Endless Pursuit for Mom of the Year

I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.   ~ Frank Sinatra -------------------------------------------------- She's back!  No, I'm not talking about mom of the year, I'm talking about my dear daughter of the year #1.  Huh?  You are saying.  It's OK.  Here's the deal folks.  I've been asked to work with another blog to post my endless pursuit for mom of the year there, so in true mom of the year fashion, I'm changing names to protect the innocent.  But also to save me time from writing a blog twice.  I guess it was time for me to do that anyway.  Now, back to my dear daughter of the year #1.  Oh, I love her so!  She knows me better than most anyone.  She can even order my drink at Starbucks and lovingly corrects dad of the year if he doesn't order right.  She knows my favorite shows and screamed this morning to allow daddy to let he...

We cannot banish dangers, but we can banish fears.  We must not demean life by standing in awe of death.  ~David Sarnoff ---------------------------------------- With children comes questions.  All kinds of questions.  Maddie sent a whopper and, on all days to ask, 9/11.  Hang with me here, I know my blogs have taken a serious turn but well, things have just been serious lately.  Humor will return soon.  Cancer.  It's a word that really takes on a different meaning to everyone.  Yesterday, I had to explain what that is to Maddie when she asked about our neighbor across the street.  I hadn't told her she died almost a year ago.  I guess I was hoping she would simply forget.  A new family would move in and that would be that.  But, the house did not go up for sale and her bird feeders remain unkempt.  I just had to be honest with her.  After all, that is my philosophy. "Cancer," I said, when Maddie asked ...

If children have the ability to ignore all  odds and percentages, then maybe we can  all learn from them. When you think about it,  what other choice is there but to hope?  We have two options, medically and emotionally:  give up, or Fight Like Hell. ~Lance Armstrong ----------------------------------------------- I love parenting blogs.  Not your traditional ones that talk about discipline or the proper diet to give your child.  The brutally honest ones.  Some of my favorites are Moms Who Drink and Swear, Scary Mommy and my new favorite is Mary Tyler Mom.  Who knew that one of these blogs would shake me back to a time long ago and a lesson to love every day.  Let me start by saying I have a busy career and a work ethic I some days wish I didn't have.  But I also know those are two parts of me I cannot change and some days, I do like them.  Most days, I go a hundred miles an hour, stopping only when one of my kids does some...

    Children begin by loving their parents;  as they grow older they judge them;  sometimes they forgive them.   ~Oscar Wilde ------------------------------------------------- He-eeee-llll-oooo!  Whew, it has been way too long!  I took a bit of some "time off" you could say.  Not time off from good blogging, but time to devote solely to work.  The rest of it to screw up my kids just a bit more.  The rest of it to whine and complain.  And a few leftover minutes to love my husband.  Have I mentioned how much I hate the month of August? Well, you've all asked about it, and I teased you a bit on Facebook, so...it's time to talk about parent teacher conferences.  I know what most of you are thinking, it's barely September.  Our school district does a mini-conference very early on to discuss any potential issues but also to give you a chance to tell your child's teacher things about them they may not have figured o...

"From the cradle to the coffin, underwear comes first." ~ Bertolt Brecht -------------------------------------------- Being a parent of young children I have to ask, do you ever feel like your house is overrun with toys?  Everywhere I look, there are toys.  Not to mention the swear words that can come flying from your mouth when you step on the end table from the dollhouse furniture which happens to be legs up in the kitchen of all places!  Super ouch!  We have lots of toys that never get played with.  I find the best way to go through the mass of toys is when the girls are gone.  I've been known to toss things out, but the funny part is no one seems to miss what is no longer there.  It's slightly reminiscent of a Toy Story movie and I'm sure the ones that remain all mourn for the ones that leave to go to the consignment store.  However, what I found on Friday during a routine toy clean out certainly did make me wonder, if the toys do come...

"Courage is fire and bullying is smoke." ~ Benjamin Disraeli -------------------------------------------------- Bullies suck!  Being a girl sucks even more.  I knew reading the book "Odd Girl Out" would someday serve me well, even before I knew I would be the mother of two girls.  After the second day of giving Maddie a pep talk just to get her out the door to camp, I'm quite literally exhausted.  I've vowed today that neither she nor I will cry about this anymore.  Why blog about this, you may be asking?  I've pondered it myself.  After trying to work this out in my own head I've turned to what most writers do, I write about it!  If you are reading this and think your child hasn't been bullied, you are likely wrong.  If you are reading this and think your child isn't doing the bullying, see me and I can tell you exactly who is tormenting my daughter.   I recently stumbled on these bullying statistics online and tha...

Gratitude is when a memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.  ~ Lionel Hampton ------------------------------------------------- If you are going on an endless pursuit for mom of the year, you'd better cruise in style.  That's exactly what my mother did!  There's certainly nothing more stylish than a wood paneled station wagon, like the one my parents bought in the 70's.  I can still, to this day, remember when we picked up that car and the many family vacations we took in it.  Oh the memories.  Today, Madison came home from summer camp with news that brought back another memory of that station wagon and my mother.  In a proud parent moment, I told Madison how she looks like such a grown up girl today.  Really, she does!  In an instant, she told me that another child at camp called her fat today.  While wanting to cry with her, I thought of my mother.  This particular memory goes back to 4th grade.  My parents d...