I am the world's worst traveller. World's. Worst. I'm prone to motion sickness. I wear dorky wristbands with pressure points. I have to pee a lot. If I'm driving I'm a cranky driver and a lousy passenger. If I'm flying I'm nervous. Worse than all of these, I like things to be JUST SO. Do you know how often things are JUST SO when you go outside of your tightly controlled home environment? Hint: NOT OFTEN ENOUGH. Oddly enough, I love to travel. I look forward to it. I get excited about it. I have trouble sleeping the night before, and stare up at the ceiling in the dark, curling and uncurling...
Question: How can you tell when I've written about having a really great day? Answer: The NEXT day, the following occurs: A) A child dons mud-crusted shoes and clomps through the freshly-vacuumed house, B) My new website is hyped on a larger site and oh, by the way, is suddenly all weird-looking and broken, C) Two days pre-haircut, I hit the critical "does she need a haircut or did a poodle die on her head?" stage, D) It starts raining again (because it wasn't WET ENOUGH), or E) All of the above. Yeah. It's funny, while I was hunched over my keyboard this morning, sweating and maybe even...
My eBay auctions are over, and the most memorable part that will remain in my mind was a woman mailing me to ask if my shipping cost on an item was a typo. I mailed back that it was not, and she responded telling me that she hoped I could sleep at night, despite the fact that I was "ruining eBay for everyone" with my "outrageous inflation." I mailed her back a somewhat civil explanation of the weight of the item and calculated cost, then asked her to please not bother bidding on any of my items, because I felt her attitude was ruining eBay for everyone; but that she should have herself a...
Sometimes I find myself being impatient with my children when they are slow to change behavior that has already proven counterproductive. To wit: Monkey does NOT like it if he is the last one upstairs on school mornings. You'd think this would compel him to get ready faster, but you'd be wrong. What it DOES cause him to do is pitch a great big hairy hissy fit when he realizes that I am packing lunches and Chickadee is eating breakfast and he is standing at the top of the stairs, alone and naked save for the underwear on his head. It's becoming a problem. And honestly, I have no idea where he...
There are a few things in this world that can bring me to my knees in reverence. The pure elation--or hard-won growth--of one of my children. Really good, labor-of-love cuisine. A perfect melding of personalities. Selfless attention to those in need. Desire born of spirit rather than excess hormones. Honesty. Correction: Difficult honesty. It's easy to be honest when there's nothing at stake, and too few people willing to be truthful when it matters. Sometimes, I make excuses for those who are dishonest with me. I'm trying to convince myself that I can't expect more. That it's my...
There are so many important lessons we parents are responsible for teaching our children. How to share. How to take turns. How to partake of a meal in a way that won't get you thrown out of a restaurant or never invited back to a friend's house. How to put things away when you're done with them so that Mama doesn't step on them in the dark and hop around cursing while holding her injured foot. I struggle every day, hoping that I am helping my children become people whom I will be proud to know. Especially because I believe example is the best teacher, and sometimes my example isn't all that...
Many of my loved ones are people I characterize as being islands. You know the sort--they can HANDLE it, all by themselves, thankyouverymuch. In times of adversity I am always one of the first to smack these people around and say "You don't NEED to be an island. Let some people in... you may be pleasantly surprised at how much it HELPS." Of course, I know this island sort, because I am one of them. I believe in asking for help when you need it. But I don't need it, you see. Shut up. Okay, so sometimes I need it. Little by little, I have figured out the areas in my life where I require help,...
The tissue fairy has been hard at work here. Little white tufts adorn my house. Here, on the kitchen table. There, on the couch. One on the bathroom counter, and another atop the hamper. One laying in the upstairs hallway, a single corner fluttering slightly every time I walk past it. I hope that every dollar my son spends in his life gives him as much sprawling joy as the dollar he gave me for that stupid box of tissues. The first couple of tissues I encountered, I picked up. Generally speaking, I don't like having things laying around where they don't belong. I took these wandering...
There are things I know, and there are things I feel. I know that my children's behavior is oftentimes not an accurate barometer of my fitness as a parent. But I need to see them behave properly to feel like I'm doing my job. I know that a task well done, to the best of my ability, should be its own reward. But I need to have it acknowledged to feel like it matters. I know I shouldn't be so affected by others. Yet I fall apart and readily doubt myself the moment it is suggested to me that I have failed to meet expectations. Even when I know that the person making the accusation is wrong....
