Love thrives
Up until just a few years ago, my black thumb was legendary. You name the plant, I could kill it. Not intentionally—never intentionally—yet somehow my efforts to nurture growing things were met with grim, black death. (I have killed cacti, people. Do you know how difficult it is to kill a cactus? It’s a gift, I guess.)
My record these days is much more favorable; I garden with some measure of success, I keep houseplants alive and occasionally nurture a wilting plant back to health from the brink of neglect (whoops). I’m no longer the blight upon plant-kind that I once was, is my point.
Buoyed by these experiences, I now often forget that my touch hasn’t always been so stellar. Ahem. And I acquire plants, because plants are Nice, and they seem like Nice Things To Have. read more…
7 Signs my Wii Fit is screwing with me
I’ve tried to ignore it, but I just can’t live in denial any longer. See for yourself:
1) It tells me that it hasn’t seen Ugly lately. [Ugly is a Mii the kids made who has eyeballs in his chin and a beard in the middle of his forehead. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t been working out, like, EVER, on account of his self-esteem issues are pretty much a full-time gig.]
2) It never comments on the time when I’m on it at 5:30 in the morning, but the one day I wait until nearly 9:00 to hop on, it says, “You’re up early!” Wha?
3) It asks me how Monkey’s posture is looking lately, and then scolds me when I say I’m not sure. [News flash: Making sure Monkey is wearing clean underwear is kind of MY full-time gig.] read more…
Woman of a Certain Age
My name is Mir, and I am 38 years old.
I don’t mind being 38. Oh, sure, 36 was kind of a banner year, and 37 was pretty good, too, and 38 has been kind of a challenge for various reasons (none of them age-related, actually), but I’m not one of those people who’s planning to lie about her age.
[As a joke, we once told Monkey that I’m 29 now, forever. He was confused and we explained how some women just stop at 29, and he thought this was the funniest thing he’d ever heard, and in true Aspie this-is-now-my-truth fashion now he never misses an opportunity to volunteer that MY MOM IS ONLY 29, SHE IS SO YOUNG, which was funny at first, but now if anyone actually believes him (not that I think they would) it puts me into Teen Mom territory, which is a whole ‘nother issue altogether.]
On the whole, I am happy to be 38. There are plenty of things to recommend it, actually. My life and my SELF are very different now than they were, say, 2 or 5 or 10 years ago, and that’s okay with me. read more…
Fractured Friday
I received an email scolding from my father for skipping Love Thursday this week, but in my defense, I was sort of busy wallowing. Yesterday was just one of those one-thing-after-another kinds of days, and I was not feeling the love, I admit it.
Which brings me to a little epiphany I had last night. But first, an update after y’all were so concerned that I was going to scar my child for life with the silent treatment: And I preface this with just a couple of things. First, I love comments, and I read and consider them all, and I love that folks get so invested and passionate in the things we talk about here. Truly. Second, I wonder sometimes if people realize that we all have our biases and fears and internal whatevers that sway our perception.
Like, you do realize that when you’re begging me not to inflict this random torture on my child that the situation you go on to describe is nothing like what I’ve just postulated, right? Maybe? read more…
Not dead yet
Hello! Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I myself was starting to believe the hype, and that—coupled with several folks telling me of confirmed flu cases around here lately—sent me off to my doctor to make sure I didn’t have the plague, or anything. The good news is that I don’t have the flu! So that’s excellent.
On the other hand, this is the first time I’ve had an ear infection without knowing it. That seems like it could be a neat party trick, somehow, but actually the reason I didn’t know is because I also have a sinus infection, and as my ENTIRE HEAD has been throbbing for a week, one throbbing ear was hardly a standout. And to top it all off, a touch of bronchitis. I asked if she wasn’t POSITIVE I didn’t also have JUST A LITTLE leprosy, but no, she said she was pretty sure that was it.
It felt somewhat vindicating to be declared sick, particularly because the scale at the doctor’s office accused me of being several pounds heavier than the one here at home. KICK A GIRL WHILE SHE’S DOWN, WHY DON’T YOU. read more…
Spray with Lysol before reading
I am sick. Lord, I am SO SO SICK, the kind of sick that has me looking back at last weekend when I got back from traveling and thought I was sick and going “THAT WAS NOTHING.” I can’t believe I even complained about the little sore throat and general malaise I was experiencing, then, because this weekend the germs staged a sequel, something that ends in “THIS TIME, IT’S PERSONAL” or “SNOTSTORM OF THE DAMNED” or somesuch. I don’t know.
Otto, of course, was away this weekend (“of course” because when do I ever get sick when there’s actually either nothing to do or someone around to help? NEVER, that’s when), and the kids had something Saturday morning, so I got them up and out and we did our thing and then we came home around lunchtime and I said, “You guys just play a little, I’m going to lie down for a few minutes” and then I passed out for three hours.
Sunday I’m not sure I ever really got out of bed, and the children will probably tell you this was the greatest weekend of their lives, on account of they got to play 5,378 hours of Wii. Awesome. read more…
Fishnets and diets and stuff, oh my
It’s Friday, which means 1) my brain is full and I am one marginal step above being an unintelligible idiot until I’ve had that magical opportunity to sleep late on Saturday and 2) it’s my day to post at Five Full Plates. Today I’m talking about sustainable eating choices, and I don’t mean hand-pampered organic vegetables that love the earth, I mean “things you do while on a diet” that can segue into being “things you do while eating like a normal human in regular everyday life.” Right now I vacillate between low-carb and no-carb, and I’m wondering if carbs and I have broken up forever or if they’ll make it up to me and I’ll give them another chance.
In completely unrelated news, after blowing up my boots I spent some time shopping for new ones, and then wore them last week at Mom 2.0 with my fishnets and felt like a rebel. I also snapped a picture with my iPhone for some folks on Twitter who’d listened to me complain about the shopping, and that’s how I ended up being today’s Shoe Friday at Jodifur. Things you cannot see in the picture: The boots have a little lizard-print band around the ankle (rowr!), and undressing after wearing fishnets all day yields fishnet-patterned thighs. (You’re welcome for not sharing a picture of that part.)
Love’s imprinted
Monkey is terribly interested in imprinting. Specifically, he finds it unfair that Licorice “knows” I am her mommy, but that she also seems to find Chickadee a suitable stand-in in the event of my absence. Monkey, however, is clearly forever a puppy in her mind, and this bothers him. Chickadee or I can reach into Licorice’s mouth and extract even the tastiest treat without a hint of protest, but if Monkey approaches when she wants to be left alone she gives him a little “lay off, kid” growl.
“Someday I’ll be adult-sized!” he complains. “She’ll have to act like I’m big, then!”
“Oh, I don’t think it’ll matter,” I tell him with a chuckle. “I think she rather likes considering you a puppy. You’ll always be her puppy!”
He does not find this comforting. I, however, find it immensely comforting. There are times when I appreciate not being the only mom in the house, you know? read more…
The elephant on the bus
Part of what we do as parents is walk a constant tightrope between what makes our kids comfortable and what makes them grow. I think we all do it. It’s such a delicate balance to strike, under the best of circumstances, and what I’m learning with my son is that his particular tightrope is thirty stories up. And occasionally lit on fire. And I’m on it, trying not to fall off.
In Monkey’s case, he has a specific set of social and behavioral challenges, right? And we desperately want to help him overcome those challenges. But a lot of things are hard for him that just aren’t for me or Otto or his sister, and knowing when to push it and when to say “enough” is getting harder as he gets older.
I guess wrong a lot. It sucks. It sucks for him and it makes me wonder if I’ll ever get to where I KNOW things with him instead of the clueless flailing I feel like I do most of the time.
This year, the bus became An Issue. read more…
This wasn’t what I meant
Every now and then I meet or talk with someone who says to me, “Hey! Remember when you blogged about XYZ? You never gave us an update! What ended up happening?” And then I have to reach back into my brain to access the compartment where I’m storing XYZ, and generally if I never updated on it, it means one of four things:
1) Nothing ever happened. I didn’t update you because there was nothing to tell.
2) Something boring happened. I didn’t update you because the update put me to sleep, and I was there.
3) Something happened that somehow fell outside the bounds of what I’m comfortable sharing, and so I just… let it go and hoped you wouldn’t notice. Sorry.
or
4) I forgot. Probably I saw something shiny.
The truth is that Option 4 is the most likely scenario, closely followed by Option 1. Options 2 and 3 are less common. And today you get Option 5. read more…