Mom to the Screaming Masses

Stream of Consciousness - January 29

I'm in San Jose today, and for the next two days, on a job that I cannot share - yet - so I thought I'd take on today's prompt.

Today’s (Optional) Writing Prompt: Describe, in detail, the way you like to relax.

It never fails to crack me up that, when I travel for some kinds of blog functions, my family seems to think I'm away on vacay. Travel doesn't relax me. Well, no, travel alone - that's not uber relaxing. I go on a trip once a year with my husband for his job - now, THAT'S relaxation. I'd much rather travel WITH my husband - someone to sleep on in the plane, to dish with about the other travelers, to make fun of the woman who completely lost her cool on the second plane when a man stepped on her foot (by accident, and how DARE he have an accident like that, didn't he know how much it hurt her??), someone to watch the luggage while I take the world's longest pee, someone to grumble with when the tram in Houston stalls, stops, forcing us to get off the tram and then back on and when it finally drives down the rail it hesitates

and then completely stops on the rails -

Project 29/366

and just, you know, to be with my husband.

Especially today. Cuz it's his birthday and I'm on the opposite coast.

I gotta admit, though - being in a hotel room by myself does factor in to the relaxation. LOVE me some hotel time. Watching television, napping intermittently, reading (currently Under the Dome - scaring myself silly with some Stephen King) and getting to take the world's longest shower - those are all good things.

If I was truly relaxing, I'd have room service, a massage, a mani/pedi and something decadent for dessert, with a couple of martinis. I need to be alone or with just my husband, though - as much as I love my kiddos, I cannot relax when they are around.

What about you? How do you define true relaxation? Who factors in to your relaxation equation?

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Link up your post below.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Now…

1. Grab the button

(it’s over at Fadra's place!)

2. Write your post.

3. Link up at Fadra's place.

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head

I went to TRX/Kettlebells today - a friend of mine is the instructor and he invited me.

It was a *great* class and I left totally drenched and exhausted. And very, very happy, for that's my favorite way to feel after exercise.

On my way to class, the sky looked very much like this:

And while we were busy sweating and cursing, the skies opened up and the rain fell. It pelted the roof and sounded quite as if it would come through at one point.

Leaving class, I was behind a very small little boy, maybe not quite 2, and his grandmother. He was properly attired for the weather, wearing the smallest little black boots and a dark blue raincoat. He was buttoned snuggly inside, hood up over his cute little face. When he saw the rain, his entire body broke out into excited wiggles. I could hear him from several feet away.

"Is WAINING! Wook!  Is WAIN!" and he ran out of the door, lifted his face to the sky, and as the rain pelted him in the face, he laughed some more.

From my vantage point behind him, I saw his grandma, who joined him in laughter. Looking around us, though, I noticed that *everyone* else was not laughing. No, people were hunched over, frantically trying to keep dry and get out of the rain post haste.It was a heavy rain, no doubt, and I really didn't have any desire to drive home soaked to the skin and shivering - but his delirium was infectious. I watched him stomp in the puddles with his grandma, giggling at the water and listened to his shrieks of excitement and I wondered -

When do we lose that love of being in the rain? Why do we hate rainy days so, so much? Other than the fact that a rainy day makes me long for a nap, why else would one dread the rainy days?

I drove home, pondering this, and soon saw my answer. In the form of a three car accident, where two of the drivers had gotten out of their cars, leaving the driver doors open into on coming traffic. They stood toe to toe, nose to nose, and screamed at each other, headless of the oncoming traffic, ready to either remove their doors or their lives as they vilified each other over a rear end collision. Fingers pointing, forehead veins popping, furiously, frantically screaming their fury.

Oh, yeah. THAT'S why we hate the rain.

That, and the fact that it makes people drive 20 under the speed limit.

How is it Thursday Already?

I know I'm getting old when I say something like this, but, for realz - where did this week go?

I have not dropped the ball on Project 366, although I have been faithfully chronicaling my days with my phone. Let's use the photos to see what I've been up to - play along as if you are interested. Please. It will make me feel so much better.

Afternoon Frivolity

So, today was interesting.

My son has had a cold for quite some time, and in the manner of a true asthmatic, it settled into his lungs. Where it has rattled around for quite a while, steadily creeping into just a bit more but maybe it's not anything to be alarmed about yet but maybe it is and let's just treat it with some more medicine and maybe let's add this one and for kicks, just one more -

and then today we ended up in the allergist office, getting back to back breathing treatments that were tethered to an oxygen tank, with steroids added. And there were tears and tantrums and yelling and screaming - and maybe some of that was me and maybe it wasn't.

I'm just saying it was a rough day for some of us. We left with a handful of prescription papers, diagnosed with asthma (which sounds so vanilla and bland and is nowhere near descriptive enough for the feeling of breathing underwater through a straw while your ankles are cemented to the ground and your great big uncle sits on your chest) as well as infected eczema.

It was a day. And then we went to Target.

Stream of Consciousness - January 22

 

Well. This should be interesting, as there is a TON of stuff rattling around in my brain - much to none of it related, so what better place to dump it than a stream of consciousness? Put on your seat belts and lets get started!

1 - I lost my job with Diets in Review. I've written for them for close to three years and, honestly, this was a total shock to me. I was told it wasn't me, but it was a staffing decision.Keep me in mind if you hear of a writing gig - a paying one - because I could use the income. As could everyone, I'm sure.

2 - Based on that, all of us have to drop out of martial arts. That was how I paid for the lessons, and with that income gone - there go the lessons. Riley just started, and Emma was set to make her black belt in June. That was sucky, telling my kids.

3 - But not quite as sucky as telling them that "Big Al", a close family friend, died Saturday evening. He had stage 4 lung cancer and had been in the hospital for a while, and was in a medically induced coma in intensive care for the last week. But, damn, that was a terrible conversation to have to have. If you smoke, CUT that shit out. Now. There's nothing like seeing the faces of your older kids who went to the hospital to visit a man wasting away from this dreadful disease.

4 - Which, for those of you playing along, makes FIVE funerals in the first 3 weeks of January.

5 - I am sick, AGAIN. Sick in November, again in December, and again in January. Each and every time, it's the middle of the month. I went and bought the jumbo size bottle of sambucus, and once this passes, I'm going to try taking it every day and see how February goes.

6 - I'm going to be flying to CA at the end of the month for a can't yet be named job - and I will be in the incredibly weird position of flying for a job with very little income - so lay it on me - what are your favorite can be packed in a carry on snacks that aren't carb heavy, travel well and are filling?

7 - So, I'll have free time. Now, I guess is the time to get my house CLEANED and ORGANIZED. My husband, he will be so thrilled.

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Link up your post below.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Now…

1. Grab the button

(it’s over at Fadra's place)

2. Write your post.

3. Link up there.

Saturday Night Fun

Thanks to a visiting relative, my kids have a new obsession:

Project 21/366

As "wordy" as I am, I have never been able to get into Scrabble. It does absolutely zero for me - but my kids love it.

I have a ton of stuff that means big and drastic changes for my family - but it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

We've got us a game to play.

The Underside of Joy - Blogher Book Club January Selection

This is a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

I'm an avid reader. Anyone who knows me or who has read this site for longer than, say, a minute - knows this about me. That's why I'm thrilled to be a part of the Blogher Book Club - which combines two of my favorite things. Books, and reading. We are now reading The Underside of Joy.

The premise of this book is anything but simple. What happens to you when your life, and in reality, the entire life you've created with your spouse, changes in a flash? Do you have an emergency plan?

Ella loses her husband in a freak accident, and she's left with the two children she's come to think of as her own - the steo children she's raised for years after their mother left. When the step mother shows up at the funeral and decides that she wants to resume her realtionship with the children she abandoned, Ella is fiercely determined to put a cease and desist on the entire matter. But things aren't always what they seem. Those you think are truly evil and need no pity are oftentimes those who need pity the most. Those you think are 100% in the right are sometimes not. This is a book that will leave a mark on you, and you begin to second guess what you thought would be the correct answer. Ultimately, the decision made is one that you never saw coming, and yet, it is the only one that could have ever been fair.

I hate that word. Fair. Life is anything but fair.

Come and join our discussion - Are you prepared for a personal emergency?

It really made me stop and think - what would I do if I was in the same situation?

I highly recommend this book; I found it gripping and honest and the entire situation all too authentic.

 

 

I Fail at Commitment

Or I have a need to be committed, I have yet to decide.

I struggle with follow through. I'm a grand one for saying - yes, I will certainly do this or that, even if it requires a repetitive practice for months at a time -

Although I *did* finish NaBloPoMo last year, and I *did* make my Black Belt - those are oddities.

But even though I give up, I keep circling back and picking up. I'm not sure what that says about me - either I'm weak and give up too easily, or that I'm a glutton and keep coming back for more of the same.

Today I went back to Crossfit stuff. So I'm beginning again, I guess, with this stuff.

Project 18/366 - round 1 8:14, round 2 8:15, round 3 8:45. Executed with 8kg kettlebells - which are a bit over 17 pounds each. My arms, they be tired, yo. And my palms be blistery.

And to keep true to my promise, here's yesterday's photo:

Project 17/366 - the only one of my kids studies

Wanna lay odds on how long it'll take me to give up each of these? And, maybe, remember to use spell check when I type so fast!

Manners and Children - Especially Boys

I am quite certain that I am opening up a can of worms here.

Schwick. (That's totally the sound of a pop top opening.)

But when did manners go out of style? I mean, I've heard people - mostly older - lament the lack of manners for years. I've tried, with a variety of success, to instill manners in my children. To say " yes ma'am" and " no sir", to hold the door and to avoid interrupting other people - especially adults.

I've been somewhat, moderately successful.

That is, I'm required to remind them at least once, but often that is all that is required. I definitely do not count myself an authority in this. But at least I'm trying. I need to give myself credit for that.I receive compliments on my children's PUBLIC behavior and that makes me happy - it's not a compliment for me but really for them.  I see parents who don't value manners as much as I do, and although it makes me irritable - that's not the topic of this post.

When did it become A-OK for grownups to completely avoid manners when it comes to children - especially those who are not their own?

This story is 100% true. I'm not proud of the lack of manners which I exhibited.

Saturdays are Made for Errands

Today was a busy day.

Not at first. I spent quite a chunk of time this morning, in bed, reading a very, very gripping book. I'll be doing a book review this week, but suffice it to say, it was the best book I've read in a long time.

Then I got up, and as the saying goes, the ____ hit the fan.

I took four kids and we trolled the city, looking everywhere, to find appropriate white sneakers for school. Think that's easy? Think again. I don't understand what it is with these kids, I mean, I just bought them shoes in August.

<wink>

Then we went for haircuts. Three of my girls got their incredibly long hair cut. One of them lost more than 6 inches, and the other two 5.

Then we went for a two cart grocery spin. Man, I really know how to blow out the fun on a good day don't I?

The final topping: folding wash. WOW. I did it. A stereotypical housewife day.

How did you spend your Saturday?