What to do?

I don't know about other Mamas, but I'm assuming some are entirely organized. You know the type -- all the kid stuff taken care of the night before, TO DO list for the next day ready before they go to bed. Well... if you have been reading this blog for any length of time (or) if you know me at all personally, you'll know that isn't me (although in some ways I'd kinda like it to be).

So for some of you Mamas (and other folks sans child/ren), you will not have a clue what I'm about to say. For others, you'll be right here with me.

This morning, after sending off my school-age boy to one of his last days of 1st grade, I'm home with my daughter until around 1:00 or so. We are looking at about 4 hours of time together and here's my mental dilemna... I know there are things I could, would, should be doing such as

• cleaning the kitchen
• reorganizing and straightening up the office once again
• going to the dentist to pay my bill*
• going to the DMV to update my driver's license*
• watering my garden*
• exercising
• working on the family budget
• laundry

What I'm feeling like doing is:

1) blogging
2) knitting

3) trying to figure out how to get my photos on cool t-shirts in a solid and good-looking way that won't fall apart when washed and/or cost a ton,

and

4) go to a coffee shop with the girl where I could drink iced coffee, knit and think about #3.

Hmmm... the on-going dilemnas of mamahood. Oh that and trying to figure out when to talk to the kids about sex (Today I saw a website recommending at age 8, which buys me a little time although the 7-year old is wanting to know about why different folks have different body parts. Seemed a simple enough question until I attempted to answer it and got myself confused about same-sex relationships related to said body parts). Maybe I really do need a strong iced coffee (or 2) and a long chat with Dr. Ruth!

*** Update: I cross out all things I actually did mange to get done!

It's getting hot around here

With temperatures set to reach nearly 90 degrees today, I'm realizing that we are staring down the face of Summer! Only 2 weeks now and we'll have the kids on our hands with no school for quite some time. Ahhh ... no more carpool scheduling or lunches to pack, no more field trip permission slips or T-ball. Instead there'll be the ability to sleep in and do what we want -- with nowhere the kids have to be. Sounds both delightful and a bit scary. What will we want to do?

What are we gonna do with ALL THAT FREE TIME?

Frankly, I kind of like the idea of some space, slowness and free time together. I'm comfortable with a few weeks of just hanging and taking it easy, seeing what moves us and heading in that direction whether play dates or day trips to local spots. Luckily, the kids are getting to a place where more often than not, they play well together for long stints of time. They actually like and enjoy each other's company (whew)! On the other hand... that is just not gonna last day after day after day after day and so... I'm supposing this Mama should have a plan.

Plan A (currently in the works), includes a few weeks of summer school for the girl and a week at the beach for all of us, so July is looking pretty good. But until then, there's nothing on our docket. Debating about swimming lessons in June and some sort of week long day camp for the boy (if we can find one that looks interesting to him which we can afford - can you say SCIENCE?). I'm certainly not one of those Mamas (yet anyway) that subscribes to the theory that Summer means sending the kids to overnight camps or shipping them off to be with relatives... but how much is enough activity and how much is ... well... just.... NOT?

I'm curious about the thoughts and plans of other parents for those lazy days of Summer with their kids? Got a plan or refuse to make one? -- feel free to weigh in here before it gets too hot.

Sometimes

Sometimes during mamahood, it is hard to know which way to go (but going together with the wee ones is almost always worth it -- although we collectively decided this weekend that the girl shouldn't go hiking again until she turns seven),

Sometimes mamahood means going for substance and simplicity and giving up style (as in the old shelving unit turned toy keeper above... finally gave up on purchasing a beautiful matched set of nine spendy baskets that would fit and opted instead for the multiple and varied plastic containers that have been lingering around our place for years looking for a good purpose. What better purpose than housing cars and planes, ponies and pokemons?)

Sometimes mamahood means being too busy doing and less likely blogging,

Always, mamahood means loving any and all bouquets from the boy!

Sometimes

Sometimes, no matter what you are doing (or what you are supposed to be doing), you just have to stop in your tracks and be creative. Here's the girl last night -- in the middle of the kitchen floor (and wearing her new poncho I finally finished) -- drawing while she is supposed to be picking up the mess she'd made on said kitchen floor and getting ready for bed (at least she had her PJs on)!

Here's hoping we can all drop everything at some point this week and just do something creative and/or just for ourselves. Happy Monday.

Feeling groovy...

"Slow down, you move too fast...
gotta make the morning last,
Just kicking down the cobble stones, looking for love
and feeling groovy... "

Anyone remember that song?

Well I do although I can't remember who sang it. But more importantly, I WAS feeling groovy this week when I not only purchased but installed a 5-line retractable clotheline on our garage -- all by myself! I suppose I could have waited for the hubby to do it but I didn't want to be lame and displaying learned helplessness... (and I wanted to dry a load of laundry while it was still sunny out), so I did it myself! And it felt good.

Did I ever think I'd be an advocate for ignoring my conventional laundry dryer for an outdoor and indoor clothesline (nope). Did I ever think I'd cruise around in an 80's Benz with the sun roof open letting others pass me by on the highway (nope to that too)... but do I? Yup I sure do. The thing I think I notice about both of these things, besides that they are definitively better for our environment, is this... they force me to slow down.

They don't help me to get more done more quickly or to rush around. They literally force me to take my time, get out in fresh air and notice things. Be present. That is good for everyone.

This weekend we will be present ... at T-ball, a preschool meeting, at Oregon's NAMI walk (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and everything in between. What helps you slow down and be present - do tell.

How much...

Dayquil and coffee does it take to get a mama through one heck of a day?

As of 11:30 a.m., and after 2 school drop offs (one which wasn't pretty) and 2 school meetings (one for each child's school), it has taken 1 dose of Dayquil (sure wish it could be Nyquil) and 3 coffees (make that an iced Americano, a hot Americano and a hot Latte -- thank you very much).

Now I'm off to do preschool pickup, lunch bunch, some sort of lunch for the mama, trade the girlie with the papa, head to work for a meeting or two, leave work early to meet hubbie for yet another meeting and then home to start the bedtime routine.

The life of a Mama, tis a glamorous one, isn't it?! ...

Can't sit still now -- gotta go.

Mama's Day

Mother's Day Flowers, soccer and catch on the beach, crab cakes and white wine, children behaving at a fancy restaurant, cookies and coffee...... all good.

Nothing before about 12:30 pm... could be better*

When the girlie says, "Mama is a super star!" ... the BEST!

Every day should be Mama's Day... here's to all you great women out there who've ever been or will ever be a Mama... it changes your life and even though it certainly ain't the easiest job ever invented, it has its rewards and mostly -- it's all GOOD!

*(I know, I know I'm a natural born critic but trying to improve)... but let's face it, what Mama wouldn't like to wake up to a note or a card, flowers or even just a big "HAPPY MOTHER"S DAY!" shout out from their young'ins? Now I've just got to come through for the Daddy version.

As luck will have it

I have mentioned before on this here blog that my mother has a habit of saying, "It's always something." It always irritated me, or that part of me that tries to be an optimist. However, as I continue in my parenting role, I find myself more and more often repeating that phrase, if only to myself (or you all)!

And so yesterday as I was relaxing for a short while upstairs in my bed recouping from the family cold, I also happened to be enjoying an old rerun of "Reba." In this particular episode, for some reason or another, her son-in-law is trying to convince Reba that she is being too negative, that she is in fact an extremely lucky person and that he is lucky to know her.

Little did I know that as I watched this little skit about luck, as luck would have it, my little girl, my dancer, prancer, singer, jumper, climber of a girl, was falling down on the playground and royally scraping up both knees!

Not a surprise when you consider her typical activity levels you might think. And you would be thinking very logically I might add.

The intriguing and maybe not-so-lucky part that you have not yet been made aware of is this: It is now Saturday and the girl is invited to a very exciting birthday party filled with gymnastic activities! Oh boy... the one day she gets to play gymnast is the day her knees hurt enough that she squeaks, eeks and fusses like an old lady ... over her ouchy knees! Ahhh the irony is clear.

For some odd reason, we have a plethora of these kinds of things: sick on holidays and birthdays and the like. Can anyone enlighten me? Is this just a coincidence or is it a family kinda thing? Hmmmmm. Well either way, here's hoping the girl's inner gymnast can rise above the pain and enjoy herself (I'll try to report back) while Alannis Morrisette's "Ironic" runs over and over in my brain! I love that song... but I digress... in the meantime, feel free to share some of your very own ironic moments (come on ... you know you've got 'em)!

Reveling...

... in all the new blooms in my yard while getting over a cold and trying to figure out how and when to pay for: summer school/s, swimming lessons, preschool downpayment for Fall, summer vacation, etc. I thought summer was supposed to be when the living is easy... they never said "Summer, when the living is EXPENSIVE!" And... don't get me started on gasoline (is it up to $4.00/gallon where you are yet?)

What are you trying to figure out as we move towards the summer season?

Hopefully when I'm past this cold and figure out all the above, I can write more lucid thoughts on "looping," what to do with your kids during the summer months, how to live through a vacation with your family and friends along for the ride, how to maintain your sanity while trying to be involved in not one, but two schools at the same time (in our case co-op preschool and elementary too) and sooooo much more. Happy Mother's Day Weekend. Talk to me people... I need to hear someone elses chatter for a change :-)

Surprises are good

Sometimes a surprise can be a very good thing.

Surprise #1:

I realized on Saturday morning when I trekked bright and early to my bus stop in the brisk morning air that I was a wee bit ahead of myself (one-hour early to be exact)! "What now?" I thought. There really wasn't enough time to trudge back home without having to turn right back around so I went right ahead on the bus. When I got downtown way too early to enter my workshop, I walked around enjoying an entirely different and quiet environment and found an open coffee shop where I partook of a dolce latte and an eggs florentine english muffin and read, read, read (and people watched, although I most enjoyed the dogs)... in short sometimes a mama has to screw up in order to make time for herself... but it worked!

Surprise #2:

Always remember and never forget... your kids can always surprise you (and sometimes even pleasantly). I asked the kids the other night to pick out and lay out their own clothes for the next morning and they did. The surprising part (other than their willingness to do this task without much struggle) was my son... See him above very precisely and planfully folding and refolding, organizing and laying out out his clothes. Turns out he has a TALENT for folding clothes and he LOVES to do it! Who'd have thunk it?

Happy Monday... anything good surprise you this weekend?

Ode to a spring sick day

Started the day with tummy stickering, followed by playdough playing and swimsuit modeling and finally getting together some old kid clothes for the consignment shop, before lunch and reading bunches of books...