’d probably suck at homeschooling…

I’m one of those moms who utilizes each teachable moment I find.  I try not to bore the kids to death, but if we are doubling a pancake recipe… I think it’s a good time to talk a bit about equivalent fractions… that kind of thing.  Of course, I always encourage reading.  Especially when the 9 year old reads to the 6 year old and we all discuss… it’s perfect.  When Miranda grabbed an old copy of Aesop’s Fables off the shelf, I was impressed and happy. 

A note about this book… it’s a 1947 edition.  A lovely hard cover book in it’s own little box. 

I thought I was gonna get maybe 20 minutes to do finish folding the laundry while my kids learned witty life lessons about foxes, crows, cheese, and flattery.  Wolves in sheep’s skins, geese laying golden eggs, etc… They’d be reading… We’d be discussing the moral to the story and seeing how it fit into our everyday human lives.  A great teachable moment.

I leave them with the book.  I commence folding.  A few minutes later I hear snickers and full blown belly laughs coming from the family room.  “Wow, they are really enjoying this book,” I think to myself.  We have a real hit on our hands.  I smile at the profound intelligence of my sweet little children. 

Ten minutes later I enter the family room.  They are still on the Table of Contents.  Their faces are flushed.  They stifle the giggles.  I must see what’s so funny.  I grab the book.

Here’s a close up of the next page…

There are a total of nine fables that begin with the word ASS!  A word my children clearly know the more modern meaning of.  A word that even the 6 year old can read….  Thus the giggles.  The three of us spend the next twenty minutes coming up with our own morals to the ASS stories….

If your ass casts a big shadow, you should stop eating cheesecake.

Stay away from ass eating thistle.

Be the master of your own ass.

It wasn’t quite the teachable moment I thought it was going to be.  It was good for about half an hour of solid belly laughs though!  My kids were thrilled that they got to say the “A” word as much as they wanted.  

Thanks Aesop.

One of my Favorite Photos

Now that I finally have a new printer/scanner/copier…. I just wanted to share one of my all time favorite photos.  My sweet baby girl, Miranda, when she was about three years old.  I’ll always love this photo of her with her little crown of clover.  It’s one of those simple days from her childhood that I’ll never forget… even without the photo.

Teetering on the Edge of Something Big

One of the most terrifying best things about being a Mom is being a front line witness as your children try something new.   I feel their trepidation just minutes before they make their first attempt.  My heart races with theirs.  I hold my breath and muster the courage for BOTH of us.   Even when they are 40, in some way, they will still be my fuzzy-headed, helpless newborns.  But I know that someday in the future, they will teeter on the edge without me, and all the kisses and bandaids in the world won’t help if they fall. 

In the future… the bar will be set higher.

 

The ramp will be more steep.

 

Life will spin faster.

 

There will be no tethers.

 

And their journeys will take them much further from home.

Ever have one of those days…

It’s Monday and you have eleven million things to get done.  The little ones will be in school and you will have a whopping 2 and 1/2 hours of child-free time in which to accomplish those eleven million things.  You wake up a little bit late, rush around like a mad woman getting the girl-child ready, shower, clothes, breakfast, pack a snack, check the homework folder, fill out the February reading calender, search for snow pants, clean mud off boots, where are your gloves!!!!!?????  She mumbles something about a three day weekend.  Couldn’t be… teenager left an hour ago and he KNOWS when there is no school.  Kiss on the cheek and out into the freezing cold you go!

She waits patiently by the mailbox.  She’s cold.  The bus is late, but only by a few minutes.  She rings the doorbell and asks to wait inside.  You hop on line and think, “Maybe I’ll just check….”  Yeah… there’s no school for K-8… optional parent/teacher conferences.  She’s right.  Snow gear off.  Our day will now be focused on “Mommy didn’t believe me!!!” and “I don’t like Swiss on my grilled cheese sandwich!”  Great going Mom!

What I’d like to see

Today I managed to step on a Lego so hard that it actually cut into my flesh!  My big toe is so sore I can hardly put on a shoe!  Rather than the typical “ratings” and warnings on kids toys… you know the ones “small parts,” “choking hazard for ages 0-3,”  etc… I’d like to see some kind of rating system devised concerning the amount of pain an adult experiences when the parts are stepped on.  Maybe something that lets you know what kind of words  might escape your lips when the toy makes contact with the underside of your bare foot.  I can tell you right now that all products manufactured by Lego, Light Bright and Pixos will earn the worst possible rating… I think that rating just might rhyme with “other trucker!”