Endless Pursuit for Mom of the Year

  Hair is vitally personal to children.   They weep vigorously when it is cut for the first time; no matter how it grows, bushy, straight or curly ,   they feel they are being shorn of a part of their personality.    ~ Charles Chaplin   --------------------------------------------- Daughter of the year #1 is selling Girl Scout cookies.  If you have never sold them, never met anyone who has, nor had any contact with them whatsoever, you have no idea how difficult it is.  Next time a cute little Girl Scout knocks on your door or greets you at a store selling cookies, please be kind.  Unlike a certain someone in my very own neighborhood who felt it was appropriate to scream at my daughter that she'd already bought cookies.  Perhaps we should have recited the Girl Scout law?  She was not embodying any of that!  Seriously people, just be nice.   Goals are a great thing.  Daughter...

The art of love...  is largely the art of persistence.     ~ Albert Ellis   -------------------------------------- What?  No photo for this post?  I haven't let you down!  I just felt it best to write the story this time around.  You know, really build you up. Then slam the image of the most beautiful and the insane letter dad of the year and I received from daughter of the year #1.   As you know, it's nearly Valentine's Day, which in our house has never quite been romantic, filled with aching love, nor with sweet love notes.  Last year, you might remember, I blogged about dad of the year's very first attempt at getting me flowers which went cruelly awry.  This year, he let me pick our my very own brand spanking new Coach purse, which is red patent leather.  Yep, THAT folks is freaking romance!   Speaking of love notes, daughter of the year #1 has mentioned many times for several weeks that she had to...

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.   She never existed before.  The woman existed,  but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.  ~ Rajneesh -------------------------------------- Nine years ago tomorrow, I became a mother for the first time.  I can hardly believe that daughter of the year #1 is going to be 9 years old.  Where did that time go?   I posted on Facebook this week I was feeling sappy.  I couldn't quite figure out what was making me that way and I was quite positive I could cry at the drop of a hat.  Then, I realized, it was the way I had been reminiscing in my mind about becoming a mommy for the first time.  It all started with a very big snow storm ! Don't worry, I'll spare you the details.  But I do love telling the story of my father forging through snow drifts as high as our car.  No sleep, panic at being a mother, a huge snow storm, a new ba...

I always say shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist.   ~ Tammy Faye Bakker ----------------------------------------- I love to shop!  Seriously, I do.  If I had an endless supply of cash (and patience) I would shop all the time.  But, since I have neither of those, I must do this in moderation.   Daughter of the year #1 had a gift card that has been burning a hole in her pocket since Christmas.  So we decided to head to the mall for some fun and shopping.  The girls and I immediately headed to Justice so she could spend her gift card.  Now, the mall was busy today but I've never let that stop me.  However, I seemed to step into some sort of pre-teenager hell when I crossed that threshold.  First the music was LOUD!  Second, daughters of the year decided this would be a good time to start screaming.  And, third, I had a stroller. YIKES!  I left a bit of my soul and my sanity on the cheap tile in that...

There is an interconnectedness among members  that bonds the family, much like mountain climbers  who rope themselves together when climbing  a mountain, so that if someone should slip or need support, he's held up by the others until he regains his footing.   ~ Phil McGraw ------------------------------------------ Spending the day after Thanksgiving in a hospital waiting room isn't quite the idea we had for myself or my siblings.  However, no matter where we are, there's one thing my family does better than anyone - bonding.  We've had lots of coffee, many trips to the vending machine (which family friend of the year has deemed the concession stand).  Football watching, crochet coaster making, college home working completing, Twitter educating and following, snack pack toting types of bonding.  For what some may deem a crisis, we've managed to make light of what may not be seen by all as a "light" situation. It's been ...

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.   ~ Harry S Truman ---------------------------- I love that daughter of the year #2 is getting old enough to have school projects now.  Not those little projects like, make a poster of your family or create a collage.  I like those projects too, but I was excited for a big one.  This one involved research, reading books, internet searches, and, in the end, putting everything she learned into a final project of her choice.  The options were endless but she picked diorama.   I like to think I am not the only parent out there who did not know what a diorama was, and therefore, Google and I became good friends.  This simple search brought with it a great deal of information.  I learned a diorama is something I created many times in my childhood from empty Kleenex boxes.  I found a website that refers to dioramas as crafts and even has a place you can order little...

Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another. ~ Unknown --------------------------------------- Daughter of the year #1 has been begging us to take a dance class.  I sit back, proud that she may follow in some of my foot steps.  Dad of the year?  Well, he sits back wondering what this will cost him.  So, we started slow.  We enrolled her in a simple class, not at a dance studio, for Hip Hop.   Why Hip Hop?  Well, we've been down that ballet route.  Grace, extension, and good turnout are not words I would use to describe daughter of the year #1.  I love her with all my being but seriously folks, after one ballet class I knew this was not for her.  Hip Hop is different movement.  It's funky.  It's fun.  It's just like playing Just Dance on the Wii.  Right up her alley!  Her first class was this week.   To say she was excited would be an understatement. ...